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. Sue Ann is truly a woman after my own heart—she loves the joy of cooking and eating, too, but she’s also a culinary nutritionist (and you can see below to discover how that’s different from a “regular” nutritionist). During her 3-month program,
The Well-Nourished Woman, Sue Ann delves deeper into the subject of food and will take you on an incredible journey.
Meet Sue Ann (I promise, you’ll love her) and find out about her wonderful program, which she is teaching for the last time on January 21st, 2014. Find out why this is her final round—and why you should sign up for
the final round of this beloved class. —Tracey
Tracey Ceurvels: I understand this is the final round of your Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle. Why are you closing this beautiful program and what do you have planned for the grand finale?
Sue Ann Gleason: I love this program, Tracey, and I will miss it! This will be my sixth round of The Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle. It has grown and evolved and morphed into so much more than I ever anticipated. I have several women who enroll in the Circle again and again as they continue to integrate the Conscious Bites Concepts; they love the community. For many women this has been a return to food. Permission personified. I call it a Circle of delicious intention.Yet, I believe this body of material is ready to take a different form. I need some time to see where the incubation phase takes me. For me, that often means writing my way into something new and different. That’s what keeps my creative fire lit. Something is simmering here and I want to bask in the aroma for a bit.And yes, this next round will be quite spectacular: a “best of” compilation of all that I have come to know and love about this well-nourished woman concept. For me, it has been a journey into the very essence of food and nourishment. The theme for this next round is “spaciousness.” We’ll be exploring our “food roots” both at the table and in our writing. The ‘Brave Writing’ component in the Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle is growing. Food loves writing.
Tracey: How did you create the Well-Nourished Woman?
Sue Ann: Great question, Tracey. For the past five 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.
Registration has ended.
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. 😉
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.
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. 😉
How wonderful! So bummed I am going to miss the last-ever cycle of this amazing experience, but it seems Sue Ann has even bigger, better, more DELICIOUS offerings to come. <3 I'm just now getting into "kitchen" (I burn water) and I'm finding it to be such a delightful experience. These types of guiding words really help a novice like me out a great deal.
there is so much to love about this article, sue ann. and i feel especially close to the content. i am an eating disorders aftercare coach. i’ve worked for many years with women who have struggled with weight/food/eating issues. more recently i have been allying with women who have gone through recovery for their eating disorder and, though no longer exhibiting the physical symptoms, are still struggling a bit with the emotional aspects. women who are hoping to recreate their lives without anorexia or bulimia as the central focus, who are trying to rediscover their essence. so i greatly appreciate this sentence: “For me, it has been a journey into the very essence of food and nourishment.” yes. exactly. thank you for your insight.
Oh, I loved this article! I have no doubt you are a food healer as you call yourself above. I agree!!! 😉 I love your approach and how you empower women to listen to their internal rhythms through food. I’m sorry I will miss this final round of well nourished woman but it looks like the nourishment is growing and I’m eager to see what you will be creating next Sue Ann. Thank you for sharing your wisdom here with us… and thank you Tracy for your brilliant questions.
My mom was always an artist with food. I seem to have lost (or never learned to appreciate) that component when I cook….hence I like to eat out a lot. Too much. And now I seem to have all kinds of weird food allergies I never expected to have.
I think I see your class in my future!
I’ve been so blessed to have worked with Sue Ann and been part of the Well Nourished Woman Inner Circle. Working with Sue Ann, I learned to trust my body and listen to my cravings. I learned to gather the best and savor every mouthful. I learned to slow down and actually sit down while I ate. Most important, I started to give myself permission and space to just be.
Sue Ann and this program are an integral part of my journey towards health and happiness.
I enjoy reading through an article that can make people think.
Also, many thanks for allowing me to comment!
Link exchange is nothinjg epse however it is just placing
the other person’s weblog link on your page at suitable place and other perrson will also
do similar in support of you.
A simple and inenlligett point, well made. Thanks!
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