empowerment Archives - Page 7 of 9 - How to be Vegan | Going Vegan

Tags: cravings, curing cravings, empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, life coaching

Cravings: Causes and Cures

Let’s talk about food cravings! What are some of the foods you crave?

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*Learn about group and 1:1 coaching opportunities HERE.

If you’re curious about why you have cravings, and how to cure them, this episode is for you!

You may have heard me share my former struggles with foods like peanut butter and granola (we make plenty of jokes about my granola addiction, so feel free to make fun of me)!

For Stephanie, it’s the sugar that’s her kryptonite. She even tells us her dirty little secret that she’s a recovering Mountain Dew addict.

Every person experiences cravings differently, but often cravings are for processed “junk” foods because they are high in sugar, salt and fat (all of which are highly addictive.) The desire for these foods that don’t nourish our bodies can be so intense and seem uncontrollable to the point that your “hunger” might not be satisfied until you consume that particular food.

Cravings are not actually caused by the stomach or the taste buds, but the regions of the brain that are responsible for memory, pleasure, and reward… A powerful combination of forces! We remember how these foods make us feel, and we want to replicate the pleasure experience.

Our brains are so efficient at steering us to what is going to make us feel good. Unfortunately, this often overrides the centers of our brain that control our logic and reasoning. So it’s easy to see how food cravings present a major roadblock to forming new, healthier nutritional habits.

A couple of causes for the brain’s reaction that produce the cravings are very intimately connected. First is an imbalance of hormones such as leptin and serotonin. Commonly craved foods release endorphins after eating, which mirrors addiction in many ways. The brain knows how to make the body feel good, so it signals the craving to get the flow of endorphins, but after the flow, comes the crash.

As temporary as the relief is, junk food can fulfill the need for relief from negative emotions very quickly.

When it comes to overcoming or curing cravings for unhealthy foods, we give a number of helpful tips and strategies in this episode.

The mindset strategies we cover in this episode are an extension of our Self-Empowerment Coaching System (Episode 4).

One such strategy is as follows… When you feel like eating, give yourself a little test and ask yourself, “Would I eat kale right now (or any nutrient-dense plant food you like, but don’t feel addicted to)?” If the answer is yes, go right ahead and eat kale. If the answer is no, then you probably are not hungry and may be wanting to eat out of habit and/or to suppress emotions.

If eating to suppress emotions is any part of that answer, then it is time to take a step back and suspend your judgment. Look at yourself and your situation with compassion and curiosity, and then ask yourself some questions.

First, “What’s bothering me?” or “What’s really stressing me out?” Then, “What can I do about it?” And finally, “Why am I NOT doing something about it?” If you commit to facing the stress and underlying emotions first, you can usually bust through the craving.

In other words, you are really facing your stuff, rather than stuffing your face!

It’s really important to explore what’s underneath that has you looking for comfort, pleasure, and a reward that is momentary, and actually deal with the root issue rather than making a self-sabotaging choice.

By giving into a craving rather than dealing with the fuel behind it, you find yourself then dealing with guilt, sadness or stress about the craving and the rest of the muck that you were escaping from in the first place.

Remember this… It’s rarely about the food!

We encourage you to join our uniquely powerful and compassionate Empowered Vegan Life group on Facebook for more coaching and support around this topic!

We’d love to hear about your experience listening to this episode, and how helpful you found it to be (or not to be)! Email [email protected]. I read and reply to every email myself because your feedback is so incredibly valuable… This podcast is for YOU!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Episode 4

CONNECT WITH US!

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Interested in getting coaching? Learn more HERE

Want to work directly with Ella? Visit her website HERE and email her: [email protected]

30 Jun 2020

Tags: abundance, empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, life coaching

Vegan Life Coach Academy | Episode 4

Body Image: How You Can Love Your Body AND Change It Simultaneously

Today’s episode focuses on a topic that our listeners have been requesting… body image (a “fun” one I know)!

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.

The VAST majority of people are walking around uncomfortable in their own skin.

Most people that we encounter every single day have a negative view of their bodies, so if that’s you, you’re FAR from alone.

Stephanie and I can relate on both a personal level, and through the hundreds of clients we’ve worked with who struggle with their body image and self-esteem.

It’s important to make a distinction between self-esteem and body-image, because people often use those terms interchangeably. Though they can be intimately connected, they are actually quite different.

Body image is specific to the body while self-esteem is an evaluation of our worth as a whole, and is not just specifically related to our bodies. We can see the impact and the over emphasis many of us put on our physical bodies, and the way we feel about our physical bodies, has a large impact on how we really feel about ourselves.

I share about my struggles with body image, and Stephanie talks about how at one point, she was in such a horrible place with her body image that she would avoid pictures at all cost. This was even after taking care of the dysfunction of her eating disorder.

Stephanie talks about how, early in her law enforcement career, she became a part of the crisis negotiation team as a negotiator, and when it would come time to get fitted for uniforms or take team pictures, she would actually use a sick day to avoid having to participate. She realizes now how much time and energy she spent locked into core beliefs that weren’t serving her. (I’m not good enough. I’m not skinny, so I’m not worthy.)

We talk about clients like Erin who carried a scale around in her purse because she was so obsessed with her body image she couldn’t go out to eat without weighing and measuring her food.

One important distinction that we make, that was helpful for Erin and so many of our clients, was that you can love and accept your body for everything that it is and does in the present, while also working toward changing it on your quest to becoming the healthiest version of yourself.

In so many ways, the diet culture has really sold us a system that keeps them in business. If they continue to make our bodies the enemy and not the expert, then they are able to sell us on their products.

The truth is, no lasting change can occur until you start treating your body with love, acceptance, respect, and gratitude. The body is forgiving. It’s responsive and patient.

Learning to eat and exercise INTUITIVELY is key. Your body is unique, and it’s been trying to tell you what it needs, but you’ve been trained by society to listen to diet rules instead.

Creating a healthy body image is the basis for change, not the result of it. It’s a privilege to simply live and move. The only way we get to experience life is in our bodies. I eat greens and beans in the morning because I love my body enough to fuel it with good stuff. I feel so energized and powerful when I exercise, so I do it, not because I want to burn calories or punish myself for the vegan pizza or extra margarita.

At Vegan Life Coach Academy, our clients very quickly learn that the food and exercise become the easy part of the equation! Changing your beliefs about your body, so that you can come from a place of love, is the more difficult thing to do.

Coming from a place of love is also the only way to make lasting changes and move to a place of freedom from all of that self-doubt and counting macros and having the number on the scale or the size of your jeans rule your day.

If you want support with this topic, we invite you to join our Facebook group where you can find so many people who are on this journey with you!

Stephanie gives three strategies that will help to really bring awareness to those beliefs and help you challenge those negative beliefs about your body.

The first, Check Your Inner Critic. Having a negative body image is like having a critic in your head. The critic is a harsh, derogatory narrative that makes nasty comments about you. For example, “I look disgusting in this outfit” or “I can’t believe how fat I am”. The critic makes you feel awful, because you believe it.

Because you feel terrible about yourself, you look for ways to feel better. You may eat something, which gives momentary pleasure, but minutes later the critic is back to comment on how much of a pig you are for eating. One key to changing negative body image is to banish the critic, and learn self-acceptance. This means accepting yourself as you are, and to do this, we invite you to really challenge those critical thoughts.

A second strategy involves this exercise: Create a list of 10 things you love about your body…10 things that have nothing to do with weight. Stop focusing on the bits you don’t like and start seeing your body as a whole. Do you have a smile that lights up the room? Do you enjoy the way your body feels when you are hugging your boyfriend or girlfriend?

Think about not just attributes but experiences that you can only have with your body like finishing a hard workout, petting your dog, your first kiss…. Once you’ve created this list, use it to challenge those negative thoughts that your inner critic is throwing at you.

Finally, catch yourself when you go into COMPARISON MODE. This is a nasty habit that so many of us find ourselves in. It can be really challenging to stop because it has become so automatic and you do it a hundred times a day, but this behavior is not serving you.

In fact, the comparison game is causing you a lot of damage, so get very firm with drawing this internal boundary, and do NOT accept this from yourself any longer.

When you find yourself in this comparison trap ask yourself, am I being fair to myself or this other person? The answer is always NO. And then ask yourself what can I say that will be helpful for building a more realistic and positive body image? This takes a lot of self-discipline, but it isn’t unlike any other habit you have broken in the past.

Remember… reprogramming your mind and creating a healthy relationship with your body is a process! There is no “arrival” either, the process is life long, so you may as well embrace the ride.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

CONNECT WITH US!

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

23 Jun 2020

Tags: abundance, empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, life coaching

How to Shift from Scarcity-Mode to a Life of Abundance and Freedom

Today’s mindset topic, abundance vs. scarcity, is one that has impacted my own life, as it has Stephanie’s, countless of our clients, as I’m guessing it has YOU too!

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.

We play a little game at the beginning of this episode and ask you to play along too! Stephanie says a word, and I say the first thing that pops into my head, and invite you to do the same. The words are

Comfort Zone
Money
Success
Sharing
Focus

I won’t spoil the fun by giving away my answers, but what I can tell you, is that my answers would have been a lot different four or five years ago.

I’ve learned so much about inviting abundance into my life, and in this episode I share my personal story about the moment EVERYTHING changed for me… the moment I made a decision from a place of abundance despite all my fears that came from living with a scarcity mindset my entire life. (I was potty-trained in an out house after all due to lack of indoor plumbing!)

The late Steven Covey coined the terms Scarcity Mindset and Abundance Mindset, and just so we are all on the same page, people who operate from a scarcity mindset believe that there is never enough. They really see life as having a finite amount of everything…money, success, love, recognition. It’s as if life were a pie, and if the person sitting beside them gets the biggest slice, then they simply won’t get dessert. They therefore cling to everything they have, afraid that at some point they are going to come up short.

When you have a scarcity mindset, thoughts and actions come from a place of lack When it’s time to make decisions, fear and paranoia set in, making it very difficult to make life decisions that will lead to self-growth and abundance. When you are living in scarcity mode, you create feelings of jealousy, stress, and anxiety because you are constantly comparing yourself to those around you and living in the fear of the unknown.

Stephanie also lived with a scarcity mindset most of her life. Don’t get me wrong by the way, we both have thoughts based on fears and scarcity at times to this day, we’re just able to recognize tham and work through them!)

Stephanie shares about how her scarcity mindset led her to some of the most costly decisions of her life, not to mention years of unhappiness

Fear of scarcity causes us to have tunnel vision… looking only at what is right in front of you for fear of there not being another option. You eat the chocolate cake because there may never be another chance to eat the chocolate cake. You settle for a less than ideal relationship because you may not have another chance to love. You choose the quick fix diet program rather than the long-term investment in your health and wellness.

We then talked about the flip side… the abundance mindset. An abundance mindset is one that flows out of a deep sense of personal worth and security. It is a belief that there is more than enough for everyone, and this where life becomes full and we are able to dream and think big. Abundance creates freedom.

Stephanie then gives you three ways to start you on your road to developing an abundance mindset.

The first is to focus on what you have. There is no quicker path away from scarcity than gratitude. When you focus on the things that you are most grateful for in your life, you naturally pull yourself out of the scarcity mindset. To show gratitude is to appreciate, and to appreciate literally means to increase in value. This actually creates the abundance.

Next, Look for the opportunity in life’s circumstances. When we are thrown curveballs in life, the temptation is to come at it from a scarcity perspective. “Why is this happening to me?” or “Why don’t I ever get ahead?”

There is another way to look at these circumstances however, and that’s to identify where the opportunity lies. What can I learn from this? This leads directly to abundance by producing growth and development.

I think we can look at all that is going on in the world right now, and discover that there are opportunities to be found.

For example, though COVID is a terrible virus that has caused much destruction and death, we can choose to look for those opportunities such as a slower pace of life and even a very chance for many to revisit the benefits of a healthy vegan lifestyle. The virus has also inspired many people, including my own boyfriend, to start their own online businesses.

We can also look at the horrific events that have sparked powerful protests across the country and world, as allowing us an opportunity to have very difficult conversations about racism, and begin working collectively to change the systemic injustices that have oppressed people of color throughout history.

Finally, develop the belief that you are enough. This can be the most challenging, but also the most impactful when moving from scarcity to abundance. So many of us struggle with our self-worth. The belief that we are not enough comes from a very deeply ingrained system that we are generally not conscious of. We challenge you to bring the subconscious programming keeping you in self-defeating thought patterns into your awareness.

When you find yourself comparing yourself to others or questioning if you are deserving, take a step back and view these thoughts with compassion and curiosity, then challenge them. Explore the feelings of unworthiness that are attached to these beliefs.

We won’t sugar coat this… Changing these deeply-ingrained core beliefs takes work. It requires an investment in yourself. For you to turn your scarcity to abundance, you must suspend your belief system for just a bit, and make that investment in your own development.

I share the stories of incredible clients like Dawn, who got the courage to not only invest in her growth by working with us, but afterward, by operating from abundance, a whole new career path opened up and she is happier, more fulfilled, and definitely wealthier financially.

We’ve had many clients actually get the courage to launch their own businesses, when they would have likely stayed in the security of the jobs they dreaded going to each day until they retired.

We’re not talking about voodoo magic here… It’s really about putting yourself in a position so that you are ready to receive, which has nothing to do with materialism or another person. It all begins with the belief that you’re worthy, and that everything you want and need are available to you.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Vegan Life Coach Academy | Episode 4 | Episode 7

CONNECT WITH US!

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

16 Jun 2020

Tags: empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, life coaching

Disordered Eating: Up Close & Personal (Episode 10)

Today’s topic is something many of you, our listeners, vegan and vegan-curious alike, have expressed is a struggle… disordered eating.

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.

First, please know you’re not alone in your struggle. In fact, statistics show 50-70% of Americans demonstrate a problematic relationship with food. Stephanie and I agree that well over 70% of our clients would say they find themselves in some really disordered eating cycles.

People are often surprised to discover that I hid my tumultuous relationship with food for well over a decade. I briefly tell my story in this episode.

We also discuss the difference between disordered eating and an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a diagnosis, and Stephanie describes how she believes her eating disorder really grew out of some very early disordered eating patterns.

Stephanie started restricting her food as early as 9 years old. She internalized a lot of messages that she was receiving. She was a girl that was tall and big for her age, hitting puberty very early, and she heard people’s well-intentioned words as truth… that something was wrong with her.

By the time she was 14, she was actively in binging and purging cycles, meeting the criteria for Bulimia. These cycles lasted until she got to the point where her life was completely unmanageable, and treatment was a necessity.

Disordered eating does have some of the same markers as an eating disorder, like anxiety about eating certain food groups, obsessive calorie counting, a rigid approach to exercise or eating patterns, and this is a big one… a self-worth based highly or even exclusively on body size or weight.

It’s important to recognize that just because someone’s patterns aren’t as extreme as a full-blown, diagnosable eating disorder, doesn’t mean that disordered eating isn’t problematic. We see this so often with our clients and the people that come to us regularly. They are locked in cycles that keep them stuck, and keep them locked inside these patterns of thinking and living out their limiting beliefs.

Our bodies are our vessel to experience the world. Spending years and years hating our bodies, preoccupied with counting calories and macros and minutes exercised limits our ability to live the life we really want. We are too preoccupied with these things to actually design lives that we love, BUT we don’t have to stay in that place. We don’t have to continue living locked into these disordered eating cycles.

Stephanie encourages you, if you think you are struggling with disordered eating, to ask yourself some hard questions and look at the quality of your life and price you are paying for being so preoccupied with these thoughts and patterns that are not serving you.

If what we talk about in this episode resonates with you in some way, we want you to get out a pen and paper and really think about your answers to some really hard questions about your relationship with food.

Do you use food or food restriction as a way to cope with life’s uncomfortable and negative emotions?

Are you lonely or feel disconnected from others because you restrict your social life based on gatherings that involve food or a rigid and inflexible exercise routine?

How uncomfortable are you with food and your body?

Do you find negative thoughts about food and your body take up a lot of your time or cause you to fall into an anxiety loop?

If so, it’s time to ask yourself one more question: How much more time are you willing to waste before you find freedom from this?

The word “freedom” is the number one word clients who we’ve helped build a healthy relationship with food and their bodies use. People like Erin, who literally carried around a scale in her purse to restaurants trying to stick with the plan her trainer gave her, and she still couldn’t lose those last 10 pounds (until she worked with us)!

Then there’s Valerie, who counted every morsel and chose a travel bag of chips over an apple so she’d know the exact numbers. And don’t get me wrong… She lost 100 pounds, but when she came to us she was terrified at gaining it back because she knew HOW she was losing the weight was unhealthy and unsustainable. And guess what… She is now free, healthy, and happier than ever a year later, eating vegan and eating intuitively!

We’ve worked with 18 years olds up to 70 year olds. It’s amazing to be able to help teenagers like April (we’ve changed her name to protect privacy) who was 18 and had her whole life ahead of her. It’s equally as gratifying to work with people who are later in their lives, to break free from the prison of disordered eating for basically the first time in their lives. We helped them master their mindset with our SECS (episodes 4 & 7) and everything else in their lives started falling into place, and new opportunities began to open for them.

This all leads back to our mindset. Believe it or not, disordered eating has very little to do with food. Disordered eating patterns are really about questioning our ability to base our worth on something other than outward appearance or even that we are worthy at all.

Disordered eating is based in our relationships with our bodies, which are mentally and emotionally very complex, but healing those relationship really starts with becoming incredibly aware of how we speak to ourselves.

Getting relentless with our thoughts, really challenging that inner critic, is the first step in the healing process. We’ve got to tell that inner critic that we’re on to her!

The Self Empowerment Coaching System is really useful in challenging those thoughts and seeing them for what they are.

Challenging those thoughts, not letting them pass without a solid examination, approaching them with compassion and curiosity, that’s the way to freedom from these disordered eating patterns.

Stephanie wraps things up with one strategy you can use to start making powerful shifts. It will likely feel very artificial, but try it anyway. Write a letter to yourself and outline what your life would look like if you were free of all of the preoccupation with, and negative patterns of, disordered eating. Then tell yourself why you love yourself, saying, “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere until we have this figured out.” Then, write out your commitments to healing, exactly what you are going to do to fight for your freedom from the pain, self-doubt, and anxiety.

It’s incredibly important to keep commitments to yourself if you are serious about being free from these destructive patterns and creating a healthy relationship with food. One of those commitments might be writing out some affirmations to say every day. One could be to take some time to simply do the above exercise, ask yourself some really hard questions, and do some journaling around the subject.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Episode 4 | Episode 7

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09 Jun 2020

Tags: empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, life coaching

TED Talk: How We Can Make Racism a Solvable Problem… | Apply for a Coaching Session | Vegan Life Coach Academy | Episode 4 | Episode 7

Backstage Pass to a Real-Life Coaching Session

Are you wondering what it is like to get coached by Stephanie and I? Well, today you get to find out! This is our very first real-life coaching session we’re sharing here on the Vegan Life Coach Podcast, and we couldn’t be more excited for this special episode. And you get a backstage pass.

Coaching sessions are something we want to feature here on the podcast, and this means you could be on the show with us too. If you’d like to be featured in a real-life coaching session on the podcast, fill out the application form below. The session is free, but it will take some courage because we’ll be sharing it with all of our listeners. Keep in mind however, that vulnerability is something that we talk about a lot, as you’ll hear in this episode with our guest, Andrea.

Andrea submitted a form for the real-life coaching session and outlined some of the things that she was interested in. She is an entrepreneur. She has her swimming instruction business, that she and her husband run together. Andrea has recently had a significant weight loss after going completely whole food and now plant-based.

She and Stephanie had a fantastic connection. So I think that you all are going to fall in love with her like we did, because she has such an intensity about her that is intriguing and engaging.

Stephanie and Andrea began the conversation discussing supplements and food. But to come right down to it, Andrea has a lot more going on underneath all of that. And don’t we all? The food, the supplements, and the exercise, are actually the easy part. True transformation is all about that mindset work, and getting to the core beliefs that keep us stuck in self-sabotaging cycles.

If you haven’t listened to episode four and seven yet, we recommend you go back and listen to those prior to checking out this one because you’ll get so much more out of this real-life coaching session after listening to those episodes too.

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

CONNECT WITH US!

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

12 May 2020

Empowerment, Podcast, Vegan Fitness, Vegan Lifestyle, Vegan Nutrition

Tags: empowerment, going vegan, vegan fitness, vegan health, vegan lifestyle, Vegan Nutrition

https://cleanmachineonline.com/

From Tragedy to Enlightenment with Bodybuilder Champion & Vegan Geoff Palmer

Some stories are so powerful and extraordinary they must be shared. And today’s podcast guest is no exception… Vegan Geoff Palmer takes us on his journey from tragedy to enlightenment.

A veteran vegan of 35 years, Geoff Palmer, is natural bodybuilding and physique masters champion. He’s the owner of Clean Machine, plant-based fitness nutrition, vegan patent holder, and NEXTY winner for best supplement of the year in 2016 and 2018.

Geoff is also an author, national lecturer, and was selected number 40 of the top 100 most influential vegans by plant-based news.

Geoff created the first 100% vegan bodybuilding competition in the world. And on top of that, his company, Clean Machine, donates 10% of sales every quarter to organizations that promote a plant based lifestyle.

His accomplishments are impressive. But it is the incredible story of his journey from tragedy to enlightenment that will leave listeners inspired.

Including, how & why Geoff became a vegan 35 years ago. The life events and tremendous amount of suffering that sent him looking for change. And how from that experience, Geoff gave away his possessions, traveled to 48 countries, and the journey that led him to where he is today.

While his story is sure to inspire, it is Geoff and my discussion about the importance of being open to the world around you, and how to release patterns in your life that hold you back that will empower you to take action in your life.

We also discuss benefits of supplements, including why they are beneficial to our diets. As well as, the part that permaculture, biodynamic farming, and veganic farming play in it.

This is a conversation not to be missed.

Be sure to stick around for the light-hearted, and fun, Sprint Round at the end of the episode where I ask Geoff five questions and Geoff answers with whatever comes to mind.

Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better then when you know better, do better.” Geoff Palmer helps people both know better and then know how to do better.

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Subscribe: Apple Podcast | Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

https://www.facebook.com/geoff.palmer.351

https://www.instagram.com/cleanmachinefit/

[email protected]

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Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

17 Dec 2019

Empowerment, Vegan Lifestyle

Tags: empowerment, goals, new years resolutions, plantbuilt, plantstrong

Forget Resolutions… Try This!

Here we go again!

The New Year is right around the corner and it’s time to consider resolutions… How will you go about deciding on one? Are you fed up with making resolutions that you don’t keep? Maybe you see the tradition as pointless and you’ve given up on making one all together. You might even see resolutions as a great way to set yourself up to fail, yet again.

I get it! I haven’t made a New Year’s resolution in as long as I can remember. That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t move into each new year with goals and dreams. I’m going to offer you a couple resolution alternatives I use that will help you put a fresh spin on the yearly tradition right here, right now.

Alternative #1

First, instead of one overwhelming resolution, let’s look at making simple, manageable commitments to yourself that will lead to replacing dis-empowering thought patterns and limiting beliefs with empowering ones. In order to do this, you’ll need to start by identifying the obstacles preventing you from stepping into your power.

Instead of weight loss as a resolution for example, I encourage you to first look at the reasons you want to lose the weight. Is your reasoning based on health and longevity because you love yourself and you want to be active into old age? Or is it because you hate your body, can’t stand to be in pictures, and avoid the mirror at all costs? If your reason is the latter, there are some deeper concerns to address.

The majority of my clients come into the 6-Month Plant-Empowered Coaching Program wanting to lose weight and change the shape of their bodies. What they must accept though, is the process for changing your body starts with your mindset. Loving, accepting, and respecting yourSELF AND your body as it is right now is the prerequisite for changing it.

I’m not talking about a quick fix here. I’m talking about doing the mental and emotional work it takes to get to a place where you make decisions out of pure love for yourself… Only then does will power no longer matter… Only then can you feel confident that you will continue to make the choices that will serve you best for the rest of your life (creating a sustainable lifestyle you love).

Using weight loss as the example, a commitment you may want to make to yourself in 2019 is to look in the mirror and say, “I am perfectly imperfect and I love, accept, and respect myself as I am right now,” every day (or whatever mantra hits home).

Alternative #2

Another commitment may be to start chewing your food thoroughly, to a paste, before swallowing. If that sounds silly to you, just know that it sounded silly to me too when I heard it recommended. I did it anyway though, and it seriously changed my life. I had digestive issues for years, along with anxiety about when I would eat because I always felt bloated after a meal. The issues completely went away with the simple commitment I made to myself to chew my food thoroughly!

If all of this sounds a bit daunting, don’t worry, I have created a thorough Self-Assessment worksheet (adapted from the 6-Month Plant-Empowered Coaching Program Workbook) that you can download for free HERE!

As nerdy as it sounds, being Type A, I actually love filling out self-assessments. I also love self-exploration, as it is a necessary step toward personal growth. Growth requires us to take the risk of hopping outside our comfort zones, something that happens when we start digging deep and evaluating our mindset and emotional health.

The Self-Assessment evaluates several areas that our Plant-Empowered Coaching Program covers:

Your eating mindset (relationship with food)
Your body image (relationship with your body)
Your emotional health (relationship with yourself and others)
How you operate (from a place of abundance or scarcity)

Interestingly, all these areas are interconnected. If you have an unhealthy relationship with food, you are likely to have an unhealthy relationship with your body. If you have a poor body image, you’re likely to lack the tools you need for emotional health. If you’re unhealthy emotionally, there’s a good chance you operate from a place of scarcity. Get it?

Once you have the awareness, it’s time to start getting educated about the root causes, and learning the tools necessary to begin the rewiring process. I have created many free resources to help you get started. All the resources will give you suggestions for simple commitments you can make to yourself in the New Year.

Alternative #3

On the other end of the spectrum from making a simple commitment to yourself, is making a seemingly impossible goal. I’m talking about shoot for the stars! The truth is, anything really is possible when you develop self-love and use the Law of Attraction to put out the energy you want to get back. Maybe you want to spend a month in Australia and scuba dive with sharks. Maybe you want to make a million dollars doing what you’re passionate about. Maybe you want to inspire a hundred people to go vegan. I mean really, what’s the worst that can happen… you don’t accomplish the impossible goal? Big freakin’ deal (not)!

If the thought of setting a seemingly impossible goal brings up anxiety and fears of failure, you can probably guess my response. Identifying the root of that fear, and gaining tools to empower yourself so that you are no longer a victim to your fears, is what needs to happen before moving forward. This takes us full circle back to creating simple, manageable commitments to yourself.

Alternative #4

I want to finish with a commitment to yourself that will help you regardless of which areas you struggle most in. Eliminate one or more dis-empowering phrases from your vocabulary.

Phrases like:

“I have to” (read all about the power of using, “I choose to” instead HERE)
“But” (negates everything you said prior)
“Why me” (puts you in victim mode)
“I can’t” (takes your power away and leaves no room for figuring out another way)
“I’ll try” (no, you’ll either do it or you won’t… you get to choose)

There you have it! If you find the perspective I’ve presented here intriguing, I encourage you to learn more about how you can transform your mindset, body, and life with the 6-Month Plant-Empowered Coaching Program. I’d also love to see you join our Empowered Vegan Life Facebook tribe for free support as you start this incredible new chapter in your life.

I’ll end with this… Kick the excuses to the curb right here, right now. You have the power to write a new story for your life in 2019! Let’s do this!!

16 Dec 2019

Empowerment, Holistic Health, Vegan Lifestyle

Tags: empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, vegan holiday, vegan lifestyle

My Holiday Confession

For the majority of my adult life, holidays were a huge source of stress and anxiety for me.

If you’re thinking, “That’s the case for almost everyone,” I agree!

However, the stress and anxiety I experienced was not over gifts, travel, or spending time with family. Although it did involve food, it had nothing to do with being vegan either. Instead, the source was my disordered eating and distorted body image. I was terrified of feeling out of control around all the “fattening” dishes, snacks, and sweets.

I’m not talking about minor stress and anxiety here. I’m talking about being completely consumed by thoughts about how to “prepare” to be powerless over my food choices when surrounded by a feast of foods I don’t normally eat. I’m talking about being obsessed for weeks prior to a holiday get-together.

I would become fixated on doing whatever I could to make sure I didn’t gain weight from indulging on all the delicious vegan dishes I knew would surround me. If you’re someone who has struggled with disordered eating and a poor body image you can probably relate in one way or another.

It’s hard to believe that for well over a decade I experienced holidays from such a dark place.

If I wasn’t so comfortable being vulnerable and sharing my story at this point in my life, I’d be totally embarrassed about how I thought, felt, and acted. I experienced so much shame all those years that I didn’t share my struggles with anyone.

I hated that I was so selfish. I was ashamed that I was so focused on myself and my body during a time that was supposed to be about gratitude, generosity, and family. It was part of the self-destructive cycle I was trapped in. Beating myself up, hiding, restricting, binging, beating myself up some more, over-exercising, and flat out feeling unworthy of being accepted and loved.

Fast forward to 2017 when I finally broke through the shame by “coming out” with my story (read it HERE).

It was the last step I knew I needed to take to heal. All the work I had been doing to gain the self-worth I needed to feel confident and empowered over my choices came together. It was that same work that allowed me to build a healthy relationship with food and my body so that I could start eating and exercising mindfully and intuitively. It was never about food or my body. It was about my relationship with MYSELF that needed the attention!

The joy and meaning that my life took on after sharing my story prompted me to create the Plant-Empowered Coaching Program to help others transition to an empowered vegan life.

Instead of it taking years to heal, or worse, never healing, I began to coach people through a powerful six-month process that allowed them to gain the tools and embody the principles that took me years to master.

When I say “master” I mean that I feel completely confident in my ability to effectively work through any challenge or hurdle that presents itself in my life. That being said, I will always be working to grow and gain new tools and perspectives that will allow me to continue leading the healthiest, happiest, most meaningful life possible.

I am eternally grateful to be able to say that I finally feel free to enjoy the holidays in the ways I’ve always wanted to.

If my story resonates with you please join our incredible, free Empowered Vegan Life tribe. See you there!

04 Dec 2019

Lindsay Kochesky

Empowerment, Guest Blog Posts, Holistic Health, Vegan Lifestyle

Tags: disordered eating, eating disorder recovery, empowerment, healthy vegan lifestyle, self-love