Free Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace and Focus of a Ballet Dancer by Mary Helen Bowers

uncomfortable with their feelings. This can begin early in life—perhaps your mother gave you a bottle as soon as you fussed, or cookies when you cried. Your family culture may have been one that turned to food not only in celebration but also in times of stress or crisis. While eating food is a natural, purely human response, the danger comes when you eat too much because your eating is prompted by emotions (especially negative ones!) rather than your body’s natural cycle of hunger. This is the cycle we want to—and can—break.
Are You Really Hungry?
    The next time you find yourself thinking about or reaching for your comfort foods, take these two steps:
    1.Take a deep breath and let it out.
    2.Then ask yourself if you are feeling physical hunger or if you are just tired, thirsty, or upset.
    If you take the time to become aware of whether what you are feeling is actual hunger or another feeling that is emotional in nature, then you give yourself the opportunity to break an unconscious habit of eating emotionally. These two steps may seem oversimplistic, but I assure you that they work. They can also help you makebetter choices about the food you eat when you are feeling emotionally overwhelmed and help you regain your inner balance. Why? Because all of us have the power to become aware of how we are feeling and to choose not to let that have an impact on how we eat.
    You can also learn to indulge your cravings in a balanced, moderate way. I have found moderate indulging in some of my favorite foods, foods that once might have been considered forbidden, is one of the greatest things I can do to keep my body in balance. I eat chocolate every day! I indulge in a little bit of cheese and wine before dinner most nights and don’t set a lot of “off-limits” rules about food. But I also pay attention to how these favorite foods make me feel. If I’m starving before dinner, I try to start by eating raw veggies and hummus and a few olives before I dive into the cheese (goat cheese, not triple cream brie!). Then, when I have a small bite of the cheese, I really savor it! I take the time to slow down and enjoy the experience of eating. This helps me stay in touch with how I feel and lets me feel satisfied with less. On weeknights when I am training early the next morning, I usually don’t finish my glass of wine. But on a weekend I allow myself an extra drink if I feel the need.
    I also don’t skip meals, no matter how busy I am or how late I am running. I always grab a snack and often bring it with me so that I don’t find myself stuck somewhere—either without food or with the only choice being a candy bar! You know it as well as I do: skipping meals leads to poor food choices.
    As you will see in Chapter 8 , one of the best ways to stay in balance is to eat frequently—I eat probably two or three snacks a day and three to four small meals a day. That may sound like a lot, but if you are choosing foods that your body needs and uses, then eating often helps your body burn calories and keeps your blood sugar stable.
Pay Attention to How You Feel
    As I made the transition from the rigors of dancing with a ballet company to founding and becoming CEO of Ballet Beautiful, I had to learn a powerful lesson: how to take care of myself. The foundation of taking care of myself, I realized, was paying attention to how my body felt. When I was pushing through my pain, not admitting to myself that my foot was injured, I was unwittingly undermining my own recovery.
    Over time I began to do regular check-ins, asking myself questions and letting my body communicate with me:
    •Is that a sore muscle or a tender joint?
    •Did that snack make me feel good and grounded or slightly off?
    •Why do I feel groggy?
    •What did I eat that makes me feel so good today?
    I realized that by zeroing in on what hurt, what made me feel strong, what felt tight, or what felt weak, I could then tailor my workouts even more specifically.
    Once you