The other night, my husband and I made a delicious dinner – Spaghetti Bolognese with a salad. We ate and we enjoyed and I was full.  Funny thing is, I was hungry again two hours later.

I asked myself, “Should I be hungry after eating such a luscious balanced meal?”

I even went so far as to worry that eating something in addition to my dinner would make me gain weight.

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My Body Knowledge wisdom between you and your body eating in a conversation:

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Thankfully, after a few minutes I was able to overcome how my mind thought my body “should” feel and just pay attention to what me and my body needed.

Note: This article will not be getting into balance of carbs and protein for your body or emotional eating loopholes

Know your Body Knowledge System® Eating Style by downloading this part of my playbook to get you practicing what eating looks like between you and your body in partnership

Rest of Story

I grabbed some lemon yogurt and sat down to watch a show with my husband. When I felt satisfied again, I put the yogurt away.

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My coaching Message to you is this:

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There are all kinds of “shoulds” our culture wants us to believe about our bodies.

From what time of day we should be hungry to what kind of workouts we should be doing, we are faced with constant pressure about how we should treat our bodies if we want to look a certain way.

The truth is, no one knows what your body needs as well you and your body does! Tap into the fountain of health knowledge inside you and discover true body confidence for good.

My latest free eBook will help you take the first step towards that.

Bonus: Know your Body Knowledge System® Eating Style by downloading this part of my playbook to get you practicing what eating looks like between you and your body in partnership.

Share Tags: Body Knowledge Articles, Body Relationship, Eating Healthy

Do you ever ask yourself….

‘How can I lose weight and still feel comfortable in my body as we are in the process of transforming each other?’

The other day I was talking with a friend. She mentioned a time in her life when she weighed about 20 pounds more than she ever had.

My immediate thoughts:

I was waiting to hear her shame her own body with phrases like,

• “I look so disgusting.”
• “I hate myself in the mirror.”
• “I just want to look skinny again.”

But here’s what surprised me!

She talked about her body with respect and love. She said she didn’t feel as healthy or strong with the extra weight. She said she stopped caring for her body the way she had before.

In other words, this friend was listening to her body rather than judging her.

This is the core of the Body Knowledge System®. She gets it and practices it. Yeah!

This is the process I want for those of you who are listening and want to know more.

So, instead of setting out to lose weight and get thin again, she set out to love her body by listening to what she needed. And the result was feeling comfortable with the weight her body and she wanted. I am so excited for my friend!

Side note:

She said the results were not overnight, but she believes that by reconnecting with her body and embracing her Body Knowledge System® Style she redefined her relationship with her body to create the new process of eating to allow each other (her and her body) to breathe and find a common ground of acceptance.

During this process of implementing and acknowledging her Body Knowledge System® Style she simply spoke of how amazing she feels! And she also likes how she looks.

And by knowing her Body knowledge System® Style the weight loss was easier and looking and feeling with her body had renewed energy and acceptance.

Check out the link above for the Body Knowledge System ® Style guide around Eating and You.

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This week I want to talk about avoiding cycles of over and/or under indulgence.

You’ll learn the value of listening to your body and giving her what she wants and needs!

Overindulgence

I used to drink frozen coffee drinks all the time. I’m not talking about an iced coffee; I’m talking about the tall plastic cup with a dome-shaped lid filled with a caffeinated milkshake and whipped cream.

You’ve probably had one, right? If you have, you know they’re delicious.

Whenever I passed a Starbucks I would stop and get one and I would drink the whole thing. I never checked in with my body to see if I really wanted one or not. I just thought, “I love Frappuccino’s so I’m going to get one.”

This wasn’t just my approach to coffee. It was my approach to food in general. Needless to say, one day I realized I was getting heavier than I wanted to be.

Under Indulgence

So, I swung in the opposite direction. I began to restrict my calorie intake and that meant no more frozen coffee drinks.

Soon, I became so deprived of food that I started to be obsessed with it.

The Frappuccino’s are a great example of this. I forbid myself to drink them except on rare occasions.

When I did allow myself one, it was all I thought about. I would limit my food intake that day to give me room for the extra calories that would permit me to indulge with the coffee drink all day.

Body Balance

Fast forward a few years and my experience is quite different. Now, I listen to my body.

Turns out, my body knows what she needs. When I listen to her, it helps me stay balanced.

The other day, I was in the airport and I thought, “Hmm. One of those drinks sounds really good.”

So, I got one. You know what? It was delicious, but it wasn’t a big deal. I enjoyed most of the drink, but when I felt full I tossed it in the trash with a couple sips left in the bottom and moved on with my day.

Besides writing this article, I haven’t thought about that coffee drink since the airport. I’m too busy living my life.

Are you ready to break the cycle and find true happiness with your own body?

Download my free eBook today!

Share Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Eating Healthy

Over the past few weeks, we’ve asked the question, “Why are we even talking about body confidence?”

We’re talking about it because it provides true freedom for you in all areas of your life!

And we are very excited to see that someone in the fashion world truly embracing and promoting body confidence!

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WHAT HAPPENED?

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Fashion designer Michael Kors recently included a plus-size model (meaning a model beyond size 12) in his runway show! He also made some great comments about body confidence for women of all body types.

From the Huffington Post, Kors said:

“I don’t like it when the models all look the same,” he said at the time. “To me it’s so incredibly boring to turn them into mannequins; it’s so much more interesting if we have different ages, ethnicities, body types, heights.”

“The show was about strength and sensuality, and also about the diversity that we see here in New York that has inspired me my whole life,” he said. “There were models in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, models who are petite, tall, and curvy, models who are tomboys and others who are bombshells. My whole career, I’ve dressed a huge variety of people, because my job is to make everyone look great and feel more confident.”

How wonderful it was to see so many different body types gracefully moving down the runway.

We hope this is the beginning to giving all body types the confidence to see themselves reflected in models who represent “their” body!

Bravo Michael Kors for refusing to perpetuate the unhealthy eating disorder culture of modeling! He chose to promote the beauty of the diversity of various body types!

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NOW…..WHAT ABOUT YOU?

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My friend your unique body confidence matters.  And I want to help you.

Why not start with my 2^nd edition eBook, Five Easy Steps to a Better Body Image.

You can also listen to some of my radio shows (only ½ hour each) with Debi Talbert to give you the experience of my Body Knowledge System ® with the sprinkling of Law of Attraction principles.  Download here. 

Both of these offerings share some of the information you need to get past the decades of low body confidence you’ve experienced.

It’s time to take control, take charge of becoming the confident woman our body wants us to be.

Share Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Self Esteem

Ah, Men!

They’re Finally Joining the Movement to Banish Body Shaming.

These men were upset their body types were not represented on the runway. (Can this be true?)

This picture shows men resembling our brothers, husbands, fathers, and sons reacting to male body shaming at LONDON FASHION WEEK

Perhaps there’s hope for all of us…

Men – yes, men – real men, normal men, protested the lack of their representation at the recent London Fashion Week.  They were offended that the male models on the runway were the tall, skinny prototype seen at female fashion shows. Does the fashion industry focus on “every man” or only the tall skinny men appearing on runways, and in magazines?

It’s about time they know how their girlfriends, sisters, daughters and mothers feel about the body shaming that occurs hourly in modern fashion media.

#fashionforeveryman is their tagline.

What about #fashionforeverywoman?

When you google that hashtag, the skinny female counterparts show up wearing designer clothing in size “0”s.

Every woman?

I think not!

Perhaps #fashionforeveryBODY?

That eliminates the gender bias and makes “fashion” accessible to everyday people, not human coat hangers.

Hey, we’ve put up with that for years, so it’s good to know there are sensitive men out there who may now understand the unnecessary pain caused by that perceived “put down”.

I hope this is the beginning to the end of body shaming!

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“It takes as long as it takes you to release the RESISTANCE. Could be 30 years, could be 40 years, could be 50 years, could be a week. Could be tomorrow afternoon.” ~Abraham-Hicks

A recent phone call with a potential client still frustrates me, and not because of her reluctance to commit to the help she sought by calling me, but because her resistance reached out to me as she told me her story. A victim of sexual abuse as a child, she packed on the pounds to protect herself from “attracting” that kind of attention as she matured into adulthood. After years of therapy, dieting, and training programs that produced the yo-yo results we are all familiar with, she opted for bariatric surgery to control her intake of calories. When she contacted me, she called out of apparent desperation for my experience in giving my clients the confidence they need to continue their commitment to themselves.

After the exchange of emails and phones calls explaining our one-on-one coaching process and the guarantee of my support through a successful outcome; she continued to provide reasons she could not commit to the body knowledge system. As I met her every objection with a solution, she indicated she would get back to me with her commitment in a week. A week later, she called with another reservation, another excuse, another reason to resist the help she had sought when she first contacted me as a reference from her close friend, one of my successful clients.

What disturbs me is not her reluctance to commit to a coaching program, but the paradox of her seeking me out to help her, and then when help is offered, her resistance to accepting it.

There are many roads to a goal: each path presents specific challenges and obstacles, so it is up to us to decide which route offers the best possibility for success.

To get to body positive from body shaming, body negative, requires the release of your resistance to get what you want for yourself.

Once we decide on a direction, what prevents us from taking the first step?

Fear.

FEAR: False Evidence appearing Real

Our fear is based on our past experience, yet it is from the future, which has not happened yet…although intellectually it makes no sense to be afraid of things that have not happened yet, emotionally, mentally our imagination makes our fears into a reality (at least in our minds) and if you follow the downside of LOA, then you will “attract” the events as you are imagining them…horrible as they are!

Fear manifests itself as resistance: the “yes, but” response when we are asked for a commitment to our goal. The excuses are all familiar:

• Not enough money
• Not enough time
• Not enough energy
• Not enough motivation
• Not enough desire

It all boils down to the resistance we all feel around change…positive, negative; it matters not, whenever challenged to leave our comfort zone our initial reaction is NO!

As unhappy as we think we are (or we feel we are) with where we are now, even the promise of a better outcome is not enough to raise our vibration, or energy level, to MOVE toward the solution.

How to overcome the power of inertia?

Commitment to make a change.

Notice, I didn’t say Change!

Nor did I say Make a Change!

I said, “commitment.” Commitment is the most personal word in that phrase, because it means an agreement between you and yourself. Stating a commitment to another person may work, if you’re a child and other-directed, but you’re an adult and the only person you answer to is yourself.

So, let’s begin there: commit yourself to yourself.

Then ask for help from a coach to guide you with their expertise to keep your commitment to yourself.

Mind Set vs. Body Set

In order to get what you want for yourself, regardless of the method you use, to be successful requires alignment between your body’s (your heart’s desire) intention and your mind’s intentions. For the LAW of Attraction to work, to be effective, this is not just a preference, it’s a requirement.

When the law of attraction is not working for you, it’s because of an unconscious resistance you are unaware of, but its presence lowers your vibration. As Joe Vitale said in a prior issue of the Law of Attraction Magazine (page 9, October, 2016) when “counter-intentions present within you, that is thoughts and beliefs that run contrary to your conscious wishes”, they prevent you from reaching the results you want.

So when your mind says” yes”, your body says” yes”, but your mouth says “no”, that resistance is stressful. And stress always puts brakes on the positive energy, high vibration the LOA requires to work in your best interest.

The solution is to align your inner guidance system (your body) with your outer response system (your mind attached to your mouth).

That’s what the Body Knowledge System® is all about: combining the power within your body to the purpose within your mind. That alignment makes all things possible!

So how do you achieve that alignment?

Do-It-Yourself can work, if you work it.

Here are three suggestions to apply when you seek a Better Body image, body confidence or want to feel positive about your body:

• Meditate: to open your mind to your body’s awesome inspiration.
• Move, move, move: to allow your body to share her joy with your mind.
• Manifest your body’s knowledge with help from a body knowledge expert.

If Doing-It-Yourself fails to provide enough positive energy to attract the positive energy you seek, it’s not a disgrace seek help—from someone who knows how to get you from where you are, to where you want to be. Reach out to a mentor to guide you back to your core, your body. Together you will overcome any resistance to achieving your goals.

It’s time to short circuit the downside as you realize the upside with a little help from your friends, including your BFF, your body…allow your body to befriend you, so the two of you will achieve the body confidence you both deserve.

Where and How to start?

Share Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Law of Attraction

This week I want to talk to anyone who is sick and tired of reading blog posts that tell you a bunch of information but don’t actually help you implement anything.

You been there before? You read something, you feel sort of empowered or encouraged for a few hours, but then nothing changes.

You fall into the same old patterns and habits.

You read more blog posts. Nothing changes.

If you’re sick and tired of this cycle… if you’re ready to see real change… if you’re ready to experience true body confidence, no matter your age…

Let’s just cut to the chase.

For women over 50 who want to embrace their body confidence, a system DOES exist about HOW to gain confidence in a practical way.

In Chapter Five of my book, Body Knowledge System®, I explain the Four (4) Body Knowledge System ® Styles: Organized, Analytical, Spontaneous, and Inspirational.

After years of observing and working with my clients, I developed the following Body Knowledge System® Styles. Circle each one that applies to you.  Give it a try right now! 

Let’s us know in the comments below!

Organized

• You are at your best when everything has an order.
• You are punctual. You are committed to being on time.
• You like rules and routines.
• You are happiest when you feel organized.
• You take on projects first by setting a schedule and establishing a routine.
• You like keeping a journal or a log. It’s important to you to track daily progress.

Analytical

• You love complexity. You don’t shy away from it. Rather, you like to take a concept, break it down and study it.
• You enjoy working out problems and learning the principles and theories behind them.
• Your goal is to be competent at whatever you do.
• You love a challenge.
• You are imaginative, but you like for things to make sense.
• You are most receptive to a new experience when Everything is explained to you.
• You like to have numbers and facts to back up statements and beliefs.

Spontaneous

• You see life as fun. You like to play.
• Your strategy is always changing.
• You are not attracted to organized rules, and you don’t like complicated rules.
• You will follow rules if they are simple.
• You are willing to change the rules if circumstances change.
• You need the reasons you do things to be natural.
• You like to do things at the spur of the moment.
• You love people. You are motivated by activities with people.

Inspirational

• You like to create an environment that puts other individuals in a position to learn or take action.
• You like it that others look to you for inspiration.
• You are creative.
• You are concerned about helping others’ personal growth.
• You gravitate toward mind-body principles.
• You like to believe anything is possible.
• You are at your best when you focus on the positive.

Once you understand which styles are a good fit, you’ll be able to embrace your strengths in a practical way. 🙂

The Body Knowledge System® is a map, a map that you make your own.

Share Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Self Esteem

It’s Coach Stephanie, and this week I want to tell you what I think true body confidence looks like, and how you can stop comparing yourself to others!

To start the conversation, let me summarize an article I read recently.

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It Didn’t Represent ME…

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Here’s the story – the Toronto Transit Commission did a promotional partnership with National Ballet called “We Move You”. It’s a series of videos that portray a ballerina interacting with the subway system. It’s a way to promote both the subway system, and the arts culture in Toronto.

And it could’ve been that simple.

But Jill Andrew, co-founder of the Body Confidence Canada Awards, took issue with it.

She said that the campaign didn’t represent her, or many other people who use the subway.

Okay…. ???

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So Why Did Jill React That Way?

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My question for Jill is this:

Why did you take this ad campaign to mean that that is how YOU’RE supposed to look?

Here’s what Jill had to say:

The body types of most ballet dancers do not adequately represent those of most Canadians and, I dare say, most TTC users.

Okay… but, if that ballerina wants to be thin, and that gives her energy… leave her alone!

She continues:

This is simply an opportunity to reflect on who is being left out by an ad campaign such as this.

So what would make it better?

Do we need every ethnicity represented?

Every gender?

Every body type?

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Why Not Look At It This Way?

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You see, the message of body confidence is this – you can look however you like! However makes you feel most comfortable!

Long hair, short hair, smaller, larger… it’s up to you.

And… it’s also frees you up to celebrate other body types! We don’t all look alike… and that’s a good thing.

Learn to celebrate yourself, and others, too.

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What Do You Think?

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Okay, now that you know the story, and you know my take on it… what say you?

How did it make you feel? What was your reaction?

What does it look like for you to both celebrate your own body confidence, and the body confidence of others?

Comment below and let me know.

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Today we are exploring how to ask the question ‘what else?’ with our bodies in order to be more in alignment and to fully understand your body’s needs physically and psychologically. This will help us better create the body image stories that we tell ourselves.

How to maintain a better body image daily

If you have phrases that you repeat every day, or pictures you look at to keep your desires in front of your mind, I’d like for you to go a step deeper today with a new technique.

It’s called the “What Else’ technique and it can help you in your personal or professional life.

How to apply the ‘what else’ technique to you and your body

When you feel your body is in need of something, ask her, “And what else?”

I truly believe that when you learn to ask your body what she wants, the two of you will get on the same page, and start achieving the things you desire!

For example…you want:

• A better body….and what else?
• Thinner thighs…and what else?
• To lose 15 pounds of “baby weight”… and what else?
• For my clothes to fit better…and what else?
• To feel lighter…and what else?

In personal and professional relationships, we all know the first answer is not the only answer, and rarely the best answer. That’s why remembering the question – “And what else?” to use as a follow up question always provides deeper answers until you reach the heart of the issue.

The answers to this question are between you and your very best friend, your body. So there’s no need to shy away from the difficult questions about what you want for your body, and perhaps are “afraid” to ask? The basic principle of the Body Knowledge System® is total trust and ease of communication between you and your body. The openness between whatever question you ask of her and the answers you receive can only create the positive energy to actually accomplish your basic goal: Body Confidence.

Let’s eliminate any negativity around our body issues!

Next time you think about what you want out of life, I encourage you to be brave enough to dig deeper into your objectives behind creating those desires in the first place.

So, when you go to cut out a picture or write a wish, remember to ask “and what else” to see if that’s your real desire, or someone else’s desire for you. What you want out of life can be authentic and true to you!

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“You must have been a beautiful baby,

You must have been a wonderful child.”

-Johnny Mercer

You were born with the best body image possible. At birth your thoughts were without judgment.  Your thoughts were pure expressions of what your body communicated in the moment. Happy, alert, warm, comfortable, and safe feelings sent by your body directly to your brain and expressed directly by your body. As pure ego, your vibration operated at an extremely high level, because of the purity of that positive communication between your body and your brain.  You expressed your positive feelings through your body’s contentment.

As an innocent beautiful baby, you attracted attention naturally. All you had to do was “be”, simply exist. Then, your appearance was more than accepted, it attracted positive attention from everyone. Regardless of what you wore or how much you weighed, your presence on the planet inspired smiles and warmth from everyone around you. You and your body were one, united in survival and growth. In order to make that happen, you smiled, cooed, giggled, drooled and batted your eyes at your caregivers.

How does this relate to your body image as an adult?

As an adult, our survival depends only on ourselves, not our caregivers.

To bring back that pure high vibration of infancy, reunite with your body to strengthen your presence in your world. The Body Knowledge System® teaches the importance of reuniting with your body to improve your body image through a simple process designed to increase your health and well being. Because each of us is unique, you are in charge of your process. As you progress in the Body Knowledge System® you will feel more energy at a higher vibration every day of your practice.

Body Knowledge System® Brings You Back to You

The basic principle in the Body Knowledge System® is ending the estrangement between you and your body. Reuniting you with your body is as easy as re-establishing the open communication you were born with—the energy that raised your vibration so positively as an infant.

Most of us live our lives unaware of our body’s importance, until something goes wrong. Illness, injury, or chronic pain gets our immediate attention, and as our body’s caregiver THEN we divert our attention to remedying the situation. Perhaps our lack of constant communication with our bodies allowed us to miss her earlier attempts at alerting us of an imbalance that resulted in this distraction.

Holistic and integrative medical theory supports the importance of considering the entire person when considering treatment for illness or injury. Logically, whole body unity should contribute to improving our daily lives as well.

The Body Knowledge System® approaches the concept of body image from the holistic point of view. In order to improve our body image, the first step is going within to raise our personal vibration. As in all things pertaining to the Law of Attraction, it occurs in the present and produces results in the future.

“You must have been a beautiful baby,

Cos, baby look at you now!” Johnny Mercer

Begin your path back to your birthright, the best body image that will ignite your high level of energy to carry you through and with all of what you desire for yourself and others.

 I believe you are ready to read my Ebook: 5 Easy Steps to a Better Body Image.

Share Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Self Esteem