an intuitive eating quiz (and two other freebies for you!)

Last night, I was clearing out closets and drawers filled with crinkly class pictures, forgotten report cards that had once caused tears, Mother's Day crafts, and old credit card statements (which are so revealing and fun to look at!!) and I found a family "Home Book" I had started 11 years ago. It was a craft papered notebook (positively prehistoric!) divided up into sections where I could keep track of the family doctor's phone number and when we'd last been to the dentist, eye appointments, our dreams, and our monthly budget. 

It was a beautiful book that I did not use at all.

Not one entry.

In my defence, I created it when I was already back-to-work with a 2 year old and new baby, in a very frantic attempt to feel like I had it together when I resolutely did not have it together. 

Twice that year I forgot to do up my newborn's carseat harness after she'd drifted off to sleep, unbuckled and covered in a blanket, at a friend's house. I just clipped that car seat in and drove away... cut to cataclysmic Shopper's Drug Mart parking lot meltdown when I realized what I'd done. For the second time.

I was not in the headspace to enter doctor's appointments into a notebook - old-school, ledger style.  

It was funny though to read the ne'er re-visited goals I had laid out for our family at that time - where the kids would go to school, the money we'd make, the health and body goals....

Some of the things we accomplished for sure (hello, travel dreams!) but much of it just seemed silly. 

We had no idea what goals to set because we were doing it all backwards - deciding to put all of our effort into achieving external measures of success, hoping we'd feel good when we got there... without ever taking the time to define what "feeling good" meant to us.

Did feeling good mean:

peaceful?

ambitious?

energetic?

relaxed?

abundant?

spacious?

connected?

What?

What did it mean then and what does it mean today?

One of the hardest shifts in food and body work is getting away from the number on a scale or the "perfect day of eating", dictating success. 

These external metrics of accomplishment that control our days are flawed, filled with the unrealistic and unexplored expectations of diet culture that, more often than not, force you to sacrifice how you want to FEEL and what you value in life, in order to achieve them. 

Example:

Your goal is to keep your carbs below X number of grams per day*. You read it was a good idea and you decide to stick to it. Seems great until... your body wants MORE!!! And you find yourself spending the every moment of your day trying to shift exhausting, persistent food thoughts, sipping on sugar-free sodas and way too much coffee, nibbling on high-fat "chocolate" treats that promise to satisfy but don't, bulldozing your way through another headache, and suffering the digestive upset of a lipid heavy day (yay, anal leakage!).

If you don't keep the carbs down, you fail. 

But even in the off chance that you're "successful" at keeping the carbs at bay, you have to ask the question: has this day actually been a success? Have you really been able to FEEL how you want to feel? Does any of that feel relaxed, abundant, connected, or spacious. Does it feel healthy and energizing?

Probably not. 

Most likely, the best you could hope for from a day like that is: I feel morally superior for sticking to the rules of diet culture today, despite the fact that I had no fun and am terrified I won't be able to hang on again tomorrow.

I was not planning to end my birthday email to you (I turn 43 on Friday!) with a story of anal leakage... so let's right this ship! 

You want to feel good.

There are certain feelings you're after and many different ways to get there. 

In an attempt to help you find those feeling words and destroy the unrealistic expectations that keep wanting to pull you back into crappy external measures of success - I'd love to offer up these three things:

A. My feeling words. The words that dictate the clothes I choose to the snack I have at 11am: inspired, magnetic, radiant, abundant, and travelled.

Will you hit reply and share yours?

B. A plethora of free resources that'll help you on the journey: HERE. You'll find an intuitive eating quiz, the Juicy Body Blueprint Self-Study, and my Find Food Freedom ebook.

C. A reminder that this summer - the structure of the Juicy Body Blueprint has changed to include 1:1 sessions with me AND I'll be releasing an Intentional Intuitive Eating e-book - so that you can break down the current diet beliefs in your head and find a way of eating that does actually help you feel your best while being in alignment with your feeling words and values. Imagine that?! Hint: for some people, it does involve fewer carbs. Others need MORE carbs. It's complicated and I'll help you sort it out. I'll also be releasing a Juicy Body Blueprint Workbook and Sensuality as Self-Care e-book - and those in the program will have first dibs at these incredible resources. 

Don't forget to hit reply and tell me your feeling words!

XO

Jill

*sub this restrictive rule for ANY restrictive rule related to carbs or calories or macros or whatever.