Hey there! I’m Audra Baker.

I help free up what weighs you down.

And if you think restrictive diets and torturous exercise hold the keys to your beautiful body…think again. And I should know. After 2 decades as a pro in the fitness industry + teaching nutrition, I’ve watched countless gals think diet plans and torturous treadmills are the answers.

Am I saying eating well and moving your body aren’t important? Of course not.

But they’re not the answer.

I’ve discovered the missing links to true weight loss success and living in a body you love. And now my only mission in life is to show you how to address the spiritual, emotional, and psychological components that will set you free.

My abusive relationship with food started a long time ago…

So I’m in my 20’s… I start teaching fitness, I get a degree in Kinesiology. After being a total “band nerd” and the opposite of an athlete growing up (my full “athletic” story here), I move to California and fall in love with snowboarding, surfing, mountain biking, and salsa dancing. Moving my body makes me feel alive…. So I do a lot of it. (cool video of me doing my all my stuff…) But then I wonder…

….“Why can’t I control my eating? Why do I want to binge on this food? I exercise all the time… why can’t I get this “food thing” under control?”

So I’m in my 30’s… I start a fitness company. I’m successful. AND I still can’t figure out my “eating issues”. Why can’t I just control my eating 100% of the time, follow my strict exercise regime and look like a super model all the time? What the fuck is wrong with me?

So I figured… I must not know enough about food and nutrition…I need to go to nutrition school! Holistic Nutrition MUST BE the answer. Once I get this figured out, then everything will be perfect. But then I wonder…

…“WTF?!? Why can’t I control my eating? Now I have all this knowledge of what to eat. I know what foods are life-giving and which deter from health…. but that doesn’t seem to stop me from plowing through the ice cream. Where is this coming from and what’s holding me back?”

Throughout all of this time I went on hundreds of diets. I’ve lost the same 25 pounds 25 times fluctuating from a size 4 to to a size 10 depending on if I was depriving myself with a diet or binging on everything in site. I was obsessive about food, which was fueled from years of striving for perfection as a fitness pro. And while I learned gobs about nutrition, my emotional eating patterns stayed the same… I just chose healthier foods!

 

Then 3 years ago, my world came crashing down.

My 7-year relationship with my fiance ended. I moved to San Francisco and started working through my shit.

I want what every woman wants. I want great friends and a healthy, passionate, intimate relationship. I want to live my truth out loud and serve. And I want freedom from dieting, obsessive thoughts about food, and I want to love my body. But three years ago, all of this felt out of whack and out of control.

So I looked at my newly-single-emotional-eating-very-sad-self, and decided this was the perfect opportunity to embrace my journey, for better for worse. I clearly saw the obsessive thoughts about food, exercise, and weight gain were not the problems, but the symptoms of living my life out of whack. In short… I needed a Spiritual Solution because it was clear that everything I was trying (despite all my degrees and certifications) was not the answer.

Here’s what happened:

I dropped to my knees.

I let go.

I surrendered.

I relinquished control.

I completely quit dieting.

I started taking care of my self in a less aggressive way through yoga and bubble baths and journaling.

If I wanted ice cream or red velvet cake (or both), I’d have it.

I started having more fun and adventures.

I studied eating psychology.

I became a yoga teacher.

I learned how to sit still. (aka: meditate)

I discovered foods that made me feel amazing and others that really didn’t work for me and started honoring my body as a the beautiful animal she is.

 

What things look like now:

My obsessions over food and perfection have subsided. I started to trust and love myself, my intuition, and my body.

As I went through this process, my weight dropped to where it wanted to be. No yo-yo dieting, no starvation, no insane exercise regime. I enjoy my chocolate stash as much as my green juice.

If you come to San Francisco, you’ll likely find me feeding some hungry peeps on Thursday, hanging with my meditation group on Friday night (It doesn’t get cooler than Dharma Punx!), then shaking my booty on the dance floor any given Saturday.

The best part is that I’ve truly fallen in love… with myself! And the more I practice what I’ve learned, the deeper I fall in love. I fell in love with my body when she was 20+ pounds larger, hugged every inch of her, and started listening to what she needed and wanted. (hint: she wasn’t interested in a restrictive diet or running a marathon. She wanted pleasure and fun and adventure and sex! Lots of sex….)

And I actually feel blessed to have emotional eating as a compass for me. It’s an instant spiritual indicator that something in my life is out of whack. But what’s greater is that I now have the ability to make the changes to my life that make over eating (and thus weight gain) disappear.

And now, I teach women how to free up what weighs them down so they too can get off the diet-train, lose excess weight in a meaningful, healing way, and experience life to it’s fullest in a body they love.

You’ll change your relationship with your body through my spiritual-action-based approach that encompasses Eating Psychology + Mindbody Nutrition + Yogic Philosophy

I love that I have the fitness and nutrition professional “know how”. They’re tools in my tool box that I know my clients love and appreciate. But those tools are peripheral. Real sustainable change requires a shift in perception. A shift from doing to being. As an Eating Psychology Coach and Yoga Teacher and spiritual seeker, I tie together the missing pieces to end the struggle with our weight, our bodies, and food.

I especially love working with women who are yearning to let go of crazy obsessive dieting and poor body image to finally feel peace with food and their bodies.

By changing your relationship to food and your body, everything will change. Your body will shift. Your mind will calm. Your heart will open. Your soul finally feels full expression.

Whenever I offer new video trainings, coaching programs, or have openings in my schedule for new clients, my newsletter subscribers get the inside scoop, so make sure you’re on the list!

I’d love to know you on a first name basis! Please come over and introduce yourself on facebook or twitter! I love hearing from readers…it’s one of the best parts of my day!

 

 

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My tool box.

As I’ve undergone my own transformation, I quit counting so much on my fancy degrees and certifications because the real change for me came out of the trenches of life and grace-filled miracles! But alas… I know a lot of peeps are interested.

I have more exercise/fitness certifications than I care to mention…. so I just won’t. : )

I got me a shiny degree from San Jose State University in Kinesiology, where I graduated Cum Laude. True story: I actually stayed an extra semester because I wanted to take a salsa dance class that conflicted with an upper division bio-mechanics class. I chose salsa and took the serious class a semester later. : )

I fell in love with nutrition (and became a Nutrition Educator) at the highly acclaimed Bauman College. I spent a ridonkulous amount of time choosing which school to attend and purposefully didn’t choose a traditional university since I had no interest in becoming a dietician (aka: teaching the USDA food pyramid and creating diets for convalescent homes and prisons). I learned about real food, holistic nutrition, nutritional therapy, and studied every diet from Paleo to Vegan and everything in between.

Thank God for the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. While understanding what to eat is important, for 90% of the hundreds of clients I’ve worked with… it’s not the problem! I’m now highly equipped with the skills to help my clients end the awful dieting-binge cycle, emotional eating, over eating, and all the other crazy things we do around food. I especially love working with women around body image, and have had great success helping reclaim energy, work with immune issues, and heal digestion.

And finally, these last three years have sent me deep into bhakti yoga. For me this is an important distinction. After 20+ years in the fitness arena, I’m just not into fitness-y yoga. While the asanas are great and important and all that…. What drove me to Urban Flow was the out-pouring of love and devotion. Singing, chanting, philosophy, and community all bundled up into a sweaty yogic experience. I’ve completed 500-hours with my teacher, Stephanie Snyder. If you’re ever in San Francisco, you’ve gotta get to her class. (See my yoga story and teaching schedule here!)

 

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Things you might want to know about me

I cuss like a sailor. I’m wondering when I’ll be ready to let that go….

I eat 80-90% plant based diet, and “pepper my plate” with eggs, cheese, meat, and fish. If I’m going to eat anything animal, I feel a deep responsibility to always choose organic, grass-fed, free-range.

I eat bread and sweets, but these days I choose when I want them (as opposed to my old sugar-addicted ways). Plus when I do choose to eat them, I want nothing but the best. Quality matters.

I am admittedly addicted to coffee. I love making it at home with raw cream. (If you can’t get raw cream where you live, I feel very sorry for you.)

I really really really want back yard chickens. I’ll keep you posted…

I’m a cancer: My birthday is July 21, but I celebrate the whole month. I call it Audrika. : )

My dog’s name, Karuna, means Compassion in sanskrit. I am insanely in love with him and think he should be in the movies.