'The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in' - B.K.S. Iyengar
Given that it’s January and getting fit and healthy is on many people’s minds, I thought this would be the perfect time to have Bill and Connie DeKramer on my Insightful Conversations show. Bill and Connie are former restaurant owners, cookbook authors, and lifestyle coaches who have helped people restore their health and lose weight naturally for over 25-years.
Over the course of those years, Bill and Connie noticed that many of the people they worked with were successful in losing the weight but not so successful in keeping it off. Curious to understand why this was, they continued to search for answers. During their exploration, they came across the Principles, which in turn led them to become certified Change Coaches. Since incorporating the Principles into their coaching and training, Bill and Connie have witnessed a significant increase in their clients’ long-term positive results.
As someone who has spent most of my life devouring information on health and nutrition and the next best diet craze, I was curious to hear how Bill and Connie’s approach is different from all the other diet programs out there. They explained that before they begin to talk about health and nutrition with their clients, they lay the foundation by pointing them in the direction of the 3 Principles. Once their clients grasp the Principles’ understanding, instead of telling them what to do and what to eat, Bill and Connie encourage them to listen to their wisdom. By paying attention to their inner guidance, their intuition will steer them in the right direction and away from the food and lifestyle habits that contribute to poor health and excess weight.
Having spent many years obsessing over my weight, I find the idea of letting my wisdom guide me quite refreshing. In the past, I have bought every book on the shelf describing the latest diet trends — low carb to high carb, low fat to high fat. I’ve tried everything from being a vegetarian, living off nothing but nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit, to an Atkins/Paleo/Keto smelly-breath meat-eater. I’ve starved myself into anorexia and eaten myself into a blob. There’s so much conflicting information out there, and all of it contradicting each other. How wonderful to know that we can cut through the noise, knowing that we have an inner guidance system that will effortlessly direct us towards food choices that are perfect just for us.
I had heard the expression “Your Body is Your Temple” a long time ago, but unfortunately, I didn’t grasp the whole truth of this statement. I wish I had known what I know now. Unlike my sister, who can’t eat when she’s upset, I have always been an emotional eater. A habit I had developed in childhood as a coping mechanism to growing up in a dysfunctional environment. As a young child, I would nurture myself by making miniature jam-butties, which I would store in large match-stick boxes tucked in my dressing table drawer in case of emergencies. I couldn’t tell you what emergencies I thought were coming, but that was the beginning of my using food for comfort.
One way the Principles helped me stop using food as a pacifier was to see the truth of how our experience of life is created. In the past, I had innocently believed that some outside event or person caused my unwanted feelings. Feeling bad, helpless, and out of control, I would use food to comfort myself or stuff down my feelings. Once I saw that my feelings were coming directly from my thinking in the moment, not from outside circumstances or other people, it was easier for my mind to settle and resist the temptation to self-soothe with food.
Secondly, when I understood that our natural set point is innate mental health and wellbeing, I know that there is nothing to fear when unwanted emotions arise. My feelings are just energy moving through me — neither good nor bad, just pure energy. I now know that if I leave those feelings alone and don’t judge or deny them, they will naturally move through me on their own accord. And before long, I will return to the innate wellbeing that is within all of us.
Thirdly, when I let go of my personal thinking and stopped comparing myself to my friends and what diet strategies worked for them and instead tuned into my wisdom, it naturally had me gravitate towards food choices that are right for me. Each of us is uniquely different and as such, so are our dietary and nutritional needs. Understanding that we can trust the intelligence behind life guiding and informing us every second of every day is all we need to know to achieve our natural healthy weight.
With love and appreciation, Del 💕