Inspired by Geneen Roth’s eating guidelines, one woman decided to write her own.

By the way, Geneen Roth did a superb job on Oprah last week! If you missed the show, you can catch the highlights here on Oprah’s website.

This client created her guidelines based on her own principles and values. Upon showing me and agreeing to share them here, she verbally made the addendum of not having to follow them perfectly:)

 I appreciate food for what it is – an amazing resource the earth has provided to nourish my body and that of the people I love.

 I eat food close to its natural form, without crazy chemicals or processing in a mechanical plant. I eat food in a form that my great-grandmother could also have experienced.

 I eat in a way that is respectful to all other beings, to not take more than my share, and to not impact any other living being inhumanely. I ensure that what I am eating was not wasteful in how it was produced or packaged.

 With each meal, I experience the joy of eating when my body tells me she is hungry, eating to truly meet her needs and cravings, stopping when she is perfectly satisfied, and experience the joy of being just right.

 I experience diversity. I eat a variety of different things, appreciating the amazing bounty the world has provided to me.

 I appreciate my good fortune and recognize how lucky I am to have what I have, and I don’t take it for granted.

The book, Women, Food and God is number 4 this week on the New York Times hardcover non-fiction best seller list! You go Geneen Roth! She is the foremost authority on emotional eating in this country. She is bringing the non-dieting movement into the light and now at an accelerated pace. Geneen and her book were featured in an article in the April Oprah Magazine. She will appear on Oprah on May 12th and again on July 12th.

The following is an excerpt from Twyla Tharp’s book, The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, 2003.

She highlights her story:
I begin each day of my life with a ritual: I wake up at 5:30 am, put on my workout clothes, my leg warmers, my sweatshirts, and my hat. I walk outside my Manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the Pumping Iron gym at 91st Street and First Avenue, where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and the weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym: the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go, I have completed the ritual.

She goes on to say: Like everyone, I have days when I wake up, stare at the ceiling, and ask myself, Gee, do I feel like working out today? But, the quasi-religious power I attach to this ritual keeps me from rolling over and going back to sleep. It’s vital to establish some rituals – automatic but decisive patterns of behavior – at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way. Turning something into a ritual eliminates the question, Why am I doing this? By the time I give the taxi driver directions, it’s too late to wonder why I’m going to the gym and not snoozing under the warm covers of my bed. The cab is moving. I’m committed. Like it or not, I’m going to the gym.

Poems are written and shared with us by Sonika Marcia Ozdoba

Longing

Inside this aching body
There is a soul

Inside this aching soul
There is a woman

Inside this aching woman
Is a body aching to connect

With something that was lost
Lost in the distant past

A life thrown asunder
By a lack of care and understanding

How to retrieve lost time
How to rewrite the story
Of a life that has not yet begun

A journey that wants to write itself
A longing for something not yet seen

To feel what is real-
To find what is true-
True for me

Oyster with a Pearl

She hides her pearl
So no one can see
Afraid to trust
Afraid to be

Caught in the web
Of her tiny heart
Afraid to break open
Afraid to start

To break the shell
Is what she must do
Leave the shell behind
Is the only way through

Turn Your Eyes

Turn your eyes inward
And seek your answers there
In the silence of your silence
Where your stillness lies so fair

Turn your eyes to your heart
Where all your answers lie
In the dormant room so hidden
Of your thoughts that pass on by

Turn your eyes from the darkness
And behold your inner light
That you have hidden from yourself
Bring it forth, back from the night.

Walk with Me

Walk with me, gentle spirit of my soul
And follow my steps in my journey forth
Guide my path as I step toward the sun
And warm my heart as I head north

Walk with me, O fire of my stride
And take me to places I have never been
Light the staircase that lies in shadows
And show me treasures I have never seen

Walk with me, O love of my life
Toward the cliffs above my ocean of tears
Stay close to me and keep me warm
Side by side through the valley of years

Wow, it’s March already! This is the time to stay inspired. I’ll share one client’s example of crossing over to the enlightened side. She’s doing weight loss differently this time around and is feeling like it’s going to stick. In the past week, here are some things she wrote and said:

“I really feel like I’m settling into this body and getting comfortable. People really notice the change and I feel much more comfortable with it – I believe it’s happening and isn’t some fad. The pace we moved with this is so incredibly important so that my mind can integrate the changes but not get freaked out, distrustful or scared.
I feel so lucky to have this developed this patient wisdom about my body – it’s almost better than being thin if you can believe it.
I really, really feel great about the mental improvements. Just a huge part of my goal in working with you.”

She has developed a rich inner life despite being busy as the center of the household with 2 school age boys. She had craved that, and was trying to get it with sugar. She gave up sugar 2 months ago.
“Food gives a sense of ‘inner life’ for a moment. It takes you in and then keeps you trapped from really getting inward. Why would I want to sacrifice that awareness now that my eyes are open.”

I commented on her courage to be awake.
“I don’t feel like it was courage. Life wanted me to do that. I was going against my grain. I didn’t trust much of my choices and observations. There was distortion. I wanted out of the cloud, the haze; to stop being a victim. That way of being is ultimately draining.”

She emphasized how the spiritual component in her weight loss this time makes it more effective and meaningful. “…to imprint the two together. Body and spirit connect the journey. You just can’t look at the body, you have to look at the spirit.”