I grew up feeling like food had power over me. I thought I was powerless to the constant calling of food - it haunted me in every waking moment. I wasn’t overweight, but was led to believe I was by my gymnastics coaches. Most of my family was fat, so it was easy to believe I was too. It’s as though I was a fat person stuck in a regular sized body. I feared becoming fat and spent years obsessing about what I would and would not eat; what people would think of me if they saw me eating; how I would get rid of the enemy (food) once ingested. I created a plethora of unhealthy habits as a result. I was depressed, negative and angry – filled with self loathe – and repeated this thought to myself often: “I am (doomed to be) fat and don’t want to be.”

“I grew up feeling like food had power over me.”

Then I learned that what we think and feel is what we create. I also learned that the universe is a big YES machine – it hears our thoughts as positive statements and says yes to them, manifesting our thoughts from the unseen or astral plane to the seen or physical plane from that perspective. So when I thought "I am fat and don’t want to be fat" the universe simply heard "I am fat" – and said YES I grant you that as you wish!

This was a game changer for me, but I was left with the daunting challenge of relearning how to play this new game - to be selective, positive and purposeful with my thoughts. I created a mantra (many of them, really) that I began to recite to myself a lot. I figured I had years of "I'm fat" and "I'm powerless over food" to counteract, so affirmations became my new obsession!

I am happy, healthy, wealthy, loved and lean.
I'm fit, firm, sexy and strong.
My body is an amazing machine; everything I put in it is used for fuel.
Eating leafy greens makes me feel happy.
When I connect to my essential self, I am powerful and make intuitively wise, healthy choices.

“When I connect to my essential self, I am powerful and make intuitively wise, healthy choices!”

A year of practice later, my powerlessness and obsession with eating and becoming fat had decreased dramatically. I had retrained my brain, changed my thoughts and therefore behaviors, and had manifested a body in line with my new thoughts – I was fit, firm, lean and strong! The internal transformation I felt was liberating, I felt free and happy and powerful. Wanting to share the tools I used to help others like me find relief from the negativity and self-condemnation of eating issues and body image disorders, I developed a 12-week workshop called Your Essential Self (YES!). I couldn’t be more pleased to see the immensely positive results my students have also had over the past six years that I’ve been teaching YES!

I invite you to give yourself the gift of consciousness, empowerment and ease with food and your body this year by joining me Tuesday, January 27 through April 14, 2015, at 7:15pm for this 12-week course. Click here for more details (http://www.allyncioban.com/12-week-course/) and here to register (https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/home?studioid=18383) [click on Workshops and scroll down to Your Essential Self (YES!)].

Namaste,

Allyn