So I have a confession to make……

So I have a confession to make……..

Last night I ate a whole bowl of chocolate freckles.

This morning I was having a conversation with a colleague and she asked me how strict I am with my diet. Whether I eat sugar or follow a particular regime. My answer is that I aim to live by my principles of nourishing my body and eating well but yes I do eat sugar and no I don’t follow any strict dietary regime. I do avoid gluten and dairy as I am intolerant to them both but my ‘diet’ consists of eating what I feel is beneficial for my body and being mindful of my food. However, I am human like all of you and occasionally I give in to temptation and even believe that sugar is sometimes ok.

Now back to last night’s indulgence. I often have dessert but normally aim for something healthy such as fruit and coconut yogurt, 70% or higher dark chocolate or home made sugar free treats. Chocolate freckles are not a normal treat for me. They were in the house and I was oh so craving them. They were on my mind and I desperately wanted to indulge.

The thing is, despite what this post might look like up to this point. Despite what you may think. I don’t feel guilty.

I am not beating myself up.

I am not forcing myself to have an especially healthy day today or do extra exercise.

I was not even thinking about it at all; until of course now when I sat down to write this post.

The fact that it is not playing on my mind, tormenting me and filling me with guilt is what I most wanted to share. The fact that I have come so far simply by letting go. By loving and honouring myself. For accepting myself for who I am. For acknowledging that I am not perfect and at the exact same time I am perfect.

We are all perfect just as we are.

I too am only human. Sometimes I eat things I shouldn’t; sometimes I have too much chocolate or give in to my emotional needs and eat sweets when I’m feeling down.

We so often only see one side of a person on social media.

Even in real life.

It’s so easy to pretend to be perfect, have all your shit together, be doing all the right things. But in order to really inspire, connect and help people grow and change you need to share it all. The good and the bad. And this is what I am committed to doing. As much as it is scary it is what needs to be done. It is what I feel must be done.

This may seem like such a minute and insignificant event but the main point I want to make here is about the power of our emotions. So often we eat things and overindulge without a second though. We don’t stop to wonder why we need to eat so much, it is certainly not due to hunger. It is always due to an underlying emotional need.

A need to feel better about ourselves.

For me last night I was feeling sad, I had been feeling down and out of sorts for the last 3 days. No real reason, maybe hormones, maybe because I haven’t been sleeping well, maybe because of a few things that didn’t go to plan in my business. Whatever the case I was flat, tired and miserable.

So I looked to chocolate as a comfort.

And I bet you are expecting me to tell you all about how this was the wrong thing to do, how I felt sick afterwards, was still feeling down the next day or give other more productive options.

Well I’m not. If I’m being honest, which is the whole point of this exercise I felt amazing after the freckles. My energy went up, my mood went up and today I am still feeling pretty good.

Now of course I am not saying drown your feelings in food or opt for chocolate as a pick me up. What I am saying is sometimes it is ok to relax a little and follow what feels good. Being too rigid or up tight is in my opinion even more counter productive for your health than just eating the goddamn food. And if you are going to eat it then enjoy it, enjoy every mouthful and don’t allow the guilt to follow. The way we feel is SO powerful and if we are riddled with guilt and self loathing after, that is going to be much worse for us than anything we may put in our mouth.

The most important thing to think about is awareness. Be aware of why you are doing something, the reason you are having those cravings, or even more so the reason you are feeling down/moody/tired etc.

It is because you are not honouring YOU in some respect.

Have the awareness to actually enjoy what you are eating rather than mindlessly scoffing it down. Then thank your body for sending you a message that you needed a pick me up and release any guilt/fear/self-blame you may be experiencing.

A little bit of sugar won’t kill you but your fear around eating it might.

Dionne xx

P.S. Life is meant to be fun and feel light. It is time to stop being so hard on yourself. Interested to learn tools to release these unwanted emotions holding you back so that you can step into your power and experience all the fun?

My JOY workshop is the perfect place to do this.

It is next Sunday FEB 25th 2-5pm in Malvern and its only $50 (the price will definitely be going up for the next one).

I would love to see YOU there ??