A Journaling Prompt For Eating Disorder Recovery

A Journaling Prompt For Eating Disorder Recovery

Writing can be incredibly therapeutic for someone recovering from an eating disorder or working through disordered eating struggles. In fact, starting up a journaling practice was one of the best things I ever did for my own recovery. After I shared this blog post with you on the three ways that journaling could change your life, I received many questions from you guys asking about specific journaling prompts that you can use. So that’s what I’m doing today. The exercise that I’m sharing with you today is incredibly powerful because it taps into the power of visualisation and allows you to imagine a life without food struggles. It’s one of my favourite exercises to do with my clients, and I hope that it will help/resonate with you. PS I’m sharing one of my lovely client’s journal snippets with her permission, as it’s beautifully written, almost brought me to tears and will hopefully be an inspiration to you, my dear reader.

The Three Ways Journaling Could Change Your Life

The Three Ways Journaling Could Change Your Life

In 2012, I was in the tight grip of an eating disorder. I started working with a Health Coach whom herself had a past with disordered eating, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The second best decision I made was to start journaling.

I don't believe I would have recovered from my own eating disorder had it not been for my journal. Since that very first day of journalling - 11th of March 2012 to be exact - I have filled countless of journals with my deepest, darkest, weirdest thoughts. I don’t know why I started journalling that day as no one had recommended it to me per se, but I think I was just intuitively drawn to it. Looking back at it, journalling truly was my saving grace. An eating disorder keeps the world small, you know. It ignores the big scary questions and creates a sharp focus in your life: your body weight and shape. But sitting there in front of those empty pages, tears in my eyes… it was the first time in a long time that I got truly honest with myself.

Introducing the 6-Weeks Intensive 'Ditch The Diet' Coaching

2020 Coaching.PNG

I just announced my first coaching intake date for 2020, and it’s going to be a SPECIAL one! This is an intensive 6-week program starting on the week of the 27th of January, and is designed to help you rid the diet mentality for good and finally make peace with your body and the food on your plate.

I'll never tell you to deprive yourself or cut out certain foods from your life. Instead, my goal is to help you recognize the toxic diet culture mentality that is no longer serving you and instead help you tune back into your body’s inner wisdom about how to truly nourish yourself—so that you can free up space in your life for bigger and better things.

I’m a big believer that your relationship to food is a direct reflection of your relationship to life itself. In that sense, food can be a beautiful doorway to a deeper understanding of oneself. And this is where health coaching can be really powerful – because whilst we may initially look at what foods are best for you to eat, we soon start looking at how you eat and why you eat the way that you do, and that can be a beautiful catalyst to big change and deeper healing.

Throughout the 6 weeks, we’ll have weekly 1 hour long on-one-one calls and there will be homework/assignments in between sessions. You will also have email support in between sessions and WhatsApp access to me personally. Essentially, I will be your accountability partner along every step of the way.

If you want to learn more about the specifics of the program, my approach, cost structure or want to make sure the two of us vibe before you commit, go ahead and book in your initial free 20 minute Discovery Call with me today. You can also read up about my approach in more detail by clicking the More Info button below. I’m super excited to hear from you.


5 Bedroom Hacks That Have The Power To Transform Your Sleep | The Koala Edition

5 Bedroom Hacks That Have The Power To Transform Your Sleep | The Koala Edition

I’ve already talked about the importance of quality sleep in previous blog posts, where I touched on the importance of creating a regular circadian rhythm through waking up and going to sleep at the same time each day, getting natural sunlight and exercising preferably in the morning, supplementing with magnesium and keeping your room cool and aired out, just to name a few.

With our recent move from Sydney to Melbourne, Phil and I made a few more mindful decisions when it came to the design of our bedroom and sleep rituals, which I want to share with you today. Implementing some of these tips and habits can hopefully help you to fall asleep faster, stay asleep and most importantly - improve the quality of your sleep. Sleep is essential to your wellness and worth prioritising, and these easy to implement tweaks can make all the difference.

Let's Talk About Sleep, Baby

Let's Talk About Sleep, Baby

You can sleep when you’re dead.”

“There is no rest for the weary.”

In today’s society sleep is totally underrated. In fact, sleep deprivation is almost worn as a badge of honour. I hear people bragging about how they pulled an all-nighter or get away with sleeping 4 hours a night all the time. I used to be one of them.

But the truth is, in order for you to perform to the best of your ability you need to get deep, restorative rest every single night. The average person needs between 7-8 hours of rest each night, and the mountain of studies proving this fact is undeniable.

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How To Navigate Love And Eating Disorders

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How To Navigate Love And Eating Disorders

For about two years, I struggled with my inner daemons on my own.

That is, with my eating disorder, of course.

It was a debilitating feeling, knowing that no one else knew that side of me. I wanted to let someone in, but at the same time I couldn’t think of anything worse than someone finding out the truth.

When I finally found someone who I could confide in – and who didn’t seem to care in the slightest that I had “issues” – it changed the way I dealt with my problems. I finally let someone in. That person was Phil.

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My Body Journey And Where I Am Right Now

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My Body Journey And Where I Am Right Now

"I've been underweight, I've been chubby, I've been skinny fat, I've been super lean, I've been at the peak of my physical fitness and then lost it all again. All along this journey, I've hated my body, loathed it, accepted it, then loved it, then hated it again, wanted it to be skinnier, then stronger, fitter, more flexible, and the list goes on...

My Journey From Self-Destruction To Self-Love

My Journey From Self-Destruction To Self-Love

Do you sometimes do things that you know aren't good for you and you will feel like crap afterward?

I'm sure you are all quietly nodding your heads right now. Regardless of whether your destructive behavior is downing a pint of Ben and Jerry’s each night, or getting embarrassingly intoxicated in front of the wrong people, I think we can all relate to the fact that sometimes we feel a bit out of control of our own behavior.

The picture you see above shows me in the summer of  2011 vs 2016.

Why It's Time For Everyone To Recognize Meditation's Healing Power

Why It's Time For Everyone To Recognize Meditation's Healing Power

Before I got into health and fitness the way I am now, I was one of those people that considered meditation a "waste of time". I mean, why would I just sit there quiet and not do anything for 15 minutes, if I could be running around ticking stuff off my to-do list?! Time is precious, after all.

But with time I realised that slowing down is actually a good thing and that it's necessary. In fact, becoming more mindful and present in the moment was a big part of my recovery journey.

It wasn't easy to start with, to say the least. For the longest time, even just five minutes of sitting and breathing was extremely difficult. It was like a crazy jungle party in my brain 24/7 and I always felt like I wasn't doing it right...

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...How To See Beauty When You Look Into The Mirror

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...How To See Beauty When You Look Into The Mirror

I used to hate looking into the mirror.

Maybe it was because I didn't like seeing my uneven nose and un-chizzled cheekbones.

Maybe it was because I didn't like the way my hair fell flat along my face. 

Maybe it was because of the extra pounds that I'd been carrying around with me and tried so desperately to rid myself of; a graphic reminder of my lack of self-control.

Those days are in the past and I have since then learned to embrace what I see in the mirror every day. But it was a long and hard journey...

Today, I've invited optimism and life coach, international motivational speaker and author of The Optimist In You, Jessica J. Lockhart, to talk about the complicated relationship most of us have with the mirror.

You look in the mirror. Your image looks back at you. But do you truly see yourself? Do you see your soul, your being, your humanity? Do you see the person behind the mirror? Most people don't.

Self Love Is Not Selfish: How to take time for yourself without feeling the guilt

Self Love Is Not Selfish: How to take time for yourself without feeling the guilt

I had the honor of connecting with Jenna from You Aint Your Weight a couple of weeks ago and we immediately bonded over one common goal: helping people back out of dieting and into a body and life they love.

What do we mean by that? Well, we all know by now that diets just don't work. They just DON'T. (If you want to fight me on this, I'd love to hear from you!) We are both advocates of finding a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable in the long run and will help you become the healthiest and happiest person along the way, minus the deprivation. We are all for losing unnecessary weight, but please without losing your mind along in the process.

Why is Jenna so passionate about this? Because, just like me, she's had her fair struggle with dieting as well and has an inspiring story of how an innocent diet turned into years of deprivation and body dysmorphia.

Today I invite her to the blog to talk about how self love is the first and most important step in living a healthy life and how you shouldn't feel one bit guilty for pampering yourself.

Why We Do What We Do When We Know What We Know + How To Stop Binging

Why We Do What We Do When We Know What We Know + How To Stop Binging

Yoga, meditation, journaling: all these things are invaluable tools to make me feel zen, yet I often struggle to do them even though I know I feel more in touch with myself afterwards.

It's not that the activities are hard in themselves (though yoga can be grueling at times). It's the internal debate that starts up every day when you know you should do them but there's a part of you that is holding back.

The same goes for our diet. We know we should be eating more fruits and veggies, but instead we go for the heavily processed stuff. Why is that?

I used to think that it was just me - that I was 'wired wrong' and that I was somehow incapable of learning from my mistakes. I knew I'd feel good after eating a light meal and that I would feel crap after eating crap, but all too many times I would still opt for what made me feel bad, both physically and mentally.

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