Those of you who have worked with the CEDRIC Core Beliefs booklet are probably familiar with these stages, but seeing as how June is ‘Natural Eating’ month, we thought that you might enjoy a quick reminder to help you grab the nutshell of where you are in your process, right in this moment, taken from our Natural Eating booklet. (more…)

Never let it be said that just because you are middle aged, your life is merely a banal repetition of experiences that make for zero excitement quotient. I for one, am going to age with a bang, kicking and screaming all the way. What I’m talking about now is no exception. At 52, I’m too excited to sleep. I’m so full of tomorrow I can’t get today out of the way fast enough. Like a kid at Christmas, I’m so stoked.

Tomorrow is my Graduation. I’ve managed to gather enough credits over the past six years to be able to share this achievement with my alma mater and family tomorrow. I managed to hobble along with a Grade 9 education until I turned mid 40 and suddenly avenues of academia opened up to me. Six years later, I’m plotting my accomplishments in a blog made possible by what I garnered from those rigorous years of schooling. (more…)

One of the things I know for sure about body image, from my own recovery experience and from hundreds of conversations with clients, is that your negative self-talk and feelings of loathing, disgust and heaviness in your body can change to peaceful acceptance in 24 hours, even when nothing has physically changed in your body.

Yuppers, that’s what I said, your Drill Sgt. can be happily on vacation in Mexico in 24 hours, leaving you at home to peacefully and contentedly practice life-enhancing coping strategies and self-care. And I’m not talking about trying to talk yourself into loving yourself as you are or about settling for being the weight and shape that you are now.

So, what am I talking about? I’m talking about integrity. Integrity means that your words and actions are in alignment. You want to know the secret to happiness? It’s integrity. You want to know the secret to feeling peaceful and content in your body; in your relationships; in your career; etc?

It’s integrity: Words and Actions Aligning.

You do what you say you will. And not just to others, but first and foremost to yourself. That’s where most of us who feel controlled by food and loathing of our bodies stumble; integrity with ourselves. We’re all over taking care of others and honoring our commitments outwardly at all costs. (more…)

Today, I’m finally exercising.

Exercising my right to get off the couch

I’m in my portable office that contains a bench in the sun in a hidden corner of Saxe Point with my archaic alternative technology, namely my book and pen. My bike is parked behind me with my digital camera, a sweating, cold bottle of  fresh water rounding out my ensemble. A huge military helicopter rumbles by slowly, competing with the birds as I write.  My intention was to ponder the question ‘What makes me tick?’ as I rode.  I am at that place in my evolution that its high time that I ask myself that very good question.

These days, as I process CEDRIC’s philosophies and tools, as I gain experience applying them to the ups and downs of my life, I’m changing, evolving, refining and in the course of that, so are the factors that comprise what makes me who I am. For instance, I’ve changed my name, my career, my home and my life almost 10o% in the past year. That tells me that I know who and what I’m not any more, but what AM I? What stirs my crank? Gets me going? Gets me motivated?

What makes me tick?

(more…)

The thing about having an issue with weight is that it translates to an issue with food. This relationship is something that is mismanaged and misunderstood by the best of them, but when you are dealing with personal challenges, the relationship gets even more murky.

There are so many opinions in the western world for the person who is having self esteem issues around the fact that they are considered overweight or are gaining weight.

There just as many options as there are opinions for the person who is dealing with this and they come from all sides as our culture invests a fortune in keeping the superficial issue of body image in the forefront of the collective consciousness.

We have people on tv, in white coats, claiming to be specialists. They give us the gears for being hefty by informing the population that we are ‘less than’ if we don’t buy their plan for salvation, hook, line and sinker. We hear about Food for nurturing and Food for self numbing as an opiate. Martha Stewart tells us that we need to be making the meals pleasing to the eye, Rachel Ray says we should be making four course meals in half an hour to measure up. Even Oprah, who is a cultural icon in today’s world, has her own kitchen staff that includes a world class chef so she has NO idea what she’s eating as she’s passed that on to her dietitian and yet her weight STILL has more ups and downs than a staircase.

How can a little person from small town wherever, with shoelaces for a budget, compete? How can we get away from the constant berating that we are living with a ‘problem’ and if we aren’t constantly doing something about our ‘problem’, we may as well move to the Tennessee Ozarks into a decrepit trailer park right now. Its bad enough that the reality is our bodies need food for fuel and three times a day or more, we better gas up or we won’t have to worry about it, we’d be dead! How does one address mealtime without confusion when messages are coming at us from everywhere with an opinion of how to think? (more…)

Hello out there! Michelle here.

There’s a card I have had up in my bedroom for I don’t know how long and this morning as I was looking at it for the thousandth time I thought you might find it relevant as well. The quote is this:

“She realized this transition was not about becoming someone new but about finally allowing herself to be who she’d always been.”

Each of you has an amazing, talented, warm and loving presence inside of her. Perhaps you even let others see that side of you. If you’re using food to cope you can bet that you’re not allowing yourself to really recognize and embrace that amazing person who is you. You’re stifling her for all you’re worth.

It’s her desire to express herself fully in the face of old beliefs you carry about your right to exist; to take up space; your deservedness of success and happiness and contentment; and of healthy, loving relationships, that makes you feel fragmented, fraudulent, inauthentic and anxious. And it is that anxiety that leads you to focus on food and body image in harmful ways and to miss out on all that you, and that life have to offer.

What if you took a moment today and just got still and quiet and asked yourself, “What are the people/situations in my life currently where I feel I cannot be fully authentic – fully myself?”

If you’re honest with yourself you will come up with a list of people and situations that currently trigger you to feel like you will be rejected and judged negatively if you say or do what really feels right for you.

Now it’s time to take steps to develop the tools and awareness within yourself to create connections with those people/situations where you feel safe being fully authentic. As you begin on this path you will notice your focus on food and body image lessens and your sense of self strengthens, and your relationships with others become better than they’ve ever been.

Being who you’ve always been is not a disastrous concept certain to ruin your precarious grasp on life. Being who you’ve always been will bring you a sense of strength and confidence, as sense of “being somebody” that no one can take away no matter how much they disagree with your choices or behaviours.

I guarantee it!

Love Michelle

If you’d like to begin to change your relationship with food and your sense of your self today – give me a call or send me an email mmorand@cedriccentre.com.

And if you’re not already registered, sign up for our free newsletter to stay tuned for more articles and tips for recovery <a href=”http://www.cedriccentre.com/free-newsletter”>Sign up for our free newsletter</a>.

M.

Dictionary.com describes ‘synergy’ as the combined action of one or more stimuli. What could possibly be more stimulating that the smells and sights of early spring after months of slogging in the cold and wet?

With the tiny green buds erupting everywhere, vivid purple and orange crocuses exploding in flowerbeds and banners on the sides of city buses pleading for daffodil pickers, spring is in the air and the sentiments it brings are contagious. The long sleep of winter is showing every indication of giving up the ghost and with it, we can lay our bad habits and deliberate nutritional ignorances to rest once and for all.

June will be our month to focus on Natural Eating in the CEDRIC newsletter, but I wanted to bring it up in this issue to go along with all the green that is cropping up everywhere. We need to be in full throttle of eating right by June, where we will augment the process with tips and yummy ways of integrating a wiser nutritional path for ourselves, but we have to start somewhere and there’s nothing like using the encouraging shoots of green as our incentive.

I am using the impetus of all this burgeoning growth to inspire me to be good to my self, to become more active and to look at the heavy, deadening parts of my life with a critical eye, ready to eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to improving my situation, in order to make me physically light and to make my spirit lighter. “The body will follow” is the lesson I’m learning from those who have already been through the difficult baby steps of beginning to be aware in a body/mind/spirit philosophy. (more…)

I fell off the wagon on Spring Break week. I fell off so bad that the skid marks are everywhere on me.

I knew better, but did what I did anyways, and I blame that darned dialogue that rattles on in my mind. I thought I was better equipped to resist the arguments that came up but I caved royally and now I am paying.

I knew better than to ingest the very things that I’d identified as being problems for me. High fructose corn syrup had almost totally been eradicated from my diet. For a month, I experienced the equivalent of a ‘detox’ as I cut back on sugars of all kinds, on dairy, on highly refined foods.

I’d been so good. All last month I ate organic, followed my hard-won advice around the ingredients that I wanted to avoid, I shopped in the outside aisles of the supermarket and avoided fast food completely. As a result, my bloat dissipated, my ankles ceased their endless swelling, I had more flexibility and I didn’t feel as creaky in my joints. My skin cleared up and my slacks were JUST starting to have a little bit of give in them.

I was optimistic that my health was on the upswing and I was on the road back.

And then I had three days where I gathered up all four of my daughters where we had a little road trip that found us traveling long distances, staying in hotels and eating out a lot. Well, finding good food on the ferry was easy if you wanted nothing but salad and vinaigrette, but watching the girls mow down fat french fries, that gooey brown chemical gravy and the smell of fried chicken burgers made my resolve weaken. By the time we made it to the mainland, and hunger reared its head again, we were headed for hell in a gasoline hand-basket as I took the kids to not only Wendy’s but to Mickey D’s as well as Burger King AND Chinese food over the course of the weekend. I tried to stick to my confirmed new way of eating, but the chicken strips called my name and before I knew it, I had to eat them. Then the coffee with its cream and sugar of dubious origins… then the gummy bears… and later that night in the hotel, the bags of chips came out. Granted I ate the ones marked ‘organic’, they were still full of chemical contents that I couldn’t pronounce. (more…)

The Law of Attraction In the Thought World

William Walker Atkinson wrote a book in 1906 called “Thought Vibration or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World. He wrote over 100 books in his career and was widely respected as a leader of new thought and spirituality. His writing formed the theoretical basis for the hit movie The Secret and influenced many of its interviewees (Such as Jack Canfield and Joe Vitale). I’d like to share some quotes from each chapter with you over the next few weeks as it’s such an amazing little resource and the language with which he writes is so matter of fact it really appeals to the logical, rational, need the science behind the method part of my brain. I hope you like it. Michelle

Chapter V: The Secret of the Will

“… few realize that the Will may be developed and strengthened by intelligent practice.”

” … Will Power, with all its latent possibilities and mighty powers, may be developed, disciplined, controlled and directed, just as may be any other of Nature’s forces. It does not matter what theory you may entertain about the nature of the Will, you will obtain the results if you practice intelligently.”

“… I think that in the higher regions of the mind of every man is a great store of Will Power awaiting his use. …. Your Will does not need training — but your Mind does. The mind is the instrument and the supply of Will Power is proportionate to the fineness of the instrument through which it manifests.”

“He who has developed his mind so that it will allow the Will Power to manifest through it, has opened up wonderful possibilities for himself. Not only has he found a great power at his command, but he is able to bring into play, and use, faculties, talents and abilities of whose existence he has not dreamed. This secret of the Will is the magic key which opens all doors.”

“Many of us feel that if we would but exert our Will, we might accomplish wonders.”

“We instinctively feel the power of the Will, but we haven’t enough energy to exercise it, and so drift along with the tide, … “

Michelle here, I was thinking about the above statements and it is clear to me that people who use food to cope have tremendous will power; they’re just exercising it in the wrong direction. Their will power is directed towards controlling their food intake and body size. Will power will not be enough to resolve a harmful coping strategy because you must understand the underlying reasons and triggers for your need for the food and body focus in the first place. That is the place to apply your will. To focus your efforts on relationships or circumstances in your life where you do not respectfully ask for what you need or where you feel unsafe or insecure is the most powerful manifestation of your will power. It states to yourself and to anyone watching that you believe you are worthy of love and respect and that you will only engage in relationships where those things are present. If you are using food to cope you do not believe that you are worthy of dignity and respect from yourself or from others. Place your effort on finding the source of that story and seeing how it manifests in your life today, apart from food, and you will have the key to a life that is completely free from food and body image focus.

You are worthy of respect and dignity in all the areas of your life.

Love Michelle