Speaker 1: Maybe that's Lisa and We're just two girls that want
Speaker 1: to have a conversation with you. Dear sixteen year old
Speaker 1: Andrea hey gorsgeous, Dear younger Lauren. Each episode is stories
Speaker 1: from people I would deprive myself. Why myself obsessively? Because
Speaker 1: I was eating healthy? I couldn't understand that I had
Speaker 1: a problem with food. Losing my period scared me the most.
Speaker 1: My story starts when I was around seven. That's when
Speaker 1: I started to hate my body. Body image is like
Speaker 1: our inner picture of our outer self healthy behaviors. I
Speaker 1: had a much bigger role at all health than the
Speaker 1: actual number on the scales. Internal dialogue can be so
Speaker 1: powerful and often it's super negative and critical in a
Speaker 1: way that we wouldn't talk to other people that we
Speaker 1: care about. When you start to share your story, that
Speaker 1: gives other people the courage to share theirs. I know
Speaker 1: you would be proud now of how far you have
Speaker 1: come in your relationship to food, exercise, and to yourself.
Speaker 1: I felt freedom, I've gained relationships. I've found my true
Speaker 1: sense of self worth. There's one thing I need you
Speaker 1: to take away. You're going to be okay. Lisa and
Speaker 1: I are super excited to have Sam Private join us
Speaker 1: for today's episode. She is a dietitian that is creating
Speaker 1: change in her own little bubble, but also in the
Speaker 1: Instagram world, because that's where I found you, Sam, and
Speaker 1: I'm so glad I did. I don't even know how
Speaker 1: or who reposted you, but I'm sure I saw one
Speaker 1: of your funny reels that you put up that are
Speaker 1: very attention getting, and I love that you use your
Speaker 1: creativity to bring awareness to something that's super important, and
Speaker 1: it's diet culture and all the things that we have
Speaker 1: that reigned upon us for years and years and years
Speaker 1: that I know you and Lisa both being dietitians in
Speaker 1: that world, it's probably a constant struggle. So talk with
Speaker 1: us about how diet culture has played a role in
Speaker 1: your career and then what you try to do for
Speaker 1: clients online like your Instagram world, but also professionally in
Speaker 1: your workspace. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: And it's so awesome that social media can connect people
Speaker 1: from from all over but for me, you know, I
Speaker 1: wasn't all ways an anti diet dietitian, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of dietitians can relate to that is that
Speaker 1: we are classically trained in diet culture. We are trained
Speaker 1: to use weight loss as our party trick of how
Speaker 1: we can be air quotes helpful for people that are
Speaker 1: not watching this and listening. And so I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time counseling when I started as a dietitian,
Speaker 1: counseling people in weight loss and weight management. And I
Speaker 1: truly thought that I was helping people. I honestly thought that.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why we go into this field
Speaker 1: as a dietitian, as we want to help people, and
Speaker 1: we're also seeking that answer of life, of happiness and
Speaker 1: health and all these things, when really there is no
Speaker 1: magic answer that's the answer. So I was doing you know,
Speaker 1: weight loss counseling and whatnot, and then I recognized that
Speaker 1: people would see short term success and then they would
Speaker 1: go off on their merry way and they would come
Speaker 1: back a few months feeling distraught, you know, feeling guilty
Speaker 1: and shameful, reaching out to me and saying like I failed, Sammy,
Speaker 1: I need you to help me. I need I need
Speaker 1: to tune up, you know, I need to check in.
Speaker 1: And I would see that over and over and I said,
Speaker 1: something's not right here, like this isn't helping anyone, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I found Intuitive Eating, which i'm also
Speaker 1: a certified into a debating counselor trained under Evilent Triboli
Speaker 1: and at least Rash, the authors of the book, where
Speaker 1: I was able to see that really, if we can
Speaker 1: help people make peace with food first, make peace with
Speaker 1: their body, then we can get to the part that
Speaker 1: dietitians think about of nutrition and things that genuinely improve
Speaker 1: our health. But if everything that we do is so
Speaker 1: rooted in guilt and shame, it's really hard to start
Speaker 1: to make behavior changes for air quotes health if everything
Speaker 1: has a shame wrapped up with it. So, to go
Speaker 1: back to your question, I have not always been an
Speaker 1: intuitive eating dietitian. I have not always been an intuitive
Speaker 1: eater and an anti diet dietitian. It's really been in
Speaker 1: the last two years where I've really don've been and
Speaker 1: continue to learn. And we have a team now of
Speaker 1: multiple registered dietitians that are all certified and Intuitive Eating,
Speaker 1: and we help people all over the world in our
Speaker 1: virtual private practice. Yeah, I think what you do is awesome,
Speaker 1: and I love the way you present your material online.
Speaker 1: It really is light and funny, but bringing the realness
Speaker 1: to the conversation, but in a way that doesn't make
Speaker 1: people feel bad. And I think that that's really the
Speaker 1: critical component as to you know, why people are attracted
Speaker 1: to you, of course, and and your practice. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for that. And I think that's where TikTok
Speaker 1: came into play, where you know, we're in the midst
Speaker 1: of this global pandemic and everyone's stuck at home and
Speaker 1: I saw this TikTok app and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: not another app, Like I can't do this. And then
Speaker 1: we started making videos and people were having, like you
Speaker 1: said that, the emotional reaction of like laughing and being like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I do that, Like you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and it's relatable. I'm not anti human beings dieting.
Speaker 1: And I think that's where on Instagram things can get
Speaker 1: really sticky, is people can feel shame and guilt for
Speaker 1: their diet history. But we have to go through that
Speaker 1: to be able to get to a place where we're
Speaker 1: saying I don't want to diet anymore. I don't want
Speaker 1: to do this anymore. This is harmful, And so there's
Speaker 1: no shame in being a chronic dieter that was me
Speaker 1: for eight plus years, but being able to laugh about
Speaker 1: it and say, Okay, how can I move forward? How
Speaker 1: can I change? Love that? And just so that people
Speaker 1: know where to find you. On Instagram, You're at fine
Speaker 1: dot food dot Freedom and is it the same on
Speaker 1: TikTok ye find food Freedom. No dots on TikTok okay,
Speaker 1: but on Instagram we got the dots, so yes, definitely.
Speaker 1: What we encourage for our listeners to do is to
Speaker 1: follow accounts such as yours so that you have those
Speaker 1: positive reminders in your feed and maybe unfollowed stuff that
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily healthy for you to see, because I feel
Speaker 1: like when your post pop up, or if Lisa puts
Speaker 1: up a poster any other amazing people that I've started
Speaker 1: to follow, once I've become part of this anti diet
Speaker 1: culture because I know shame here chronic diet or all
Speaker 1: kinds of eating disorders from it. So I am right
Speaker 1: there with a lot of America. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Lisa and I are here talking with you
Speaker 1: is we want to keep having these conversations, say that
Speaker 1: there's no shame, break the stigma around some of this stuff,
Speaker 1: and as we enter into the holiday season. I think
Speaker 1: that that is when diets start to rear their head,
Speaker 1: whatever it looks like, because you maybe have wellies a
Speaker 1: little weird, probably not as many parties, but you've got
Speaker 1: different gatherings to go to where there might be this
Speaker 1: kind of food in this kind of food, So you
Speaker 1: better restrict for five days before you go eat your
Speaker 1: big family meal or juice, the you know, some sort
Speaker 1: of clans to detox after. And then the new year
Speaker 1: approaches and it's like, okay, new year, knew me, and
Speaker 1: it just seems like the last few months of the year,
Speaker 1: and then as we enter a new year, it's a
Speaker 1: vicious cycle. And I was a part of it. It
Speaker 1: was almost like I could predict how it was going
Speaker 1: to be November, December, January, November December just binge like
Speaker 1: crazy January clans and then end up binging again because
Speaker 1: my body was hungry. So talk with us about what
Speaker 1: insight do you have to offer to navigate through the
Speaker 1: holidays without doing what I just said that I did
Speaker 1: for years. Well, I think it's one thing to recognize
Speaker 1: is that's very conclusive with the evidence, we know that
Speaker 1: restriction is the number one indicator of binging. So a
Speaker 1: lot of times there's a lot of shame tied to binging,
Speaker 1: and people are saying, you know, when you're in that binge,
Speaker 1: you say, I'm never going to do this again, like
Speaker 1: this is it that creates that urgency to eat even
Speaker 1: more food because you truly believe that come Monday or
Speaker 1: come that next day or after the holiday, that you're
Speaker 1: not going to allow yourself to eat that food, And
Speaker 1: that creates urgency to eat even more food, which then
Speaker 1: fuels that restriction. So binging occurs because of the restriction.
Speaker 1: I see it so often with my clients. And you know,
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving is coming up, and that's one of the most
Speaker 1: common holidays where people will have again, I'm gonna use
Speaker 1: air quotes again, like saving your calories for the big
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving meal, right, and thinking like, Okay, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: it right, I'm gonna not eat all day and then
Speaker 1: I'll be really air quotes good becausing so many air
Speaker 1: quotes on a podcast. But that is that diet culture mentality.
Speaker 1: So being able to say, Okay, if I've ever restricted
Speaker 1: in the past, how did that end up for me? Right?
Speaker 1: Was I binging? And I like to normalize that for
Speaker 1: people of if you've restricted and that's led to a binge,
Speaker 1: which chances are it has congratulations. You are a human
Speaker 1: being and your body works correctly, like that's something to celebrate,
Speaker 1: that's not something to feel bad about. And so once
Speaker 1: we can shift that mindset to, oh my god, my
Speaker 1: hunger is working correctly, like I binged because my blood
Speaker 1: sugar was low and because I was restricting and because
Speaker 1: I was starving, then we can say, okay, we can
Speaker 1: remove the emotional unpleasantness from that physical unpleasantness that happens
Speaker 1: when we binge, because those are two separate things, and
Speaker 1: then we can say, what can I do differently next time?
Speaker 1: So when we go into let's say, let's go back
Speaker 1: to our Thanksgiving example, can we eat a breakfast, Can
Speaker 1: we eat a snack? Can we eat lunch? Can we
Speaker 1: eat another snack? And then go into our Thanksgiving dinner
Speaker 1: just as if it was any other meal, and recognizing
Speaker 1: that fueling our body will help keep that urgency to
Speaker 1: eat down because our blood sugars will be stable, we
Speaker 1: will have the food and we won't feel that restriction.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I just want to add, which
Speaker 1: I think you'll agree with. But just how restriction played
Speaker 1: out in my life over the last ten years or
Speaker 1: during my disordered eating, is that it might not be
Speaker 1: total calories. It might be clean eating or only eating
Speaker 1: gluten free for no medical reason or even personal finding reason,
Speaker 1: or dairy or sugar or whatever it is. I remember
Speaker 1: when I saw my therapist for the first time and
Speaker 1: I was explaining my binges and she said, well, are
Speaker 1: you restricting, because restricting causes binges? And I said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm eating. I'm eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I was,
Speaker 1: but I was excluding so much that it still resulted
Speaker 1: in a binge. So I think just to expand that
Speaker 1: conversation as to you know, what being good looks like,
Speaker 1: maybe it's not just being keto up until Thanksgiving meal,
Speaker 1: really allowing flexibility and examining what restriction looks like on you.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that that's a great point.
Speaker 1: And I know that, you know, when we use the
Speaker 1: terms being good right or being bad with food, big
Speaker 1: part of intuitive eating, one of the principles is removing
Speaker 1: the morality to food, and I think that's a you know,
Speaker 1: we find so often that our clients have this cognitive dissidence,
Speaker 1: their logic and their belief systems are not matching up.
Speaker 1: So asking yourself right now, Okay, if I eat X
Speaker 1: food whatever that food is, right, does that make me
Speaker 1: a bad human being? Does that change my character? Does
Speaker 1: that change my work worth? And most people say no, no, right,
Speaker 1: that doesn't change my worth. But then if we say okay,
Speaker 1: eat that same food, do you feel guilt or shame
Speaker 1: for eating? And if the answer is yes, we know
Speaker 1: that guilt and shame specifically guilt is rooted in a
Speaker 1: moral emotion. But we just said that we weren't bad
Speaker 1: like that doesn't change our worth. So okay, there's a
Speaker 1: yes over here, there's no over here. That's a cognitive distance.
Speaker 1: We need to dig into that and we need to
Speaker 1: release that morality with food, and that will also help
Speaker 1: with that binge restrict cycle as well. Something you said
Speaker 1: about eating breakfast and lunch and a snack and going
Speaker 1: into a holiday meal as if it's any other day,
Speaker 1: I think it's huge. But also what I've loved about
Speaker 1: learning from people like you and Lisa and others that
Speaker 1: I follow is the reminders of, Hey, if you've struggled
Speaker 1: with any type of disordered eating, patterns, and you woke
Speaker 1: up today and you ate breakfast? High five, because I
Speaker 1: think so many times I definitely participated in intermittent fasting,
Speaker 1: and so many times I catch my brain being like, actually,
Speaker 1: should I eat breakfast right now? Because I ate dinner
Speaker 1: at eight o'clock last night and it's not even eight
Speaker 1: am yet and it hasn't been twelve hours. My brain
Speaker 1: still does that to me because it was such a
Speaker 1: pattern for a long time. And then I check in
Speaker 1: with myself and I say, okay, am I hungry right now?
Speaker 1: Regardless of when I ate dinner? Who cares throw that
Speaker 1: out the window? Am I hungry right now? If I am,
Speaker 1: I eat. If I'm not, I wait a little bit.
Speaker 1: And that's me working through in my own way. Everyone
Speaker 1: has their own journey, their own stories, their own old
Speaker 1: habits that they had that are hard to break. But
Speaker 1: even though I'm haven't in or mittenfested in a very
Speaker 1: long time, well for me, I you know, a year
Speaker 1: or more, I still have those thoughts in my head.
Speaker 1: We're not acting like waking up and eating breakfast and
Speaker 1: having luncheon snacks on Thanksgiving Day is easy, and you
Speaker 1: will still have mental thoughts. No matter. I don't know
Speaker 1: the two of you. You've been at this a lot
Speaker 1: longer than me. Do you still have to tell your brain?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I don't think that way anymore so for
Speaker 1: me personally at this point. No, but I will say
Speaker 1: absolutely it takes time. It takes years. Right, So we
Speaker 1: create neuropathways in our brain and these negative thought patterns
Speaker 1: in these loops, which I think Jennifer Rowlands have talked
Speaker 1: about one of your previous episodes, and that is so
Speaker 1: important to be able to recognize that and know that
Speaker 1: that is not a failure. That is just diet culture
Speaker 1: trying to dig its nails right back in right and
Speaker 1: and present itself. So, just like you said, Amy, being
Speaker 1: able to recognize that, whether it's just recognizing it in
Speaker 1: your head, writing it down on paper, and then being
Speaker 1: able to redirect that and say, no, I need food
Speaker 1: to fuel my body. I will function better with this meal.
Speaker 1: I will be a better human being with this meal
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. Being able to catch that is
Speaker 1: so important, and that's that's really what the work is.
Speaker 1: It's it's consistent, consistent work, and it's different I think
Speaker 1: for everybody based on their own story of how long
Speaker 1: that may continue, but I have so much hope that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get to a point one day where you're like,
Speaker 1: I just eat and I don't have to think about it.
Speaker 1: I'll say though, that, you know, with so much time
Speaker 1: I spend on social media as my job, and I'm
Speaker 1: exposed to so much, once in a while, I'll get
Speaker 1: something that is not me listening to my body. And
Speaker 1: while I'm not fused to it, I'm not like, oh,
Speaker 1: this person is doing this, I should try this. It's
Speaker 1: a little ding that I'm no longer listening to my
Speaker 1: body because it's rooted in fear and we feel fear.
Speaker 1: So i'd say, once in a while, i'll notice something
Speaker 1: and that's why I call it noise, because it's anything
Speaker 1: that's pulling me out of my body. And I'll say, okay, noise,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you for trying to keep me safe,
Speaker 1: but I'm good here. And I think that's kind of
Speaker 1: two approaches. It's like, get angry at diet culture, but
Speaker 1: get kind to yourself for trying to protect you. And
Speaker 1: it's wrongly perceiving of danger. So I feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of how it shows up for me. Once in
Speaker 1: a while, I'll flag it, I'll dig it. It's very infrequently,
Speaker 1: but I will notice it, and I'll come home, and
Speaker 1: I'm constantly coming home to myself and my trust, and
Speaker 1: those little moments even where I come home, are like
Speaker 1: little pats on the back that bring me even closer
Speaker 1: to trusting my body because it's like, hey, we just
Speaker 1: worked together, like we just said like you know, see you,
Speaker 1: no thank you. And so I don't think here if
Speaker 1: anyone's a failure, if they get a moment of oh, well,
Speaker 1: I just had dinner at eight o'clock. You know your
Speaker 1: example of intermittent fasting, it hasn't been that long. I
Speaker 1: think we're always works in progress, and new life changes
Speaker 1: are going to bring up old thoughts or situations like
Speaker 1: if Thanksgiving is a is a scary one for you,
Speaker 1: that might bring it all back, or if you know,
Speaker 1: we we're talking to women in people of all life phases.
Speaker 1: Going through big life changes means your body is going
Speaker 1: to change that might bring up stuff. So using those
Speaker 1: tools is really how I how I see it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love that. And Sam, since we're talking about the holidays,
Speaker 1: to what advice do you have for people in situations
Speaker 1: where they're around family that maybe triggering to them, Like
Speaker 1: I would have been someone that showed up at my
Speaker 1: family dinners and if someone was in recovery before me,
Speaker 1: I would have been triggering them left and right. And honestly,
Speaker 1: I was a real buzz kill because I didn't want
Speaker 1: to eat anything that he had. I brought my own food.
Speaker 1: I was real particular. My mom would have her candy dams,
Speaker 1: but I made my candy dams with splenda, so I
Speaker 1: was gonna eat my separate thing over here. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking back on silly stuff that I used
Speaker 1: to do, and I would have been better off eating
Speaker 1: the family meal. But people are really listening to this
Speaker 1: episode and wanting to put in the work for themselves.
Speaker 1: But maybe they show up and there's some stuff surrounding
Speaker 1: them or whatever vibe other family members are bringing into
Speaker 1: the picture. Like do you have any tools that people
Speaker 1: can kind of keep up in their back pocket to
Speaker 1: help them navigate the holidays. That's a wonderful question, and
Speaker 1: I think that's something we've already started with all our
Speaker 1: team with our clients, because we know this is coming, right,
Speaker 1: we can anticipate these triggers, and I think there's there's
Speaker 1: different ways that we can do this but really role
Speaker 1: playing the situation out before it happens, so we can
Speaker 1: recognize it and we can actually walk through that situation
Speaker 1: together with our client and they can actually start to
Speaker 1: experience some of the anxiety or some of the discomfort
Speaker 1: in that setting, which can be really helpful to walk
Speaker 1: through it. So, for example, if Uncle Larry makes a
Speaker 1: fat phobic comment right, being able to say it, like
Speaker 1: write that down, what's like the worst scenario that could happen,
Speaker 1: and then what are the emotions that we feel to
Speaker 1: that common and how do we choose to respond? And
Speaker 1: I think it might change depending on the day, but
Speaker 1: I think it's being able to recognize do I have
Speaker 1: the mental capacity for this conversation? Is Uncle Larry reachable
Speaker 1: and teachable and wanting to hear about diet culture or
Speaker 1: is it just not even worth it to sit and
Speaker 1: just setting that mental boundary to say I'm not participating
Speaker 1: in diet culture talk, so either change the subject and
Speaker 1: or leave the room and just get out because you
Speaker 1: know that that's going to be better for you. But
Speaker 1: then I think that also comes down to let's say,
Speaker 1: Aunt Cheryl maybe is presenting some signs of disordered eating,
Speaker 1: maybe some of the things you were explaining any of
Speaker 1: like making the splendid gams or or bringing her own
Speaker 1: food or I think now people that have walked through
Speaker 1: this journey a little bit more can have some empathy
Speaker 1: for those family members, knowing that they are most likely
Speaker 1: rooted in disordered eating. Because we know that women ages
Speaker 1: twenty to forty five of them display disordered eating tendencies
Speaker 1: and an additional ten percent has clinically diagnosed eating disorder,
Speaker 1: So sevent of women are most likely walking around with
Speaker 1: some form of disordered eating, which is insane. And that's
Speaker 1: not even counting the numbers of people that are not,
Speaker 1: you know, misdiagnosed or not diagnosed. So chances are we
Speaker 1: can recognize that and maybe see it through a different
Speaker 1: lens this year, where maybe that would have been triggering before,
Speaker 1: but now we can almost have empathy and again create
Speaker 1: those boundaries where they're needed to be created. Where is
Speaker 1: it worth it to say something to aunt Cheryl and
Speaker 1: try to open up and and help her, which might
Speaker 1: be healing for you personally, or again, is it better
Speaker 1: to change the subject, get out of the room and
Speaker 1: really just making sure we're keeping ourselves safe, because boundaries
Speaker 1: are meant to keep you safe, not those around you,
Speaker 1: and that is what is most important this holiday season.
Speaker 1: And just to reiterate something that you said that I
Speaker 1: think is really important, especially if you're just starting to
Speaker 1: unravel diet culture and you're really passionate about it, which
Speaker 1: is what happens in the beginning. It sounds like you
Speaker 1: agree to me, But when you said, is Uncle Larry
Speaker 1: reachable and teachable? Like that speaks volumes to me because
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we start the fight to prove how
Speaker 1: right we are with people that are unreachable and unteachable,
Speaker 1: and it leaves us feeling really depleted and alone, especially
Speaker 1: when it comes to the holidays and family. I think
Speaker 1: that people might associate not speaking back Uncle Larry as complicit,
Speaker 1: but that boundary is to protect you kind of like
Speaker 1: not today satan. You know, get through the day. You
Speaker 1: have enough on your plate dealing with the triggers of
Speaker 1: the holiday that you don't need to also go to
Speaker 1: war necessarily. So evaluate who you are, what the situation is,
Speaker 1: who your Uncle Larry is. Is there a conversation that's
Speaker 1: going to be healthy for you or not? So I
Speaker 1: just thought that was really important. I wanted to now that.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and I think that's something I've learned personally.
Speaker 1: And Lisa, you can probably attest this or even you too, Amy,
Speaker 1: even though you're not a dietitian, like you said, when
Speaker 1: you're passionate about this, you want to talk about it,
Speaker 1: you want to shout out from the rooftops, want everyone
Speaker 1: to know about it. And then there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: we're just gonna keep going with Uncle Larry. There's a
Speaker 1: bunch of Uncle Larry's in the world that want to
Speaker 1: tear you down and tell you why you're wrong and
Speaker 1: quote research, and you can get burnt out doing this
Speaker 1: work very easily, and I've experienced that, and that's why
Speaker 1: I think it's seeking mentors, seeking therapists, seeking dietitians, friends,
Speaker 1: people who or supportive and understand it is not our
Speaker 1: job to change the minds of all the Uncle Larry's
Speaker 1: in the world. If you just focus on you and
Speaker 1: your heart. And I love how you said earlierly, so
Speaker 1: like coming home to you, You're going to plant seeds
Speaker 1: and all the people around you that matter, and they
Speaker 1: will notice something and they will ask you about that,
Speaker 1: and that's how it will grow from there. I was
Speaker 1: going to tap into that encouragement to that people will
Speaker 1: notice in your family if you have been the aunt
Speaker 1: cheryld before was that her name? And I think I
Speaker 1: love I love how we have these people now. So
Speaker 1: if you've been the aunt charitable for as I was
Speaker 1: many times, and I just I was obnoxious to my family,
Speaker 1: but I had no idea how uncomfortable I was making
Speaker 1: My sister, for example, and she's so sweet and kind
Speaker 1: that she would never say anything to me. She would
Speaker 1: just let me be the party pooper and let me
Speaker 1: say weird things that made her feel uncomfortable about what
Speaker 1: she was eating, and she would just ignore it and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, she's just in a better place with food
Speaker 1: than I ever was, so she was able to still
Speaker 1: eat her meal. But then I was giving her toxic
Speaker 1: thoughts because I would say something it would make her think, oh,
Speaker 1: should I not buy this, or do I need to
Speaker 1: not use real cheese in this recipe? Or should I
Speaker 1: alter X y Z, And ultimately she could talk herself
Speaker 1: out of it. So I love that about my sister.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't until I was recovered that she was
Speaker 1: able to truly communicate to me how I would make
Speaker 1: her feel and others. And now that I'm in recovery,
Speaker 1: she notices how different things are. And I think maybe
Speaker 1: your patient for certain conversations, because if you're in recovery
Speaker 1: and your family notices it, aunt Cheryl when she's ready,
Speaker 1: she might know, Hey, maybe something's different about Amy. Maybe
Speaker 1: I can go talk to her and see instead of
Speaker 1: you imposing upon them your new ways. Because I can't
Speaker 1: tell you how many times I impose my diet upon people,
Speaker 1: almost to where I feel like I've lost all credibility
Speaker 1: talking to my family about anything and that I'm doing
Speaker 1: food wise. So some times I feel like even if
Speaker 1: I were to bring up now like no, no, now,
Speaker 1: I don't have any issues, well for them, they're like,
Speaker 1: oh well, Amy, for twenty years or more, we've been
Speaker 1: dealing with your antics, so we actually don't really care
Speaker 1: what you have to say. That's lived experience, and you
Speaker 1: know that's that's so valuable because it's all the validation
Speaker 1: you need that like that didn't work. I wasn't happy,
Speaker 1: I wasn't okay, and now I am. And that's something
Speaker 1: within tooit of eating through the research we see all
Speaker 1: the time, there's actual studies on increased life satisfaction, right,
Speaker 1: And I know you guys have talked about this in
Speaker 1: previous OUTWEGH episodes, but of you know, being present in
Speaker 1: moments because you're not wrapped up counting calories or thinking
Speaker 1: about food, bringing your own food to events, diet talk,
Speaker 1: and the conversation always coming back to dieting, like truly
Speaker 1: being able to change the world because you're now not
Speaker 1: focused on changing your body, and that that's priceless. I
Speaker 1: feel like that's a really good place to wrap and
Speaker 1: leave people before you go share with us the hope
Speaker 1: you have for our future generation. For me and I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of our listeners, you and Lisa
Speaker 1: are in this world and you're in this space, and
Speaker 1: I think you've been a part of the change, and
Speaker 1: it still feels sort of at least grassroots to me
Speaker 1: because it's not the mainstream. But what's the hope for
Speaker 1: the future, Like, do you see us clawing our way
Speaker 1: out of this diet culture mentality? It's so ingrained in
Speaker 1: so many of us without us even knowing it because
Speaker 1: we've just been in it our whole lives. But what's
Speaker 1: your hope for the future. It's a great question. The
Speaker 1: good thing is, we know that dieting doesn't work, So
Speaker 1: that's in our favor in the sense of we want
Speaker 1: everyone to not have to go through that diet culture trauma.
Speaker 1: But we know that diets don't work. We know they
Speaker 1: have a percent failure rate, We know that two thirds
Speaker 1: of dieters will gain back more weight than they originally lose,
Speaker 1: and then that cycle continues. So once people get to
Speaker 1: that state of I can't do this anymore. This is
Speaker 1: not helping me, this is actually harming me, and they
Speaker 1: have that awakening. It's magical what happens to them, and
Speaker 1: they can really start to walk on their intuitive eating
Speaker 1: journey and recognize that the answer lies within me. There's
Speaker 1: never been anything wrong with my body, but diet culture
Speaker 1: has built this distrust that there has been something wrong.
Speaker 1: And once we can start to recognize that, and once
Speaker 1: people see the intuitive eating and food freedom messages, you
Speaker 1: can't unlearn that. That gives me so much hope because
Speaker 1: I've seen it with hundreds and hundreds of people that
Speaker 1: we've worked with. Once you learn this, you can't unlearn it.
Speaker 1: And like we said earlier, you start to plant seeds
Speaker 1: and the lives of others and those closest to you
Speaker 1: and then it just spreads like rapid fire. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: hope it spreads. I appreciate your work so much and
Speaker 1: I think too that there's nothing wrong with our bodies.
Speaker 1: Part of it is just, yeah, we need to ditch
Speaker 1: the diet culture mentality, but why are we dieting? So
Speaker 1: my hope is I'm just piggybacking off of you here
Speaker 1: for a second, just to encourage listeners, is that Lisa
Speaker 1: and I aren't just doing this podcast to expose some
Speaker 1: stuff and break the stigma, make you feel comfortable to
Speaker 1: talk about it and have these conversations so you don't
Speaker 1: feel alone and whatever you're going through with food and
Speaker 1: body image stuff. But like, all bodies are different, and
Speaker 1: we have been given these different standards over the decades
Speaker 1: of what bodies are supposed to look like here and
Speaker 1: there and there, and we're constantly trying to conform to
Speaker 1: look like everybody else. But my hope is that we
Speaker 1: start to just want to look like ourselves and just
Speaker 1: to clarify, not like everybody else, to look like one
Speaker 1: body type that we've seen represented. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: not that everybody else looks like that. We think that
Speaker 1: everybody else looks like that because of I'd go big
Speaker 1: media here, not just social media, you know, the advertisements, etcetera.
Speaker 1: And so recognizing that there's so much bio individuality of
Speaker 1: not just what you look like, but what you need
Speaker 1: that you know, all of us eating the same things
Speaker 1: and the same amounts wouldn't make any sense. Love that,
Speaker 1: especially on the holidays, especially on the holidays. Okay, well, Sam,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on to talk with us.
Speaker 1: And again I love following you on Instagram. So I
Speaker 1: want to say your page one more time for people
Speaker 1: to get out their phones right now. If you're listening
Speaker 1: to the podcast on your phone, go to Instagram and
Speaker 1: go to at find dot food, dot freedom, and I
Speaker 1: promise you she will not disappoint and you'll see her
Speaker 1: post come up and you'll feel encouraged. And we want
Speaker 1: to give you people that you'll be encouraged by. And
Speaker 1: then quickly to one more thing before you go. You
Speaker 1: have a podcast called Drunk Dietitians. This is correct, So
Speaker 1: we're actually we're actually rebranding where I'm not going to
Speaker 1: save the new name because originally it started we just
Speaker 1: wanted to have a cocktail mocktail and like talk about
Speaker 1: how diet culture sucks a lot of what you guys
Speaker 1: are doing today. But then we we realize that that
Speaker 1: name can be a little harmful to some you know,
Speaker 1: based on past trauma, and the last thing we want
Speaker 1: to do is cause more harm. So we are admitting
Speaker 1: our faults and mistakes, um and we have a new
Speaker 1: name coming out soon. But yes, you can find us
Speaker 1: right now at Drunk Dietitians. And I got goose bumps
Speaker 1: that you had the opportunity to share that because I
Speaker 1: didn't know. We didn't talk about it previously, and I said,
Speaker 1: I was just trying to I saw it on your Instagram,
Speaker 1: so wanted to give it a shout out. But what
Speaker 1: a beautiful sample of recognizing where something wasn't the best
Speaker 1: and moving forward. And there's no shame in that either,
Speaker 1: because we're constantly evolving. I just think that that is
Speaker 1: a good reminder for people that you can evolve every
Speaker 1: day and there's so much grace to go around. And
Speaker 1: I feel like that's just a good example of being like,
Speaker 1: you know what, this probably wasn't the best thing, So
Speaker 1: we're going to move forward with this. And well, I
Speaker 1: look forward to seeing what your new name is and
Speaker 1: listening to your podcast. So we'll keep people posted, but
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'll keep us posted on Instagram, and I
Speaker 1: hope people will check you out and thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming on. Thank you, ladies,