Posted by Cedric on December 31, 2008
The holidays are behind us and now we can get on with life without the distractions of shopping, preparing food or taking care of others. As we swing into the new year, the Blog is about to swing into a new way of presenting information.
I would like to introduce myself. My name is Tina Budeweit-Weeks, as Michelle’s executive assistant and a professional foodie, I am the perfect person to steward a new segment of the blog that we are tentatively calling the Cedric Forum. I propose that as I grow and heal with my own personal journey from mindlessness to a more intentional state around food, I share my responses and comments that arise when reading Michelle’s input and your insights.
Each week I will deal with different themes such as presented by the different chapters in the workbooks and Michelle’s book, ‘Food is not the problem’, and I invite you to contribute to what we intend to be an ongoing conversation. There is strength in numbers and together we can turn our lives and our way of thinking around to promote a rapid restoration for healing.
Here is a bit of a bio to get you up to speed.
At 6 feet tall and with scales toppling in at close to the nightmare 300 lb mark, I am a 52 year old woman in the midst of many positive changes. After 5 years of post secondary education, this year was a milestone as I attained a Bachelor’s degree, and after 23 years of raising my children, I am now enjoying the relative silence of an empty nest as of this past summer. Newly educated and emancipated from the restrictive roles of motherhood, I am also just exiting that wonderful time of post menopause which means that my body has become more prone to being sedentary, and I am thickening around the middle. As my height makes weight gains seem almost invisible until I’ve put on 30 lbs., and with my aversion to using scales, I’ve managed to become larger than I ever dared believe and its definitely time to do something about that. There is more to the story as this year, a close friend stepped up to the plate and I have become a very well-loved partner/spouse, a far cry from my years as a single parent. I know this all sounds like good news, however, with all the freedom and nurturing, dinners out and wonderful, unrestricted grocery shopping sprees, I’m also being fed better than I ever was, which is exacerbating the problem of my weight increasing.
Enter Michelle, who responded to my ad for employment in September. What a wonderful bit of synchronicity to discover that my innovative and brilliant new employer runs the CEDRIC centre! Just as I was trying to manifest a plan for my new life that includes being more active and cooking for two instead of many, the tenets that Michelle teaches through her counselling, workbooks and publication address exactly what I need. That is, a body-honouring way of bringing my excess weight gain to a halt, turning it around and minimizing my girth so that I take up less space. I’m tired of not fitting in normal chairs, of suffering in plane seats, of seeking benches when ‘normal’ people have no trouble with available seating. All I really want is to able to fit into normal clothes and to be able to seat myself in normal furniture without the constant reminder of what it is to be a Gulliver in a Lilliputian world.
So, join me as I begin the process of learning to change my core beliefs, of silencing that infernal internal Drill Sergeant, and of eating naturally, and I will not only blog my developments, but also, share my ups and downs, my successes, challenges and plateaus so that you feel supported on your own journey to rebalanced wellness. Together, we shall overcome! The time is right and all is as it should be. Its time for us to be moving towards a fitter, healthier future.
Tina Budeweit-Weeks is a member of the CEDRIC Success Team in the role of staff writer and executive assistant for Michelle Morand. Her philosophy has always been one of self-nurturance and dignity. In support of the complex difficulties clients may experience around regaining a healthy balance, Tina’s writing is designed to sympathize, support, encourage and inform. Although there are many similarities in Tina’s process, she is not a client, but a hard working, behind-the-scenes member of the team, dedicated to helping the CEDRIC Centre stay current and effective.
The Diet Mentality of our society says that the way to be externally acceptable is to have breast augmentation, liposuction, no noticeable body fat, and a million dollars. It is not only unrealistic and unnatural, but it is also unhealthful. Ah, but the Drill Sgt. in you doesn’t really care, because the most important thing to him is meeting your needs for security and acceptance. And he believes that those needs must be met outside of yourself and can only be met when you have total acceptance and approval from everyone. He’ll worry about your quality of life and your health and wellness later. Right! Any of you who have been playing the Diet Mentality game for long will know that “later” never comes. From the Drill Sgt.’s perspective, there is always something more that you need to change/do/be in order to secure your place in the world. The only way the Drill Sgt. knows how to do this is to continue to pressure you to look a certain way so that you will finally get the approval and sense of security in the world that you so desperately seek.
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