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how to lose weight
CategoriesELEGANT BEAUTY, MANIFESTING LOVE & PLEASURE

4 Steps to Elegantly Have the Body You Want (Video #3)

Welcome back to the next step in this series: How to Lose Weight Elegantly & Have The Body You Want.

This week I want you to continue asking your soul what it desires to eat, but now I want you eat that food in a way that is very “Français”.

Let me explain.

When I lived with a family in France for a year, I experienced the relationship they had with food first hand.

French people truly focus on the pleasure of food.

And, every meal time is an experience.  They don’t rush. They don’t eat at different times from each other, and they certainly don’t eat unconsciously.

Non, they sit down and focus on dining.

  • There is thought and care taken in the presentation of the food.
  • Beloved platters are used to serve the food.
  • Every meal has some sort of ritual.

And because of all this, they eat gorgeous food and rarely worry about how to lose weight.

So, let me share how you can use the French tenets of PLEASURE & BEAUTY to attain & maintain your ideal body.

Le Petit Déjeuner

Morning tea is served in a bowl which they sip slowly while enjoying one tartine (baguette with fresh butter and homemade jam).

french morning tea bowl
Source: food52.com

You would not normally see a French woman quickly make herself a coffee and then drink it half cold because “the kids” demanded her attention. Non, non!

The children would be a part of this morning ritual, but their drink would be whole (often farm fresh) milk with chocolate powder.

Le Déjeuner

Lunch time is famous in France because everything shuts down so that people can enjoy their meal experience. People often go home for a hot meal and nap or dine with friends, a lover, or close colleagues at a local café.

They would never sit in front of the TV or computer unconsciously eating their lunch.

They also would never eat food out of plastic containers. Mais, non!

They always make sure their food looks beautiful. Garnishing the food, presenting it nicely and eating it with the best dinnerware & silverware is a common French practice.

french dinner plate

Le Dîner

Once again, the French create a ritual and an experience around dinner time.

Normally they eat a light dinner then follow it with a plate of different fromages and a basket of sliced baguette.

To finish the meal there is usually something sweet, but not always. They listen to their bodies, just like you are practising to do right now.

Later in this series I’ll be sharing with you some gorgeous options for each meal, but for now, I want you to practice asking your soul what it would like.

Remember, your soul will guide you on what to eat as well as how much. Listen.

There is no need to judge what your soul asks for based on old beliefs, just be sure that it is presented beautifully so that you fully enjoy it.

Tips for Creating an Experience at Each Meal

1. Think of Breakfast as Le Petit Dejeuner. 

Ask your soul, “What do you desire to eat this morning?”

Listen.

Give it what it desires and ENJOY it! How?

Create a morning ritual for yourself!

  • Could you use a French Tea/Café Bowl to sip your tea or coffee?
  • Could you light a special candle that you love?
  • How about turn on some high vibration music that makes you feel happy?
  • How about having a few “go-to” options that you absolutely adore?

2. Focus on enjoying Lunch  & Dinner like Le Déjeuner & Le Dîner.

Ask your soul, “What would you like to eat for lunch/dinner?”

Then think how you could create a ritual around your Déjeuner & Diner.

Also, how could you beautify your Déjeuner & Dîner?

  • Could you keep a beautiful plate at work to eat your home prepared lunch off of?
  • Could you use a cloth napkin?
  • Could you light candles or dim the lights?
  • Could you use your best silverware?
  • Could you drink your water with a slice of lemon from a wine glass?
  • Could you savour a dark chocolate truffle after dinner with a cup of tea?

Ask your soul what it would like to eat for lunch and dinner and then ENJOY it fully.

3. Enjoy “Le Goûter”.

In France, le goûter is a late afternoon snack. It’s direct translation is: to taste, to try, to enjoy.

Children in France have longer school hours so when they arrive home they are ready for a sweet snack.

Workers in France also head to cafés to enjoy something sweet, usually with a hot beverage.

This is a beautiful nationwide ritual that makes the time between meals…well, sorry to repeat myself,  a pleasurable experience!

I don’t know about you, but every time a diet book suggested eating carrot sticks and hummus for an afternoon snack I grimaced.  It just didn’t feel pleasurable!

Keep following this series as I will definitely share a goûter that is a sweet favourite in my home!

4. Bring out your “good” dishes, cups and silverware.

This may seem trivial, but trust me, it makes a massive difference and has a ripple effect into every experience and relationship you have with food and eating.

When eating off a beautiful plate you might be moved to slow down while eating. You may even be inspired to talk about different topics.

You may choose to eat different foods or serve different portion sizes. Who knows! Flow with this and see where it takes you. (Watch the video above to see some of the plates, silverware, serving dishes and cups that I use every single day!)

If you don’t have any dinnerware that feels beautiful to you, then may I highly suggest that you make a special trip to your favourite department store or kitchen specialty shop this week and purchase even just 1 special plate, bowl, cup and silverware set that you will use from now on.

Really, please do this for yourself.

french cutlery

 

5. Play la Musique to enhance your dining experience.

Music creates a pleasurable ambience for preparing and enjoying one’s food.

With the French, Jazz is very popular as is new and old french singers. Charles Aznavour anyone?

At my home, Parisian Jazz from my favourite Jazz app is always playing while I cook, tidy up the dishes and enjoy eating with my family.

It makes us SO happy!

My cleaner giggles when she sees me dance around singing to my French songs. One day she said, “Oh Madame, you are so happy in the kitchen!”

Eating is a Spiritual Experience

Stay with me here.

When I had my spiritual experience 6 years ago, I shifted to knowing that my body is just Divine, loving energy condensed into form.

All I wanted to do from that moment on was to help expand this loving energy into the world.

Everything that brings me pleasure expands this energy.

Everything that truly gives my soul JOY expands this energy.

Every time I am in the presence of beauty I expand this energy.

So, use this week to tune into your soul (your Divinity) and continue asking it what it would like to eat for le petit dejéuner, le dejéuner, le goûter et le dîner and then ENJOY it as pleasurably and beautifully as you can.

I’ll see you next week where we will dive more deeply into certain foods and how they can serve your body & soul.

With Love,

signatt

 

 

ekurt
body image
CategoriesELEGANT BEAUTY, MANIFESTING INNER PEACE

4 Steps to Elegantly Have the Body You Want SERIES: Video #1

My Body. It’s been an interesting journey getting to where I am now. As a child and young teenager I loved my body.  I felt agile, flexible, full of energy and pretty.

 

The Moment I Disliked a Part of My Body

But then, something happened. A boy I liked teased me about my calves.  He said, “Hey, Erin, this is you.” And then he proceeded to walk down the hallway like a cowboy with bow legs.

At that moment I became aware of something that I never really took notice of before; my calves were slightly bow legged.

I became so conscious of them that I asked my mom to take me to the doctor to see if I could get braces to correct them.  He listened and measured and then smiled saying, “Your legs are absolutely fine, Erin.”

After this humiliating teenage experience I began to exercise. Why? I was trying to use exercise to change my body shape.  I researched exercises for the calf muscles.  I even wrote to my aunt who was into fitness for advice on exercises I could do to balance out the appearance of my calves. I was on a mission!

I still liked the rest of me though.  I had come into my own style of clothing and I really liked my hairstyle.  I was happy with myself and my body…except for my calves.

The Moment I Decided to Be Overweight

Then came the summer that changed everything for me.

We went to my grandparents house like we did every summer. I had brought along a new bathing suit that I was excited to wear.  I felt so comfortable in my skin.  I felt beautiful and confident in this suit and couldn’t wait to wear it and get a nice tan.

To make a long story short, this summer was the summer my closest grandfather chose to sexually abuse me.  I wrote about this story HERE if you are interested in reading how I overcame this traumatic experience and finally learned to move on from it.

love your body
I can see and feel the pain inside myself. (Hey, I did manage to get the tan I was after though! Ha! Ha!)

Needless to say, this experience had a massive impact on me.  Immediately after “it” happened I went to the bathroom in shock, stared at myself in the mirror, blamed and shamed myself and made vows to never EVER feel good about myself like I had previously.

The Beginning of my “Body Healing” Journey

An experience like this can ripple into your life in many ways. One of the ways for me was to  always keep myself just above the weight where I would feel great about myself.

So, I was always looking to lose those last 5-10 pounds. That may not sound like much to some of you, but as a woman of 5’3”, an extra 10 pounds on a body can really make a difference.  Plus, it was what those 10 pounds represented to me that kept me feeling trapped and never like my true, authentic self.

Fast forward to my child bearing years and I went up more than 10 pounds! In order to lose the weight after my first child I did the Body for Life Diet & Exercise program.  Although it worked, I couldn’t maintain it because I was so energetically depleted from a traumatic birth and then moving countries after only 4 months that I would constantly get sick after working out for a period of 2 weeks.

I would work out, then because my body was tired I would get sick and have to stop for 2 weeks.  Then I’d start again, then get sick.

This was a pattern that went on and on.

The String of Diets Begin!

For the next few years I became pregnant 3 more times, and with each pregnancy gaining a few more pounds.

I lost two of those babies but thankfully the 3rd time was a charm and my daughter was born healthy. The only problem?  I was left with 50 extra pounds (approx 26kg) to lose.

None of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit me, so I decided to try and make myself feel better by purchasing some new outfits. I’ll never forget the time I had to keep asking the lady for the next size up until I hit the XXL jeans. This sent me into desperation mode!

Who WAS this? “This is not Erin.  I do not feel like me.  I am committing to get the real Erin back, once and for all I told myself.”

weight loss

And here’s where the string of diets began.

I tried having food delivered to my home.  This worked but I got so sick of the food choices and not being able to cook my own meals that I finally stopped.

I tried Weight Watchers and although I saw some results, I became anxious thinking about food and points all day long. No inner peace here!

I went on the intense, super restrictive Dukan Diet and felt so totally deprived, joyless and grumpy that after 3 weeks I stopped that too. Only eating meat for days on end? No thank you!

Then I tried the more sensible 17 Day Diet that my friend had used so successfully to lose her baby weight and I lost….nothing.  Not even 1 pound in 17 days and I followed it to a “T”.

What in God’s Name Was I Going to Do?

I found and tried HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). I really liked this because it was only 20 minutes (my limit when it comes to formal types of exercise) and I saw results within days. The only thing was that the same pattern of loving it, feeling great and then getting sick began.

Why did everyone else feel so energised after working out? I always felt like I needed to take an hour’s nap after working out!

My search continued and I tried everything out there.

My Awakening Moment

Life got pretty intense for me (for many reasons) so I went to a 6 Day Spiritual Retreat and had an exquisite, awakening experience.

I finally understood how things work in the Universe.

Later, I also learned how to clear things that block us from having the life we desire. After consistently applying my new Spiritual understandings and clearing technique I began to shift.

My body didn’t want certain things anymore.  

I began asking my body what it wanted and it told me, so I listened.

I innately began doing and saying certain things and voila, the weight melted off without me “exercising” or depriving myself. In fact, I felt utterly satiated and at peace inside.

And this, beautiful ladies, is what I would like to share with you during this blog series.

So, look out for a BONUS blog post TOMORROW where I will share the very first thing you need to do and practise if you too want to have & enjoy an elegant, ideal body. 

See you tomorrow!

Love,

signatt

ekurt