BABB EP 63
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[00:00:00] Will we empower you to make evidence based, sustainable, and transformative changes for your health, leading to a more vibrant and fulfilling life? I'm your host, Abbey Stasier, a non diet registered dietitian, certified intuitive eating counselor, and master's graduate from Columbia University. I believe that we can't make a lasting or meaningful change 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 it's not meant to substitute or replace medical advice, a diagnosis, or service treatment.[00:01:00]
Abbie: Hello, hello, y'all. Welcome back to the Be About Being Better podcast. I have to start this episode by saying I am so grateful for you all. I've had so many people come up to me in the last week telling me how much they love the podcast. They're just loyal listeners. Every Thursday, they love the Be About Being Better podcast.
I, I don't know if I told the story, but I even had someone I was checking out at a store getting a new moisturizer. And the woman checking me out in Nashville was like, you sound very familiar. I think I know you. And I was like I shop here sometimes, I come in maybe once a month, every six weeks or so.
And she was like no. She's do you have a podcast? I think I've listened to you. Like I recognize your voice and I'm like, I do actually. She's Oh my gosh. Like my friend shared the be about being better podcast with me. And just so cool. It like gets me emotional to talk about, but I had someone else come up to me in Nashville over the [00:02:00] weekend and she was like, Oh yeah, I started listening to your podcast.
And I said, Oh what episode are you listening to right now? Which one has stuck out to you the most. And she said, Oh, the compulsive exercise one. And I was like, Oh boy me going to the hospital. And she's Oh yeah. She's like, I really struggle with my relationship with exercise.
And it's been very hard for me to slow down and not feel guilty about not exercising so much. And it's a very common thing. And I. It's hard for me to tell these stories about how I've struggled in my relationship with food and body and exercise and all the crazy relationships I've been in.
But those conversations make it so worth it. Because if I could tell my story and that helps you heal, that gives you some encouragement, some tangible tips on how you can heal a hundred percent, that's worth it. And I want to keep doing that. So thank you so much for listening and sharing the episodes because it really does help.
People heal and really help spread the word about that the healing is possible in a non diet approach really is the best way for a sustainable, vibrant, [00:03:00] joyful lifestyle. Oh, so good. So this woman that came up to me that was telling me about her relationship with exercise. I opened up to her and I said, I was like, I actually just heard a couple of days ago from a previous client that she has healed her relationship with exercise.
So I want to tell you her testimony to hopefully encourage you. And this previous client went through our B about being better academy and. tHat, that was our old group coaching program. Now we just have the better together program, which helps you ditch dieting and embrace the new relationship with food and learn intuitive eating.
And this program, the better together program, our next class, we actually just had a class start this week. So if you were listening to this in the first half of November, it's not too late to join. We can definitely skirt you right into the class, but if you're listening in the second half of November or in December, and you need support our next class of the group coaching program, we'll start in January.
I think it's January 6th. 412. thank you. January 4th Thank you That's when we'll start, but people that are signing up for the January class now before January [00:04:00] 1st will get early access to the modules, the workbook, the gratitude journal, and you'll get an extra one on one coaching call with me so that during the holiday season, you're already getting some accountability, personalized tips and some support.
So there are a lot of extra bonuses. You can already kickstart your journey, basically get a month free of the program. By signing up for the January class now, but anyway, so that's our new coaching program details below, in the show notes. But this client that I was talking about, she went through our old coaching program, the Be About Being Better Academy.
And it was funny because she had just reached out to me the other day and told me about her relationship with exercise. Or how it's improved. And she was a hundred percent part of the orange theory cult. She was going every day of the week and sometimes multiple times a day to these classes.
And she really would feel guilty if she wasn't sweating, working out intensely, and she had a lot of joint pain, but she always felt bad [00:05:00] if she had to go on like the bike versus the treadmill or change up how she was doing weights and stuff. So there's a lot of guilt and shame associated with that and she would be going multiple times a day, sometimes like leaving work to go exercise.
So when she worked with. Us in the academy, we definitely helped her heal that and really kickstart her healing and focus less on exercise and being so militant about it, but focusing more on movement and offering other ways for her to move her body in a way that feels good and helping her get in tune with her body's cues and increasing that interceptive awareness, that body attunement.
That's all part of intuitive eating exercise is a part of intuitive eating and. So she, like we helped her get in tune with her body's cues so that she could honor each day the type of exercise that her body was calling for. So she actually just messaged me a couple of days ago on Instagram and said I am feeling so much better.
And I had to [00:06:00] tell you that I ended up taking a whole month off. From orange theory. And it's only now that I'm bringing my membership back, but I am only going to do four classes a month. So like once a week, and I have other types of movement that I'm filling in, depending on what my body's calling for and what I want to do.
She said her joints feel so much better and overall, she feels so much better because she's moving her body in a way that feels good. And she's not overtaxing herself. So I told this story. To the woman who came up to me this weekend and was talking about her relationship or exercise and she was just really encouraged.
So I hope that if you were in the middle of healing a relationship with with exercise specifically, just know that healing is possible and intuitive eating can actually help you with that, which is really cool. You can get that healing by joining our better together program. So we'll get into a little bit more like what intuitive eating is, but moving your body and feeling the difference is a part of that.
Because if you are exercising to burn things off or [00:07:00] exercising to earn more calories later or earn a meal, if you. Feel guilty eating because you didn't exercise or if you feel like, Oh, okay. Now I can eat because I have exercise. Any of those things shows that you do probably have a disorder relationship with food, but also have a disorder relationship with exercise.
So intuitive eating can help you heal all of that. So yeah, definitely head to the show notes. I'll link up the my compulsive exercise episode and information about the better together program and also my quiz if you're not really sure if it's best for You can definitely take my quiz to see if it's for you and on the website page for the better together program.
I um, have linked up a link to my scheduler. So you can book a clarity call with me. Hey, let's get on zoom. Let's chat. Let's meet for 30 minutes and talk about your. Goals and what your relationship with food and what you're struggling with and see if the program makes sense. So if you're not sure if it's for you yes, you can take the quiz.
But you can also head right to the Better Together program website and landing [00:08:00] page. And book a clarity call and I'll link all that up in the show notes for y'all. In today's episode we are going to be talking about intuitive eating myths. This is something that we haven't talked to yet about on the show, but I want to leave you with this because there are a lot of misconceptions about intuitive eating.
And I say, leave you with this because I am actually taking a short break from. The be about being better podcast for the rest of the holiday season. And this has been a really tough decision. I've had to discern this decision a lot. I feel stretched pretty thin right now with the different business ventures that I have going on, the different transitions that we're making with be about being better and some other brand things that are in the works.
And I just want to be able to devote myself more fully to the things that are just pulling me right now. And...[00:09:00] Because of that, I really want to make sure that I don't burn out and I need to take a short break from the be about being better podcast. So we're going to reassess things in the new year and I'll keep y'all posted when when, and if I come back with a recording, I do want to down the line.
And so I. really appreciate you all listening and sharing these episodes. And I hope that even if you are an avid listener that you can still go back and listen to previous episodes to help you. We have so many episodes on period health on healthy holiday support, intuitive eating and confidence.
So there's so many different how to stay healthy when you're busy. We'd have so many episodes about that. So if you Need support during this season as I'm taking a short break from the Be About Being Better podcast, which I haven't taken a break from the podcast. We haven't missed one week since we started so a break is definitely needed, but you will still be able to find me.
So a couple of ways from is to keep, go back, listen [00:10:00] to either the episodes that you've missed of the show or go back to ones that you haven't listened to in a while that are really calling your name in this season. You can also find me on Instagram. In the meantime, there are a couple of guests that I have been wanting to bring on the show.
Instead of maybe doing a podcast interview with them in this season, when we're on a break, I might do an Instagram live with them. So you'll be able to check that out and get a full interview on. on Instagram live. So I'm gonna be doing more Instagram lives. I'm gonna be doing more TikTok lives. I'm gonna be diving much more into into TikTok.
There are so many new followers on TikTok. So thank you all so much. I think we've almost gotten like 25, 000 new followers in the last couple of weeks on on TikTok. So thank you all so much. So many new people in the Be About Being Better community. So TikTok is definitely where I'm going to be hanging out now.
And I am actually starting a new podcast. It's totally different from Be About Being Better. It's like same, but different called your daily bread. And this podcast, I'll have a co host, my friend, Hannah Calhoun. She's another non diet soon to [00:11:00] be dietitian. She's in her internship right now. But these are going to be very short devotional style episodes that will help you heal your relationship with food through scripture.
So if you were looking to grow. In your faith, if you're looking to find food freedom, if you're curious about how your relationship with food relates to your faith and that intersectionality and how scripture can actually help you with this healing process. And if you're curious to hear how Jesus models, how we should be eating, then you definitely want to head over to that podcast as well.
In the meantime, definitely while we're taking a break with me about being better by me on Instagram. TikTok and the your daily bread podcast. And that podcast is on Apple podcasts and Spotify. Okay. So to get into the crux of our episode for today, we're talking about intuitive eating myths.
So myth number one, people think that intuitive eating is a diet. I actually looked up and I searched intuitive eating on. TikTok to see what came up and it was like[00:12:00] intuitive eating before and after intuitive eating what I eat in a day. And I'm like, ah this is just so not what intuitive eating is supposed to be.
Like intuitive eating is not for weight loss. So any like intuitive eating before and after y'all need to be running for the hills. Okay. That person is still very much immersed in diet culture. They don't understand intuitive eating and I can guarantee you they are not certified in intuitive eating.
Like I am a certified intuitive eating counselor. I was trained by the two registered dietitians, Evelyn Tribal and Elyse Rich, who literally invented intuitive eating back in 1995. The year I was born. Hey. So these people, and I just know because I've gone through the training, anyone that's going through that training is, and is actually a certified intuitive eating counselor is not showing you here's my before and after and how I lost weight with intuitive eating.
And they're not saying that because it's a non diet approach. It's a health at every size aligned model. It's a weight neutral model. We don't [00:13:00] focus on weight loss. We don't care about weight loss. Like we help you to take the emphasis off of that and actually focus on your health and you might still be thinking like, oh doesn't losing weight equate to health?
Absolutely not. And it actually doesn't, and I know so many people that have lost weight and are actually in a smaller body, but have more disordered eating habits and more out of whack blood work than ever. So yeah it's not a diet and anyone that's saying, Hey, what I eat in a day, like it's not with intuitive.
It's not about what you eat, how you eat that, I should make a video about that intuitive eating, how I eat in a day. Oh, that's good. Yeah. I'm going to do that. Not what I eat a day, how I eat in a day. I listened to my body. I listened to my body's cues. I make sure that I sit down when I'm eating.
I'm not eating, standing over my sink. Not like shoveling in a protein bar as I'm rushing off to the next thing. I'm sitting down, I'm using utensils, I'm giving myself a proper break, I'm chewing my food, I'm checking in with my body as I'm eating so that [00:14:00] I can stop eating when I'm full, even if I'm not fully done with everything that's on my plate.
I'm eating, I'm being in tune with my hunger cues and fullness cues in between meals so I know when to eat next. And I'm honoring that out of care, love, and respect for myself. Oh, I should definitely do that. If you're seeing a, what I eat in a day with intuitive eating, run for the Hills again, because that person is treating it like a diet.
And you'll also see on Instagram that there's two different intuitive eating hashtags. There's one hashtag intuitive eating, and then there's hashtag intuitive eating official. So you want to be following the intuitive eating official hashtag on Instagram because. thAt's the one that we're told to use for as a certified intuitive eating counselors.
Now, I always use both hashtags because I want people that are following the hashtag intuitive eating, like the regular hashtag to see my content, because I know that what I'm doing is in line with the intuitive eating principles. And I want to try and combat the bad diet culture infused intuitive eating noise.
But. Yeah, definitely follow the intuitive eating official one. And it's sad that we had to actually make [00:15:00] that hashtag, but it's the world we live in. So ultimately y'all intuitive eating is not a diet. It's a mindset and a philosophy about how to approach eating and food. And intuitive eating is actually referred to as a self care eating framework.
So it teaches you how to care for yourself. So that's why like exercise is included. It's more than just mindful eating. There's other components to it because it helps you build this muscle. And build a habit of caring for yourself because you're listening to your body's cues, but then you're responding to those cues out of care, love, and respect for yourself.
So intuitive eating overall, it's not a diet. It encourages you to make food choices based on your body's needs, your preferences, rather than following strict rules or restrictions. Because if you're following a diet, it will tell you, I don't care what you like. I don't care if you want cake, cookies, ice cream, pizza, you're going to eat this.
And you're not going to eat that you're going to eat at this time. And you're going to stop eating at this time. You're going to eat this many calories. [00:16:00] And I'm sorry, if you're hungry after that, and that your body's asking for more, sorry, that's all you're allotted for today. So this is not that. Okay. So it helps you become in tune with your body's cues and gives you the tools for how to honor that.
Another intuitive eating myth is that it. promotes overeating. This is something that is commonly said, and this is just not true. There are some people that believe that intuitive eating just gives you permission to eat whatever you want, and then that leads to overeating.
But in reality, intuitive eating encourages you to honor your hunger, respect your fullness, savor your meals, which will actually help you to prevent overeating. In the long run, because if you deny what your body is craving and your meals aren't satisfying because you're literally just eating iceberg lettuce with no salad dressing, like I can't you're going to compensate for that lack of satisfaction down the line.
So it's the restrictions and the lack of satisfaction and the denial of what your body wants. It needs that then [00:17:00] leads to overeating. So people think that when we make all foods available, we make peace with food, that means that we're going to overeat that, but it's actually the freedom to eat everything we want and giving ourselves that unconditional permission to eat that then gives us autonomy.
And then we ask ourselves, Oh, I guess I can eat anything that I want, but what do I actually want? What is my body creating? What does my body need in this season? So you won't actually eat everything. And we always want what we can't have, so you'll have a stronger desire to eat certain things. If you're denying yourself of that and you're restricting yourself because we always want what we can't have.
Another intuitive eating myth is that intuitive eating is the same as mindful eating. And this isn't true. This is a little bit of a nuance here. Mindful eating is a part of intuitive eating. So it's a skill set within intuitive eating, but intuitive eating overall is the self care framework.
They're definitely not interchangeable terms. So like I said, mindful eating is a technique that's used when eating to help you [00:18:00] become present with your meals and be in tune with your fullness cues. But intuitive eating is a bit broader and intuitive eating also rejects dieting. And so it takes it one step further, whereas mindful eating, like you could be mindfully eating an almond.
One almond a day. Almond Moms! But that doesn't mean that you're honoring your body's cues and that you are eating enough for the day, eating what your body's actually calling for. It's just a skill set when you are physically eating. What to do to be present in that moment. And I think I've told this story before possibly several times.
You're hearing it again, but it worth saying my best friend in high school, she was really in the thick of her eating disorder at that point. And praise God that he's delivered her from that situation. And she has fully healed now. I got another huge testimony that healing is possible, but so she would be mindfully eating three strawberries a day.
That's all she allowed herself to eat. And [00:19:00] I watched her eat those. She savored it. She bit into it so slow. She would chew it until it was applesauce texture, as we should be doing. She would smell it before she ate it. She just took her time. She savored every single bite of those strawberries.
because that's all she was going to allow herself to eat that day. So she was mindfully eating, but she was not intuitively eating because obviously three strawberries a day. It's not enough. So intuitive eating takes mindful eating one except many steps farther by actually rejecting dieting. And like I said, intuitive eating has that movement component where we're moving our body and feeling the difference.
That's what the principle is called, where you are moving your body in a way that feels good and choosing movement that is life-giving and is actually energizing. It doesn't feel like punishment, obligation, or like I have to do this to give myself permission to eat. Another intuitive eating myth is that [00:20:00] intuitive eating is an excuse to just eat junk food and intuitive eating doesn't mean that you should only eat calorie dense foods.
It actually encourages you to listen to your body and make choices that make your body feel good physically and emotionally. And this often includes a balance of nourishing foods and different like fun and play foods. And so they've done studies on intuitive eating, so many studies. And one of them, not just one, there's several that have shown that intuitive eating over time.
Actually helps you to increase your food variety. So if you're a picky eater, intuitive eating can actually be helpful to come out, combat picky eating. And then you end up increasing your fruit and vegetable intake with more intuitive eating, which is really cool. Now, when I have to be honest with y'all, when you start intuitively eating and making peace with food and all foods available and letting go of the physical restrictions, like if you have a food that you can't allow in your house, because you will just eat the whole tub of ice cream.
I hate the whole sleeve of cookies, eat the whole bag of chips. And you start to allow yourself to have that, a food that you've been previously [00:21:00] restricting. You will probably eat the whole sleeve of cookies the first several times that you allow that food in your vicinity, because that's a reaction to the previous restriction, not a reaction to you allowing yourself to have that food.
So whenever you finish the whole sleeve of cookies, the next time you go grocery shopping, we got it. You got to get the cookies again. You need to normalize having that. In your house, in your presence, giving yourself unconditional permission to eat that because eventually y'all think about it this way.
If you are eating cake, cookies, ice cream, chips, all soda all day, every day, you're not going to feel good. And if you are truly in tune with your body's cues. And how your body's feeling, eventually you are going to crave a vegetable. Eventually you are going to crave some protein. Eventually you're going to crave something different.
If you're, so it's not just giving yourself unconditional permission to eat. All these intuitive eating principles are meant to be employed and used like at the same time. And they're not meant to just take one in [00:22:00] isolation. So yes, we're giving ourselves unconditional permission to eat all foods are available.
All foods can fit, but we want to make sure that we're honoring our hunker. We're respecting our fullness. So that's why it doesn't really lead to overeating in the long run. Once you work out these kinks, like there's a healing process. You can't just start intuitively eating and then everything's healed.
It's no, you've been reinforcing these disordered eating habits. For decades, maybe. So it takes some time. So yeah, like you might overdo it a couple times, but nothing's a failure. Everything's feedback. All of those experiences where you overeat are an opportunity to learn. And that's why getting in our group coaching program, the better together program is really helpful because I can help you navigate this process.
I'm meeting with those clients for the first 12 weeks on a weekly basis. And then we switched to every other week for the second half of the program. But yeah, like you have an opportunity, like you have a 24 seven access to me. You can ask me questions all the time and go through this or, Hey, I just binged last night.
What do I do? Like we, we just, you have support in, in that process. Because you need that [00:23:00] as you're navigating this, so overeating is to be expected or potentially even eating more junk food, quote unquote junk food, what people would consider junk food, I don't call it that, but, it's to be expected because those are likely the foods that you've been restricting. But over time, as you're starting to learn the other intuitive eating principles and starting to increase what we call your interceptive awareness, your body attunement, getting in tune with what your body is craving and the signals that your body's craving, and you're building that self care muscle, you'll hear your cues and then learn to respond out of care, love, and respect for yourself.
So yeah, you'll be in tune with your kids and be like, Oh wow. Like all these foods aren't making me feel good. And you'll be able to feel like, Oh, I don't know. I feel like something cold and crunchy. Okay. Maybe you do need a cucumber. Maybe you need a bell pepper. Or Oh, I just feel like something more satiating.
Something I can dig my teeth into. Okay. Maybe you need a piece of meat. Okay. Maybe you need some chicken. Hello. So like your body will send you different sensations and cravings for what your body is deficient in. Very similar, we had a [00:24:00] whole cravings episode, what your cravings say about you, and I talked about your period cravings.
But it's the same thing if you crave meat during your period, there's a reason why you do that. Your body is missing iron because it's losing that in your menstrual blood, so your body's going to give you a cue and a craving for something that would allow you to satisfy whatever your body's deficient in.
Our bodies are so smart, so we need to trust our bodies. Okay. Intuitive eating myth. The next one is that intuitive eating is all about eating your feelings and that's not true. What we do help you with is we help you cope with your emotions with kindness and not cope with your kind of negative emotions through food.
We don't want to numb out through food. However. It's okay to emotionally eat. So there's a little bit of a difference there that there's definitely some nuance emotional eating is to be expected. This is part of our culture, part of our society. We eat when we're celebrating, we eat, when we mourn, [00:25:00] we eat for different cultural events and holidays we eat to establish connection with people in a sense of belonging.
Like emotional eating is totally normal and that's why all foods can fit. 'cause there are some foods that are more nutrient dense I'm not saying that all foods have the same nutritional profile, but all foods have a place on our plate. And there's not foods that are better than the other, but there's different foods that you're going to be craving in certain moments are more appropriate for certain moments.
So there are foods that are more nutrient dense. There are foods that are potentially better for refueling yourself, maybe like post workout. But then there are foods that are better for establishing connection and are better for pleasure or just more satisfying. There's so much, there's something truly satisfying about a warm chocolate chip cookie that iceberg lettuce just doesn't provide you.
But I will say that there are times where I want like a cold crunch and I'm craving that sensation and that like flavor profile that just that [00:26:00] either that sound or that taste or that temperature. And Yeah. Like actually an iceberg lettuce with maybe some cucumber bell peppers like that, carrots.
Like that sounds very good to me. Cause that's what I want that moment. So anyway, there, there are so many different foods and they all can serve a purpose. It's okay to emotionally eat. We just don't want to be coping with negative emotions through food. We want to try and cope with.
Our emotions outside of food. So that's why it's, it is really helpful to go through one of our programs while you're in therapy. Oh, it's not a prerequisite, but stuff comes up on our coaching calls and not everything is within my scope of practice to dive deeper into.
So it's nice to have a therapist be like, Hey, this came up on my coaching call with Abby. Now let's dive deeper into why that is and then stuff will come up in your therapy calls if you're working on healing your relationship with food exercise in your body that like your therapist like that's not really within my scope of practice.
Talk to your dietitian about that. So overall emotional eating is a part of intuitive eating, but it's just not the whole [00:27:00] picture. Intuitive eating recognizes that emotions can influence eating behaviors, but it also teaches you strategies for dealing with emotions in ways other than eating. So you're going to have more tools in your toolbox for how to care for yourself, not just automatically turning to food when you're stressed.
So part of that process, isn't this what I do with my clients is identifying what are the certain triggers before. Turning to food. Naming the emotions that you're actually feeling? Are you stressed? Are you angry? Are you lonely? Are you bored? What are those things? And then we work on those emotions.
What do we do in the moment when you are feeling bored and wanting to turn to food or stress or whatever it is, but then also what can we do to help mitigate the stress? To prevent you from being bored, to deal with the loneliness, to deal with the anger. And that's where a therapist can be helpful. There's some stuff that I can help you with certainly, but sometimes it brings up stuff that needs a higher level of care, deeper support, different training.
But yeah, it's twofold. What do we do in the moment when we feel that emotion and we feel [00:28:00] like turning to food, but then also how can we mitigate you from feeling that emotion as often? Okay, another intuitive eating myth is that it's too permissive, and there really are some people that worry that intuitive eating will lead to a lack of structure and discipline around eating and it's just this free for all.
But intuitive eating can coexist with structure, and this is... What I need to work with my clients on because most clients go through a period of they don't want any structure. They don't want any discipline because they have been so hyper regimented with when they were in the thick of diet culture for decades.
So they don't want anything. So they need to swing the other way, but then eventually they'll live over there and be like, this doesn't really feel good. I need to find a happy medium. How do I find that structure? So things like. meal planning, things like mindful eating practices, things like morning and evening routines.
These things help bring you some structure, but in a non diet way. And there's a way to do these things. In a healthy way there. It's not disordered. If you haven't already [00:29:00] listened to the episode, is it healthier? Is it disorder? That would be really great to listen to, to help in this area. If you're looking for more structure, because you can do a healthy behavior, like you can get a walking pad.
Absolutely. But what's your motivation behind it? Like if. Meal planning was a struggle for you when you were in the thick of diet culture, maybe not a struggle, but something you did, you can still meal plan now that you're healing your relationship with food, but your motivation is different.
You're not like doing it to lose weight. You're doing it to maybe make your meals more convenient spend less time cooking. So you can just grab a meal and go something like that. Another intuitive eating myth is that it's a quick fix y'all. If you are just starting your intuitive eating journey, or if you've been going for a little bit.
You likely have been in diet culture for years or decades. You are a professional dieter. Think about if you had a job for decades, even if you just had a job for five years. 10 years. Like I think about how long you've been dieting. You know what I mean? Five years, 10 years, 20 years, 25 years, 30 years.
If you were in a job for that long, you'd probably be the [00:30:00] CEO at this point, right? Or higher level of executive. And if you weren't, you would still be very proficient at your job. There are so many people at the companies that I've worked at in the past that maybe weren't the higher up executive, but this was the og, this was the Wise Council that has been working there for 30 years.
They know everybody in and out. They know all the gossip. They know like the just the company and how to navigate things like you go to the OG because they know what's up. Okay. So when it comes to dieting, that is literally y'all, you are a professional dieter. You've been doing this, you've been around the block.
For probably decades, so because these disordered eating habits, these negative thought patterns like have been reinforced for so long, it's not realistic that in a day, in three months. Everything's going to be healed. Now we can make significant progress in our six month program. And that's why I changed our program from three months to six months.
And we have options for people that want to continue after that, but yeah, it [00:31:00] takes time and it takes we got to rough up the foundation that you've been laying and reinforcing for years and decades, we've got to rough that up and then lay down something new. That's actually sustainable. So it takes time.
It takes time. And this process sometimes brings up a lot of trauma from your childhood. The stories that I've heard from RB about being better clients and the Better Together program it, it's made me very emotional. And the calls that's made other clients emotional 'cause it's oh wow.
We had one client, her mom told her that she wouldn't be successful because she was overweight. And she's very successful in her career. For her whole life, she didn't think she would be successful because of how she looked. That has nothing to do with her abilities or talents, her brain and how successful she actually is.
So it's just really sad. I had another client that got started with weight watchers at like 12 or 13 years old. We had another client cause I said, Hey, when did y'all start your first diet? And. One of my clients was like, I don't remember a time that I wasn't on a diet and that's really sad.
So a lot of [00:32:00] these things go back to our childhood and can bring up a lot of things. That's why it's important to, maybe work with a therapist as these things do come up, there might be some kind of trauma to work through. But yeah, so ultimately it's not a quick fix. It's a process that takes time to develop and it requires unlearning certain dieting habits.
And then unlearning things takes time and then learning the new thing takes time. So it's not a quick fix. It's not for weight loss. It's about fostering a healthier relationship with food and body over the longterm. So it's meant to serve you for the rest of your life and that takes time and it's worth it to take this time and to go through the process because this is what's actually going to serve you now moving forward for the rest of your life.
Another intuitive eating mess. We have two left. Another one is that intuitive eating is only for people without medical conditions. And this is just not true. Even if you have a, an allergy or condition where you have to restrict certain foods, you can still embrace intuitive eating. We have another client right now who has celiac disease.
So she can't have gluten or any gluten derivatives. She has a shellfish allergy and a tree nut allergy, [00:33:00] or the girl's got everything going on. bUt she's still practicing intuitive eating and she's also practicing cycle sinking. So she is just doing all the things in a non diet way, because you can still, even if you have a chronic health condition, like you still need to eat something like with all the foods that are available to you.
Number one, let's find the widest variety of foods that leave you feeling symptom free. And that's something I do with my clients, but also let's help you honor your hunger, respect your fullness. Move your body in a way that feels good. Make sure that the meals that you're eating are actually satisfying.
We're working to ditch the diet mentality. And embracing gentle nutrition. That's a huge part of intuitive eating as well. So there are still many opportunities for you to embrace a non diet approach and to learn intuitive eating. Even if you. Can't eat every food because of an allergy or chronic health condition.
And that's something I help clients with. Yes. And the better together program, but depending on the condition, I like to work with some clients one on one. So definitely take our quiz and see if working one on one, just doing a nutrition consultation or being in our group program is best for you. Okay.
The last intuitive eating myth is that it guarantees [00:34:00] weight loss, and this is not true at all. And that's why I said at the beginning of this episode, it's if you're seeing intuitive eating before and after videos, like that is not the vibe that person is, does not know what they're talking about, intuitive eating is not a diet.
And it, some people do lose weight. Some people gain weight. Some people stay right where they are. Some people gain weight, then lose weight. It's like everybody is different. Everybody is different. Everybody is different. Intuitive eating isn't about weight loss. And some people do experience changes and they can.
It's just not a weight focused model. It's not a weight focused approach. Instead, it promotes a healthier relationship with food and your body. And weight change is just very based on so many different factors. And if you experience weight gain with intuitive eating, that might be very healthy.
You might've been sitting too low. Now I have some clients that maybe we're sitting too high because they were eating super chaotically, not nourishing their bodies. Not drinking enough water, not optimizing sleep. [00:35:00] Doing things that was putting their body under so much stress and they just were holding on to a lot of inflammation.
So once they start to relax, settle into intuitive eating and they honor their body's cues and they are eating more regularly and nourishing themselves adequately. Sometimes your body will. Release some of that inflammation and you will sit at a lower weight than when you first started. But that everyone just has a different experience.
So we can't guarantee weight loss and part of intuitive eating is helping you find health at any size. And help you focus less on the weight and more on how you feel and more on your health behaviors, because those are the things that move the needle. Weight is not a behavior. And it's actually dieting.
On the other hand, that has been shown to increase your body's natural set point weight and lead to weight gain through this process of weight cycling. Oh yeah, that was a lot. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Thank you all for just supporting me on this. New break that, that I'm taking.
And I do want to come back [00:36:00] to, to be about being better podcasts. We are still coaching clients. We're still going to be on social media. So in this interim period where we're not going to have weekly podcast episodes for a bit, definitely check out the, your daily bread podcast, because we will have weekly episodes there.
And they're very short devotional style episodes. We'll link that podcast up in the show notes. Find me on Tik TOK, find me on Instagram. And you can also DM me with different questions and also DM me people that you would want me to do an Instagram live with. And we could do that collab. If you have someone in mind, thank you for listening.
I appreciate you being here and y'all, I will see you after the holidays and in the next episode.
Yeah.
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 [00:37:00] yourself or your life differently, in any way making your life better, I empower you to share this show with three people who, just like you, need to hear this message and have this type of transformation in their lives.
I personally read all the reviews of the show and see the Instagram story shares, and It honestly gives me so much joy to see that our mission is making people's lives better. And the reviews really do help in increasing our impact. So thank you so much for taking the time to do that. If you need personalized support with anything discussed in today's episode, or need help creating a sustainable, diet free lifestyle, take my quiz.
It's linked below in the show notes, and that quiz will help you see which one of our coaching programs is right for you. Thank you so much again for listening, and here's to being about being better.
