I broke a cardinal rule of exercise this week: I over-trained and under-fueled. I knew better and I know better, but I did it anyways…and I paid a price.
I spent the next 16 hours doubled over in bed and feeling weak all bundled up in my white down comforter. You may be wondering why I am sharing this with you and the reason is pretty simple. I want you to know that even those of us who have made fitness our career mess up from time to time.
You can’t do it all. We fool ourselves with a superhero complex and try to do it all and then end up on our butts in bed for 16 hours at a time.
I challenge you to think about your relationship with food today. Every now and then, as in every relationship, you will have to battle the consequences of some bad decisions. I love studying relationships. There is an art to great friendship, there is great effort behind strong marriages and there is intentional expression of love that bonds together close families. Similarly, you make daily decisions about food, which means that you have a relationship with food. This is one relationship that we don’t often treat as a relationship but we need to.
The person who changed my understanding about my relationship with food was my brother Nick. Ten years ago before I took my first trip to France, and while I was deep in the depths of an eating disorder, Nick challenged me. His words were the tipping point for my path to recovery. He had been to France and he knew what food was like there: it was celebrated and a social connector. At that point in my life I was afraid of food and what it might do to my body. Nick challenged me to get the help I needed so that I wouldn’t end up as a person afraid of food in a country that celebrated it.
To celebrate that milestone of my life I want to celebrate Nick. He is the much of the reason I ever found recovery from my disordered eating patterns. I want to honor Nick and his investment in me by investing in you. Over the next five days (October 25th – October 29th, 2013) I am giving away free copies of my book Building a Better Body Image: 50 Ways to Love Yourself from the Inside Out through Amazon. You must grab it from Amazon between October 25th and October 29th, don’t hesitate…do it now. And, if you appreciate Nick’s investment in me (which ultimately turned into two books), then consider posting a review on Amazon after you start reading the book. Building a Better Body Image is a day-by-day read (intended to be read just one page per day) and has the potential to dramatically change the way you feel about yourself, your body and food.
Yes, you read that correctly. My book, normally priced at $7.99, yours free. Consider it a gift from Nick and celebrate his October 29th birthday with me! Grab your copy by clicking right ==> HERE <===.
The price goes back to $7.99 on October 30th, so grab your copy now and take the challenge to build a better relationship with food and with your body image today!
Happy Birthday Nick and thank you for always challenging me!
Love your body today,
Trish
PS: Below are some “Food Rules” I use as a guideline to help keep my personal relationship with food balanced and healthy.
Food Rules:
1. Eat real food. Not packaged, not over-processed, not over-seasoned with salt or sauces, just basic real food.
2. Eat when you are hungry.
3. Eat without distractions.
4. Eat with joie de vivre (pleasure and enjoyment).
5. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are not.
6. Eat with others.
7. Eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up.
PPS: If this post has resonated with you, I urge you to continue reading about and investing in your relationship with food. The top three books I recommend are linked below for your convenience and they are all books I will read over and over again (even though I wrote one of them!):
Blackwell, Trish: The Skinny, Sexy Mind: The Ultimate French Secret
Roth, Geneen: Breaking Free from Emotional Eating
Roth, Geneen: Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
