A Woman's Guide To Food Freedom: (A Love Story)

A Woman's Guide To Food Freedom: (A Love Story)

More than 90 percent of girls 15 to 17 years want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance, with body weight ranking the highest. 80% of children who are 10 years old are afraid of being fat. Nearly a quarter of girls age 15-17 would consider undergoing plastic surgery. 7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way including their looks, performance in school and relationships.

80% of 10-year-old girls have dieted. 90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly. Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents. Over 70% of girls avoid certain activities because they feel bad about their looks. For example: 20% won t give an opinion 25% won t go to a social event, party or club 15% won t go to the doctor 16% won t go to school

Obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, you name it THEY AREN T GOING AWAY ANYTIME SOON! The struggle is inevitable. But the suffering doesn t have to happen

No woman has to go through life: Feeling ashamed of the control that she feels food has over her life. Feeling ashamed of the control that she feels her body has over her life-- like she's stuck in a body she doesn't really want. Feeling unworthy of love, acceptance, connection, and care. Feeling UN-beautiful. Feeling alone... Struggling is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

No one has a food problem. No one has a body problem No one has a fat problem Our relationship with food. Our relationship with our bodies. Our relationship with our fat.

Struggles: Food Our Bodies The war against Fat Suffering: Food Shame Body Shame Fat Shame

It s Home Grown It starts in our very own minds, brains, hearts, and speech And if we aren t mindful about what we see and what we say

Self Acceptance Self Esteem Self Worth Self Care Self Connection Self Image/Body Image Mental Health

So which is the chicken and which is the egg? The shame-speak itself? Or the effects that take its toll on a modern-day woman's self image?

It doesn t have to be this way! The struggling is inevitable. The suffering is optional.

A Woman's Guide To Food Freedom: (A Love Story)

Gain a new understanding of yourself around food Why you eat what you eat, when you eat it, and how you feel before during and after. Gain a new understanding of how food ACTUALLY interacts with your body. Where's it go when you eat it. What REALLY determines whether you use it or store it or excrete it, etc Gain a new appreciation for food. To see that it doesn't have to be anything other than an amazing & delicious tool for connection and care and love.and PLEASURE!

Have a new awareness of food and when it becomes a weapon A weapon of restriction, punishment, persuasion, shame, blame, guilt, comparison... WEIGHT... stress... A new awareness of how you're talking to yourself about yourself around food Notice what kind of influence you are being or having on yourself, others, and food. Learn how to eat! (you never learned...or you simply forgot). Literally going to share my 3 part system that I personally live every single day (easily! happily!) the same system I teach to my clients

Either I was unhappy with my body, my health, and my weight -OR- I hated what I had to do and who I had to be to get the body I wanted.

I just don t want to look back and think: I could ve eaten that.

I could show any woman how to perfectly track her calories, manipulate her 'macros', and dial in her food intake... and she would lose a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time. But that's no way to eat. I could tell any woman exactly how many reps and sets to complete, how to train harder & faster, or how to tweak her workouts... and she would lose a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time. But that's not a fun game to play. I could motivate even the most unmotivated woman, hold her 'feet to the fire' or accountable, and help her manage her willpower in order to stay the course longer...and she would lose a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time. But that's no way to live. Not if you want to have a life you LOVE.

Struggle is inevitable. Suffering is optional. I choose to Eat, Play, and Love

EAT: Food doesn't have to own you, define you, or control you. There is such a thing as a "food life" with freedom, permission, and choice. PLAY: Your body doesn't have to own you, confine you, or weigh you down. When you stop controlling it, restricting it, or punishing it, and influence how it looks, moves, and feels, you really can set your body free. LOVE: Self love isn't created in a vacuum. It's a creation process in which you must first pass through know, like, and trust.

You don t have to LIKE everything about yourself or your life But you also don t have to be such a BITCH to yourself Learn to accept the things you cannot change And influence the things you can.

The truth about your body's interaction with food (from a nervous system perspective) The truth about food and feelings (from a nervous system perspective) Food: A Love Story

Specifically I m going to teach you about: Digestion Extraction Hormones Feelings & Emotions BUT in Are You Smarter Than A 5 th Grader Science

Digestion: It s not what you eat, it s what you digest Extraction: It s not what you eat, it s what you utilize Hormones: It s not what you eat, it s how you eat Feelings & Emotions: It s not what you eat, it s why you eat (Are You Smarter Than A 5 th Grader Science)

How digestion happens: Parasympathetic Nervous System (The Rest & Digest Brain) Relaxed breathing, relaxed body, not stressed, senses heightened. How digestion DOES NOT happen optimally: Eating on the run, desensitized to food Stressed Eating (stress = threat to the brain. It s your brain s version of stress, not necessarily YOURS) STRESS IS FATTENING! It s not what you eat, it s what you digest.

1. Digestion 2. Extraction 3. Hormones 4. Feelings & Emotions

How digestion/extraction happens: 1. Food enters mouth 2. Digestion starts immediately via saliva/digestive enzymes 3. Enters stomach, gets bathed in hydrochloric acid, becomes liquefied chyme (but too acidic for digestive tract, so gets bathed in mucus as well as 4. Enters small intestine, get s bathed in bile (produced by liver) 5. Digestion, extraction happens mostly in small intestine. 6. And you know how the story ends It s not what you eat, it s what you utilize.

1. Digestion 2. Extraction 3. Hormones 4. Feelings & Emotions

When you feel annoyed, mad, stressed, or uneasy about anything, your body elicits a stress response, and it lays down a cocktail of those infamous "fat-storage hormones" that we hear about all the time in the weight loss industry. Specifically the stress response produces hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine. But in reality, they are simply STRESS hormones. Shame, blame, guilt, comparison = STRESS

DOUBLE WHAMMY: : In addition to a bowl of cortisol soup in your body, when you re stressed, you re 'in' the sympathetic part of your nervous system (and digestion happens in the parasympathetic part of your nervous system) TRIPLE WHAMMY: Usually when we experience this long enough, it leads us to react and try to control food, and we end up creating MORE stress: Restriction, deprivation, punishment, persuasion, hunger! It s not what you eat, it s how you eat.

1. Digestion 2. Extraction 3. Hormones 4. Feelings & Emotions

Why We Eat: (Require vs. Desire) Require: 1. Fulfill hunger, 2. Nutrients/fuel Desire: 1. Pleasure 2. Connection So where does a craving fit in?

Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC): Weighs options, detects conflicts, and motivates decisions. It s the worry-wort center, the area for self-consciousness, and it s larger in women than in men. ACC = Acceptance, Connection, Care (mammalian brain: belonging to a tribe or community, intimacy, love) ACC = Highest concentration of opiate receptors AND pain receptors

What Do We Desire? 1. Pleasure: dopamine/serotonin 2. Connection: dopamine/serotonin/oxytocin Oxytocin is the love/safety hormone (distinction: sex vs. intimacy) Why Food/Sugar? Fired and wired from birth: Baby cries, gets milk and cuddle. Get a shot, or a boo boo, cry, comfort, candy. It s fired and wired in our nervous system! It s what we ve been practicing. Sugar is not the REAL drug. Connection is the DRUG.

If your body is craving chocolate: Might be craving Sugar, Pleasure Might be craving Nutrients: Might be craving Magnesium SPECIFICALLY. Chocolate is high in magnesium Might be craving connection: Connection is the REAL drug

Pleasure vs. Pain (Drug vs. Painkiller) Connection vs. Dependency (Drug vs. Addiction) Why are you eating, and what are you feeding? Is it hunger? Or is food a distraction, a painkiller, a numbing agent, or a substitute for the REAL drug you re after? It s not what you eat, it s why you eat.

What You Eat: Food or Not Food? Why You Eat: Require or Desire? How You Eat: Stressed or Relaxed?

FOOD: A Love Story

Welcome! CAFE

Love story #1: Sensory Experience (A Braingasm!) Why so powerful: Digestion, Extraction, Hormones, Feelings/Emotions (Nervous system, Endocrine System, Digestive System, Your Experience) Love story #2: Pleasure, Connection, Acceptance, Culture, Inspiration, Beauty, Passion, Care, Love (The Ultimate Food Love Story) Why so powerful: Digestion, Extraction, Hormones, Feelings/Emotions (Nervous system, Endocrine System, Digestive System, Your Experience) Love story #3: Guilt, Shame, Blame, Comparison...Restriction, Punishment, Persuasion, Control Why so powerful: Digestion, Extraction, Hormones, Feelings/Emotions (Nervous system, Endocrine System, Digestive System, Your Experience)

Second Harvest of Central Florida 64 million lbs. of food (love) distributed in Central Florida Market in 2014 550 agencies who distribute food (love) every single day here in Central Florida 71,000 hours of volunteering (love) earned in 2014

Make your food life enjoyable Fry your veggies in butter. AKA just eat them! Brain, liver, kidneys, etc need nutrients for optimal function Ditch the carbs and fat are bad mentality! Nutrients ARE carbs...and fat makes them taste good which makes Leanne happy in beauty body brain Slow down and breathe! (get parasympathetic) Ditch the stress guilt shame blame comparison Feed your brain & feed your emotions: think/feel/act/do, emotions For me? Chemicals, sweeteners = depression Know your drug: 3 chemical test for sugar: 1: nutrients 2: magnesium 3: oxytocin

What You Eat: Food or Not Food? Why You Eat: Require or Desire? How You Eat: Stressed or Relaxed?

Struggle is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Which Will YOU Choose?

Wanna read my book? Email: Leanne@LeanneEllington.com

,, wanna eat, play, & love? MEETUP (Starts in August) FREE Eat, Play, Love (for Women) Meetup Starting in August!