Develop and live your ideal self image

If you see yourself as an overweight or obese person, then that is what you will be.

If you believe that there is nothing you can do to change your shape or lose weight- because of your genes / age / job / lack of willpower / lack of time, then nothing will ever change.

Repeat after me: There is NOTHING wrong with you.  You CAN achieve the body shape and health you dream of....

We learn to associate ourselves more with the person who isn’t fit or who eats too much or who makes unhealthy food choices. The effect of this is that we become our own self fulfilling prophecies.  You start to believe that there is something wrong with you - YOU can never be one of those effortlessly slender people, who seems to eat whatever they want....

Yes, you can.

The starting point to achieving and maintaining your ultimate body FOR LIFE (with minimal possible effort) is to determine and develop your ultimate self image. What does the ultimate you look like and act like?

Is it:

• a healthy, outdoorsy, sunny, beachy person who bounces around and eats fresh fruit and nicoise salad? 
• an introverted bookish person who listens to classical music and eats homemade stews and porridge? 
• a gym junkie in the latest expensive nikes and lycra who has protein shakes and tuna salads? 
• a combination of all 3? Or something different entirely?

For me, what I really connect with is living the most healthy, natural life I can so I know I am giving my body and mind everything they need to perform at their best and so I feel my best. This means that I love being in the fresh air and sunshine and ocean. I love exercising with fresh blood and oxygen being pumped through my body and my lungs, muscles and joints working. It also means that I love eating fresh fruit and vegetables and grains and meats and fish and eggs and home cooked food made from scratch. 

 It is entirely a PERSONAL CHOICE. Figure out your own ideal self-image and then let it guide your food decisions.  This is one of the most important steps you will ever take on your journey to sustainable weight loss and optimum health.

Come back to this post whenever you need a reminder. :)

Building partnerships with Local, Organic Farms!

About 5 years ago I subscribed to my first CSA box.  CSA is a program which brings you beautiful fresh produce right to your doorstep (or local pick up spot).

Little did I know how life changing it would be! Not only did I start receiving abundant, fresh, local organic produce of the highest nutritional quality, but I started to understand - and pay attention to what was in season.

Before I got my local boxes of goodness, I would go to the grocery store and try to be adventurous but always end up buying the same 5 or 6 items - lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, mushrooms... and I would never think twice about buying oranges in summer or grapes in winter.

Once you have received really juicy fresh seasonal produce for a few months or years you start to regard most of the produce in the supermarkets with suspicion - how long and far has this orange (from AFRICA!) travelled to reach me... how many carbon emissions has its delivery created... and how early was it picked to get it without going off... and how much nutritional quality could this poor orange possibly have left!?

Most of all though, you start to realize how BAD most of this produce tastes - and how AMAZING fresh local in season produce tastes with comparison.  IF YOU REALLY WANT TO EAT HEALTHY AND ADOPT LIFELONG HEALTHY EATING PRACTICES THE FIRST STEP IS TO START WITH THE MOST DELICIOUS, FRESH RAW INGREDIENTS!

Now I am a co-founder at Homemade and I am building partnerships with local (hopefully organic) farms to source our produce  I had the privilege to go down to Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale yesterday to meet some of the people behind the beautiful farm.

I am so much look forward to creating and building these partnerships.  I feel so lucky and excited to be combining some of my personal values with some of my greatest joys with our business, Homemade!

Introducing: Homemade for weight loss!

I started this blog almost 3 years ago because I wanted to do something to help empower men and women with their weight loss struggles.

At the time I was working as a commercial litigation solicitor in a big law firm.

Now... I am pursuing my life's greatest passion and am the co-founder of a business, Homemade, which is dedicating to helping all men and women achieve sustainable weight loss and optimum health.

Homemade is a weekly cooking community for sustainable weight loss.  Every week, we bring our members together and we teach them how to cook healthy meals from scratch.  We provide structure and convenience for healthy eating throughout the week because our members prepare 18 healthy meals to take home in each weekly 2 hour session.  We provide recipes, ingredients and cooking instructions.  Our members support and inspire each other in a real life community.

Weight loss with Homemade is easy, convenient and sustainable because it is not a diet - It is a new way of life, and a totally new relationship where you discover the joy of cooking and eating healthy homemade meals and how completely satisfying that can be!

We developed the Homemade model after nearly 8 months of research, testing, getting feedback.. and speaking with people like YOU who have struggled to achieve and maintain their best weight.

We are launching our next intake in mid-June. It is so exciting!  Check out our website: homemade-cooking.com for more info or to leave a comment.

We love feedback and real stories, so we would love to hear from you!!


Chloe prepping for a Homemade healthy cooking session:

Our venue in Menlo Park - sweet serenity before the cooking storm begins!

Some of our lovely Homemade members and supporters

An example dish: Kale and beet salad with parmesan and toasted nuts

 

 

Above: An example of a week's worth of healthy meals you get to take home after a 2 hour cooking session with Homemade - Yum!