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for life

amanda

Amanda 2I am just getting ready to go live on radio and talk about something that I have always found difficult. A few girlfriends and I started a little experiment a year or so ago and it has gone a bit crazy. Our goal was to celebrate womanhood and encourage women in the fact that we are not each others competition.

Life around my house lately has been quite wild, so writing here has been difficult but I am back and excited to be making a contribution even when it hurts.

My topic today for the live interview is eating disorders and I will be sharing my story about how difficult it was to overcome one in my life in my late teens and early twenties.

Our world is slightly (okay a lot) obsessed with our exterior image, but we don’t realise that everything shaped on our exterior begins its fruition on our interior.

The root cause of my eating disorder was worrying about what others thought about me and my desire to fit in. I may not be throwing up my food any more but I still battle this problem everyday. I battle after two babies in three years, a complete change of lifestyle and career, to find my equilibrium and use food as a fuel rather than a reward.

I grew up in a culture when there was always another diet or fad on the cards, I grew up in a dancing school that promoted ‘The skinnier the better dancer’, I grew up in the eighties wanting to fit into those MC Hammer pants and not look like a Oumpa Lumpa.

Many years of culture and decisions have left me as an adult wondering, will there ever be a day where I am not battling what I am eating from the moment I wake up.

My goal this Spring and Summer has been to walk everyday with my family.

To lay down my phone and engage with my family.

To make my food choices about wellbeing and health, rather than quick weight loss and shame.

How about you?

What are you struggling with this Summer?

We all are, just some of us are more open to confront it than others.

Tune in here: at 8.40 perth time for my interview, or take time to encourage another towards wellness this Summer rather than a desire to fit into a culture that promotes skinny as best.

Skinny is not successful, skinny can be very unhealthy.

Wellness, health, fitness these are brilliant pursuits.

Skinny can be very deceptive.

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, get in touch with a health professional today and find strength in being honest and seeking health.

All my love

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#napkinseries

imageI was flying solo a couple of weeks ago to Sydney and I dug out a journal that I always used to write with, every time I flew.

It was a ritual.

I was on an aeroplane so often by myself that it became my high altitude muse.

As I leafed through these seasonal writings, it made me smile how many themes rolled from one year to another, but also how many themes fitted the exact season I was in.

I waited for my small, overcooked meal to come down the aisle and I lifted the journal to replace my tray and out tumbled some napkin drawings that made me smile.

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Each beginning of the year as I travelled, I wrote on a single napkin, the one word I was to focus on in that year and brainstormed its output.

It was simple but it was revolutionary.

napkin series

This act distilled what I wanted to focus on in a creative way.

I have started a little napkin series and am encouraging you to do the same.

1) Find a cafe, restaurant, secret cubby house or a moment.

2) Find a nakin.

3) Find a sharpie.

4) Write one word that is necessary to focus on for this season.

5) Idea storm it.

6) hashtag #napkinseries for accountability.

A simple thought but profound one, if we actually do something with it.

Till we meet again.

Mumma V.