Have you ever pulled up to a traffic light – wiping Big Mac sauce from your cheek – only to see a snot-nosed kid in the backseat of your Honda laughing at you while you lick the fallen pickle from your cleavage?

Now imagine that precious little angel in the backseat pointing his favorite new toy at you – the iPhone.  And picture that by the next traffic light your pickle-tainted cleavage has already gone viral? Now, that’s something to chew on, huh?

Suddenly, you feel invaded – embarrassed – humiliated …UGH!

Are your feelings a result of the prankster in the Honda, or is the shame a symptom of something larger?

Overeating, under-eating, and eating poorly are all forms of violence against your body and your soul. Eating on the run or without self-awareness is a poor habit at best – but this abusive behavior is also a cause of weight control issues as well as with low self-esteem.

How differently would you behave if you always ate as if that naughty child had his finger on the Record button – waiting to broadcast your every move?

Dainty come to mind?

When you dine daintily with self-love as the goal, toxic behaviors just don’t fit anymore. Dainty dining isn’t eating on the run or shoveling food into your mouth while scanning for the next bite from an open refrigerator door.

Healthy eating involves love, care, a table and chair. It means setting your place with a plate and a fork, and it means keeping a napkin in your lap. Eating becomes dainty dining which is almost spiritual when you clean up your act.

I hear you, though. Today’s fast-paced, fast food environment doesn’t promote Dainty Dining, and you sure don’t have the time to put a 3-course, healthy meal on your table 3 times a day.

But don’t you deserve a healthy and spiritual body – in spite of your hectic, fast food schedule? And wouldn’t extra time in your day to do so be a welcome addition?

Here’s the secret … When you weigh less and feel great, it’s amazing how much more energy you have to get things done – quicker. See the trick? It’s a balance that can add an extra 5 to 10 minutes to every day while keeping your bad behaviors off from the World Wide Web.

Now can I tell you how? Only 5 simple steps will help you increase time in your day, decrease your weight, and boost your self-confidence.

5 Dainty Dining Tips For A Healthy, Spiritual You

1. Set your place. Sit down at a table rather than a desk or a steering wheel. And use a plate and silverware. (I even like to put a fresh flower from the Farmers Market in a glass in front of me)
2. Say Thanks. Before eating every meal, pause in gratitude. Say grace. Offer a few words of appreciation for the food that nourishes your body and your body for its healthy vitality and resilience.
3. Take small bites. Set your fork down in between mouthfuls.
4. Chew slowly. A good rule of thumb is to count to 20 and to make each bite last at least the length of your count.
5. Focus on your meal. Shut off your phone, computer, and the TV. Give your food the attention it deserves for making you feel so gorgeous and savor every bite.

Once you’ve embraced Dainty Dining, you can even invite that naughty little boy and his mother over for lunch – with confidence. They will witness your self- love and capture the proof that you are providing extreme self-care to the thing that matters most—your precious body.

That’s something only Miss Manners would post to YouTube, huh?

Every time I went to the eye doctor for a checkup, I would decline the offer to try new bifocal lens or “progressives”, a technology that enables one pair of lenses to allow you to see both near and far. My list of excuses was endless, rooted in the fear that I would get dizzy, I would have difficulty adjusting, I would hate them, blah, blah, blah. I had every excuse ready and roaring as to why I could not give the new progressives a try.

Just this last week, I finally DECIDED to go for it. I was shocked when I put them on. I fell immediately in love! IS THIS WHAT I WAS MISSING!? Things were CLEAR. I could SEE far away and close up without the hassle of switching my glasses. It was that EASY.  All the stories I created in my head about how horrible they would be simply were not true.

Why am I sharing? Because now it is time for YOU to put on your reading glasses and open your mind…in the supermarket. Trust me, much like my eyeglass issue, I know it is difficult to stray away from anything, especially food, that is comfortable, familiar and a favorite. It is even more difficult to stop resisting the idea of change and to abandon those little stories that we create in our head. You may be thinking… it’s too expensive to eat healthy, I won’t enjoy my food as much, my family will never eat it, I don’t even know where to start. These invalid, un-real fears are keeping your family eating un-real foods that will eventually be detrimental to your family’s health. After all, if you don’t teach your family to eat well…who will?

The supermarket can be a scary place…a war zone. At every turn and on every shelf there is garbage disguised as food, waiting to jump into your cart and into your pantry. Without your eyes and your brain, you may be tricked by the false advertisements and little green check marks found on pretty boxes that help camouflage junk as nutrients.

With your reading glasses on and an open mind it can become clear that what you may be buying as “food” could actually be unfit for human consumption (at least if you want to have that healthy, sexy body you dream of). Read the labels, the nutritional statistics and list of ingredients. Only the best should be fueling your one and only very precious body and very precious family.
Don’t feel like reading labels or forgot your glasses at home? Great! The easiest and simplest way to health and weight loss it is to start Cooking Naked, and begin choosing those “naked” foods THAT HAVE NO LABELS.

You don’t need a nutrition degree, special certification or textbook. A simple assessment of “nakedness” (no label or minimal ingredients) is all it takes to create the healthy sexy body you desire and deserve.

P.S Even when I am Cooking Naked, I wear my glasses. After 25 adult years of wearing glasses, I have accumulated quite a collection that has now become part of my fashion statement.

If you are hearing any of these whispers (or screams) in that gorgeous head of yours, you have just found your Fattest Team Member and Chief Saboteur.  She’s been hanging around with you for way too long. She is not your friend! It’s time to say BYE BYE!  She’s making up stories again to make you feel better for the moment. But it’s not going last. You will feel worse every morning when you get up, just right before she visits you again.

You’ll feel fat, disgusting, older than you are and have no energy to live your wonderful life. It’s time to get rid of your old friend and welcome a refreshing, fantastic new one. Your very best friend. The one that loves and cares about you. You know her well. She’s the honest you! (haha)

There will never be what you consider the “RIGHT” time to take care of yourself. Weight loss and self care can be a challenge when you consider the life that goes on around you, pushing and pulling and grabbing at you incessantly.

ANY EXCUSE is nothing but an opportunity to stay where you are. But how do you like it where you are? If you like it, stop complaining. If you want things to be different, you have to do differently things. If you want to change your body, you have to change the food you put in your body – NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU…

Your first step in losing weight is not to go to the gym or the food store to stock up on all the healthy items.  That’s comes later. The first step is to recognize that what you are doing is self sabotage, self doubt, and fear.

The point is that there are ways to get clear and SMASH these made up lies, everyone of them.  (Lesson 9, page 194 in Sleeping Naked After 40 has more details) Each excuse can be broken down and replaced with the reason that you can do it. That feels so much better, inside and out.

I am not interested in why you can’t. I know that you can. When you join me and start believing in yourself and your possibility, magic will happen. I promise.

If you are still talking and complaining about the same thing you were talking and complaining about last year, there is the problem.

I met with a friend the other day for lunch. I hadn’t seen her in a year. She was complaining to me the same story that she told me last year about how she felt fat, her clothes were tight, nothing she did worked. No matter what she tried she couldn’t lose the weight. After I pressed for details, it was clear to me why she was stuck.  So if what you are doing isn’t working for you, it may be time to do something different.

Growing older does not equate with fat and frumpy unless that is what you choose. You can also to grow older with choose grace, confidence, and beauty and the best body you can have at any and every age that you are. If you want to change your body, you have to change the food you put in your body. It’s that simple. And that happens with a decision and a plan. The plan will include getting your body, your heart and your head in the game of weight loss.

Get a pen and paper and ask yourself the following 4 question.

• Where do I want to be in my health goals in 6 months from today?
• What will that look and feel like?
• What will change in my life when I feel better in my body and gain more self confidence?
• What would I have to do to make this happen?

Hope you enjoyed this SMACK it is time to wake up and live your life being the best that you can be as the healthiest, sexiest version of yourself.

Hell, these this’s and that’s may even keep you from ever starting on your intended path to better health and weight loss. This and That is so important I even dedicate Chapter 9 of Sleeping Naked After 40 to this topic (YES the book is finally here. Available in print on March 25, just sayin’).

There are tons of excuses that you can turn into reasons for not doing something you want to do.

Another situation. Another party, Another holiday.

Think about the mind tricks we play ~ It’s my birthday, it’s girls nite out, my husband’s birthday, the office party.

I worked hard today, I deserve to eat and celebrate.  I’ll start tomorrow,

W H A T E V E R!

My client, Karen, argued that her excuses were really legit and that her situation was different from the average Jane. She said her story was the real deal and this information lesson did not apply to her.

She told me,

“Although I read that chapter on “this and that”
and comprehended the words, I didn’t think it applied to me,
I figured mine was an exceptional case these last few weeks
…husband in hospital then I got the flu then he got the flu and
BTW he’s heading back to the doctors today cuz he thinks he’s
having another kidney stone.

They something hit her in the head. No, it wasn’t me physically
knocking sense into her. It was lesson 9 of Sleeping Naked
After 40, which she happened to be reading at the time.

Continuing, she said, ” I was letting all of that make me
feel out of control and had to rein it in and realize, this messy
thing we call life, doesn’t give us nice sustainable easy breaks
where we can get everything done in a lovely schedule, so that
lesson on “if it’s not this, it’s that” does apply to me and it finally sunk in.

I am not exceptional in the chaos of my life, no matter how exceptional a
person I am…so that is letting me take back more of the control I threw
to the weeds, when life got more complicated…”

Yay Karen! It’s always gonna be this or that and it’s our job to have systems in place for extreme self care and love (especially around our food) when seemingly out of control situations arise.

Along with her major self discovery, Karen shared a delightful recipe with me that she created and its YUMMY GOOD! She gave me permission to share it with you.