Total Food & Feminine Upgrade

I’m not really sure where to start… I guess at the beginning makes sense.

A facebook friend shared a post about a course which had something to do with a food upgrade… Total Food & Feminine Upgrade, I’ve just scrolled back through facebook to see if I could see the post but it’s no longer there. I was aware of the lady leading the course as she led events at Soul Happy in Peterborough but they weren’t ones I’d ever been to as they were a little female focussed for my liking. But this was a food course right, ‘Total Food & Feminine Upgrade’ it sounded interesting, it was a 12 week course over winter, as we were still feeling the effects of the pandemic and I had little social activity going on I figured why not. Something about the course called to me and I got a sense it might be something that changed my eating habits for the better. So I jumped in and contacted Sharlene.

To give you some background… I’ve tried a lot of different eating plans over the last 20+ years. I’m relatively well educated on food and it’s effects. I generally understand what foods are healthy and which are not. I’m also an emotional eater and sometimes feel out of control with my food choices, driven by hormones, emotion, boredom. Unconsciously eating. I’ve been overweight most of my life but more importantly, as I age, I understand how abusing my body in this way is detrimental. On an intellectual level I get it but for whatever reason I’ve never been able to change my habits.

It’s definitely a good thing that I committed before realising what I was getting into. I read the bit’s I needed to from the post and ignored the rest of it. This is a food course about eating habits right… wrong! I mean how many times… ‘Total Food & Feminine Upgrade’ the clue is in the title, whilst there is a lot of information about food on this course, it is way bigger than that. Had I fully appreciated what I was committing to I probably wouldn’t have signed up. Now, I cannot stress this enough, in no way was I duped or information withheld from me. I think there was part of me that intuitively knew I needed this and let me gloss over the information that would put me off. The ‘F’ word… Feminine. I contacted Sharlene with an ‘I’m in’ type message, not an ‘I’m interested could you please tell me more’. It was absolutely the right thing…

Before the course started I filled out a food diary and consultation form I was sent and then had a consultation with Sharlene to establish my starting point, where I was at that moment. From my perspective I knew it wasn’t a great point. I’d recently started back to work full time after having quite a long period of time off work due to the pandemic, so I was exhausted. There was also lots of change happening in my personal circumstances too and whilst I’m not averse to change and often seek it out sometimes it’s not as welcome as others and sometimes it can be overwhelming. I knew I was living on convenience due to not having as much free time as I’d like but I was probably in denial about how poorly I was treating my body. I’d also had a period of time where I wasn’t able to exercise as much as I’d like or typically do as I was suffering with an old recurring shoulder injury. The consultation form also took into account my physical and emotional past and present so there was a lot of information for Sharlene to base her assessment on. We had a chat about where she thought I was and her recommendations for me. Sharlene is trained in a Macrobiotic way and she has combined this with insight into feminine archetypes. Based on the information I’d sent Sharlene, she could see I had imbalances in certain areas and her recommendations focussed on bringing my physical and emotional bodies into balance.

I’m very aware that plant based diets are better for the body and I’m on board with this way of eating but have always struggled with protein choices as my body doesn’t react well to lentils and beans so I was resistant to giving up chicken and eggs – these along with cheese are the only things I eat outside of plant based foods. One of my recommendations was to give up coffee too. Now that I was really resistant to… I only drink one cup a day and really enjoy it, so did not see how it would make a big difference. I said I’d make an effort to give it up, but used the excuse that I still had coffee in the house and I don’t like waste so I wasn’t throwing it out, as a reason to carry on consuming.

From the introductory email and accompanying videos it started to dawn on me what I might’ve let myself in for. The online ‘meeting’ (pandemic preventing in person meetings) was actually a Circle… you know those feminine things that I had deliberately not attended in the past. But I was in it for the food stuff so I’d show up, but it didn’t have to be a big deal right…

The first three or four weeks were tough. These weeks didn’t talk about food really, we were jumping into exploring feminine ‘stuff’. Now, yes I’m female.. but I’ve always identified more with masculine traits. I was a real Tom boy growing up, I’m independent, driven, direct. I have always had issues with my menstrual cycle and so that is something I hate and am not connected to, the only really feminine connection I had was to sensuality and sexuality. So this was uncomfortable, really fucking uncomfortable. I find myself in a weekly sharing space where I don’t really want to open up about me, I hate being the centre of attention and just want to learn about food, but oh no, we are focussing on feminine stuff. This is just wonderful. But… I’ve committed and paid my fees so I’m going to keep showing up because at some point we are going to start talking about food. I have female friends, but also male friends and I guess I’ve never had that Girl Tribe, Sisterhood feeling either and this is part of what we were creating here… Cringe… right.

Each week we are sent videos and written content as part of the course, by week five this starts focussing on food in relation to the archetypes. At this point I start enjoying it. There is a whole physical body, energy, emotion connection with each archetype. Learning about how they are when they are balanced and supporting us, how they are when they are in extremes and out of sync. How different food connects with different parts of our body and can support those functions or throw them out of whack. I just want more of this, more information, more recipes… and oh those recipes… oh yeah… we get those each week, plus videos showing how to cook stuff. I’m a fairly competent cook. But some of this is new foods, macrobiotics has an eastern influence so there are lots of food types incorporated which I’ve not encountered before. Sea veg and strange powders and pastes, fermented foods (which aren’t completely new but fermented grains were), so watching how to properly prepare these was so, so useful. There are also food challenges each week to focus on.

The final three weeks of the course focus on three additional feminine archetypes which don’t have the same food connections as the previous five but are important to us as females, by now I’m starting to be a little more comfortable with this stuff and I’m more open to the ideas. Something that helped with this… included in the programme is a coaching session where, in circle, something of our choice is focussed on. I chose to focus on my connection with the feminine as it was the thing I struggled most with. I realised I was holding judgements around the feminine, which was a revelation as I’ve strived to let go of these judgements in so many areas of my life. Once I stopped putting the concept of feminine in a box and was more open to what it meant I was able to connect with it a little better. I’m still not particularly comfortable with being the focus of attention and when I’m called to share, sometimes I just don’t know what to say. I love holding space and listening to others and I guess I need to start applying that principle to me. Our final circle celebrated how far we had come and what we have learned in the programme, what our Total Food & Feminine Upgrade had been and was just a joyful but bittersweet time and space.

Now it’s done…

I’ve just started putting some of the principles I’ve learned over the course into practice. Part of me feels like I wasted the 12 weeks not ‘doing’ but if I take a step back I think I needed the growth I got from those weeks before I could embrace the changes I needed to make. I’m finally starting to listen to my body, be more intuitive with my food choices. I’ve given up coffee… actually, not by choice. I kept making it every morning but realised I’d stopped drinking it, it took weeks but I went from a full cup each day to leaving some, then leaving more, then leaving at least half to only taking a few sips and then realising I didn’t actually want it. My body is telling me that…

I’ve realised beans and lentils are ok, some still make me feel a little bloated and emit napalm from my ass, but I think some of the reaction was probably attributable to other foods actually… ones I didn’t want to give up and so I blamed the beans. I’m still on a learning curve but it’s more intuitive now and I listen out to what my body is telling me.

I’ve tried new foods and methods of cooking that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m not particularly experimental when it comes to food but this course has pushed me. I shall continue pushing those boundaries and maybe one day even embrace drinking the ‘bean juice’ 😂

I’ve made connections with some wonderful women, most of whom I’d likely never meet in other circumstances. Those women have challenged me, supported me, witnessed me and listened to me and for that I’m grateful. Those women have made recommendations which have already impacted my life in huge, positive ways and I believe will do so in the future.

One of the recommendations was to listen to the Hay House healing summit. I do not have the space here to describe how amazing those series of lectures were, the timing was perfect and the understanding of the mind, body spirit connection I’ve taken away is immense. Understanding how food, energy and emotions effects the physical body also emphasises how important it is to work on aligning the archetypes and now I’m armed with so much information on how to do that.

Letting go of some of my attachments has also allowed me to form deeper connections with my partner which feels so special.

I feel this is something every woman should experience. If you get an opportunity to take this course… then do it. Undoubtedly you will take away something different from me as you are starting out from a different place than I did, it is also likely you’ll never predict what that benefit could be. Even though I was incredibly resistant at first I’ve still walked away with more than I can ever imagine. I’ve read about intuitive eating and whilst I understood the words I read that described it, intellectually it made no sense. Now I get it… Go in with an open mind and open heart and the possibilities are endless. If you have stumbled across this post then I believe it’s for a reason… go, contact Sharlene.

Website for this amazing program: www.sacredsisterfood.com – due to go live in May 2021
Contact Sharlene for more information: support@sacredsisterfood.com