Episode 55 Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Be About Being Better podcast, where we empower you to make evidence-based, sustainable and transformative changes for your health leading to a more vibrant interest of life. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a non-diet registered dietician, certified intuitive eating counselor, and master's graduate from Columbia University.
I believe that we can't make lasting or meaningful changes single-handedly. So I'm so happy that you're here so that together you can see that a diet free, sustainable, healthy lifestyle is possible, and you can leverage that to live a better life. And remember my disclaimer, this podcast is meant to give you general information and is not meant to substitute or for it medical advice, a diagnosis or service treatment. Hello, hello, y'all. Welcome back to the Be About Being Better podcast. I am so excited for today's episode. Is it healthy or is it disordered? We're going to be going through several different scenarios that diet culture has kind of hijacked and claimed and discuss them Is it still healthy to be engaging in these things, buying these things, doing these things, if you are working on healing your relationship with food, exercise, and your body, and fully ditching diet culture?
Now, if you're watching on YouTube right now, you might see some furry friends in the background. And if you're not watching on YouTube and you're just listening, you gotta get on YouTube, you gotta see these friends. I Started boarding dogs here in Nashville through Rover and y'all, it has been so fun because y'all know that I live alone and I do want to get a dog sometime in the next year.
But I'm not really sure what kind of dog. I feel like I want some more experience and I don't mind making some more money as I get that experience. So it's been really fun the last couple weeks starting to dog sit, dog walk, board dogs and try out some different breeds and it has given me so much joy.
Not only accountability with moving throughout the day and going on walks because obviously the dogs need walks but it has just given me so much joy to have like a little companion and Um, I marked on the app that I only want dogs that are less than 15 pounds. So all of the dogs are like super cute and small and literally purse dogs.
And I'm like obsessed. Like, I literally think all of my dreams are coming true. So, ah, so good. So if you're watching on YouTube, you might see some friends today, but then also in future recordings too. Um, and if you're not watching on YouTube, then girl, what are you doing? You should be on YouTube. You should watch it.
So you can see all my crazy hand gestures and all the.
Anyway, yeah, I feel like sometimes I'll be like explaining something and I'll do something with my hands and then I have to remember like y'all are listening with audio so you might not see the hand gestures that I'm making but hopefully it all makes sense. Also speaking of dogs if y'all have any suggestions on what type of breed you think I should get like I would love to have your vote This could really be a group discussion team effort, which dog Abbey gets, so let me know if you've had a good experience with a breed, or a bad experience with a breed, let me know.
I live in an apartment complex, so I can't have one that's like super yappy, so I've heard multi poos are really good, kava poos, um, but yorkies are like, they're a little picky eaters. Like, honestly, yorkies probably need to go through our new Better Together program to ditch diets and heal their relationship with food so they're not so finicky and picky.
Like the Yorkie that I babysat was absolutely so adorable, but such a picky eater. I was like, let me heal you! Let me teach you into it of eating. All right, y'all let's actually dive in though. We're gonna be talking about today. Is it healthy or is it disordered? And I'm gonna go through six different examples of things that diet culture has kind of claimed but you know when we're trying to heal our relationship with food and body and exercise, you know, we don't want to be So it's like, well, can I still do these things?
Can I have these foods that are maybe quote unquote, consider diet foods? I have so many different examples, but to kind of vary things up, but it's like, well, we don't want to be restrictive, but. Does that mean that we cut out these foods? Wouldn't that be going against what we want to do, but is it okay to cut it out if it's like triggering?
So we got to, there's a lot of nuance to this conversation, so I want to start to open it up and have this conversation. And if more examples. Come to mind for you that you're questioning after this episode. Is this healthy or is it disordered? Send me a DM because I'm more than happy to do a part two Because there is a lot of nuance to this there are so many different examples like I just picked six But we could talk about this literally for days.
So the first one that I want to talk about that. Is it okay? Is it healthy or is it disordered to purchase a walking pad for your standing desk if you're working from home? And I have to say, it depends. I feel like that's going to be the theme of this whole episode is, it depends. And the reason why is because you have to look at and kind of be a critical consumer of your motivations and intentions for wanting to get a walking pad.
When I talk with clients about this, and when I was considering getting my own walking pad, it was because I was sedentary all day and I wasn't getting up. to take breaks and walk around. I wasn't getting as much movement in when I was in my dietetic internship. I was doing like 20 minute workouts a couple days a week, maybe.
And I mean, I was walking around the hospital a lot. I was getting a lot of steps, but it just didn't feel great. So I wanted to get a walking pad for Christmas and it kind of forced me to get some more movement in. And I found that the days that I was working from home or studying all day in my internship, I, Like was just really lacking energy and I wanted to Increase my energy and I just generally wanted to get more movement in.
Now if those are some of your motivations for wanting to get a walking pad, because you find that you're really sedentary and you want to get some more organic movement in, and it's hard for you to get to the gym or get formal exercise in, I think that's perfectly healthy. I think that's totally fine.
However, if you're getting a walking pad so that you can be hitting 10, 000 steps every single day, because you see 10, 000 steps as like this pinnacle number that you have to hit, It's kind of an arbitrary number, by the way. Um, I love the podcast Maintenance Phase, and they recently did an episode on the 10, 000 step quote unquote goal, so definitely go check that out because, um, they bring in a lot of research into all of their episodes, and I just love how they talk about the nuance of all of these diet culture y things as well.
And I'm reading Aubrey Gordon's new book. She's one of the hosts for the Maintenance Phase podcast, and y'all, I cannot wait to debrief her book with y'all. It's called Just lose weight and 19 other myths about fat people. So just, Oh, so good. So good. I'm like, I was binging it on my plane ride home when I was, um, in upstate New York for a couple of weeks, visiting family and coming back to Nashville.
I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I'm already halfway through the book in this one plane ride, and I can't wait to share y'all all the insights because it is truly amazing. Anyway, so are your motivations for getting the walking pad to like hit a certain number of steps, to burn off calories, to lose weight?
Like if those are your motivations and your goals, that's probably and by probably I mean definitely a disordered relationship with your walking pad and more of a disordered intention in getting a walking pad. So if that's the case, I would say hold off a little bit on getting the walking pad Examine your intentions, do some healing with your relationship with exercise, and then maybe down the line, consider investing in a walking pad.
If that's something that's aligned with your goals at that time and something that's not going to be a trigger for you, because the worst thing, you know, what you want to avoid is buying and investing money in this walking pad and then have it. continue to hinder you towards developing a healthy relationship with food, exercise in your body.
And it keeps being a tripping point and a point of tension and a trigger point. So we really want to examine the intention. So no, I don't think walking pads are inherently bad. However, I think we have to look at our motivations. Why do we want the walking pad. Because here's the other thing, y'all. I don't know if our desire to lose weight in our society when there is so much pressure to be striving for thinness, don't know if that ever goes away. However, we get to choose what our behaviors are. So you might still have this lingering or like small desire to lose weight, but are you acting on it? Are you intentionally trying to lose weight? And are you intentionally trying to lose weight in a disordered way?
So I think we just have to examine our motivations and if your motivations for getting a walking pad are to generally get more movement in because you're really sedentary and you want to, um, just organically get some more movement in and gain more energy throughout your day, then I think that's perfectly healthy and you should get the walking pad.
What I will say about the walking pad is kind of more of a sidebar. I haven't used mine as much as I've wanted to. Wanted to or thought that I would it's kind of bulky and I don't know if I would get the one that I have if I had to buy it all over again I got mine as a gift But I sent them which one I thought I wanted and I think I should have done a little bit more research Because it has this a bar that comes up because you it's not just for under your desk Like you could just keep it stationary in your apartment and be one, you know Using it and it has this kind of protective bar where you could prop something up and just something to hold on to so I'm like, I just gotta keep it down.
I don't know. It's just it's very bulky. It's very heavy and I realized I can't do every type of task while I'm at my standing desk walking on the walking pad. It's better if I'm like on a zoom call with my camera off or listening to a course or maybe clicking around or like maybe reading something.
But if I'm trying to type in email, if I'm start, I'm trying to create something on Canva and I need to get really precise with designing something or even like typing back to clients, I'm like, it's just hard for me to do this. Like I haven't reached that threshold where you get used to walking as you're typing and doing all of those things.
So it's , limited me like how much I actually use it because I can't use it for all tasks. So just something to take note of, like that could be another reason too. Like, Hey, I want to get this walking pads because I do. I just. signed up for online school or this online course. And as I'm watching that, like I can't really be walking on my, on a walking pad when I'm in calls for with a client or meetings with a manager, whatever it is.
But when I'm doing this other stuff, then I could be on a walking pad and you know, so that, that might be good for you if you know, Hey, I could do it when I'm doing these specific tasks or when I'm not doing work, but I could just have my walking pad when I'm watching TV or something like that. So, I think we just have to examine our motivations.
The next one I want to talk about is green juice. Is it okay to get a green juice? It's typically seen, these green juices and like pressed juices, they're typically seen as a diet food. So if you're trying to ditch diet culture and heal your relationship with food and properly nourish yourself, is it really okay to be having green juices?
And the answer is yes. And, yes, and, because it's okay to have a green juice because all foods fit. We just want to make sure that our intention with having the green juice is not to have that as a meal replacement. However, if you're having it as a refreshing drink and you genuinely like the taste and that sounds refreshing for you and you're not considering it a full meal and that's not the only way that you're getting like fruits and vegetables in because the juices it strips it of all its fiber we've talked about that in previous episodes so just know that you're missing a lot of the fiber and a lot of the benefits in the juice versus just having the whole fruit or vegetable that's your intention and then go ahead and have that because intuitive eating says we need to make peace with food We need to really silence the food police and get rid of our food rules and give ourselves unconditional permission to eat.
So, if we're making all foods fit, then yes, green juices are something that we can have. However, we don't want that to be a meal replacement, and we don't want to be eating that if that's something, or drinking that rather, if that's something that we don't genuinely enjoy. Diet culture also tells us that, you know, to eat this and not that, and if you don't like how the approved foods taste, sorry, that's all you have.
And another intuitive eating principle that we've talked about on the show before is discovering the satisfaction factor, meaning that we want to have foods that are actually satisfying to us, things that we enjoy eating and drinking. So if you don't like the taste of green juices, then do... Do not have them.
You don't need to have them. There are so many other ways to get vitamins and minerals and fiber in. There's a lot of better ways to get fiber in, for sure. But if you're like, hey, this sounds really refreshing. I really want a nice juice. Okay, great. Then go ahead and have that. And that, that sounds fabulous.
And think to yourself, what can I add to that to make that a total meal? Um, And not consider the green juice as a meal because that would be disordered. The next thing that I want to talk about is vitamins and supplements. Is it healthy or is it disordered to be getting vitamin supplements? And I think it depends on which one if you're taking a multivitamin I think most people need to be on a multivitamin and we talked about this in my episode with Mel Spinella when we were talking about Nutrition tips for pre pregnancy while you're pregnant and postpartum and So she has her guide in those show notes about, you know, the prenatals that she recommends.
But that's what I would recommend. Even if you're like three to five years out from wanting to have kids, definitely be taking a prenatal because it's basically a multivitamin, but has extra folic acid. And folic acid is essential for cell growth and cell division and cell differentiation. And when you get pregnant, The fetus, like it's, it's just a cluster of cells at first, and the cells are rapidly dividing to grow the fetus once the egg is fertilized.
So you need a lot of folic acid, and if you're lacking in folic acid, they've correlated this, or honestly, I think it's even more stronger than a correlation. Like they've really proven that a folic acid deficiency can lead to neural tube defects like spina bifida and some other things that are Like very, very harmful to your baby and irreversible at that point, and they will be lifelong conditions and disabilities.
So, it's really important that we're getting enough folic acid, not just for our own general health because we need folic acid for like almost everything in the body, but also on the off chance that you do get pregnant, like, you need that because those types of neural tube defects take into effect and are solidified within the first two weeks of conception.
And at that time, most women don't even know that they're pregnant. So it's really important that you have enough folic acid at all times on that off chance that that happens to you. And you're prepared because you wouldn't like, if you find out you're pregnant and then you start taking prenatals and folic acid, it's too late at that point.
Like. If you were really deficient before you could, your baby could already have a neural tube defect. So in that sense, it's like kind of serious, and that's why they started to put more folic acid in the food system. So a lot of our breads and pastas and rices and other foods are enriched with folic acid because we were seeing that this deficiency was really causing some detrimental effects.
And we need to just make sure that people are. Getting enough. So a lot of our foods are infused with more folic acid, which is good. So rest assured there, but if you are considering a multivitamin, I would definitely get a prenatal. So I think multivitamins are totally fine. If you're considering like which one I got a question recently from a client like hey, like multivitamins And, oh, she was taking Centrum, the vitamins, which is a pretty, it's like standard one.
I think it's pretty good. It's been well researched. Pretty standard multivitamin brand, and She was like, should I switch to this other brand, Ritual? Now, I haven't really looked into Ritual, but I know Centrum is pretty standard and totally fine. I'm sure these have the same amount of ingredients. And I said to her the same thing that I said to y'all about the folic acid and I was like, I'd almost rather you take a prenatal or do the multivitamin from the Pure brand because if you need to be using like a hypoallergenic capsule or you know, vegetarian capsule or something like that.
That would be something to consider if you need one that's like gluten free and all the things free. So that would be something to consider too. I really like the Pure brand with their capsules, but you don't necessarily have to pick a brand like Ritual that has really sleek and cool marketing because the actual vitamin itself is probably exactly the same as what you would get on the market.
So, um, unless you really like that brand or the price is better, maybe do that, but honestly, you could probably just do a regular prenatal and you could even get the gummy versions and that would probably be totally fine. So you have to ask yourself, like, why am I being swayed to, like, get this other brand?
Is it necessarily better or not? Um, and then you have to ask yourself, too, like, okay, why do I feel like I need to optimize so much with all of these vitamins and supplements? Like, is this disorder, is this diet culture trying to just sell me something and tell me that I need to be fixed? And could I be focusing on getting more nutrients and vitamins and minerals in through food naturally?
Like, sweet potatoes are a vitamin A and vitamin B pill, and I can't tell you how many clients I have that. Well, tell me they're taking like a vitamin B complex pill. And I'm like, why you literally could just have sweet potatoes, you know? So there's just, you know, things like that, but a lot of people don't know that, like what vitamins and minerals are in certain foods.
So that's why it's really helpful to work with a dietitian to really do an audit and take stock of how you're eating to make sure that you're getting a variety of different fruits and vegetables and proteins and grains and fats and, you know, nuts and seeds and just all the things to make sure that you have a balanced.
diet, not like you're on a diet, but just your nutritional profile overall. Make sure that things are balanced so that you're, you're not missing anything and that you're, that you're optimizing and they would be able to say like, Hey, you know, it seems like you're kind of missing some things here. Maybe we could loop in these fruits and vegetables that would be helpful for you to increase that.
Or, Hey, like I noticed that you're literally not eating anything green throughout your day. So you're missing out on those vitamins and minerals that would be in green foods. So we've got to loop some of those in so we really want to be eating the rainbow. So I think if you're relying so much on getting your nutrients from supplements and vitamins, that could be a little disordered.
And I would just, you know, ask yourself why, why do I feel the need to take a certain vitamin, take a certain supplement? And could I? Learn what foods have this naturally in them. And could that save me money? Could save me time? Could it save me risk? Because vitamins and minerals and these supplements aren't FDA approved.
So they're very dangerous. I would listen to our episode, uh, what supplement companies don't want you to know because I dive into all the different dangers of taking supplements and the stuff that has come up in the research and the third party testing of various supplements. A lot of them are laced with heavy metals.
The labels aren't accurate because they're not approved. They're not regulated in any capacity. So they don't have to be forthcoming. They don't have to be truthful. A lot of these products aren't even being third party tested. And the ones that are, it's very problematic. I'm like, why are so many failing testing?
It's a problem. It really is a problem. So it's less risky to just get those vitamins and minerals in through food. So I would ask yourself, why are we scared to get this through food? And why do we have this over reliance on vitamins and minerals that we don't know if we can necessarily trust because they're man made and manufactured and they're not regulated.
And I would also ask if you're taking like a specific nutrient or a specific supplement, why is that? What is this really doing for me? And is the research supporting that? I was taking an iron supplement for a while because I had blood work come back that it was low that I was an iron. So I started taking an iron supplement and then I got blood work again and my iron was through the roof and my doctor was like, Oh my gosh, your iron levels are dangerously high.
We need to take you off this iron supplement. So I'm like, okay. And the iron supplement was prescribed by my doctor because I was previously low. And turns out that I am a carrier for this condition called hemochromatosis. That means I store iron. So that means one of my parents has it. And it's just kind of interesting because I told both of them, I was like, Hey, you guys should probably get tested to see if we, you know, which one of you has this.
And they were both like, Oh, it's probably your other parent. Like my parents are divorced and they really don't like each other. So it's probably the other parent. Like I'm good. And they both said that I was like, Okay, good luck. Um, okay. Um, so anyway, you can really only focus on yourself, but you know, so taking that iron supplement was actually doing me more harm.
And had I just taken the iron supplement on my own, or I didn't get any blood work to check if I actually needed it or how I was responding to it, it could have been fatal for me. So, you know, you really got to be careful of these things. And are you, are you taking a vitamin or supplement that you're actually deficient in?
Like if you're taking a vitamin D supplement. I think most people need to be on vitamin D because most people are deficient and just like need more but it's like are you taking it because it's just trending and showing up on your for you page or are you actually deficient in that vitamin do you actually need it so make sure that you're checking in with a doctor and that you're getting blood work so that you can see what you And if anything, so that you can be saving your money and giving yourself less risk from a health standpoint from potential contamination in these vitamin supplements, , for something that you may not even really need.
So just something to take note of. All right. The next thing that we're going to talk about, um, are protein bagels. A lot of you saw that recently I promoted this protein bagel from the company, Eat Better. And there's a lot of nuance with this because a protein bagel could be seen as. Um, it's a diet food because in diet culture, we demonize bagels so much that these are just too many carbs and it's the equivalent to eating eight slices of bread.
And if you eat this bagel, you're lazy and slovenly. And if you eat this many carbs. with your bagel, then you can't have any carbs later on in the day. Like , this is the rhetoric that's going on in our society around bagels and carbs. So these bagels are acceptable because they're lower in carbs and they're higher in protein.
And so this is the, the better bagel to have. And So if you go in with that mindset and you have a negative connotation towards regular bagels, you might see yourself as a better person or more superior for having this protein bagel, and you might look down on people that have the regular bagel. Which, in reality, there is nothing wrong with a regular bagel, so I made sure to say that in my post, like, hey, Here's literal video evidence of me eating a New York style bagel that was delicious and completely delectable.
It was amazing. And I made it into a turkey sandwich, so I was probably getting 25 to 30 grams of protein in that bagel sandwich, just with a regular bagel. And I was probably getting 25 to 30 grams of protein. Through the protein bagel that I had through the actual protein bagel with the peanut butter on top and some chia seeds that also have some extra protein.
So I probably evened out to be about the same. And I was able to eat both and feel totally fine. So again, if you're going to get, Any product, even like protein pasta, for example, like, why are we against eating regular pasta? Why can't, why can't we eat regular pasta? What are we making the regular pasta say about us?
Why do we feel a need to only eat typical carb foods if they have protein enriched in them? Could we have the regular pasta and do like regular pasta and some meatballs on top, some shrimp in there, some chicken on top, some tofu? Etc, etc. Versus demonizing ourselves for having the regular pasta. And also you can just have pasta too and you don't have to have protein in it.
Like, totally fine. So I guess it just kind of comes back to what are our intentions? What are our food beliefs? Like I think it's totally fine to eat the protein bagel because this is the, the nuance of all of this is I talk with clients every single day and , a lot of them are struggling to hit their protein goal.
And we know that the more protein that you have, the more satiated you're going to be, you're going to be fuller longer. So your blood sugar is going to be maintained. You're not going to have these. peaks and these dips in blood sugar where you feel really intense food cravings. So having more protein can keep your food cravings at bay.
And if your food cravings are at bay and your blood sugar is more stable, then you're going to be more in touch with your hunger and fullness cues. Subtle. And you're not gonna get so ravenous where you feel like you need to eat, but you get to a point where you're like, Oh, like I could eat or okay. Like yeah, I'm getting a little fatigued or a little tired It's probably the time to eat.
Not like I need to eat it because I'm so ravenous. So I agree that protein is good. So I'm not against the protein bagel, especially for clients that are really on the go and just needs something because something is better than nothing. And if you could have something with a little bit more protein in it, and that's your, you're just kind of in a pinch.
I think these are great. And I actually really like these eat better bagels, and I'm working on getting a discount code for y'all and becoming an affiliate with them. So stay tuned on a discount code. I'll definitely be promoting that on my Instagram. So please stay tuned. And once I get that, I will update the show notes.
I don't know if I'll have my, Uh, affiliate code by the time this episode airs. But just keep checking back and keep checking Instagram because I will get that code. Because I applied to be an affiliate with them and I've been going back and forth and they love me about being better. So they definitely want to give me one, but we're just in the middle of processing it.
So stay tuned so you can try it yourself. Because here's the other thing. It goes back to the green juice. It is okay to have a protein bagel. Like, do you genuinely like it? Do you like the taste? And you won't know if you genuinely like these bagels unless you try them. I have tried the sesame one. And the pretzel one.
And I like the pretzel one better, so I'm probably going to order that one more moving forward. And I genuinely like it, and I like that they can be kept in the freezer so they last long and in the pinch. They are so, so great. I just defrost it quick, 30 seconds in the microwave, boom. Then throw it in the toaster, boom.
Slap on whatever I want on it, and it's great. And with that, I've also healed my relationship with food enough where I can have a regular bagel and not see myself as inferior, as less than, as like a sloth or slovenly or a bad person or an unhealthy person because I had a regular bagel. I also don't limit myself.
If I have a regular bagel early in the day, I can still have pasta at night. I can still have other carbs at night. I can still have a sandwich for lunch. And that's okay. Because. I've healed my relationship with food. So, when we're approaching this, is it okay to get a protein bagel or not? It depends. You have to examine, why do I feel a need to have the protein bagel, and what are my thoughts and beliefs around regular bagels?
And I would say, if you are struggling to see regular bagels, As okay and allowed and you're struggling to give yourself unconditional permission need I would start with healing your relationship with a regular bagel first before investing in the protein bagel. I would start with the regular bagel and working to make that nutrient dense so it's like I'm letting myself have the bagel, but the bagel and bagel and turkey slices bagel and egg bagel and peanut butter.
So that you have a more balanced meal and you're healing your relationship Changing your beliefs with a regular bagel to be more healthy and less disordered. Next, let's get into Is it okay to have like low cal? Alcoholic beverages or to choose a drink because it has lower calories in it I was having this conversation with a client recently and they were saying well You know, I really don't really like my drinking habits right now.
I feel like I'm just going out a little too much, drinking a little too much for my liking. It just doesn't feel aligning to me and I want to work towards like, and then they said, well, maybe I could just go out to the bar and just pick like a vodka soda or something versus having a beer because the vodka soda would have less calories versus having a beer.
And I said to them, You know, we might need to have more of a longer conversation about this and, you know, continue this conversation through our coaching together. However, what I'll say now is if you genuinely want the vodka soda, then have the vodka soda. And if that would make you feel better in that moment, and also the next day.
then definitely choose that. However, don't just choose that because it's the lower calorie option, because that means we're still living according to these. Numbers and tracking calories and relying on external cues to tell us what we can and can't eat and denying potentially denying what we actually want.
So if a vodka soda sounds more refreshing to you and just like lighter and it would make you feel like less bloated the next day or whatever. By all means, choose that. But it's also okay to have a beer. It's okay to have a glass of wine, and you might be able to know for yourself, like, okay, if I have one beer, I'm good, or one glass of wine, I'm good, or one and a half or two.
But if I have more than that, then I do get really bloated. Then I do start to break out. Then I do have some negative GI symptoms, so I kind of need to titrate that. So then I have some clients that'll be like, all right, I'm gonna have one beer, one glass of wine. But after that, I know I start to have negative symptoms, but I still want to drink more.
So then maybe I'll switch to a vodka soda where it's like I still allowed myself to have what I want, but I wanted to keep drinking. So I'm going to choose this other, like lighter option that isn't, isn't as heavy, isn't going to make me feel the same way as having an additional beer or wine or whatever my first drink choice was.
It could be, it could be anything. It could be an espresso martini or whatever. I also brought up with this client too. Um, do you need more drinks? Do you need to drink at all? And I was like that, that's why this could be a larger conversation. Cause I have a lot of clients too, that are very sober curious.
And why do we feel a need to drink alcohol? Is it to feel more accepted? Is it to wind down? Is it to have like quote unquote liquid courage and. You know, if you feel more confident in social scenarios to feel more socially accepted and more talkative and more relaxed. I feel like I just need something in my hand.
I feel like that's something I hear a lot. Y'all, nobody cares what's in your glass literally except for you. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a bar or something or out to dinner and I've just gotten a club soda with lemon literally no alcohol in it and nobody has said anything to me and everyone's out there getting drunk and I'm just drinking water.
I felt great the next day. You know what I mean? Cause I just knew for me, like literally nobody cares what's in my glass. Nobody asked me what I ordered. And I didn't really feel like drinking that night, but I still had something in my hand and I've done a lot of work on this for myself. Again, this is part of like healing our relationship with food.
I realized I don't need alcohol to feel comfortable and confident in social situations. I've gotten more comfortable with myself where I don't need to numb myself out or have a mind altering substance or whatever it is. Like, I don't, I don't need that to Connect. And it can also be a good evaluation or test of your social circle.
Like, if you have to drink with people to be accepted in your friend group, could, could be something to examine. Is that something to work on with you? Or, uh, Is your friend group something to potentially let go of or phase out of just, you know, planting seeds, you know, Because everyone's relationship with alcohol is is individual.
So I'm trying to kind of speak to everyone here But yeah, so just a lot of questions. I think the is it healthier? Is it disordered comes down to your intentions and your food beliefs and your current relationship with food and where you want to go with that and asking yourself more why questions and not being judgmental towards yourself, but being more curious.
So if we can invite more curiosity into our lives before we make any of these decisions, I think that would actually aid in our relationship with food, body and exercise. So the answer to all of these things is kind of, it depends on where you're at and what are your current intentions and what is your why?
So we have to ask ourselves, Why and it's not really up to me if we were working together and I was your coach if I was your dietitian it's not up for me to tell you which alcoholic beverage to get or how many or Which protein bagel to get or should you get a regular bagel? Should you get a walking powder?
It's not up to me to tell you that it's up for me to encourage you to ask yourself Why? What are your motivations? What are your beliefs? And what do we kind of talk that out with you and to give you that nonjudgmental space to explore that so that you can make a healthy decision that would be aligned with the relationship with food, body and exercise that you want to have.
The last one that I want to talk about is, is it okay? To order a salad at a restaurant because most people when they're in the thick of diet culture feel like they have to order the salad at the restaurant because that's the only thing that they can have and This is just so not true. You can order anything at restaurants We probably need to do a whole episode because I talk about this with my clients too.
I talk about How to order well at restaurants we have a whole freebie on it So definitely check out the freebies on our website. We can link that up in the show notes But I go through different cuisines on Uh, sometimes on my coaching calls with clients and in that freebie, I go through different cuisines and how I would approach ordering in a non diet way and in a nutrient dense way at these different types of restaurants.
So there's a way to do it and be non restrictive and giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. So if you feel pressure to order a salad at a restaurant, that might be disordered, like, so that you can't get it, but something to evaluate if you want to order it, that seems a little bit.
Like, healthier as far as like mindset goes, so that might be better. But if you're considering if you want a salad at a restaurant and you're not sure if it's healthy or disordered for you to order the salad at the restaurant, ask yourself this. Do I feel pressured to order the salad at the restaurant?
If I don't order the salad at a restaurant and I get the burger and fries, what are my beliefs around what that says about me? Do I think other people are going to judge me for that order? Why do I care so much about what other people think about my order? And do they actually care? If I order the salad at the restaurant now, but I really want the burger and fries, is that restriction going to lead me to binge later on?
I think sometimes it's better to order the burger and fries, if that's what you're really craving and... And what you want. Again, we're discovering that satisfaction factor when it comes to intuitive eating. That's one of our main principles. So we have to, if we're really craving something, our body is probably giving us that craving for a reason.
And if we continue to suppress that and the cues. and signals that our body is sending us, then our body's going to keep sending us these things and eventually it's going to manifest in other ways. So if you keep restricting, restricting, restricting, controlling, controlling, controlling, we can only do that and have that willpower and discipline for sewing.
Eventually, we're going to kind of swing the other way and that might lead to you binging or overeating on something else later on. So it actually might have been better for you to just satisfy that craving in the moment moment get the burger and fries And that would have satisfied your craving so then you don't feel the need to binge or overeat later on because you let yourself have what you wanted to have in the moment.
So, stuff to consider there. But if you're thinking like, oh, I really just want something like fresh and crunchy or I really love the dressing at this restaurant and I just feel like a salad right now. I want something cold and crisp and like this is what I want. This is what my body's asking for. then by all means, get the salad.
That sounds very healthy. However, if you're ordering the salad, because you feel like you need a lower calorie option, , because , you see that as like the quote unquote healthier option. And you feel like you should be ordering that, or people would judge you if you ordered something else, but it's not really what you want.
Then I would say that that's disordered and something to evaluate. probably shouldn't order the salad in that moment, ask yourself, what do I really want? And can I work to let go of what other people may be thinking about? Because honestly, everyone's got their own relationship with food. I shared this video recently of an amazing creator that talked about the different things that go through our minds when we're at a barbecue.
And each person was judging another person for how they ate at the barbecue while also talking about how they ate. We're eating at a barbecue. I'll link that up in the show notes because it was just so, so impactful of like, Oh, wow. Like we're making these judgments and these assumptions about how other people are eating.
And then if we were, we can't make any assumptions because if you were in there. Situation and in their body and you had their relationship with with food It probably isn't what other people are assuming. They're not going through what you're assuming that they're going through So it just that video gave me a lot of perspective on things so i'll link that up in the show notes and I will also link up our how to eat at restaurants Guide and let me know if you want a podcast episode on that more specifically so I can elaborate Because there's a lot of nuance to these things more than I could say in a free guide So we can definitely have a longer conversation about it But it really comes back to putting more trust on our internal cues and trusting our body.
Our bodies are so smart. They're sending us these cues for a reason. Diet culture wants you to suppress and not trust the signals that your body's telling you and instead rely on these external cues of what to eat, what not to eat, what time to eat, how much, when to stop, et cetera, et cetera. So, if we're going to be breaking away from diet culture, we need to have a greater reliance.
And be more in tune, have more conversations with ourself and make decisions from that place. And I think it's much better for us if we're working to heal our relationship with food and exercise and our bodies to have less judgment towards ourselves and be more curious. And if you think that it might be a disordered motivation that you have, it would be something to heal first before you order the supplement, before you order the walking pad, before you order the protein bagels.
So that when you do those things in the future, if that's something that you choose to do, you're coming from a healthier place, a healthier and more healed relationship with food. And it's not going to keep being the same. a point that's triggering you moving forward and holding you back from your full potential and healing your relationship with food.
If you realize that you need help with some of these things and you need help healing your relationship with food, body, and exercise, definitely head to the show notes and read more on and sign up for our Better Together program. This is our newest and only group coaching program. It's going to be six months where we fully ditch diet culture forever.
We learn intuitive eating and we are healing our relationship with food. Exercise in our body. It's going to be such a great program and it's going to be very discussion based and very collaborative We're going to be going through our workbook together All about intuitive eating and having really great group discussions on all of these things and the nuance of all of this and it's going to be very very healing you're also going to get personalized coaching throughout the program and You're also going to get access to my workout app with a whole bank of hundreds and hundreds of workouts So I'm really excited to have this new group coaching program.
We've never had a group coaching program in the past that's been specific for ditching diets and teaching intuitive eating. So I'm really excited to dive into that. And we've never had a program before be so discussion based. So I'm really excited to create this space for you all. And if you are working to heal your relationship with food, recovering from an eating disorder, just know that you have some disordered eating habits and this program is definitely for you.
So head to the show notes and you can read more about it on our landing page. And if you're not sure if it's for you, then take our quiz and see if that program or whatever other offers right now is right for you. Thank you all for being with me today and I will see you in the next episode.
Hey y'all. Thanks again for listening to the Be About Being Better podcast. I so appreciate you. If this episode made you laugh, smile, think about yourself or your life differently, in any way, making your life better, I empower you to share the show with three people who just like you, need to hear this message and have this type of transformation in their lives.
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