Self-forgiveness on the elliptical!

Have you ever known you weren’t meant to be average, but never had that AHA moment

Mine finally came at 40!

I was on the elliptical trying to figure out who it was that I wanted to inspire as a health and lifestyle coach.  For some reason great ideas came to me when I was moving.

I so badly wanted to find my niche, my tribe, the people I was meant to help change, but what and who was it?

Suddenly this one thought filled my mind entirely.

A thought that hit me like a brick that came out of nowhere 

(or maybe it was the perfect timing).

This thought wasn’t about my niche or my tribe but about me, and my past!

It was right then and there that the realization of me never before  forgiving myself for being Bulimic and depressed for so many years, consumed my head!

I realized that the shame and guilt of what I had done was still with me and unknowingly affected me every day. 

It now made sense why I felt stuck in so many ways.

But why now? Why had it taken this long?

You can imagine what happened next:  I broke down into tears (still on the elliptical) and cried until I could cry no more.

After my heart had its say,  I went outside for a breath of fresh air.

I sat down and thanked my body for so many years of protecting the pain I had held onto since my mother’s death at 16, my divorce at 23 and the dread of turning 36 (my mom’s age when she passed away and the age that my grandmother passed away too)

I held my body tight, and showed gratitude to it for taking me this far and truly forgave myself and the damage I had done to my body for so many years.

I held my shame, my guilt, my eating disorder and my depression in my hands like a circle of energy.

I showed it my love and thanked it for all it had done, for serving its purpose, one that I no longer needed and then I let it go and watched it disappear into the sky.

 For the first time in my life I felt free. I felt a huge weight lifted, one I didn’t know I had carried with me for so many years.

And through all of this. it was now crystal clear who my tribe would be and who I was meant to help and inspire.

It would be other women like me, who struggle day in and day out with eating disorders and emotional eating  or maybe I should say who struggle with needing to find the way to self-love and self- forgiveness.

Because when I looked back through to all of those years and really thought about it, it was never really about the food.

So next time you catch yourself going to food for comfort, ask yourself without judgements or guilt: What is it that I am really needing in this moment, and what can I do to fill the void that food can never fulfill? Maybe it's forgiveness or love!

Until next time!

My love, courage and strength to you, 

See what I am up to at: www.nancyalbright.com

Forgiveness and Eating for Pleasure

Today I am going to talk about a subject that is near and dear to my heart because it's something I have struggled with most of my life.

I am talking about emotional eating. Most of us have done it at one point in our lives or another.  I always felt that somehow after I ate, I would feel better, but was it really about the food I thought I needed?

Allow me to ask you this: Have you ever downed an entire package of chips, crackers, or cookies? Ate pizza or cake until you felt sick? Drank more coffee or wine than your body wanted?

Do you remember how you were feeling at the time?

I ask because sometimes we overeat to help distract us from that deep emotional pain or discomfort.

So for a moment think about it—have you noticed that sometimes when you overeat you’re not really hungry at all? Maybe you were lonely, angry, sad, resentful or totally frustrated.

Maybe you felt something else you couldn't quite put a feeling too.

So what hurt is it that YOU are holding on to? 

It's time to get in touch with your power of forgiveness....

Imagine confronting your uncomfortable feelings instead of eating because of all the emotion? 

The most divinely perfect way to do that is forgiveness.

4 Steps to Your Peace  of mind and weight loss

If you’ve been suffering because of past hurts, I ask that you first try forgiving whoever or whatever it is by trying just one of these 4 simple yet powerful steps. 

You may find that not only your soul begins it's healing process but that food will be something you actually enjoy and don't need as often for comfort.

• Talk to sympathetic friends and family about your desire to forgive. Talking with others is tremendously comforting and you may find they are supportive in what you want to do. 

• Write a letter to the person you’d like to forgive. You can decide whether or not you send it later, but by  putting it on paper, it makes it real and affirms how you feel and why. 

• Don’t forget to forgive yourself. Sometimes we can be harshest with ourselves. We do so much better when we feel better, so don't shame or put blame on yourself. Take the situation for what it is...you can only change now!

• Understand that you are responsible for your own attitude. Don’t let holding a grudge keep you from feeling free, open, and powerful in your own life.

Remember when you forgive, you release yourself from a painful burden. Forgiveness doesn't mean that what happened was OK, or that if someone hurt you, they are welcome back into your precious life.  It just means that you made peace with the pain and are ready to let it go and move on to a new way of living. 

It also means that your relationship with eating just became less complicated.

Wishing you Good Health and Happiness Always, Nancy XO

Even though our family is all about healthy eating, it doesn't mean we don't go thru times where we learn about what our bodies need and don't need.

This was one of those times, so allow me to share it with you.

Sadie was so tired all the time in spite of all the organic meat, vegetables, fruits and unprocessed foods we were eating. She was on a dose of daily super vitamins and I thought I was giving her everything she needed to thrive as a little 4 year old girl.

She was getting 11-12 hours a sleep every night but in the morning she would wake up so tired. To add to the mix, a red rash surfaced on her face and I had no idea why. I had tried everything from taking out certain foods, to trying creams, and something was just not right!

What was I missing?

After much looking into and alot of thought, I decided to take her to a naturopath to get some allergy testing done. Everything I have been learning in nutriton school pointed to testing as the first step in taking the guessing out of allergies and what was going on.

So we went for testing and after the first set of blood test results were in, we went back to the naturopath for another visit "gulp and double gulp".

What would she say, would it be serious and could it be treated?

You can imagine how I was feeling as a mother, and so many things were going through my mind. 

The naturopath looked at me and said, I am sorry to tell you that Sadie is anemic, has a gluten allergy and also has a low thyroid.

Whaat? Why & how?? The guilt set in, how could I not know this? ? I knew she ate enough iron but maybe somehow her body wasn't absorbing it?

The naturopath prescribed a double dose of Iron for her, said she could no longer have gluten and that when those two things were resolved, the low thyroid should go away.

I was now on a mission, I did alot of research and here is what I found:

Iron: Because my sweet girl could no longer have gluten I had to be very careful about everything that went into her mouth.  I found a gluten and yeast free Iron made of fruits, vegetables and herbs by Flora called FloraVital Iron & Herbs. It is rich in B & C vitamins as well and non-constipating.  Click Here

For those who don't eat alot of meat and want to eat more plant based foods rich in iron, I found a great website that lists all the iron rich foods and more

 Click Here

Vitamin C and B: If you don't have enough C and B vitamins in your body, it doesn't matter how much iron you take, your body will not absorb it. We don't  take alot of C vitamins, so here it was I bought: A Truly Natural Vitamin C, Powder by Healthforce which is not synthetic and which the body can absorb Click Here  

Gluten Free: Sadie's world  has now change and every little thing we eat has to be read thoroughly. I say we because I too am recovering from anemia, I am also allergic to Gluten and to top it all off, I have dairy & egg allergies. So I am aware of everything I put in my mouth, what's in it and what it will do to me if I eat it.

Now I need to be completely present and aware of Sadie's diet.

So being the mother that I am, I did alot of research and have been cooking all types of delicious gluten free foods for Sadie and I. It's actually not that bad, and we even found a little store by our house that is all Gluten Free.

I am happy to say that, that was a few weeks ago and Sadie and I are on our way back to great health. With the iron rich foods and supplements we have been taking, we have energy again, think more clearly and we are in a good place.

So my advice to you is, if you or your little one are suffering from chronic symptoms, are unusually tierd, or you think something is just not right, question everything, don't just take it for what it is, do research, do testing, do whatever you can to get them and you back to great health again. 

Smiles, Hugs & Health, Nancy & Sadie too

Some Gluten Links I found Helpful♥

Gluten Intolerance Group www.gluten.net

Gluten Free Easily www.glutenfreeeasily.com

The Gluten Free Nutrition Guide  www.glutenfreedietitian.com

Gluten Free Kids http://www.celiaccentral.org/kids/recipes/

Whole Life Nutrition

http://www.nourishingmeals.com/p/going-gluten-free.html

Raising Glten Free Kids:

 http://www.sheletthemeatcake.com/2010/07/raising-gluten-free-kids/

The "V" Word for a month

Yesterday I celebrated a month of being vegan, and can I just say "wow" what a great adventure.

So allow me to back track a little.  As I am going to school to be a holisitc Health Coach, we are exploring bio-individuality* & over 100 different dietery therioes that go from Atkins to the Zone Diet.  One of those diets we explored was  a Vegan diet,

It was something that sounded appealing to me,  so I thought, why not try it. How hard could it be and  what better way to learn, than to explore & experiment with my own body. Maybe it was for me?? So I went for it, and for a month, I are nothing but vegtables,fruits, nuts, beans, legumes  & grains. YUM! Ina nutshell here is how it went.

 What I liked about it:

• It helped me get out of my boring usual recepie comfort zone. I tried new recepies, and explored with a huge variety of vegtables, nuts, beans & grains.
• It made me feel better, stronger  and cleared up the rash on my face, that had been there for 6 months.
• It helped me learn how to get more veggies into my 4 year old daughter & husbands  diet.  My daughter wasn't too excicted at first but now she eats, celery, almond butter &  mixed spinach salad.
• I felt more energy when I did my workouts
• My digestive system worked even more regularly. 

​

​What I didn't like so much:

• ​I gained a little weight because I ate more fruit, grains & nuts
• I  had more sugar cravings in the evenings because I lacked dense protien in my body, which I feel also contributed to weight gain.

​

What I learned from it all was that it's exciting & fun to try new things, to really explore and get into it. There is an entire world full of amazing vegtables,nuts, beans & grains that I had no idea were out there. I  learned  that it is possible to be strong & feel great without eating meat or animal products. I also learned that for now, being a Vegan is not for me, because my body requires certain things that being on a vegan diet does not provide. And I am okay with that.

What I plan to do now is incorporate small amounts of lean organic meats like fish, chicken and pork into my diet once a week, limit nuts, fruits & grains to smaller portions and enoy a mountain of fresh organic vegetables .

So there it is, my amazing adventure as a Vegan for a month!

I enjoyed every minute.

Now it's onto my next adventure, training for a 100 mile Bike Ride in May. I will let you know how that goes. Until next time!

Thank you for reading

Health, Happiness & Smiles, Nancy 

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*bio-individuality  means there’s no one-size-fits-all diet – each person is a unique individual with highly individualized nutritional requirements. Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best. That’s why no single way of eating works for everyone. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age, and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic.

Want to know more? Click the link below

http://www.integrativenutrition.com/glossary/bioindividuality