Sunday 23 November 2014

Harmony Holistics

I spent a wonderful day yesterday teaching my Healing the Eating Habit workshop at Harmony Holistics, a beautiful shop plus therapy rooms in Ammanford Wales.
We covered the main concepts of how to lose weight permanently and naturally through eating when hungry and stopping when full. How to resolve those emotional issues that can cause eating when full and how to raise self acceptance.
I will be doing a other Healing the Eating Habit Day Workshop there on the 10th of January 2015. So if you fancy coming along to the serene and peaceful Welsh country town of Ammanford for an interesting and worthwhile, life-changing experience there are still a few places left.
To book simply contact 07530 531 655 or look up Harmony Holistics on facebook and message Helen. A £10 deposit will secure your place and the remaining £20 can be paid on the day.

Blessings

Sofia

Thursday 20 November 2014

Poetry

Here is a piece of poetry that came to me as I cycled home today.

Stealing time from fear.
Stealing time from stress.
and giving it to Grace,
giving it to peace.

 I have always loved cycling and use it as my mode of transport in busy Cardiff city. I have recently taken a small chance on doing a workshop on the topic I love  - Healing the Eating Habit - I risked losing money but I took the risk and once I made the decision to go ahead and do the workshop, I felt at ease because I knew I was being true to my heart. And that is all i have ever been doing in this life - being true to my heart. 
And then I realized that I am totally supported in this like I have always been; even though I don't always feel it.
 Being true to yourself becomes a way of life when you give up eating when full or any addiction for that matter.
Are you ready to make following your heart your way of life?

I thought of a time when I lived in London and had some financial challenges. I remember staying in my boyfriends flat in West Hampstead and sitting in the small living room looking out into the garden and feeling totally content, allowing, what I call today - Grace, into my being. Feeling at peace even though challenges were present. 
And that is when the thought that we steal time from stress, worry and fear and give it to grace - isn't that what the ancient and modern Mystics do? Spend time in Grace instead of worry, stress or fear.

Thursday 9 October 2014

Dysfunctional Families

Coming from a dysfunctional family seems to be the norm, and I often realize that I got things to say to my family, but what I really want is love.
After I left my family home, and when I was in my early twenties as a dysfunctional adult of dysfunctional adults, breathwork (Rebirthing) played a big part in my own personal healing journey. I wanted to learn how to make the pain go away.
I started on the adventure of life to discover how to create a supportive and validating family life. I had not felt supported or validated in my family, so a childhood of pain was my challenge to deal with. I dealt with it by becoming a compulsive eater at the age of 13, that developed into bulimia by the time I was 17. I healed at 18. More, deeper issues emerged and I was co-dependent by 22.
Breathwork saved my life when I was 26 and my further healing continued in earnest then with positive thinking, and much study into self healing.
Looking back, chunk of healing happened after chunk of healing as I continued to read and follow my heart. I rarely visited my family after I left at 19 and just focused on healing the wounds inflicted by those people who did not see me, hear me, or make me feel safe.
 It was the best they could do and the power to heal from all of that was mine, and thankfully I was able to do so to the extent that I no longer eat when full, or smoke, or drink to deal with the pain of a dysfunctional upbringing - all of that I gave up twenty years ago.
An addiction free life is not necessarily an easy life, it is just we learn to cope with life in different ways. We no longer suppress our feelings and creativity by eating when full, drinking, smoking or doing drugs, rather we feel those feelings and seek to live the life we would like to live, by incorporating into it what we think we might like to do. We involve ourselves in our interests and stay clear of the original transgressors; or if we are around them, we can handle it in ways that don't harm us. We cut the visit short or we learn how to protect ourselves from their subtle or overt abusive ways. It is a difficult road to walk to hide from abuse, it is much easier to own up to the fact it happened and that we can stay away and be with people who truly like us. It starts with ourselves and our own self-care and self-appreciation.

Saturday 4 October 2014

The Price Tag on Freedom

It has been said that the price tag on freedom is responsibility. And in doing yourself the great favor of freeing yourself from the habit of compulsive eating, you are developing the ability to respond to life, and food, and feelings, in different ways. Ways that allow you to stop when full. Ways that allow you to be who you are. Ways that allow you to ask yourself - How do I feel about that? What is my opinion on this?

This is your ability to interact with life rather that stuffing your feelings down with food when full and stuffing yourself into a stereotypical image of womanhood.

I personally have discovered that I grew up in a family that had very limited  ideas about what a woman could, or could not do. Rather Victorian and very patriarchal. Stifling to say the least. Maybe it was no coincidence that I moved to a different country only six short months after overcoming my eating disorder. My stuffing my feelings down with food when full was all to do with living in a family that was trying to shove me into a shoe box, and call it living.

In my ability to cease eating when full, and my getting into the habit of asking myself - What feeling is this I am trying to suppress? every time I felt like eating when full, enabled me to discover what I wanted in life.

I am very blessed to have been able to leave that stifling upbringing to emerge into a life that allowed me to live in London, study what I loved, work and follow my interests.

Seek your own ability to respond to your life in a way that allows you to truly live. No longer eat when full and allow yourself to feel the feelings that eating when full suppressed. Seek to resolve those feelings. Seek the way to feel and heal. Ask yourself - Given the fact I feel this way what would I like to do now? And let it guide you to responding to people a little differently. Staying away from some, spending more time with others. It is your adventure now. It is your pilgrimage. It is your life.
Allow it to flourish.

Let your life get bigger as you get smaller.

Blessings, until next time

Sofia
 

Thursday 7 August 2014

Have Your Cake and Eat It

To have your cake and eat it depicts the best case scenario. So how does that relate to compulsive eating and carrying those extra pounds?
Well, I hear again and again from folk - 'I just love food and that is why I carry extra weight'.
I am here to tell you that you can still love food and be slim. Remember - What gets you slim, keeps you slim. Eating when hungry and stopping when full gets you slim. And eating when hungry and stopping when full keeps you slim. I've been naturally slim for twenty years and it is all because of that simple act of eating when hungry and stopping when full.
So back to our cake, I love chocolate cake, but I only eat it when I am hungry.  And this is what I advise you to do also, with the help of the free 'Am I hungry?' download from my website
www.trueslimness.co.uk

Another important point I would like to make here is the fact that is the answer to this question - Do we really enjoy food when full? Sure when I was a compulsive eater I loved food when full because of the momentary good feeling it gave me, but the after effects of being bloated and an over full stomach and resulting weight gain and how horrified I would be when I stepped on the scales to see yet more weight went on, was not so much fun.
So food when full is not so enjoyable, but food eaten when genuinely physically hungry, is very enjoyable, especially when it is exactly what you want to eat. If you fancy a tuna sandwich when hungry, and eat a tuna sandwich when hungry, it really tastes sooo good. Now that is loving food. Food when hungry is a pleasure, and we don't have to give it up in order to be slim and healthy.
So in this way you can have your cake and eat it.

Until next time
Sofia

Sunday 3 August 2014

Work You Love

All of us at one time or another have experienced the 'quiet desperation' of not enough money, and maybe even the panic and fear around not having enough money. It is very similar to the fear of  'gaining even more weight'. If you suffer from both overweight and poverty, then this indeed is a very difficult cross to bear. How on earth can we heal, overcome, grow out and away from such demeaning circumstances that we often feel we have no control over?
No matter how hard we try, and what methods we try, the situation improves little, or not at all, or has even gotten worse.
I feel globally this is what we are facing - How to deal with the issue of excess weight on our body and the issue of lack of finances not being something to push us into work we loathe.
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, creativity otherwise known as work you love is an essential part of getting free from addiction and staying free from addiction, and it starts with being able to handle the fears of dealing with questions such as - How do I provide for myself and my family? How do I get into work I love? How can I make the work I hate be more tolerable? How can I navigate a way to leave this work I hate? How can I navigate a way into the work I love? How can I deal with, this one aspect of work, that I dislike so I can hang on in there for a few more months to save for that training course I want?
I love the Hay House Radio Show - 'Messages From Margaret' - in it, Margaret often gives her callers affirmations that start with the phrase - Why is it so easy for me....?
For Example: Why is it so easy for me to bring in a large financial income from work I love? Why is it so easy for me to deal with that difficult person? Why is it so easy for me to find and keep work that I love? Why is it so easy for me..... Fill in your own thoughts to do with what you are struggling with right now in your life. This is yet another tool that helps us cease turning to food when full.

True Slimness Workshops to start Wednesday Evenings Albert Road Methodist Church, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales 7pm - 8pm  Drop -in £3

True Slimness Lunchtime Workshops 1pm - 2pm on the first Monday of the month starting Monday September 1st, then Monday 6th October and Monday 3rd November at Friends Meeting House, 120 Heath Street, Hampstead, London

For Further info contact: 07530 531 655 / 02921 155 512

Until next time x Sofia

Sunday 20 July 2014

Good Moods and Bad Moods

Well all of us know how our moods effect our eating.
It is exasperating to find yourself in a bad mood and wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to shift yourself out of that bad mood at will.
Well, a good part of my work is pretty much about that - the ability to handle feelings. Feelings are energy. E-motion - energy in motion if you like. So because feelings are energy, and energy is a fluid thing, by it very nature it shouldn't be too hard to have it flow and leave, or be transmuted into something better, more pleasant. This has been referred to as a high vibration, or in more every-day terms feeling high. Using drugs as a means to 'feel high' however is a false thing and not what I recommend, but rather the natural highs of the resolving of an emotional issue, and the natural highs of doing what you love be it gardening, tending to your animals, or spending time with a friend you love - these are the sorts of  'highs' or 'good moods' you can seek as you give up eating when full.
So when the inklings of a bad mood or the thunderstorm of a bad mood erupts (the type of mood that would normally send you to the fridge when full) see if you can take a step back from it and act differently in relation to it. If you are stuck not knowing what to do about it then ask my much repeated question - Given the fact I feel this way, what would I like to do now?  What are your responses to that question? Sift through them. Are their any healthy answers? Are there any that you can start to act on? Such as open a bank account to save for a training course or holiday that you would like. Ignore answers such as - A glass of wine or a shopping spree on an already pretty full credit card, my rule is only spend cash, not plastic, until you are out of debt or until you really feel you know about good debt and bad debt. If you are angry, beat the mattress not your kids. If you are jealous of your sister in law, don't see her next Thursday. If you feel belittled by your sister-in-law, don't see her next Thursday. If you hate your job, really address that, brain storm, work less hours, look for another job that may be less pay but you'll feel happier, freer, or stay in there and avoid the person that is making it uncomfortable for you while you seek training in the field you've always dreamed of working.
And while doing all of that - stop when full, stop when full, stop when full. And don't beat yourself up if you ain't doing all of that already. It is okay.

Drop in to one of my lunchtime workshops 1 pm - 2 pm at the Friends Meeting House, Hampstead, 120 Heath Street, Hampstead, London, England on the first Monday of each month from September 2014 - To book in advance call 07530 531 655 or 029 2115 5512 they are (for now) at the brilliant price of £7.50

Saturday 15 March 2014

Becoming Slim

Becoming slim is about looking at the reasons why we have eaten when full in the past, and why we are still drawn to eat when full now, in the present. So take a moment and ask yourself  - What are my reasons for eating when full?

Here are some common reasons for eating when full:

I won't have time to eat later.

I paid for this meal so I am going to eat it.

There is still food on my plate, it would be a waste to bin it.

I can't stop eating.

Well I ate it so quickly that it is only now, after I've eaten, that I realise I'm positively stuffed.

What could you tell yourself to help you make these reasons, no longer good enough reasons, to eat when full?

My workshops, telephone consultations, skype sessions and one to one sessions and books cover this issue of how to let nothing be a good enough reason to eat when full.

It is fascinating and fun to lose weight this real and authentic way.

To book a session / workshop check out my face book page - True Slimness or email me: sofia@trueslimness.co.uk

Until next time

Regards

Sofia x

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Creativity

I've noticed recently how much time, people I've been in conversation with, spend on complaining or talking about various problems in their lives as well as the terrible news stories, without really talking time to talk about the possible solutions.  And we all know that solutions do exist.

To me talking about and involving oneself in the solution, focusing on the solution, is creativity. Actually focusing on problems is also creativity - negative creativity. We stunt our own growth, our own wellness, our own peace of mind when we focus on the problems or issues in our lives for too long, without giving a moments thought to the many do-able solutions available. So getting on to the solution is a very positively creative act.

People are surprised and stop to think when I ask them - 'My goodness, so what can you do about this?' when they talk about an issue in their own lives. I remind them, as I often remind myself, that there is a thought, a conversation and an action that can be taken to help remedy the situation. It could be move house, talk to a friend, seek a job, don't give up, seek counselling or a Drs opinion, forgive, journal, write to the local press, put an ad in the paper, do on line dating - there are so, so, so many solutions to the many problems and issues that can cause you to dive head first into the biscuit tin with an already full stomach, or light a fag or take a drink.

It is a learned habit to focus on the solution and is an act of creativity. It is another piece of the puzzle that makes up a life free from suppression of emotion and life. A life where compulsive eating / over eating is dropped bit by bit until it is an old, discarded, dysfunctional coping mechanism. And excess weight becomes a thing of the past.

Wishing you addiction-free living

Until next time,

Sofia x

Monday 24 February 2014

What is Suppression?

Suppression is one way of dealing with an unresolved emotional issue or feeling with which we may be uncomfortable. Suppression involves indulging in addiction (eating when full), which in turn serves the purpose of putting the feelings or emotional issue firmly under wraps, below our level of awareness, into the subconscious. This takes a lot of energy to put a feeling into suppression. Suppression looses its appeal when we find another way of dealing with those self-same feelings and emotional issues.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Addiction is a Symptom

We must remember that addiction is any activity that enables us to suppress our feelings. From eating when full to shooting heroin, from working too much to smoking, from binge drinking to staying with an abusive partner, addiction is rife within our world today.
This is a problem, but it is also the symptom of a deeper problem, and that is my work - highlighting and dealing with that deeper problem. That deeper problem is what fuels the addiction, it is that deeper problem that causes cravings and withdrawal. It is that deeper problem, that we, as recovering addicts, need to always be aware of and actively working on and resolving.
It is a different way of life I am speaking about here: The resolving of emotional issues rather than the suppressing of emotional issues. The being aware of how we feel rather than being blind to how we feel. This consciousness of who you are and what you want and love in life, and actively being involved in that rather that being actively involved in addiction; be it eating when full or any of the many addictions available today you can give it up and give it up for good, but two things are essential - resolving emotional stuff and being creative ie do what you love.

Until next time, have an addiction free day,

Sofia x

Tuesday 28 January 2014

The Emotional Side of Things

The emotional side of things - that is what we are dealing with when we give up addiction and 'food when full' is addiction. That is why weight loss is often short-lived - because we haven't dealt with the emotional side of things that eating when full helped suppress.
Life is made up of things, buildings, trees, cars, houses, kitchens, countryside; then who inhabits these things animals and people. Then we have our emotions about those things, people and animals. So we have the material and the emotional - the emotional is fuelled by  the mind, either felt and we flow with, through, life experiences; or suppressed by drink, drugs or food when full and their ensuing problems.
Getting and staying slim or/and sober is always about how we deal with the emotional side of things.

Till next time
x Sofia

Tuesday 14 January 2014

True Slimness and having what you want

To have what you want in life is a goal most of us are engrossed in. However, when you think about it, most of us were brought up with the assumption that you cannot have what you want in life. This is a very debilitating standpoint to work from.
To believe that we have to involve ourselves in work we do not particularly like in order to pay the bills and have a holiday ever year to 'get away from it all' is a very low level way to live.
'Now what has this got to do with being overweight?' I hear you ask.
Well, I have often said, (and it is one of the 40 True Slimness Weight Loss Principles I write about in my book True Slimness) that we eat when full to cope with a life that we are not yet satisfied with. So that implies that some area of our life requires changing in order for it to be in alignment with what we truly desire our life to look like. And if what we desire our life to look like, is something we do not even believe is within our grasp, then we are not going to even try to attain it - when maybe, in truth, it is within our grasp.
So many people believe that the only thing in their lives they need to change is their size and shape, and if you are one of those people. I would ask you to trust that you will get slim and stay slim as a direct result of eating when hungry and stopping when full; and to take your heartfelt desires out of the cupboard, blow the dust off them and consider what small step you could take today - yes today - that is in alignment with those precious desires, because that is part of what makes life worth living not avoiding through eating when full or indulging in any other addiction.
Have a good day
Sofia
   

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Emotional Issues - the stuff of binges

Emotional stuff is the stuff of that binge you had on biscuits, cake or whatever your binge food may be. Overeating or eating when the stomach is already full of food is of epidemic proportions in our world today and, like all other addictions, is all about our unresolved emotional stuff. It is all about suppressing or stuffing down our emotional stuff.
So pick one emotional issue that you know you are grappling with today, and ask yourself  - How else can I deal with this? It does not have to be instantly solvable, in fact, much of what we deal with in life is not instantly solvable, and the quick fix of the binge on food does nothing to solve it and a lot to perpetuate it. For whatever we suppress, simply goes on accumulating and accumulating in that back room of our subconscious and will burst out as a temper tantrum or an illness or further problems and as excess weight.

For further info on weight loss consultations email sofia@trueslimness.co.uk

Skype, telephone and Email consultations available

Wednesday 1 January 2014

New Year's Evolution!

Let's have an evolution of our eating patterns this year!

Stopping when full - easy? Not when you've been taught to finish every bit of food on your plate. Are you still obeying this fat-creating and fat-keeping rule?

So how to drop this rule from your way of eating and obey the new rule - stop when full?
Try the below exercise:

 I eat when full because..........

Are there other ways of dealing with these reasons for eating when full?

Happy New Year

Sofia x