Jessica's story: from doubting myself to feeling empowered, strong & free!

Jessica contacted me a while back because she was struggling to find her way with food. She had a really keen interest in nutrition and knew a lot already, but she was struggling to put it into practice and would often feel guilty for what she would eat. 

It wasn't that she needed to lose a ton of weight, but she felt bloated, unfit and like she deserved to feel & look her best given the amount of effort she was putting into her health & fitness. 

Here are some of the concerns she came to me with and how we solved them together:

• Finding balance with food

As a perfectionist, Jessica felt like the moment she would do something that was anything less than perfection when it came to food, she had "ruined everything". This would set her off on a week, or more, of bad eating. This is something I hear often from clients and something I struggled with myself back in the day too.

We tend to believe that the perfectionist mindset is going to get us "perfect" results, but this couldn't be further from the truth. In reality, the more we beat ourselves up when we fall short of perfection, the more we stay stuck repeating the same pattern.

Today Jessica still has moments when she eats things that aren't "perfect" but instead of beating herself up, she reminds herself that perfection is not necessary to get incredible results and that what she eats most of the time matters more than what she eats sometime... She no longer judges herself for what she eats and bounces back to eating healthy without feeling any guilt. 

• Bloating, stress and confusion about what to eat

Even though Jessica knew a lot about nutrition, she was confused by the conflicting messages around food. Were eggs bad for bloating or not? Was bread something she should give up? What about yogurt? These were all great questions we addressed one by one together.

When we had our last call together yesterday, I asked Jessica how she felt in her relationship with food. She said "Confident! I know what works for me and I feel so good eating healthy"

• Running out of willpower & discipline 

Just like many clients I work with, Jessica had a lot of willpower and was organised and had discipline. But the problem was that she thought she should rely on discipline & willpower solely to eat healthy. And we all know this doesn't work in the long term...

Sooner or later, we run out of willpower and all we want is to eat the stuff we normally don't allow ourselves! Right? 

So how did we solve that? 

I worked really closely with Jessica to overhaul her diet and to literally program her body to crave healthy food. Just like we can crave junk food, we can program our bodies to crave the healthy stuff!

Over the weekend Jessica went to a wedding and indulged in some food she normally wouldn't eat anymore and on Monday she said she was literally craving vegetables and healthy stuff! Just like she had been craving sugar & sweets before... except a lot better obviously!

Here is the list of results Jessica shared with me on our last call yesterday:

• I literally crave healthy food. It makes it so much easier to eat healthy!
• I'm a lot more confident in my relationship with food. I no longer doubt myself and know what is best for me.
• The guilt is gone! I remind myself that it serves no purpose and put things behind me a lot faster than before.
• My body is definitely a lot stronger and more toned. And my mind is stronger too!
• I can feel that my body is thankful for the changes I've made to my diet & lifestyle
• I'm a lot more flexible and feel more mobile and at ease in my body
• My hips are more open, my mind is so much more relaxed. I can no longer feel my blood boiling through my veins like I used to!
• The voice in my head is supportive of me and I'm more supportive of others too
• My mind is more open and I feel like I'm better able to change perspective

When asked about what she would tell her past self to motivate her to get started on this journey she said:

"You have to understand that in order to feel your best, you need to give yourself the best. There is a strong connection between the mind & body and only when you'll address your mindset will you start feeling your best. Everything you need is already within you. Listen to your body. Work with it, not against it. Be consistent. The first 3 weeks will be challenging but then you'll feel better than you ever have!"

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