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. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Elway today. We're joined by Victoria Myers. Will put
Speaker 1: everything in the show notes, but she's at Victoria Myers Underscore,
Speaker 1: and she's a registered dietitian, founder of Nourishing Minds, nutrition podcast,
Speaker 1: host Nourishing mind Podcast, and she is such a wonderful
Speaker 1: voice of reason in the space, really navigating difficult topics
Speaker 1: when it comes to intuitive eating. So my favorite part
Speaker 1: of your philosophy is that you're helping people let go
Speaker 1: of unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. So we cover orthorexia
Speaker 1: a lot here, but I think it's so helpful to
Speaker 1: have an expert, a registered dietitian, come in and say
Speaker 1: the rigid rules are actually giving you anxiety and stress
Speaker 1: and this mindset isn't healthy. So wellness without obsession simple
Speaker 1: to the point. I love it. Hey, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: and thanks for having me. I am so excited to
Speaker 1: be here. And today we're gonna be talking about intuitive
Speaker 1: eating and I be yes. So we're gonna keep it
Speaker 1: super basic, break it down, and really help with something
Speaker 1: very challenging, which is I have a medical condition that
Speaker 1: requires me to eat a certain way and so I
Speaker 1: can't eat intuitively. So that's probably something you hear a
Speaker 1: lot right, Yeah, and I think it's complex. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into all of that, but like sometimes
Speaker 1: you can and sometimes you cannot. It depends on like
Speaker 1: the root cause of it. Well, we'll get into all this,
Speaker 1: I'm sure though. I'm excited too, So let's just go
Speaker 1: from the top. What is IBS and how is it diagnosed? Okay,
Speaker 1: So IBS is irritable bowel syndrome, And honestly, usually it's
Speaker 1: a diagnosi by a gas or intestional doctor. That is
Speaker 1: a diagnosis of like everything else gets rolled out. And
Speaker 1: I always say to clients or potential clients, like that's
Speaker 1: a good thing. We want silly actises to get rolled out,
Speaker 1: we want crones and ulcer to clients get rolled out.
Speaker 1: But a lot of times people get kind of slapped
Speaker 1: with this diagnosis of IBS, which means you have a
Speaker 1: certain criteria symptoms like gas pain, bloating, diarrhea, crossipatient or
Speaker 1: alternating diarrhea and constipation, and then a lot of times
Speaker 1: they just kind of get sent on their way or
Speaker 1: given medication and not really told what else to do.
Speaker 1: Another common thing that is they're often told to follow
Speaker 1: a low FOM diet which I'm sure we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that today too, which is an evident space approach to
Speaker 1: help with IBS. But again, a lot of times people
Speaker 1: get told to follow up for long term and they
Speaker 1: don't get told anything else outside of that. So I
Speaker 1: think it's just like a lot of confusion around how
Speaker 1: to navigate and cope with IBS. I will even say,
Speaker 1: from my clinical perspective specializing in orthodoxy and disordered eating,
Speaker 1: so many people that have disordered eating have digestive issues.
Speaker 1: Those two go hand in hand. So a lot of
Speaker 1: times people get the diagnosis of IBS, but what if
Speaker 1: it's because they have disordered eating? And I think there's
Speaker 1: that like huge part of the conversation that really gets
Speaker 1: missed and maybe not even at the thought of a
Speaker 1: g I doctor. They're just not well understanding or maybe
Speaker 1: not well educated on that particular part of why that
Speaker 1: person might have digestive issues. But that's basically the basic
Speaker 1: way you can think of it. It's a diagnosis where
Speaker 1: everything else gets ruled out. You get told you have IBS,
Speaker 1: and often from there just told nothing like just manage
Speaker 1: your symptoms basically. So I think you said something super
Speaker 1: important just to highlight that the disordered eating can cause
Speaker 1: digestive issues, which then gets labeled as I B S.
Speaker 1: A lot of different things can happen to the body
Speaker 1: whenever you develop disordered eating. But in a really basic
Speaker 1: way to think of it is if you're not eating
Speaker 1: in a fuel, your body starts to shut down, and
Speaker 1: a huge thing it shuts down because your body doesn't
Speaker 1: see this as like necessary to survive is your digestion.
Speaker 1: So it makes sense save from that really basic perspective
Speaker 1: of why people develop digestive issues. And then even if
Speaker 1: we add orthoox, say to the conversation, y'all know this
Speaker 1: because you all talk about orthrooxee a ton on your show,
Speaker 1: But what are people eating when they have orthorexia? Super
Speaker 1: high fiber foods, they're intermittent fasting, They're going, you know,
Speaker 1: eating all these gluten free foods which have all these
Speaker 1: extracted fiber sources in it, so much things that can
Speaker 1: cause symptoms. So as you can see, it's already like
Speaker 1: super complex to say like what specifically causes the symptoms,
Speaker 1: but it's all definitely interconnect it together. Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come in from the other side as someone who would
Speaker 1: actually do certain IBS or even Crones disease. I do
Speaker 1: not have crones, but I would. I this was years ago,
Speaker 1: haven't thought about it in a very long time, but
Speaker 1: I knew if someone had Crones and they were reading
Speaker 1: this book and it was going to help their digestion
Speaker 1: and follow this diet to a t, I wished for
Speaker 1: the life me. I can't think of the name of it,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter. But I then went to buy
Speaker 1: that book because it provided this protocol to have a
Speaker 1: healthy gut. But I didn't have what she had, But
Speaker 1: yet I wanted to follow it because I thought it
Speaker 1: was going to get me beIN because then my body
Speaker 1: would be functioning and I could only allow myself these
Speaker 1: foods that came from the earth. There wasn't process things
Speaker 1: or the added fiber like you're talking about. But I
Speaker 1: was trying to eat a certain way to fit a
Speaker 1: certain disease that I did not have to think back
Speaker 1: on it. It's so perplexing to me that that was
Speaker 1: where my brain was. Disorder eating or the orthorexia, I
Speaker 1: don't think just comes in a form of like following
Speaker 1: a you know, South Beach or some diet. That's for
Speaker 1: all I know that I followed people with certain stomach
Speaker 1: issues or gastro intestinal issues, and I have tried to
Speaker 1: follow their meal plan because it was so restrictive. You're
Speaker 1: making me think of a client I just saw this
Speaker 1: week that said the same thing. Amy. She was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I am intermitted fastening, I'm going keto because
Speaker 1: I follow this person that talks about cancer research at
Speaker 1: this And then it's like, I think that's what happens
Speaker 1: with the orthoris. You just keep in taking more and
Speaker 1: more and more information and you keep adding more and
Speaker 1: more diets on top of the point where you're not
Speaker 1: eating basically anything at all, and it's like, well, why
Speaker 1: are we actually doing it? The clients similar to you,
Speaker 1: and it was like, I don't even know. I don't
Speaker 1: even have any of these things. I just felt like
Speaker 1: I had to to have help, right. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that the chief complaint with digestive disorders that are applicable
Speaker 1: to all is bloating. And I feel like I could
Speaker 1: do an entire podcast on my dislike for the way
Speaker 1: we come at bloating, because it's not always bloating and
Speaker 1: it doesn't always need a solution. But Amy, when you
Speaker 1: said you know you were following people with these digestive things.
Speaker 1: I'm envisioning you following somebody who's saying, here's how you
Speaker 1: fix your bloat, and then here's the protocol. But her
Speaker 1: bloat is because she has a didgestive disorder, and therefore
Speaker 1: you're on a protocol just because of this one symptom
Speaker 1: that she is displaying. Does that make sense? Yeah? No,
Speaker 1: I mean I think we take on what we're what
Speaker 1: we're doing is a disservice to ourselves. I mean, first
Speaker 1: of all, when we're eating disordered, that's that's a disservice
Speaker 1: to ourselves. But when we take on somebody else's chronic
Speaker 1: illness and make it our own because not I did
Speaker 1: not think I had what she had. But for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I thought because she was trying to live her healthiest
Speaker 1: lifestyle to cure herself, I'm using her as a I'm
Speaker 1: not even talking about one person in particular, her or him.
Speaker 1: Because I then started to follow every little move they
Speaker 1: would make. I thought, somehow I'm a healthier, thinner person.
Speaker 1: Saying it out loud, I'm like, how in the world
Speaker 1: did I ever think that would make sense? Because I
Speaker 1: was deprived, I was restricting things that I didn't need
Speaker 1: to restrict because I don't have that chronic illness. I
Speaker 1: think that's the thing with the orthorexy though, is most
Speaker 1: of us have experienced I too have orthorexy, which is
Speaker 1: why I'm so passionate about it. We want to emulate others.
Speaker 1: I vividly remember following at Jelian influencers and mean like
Speaker 1: I want to eat like them because I want their
Speaker 1: lives and their thinness and they're this and they're that.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think orthorexy has gotten so worse
Speaker 1: over the recent years is because there is a social
Speaker 1: media aspect of it where you do see these people,
Speaker 1: even if they do have a chronic health condition, they
Speaker 1: you still see it in it's like highlight real version
Speaker 1: of it where you're like, I want that too, and
Speaker 1: then you develop the same roles that they have and
Speaker 1: you have no idea if that person is personally struggling
Speaker 1: with disordered eating or not well. So let's say someone
Speaker 1: listening does have IBS or they do have something where
Speaker 1: they have to restrict certain things for the betterment of
Speaker 1: their health. That's a fact. Not me over in La
Speaker 1: La and just trying to do that to myself because
Speaker 1: I want to have all these strict rules are wanted
Speaker 1: to excuse me past tense, But what are the IBS restrictions?
Speaker 1: Like if someone has to be that way, how does
Speaker 1: that complement intuitive eating? And how do people get through that?
Speaker 1: That is your field, So we're focusing on that today,
Speaker 1: But correct me if I'm wrong. We could kind of
Speaker 1: insert like it's an equation. And if you've got another
Speaker 1: illness causes you to medical condition that causes you to
Speaker 1: eat a certain way, how do you also do that
Speaker 1: without creating a disordered pattern because you do have to
Speaker 1: have restriction for your health. Okay, I love those question
Speaker 1: so much, and I am gonna quickly caveat and say
Speaker 1: real quick sometimes with disordered eating, when you are recovering,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some digestive issues initially as your body recovers.
Speaker 1: So just with that caveat being said, because I do
Speaker 1: think a lot of times an orthodoxic mind can amsuse
Speaker 1: that as a way to manipulate, like contuning food rules
Speaker 1: because you're getting symptoms from eating X, Y, and Z food,
Speaker 1: Well that might just be because you're body needs to
Speaker 1: normalizee eating that food. You need to gain weight, you
Speaker 1: need to eat more consistently. You need the microbine. Even
Speaker 1: that's what's so cool about like our digestive health. As
Speaker 1: you eat more foods and you eat a buried, diverse site,
Speaker 1: you developed the literal bacteria to be able to consume
Speaker 1: those foods. So anyways, with that side note, I think
Speaker 1: that's a huge misconception with intuitive eating is that you
Speaker 1: can't practice it with medical condition And from my background,
Speaker 1: I think it just comes from maybe a misunderstanding of
Speaker 1: what intuitive eating is. Because intuitive eating isn't just quote
Speaker 1: unquote eat intuitively or quote unquote listen to your body.
Speaker 1: It's ten principles from evilentivily in at least rise, and
Speaker 1: it's an evident space practice of how we basically eat
Speaker 1: from a self care eating framework, they describe it as
Speaker 1: like actions of self care, not self control. So as
Speaker 1: an example, someone with IBS, let's say they have id
Speaker 1: S and they discover that a low fall up diet
Speaker 1: which is theoretically only meant to be used for two
Speaker 1: to six weeks maximum when I say fob up. Just
Speaker 1: to give you guys an idea, these are basically high
Speaker 1: fiber write foods that are very specific in causing senses
Speaker 1: with people with IBS, this is evidence space. But again
Speaker 1: the diet was really only meant to be used for
Speaker 1: two to six weeks maximum, and then from there you
Speaker 1: can personalize it and individualize it to the foods that
Speaker 1: you define to be your high trigger foods or the
Speaker 1: cumulative effect of your personal fod mops. Obviously this sounds
Speaker 1: pretty nuanced, I'm sure, and that's why it's best to
Speaker 1: do this kind of work with a dietitian. But just
Speaker 1: because you have to have certain foods that you're decreasing
Speaker 1: in your diet, Let's say for someone falling a low
Speaker 1: fob up diet, they're decreasing hummus or avocados, cherries or chickpeas,
Speaker 1: which would be another example. Gluten it's not one, but
Speaker 1: wheach is a fod MOP. They just need to avoid
Speaker 1: certain foods, but still can work on the other principles
Speaker 1: of intuitive eating. So another example would be someone with
Speaker 1: with diabetes can still put their carbo hydrates that they
Speaker 1: happen need to match their insulin needs and still practice
Speaker 1: intuitive eating because you're still rejecting diet mentality, honoring your hunger,
Speaker 1: and making peace with food, challenging the food, please filling
Speaker 1: your fullness, advocating emotional eating, body respect, joyful movement into nutrition.
Speaker 1: I think I missed one of the principles, but basically
Speaker 1: those are the principles, Like you can still practice all
Speaker 1: of these philosophies and believes while you still honor your health.
Speaker 1: That's the tenth and final principle. And it's such a
Speaker 1: critical part of this because intuitive eating is an anti
Speaker 1: health or anti nutrition. It's just not about weight losses
Speaker 1: that means to obtain health or saying that thinness is
Speaker 1: the only way to pursue health or weight, or that
Speaker 1: you have to follow at this defined set of rules,
Speaker 1: because again, sometimes people need it. Some people need to
Speaker 1: account the carbohydrates, and that doesn't mean they can't do
Speaker 1: all those other aspects of intuitive eating. And then against
Speaker 1: someone with IBS, let's say it's not even fop box.
Speaker 1: Let's say maybe they do genuinely need to be gluten free. Girl,
Speaker 1: you can still eat intuitively if you eat gluten free.
Speaker 1: You just need to eat gluten free foods. Now, what
Speaker 1: I usually see is people find gluten free as an
Speaker 1: excuse to not eat any carbohydrates at all. The thing
Speaker 1: I always, you know, challenge back to them is like,
Speaker 1: if you're practicing intuitive eating, you're still eating carbohydrates. You're
Speaker 1: just eating gluten free versions of carbohydrates. I'm so proud
Speaker 1: of you. First of all, just the way you're spewing
Speaker 1: information so naturally from your heart and from your brain
Speaker 1: at once. It's just a beautiful fusion and you're just
Speaker 1: translating it. You just packed so much into just a
Speaker 1: few minutes of so whoever needs to go back and
Speaker 1: even like slow that down. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: good stuff in there. So the protocols that doctors are
Speaker 1: oftentimes putting their patients on who have IBS, sometimes I've
Speaker 1: seen that someone may not have a history of an
Speaker 1: eating disorder or disordered eating, and then they develop one
Speaker 1: because of the protocol. So you know, someone who has
Speaker 1: a history of disordered eating might have a little bit
Speaker 1: more wherewithal stepping into the space of okay, this feels
Speaker 1: a little reminiscent of my disordered days. But do you
Speaker 1: see that the onset of disordered eating can begin with
Speaker 1: a protocol? Yes? Absolutely, And I will say, like digging
Speaker 1: a little deeper, what I feel a lot of because
Speaker 1: we specialize in this, like this triangle of foremost suggestion
Speaker 1: and intuitive eating. We see a lot of times people
Speaker 1: get these extreme protocols from holistic natural path functional mess
Speaker 1: and doctors. And I love holistic approaches, like I promise
Speaker 1: I'm not like hating on anything. However, a lot of
Speaker 1: times they are told a laundry list of foods not
Speaker 1: to consumes. More than just go go bomb up or
Speaker 1: go gluten free. A lot of times they're told a
Speaker 1: list of I would dare say, like twenty thirty plus
Speaker 1: foods to not consume. And that's what starts to develop
Speaker 1: the disordered eating because it developed anxiety and starts and
Speaker 1: worry about these foods and never told that it's okay
Speaker 1: to start eating those foods again, are never told that like, hey,
Speaker 1: this should only be a temporary solution. So yes, I
Speaker 1: can definitely see how protocols would develop that and it
Speaker 1: makes sense given these circumstances. And I think even if
Speaker 1: someone doesn't want to specialize in even disorders, we just
Speaker 1: all need to better understand how disordered eating man off
Speaker 1: us because it can so quickly happen from just a
Speaker 1: diet or dust a protocol. When you work with people
Speaker 1: who need diet, arry, I'm going to say rules in
Speaker 1: place for their health and the long term. Is it
Speaker 1: better to be broad or specific when telling them what
Speaker 1: to eat or not eat? So, for example, cutting out
Speaker 1: entire food groups versus foods. And I'm genuinely asking, like,
Speaker 1: which could be less detrimental to their relationship to food,
Speaker 1: whether you're specific or broad? Do you know what I mean? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a hard question to answer. You're kind of having
Speaker 1: me over here. Think. I think it could just depend
Speaker 1: on the person. I think sometimes maybe broad Let's say,
Speaker 1: just like gluten as an example, would be helpful because
Speaker 1: there's still so many foods that they can consume. As
Speaker 1: I was describing earlier, like you should still be able
Speaker 1: to eat carbohydcrates, You're just gonna go for ones that
Speaker 1: are for your gluten. This idea of avoiding specific foods,
Speaker 1: like I've seen things like avoiding green beans and spinach
Speaker 1: and tomatoes and bell peppers. And usually that's coming from
Speaker 1: the guys that food sensitivity testing, which is not something
Speaker 1: I personally agree with. You know, I get it, And
Speaker 1: I guess you could say a low pop pop die
Speaker 1: is pretty specific. There's a very specific food that have
Speaker 1: fod mops in them. And like I mentioned that is
Speaker 1: an evident space practice, but it was never meant to
Speaker 1: be used for a long term, so I think it
Speaker 1: could be used for short term solution. I just always
Speaker 1: like to emphasize that doesn't need you have to avoid
Speaker 1: all of those fob mops for the rest of her
Speaker 1: life either. Though generally speaking, once someone has done the
Speaker 1: personalization of it and they are, you know, doing this
Speaker 1: to manage their IBBEA symptoms, usually it's just things like
Speaker 1: garlic and onions. Maybe beans can be a pretty big
Speaker 1: one too, that they just need to eat less of overall,
Speaker 1: And they don't even have to. It's not like someone
Speaker 1: like with siliac and flute and free It's not like
Speaker 1: they had to avoid that food forever or like completely
Speaker 1: eliminate it. Oftentimes it's just a reduction of it, if
Speaker 1: that makes sense. And would you say that cooking techniques
Speaker 1: could alter how the food is digested in the body. Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like cooking just always helps, right, So, Like,
Speaker 1: for example, apples are a really big fod mop. You
Speaker 1: can cook the apples. I love making like baked apples
Speaker 1: with cinnamon and maple sirrup. Yum, so delicious. Like that's
Speaker 1: the way to make it easier to digest our onions garlet.
Speaker 1: That'd be another great example. So let's say you have
Speaker 1: ib us and you love guacamli, maybe you want to
Speaker 1: make hears without garlican onions and as an example, or
Speaker 1: if you do love garlican onions, maybe caramelizing the onions
Speaker 1: because that can help to reduce the overall farm upload
Speaker 1: something like that. That's where I think the knowledge of
Speaker 1: nutrition and cooking practices can be really helpful. And working
Speaker 1: with a dietitian so that you know, when you get
Speaker 1: the long list of foods that you can't eat, you
Speaker 1: then go to somebody who could be covered by your insurance,
Speaker 1: by the way, and they help you sort through the
Speaker 1: weeds of what you can and can actually eat. And
Speaker 1: then even within the parameters of what you know doesn't
Speaker 1: work for you, is there also a way that this
Speaker 1: food doesn't need to be out of your life forever?
Speaker 1: And that's obviously going to depend on the person. But
Speaker 1: I think it's something that we kind of forget and
Speaker 1: may not even have knowledge of actually is a better word? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean my personal philosophy is this. I always
Speaker 1: try to liberalize the diet as much as possible. We
Speaker 1: believe in the all foods fit mentality, but again understanding
Speaker 1: that sometimes medal folk conditions require otherwise. But I'm not
Speaker 1: about telling someone like, Okay, well you have these metal
Speaker 1: folk conditions, but let's also make dairy in gluten because
Speaker 1: they're inflammatory and you shouldn't eat them. I think that's
Speaker 1: just a completely different conversation. This whole idea of like
Speaker 1: things being inflammatory is not the same as saying, like,
Speaker 1: follow temporarily a loophom off diet for your ibs. So
Speaker 1: let's say a client does come to you and well,
Speaker 1: you are working with them and they want to figure
Speaker 1: out how food makes them feel. Sometimes it's hard to recognize, okay,
Speaker 1: is this a period cramp? And my ovulating? Like why
Speaker 1: went through fertility stuff? So I became very in tune
Speaker 1: with ovulation cramps. I always thought because that's not my period.
Speaker 1: I always thought the discomfort I was feeling in my
Speaker 1: stomach was a food related issue. But once I became
Speaker 1: in tune with what my body was doing on my
Speaker 1: minstrel cycle level, I realize, oh my goodness, I'm not
Speaker 1: uncomfortable right now because of something I'm eight. I'm uncomfortable
Speaker 1: because I'm ovulating right now, and I get really bad
Speaker 1: cramps during that time, and I could start to see
Speaker 1: all the signs happening. So I say all that just
Speaker 1: to say that once we become aware of how our
Speaker 1: body is functioning and what's causing it, but I feel
Speaker 1: like even still without that knowledge, there's times where I
Speaker 1: don't know why I feel puffy, or I don't know
Speaker 1: why my stomach is uncomfortable, or is it journaling? How
Speaker 1: do you recommend to people to keep track of how
Speaker 1: it's making them feel and then make decisions based on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love this question. I do have to say. I
Speaker 1: think what's so interesting to me is that we always
Speaker 1: go for food as like the reason we're experiencing something.
Speaker 1: I always want to clients, like I'm having a ton
Speaker 1: of symptoms this week. My first question to them is
Speaker 1: not what is your stress and anxiety levels like this week,
Speaker 1: because that is so underestimated for the way it gives
Speaker 1: us so many symptoms. It can cause that your ability,
Speaker 1: the fatigue, the lack of concentration, that puffiness, the bloating,
Speaker 1: you can cause all of that. So my personal philosophy
Speaker 1: is always focusing on that first and foremost because it
Speaker 1: is vastly underestimated for how much like literal symptoms that
Speaker 1: can cause in your physical body to experience stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: And then from there like, yeah, it's something going on
Speaker 1: your period? Are you on your period? Are you adolaying
Speaker 1: this week? Do you potentially have pianass symptoms? And then
Speaker 1: you know, food for me kind of falls out that
Speaker 1: like the very bottom, and yes, again it can be
Speaker 1: those things, it could be a particular food. I think
Speaker 1: over time is an intuitive eater. You can start to
Speaker 1: discover what feels best in your physical body. And I
Speaker 1: like to be absolute with that. So like, as example,
Speaker 1: sometimes I eat a cheeseburger and I know it's not
Speaker 1: gonna make me feel but I enjoy the experience and
Speaker 1: I eat it and move on with my life. But
Speaker 1: there is this idea you can definitely eat foods that
Speaker 1: makes you thrive and feel your best. But I do
Speaker 1: have to say, I think it's not always the food
Speaker 1: that's making us half symptoms. Does that make sense? Like
Speaker 1: I think we need to like not always good for
Speaker 1: food is like the first thing we ask for me.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you said that, and we covered that
Speaker 1: in our you know, the first part of that way,
Speaker 1: and one of the first four episodes kind of that
Speaker 1: the stress and anxiety even that we give ourselves over
Speaker 1: food could be causing all the other symptoms or yeah,
Speaker 1: have we been sleeping or what else is going on?
Speaker 1: So thank you for bringing that up and knowing that, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so many under ying factors. But yeah, you're right,
Speaker 1: we always make food. The corporate water plays a role.
Speaker 1: Are we exercising too much and causing certain stresses in
Speaker 1: our body? And do we need to take a break
Speaker 1: and relax. We've talked about so you know, all those
Speaker 1: factors are things that we quote unquote do the exercise,
Speaker 1: the food, the sleep. I mean, obviously sleep disturbances could
Speaker 1: be without our cause. But the important part here is
Speaker 1: that there are factors not within your control that cause
Speaker 1: puffiness blow. You know, you talked about your menstruation, even
Speaker 1: if you're not you know, female or ovulating or whatever
Speaker 1: it is. The body is a chemistry project on its own,
Speaker 1: and I think I believe that this is so ingrained
Speaker 1: into us that like we control our physical state because
Speaker 1: that calories in verse, calories out mentality was just like
Speaker 1: drilled into us for so long, Like it's simple just
Speaker 1: do this, do this, burn more, eat less, you know,
Speaker 1: and all your problems are solved. That we think we're
Speaker 1: in so control of our bodies that we feel like
Speaker 1: failures when we're not. And for me, that's where my
Speaker 1: mind goes when I think, how did we get here?
Speaker 1: Because listen, I I believe that food can be medicine.
Speaker 1: I believe that food is fuel. But it's not just
Speaker 1: about the food, right. I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 1: I I think we can use food like as you said,
Speaker 1: we can use food is mess, and we can use
Speaker 1: food is fuel. But this idea that food is the
Speaker 1: end all beyond or the cause of literal every issue
Speaker 1: or condition we experience, it's just so unfair to me.
Speaker 1: And you know, similar to like this calories thing, calors out.
Speaker 1: I think what we've also recently have had happened in
Speaker 1: this health of wildness world is like you have a symptom,
Speaker 1: is this food's fault? You have this symptom? Is this
Speaker 1: foods fault? I think that's where we are even more
Speaker 1: so with food. And I think it still comes down
Speaker 1: to like thinness and desire to lose weight, and like
Speaker 1: it almost always comes down like that's how people perceived health.
Speaker 1: But I also think it's very much this idea of
Speaker 1: like you have bloating a linate gluten, you have acne,
Speaker 1: don't eat dairy, you have something going on with this
Speaker 1: health condition, don't eat sugar. Sugar is the worst. It's
Speaker 1: just interesting to me, and I understand I have like
Speaker 1: this non diet being perspective. I'm always just like, huh,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting. That's the first thing we go to.
Speaker 1: First thing. So true, and oftentimes it adds more stress,
Speaker 1: which then exacerbates the original problem that you were trying
Speaker 1: to solve. So that's kind of the framework where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to step away from this vicious cycle that
Speaker 1: we keep throwing ourselves back into it, and we can.
Speaker 1: I think that that's the important thing. We can step back,
Speaker 1: and there is a way to have a healthy relationship
Speaker 1: to food with a dietary protocol and live way more
Speaker 1: happily and free. Right absolutely, if someone listening right now,
Speaker 1: I just want to speak to someone that's like, oh, well, shoot,
Speaker 1: I do have things going on. Working with someone like
Speaker 1: Victoria that knows how to navigate you through something like
Speaker 1: this will be helpful Because I am speaking from a
Speaker 1: place where I don't have symptoms. You may have, Lisa
Speaker 1: may not. We don't have that. But if you're left
Speaker 1: after listening to this episod out and feeling like loss
Speaker 1: of what you're supposed to do, if you have the
Speaker 1: means to speak with an expert and work with them
Speaker 1: just to help you get started and really evaluate what
Speaker 1: do you have going on, do you think you really
Speaker 1: need to help. I feel like one of the worst
Speaker 1: things I ever did to myself was doing one of
Speaker 1: those blood tests where it told me what I can
Speaker 1: and cannot eat. And I was advised to do that
Speaker 1: by not a certified nutritionist but someone that I was
Speaker 1: working with for a dietary plan. So I did that,
Speaker 1: and to this day, I have to remind myself Amy,
Speaker 1: it's okay you can have an avocado, or it's okay
Speaker 1: you can have an almond, or it's okay you can
Speaker 1: eat blueberries, because that test told me that I could
Speaker 1: not that those were my severe foods and I could
Speaker 1: not have them. But I mean, I tricked myself into
Speaker 1: thinking I needed that test done because I I wanted
Speaker 1: to be thinner. So I would just encourage you if
Speaker 1: you're wanting to seek out help and do any sort
Speaker 1: of elimination thing to figure out what's going on, or
Speaker 1: you're wanting to get this blood test that will tell
Speaker 1: you what foods you're sensitive to. You ask yourself why
Speaker 1: you're doing it, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I was doing it because I wanted to be smaller
Speaker 1: and it wrecked me. And even if that's not your goal,
Speaker 1: and it really is health and I think Victoria and
Speaker 1: I would kind of say the same thing here. I
Speaker 1: feel like this could be a whole other episode on
Speaker 1: its own. But first of all, those tests are just
Speaker 1: profit centers, Like that's for me, that's absolutely okay, that's
Speaker 1: that's number one. But number two is the fact that
Speaker 1: they've incredibly high rates of false positive. So you're being
Speaker 1: told not to eat avocados or almonds amy, but that's
Speaker 1: not necessarily true, so your sensitivity could be wrong. And
Speaker 1: then you've just eliminated all these foods. Even if it's
Speaker 1: not for thinness, it's because you just want to feel
Speaker 1: better in your body. You want to know what's going
Speaker 1: on inside that you can't figure out, and that is
Speaker 1: why elimination diet with an expert or registered dietitian hopefully
Speaker 1: somebody that you know is conscious of disordered eating can
Speaker 1: be a better fit to help you figure that out.
Speaker 1: Although not necessarily more expensive, but definitely more time consuming,
Speaker 1: to kind of weed out food by food is really
Speaker 1: the way to go, and that's why it remains, you know,
Speaker 1: the gold standard of figuring out what to do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you mentioning that. Lisa and Amy, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for sharing your story. The truth is that
Speaker 1: they're just not evident space. And again, I love hollicic practices.
Speaker 1: I'm quite a wellness junkie myself. But the truth is
Speaker 1: is if we don't have evidence space practice, we cannot
Speaker 1: say that these things for sure. How can Amy. I've
Speaker 1: heard countless stories like yours where they had this test,
Speaker 1: they were told not to eat X, Y, and Z
Speaker 1: food like you mentioned avocado and almonds, and then what
Speaker 1: happens is they developed fear around the specific foods for
Speaker 1: the rest of their life. And I'm gonna imagine that's
Speaker 1: not how the tests were originally meant to be used,
Speaker 1: but it seems to be how they're using now. And
Speaker 1: we all have I d D in our blood like
Speaker 1: that tells us that we're used to have food, So
Speaker 1: I think I personally just have a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I have a different perspective on this test. It
Speaker 1: sounds like Lisa, you do too, um, but they're just
Speaker 1: not the end lb all to anything and definitely would
Speaker 1: work with the expert. But I have so much compassion
Speaker 1: if you have symptoms and if you're even trying to
Speaker 1: navigate into it a eating. I had digestive issues first
Speaker 1: solid decade of my life, and I get how concerning
Speaker 1: they can be in perplexing and it makes you feel
Speaker 1: as if, like I know, for me, my quality of
Speaker 1: life was so impact that there were times when I
Speaker 1: couldn't leave the house. And that's why I love doing
Speaker 1: IVS work with into an eating because I remember what
Speaker 1: it was like. It was terrible. But I do have
Speaker 1: to say I think a lot of the answers that
Speaker 1: are out there right now, I am concerned that they're
Speaker 1: just developing orthodoxy even more for most people. Awesome, Well, Victoria,
Speaker 1: we appreciate you coming on to talk about this with us,
Speaker 1: And again, if people want to find you on Instagram,
Speaker 1: you're at Victoria Myers Underscore and the Myers is M
Speaker 1: Y E R S. And I'm pretty sure, Victoria is
Speaker 1: going to be on an upcoming episode that you'll get
Speaker 1: to hear where we're gonna be talking about how to
Speaker 1: get your period back. It's that's something that you have lost.
Speaker 1: So we'll be seeing you again soon. Victoria, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me