I know I’ve been talking about my birthday A LOT this year, am I’m pretty positive this will be my last post about it, but I’ve been really trying to dive deep into the ideas of big celebration as a part of life WITHOUT it totally deterring my health.
In the past, I usually spend the entire month of July in a sugar addicted stupor. By the time August rolled around, I couldn’t stop thinking about where I was going to get my next sweet fix, and every meal had some sort of sugary dessert finale.
I used food to celebrate instead of using LIFE to celebrate.
This year was a little different.
Dad and I hanging out in Dolores park walking on a slack line! crazy fun!
I decided to take all my efforts on curating the best summer ever filled with family, friends, fun, play, and adventure. And I PURPOSELY decided to put “food for pleasure” on the back burner.
Research shows that one of the biggest predictors for anyone relapsing on alcohol, sugar, or any other addictive substance, is a too much focus and time going toward duties, responsibilities and work… and not enough focus and time on fun, play, pleasure, and adventure.
When work and responsibility become disproportionately out-of-balance with fun and play, It’s actually the number one predictor for relapse.
And think about it… doesn’t that make sense? When you’re all caught up in the daily grind, not including spontaneous fun and play… it makes that pint of Ben & Jerry’s seem like a party in the freezer at the end of your boring day!!!
Screw Ben & Jerry’s! I wanna go roller skating!!!
The results of my experiment were nothing short of amazing. I discovered that I had big fears around celebrating myself.
I believed that putting together a birthday party or any celebration was “just too much of a hassle… who would show up anyways? I’ve got too much work to do… I don’t have time for this… (or my favorite…) I’m not really worthy of celebration.”
All the above are TOXIC BELIEFS that keep us small in the world, and keep us looking for celebration and pleasure in other forms… for me go for anything that seems like a “fun food” topped with sugar!
Making the decision to celebrate this year actually took me to my edge where I was very uncomfortable! I was able to see my toxic beliefs for what they were, and I was able to show up in a bigger, more authentic way to my life.
And by doing so, using food for celebration became less important. Instead it was about connecting with my friends and family, and doing fun adventurous things (like walking on a slack line with my Dad and rollerskating with my friends! Crazy fun!)
So now, I want to hear from you:
Share with me and our community how YOU celebrate yourself. Or, are you like me and notice you didn’t have enough fun, play, or celebration in your life… what can you do THIS WEEK to change that?
xoxo, Audra : )
P.S. I’m putting on a FREE live event Wednesday, September 3rd. I’ll be going into depth on other eating psychology strategies to start living your best life so that you start to see your body and health shift as food takes it’s rightful place in your life.
If you’re in the Bay Area, you’re not going to want to miss this talk. Holistic nutritional science + eating psychology…. this is the only approach I’ve discovered that actually works. Learn more and register here!
