Rae Mak

This heart-melting moment brought to you by baby Tuukka and his mama bear, @spezsings An intuitive touch therapy Tuukka gave his mom the other day in our private yoga sesh. A gentle pressure on the low back when in child’s pose helps release the hips and relaxes the nervous system.We are human, naturally, we crave touch and affection. The pandemic has affected so many of us with this. Take time to make contact with those that you can and especially yourself.Grateful for this gentle reminder from son to mother that we instinctively need this. Been taking more time lately to hug my partner too. It’s like a mini-flood of happiness. A small moment of surrender. When’s the last time you felt the touch of kindness? From someone else, but most importantly, from yourself?

satisfying little sweet potato gnocchis I’m so in love with making these

The voice of an angel. Y’all like Aerosmith? Clearly I do. I learned last night in an amazing @jointempest workshop that karaoke can not only be fun sober, but can expel some anger demons. This made me laugh. This reminded me of the concert my mama and I went to and we sang this while Steven Tyler belted it like I never good.... This left a semi-shitty day off on a pretty good(off-key) note. Highly recommend 10/10.

Second time’s a charm! Thanks for the sexy new footwork @isabellahoops #hoopersofinstagram #hoopers #foothooping #hoopdance #hoopdancer #fancyfootwork

Matcha Banana smoothie bowl!! So green!! So beautiful! Just: matcha, banana, spinach, nutmilk. I’m a massive fan of green tea icecream and this totally does the trick, plus it’s breakfast, double win. The trick with smoothie bowls is to fill your blender half to 3/4 full with liquid so that you get a thicker, ice-creamier like treat.... Yes, you can blend spinach and bananas and nutmilk and it tastes delish. I topped this one with homemade oat + nut granola and blackberries. ++ =

These photos speak for themselves. I’m not one for before/after images and just leaving it at that because there’s a journey here that I want to share with you. This wasn’t a one-size, fix-all approach. This was 2 years of me figuring out how to treat myself and my body in a kinder, gentler way and the results of that.... When I took the first image, it was just before Christmas of 2019, the world was as usual and I had been struggling with gaining weight after the repercussions of a bad accident. I was seeing a dietician, restricting calories, using Noom actively and riding the waves of standing on a scale every day, watching the pounds go up and down and up again. Second image, mid-pandemic. I’d started toying around with sober curiosity, I stopped measuring my food, keeping track of everything I ate and drank. You can tell I’m happier here. But I was in the midst of being duped by an MLM 30-day weight loss transformation so I was still pretty caught up in this shit. Image 3. I took this photo this morning, shortly after a cathartic crying session. It doesn’t matter how many pounds I’ve lost. I’m one month alcohol free, not missing booze one bit (as of right now, so I’m celebrating that.) I don’t keep track of anything I eat anymore, I just focus on meal planning with wholesome ingredients and making as much homemade food as possible. This biggest thing I notice in these three photos is the look on my fucking face. I see a woman who went from broken, hating herself, to finding some joy in who she was again, to feeling, dare I say it, confident. I hope my journey can inspire you. It took me a really long time to realize that if I just put down the wine and stop worrying about food, everything falls in place. Yesterday, I signed up to become a holistic nutritionist and will be starting another beautiful, 2-year journey with food where I can hone on what I’m seriously so, so passionate about: finding the best possible way to nourish ourselves and recover without beating ourselves up, without obsessing, without feeling like we’re missing out. When you let go of expectations, when you loosen your grip, things get a little easier.