Welcome back to Rebuilding Trust With Your Body, I’m Katy Harvey your host. Today on the show, as you can tell from the title, we are going to go over the top 3 pitfalls that I see over and over again that prevent people from having success with intuitive eating – the things that happen that make people give up or say “It doesn’t work for me.” My goal here is to help you avoid these, or to help you stop falling into these traps if you’ve been getting caught in them – because I WANT you to have success with intuitive eating. I want you to be able to get pizza with your family on a Friday night, I want you to be able to make pancakes for breakfast with your kids, I want you to be able to drink your favorite latte without feeling guilty, I want you to be able to go on vacation without feeling like you need to cut out carbs 2 weeks ahead of time so you look better in the photos, I want you to be in the photos in your life, rather than hiding behind the camera due to how much you hate your body. 

You see, this isn’t just about intuitive eating and checking those boxes that you know how to do the principles…it’s about having peace with food and your body so that your struggles with food and body aren’t controlling your life and draining your energy anymore. 

Before we dive into our main topic for today, you know what time it is…We’ve got some Wellness Woo to talk about. 

Wellness Woo is the stuff that diet and wellness culture tells us we should do in the name of health, but it’s really based on pseudoscience, exaggerated claims, or just nonsense. 

Today’s Wellness Woo is: Sculpiflex – s/o Julie on IG

Rediscover Youthful Contour, with Science-Backed Technology.

Experience the power of advanced body sculpting that reduces cellulite, tightens loose skin, and enhances your figure, no surgery, just results.

It is a contraption that kind of looks like an oxygen mask, and you’re supposed to suction it to your skin and move it over your body to allegedly get rid of your cellulite. 

They claim it will:

• Sculpt and tone your body
• Break down fat cells to drain fatty tissue
• Smooth, firm and lift skin
• Fade stretch marks
• Suck away cellulite

And it only costs $370!

They claim that they did a clinical trial that shows the effectiveness – but they don’t link to said trial anywhere on their website that I could find, which makes me wonder if it even exists. And even if it did, I’d be pretty skeptical of a self-funded trial that doesn’t have any other studies done to replicate the results. 

On the FAQ section is says “are results permanent” and they say: Results can be long-lasting when Sculpiflex is used regularly as part of your body care routine. To maintain your results, we recommend using Sculpiflex 2-3 times per week after achieving your initial transformation.

You will also need the conductive gels to go with the machine that you have to use 2-3x/wk for the rest of your life…and 1 month’s worth of the gel is $64.

They claim that the gel not only helps the contraption work, but that allegedly it will help micronutrients in your body to be evenly distributed, which will make you toned. Oh, and it will boost your hydration too. I assume that it’s literally just lotion that has vitamin E in it or something – like many lotions do – and that the “even distribution” is just because you’re rubbing it all over with the machine. Which you could also do with a cheap bottle of Target lotion that you rub on your skin with your hands. 

They will also sell you…

Slimmy Gummies – Natural Fat-Burning & Anti-Bloat Support

Boost metabolism, flush out stubborn fat, and reduce bloating – all in one delicious, natural gummy. Specially designed to enhance your Sculpiflex results and help you feel confident, light, and in control again. 

30 day supply = $90

I don’t even know where to begin with how absurd all of this is, and how predatory the wellness industry is. People are up in arms about Big Pharma – but they’re not calling out Big Wellness which is far more harmful with all this snake oil and basically scams that they’re running on people. 

Their website is full of before/after pictures and testimonials to convince you at how effective it is. 

There are so many red flags here for Wellness Woo – and whenever someone is selling you something that makes claims like this, I want your radar to go off and for you to be immediately skeptical. 

The Scupliflex is not going to make your cellulite go away and it’s not going to make you more toned. Let’s not forget it’s NORMAL to have cellulite and body fat. And their slimmy gummies are not going to make you skinny. Please don’t waste your money on this. They are preying on your pain points, and their creating insecurities about things that are perfectly normal like cellulite. Total Wellness Woo. 

If you have an example of Wellness Woo that you want to share, DM it to me.

Ok, that’s enough of that. Moving on to today’s main topic…The Top 3 Pitfalls That Prevent Success With Intuitive Eating

And I’ve saved the juiciest one for last, so make sure you listen to the end because it might make you feel a little called out, but in a good way – and in a way that might actually help you break free from where you’re feeling stuck or afraid right now when it comes to your weight. But first things first…

PITFALL #1:

1. You try it 1x and give up
   1. The first month is so exciting – and then the novelty wears off. 
   2. Was talking about this with a client, and we came up with a game plan for what she’s going to focus on when things start to feel hard – not IF. I prepped her on what to look for, what to expect, and what thoughts were probably going to pop into her head. 
   3. This is where the whole process starts to also feel isolating and lonely – especially if you don’t have people in your life who get it, or even worse if you have naysayers in your life. And that’s exactly why all of my programs that I run contain a community aspect (and it’s why I run my FB community IEME). So like when I run IEE there’s a private community where we are having discussion throughout the program, inside NDC there’s a private community and it’s one of the core features of the program because it’s where my clients are supporting each other and giving each other ideas. Research shows that when you’re doing things in a group you are more likely to reach your goals, and you’re less likely to give up. 
   4. So if you’ve been feeling discouraged about IE and you’ve been thinking about throwing in the towel (or maybe you already have, but you’re still considering trying it again), I want you to be prepared for it to get hard, and to have strategies and tools that you’re going to lean on to help you stick with it through those hard moments. We live in a world where diets, medications, contraptions like the Sculpiflex, supplements and all sorts of things are constantly marketed to us and dangled in front of us like shiny objects…
   5. The hard moments are where some of the most powerful growth and healing come from…  
   6. (NDC positioned as solution – COMMUNITY)
      

PITFALL #2:

2. You go through the IE book or workbook and think that simply by doing so you’ve undone 40 years of diet culture 
   1. Now, don’t get me wrong – the IE book and workbook are foundational to this process. I absolutely think you should read the book and do the workbook. But I’m going to hold your hand when I say this – that alone isn’t going to completely erase the decades of wiring inside your brain that have happened as a result of diet culture. You’re not going to close the last page of the workbook and think to yourself, “I’ve arrived at the finish line.” It’s after that that you then have to figure out how to consistently integrate the concepts in real life, as things happen – as you get curveballs thrown your way like a death in the family, or a new medical diagnosis, or one of your kids is struggling, or you get a new job, or you’re on vacation, or your house floods and is filled with mold or burns down and now you’re living in temporary housing and your life has been turned upside down (I’ve literally had this happen to a handful of clients within the past 2 or 3 years). You still have to eat even when stuff is hitting the fan. The real success with IE happens with the long-term integration that occurs from figuring out not just what the 10 principles are that come from the book, but also how to apply them to YOUR unique body’s needs, in the nuances of your life, and to be able to stay with it even when life is stressful. 
   2. And part of that happens as a result of not just knowing the principles, but from all of the learning and un-learning that must occur. For example, it’s one thing to honor your hunger and let yourself eat donuts – it’s another thing to not look at that donut and still think, “Even though I know I have permission to eat this, it’s still junk and I better not eat too many donuts or I’m going to gain weight and be unhealthy.” I know this might sting a little bit, but so many of you think that you’re doing IE, but you’re only applying SOME of the principles, not all of them, and that’s going to hold you back. If you can’t name at least 5 out of the 10 principles of IE off the top of your head, then you’re probably not truly doing it the way it’s intended. 
   3. And once you understand each and every one of the principles, then we need to not just do the behaviors of honoring your hunger and fullness, choosing foods that are satisfying, and applying gentle nutrition…we also need to literally change the way your brain is thinking about food, your body, exercise and your health. You’re not going to have long-term success with IE if you’re still lowkey thinking like a dieter. 
   4. One of the most important elements of what I teach my clients inside Non-Dieter’s Club is the process of creating new neural pathways in your brain that are wired towards food and body neutrality. That means that you can look at a food and not have judgment about it. You can factually understand what’s in it, and what those nutrients do for your body – but you’re not having that thought about how it’s good/bad or healthy/unhealthy anymore. And I have a whole process for how to rewire your brain this way, and what to think instead of good/bad towards the food. 
   5. Another example of how we need to rewire your thinking for IE to be successful long-term is body neutrality. If you’re still using your weight or the scale to gauge your health, your self-esteem, or whether you think IE is “working” – then you’re going to stay stuck. Just like we can look at a food factually and identify what’s in it, and how your body is going to use that – we can look at your weight and see it as a neutral piece of data about your body. Not a reflection of your worth, or whether you are a good person. But just a piece of data. And it isn’t really all that meaningful unless we put it in context with a whole bunch of other pieces of data…And I know that this can feel next to impossible, but I can assure you that it can happen for you – I know this because i see it happening every single day with my clients. One of them recently told me, and I quote: “I think my biggest win has been in learning neutrality in my body image…and my food thoughts of good and bad are almost completely gone.” She didn’t think that was possible when she first started. She blew her own mind with how far she has come in being able to see food and her body with neutrality. 
   6. This is all exactly what I teach inside of my Non-Diet Academy course, which is the core curriculum inside Non-Dieter’s Club – and it’s designed to be the place that you take that foundational knowledge from the IE book and now translate it into lasting peace and freedom with food – for good – because we’ve not just changed your actions, we’ve also changed your thoughts and therefore your feelings about food and your body. So that’s the key here for long-term success – you can’t just assume that the book alone is going to completely undo all of the wiring inside your head from 40 years of diet culture. I wish it would, but it just doesn’t. And again – it’s an essential foundation. Do not skip the book or the workbook. If you haven’t read or done those things that’s one of the first things I’m going to recommend that you do. (In fact, I’ll be going through the Workbook and discussing it inside my group program IEE starting Feb 23…)
   7. (NDC positioned as solution – COURSE)

PITFALL #3: 

I told you I saved the juiciest one for last, so prepare your heart. Because I’m about to tell you something you might not want to hear, and it’s not going to make you feel all warm and fuzzy. But you need to hear it if you want IE to work for you, so I’m going to say it. I’m not here to keep you comfortable all the time – I’m here to help you make peace with food and your body, and we both know that your fears and discomfort with your weight are the main thing that holds you back, or makes you want to run back into the arms of dieting at times. 

3. Your weight goes up and you can’t tell if that’s just your body finding it’s natural weight when you’re not dieting, or if it means you’re not doing IE correctly
   1. I have literally seen this thousands of times…Someone reaches their breaking point with dieting and decides they’re going to give IE a go….
   2. And then they gain weight. Which deep down they knew might happen, but also deep down part of them was hoping that IE would produce weight loss.
   3. So how do you know if weight gain is just your body doing what it needs to do by finding it’s set point with IE, or if weight gain means you’re actually not doing IE correctly? 
   4. And this is the part that’s uncomfortable…you might have to accept that your weight is higher with IE than when you were dieting. That would actually kind of make sense. 
   5. But the other uncomfortable conversation is what if the weight gain is feedback from your body that you’re not actually eating intuitively – what if it means that you’re eating impulsively? Or that you’re honoring your hunger, but you’re blowing right past fullness? Or that you’re not practicing gentle nutrition? Far too many people bail without even considering this possibility – and giving themselves the chance to work through it.
   6. One other thing that I have a fine-tuned radar for with with gain is for identifying when there’s actually something metabolically going on such as insulin resistance, thyroid issues, other hormone stuff like perimenopause…Sometimes the weight gain is a clue to other things happening within the body, and as a clinician I can often pick up on when there’s more to the story than just whether you’re body is finding your set point or things aren’t fully clicking like you want them to be with IE – and that’s when I guide my clients to reach out to their doctor to get these things checked into. 
   7. And it’s one of the things I love most about being able to know my clients and coach them inside Non-Dieter’s Club – we can have these conversations in group or individual coaching where I can help them discern what their weight is actually telling us, when we set the shame, fear and judgment aside. I’m here to be the calm when you’re freaking out inside, and to help you make sense of what’s going on with your body so that you can care for yourself the best. 
   8. Then of course, there are body image conversations intertwined with all of this weight stuff – and we want to work on body kindness, body acceptance and self-compassion – but that doesn’t mean that we ignore what’s happening with your weight (which unfortunately is the message far too often in the IE space). We get to be curious together about what your body is communicating, and to then work on acceptance of what it is your body needs – whether it be bloodwork, accepting that this is your body’s set point at this phase of your life, or if it means taking a look at where you might be making some mistakes with IE so we can fix them. I love troubleshooting that with my clients, and it’s a conversation that comes up a lot inside our NDC group coaching calls where we get to hold space for the conversation, the discomfort, the fear, and then explore and experiment from there. 
   9. (NDC positioned as solution – COACHING)

So let’s recap the top 3 pitfalls:

1. You try IE 1x and give up
2. You go through the IE book or workbook and think that simply by doing so you’ve undone 40 years of diet culture 
3. Your weight goes up you freak out – and you can’t tell if that’s just your body finding it’s natural weight when you’re not dieting, or if it means you’re not doing IE correctly

And if you’re listening to this at the time the episode airs and you want to join us inside IEE to go through the workbook together where you’ll have community, guidance and coaching with me, click the link in the episode description or DM me and we’ll get you set up inside!

If you’re listening in the future, make sure that you’re inside my free community IEME where we’re chatting about all things IE every day. Having that community of people on the same journey is going to help you catch and avoid these pitfalls! 

That’s all for today. Thank you so much for listening! And in case nobody has told you today – you are worthy just as you are. We’ll talk again soon.

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