As The Busy Hedonist, I’m all about the joy of food, cooking and enjoying fresh, seasonal food. I take the “enjoyment” approach, and want to inspire you to cook from scratch, seek out great ingredients, enjoy dessert, sip a glass of wine…and enjoy dinnertime and life. Which is why I want to introduce you to Sue Ann Gleason of Conscious Bite Nutrition and Chocolate for Breakfast. She’s truly a woman after my own heart—she loves the joy of cooking and eating, too, but she’s also a culinary nutritionist (see below to discover how that’s different from a nutritionist), so she delves deeper into the subject and takes you on an incredible journey during her 3-month program:
The Well-Nourished Woman. Meet Sue Ann (I promise, you’ll love her) and find out about her wonderful program, which starts January 22nd.—Tracey
Tracey Ceurvels: How did you create the Well-Nourished Woman?
Sue Ann Gleason: Great question, Tracey. For the past four years I have been running online programs on healthy eating, beautiful skin, strong bones, the psychology of eating, mind body nutrition, culinary arts-LOTS of ‘information.’ But more and more I started noticing that the women I was attracting into my programs knew a whole lot about food…and diet…and exercise. Many of them had tried as many nutritional systems as I had studied. I discovered it wasn’t so much the science they needed but rather, permission to let go of a few of those food rules that had taken much of the joy out of eating. I love this quote by Isabel Allende: “I repent of my diets, the delicious dishes rejected out of vanity, as much as I lament the opportunities for making love that I let go of because of pressing tasks or puritanical virtue.” I took a leap of faith, took the best Conscious Bites concepts I had cultivated over the past four years and crafted them into a three-month journey into what it means to live the “life” of a well-nourished woman. In addition to talking about healthier ways to prepare food, I shifted into a more ARTful approach to eating, nourishment and life in general. An approach that brings women back to trusting and honoring the wisdom of their bodies.
Tracey: Can you explain what ARTful eating is?
Sue Ann: I have always enjoyed experimenting with the visual appeal of the food on my plate. I love taking photographs of food and showing women how their experience of food changes when they start to pay attention to the way it is arranged and how they eat it. ARTful eating is learning what it means to prepare a sumptuous meal that nourishes, body, eye, and spirit. It’s slowing down long enough to actually notice the food and allow the sensory experience of eating to emerge. One of my Inner Circle participants described our work together with these words . . .
“Food RAPTURE. THIS is what I’m discovering. I am discovering the sensual act of preparing each new recipe I try. I’m savoring the indulgence of taking an hour to prepare a meal FOR MYSELF and I have a swagger of the seductress when I think about how helpless a man would be if I slid a plate of this new deliciousness in front of him on a candle-lit table and then smiled with serene confidence in my creation, batting my eyelashes at him. I now understand how cooking can be a means of seduction. All in good time. For now, I’m quite content with seducing and pleasing my Self. . . food RAPTURE.”
Don’t you love that? Such a far cry from trying to figure out the glycemic index in a slice of watermelon. That’s what ARTful eating is, Tracey, a return to food in its most delightful form.
Tracey: Can you elaborate on the difference between a nutritionist and a culinary nutritionist?
Sue Ann: Yes, great question. In my private nutritional counseling practice, I work with women who are struggling with their health-adrenal failure, thyroid issues, diabetes, weight loss resistance, food sensitivities, autoimmune disorders, inflammation; the list is long. Food plays a very important role here. I see myself as a food healer. Some foods are problematic for women who are struggling with their health. Sometimes their health practitioner asks them to eliminate certain foods from their diet for a while so that the body can find its balance. This can be scary for many women. They don’t know what to eat. Instead of handing them a meal plan or a list of foods to avoid, I cultivate their culinary curiosity and elevate their eating experience with beautiful wholesome foods so that they never feel deprived. Gradually, we build a whole new repertoire of delicious foods and, even more important, habits around food based on my ‘Conscious Bites’ concepts. Basically, I help women bring their bodies back into balance while redefining the true meaning of nourishment.
I love Dean Ornish’s line:
“There’s no point in giving up something that you enjoy unless you get something back that’s even better.”
Tracey: Can you tell us more about the program and what women can gain from taking the class?
Sue Ann: The Well-Nourished Woman is a three-month journey into nourishment. The components are:
ARTful eating: women come away from the ARTful eating experience with more confidence in the kitchen. They also acquire some simple culinary principles, like flavor balancing, that inspire them to PLAY more and not be dependent on recipes or paralyzed by a long list of mysterious ingredients. This series is all about pleasure and permission, and elevating the eating experience with a fresh look at what it means to plan and prepare seriously SIMPLE meals so that, on occasion, you’ll be more inclined to tackle a more intricate recipe.
Expression: We ALL leave the Well-Nourished Woman experience more fully expressed. For some of us this means we are using our voice more powerfully in the world so that we can stop eating our way through our struggles. For others it means discovering the creative energy that somehow gets lost in the shuffle of everyday life. We carve out time to pursue or complete a creative project over the course of the three months. My own creative project for this next round is to eliminate the clutter in my workspace so that I can create a more pleasing environment in which to create. There is something very powerful about a group of women holding space for each other to follow their intentions.
And finally, we leave the Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle with a whole new nourishment script, one that reaches far beyond the plate.
The Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle begins on January 22nd.
Are you registered? Click here to begin your journey.
Sue Ann Gleason is a food lover, food writer, food-based healer and savvy marketing strategist. Founder of Conscious Bites Nutrition and the Well Nourished Woman, she inspires women to trust their intuition, unravel their food stories and rewrite their nourishment script. She has been featured in Oprah and Runner’s World Magazines and numerous online publications. She Ann shares her expertise through online programs and in one-on-one sessions via telephone or SKYPE.
Her signature online program, the Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle, runs twice a year for three months, a truly exquisite online experience for women who are ready to take back their plates, one luscious bite at a time.
When not working with clients, she can be found sampling exotic chocolates or building broccoli forests in her mashed potatoes.
Are you ready to take back your plate, one luscious bite at a time? Register for The Well-Nourished Woman here.
Tracey, what a pleasure to spend time with two of my favorite “foodie world” women in this post. Your interview with Sue Ann shed even more light on the healing she’s pioneering… doing… LOVING! I fully expect you two had a great time! I also suspect there was chocolate involved.
Kimby recently posted…It’s A Date! (Stuffed Dates With Feta, Bacon, & Pecans)
What a luscious post ladies!!
Sue Ann- I love your perspective and the language that you use to seduce us with…you temptress!! Your class sounds amazing. It struck me on many different levels….and it is needed.
I know some women who would love it and I’m going to share it with them over at Luscious Ladies Lounge.
Leah Shapiro recently posted…Luscious Life Tip #1
Putting the joy back in eating…hooray!!!
After many years as a busy working mum I lost the ‘art’ component. Food was always nutritious and made from scratch, but often just thrown on the plate. Now, I’m slowing down and enjoying the plating process.
And I love the difference between culinary nutrition and nutrition.
Jacqueline Fairbrass recently posted…Cycles and Rhythms ~ Honor How You Choose Happy
Excellent interview. I’m a big fan of Sue Ann’s work and Isabella Allende, too! Love having “permission to let go of a few of those food rules that had taken much of the joy out of eating” and I can’t wait to taste the first tomatoes from my garden this summer!
Christie Halmick recently posted…How Can I Make Interactive and Fillable PDFs?
What a wonderful and interesting interview! I hadn’t heard of Sue Ann before, but her take on the importance of food and the idea of “Food Rapture” are so unique…I am a big-time food lover, and also believe in making eating an art and a true experience to be enjoyed with all the senses. I’m inspired to make something WOW tonight…and to check out Sue Ann’s website. Thanks Tracey!
eyenie recently posted…The LucidMusing Code of Razzle-Dazzle Honor
I love this!! My husband is the cook in the family because he loves the cooking and the eating equally. I really love the eating part (and his food is delicious!) but want to step into my own cooking adventure. I recently went to a Medicine Making workshop (http://www.windyroots.com/Workshops.html) where 20 of us women made everything from
cough drops to fire cider and it was SO wonderful to do this as a community!
Karen Ribeiro recently posted…Today I Cleaned my Bathroom for You
This does sound delicious! Nice! And I love that Dean Ornish quote. <3
Teresa Deak recently posted…Someone left a post on my Facebook page, but where is it hiding?
A “food healer” — what a great concept! I’ve been following Chocolate for Breakfast for a while now, never realizing how much other knowledge and service was behind it! Thanks for a peek behind the curtain and insight into someone doing so much good in the world!
Greetings! I’ve been following your website for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Colorado. Just wanted to tell you keep up the excellent work!
Loved the interview, it resonated with me a lot, I love cooking and creating new dishes and find my way through balancing flavours. Unfortunately I don’t have much time during the weekdays to slow down and have Artful eating, but I try to do it at the weekends and I try a new recipe each week.
I love this line in the article – “There’s no point in giving up something that you enjoy unless you get something back that’s even better.”
Thanks, Tracey!
Inga Deksne recently posted…9 things you can do to make your Mondays magical
Hi Tracey.. great interview and of course topics that are so dear to my heart and to those of the women I work with.. Sounds like a beautiful, sensual program.
Love and blessings,
Lisa
Lisa Claudia Briggs recently posted…Intuitive Wisdom:Love Your Body-Love Your Life
Thanks for sharing Sue Ann’s wisdom and insights. A reminder that we all need to slow down and savor the moments of our lives culinary and not.
I cherished as much as you will receive carried out proper here. The comic strip is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish. nonetheless, you command get got an nervousness over that you want be delivering the following. unwell undoubtedly come more beforehand again since precisely the same nearly very often inside of case you defend this hike.