Ep 231: FOOD FREEDOM QUEST PART 1 – Why You Still Feel Out of Control With Food (Even If You “Know” Intuitive Eating)

Welcome to Rebuilding Trust With Your Body – and as you can tell from the title of this episode, this is the beginning of a special podcast series that I’m doing over 5 days called Food Freedom Quest – and it is going to speed up your IE journey so much!! 

These episodes are going to all tie together to lead you on this quest to not only discover freedom with food to eat the things that taste good to you and that you crave – but so that you also have the freedom with food to say “no” to something when you’re not actually hungry, or if you’re already full, or if it’s not what is going to make your body feel good in that moment. 

This series is going to help you uncover things that are blocking you, mistakes you are making, and it’s going to make you feel so much more confident and empowered on this journey (rather than you being scared and uncertain and questioning if IE is even a good idea for you). 

Just imagine if you were able to go through the drive thru of your favorite coffee shop and get a frilly coffee drink and not feel like you just committed a crime against your health, or to learn how to genuinely want to eat and enjoy eating things like veggies without having to force yourself to choke it down, and if you want to look in the mirror this summer when you are wearing shorts and not pick apart your legs or change into leggings because you can’t stand the thought of someone seeing your cellulite…

If you’re ready for that type of food freedom and the peace with your body to go out and live your life rather than your negative thoughts about your body holding you back from doing things like wearing shorts and a tank top to your son’s baseball game, or getting in the pool with your daughter and showing her that ALL bodies are beach bodies, and if you want to stop feeling controlled by food or obsessed with food – this series is for you.

And here’s the best part – it’s going to be interactive. You’re not just going to listen on this Food Freedom Quest. You’re also going to collect little treasures along the way that are going to lead you to your big reward at the end. Cheesy? Yes. Am I here for it all day long? Absolutely!!

So what’s going to happen in each one of these episodes is somewhere in the episode I’m going to drop a code word, and that word is going to be part of a phrase. At the end of all 5 episodes you’ll put the words together and DM me the phrase to unlock your special reward! 

And trust me – you one million percent want to get your hands on this reward. It’s so juicy, and it’s going to help you make progress on your intuitive eating journey 100x faster. You do not want to miss a single one of these episodes because they each pack a powerful punch, and when you have all 5 code words that make the phrase that you can redeem to unlock your reward your future self is going to be doing her happy dance that you took advantage of this incredible experience.

Let’s get into our topic today on our Food Freedom Quest – Why you still feel out of control, even if you think you already “know how to do” intuitive eating.

You know how intuitive eating works. You’ve read the book, you’re familiar with the 10 principles, and you’ve been doing it for a while. It feels like it’s kind-of-sort-of going ok, but you also still feel like you’re eating too much “junk”, too many carbs, and you’ve already gone up a couple sizes and replaced your wardrobe 1-2x. 

Instead of downloading MFP to track your food, or getting on the scale more often to “keep a closer eye on things” – we need to make a really important distinction here. 

KNOWING what intuitive eating is isn’t the same thing as correctly DOING intuitive eating.

Even if you could rattle off all 10 of the IE principles from the book, it doesn’t mean that you’ve implemented all of them fully – or that you’ve implemented them correctly.

There’s a big difference between knowing and doing. Let me give you some examples…

• You could know that diets don’t work, so you’re not doing WW or keto or IF anymore…but if your brain is still thinking in terms of calories or points, or categorizing foods as good/bad, you are still thinking like a dieter, even if you’re not on a diet…and therefore there will be some subtle dieting behaviors still showing up in your daily actions that you might not even be aware of because, hey, you’re technically not dieting anymore. 
• Another example of knowing vs doing…You know that restricting and depriving yourself sets up backlash overeating and bingeing. So you’re not restricting the chocolate, or the chips, or the pasta anymore. But you’re still very aware of how many calories are in it, and in your mind even though these foods aren’t “off limits” anymore – you still see them as “unhealthy” or “crap” and you tell yourself that you can have your fun with this for a while, but eventually you’re going to have to rein it in. You KNOW that part of IE means that you’re not restricting these foods – but you’re not actually DOING the part where you neutralize and make peace with the foods.
• One more example of knowing vs doing…You know that IE isn’t a diet, but you assumed that if you are listening to your body that you’ll naturally lose some weight because you’re no longer bingeing. So you get on the scale from time to time, and when the number isn’t headed down towards where you want it to be, you get frustrated. You KNOW that IE isn’t a diet, but you’re still DOING the behaviors that a person on a diet would do by measuring progress via the scale (which isn’t how we measure progress or success with IE). 

Ok, we’re going to take a quick time out. The CODE WORD for this episode is: “I”

You can go ahead and DM me that word after you finish this episode, along with your biggest takeaways, or wait until the end of the 5 episodes to DM me the whole phrase. I’d love to hear from you now though to know what’s jumping out, what’s speaking to you, what aha moments are you having – so send me a DM after this on FB or IG! 

Back to knowing vs doing. There’s a good chance that you have some of these gaps happening with IE, and it’s preventing it from fully working for you. 

Subtle restriction is still restriction:

Another reason that I see over and over again that keeps people stuck in that loop of feeling out of control with food is they are still doing subtle forms of restriction without realizing it. Even subtle restriction is still restriction – and it will have the same impact and outcome of your brain and body experiencing it as a threat. 

If there are foods that you still feel guilty for eating, or foods that you wouldn’t let yourself put in your grocery cart – then we’ve still got some work to do. A full-fledged intuitive eater has no fear or guilt about any food, and can keep any and all foods in their house without feeling like the food has any power over them whatsoever. THAT’S where we need to get you.

I had a client recently inside my coaching program NDC who felt like she couldn’t trust herself with sweets in particular. She had tried letting herself eat them without rules and restrictions, just like she heard you’re supposed to do with IE, and she found herself wanting something sweet after every single meal. She was letting herself have the sweets. She wasn’t physically restricting them anymore – but she was still mentally restricting them. (Explain mental restriction, and talk about decharming and how it worked for her and how we customized her approach)…

Ok so I want you to think about these 2 things from this episode:

1. Where are you knowing but not DOING
2. How is subtle restriction showing up for you? – whether it be things you’re still not letting yourself have in the house, or things that you’re still judging as “bad” that have power over you or that have “charm.”

That’s a wrap for this episode…I’ll see you in Part 2 on our Food Freedom Quest! If you missed the code word in this episode go back and listen again to find it…you’ll DM me all 5 code words, which make a phrase when you put them all together and it will unlock a special reward for you at the end that you DO NOT WANT TO MISS! I’ll see you in the next episode!

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Ep 232: FOOD FREEDOM QUEST PART 2 – Why “Just Listen to Your Body” Isn’t Working (And What Actually Does)

Listening to your body is a skill you build, not a switch you flip. Right now, you’re trying to “hear” their body through:

• years of dieting
• food rules
• body distrust
• fear of weight gain

4 REASONS WHY IT’S NOT WORKING:

1. Your body’s signals have been drowned out

• Dieting taught you to override hunger and fullness
• Now those cues feel unreliable (they’re all over the place), inconsistent/unpredictable, or they’re really super loud – and all of this is confusing, so of course you can’t “just listen to your body!!”

2. You’re only listening when you’re already starving or overwhelmed

• Skipping meals → primal hunger → “I can’t stop eating”
• This is purely your biology doing its thing, and it’s why one of the first things I teach my clients inside my signature program NDC is to set up a consistent eating schedule to recalibrate these cues and get you in touch with them. 

3. You’re still filtering everything through food guilt

• “I want pasta” → “but that’s bad” → you’re hung up on an internal tug-of-war instead of actually being able to listen to your body
• You can’t hear your body’s hunger and fullness cues clearly or accurately when your brain’s judgment is screaming over it

4. You’re expecting instant clarity

• You think intuitive eating should feel easy and obvious right away
• In reality, it’s messy at first, and not intuitive
• You’ve got to be able to tolerate the discomfort of the messy middle, and spend some time sitting in the suck without bailing right back into diet culture. 

CODE WORD: TRUST

4 STEPS THAT ACTUALLY WORK TO HELP YOU LISTEN TO YOUR BODY:

1. Create a foundation of consistency first to prove to your body that it will have reliable + predictable opportunities to eat. (Use abused dog analogy from client inside IEE)

2. Use intentional check-ins, not guesswork to listen to your body. This part takes work, and it will probably feel like you’re thinking about food MORE, not less for a while. But you HAVE TO DO IT if you want to get your brain hard wired back into your hunger/fullness cues. This is how it becomes more intuitive over time.

Frameworks that I use with clients:

• Before eating: Powerful Pause
• Mid-meal: “speed bump”
• After: Fullness awareness – how long food sticks with you

3. You MUST actively remove judgment so you can hear clearly

• No more “good vs bad” food noise that interrupts you from being able to listen to your body – one of the hardest parts of IE, and one that most people either skip or can’t fully comprehend on their own without a lot of coaching and examples and repetition like learning a new language. 
• Once you’ve removed these food labels and judgments, you can actually notice what satisfies you and what your body is telling you. Otherwise you’re going to stay stuck in your head, and those thoughts and judgments are going to interfere with your body’s cues. 

4. Zoom out and look at patterns, rather than beating yourself up and going into a shame spiral over specific moments

• One meal or snack doesn’t define anything
• You’re learning your body over time
• Diet thinking is all/none…
• …And Non-Diet thinking is curious, non-judgmental and able to learn from struggles and carry that wisdom with you moving forward. This is how my clients go from beating themselves up if they overeat, or if they impulsively eat something they feel is unhealthy – to being able to analyze the situation without judgment to understand what variables played into it, and what they were needing from food, and what they were needing outside of food in that moment. This is very different from when you feel guilty about what you ate and punish yourself by restricting carbs at your next meal or making yourself do a harder workout at the gym. You learn nothing from doing that other than further entrenching your own shameful thoughts towards the food and towards yourself. 

So these are the steps to being able to ACTUALLY trust your body – rather than just taking the approach of “I’m just listening to my body” based on vibes and a vague idea of what that means, and not really having a solid connection with your body’s cues or understanding of what interferes with them. This is exactly where most women get stuck. They’re trying to ‘listen to their body’ without any structure, support, or guidance…and then they think they’re failing at intuitive eating or that intuitive eating doesn’t work.

There’s groundwork that we have to lay and stepping stones you need in place in order to be able to accurately listen to your body. Inside Non-Dieter’s Club, this is the work we do together. I don’t just tell you to listen to your body…I actually teach you HOW and teach your body how to give you signals that are clear for you to understand. If you go back through this episode and take notes and actually DO what I’m telling you here, it’s going to change everything for you because you’re not going to be winging it with listening to your body anymore.

And don’t forget to keep collecting your code words to DM them to me to unlock your reward at the end of this week!! If you missed the code word in this episode go back and listen again to find it…you’ll DM me all 5 code words, which make a phrase when you put them all together and it will unlock a special reward for you at the end that you DO NOT WANT TO MISS! I’ll see you in part 3 of our food freedom quest!

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Ep 233: FOOD FREEDOM QUEST PART 3 – The Real Reason You Don’t Trust Your Body Yet 

Now, let’s get into it…

You keep saying you want to trust your body…but your actions are telling me a completely different story.

Because if I had a transcript of your daily thoughts and decisions around food, weight, and your body…it wouldn’t look like trust. It would look like control.

You want to trust your body – deep down you really do. But your current reality is that you don’t. (And your body doesn’t trust you either.) You’ve been at war with each other for 20, 30 or 40 years now. 

You’ve tried to control your eating by dieting and following the rules, by only buying “healthy” foods, and throwing out all your “junk” food. You didn’t let yourself buy the chips and cookies that you knew you would eat if they were in your house. You controlled your portions by counting calories and measuring your food – even when you were hungry for more. You ate your allotted amount. And during your macro counting era you force fed yourself protein even when you weren’t hungry anymore.

All of this was an attempt to be good with food, maybe to get healthier, but ultimately the goal was to control and shrink your body – so that you could feel healthy, worthy and in control of yourself and your life.

It’s hard to admit, but you care deeply about what people think of you. You worry that if you’re gaining weight, or if you don’t lose weight, they’re judging you. They’re thinking that you’re lazy, or you gave up on yourself, or that you have no self-control around food and you’re way too overindulgent. (And part of you worries that they’re thinking this because you’ve thought it about yourself at times, and you’ve thought it about other people.) – This doesn’t make you a bad person…you were literally taught to think this way by our society. 

And the good news is that you can teach yourself to think a new way. 

CODE WORD: MY 

The Real Reasons You Don’t Trust Your Body

1. You’re still chasing weight loss… just in a more socially acceptable way

• “I’m not dieting, I’m just trying to be healthier”
• “I’m doing intuitive eating but hoping the weight comes off naturally”
• And here’s the cold hard truth that I’m willing to tell you, even if it makes you uncomfortable: You’re using intuitive eating as a loophole to get weight loss without calling it dieting, and it’s preventing you from succeeding with IE.

2. You don’t actually believe your body knows what it’s doing

• You still think your body is:
  • too hungry
  • too emotional
  • too out of control
  • Too big
  • Too unhealthy

If you genuinely believed your body was wise… you wouldn’t be second-guessing it all day.

3. You’re still outsourcing trust to the scale

• You tell yourself “I’ll trust my body once I see progress”
• Mood dictated by the number

4. You’re avoiding the uncomfortable parts of intuitive eating

• Reckoning your own internal fatphobia
• Tolerating feeling uncertain
• Gaining weight (or the possibility of it)
• Sitting in the suck
• Choosing to do the body image work, rather than waiting until your body looks a certain way in order to accept it

5. You’re waiting to feel confident before you go all in

• “Once I feel ready, I’ll fully commit to IE”. Trust isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you build by acting BEFORE you feel ready.

Trust is built through ACTION, not just intention or declaring that you are going to trust your body. You’ve got to PROVE to your body that it can trust you (and prove to yourself that you can trust your body.)

• This trust that goes both ways happens by:
  • eating consistently
  • not restricting after overeating
  • honoring hunger even when it’s inconvenient

And I know you don’t want to hear this, but I’m going to say it to you because I know you NEED to hear it…You have to grieve the weight loss fantasy.

As long as a part of you is still clinging to ‘maybe I’ll lose weight if I do this right’… you will not trust your body. Period. This is something that comes up a lot inside of our group coaching calls in NDC. And there’s always a collective set of head nodding where people are owning that this is a fantasy that they’ve clung onto. Some people are further along than others in grieving it and letting go of that fantasy, and others aren’t all the way there yet but they are seeing through the example of the women who are further down the path than them why this is essential, and how it works. This is the power of getting in the room with other people who GET IT at a deep level, and people who are further along than you who are paving the way and showing you what it looks like to really do the work – especially the unsexy and really uncomfortable parts of it.

You don’t trust your body yet because you’re still trying to make sure it turns into the body you want – rather than letting your body guide you to where it wants to be.

Trust is also built through showing up for yourself over and over again, even when you mess up.

• No more:
  • “Did I lose weight?”
  • “Was I good today?”
• Instead:

• “Did I show up for my body today?”
• What does my body need from me?
• How can I be kind and compassionate towards my body?

Rather than trying to trust your body through continuing to try and control it – you’ve got to let your body speak to you, and learn how to compassionately honor what your body is telling you it needs. And it’s through repeatedly doing that over and over again, day in, day out, that your body will start to trust you and you will start to trust your body. 

It’s like being in a new relationship with someone you’re dating. You don’t trust them with your bank account and your social security number and your deepest darkest secrets right away. That trust is earned through repeated experiences that build and grow trust over time. Your trust with your body is in the toilet, and it’s going to take time to rebuild it. But the rebuilding trust won’t happen if you keep trying to control your food and your weight – that approach is what has destroyed your trust with your body in the first place, and that’s why we’re doing things differently now.

Don’t forget to grab the code word from this episode and put it together with the code words from parts 1 and 2. By the end of the week you’ll have all 5 words that are going to unlock your special reward!! You can either DM me now with the words you have so far, or wait until the end of the quest to send me the phrase. I would LOVE to hear your takeaways from this episode though, so send me a message and let me know what’s coming up for you as you listen. I’ll talk to you again in Part 4!

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Ep 234: FOOD FREEDOM QUEST PART 4 – The #1 Mistake That Keeps You Stuck in the Restrict–Overeat Cycle (and how to avoid it)

If you feel like you’re constantly ‘starting over’ with food… like you do okay for a few days and then something snaps… we’re going to break down in this episode why this keeps happening.

Most people incorrectly assume that the overeating is the issue – that they need to avoid those foods that they overeat on, or they need to have more willpower or portion control with them. So they’ll do things like not buy chips, or instead of buying the half gallon container of ice cream they buy those little individual cups or just pints as a way to control the quantity. 

But the overeating part of the restrict-overeat cycle isn’t the problem…the restricting is. That is the #1 reason that will keep you stuck in this cycle forever if you don’t address it. And you might genuinely feel like you’re actually not restricting anymore, so it’s insane that you’d still be overeating, but there’s a good chance that there are some really subtle and sneaky forms of restriction still showing up for you, and I’m going to give you a bunch of examples here that are probably going to make you feel a little called out, so prepare your heart. Once you’re aware of these things you can then change them and stop letting them work against you.

I’m going to go rapid fire through 12 ways that you might be restricting that you’re not even aware of, and that’s keeping you stuck in the restrict-overeat cycle:

1. Mental restriction

• “I can have it… but I shouldn’t”
• “This is bad, I’ll be better tomorrow”
• You’re technically allowing the food… but mentally you’re still judging and restricting it, and your brain is picking up on a lowkey threat of deprivation because you “shouldn’t” be eating it in the first place, so naturally at some point it must go away..

2. Delaying or ignoring hunger

• Skipping meals because you’re busy
• Trying to “be good” earlier in the day

3. Compensating after eating

• “I’ll eat lighter later”
• “I need to make up for that”

4. Trying to ‘earn’ or ‘deserve’ food

• Exercising to offset food
• Negotiating with yourself

5. Lopsided eating

• Eating super “light” all day so you can “have what you want” later
• Coffee + a protein bar → salad → then chaos at night

6. Ignoring hunger because it’s “too early” to eat

• Waiting until a “normal” mealtime instead of when your body asks 
• Not letting yourself have a snack because you just ate an hour ago

CODE WORD: BODY

7. The Mental Math You Pretend Isn’t There

• “Okay I had pizza at lunch so dinner needs to be lighter”
• “I’ll skip the bun”
• “I already had carbs today” if you had toast for breakfast so you won’t let yourself eat a sandwich at lunch

8. Telling yourself  “I Can Have It… But Just One”

9. Not buying certain foods “because I can’t be trusted around them”

10. The “Healthy Version Only” Swap

• Cauliflower crust everything
• Protein brownies that taste like drywall
• Low-carb wraps instead of real bread

11. “I Messed Up So Tomorrow I’ll Fix It”. After overeating:

• skipping breakfast
• eating lighter the next day
• “resetting” 

12. The “I’ll Wait Until I Deserve It” Pattern

• “I didn’t work out today so I shouldn’t have that”
• I already ate something indulgent today, so I need to take it easy.

There’s a really good chance that you see yourself in at least 3-4 of these, if not more. And I don’t want you to beat yourself up for that. The fact that you’re now aware of where restriction is still showing up for you is what is going to allow you to stop making this mistake that’s inadvertently fueling the overeating episodes and that restrict-overeat cycle that is SO HARD to break out of. 

When we keep experiencing instances of overeating or bingeing, it feels like this is the problem – that eating too much of the food, or being out of control with certain foods, or liking food too much is the problem. It’s easy to blame the food, to blame the food industry, to blame ultraprocessed foods, and to blame yourself – but that’s not the actual problem here. 

The restricting is. And blaming the food, and blaming the overeating is the #1 mistake that will keep you stuck. This is exactly why so many women feel like intuitive eating isn’t working for them… when really, they’re still caught in this loop without realizing it. You’ve got to address the restriction in all of its forms if you want to break free from this cycle and truly become an intuitive eater. 

I’ll see you tomorrow for Part 5 – the grand finale of our Food Freedom Quest! Don’t forget to write down the code word from this episode so you can send me the phrase that the 5 words create when you put them all together and you can unlock your exclusive reward that you do not want to miss! We’re SO CLOSE…I’ll see you in the next episode!!

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Ep 235: FOOD FREEDOM QUEST PART 5 – What It Actually Takes to Feel Normal Around Food (And Why Most People Don’t Get There)

Now…let’s talk about what it actually takes to feel normal around food, and why most people don’t get there. 

Most of you don’t think intuitive eating is supposed to magically click one day.

You think if you just do it right enough… consistently enough… long enough… your body will respond in the way you want…That the weight will come down… or at least stabilize in a way that feels acceptable… and THEN you’ll finally feel safe to trust your body.

But that belief right there? THAT’S the exact reason you still don’t feel normal around food.

You’re Trying to Earn Food Freedom Instead of Practicing It

• “If I eat well enough → then I’ll trust myself”
• “If my body responds well → then I’ll relax”
• “If I don’t gain weight → then I’m doing it right”

Most people don’t get to the point where they actually feel normal around food because they quit when it feels uncomfortable. They interpret discomfort as failure and use it as a reason to bail instead of seeing it as a normal and necessary part of the process. 

They also treat intuitive eating like information, not a practice

• Listening to podcasts (hi, irony)
• Reading books
• Thinking about it

But they’re not experimenting with it, gathering data, getting curious about what’s working and what’s not, and making adjustments based on that information. Far too many people have the head knowledge, but not the experiential learning that’s required for this to become your new normal, and for you to truly be an intuitive eater.

The other thing that’s holding you back from feeling normal around food, and why 99% of people end up giving up on IE is that your pride (and shame) are keeping you stuck. And you’re not going to be one of those 99% of people who quit – because we’re going to get you unstuck here today.

You’re smart. 

You’ve read the books and listened to the podcasts.

You think you know what to do.

You’ve figured out other things on your own. That DIY bathroom remodel didn’t turn out so bad, did it?

And you tell yourself that you’ve already wasted so much money on dieting that you shouldn’t spend anything else on getting support or professional guidance for IE. (Which is kind of like trying to DIY playing the guitar…yeah, you can fiddle with it on your own and watch some YouTube videos, but it’s going to be a thousand times faster and more effective if you just hired a guitar teacher to give you some lessons and show you how to do it right and how to fix it when you’re making mistakes.)

Another thing that is likely holding you back from asking for help is shame. Shame that you haven’t been able to figure this out on your own. Shame that you have been battling food and your weight for 30, 40 or 50 years of your life. You feel like there’s something deeply flawed within you, and that your deep struggles with food are your dirty little secret. 

This is the part no one wants to admit… but trying to untangle 40 years of dieting, body image issues, and food rules on your own is really hard, if not impossible. Time and time again clients will tell me that they wish they’d hired me sooner because they wasted so much time messing around trying to do it on their own and not realizing the mistakes they were making that was causing IE to do more harm than it was good. You don’t unlearn 40+ years of diet mentality by doing a workbook or listening to a few podcast episodes. Those are great tools, but rarely are they sufficient on their own.

Research literally shows that we make more progress when we work towards a goal with a group of others working towards the same goal vs when we try to do it on our own. The first time I ever trained for a marathon there’s no way that I would have been able to do it on my own. It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If I hadn’t had a group of people that I was doing it with, to commiserate, to ask questions, to get tips from, and to cheer me on when I wanted to quit…I never would have made it to the finish line. This is why the group coaching and the private community is such a big part of my membership and coaching program Non-Dieter’s Club. I just as easily could have made it a program where you go through the curriculum and only have 1:1 conversations with me about it. But I made it have a group because there’s power in being surrounded by others on this same journey, not just because the group supports each other but because you LEARN massive amounts from others’ journeys and watching them navigate through challenges and overcome them. This is how you speed up your process and avoid mistakes. You get the advantage of being able to learn from others’ mistakes so you don’t have to make them yourself. 

So if you want to stop feeling out of control with food and to go from just “knowing” what IE is to truly “DOING” IE correctly – then I want you to ask yourself: Who in your life knows that you’re on this journey? Who can support you? Who can you turn to when you’re having a hard day? Someone who won’t collude with the diet mentality or naysay your process and make you doubt yourself. 

You need to get around the right people, and not everyone in your life has the right to know about this. There are people you probably shouldn’t tell because they’re going to say things that are triggering or unhelpful, or they’re going to try to sell you into doing their MLM diet thing instead. You need to be strategic and selective with who is on your team and in your posse here. People who will help you uncover your blind spots, and do the parts of IE that you’ve been avoiding or doing incorrectly. That’s not going to happen when you’re just trying to DIY it all by yourself because you have too much pride or shame to talk about it or ask for help. You don’t have to do this alone. It’s hard enough to go against the grain of diet culture. 

If you want this to work, you need to:

• Let yourself be supported (even when it’s uncomfortable)
• Be willing to be seen in your messy moments
• Allow someone who knows how IE works to challenge your thinking 

You’re stuck because you’re trying to prove you can do it alone. But guess what? Nobody wins a trophy for doing this by themselves. The real prize is the SOONER you find peace with food and your body, rather than continuing to flounder and struggle. Why wouldn’t you want to speed up your way there? You need to find your people and drop the pride and shame that’s keeping you isolated on your journey. You deserve support and people who are in your corner who get it and are there to cheer you on and lift you up.

This is why most people fail. They don’t have a support system. They don’t have people who get it. They don’t have a coach who actually knows what they’re talking about who will point out their blind spots, and help them peel back the layers to go deeper and get to the root of what’s going on. If this were easy, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You would have mastered this already. 

This is HARD – and the reason people give up is because they aren’t able to sit in the suck with the hard parts long enough to get to the other side. 

They bail when it feels too slow, to messy, too uncomfortable.

You’re closer than you think. The peace and freedom you’re looking for with food is on the other side of you sticking with this process and leaning in a little harder. You’ve got to stop feeling too ashamed or to prideful to let other people support you. The clients I’ve worked with who make the most progress the fastest are the people who lean into coaching, who do the curriculum and the trainings and the homework I give them, and who show up in the group and ask questions, reach out for support when they’re struggling, and who participate in the group calls (either live or by watching the replay). These people blow right past the people who are going at a snail’s pace by telling themselves “I’ll just do the workbook on my own” or they buddy up with someone else to do the workbook together and it becomes like the blind leading the blind and they have no idea where they’re going or how to spot each other’s blind spots and mistakes. The reason that my clients succeed is that they aren’t just knowing what IE is…they’re DOING IE in their everyday life, they’re sitting in the suck and tolerating the uncertainty, and they’re processing their thoughts and feelings that come up so that they don’t fester inside and create massive amounts of self-doubt that lead them right back into the arms of dieting. 

That’s where most people give up. They get frustrated, tired and discouraged, and then diet culture seduces them right back in, and they get that instant relief and dopamine hit from controlling their food again and focusing on losing weight. It feels good temporarily, but it eventually backfires and they’re right back where they started.

That’s not going to be you. Because you’re here listening to this episode. You’ve done this Food Freedom Quest Series. 

I want you to write down where you are going to get support. Who is on your team or in your posse? Who are you going to turn to when you’re having a terrible body image day? Where are you going to get guidance when you’re confused on why you’re stuck or what your next steps should be? I want you to figure this out and stop telling yourself the lie that you should be able to do this on your own. That’s ridiculous. The worlds smartest and most successful people have mentors, coaches and they outsource things that aren’t their area of expertise. Do you think they’re doing their own taxes, or cleaning their own houses, performing their own eye exams, or writing their own workout plans? NO! They hire experts and specialists to do these things for them, not because they’re dumb or incapable – but because they’re SMART.

You deserve to have people that you get guidance and support from as well. That’s smart – not a sign of your own inadequacy or weakness. Thinking of it that way will keep you stuck, and it will make you extremely vulnerable to getting sucked right back into diet culture. Don’t let that happen to you. Choose your support system wisely – and I literally want you to write it down. Who’s in your support system? 

The code word for this episode is: NOW. 

I saved it for the end because I want you to immediately go and DM me the phrase when you put all 5 words from this Food Freedom Quest together. Do it right now so you don’t forget. And once I get your DM, you will unlock a special reward that is going to help you speed up this process and help you succeed with IE 100x faster (and let’s just say I have a fun little surprise up my sleeve for you within your reward as well!!) You’ve gone on this quest, you’ve done the work to gather the words, and now you get to claim your treasure! This has been so much fun, and I hope that you are feeling motivated and inspired by these episodes and the momentum we’ve built…and that you’re excited to claim your treasure because it’s pretty epic. I’ll see you in my DMs!

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“I love Katy and Rebuilding Trust With Your Body.” <– If that sounds like you, please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people — just like you — who are ready to finally discover peace with their bodies. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode! Also, make sure to follow the podcast if you haven’t already done so. Follow now.