 Hi, I'm George Cao and today I'm with Marina Francis and we're going to talk about having a healthier relationship with food Marina welcome. Thanks for being here. Thanks George. I'm so happy to be here with you right now Yeah, so let me just kind of share with the audience a bit of your your bio and then we'll get into the conversation so Marina Francis you've been working on These kinds of you've been you've been empowering smart heartfelt women To find their own empowered answers to food for the last 23 years You have a bunch of certifications like from the Institute of psychology of eating From the Hendricks Institute Let's see you're your level three EFT practitioner So there's a lot of training you bring and a lot of experience So and one of the things that you say in your bio is you know kind of smart and you know intelligent women That you that you really focused on helping so tell us Why intelligent women? Well, first of all, I'm curious. Why why just women? Why not men have these issues too as I know Yeah, thanks for thanks for asking that. I get that. Um And I do work with men I love working with men typically because the masculine and feminine brains to work a bit differently And there's there's some fascinating science on that For women everything tends to be connected. So Food is is a bit more of an all-encompassing Invitation into growth I just find for more women than for men and I do work with men and I love to work with men I work with men a bit differently And often it can be a bit more linear a bit more focused because you guys I mean, I'm not going to tell you anything. You don't already know about yourself But you're very good. The masculine energy is really good at focused at action at compartmentalizing And women so I think about that like Men are the are this ship that that knows that knows how to go Women are the ocean and so we got to have both, you know, we all have both but for women because that's true The relationship with food Like spokes out of a wheel and affects many different areas of life And I'll talk, you know, a little bit more about that as we go and specific to business women and entrepreneurs So so yeah, let's let's actually get into this Discussion regarding regarding women since that's a lot of your focus. Why isn't it? Why isn't it working? for women So much of it is I you know, I laugh about this, but There's a lot of old school stuff that really smart women are still Doing there's something like, you know kind of The definition of insanity being doing the same things and expecting different results. And so for example Some women are counting calories Some women are imagining that paleo is going to be The end all and be all or vegan and and not to discount the power and the viability of those I definitely work with people around specific diets And and the the science and the practice of nutrition But without actually understanding Oh, who am I as an eater right now at this particular point in my life? All of that stuff, um, it isn't sustainable so What when would when I talk about what's typically not working is um control Willpower um the judgment of ourselves that we might have and and I know you've you've talked about this too um as you have Tweet your diet and tweet some of your eating habits and patterns like oh well what To really feel in to what's working for me right now and why And in order to find that we have to get really clear on what isn't working and why that is And so for women, there's very often an emotional component with this and what's fascinating to me about food is Food if you think about it as humans It's one of the only substances we can get really out of balance with that we actually still need to live Right like we don't need um tobacco or the best red wine on the planet or or heroin or any of that Like we don't need those to live. We do need food. And so it's in a category all its own And to me that makes it Uh, it gives it opportunities all its own to yeah, so if you know A an ideal client right now is watching this and she's like, yeah, I I have tried willpower. I have tried different diets And you know blaming myself or whatever and it hasn't worked And I continue to have a less than Healthy relationship or I would like to improve my relationship with food. So what what can we do? What what what can that person do? Yeah, well in in a in a very simple way One of the things that that is so powerful So instead of control Forcing ourselves to eat this and not eat that instead of judgment when maybe we do eat this and we don't eat that when we when we Want to do better for ourselves Instead of that judgment in that like it's a quality of hardness in the body, you know judgment and control are both They're both locking down and closing and So we really want to do the opposite of that and and like open up the periphery of that and say like, all right Instead of judging myself. What if I wonder? What if I just really wonder? Oh Why why is it that I want to eat? The second brownie at the potluck I was at a great potluck yesterday. So that that one just showed up And just being in the dynamic of watching everybody and having fun. So why Why is it say for example? sensitive A highly sensitive woman who might be a bit of an introvert Eat a second or a third brownie at a potluck where she's she's with people that she's enjoying maybe she's Not feeling confident that day. Maybe she had a hard conversation with someone this morning Um, so all of this stuff comes into the mix So when people especially women talk about emotional eating I I say Great, we're emotional creatures. And of course we Carry that into the act of Eating and nourishing ourselves like what could be more normal than that, right? So one of the one of the early things that I teach all my one-on-one clients is How can you be that emotional creature that you are? How can you really bring that and celebrate that in your life and have a really healthy nourishing relationship with food at the same time? Because I think a lot of people think it's got to be one or the other if I'm if I'm really Emotionally charged right now because of that thing that happened this morning or yesterday or that hard thing I'm going into later I'm going to overeat or I'm going to eat things that numb me out or that I need to I need to sort of Run away from so instead is how do we bring that like how do we how do we bring that to the party? Use it for a really clean powerful fuel Step into our own Power with because now we're in alignment, you know and and alignment Is is power? It's it's a personal sovereignty So when we talk about women in business Um, I'll just give you a little example. So this morning right before you and I got on here to um have our interview together I noticed that I was a little afraid You know and my my my belly was contracted and then my breathing was a little shallow and I was about to have my breakfast and and so preparing preparing everything and realize in that moment We have a we have a choice every time we sit down to eat anything We have these beautiful choices and so in that moment I chose to climb back into my body And and really feel and really presence. Oh, I have some fear I'm not going to do the interview right I'm going to forget to say some really important things And so I just just took a couple of breaths. So it didn't take any more like clock time that I already had planned But I just became a different person in those few minutes Before and while eating my breakfast like Okay, this is how I feel like just allow all of that welcome all of that and The fascinating thing about that there's there's hard science on this now There's a better nutritional uptake. There's a better Scanning for macro and micronutrients there. And so that's an awesome thing because Um, what that means is if we're running through the airport and we're rushing We have to eat some junk food because we're getting on the next flight If we can do that in a relaxed embodied way, we'll actually get more nutrition from that Conversely we can eat the most beautiful organic food on the planet for a meal and if we're eating it from a place of stress and hurriedness and Mental or even physical crowdedness. We will not uptake the nutrition. That's actually available in that food So I consider that great news because it it it just offers us a world of possibilities Wow, that's amazing. That's really cool. I was um, I was I was laughing a little bit when you said earlier Oh at a potluck and eating that second brownie. I'm like, well, I would do it because it's free food I was like, it's free No, um, everybody has their own thing. No, um, well, yeah And that's about and and there's history there sometimes too. So a lot of what I'm doing with clients is We're taking a look, you know, not a big wallowing but but a look at what's the history there, you know, so like I know you didn't but you might have grown up with eight brothers and sisters And so like oh, it's free food. I better eat what I can while like, you know, yeah Yeah, I mean, you know growing up, you know in school when there's like goodies at school or something like that It's like, oh, everyone's grabbing it. Well, I better grab an extra one or something. Yeah, but um, so, uh, I love this idea I'm this, you know Mindful eating brings more nutrition into our bodies. So how do we eat more mindfully especially? Well, we're going into the holiday as we're recording this going into the holidays So there's a lot of food involved in holidays, but but just anytime in the year I mean we're eating multiple times a day. So how do we how do we eat? The next meal more mindfully the next meal again And it's beautiful that you're saying that because the cool thing about food is we have an opportunity to practice this Anytime we propose to put something in our mouths And so I use the word practice intentionally and often because in the same way that we practice a sport or a musical instrument or yoga We don't call that a perfect. We're always calling that a practice and so to understand and to recognize that every day is different and Back to control for a minute. If I say to myself like, okay, this is the amount of Yogurt you eat every morning and this is how many eggs you can have a week in that that's I'm not taking into account My level of activity what what I'm dealing with emotionally that week Do I have to travel? Did I just do a marathon? You know all those things and so What I what I'm teaching. I think the most important thing that I'm teaching women is How do you know for yourself right now in your life? the Perfect way to eat and how can you take what we learn together in our bit of focused work over Usually several months time How do we take that and how do you take that forward sustainably so that you will always Be able to discover for yourself. What is my perfect way to eat right now? Am I am I wanting a maintenance diet because things are pretty well Do I have some things to heal? Do I need to create a therapeutic diet for myself? Am I an active athlete? That's a different thing. And so There's a beautiful way of untangling The whole nutritional confusion and the good and the bad and the right are wrong through this method So let me give you just a uh, a simple set of practices that I use In fact my my example about you know eating breakfast this morning. This is what I was doing basically It's it's built into my into my body now. I don't do it perfectly I don't do it a hundred percent But it's a thing that is a touchstone and I'll teach it to you so that you know It's just always the thing we can come back to so the very first one is When we're eating whenever is you know as much as possible to really to eat And so that means um not scrolling facebook not reading. Um not Writing our notes or even looking over our notes about what are we doing this afternoon? It's it's literally and energetically squaring ourselves up to the table Putting our feet on the floor Taking a couple of really beautiful intentional breaths so that we can get Physically and energetically present To what we're about to do which is Hopefully nourish our body in the best way that we know how Given the circumstances and what's available to us right now so The other part is and I think I spoke about this already Doing that allows our our bodies and our psyche and our brain to scan For macronutrients too so If you ever had the experience and a hundred percent of people that I've asked this to say, oh, yeah, that's happened I've looked down and thought wow. Where did my dinner go? I was enjoying talking to you so much for example Um, and so if we're not present, it's really easy to overeat You know, even when we are in a positive frame of mind and having a great time with our friends or our family It's not always when there's an emotionally challenging thing going on and I'm Opening your refrigerator to numb myself out from what I don't want to feel so it can be a a really broad Spectrum there. So getting physically and energetically present Taking those few breaths just going inside just checking out like oh, how do I feel right now? so another way I could say that is Finding out in that moment. Who's the eater? Who's the eater? So we talk all the time about what we're eating and we rarely talk about Who who am I being right now? So in the same ways that you George talk about How do we show up for ourselves in our businesses so that we can serve the tribe that we're meant to serve It's it's it's an adjunct of the same thing You know who you know because who are we being? In in our eating also drives the powerful decisions so that we can eat As a full expression of who we want to be and how we want to show up in the world I want to ask you a question. You've mentioned a couple times about scanning for macronutrients When we're doing mindful eating. What do you mean by by that? Yeah, it's a very automatic thing It's not even a thing that the brain needs thought for when we become more present in our bodies And we slow everything down Just enough it doesn't have to even take longer than the amount of time that we are already eating It just takes attention and awareness. So those couple of breaths those squaring ourselves up those looking looking down and appreciating The meal that you're about to eat because you've never had this meal before Even you may have eaten the those foods before but we've never been In this moment with this meal in in this body in this breath right now So it's an opportunity To take in something really new and fresh and to appreciate that So all by doing that our our we by our slowing down That um, we we are automatically physiologically scanning For nutrients more than if we're checked out and we're doing this and we're doing that and I've got my phone and you know So somehow the body is actually more more Absorbing of good things. Yeah, thankfully eating. Yeah, that's amazing as well as the acknowledgement of like Oh, I just ate a really satisfying meal or oh, yes, you actually need a little bit more I am still a little bit hungry right right. That's a better capacity to find out the answers to those things Right. Yeah, or like, oh, I'm done. I thought I prepared this but I'll see this for later or something And how do I know that? Yeah, so those decisions Start taking on what I call a neck down quality and not a neck up because this is the part that doesn't work So well when we're proposing to eat in in better ways for ourselves That's that's the old school. Yeah. Yeah, so um Let's wrap up by sharing with people how people how those who are watching can work with you Um, you love working with clients to tell us about what that's like Yeah, I really do. I mean these days the bulk of my practice is um one-on-one work with you know for for For deep dive nourishing focusing On all of this and what's so interesting is that it's very far-reaching And so I always joke about it looks like it's about the food, but it is never only about the food and There there are beautiful other things that Are calling to be learned through this doorway of food and I love anybody who's Notting their head right now as you're hearing this or reading what George is posting It's such an honor to be part of this tribe along with you and if this intrigues you The way you can learn more the link is here in the comments um Go in fill out my very short little form. It's attached to the consultation and I will gift you with A nice 30 minute session For you as a fellow heartfelt Entrepreneur and that's just marina frances.com forward slash consultation and it's as I say it's here in the links Awesome. Yes, that's absolutely That's easy. It's marina frances fr a and c is marina m a r i n a marina francis.com slash consultation And that's for anybody who mentions my name. You get a free consult Um, I should mention marina is a Yeah, yeah a free session. Yeah, and as you mentioned marina as a client of mine and that you know love working with her So, you know, if this has if if you feel like yes, I could I could I would benefit from a from a more healthy and mindful relationship to my food then Get that session with marina. I think you'll be grateful for it marina, thank you so much for For doing this and is there any kind of words of wisdom to to send us off with? uh One word, um, especially as we're coming into the holidays here um Relax Relax and yourself. I like that. I like that. Thank you so much marina. Mm-hmm. Great to see you as always charge. Thanks