How often do you think about food each day?  Is it a positive or negative thought?  Do you feel terrible guilt about eating a certain thing?  Jessica and I dive into the topic of relationships with food in this episode.  With her new-found freedom in Intuitive Eating, Jessica takes charge with her freedom to help listeners understand that trying to prescribe to certain "regiments" is not a path to freedom with food.  It's just another way someone out there is trying to make you fit into a certain mold.   She has worked diligently and is still new to the concept of loving who she is in her own skin her, not because she is ten pounds lighter from eating Paleo or Vegan, but because her body is getting healthy and finding balance.  She is learning the art of quieting the mind full of demons that tell her she isn't worthy because she doesn't fit into a particular mold.  And she is finding joy in movement that doesn't stress or injure her body. 

Let's face it, we all have been affected by someone telling us how to eat, what to eat, when to eat...the list goes on and on.  After years of struggling with my own relationship with food, I have discovered the beauty of learning to love my own skin and what makes my body run properly.  I have spent the last several years not even changing in my clothing size because each day I am choosing to listen to my body.  Learning to develop a healthy relationship with food based on what works for YOU is a process that can't be achieved overnight, but it CAN be achieved through hard work and learning to quiet your mind and find out what your body NEEDS from YOU!!  I prescribe to the ideal that we are all bio-individuals and what works for one person is not going to work for the next.  I believe in the ideal of living 80/20 when it comes to food.  Eighty percent of the time I am focused on trying to eat a variety of vegetables, fruits, healthy protein sources, and healthy fats.  I allow the remaining 20 percent to have fun with and indulge myself with things I love, from cupcakes to wine, to lounging in my pajamas all day.  It's how I have found my balance and it's also part of how Jessica is learning to find her own self.

Let's break cycles and stand up to an industry that is making money off of telling us what we should eat and how it will make us thinner, or healthier, or live longer.  Let's continue to work on listening to ourselves and finding out exactly what it is we need to feel healthy and happy in our own skin.