First, I’m a man. Yay. Second, I’m a small man for American averages – I’m 5’7″ and weigh about 146-150 depending. Also, I rarely, if ever, check my weight – I don’t own a scale and frankly, don’t really care about the number. BUT, I’ve always wanted to weigh more. I played high school sports, specifically football and weight and weighing more were looked at as positive things. I tried to eat pb sandwiches and eggs late at nite to gain weight, but my metabolism and level of activity were too high. So, I would lie about my weight, saying that I weighed more. Haha, I can’t imagine a woman that would do that.

I accept that my body is my body and I appreciate it as is and truly I’m not (and never really have been) overly concerned. In our society the focus is definitely on women’s figures and weights, but there are pressures as a man.

Apart from my weight, pretty much every woman in my life (mother, sister, friends, and girlfriends) have had body image/weight issues. I have always worked so hard to reassure them that they are beautiful as they are and that men find it much more attractive when a women eats food rather then being stick thin. This has been and is an uphill battle because of, primarily, the media. I encourage all men to compliment all the women in their lives for their beauty – and I encourage all women to accept those compliments and let those words become a part of you as you realize how beautiful you are – AS YOU ARE

Namaste!

Taylor

My hope is that Super-people everywhere free themselves of the prisons of negative body images and self images and empower themselves through their own choices to feel the best ever, not trying to be perfect, since that doesn’t exist, but instead owning their resposibility to do the best they can do feel good, moment to moment. Whatever that takes–and this is a personal answer.

It’s what we do most of the time that matters and actually, what we are thinking when we eat is more important than what we are consuming.

A internationally well-known nutritionist who’s been raw for 45 years (he’s 80!) called me and wanted to do a talk at The Prana Cafe’. It was just a few days before he wanted to speak, and so we ultimately decided instead to connect at the cafe’ and plan for another speaking engagement in the next few months when we have more time to get the word out.

His name is Fred Bisci and Philippe and I had dinner with him and his colleagues last night at the Cafe’ and he was an absolute love–absolutely delightful.

This guys is 80 years old and literally looks about 50, if that. He has so much PRANA and such a zest for life and was a pleasure to hang out with for a few hours. He sleeps 2-4 hours a night and runs marathons. He’s run 18 so far.

We definitely resonated with him and his message of balance and moderation, and talked about how some on the raw path (and any path) are too extreme. And even raw, taken to the extreme, is not healthy or balanced.

Fred pretty much summed it up (and made me laugh) when he said “When someone spends way too much time thinking about whether they should eat 8 almonds or 9 almonds, there’s a problem.”

LOL!

We talked a lot about balance and abundance and non restriction and about the fact that we have many friends who are not raw and/or who eat the SAD–or worse–but we love their energy and who they are and the food is such a non-issue.

And then there are raw vegans who are wound so tightly and so obsessive that it’s painful to be around them.

So as always, Super-people, it all depends.

Being 100% raw vegan isn’t “good” and eating the SAD “bad,” but it is a fact that what we put into our bodies does affect our energy and our life force and our mood, and so it’s fun and nice to have cutting edge information and choose to use it when we want to–or not.

And not to judge others based upon their choices.

Judgment is the dark side and zaps creative divine energy.

On a totally unrelated and humorous note, I was informed by my 12-year-old daughter that her friends don’t know what “the dark side” is, and could I please not write on her Facebook wall anymore?

HUGE LOL!

Namaste!

Taylor

When you eat poorly and get little exercise, you do feel crappy and you don’t look so well either. In this instance, it’s nearly impossible to “will” yourself into liking how you look, because you’re not feeling so hot either.

I started going to Prana Power Yoga right after I realized my divorce was going to trial. It was so contentious (and I was so poor) but I thought I would lose my mind if I didn’t do something. So I started going and as Taylor advises, I did start to feel better. Similarly, I heard Taylor talk about the opening of her raw food restaurant. Out of curiousity I searched for information on a raw food lifestyle on the Internet and there is a lot there. I was fascinated. Now I don’t eat all raw food, but I do eat a lot more than I did, and I do feel so much better physically and about myself. I’d like to do more, but for now, I do “my best” each day and try to be happy about what I eat — and try not to eat things that aren’t really food.

If you think about what is advertised for food on television, what people are being served in most restaurants, it is really scary, and it’s no wonder that people don’t feel good about themselves. What eating more raw food has taught me is to recognized when I’m consuming food that is more processed — and there is a range — of barely processed foods (like cooked vegetables) to extremely processed, really, non-foods. Many, many people eat a “meal” of all processed foods, and I do contend that this is the main reason why people don’t feel good and don’t like their bodies.

My other experience with this is having grown up with persistent low blood sugar problems — for years I felt rather nauseous most of the time and sweaty — and when the symptoms were exacerbated — I actually felt sick and passed out — falling hard. All from eating poorly. When I was a kid I ate what my mother served me — she cooked almost always from “scratch” but again used a lot of flour and sugar, and served hardly any fresh vegetables, which she didn’t like.

So, in a way we have become victims of the food industry, our acculturation around food, etc., etc., etc.

Here’s a parting thought: If most people suffer from the same problem, it’s probably not personal. Kathy

I am NOT about struggle. I maintained a weight on the low side of normal (but not clinically problematic) for many years after recovering from an ed because sadly, being thin had become constitutive of my identity, and I couldn’t give it up. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, and I was eating 3 meals a day, just not indulging, ever. Looking back, it was a lot of psychic effort! My friends were all starting businesses and families and I was busy staying thin. Not much of a life.

I don’t like to say anything good about prozac because I think these drugs are WAY overused and they mostly do more harm than good. I think they’re used to treat chronic conditions that can be treated with lifestyle changes. Maybe they are useful for acute interventions, I don’t know. I’m sure I would have gained the 10 lbs eventually after grad school as I started to find my identity in work and other things. Funnily enough, I didn’t go off it because of the weight gain, I went off it because it made me lose my edge. At least during those years of not accomplishing much I was in a lot of pain, pain that didn’t let me give up, pain that led me to constantly want to learn new things, etc. It was a couple years after going off it before I shed a tear at a movie (that’s pretty scary).

I don’t like the word diet. But after I was off the drug a few months, I did start to re-experience feelings of anxiety and I’d think, “I should really get back to –lbs.” But then as soon as I’d try to skip a meal, I’d realize, “how ridiculous.” As I said, it’s a lot of psychic effort to maintain a weight below your biological setpoint, and I didn’t have the energy available. I was busy with more important things. I also think it takes a lot of self-hatred to fuel an eating disorder and I had none of that left. Which is why I’m absolutely positive that even without the prozac intervention (which I was prescribed for anxiety/depression not anorexia) I would have gained the weight eventually anyway.