The Dream 

I have a dream:
for you to release all food-related stress,
and simply enjoy yourself,
every time you eat.

I want you and everyone in the world to inhabit their power… their power to feel gloriously pleasured, by eating!

I dream of a world free of any food-related anxiety. Sister, it is one pleasurable dream!

The Challenge

The challenge to my dream’s fulfillment is:
Many people are afraid of their desire for food, for pleasure, and of how much they love fat or sugar in the diet.

They often think thoughts like:
“Oh my God! If I just heeded my body’s wishes, I would never stop eating!”
“I can’t eat sugar because it’s bad, I am addicted to it.”
“These potato chips are evil and going straight to my hips.” And,
“If I eat one spoonful of ice cream, I will not be able to stop myself from eating the entire gallon!”

These food-attitudes are crazy common.
But seriously, what’s so wrong about naming a particular food or craving as bad?
What’s the real consequence about mistrusting our big old cravings?

The Oooh

The problem, my lovely, in naming a food bad and addictive, is we mistakenly give food a power that it does not possess. (Food is just a lump of matter, after all–it has no power over you.)
Furthermore, by mistrusting our cravings, we lose touch with our body’s messages, our pleasure, and consequently, our power.

Ay yai yai.

So, how can you take back the power that is yours, the power to know when you truly feel full?
How can you trust that your body will guide you to your slimmer self, when the process of eating food can seem so big and overwhelming?

Here are 6 steps to show you exactly how.

       1. Befriend Food.

Food is a colorful, creative, nourishing gift from nature, and eating it invokes the pleasure chemistry (a.k.a. fat-burning mechanism in your body). So no matter what you eat, you are going to have a happy-feeling-endorphin release in your body. Try shifting your food-attitude towards gratitude for the miraculous alchemical process of eating; after all, eating is designed to make you feel really good!

       2. Face the Food and Your Physiology. 

Fact: Sugar cookies have sugar in them. Potato chips have fat in them. And that’s all right! See, physiologically, the food that gives you the highest amount of pleasure chemistry release is any food that has approximately 50% fat and 50% sugar or sweet.

Accept that your body was designed to enjoy fats and sweets, in gentle moderation. What brings you pleasure is not evil, it’s simply biologically yummy, in right amounts. More on this in #5.

       3. Eat Consciously.

This is a biggie. Turn off the TV, the radio, the cell phone, and step away from the kindle. Savor your food. Notice how your body feels when you chew. Notice what you taste, and how you breathe. For extra credit, eat naked. Notice what that changes.

       4. Embrace Trial and Error.

You have power over food, not food over you. However, it takes a little practice, a.k.a. trial and error, to really learn that you are the one who has the power to determine your consumption. If you have any teenagers in your life, you’ll notice that the way they learn what too much food or too many extra-curricular activities is: when they’ve had too much of them!

       5. Listen and Trust.

Trust that your body will give you the signals you need to know what to eat, when, and how much. I promise you, when you’ve eaten way too much, way too many times, eventually you will stop!

Also, listen to your cravings. If your body craves food a lot, it may be that you’re starving for nutrients. You may be eating too much low-nutrient food, but not enough nutrient-dense food. (Note: the more you eat nutrient-rich food, the less you’ll be drawn to low-quality, high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods. Cravings will subside, and feelings of satisfaction will skyrocket.)

       6. Exercise Discipline.

Exercise the discipline of pleasure and attentive eating (not the discipline of restriction and restrictive eating). If you find yourself addicted to a particular something, or overeating often, make sure you compassionately find that behavior right in its own way, and gently seek to shift the pattern by introducing more pleasure, and nutrient-rich food, into your life.

When you exercise discipline, listen to and trust your body, embrace trial and error, eat consciously, and face (and befriend) food and your physiology, you’ll be well on your way to a HUGE healing – healing your food-attitude, and taking back your power to feel pleasure, and to work together with your brilliant, wise body.

Tell me in the comments below, which of these steps will you use today?
Maybe you can try implementing one step per week.
Whatever your feminine pace is, it’s perfect and elegant —
I’m juiced to hear what you’ll be cooking up with these tips!

Standing for Your Epicurean Power,
xo Jena

P.S. Epicurus was a delicious philosopher and scientist who wholeheartedly believed that pleasure is the greatest good. I plan on proving him right, from July 1 – 5, at Pleasure Camp Omega!

This intensive wellness camp will give you everything you need to get into action and lose weight once and for all. It is designed to empower you with my latest work in the revolutionary approach that is feminine, pleasurable weight loss, via 5 exquisite days of interactive activities, heart-to-heart dialogues and pleasure-affirming scientific data.

Press the reset button on your pleasure, your food-attitude and body size by clicking here to join me at the transformative, soul-soothing, epicurean event that Pleasure Camp Omega shall be.