[00:00:05] Your unconscious mind is powerful. It's the other 90% of your mind and yet you're not even taught about it at school. What if you could access the other 90%? It would be like driving the highway in 6th gear instead of 1st gear. That's what you're doing when you only know the tools of the conscious mind, the 10%. You're going through life in 1st gear.

[00:00:30] Are you ready to ramp up and go through life in 6th gear? Learn the powerful tools of your unconscious mind? Healing trauma, clearing anxiety in minutes rather than weeks, months and years? Join our next Meet Your Unconscious Mind workshop so that you can start to learn the power that you already hold within and the tools to access it. Look for the link to register in the show notes.

[00:00:58] Imagine getting up every day full of energy as if you were in your 20s again. What would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it. Your health isn't everything, but without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong.

[00:01:34] No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness. And yet we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system or public health.

[00:01:44] As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone. Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrows. Don't wait for your wake up call.

[00:03:06] Don't wait for your time. Don't wait for your time. We learn what we need to know. and then set about helping others shorten their journey so that they don't have to have all the pitfalls that we've had. So I would love for you just to go back, you know, and share whatever you're willing to share of your journey that has brought you to this place of now serving others in the same or similar situations. It's so true.

[00:03:36] You know, a lot of times our past leads us to our purpose. And that is exactly what happened to me. It comes to everything is happening for us, right? Because we need to learn something through that process. Correct. And I was a slow learner. And the great thing is, is the universe doesn't give up on us. Our unconscious mind doesn't give up on us. We keep having lessons until we learn it. And now you have, and now you can help others. So yeah, yeah.

[00:04:04] I grew up in a household where, you know, my parents had a scale in the bathroom and weight was, you know, very talked about. I was described as a chubby little baby and stocky and sturdy and a bull in a china shop. Like those are my first messages, you know, as a child. Yes. And then just looking different than the other kids. And those first messages do become deeply programmed in our unconscious mind.

[00:04:34] Yes. So I internalized a lot of those messages. Mm-hmm. And moving just kind of as I moved up in school, in the time between the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school was when a lot of things kind of came together. My brother and his friends had started calling me by a nickname. I went to my annual physician's visit and the doctor marked my little weight on a chart

[00:05:02] and then proceeded to tell my mom that, you know, you don't want her to gain any more weight. And so food rules started at home and there were different foods for me and my brother. We were both adopted, so they looked very, very different. And then, you know, going to get school clothes, the other big moment was not being able to fit into the regular kids' clothes and having to go into a different section in order to find clothes that would fit.

[00:05:31] And so all of these messages just, I thought to myself, something's wrong with my body. Mm-hmm. And the only thing I could think about doing is that I have to change my body. If I could change my body. Right. Then everything would be okay. Right. And so that's what- And of course, you are not the only human being on this planet to have those thoughts coming to you from this messaging that you are getting societally. Correct. It is everywhere.

[00:05:59] And in this period of time, it was the 70s. So it was Tab, 17 Magazine, you know, all of the messaging around all of the, what bodies are supposed to look like. And then- And of course, that's all doctored and it's all based on those, you know, Barbie and those ridiculous out of proportion, inhumane sizes. Right. That's promoted through the media. Mm-hmm.

[00:06:26] So we're thinking we're supposed to look like somebody that's not even real. Exactly. But that becomes very, very degrading. And so negative self-talk starts. And I really just put myself on a diet because there were, you know, all the different, you could find diets everywhere. And that's what I started. And I ended up developing anorexia nervosa. And so spinning into a cycle of that.

[00:06:56] And that lasted about three years. I did end up being hospitalized during that time. And there really wasn't any talk around eating disorders. Right. And my mom, you know, I was, I really credit my mom for saving my life because she just was relentless and trying to find me at least some kind of help. Right. And so she got me enough help to get me, I call it okay enough to kind of get back to school. Right.

[00:07:25] And head back into high school. So I really missed a series of years. And I went into, I dove directly into fitness. And so that was my, you know, I just switched obsessions. Obsession with food to obsession with exercise and movement. Right. And so this struggle and up and down the scale with my weight stayed with me for over 30 years

[00:07:53] before I had to, you know, come to terms with there's something, I have to do something different. You know, I did have kind of, I hit a breaking point and said, I've got to do something different. I ended up going back to school and learning about eating disorders and learning about the science behind restriction and dieting and getting very angry.

[00:08:18] And then, and then driving into this mission of, I don't want other people wasting their whole life. And just coming back to that, also coming back to that getting very angry. Were you very angry with yourself? Were you very angry with others for not knowing what you now knew at the time that you needed to know it? Where, just out of interest? And maybe it was a combination of all of the above. That's such a great question. I believe I was angry at society.

[00:08:47] I was angry, like I saw some, I saw the science with the great starvation experiment of 1944 and 1945. And then a lot of different studies around what happens to our metabolism and to the, to our hormones, our hunger hormones when we restrict. I'm like, why didn't anybody tell me that? Yeah. And still to this day, we're not taught that, you know, through school, et cetera.

[00:09:15] None of that aspect of nutrition is taught, right? People might learn a little bit about calories and breaking it down into the macro and the micro. However, it's not taken to that next level. And I know certainly for me, when I started my journey in health and wellness and went into health coaching school and started learning this and understanding what is happening with our hunger hormones and just our hormones in general. And so, you know, cortisol as well, when we're restricting and the body's thinking it's starving.

[00:09:42] So it's holding on to every last morsel, et cetera. That, you know, that's where I had this realization like, oh my goodness, there's so much that I don't know about how my body functions, right? That if I knew that earlier, you know, I would have done things differently. And now I do know this just from a preventative health perspective as well, right? Yes.

[00:10:07] Now that I do know this, I can choose to do things differently and share it with others, which is obviously, you know, where you're at. And you've spent a number of years now having learned this because as you were about to say, you didn't want somebody else to ever have to go through that. Right. Right. I think I spent so much of my life, I call it the playing the when I then I game, you know, when I lose the weight, then I'll be able to do this. And so there was so much that I missed. Right. Of not only my own life, but I think of my daughter's lives.

[00:10:36] You know, I was not the greatest role model for them around food and eating and self-care, you know, taking care of myself and fitness. Right. And so this transition has been impactful, not only for my own health and well-being, but for my families as well. And, you know, moving forward to hopefully help other people as well. That's awesome.

[00:11:00] And even though on the outward side, you weren't the best role model, still, I'm a believer that everything is happening for us always. And you were the exact role model that your kids needed. Right. And now they've seen the other side. So they got to learn it with you without going through it themselves. Right. Role modeled, role modeled strength of change. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:11:26] And to be able to, to make changes and to say that, that I did something that I now look back on and go, boy, I wish I hadn't done that, but I've learned from it. And so now I can move, I can move forward and do this. Right. And that's right. Trying not to stay in the loop of insanity, doing the same thing over and over. Exactly. And expecting a different outcome. Yes. You got it. You got it. Yes. I love that quote.

[00:11:51] And, you know, being able to recognize that you learned something from it. Right. And that if you hadn't gone through that, you wouldn't have learned that. And therefore there is some level of appreciation as hard as it was to go through it, some level of appreciation for it, because you wouldn't be where you are now or the person you are today having not gone through it. Exactly.

[00:12:14] And then to really look back and, and give, give grace to other people as well to say, well, it's no wonder that these are some of the behaviors because look at what are some of the pathways in our brain that we developed from belief systems that we were given. You know, I think about those beliefs that my parents, you know, they, this is just what they knew. Right. They were doing the best they could with the resources they had. Absolutely. And I, and I'm glad that they did. Right.

[00:12:41] And so I, I learned this way and then I was able to come out on the other side saying, well, these things work, but these things don't. And so I'm going to question some of these belief systems that I was given and try to change them for myself. And then hopefully have others be able to question some of their belief systems, especially around food, bodies, and exercise. Those are kind of the three components that come together for body image. When we talk about how we feel in our bodies. And a health and wellness journey in general. Right.

[00:13:10] Because if we're questioning that, we can be, you know, then starting to question a belief around, well, I wait until I get sick and then I go to the doctor and they fix me. Right. Right. You know, that's part of that health and wellness journey too. And that I don't have to give up all my power to the doctor and, oh, I'm not broken either. So nobody needs to fix me. And, oh, I can take responsibility for my healing journey as you did in your journey.

[00:13:36] And yes, with the advice of a doctor, of a wellness expert, et cetera, et cetera. However, it's not just handing over all my power. And that is a societal belief. It's certainly the belief that I grew up with for some of my life as well. That they just give you something and then that it all does it for you. As opposed to there's a journey here that we need to participate in. Right. I think that is such, so well said, taking responsibility for our own actions too.

[00:14:06] Yes. And allowing ourselves to change those actions or stand strong and advocate for ourselves when we know something is not working or something is wrong or we're not getting the answers that we're looking for. Absolutely. Absolutely. And yes, and keep asking questions as well.

[00:14:24] You know, like I had a doctor say to me fairly recently and this doctor looked like he was maybe 40 and he wasn't my family doctor, but my family doctor was away and he was the intern and I was having a biopsy done. And he was, I was attempting to ask him a question about the results of that biopsy after he'd given them to me. And he simply said, you don't get to ask me questions. I'm the doctor. I tell you what to do.

[00:14:54] And my jaw hit the floor and I walked out of that room and went, I am never seeing that doctor again. And, you know, and I, not all doctors are like that. However, some are right. And we have the right to choose not to see a doctor that we don't resonate with. Absolutely.

[00:15:16] You know, and what hit you at that time is that feel, whatever that feeling was that you, you, you got in that moment. We have to start listening to that. Right. As opposed to feeling not worth standing up for ourselves. Right. And I think that's, that's what confidence is. Right. Yes. Being able to advocate for ourselves and say, no, this doesn't feel right. I'm out of here. A hundred percent.

[00:15:44] And that's what I love about having this podcast and getting that message out to people and having so many incredible guests like yourself on the show that are sharing that same message. Because, you know, the more people hear it, the more it will start to shift that belief that is so deeply ingrained about the doctor fixing us and the doctor having all the answers. Yeah. I love to say you've lived in your body your whole life.

[00:16:10] So you are your own best doctor and your intuition will let you know when something is not right. And that's when you can seek more answers. And if you're being told, oh, it's just all in your head or there's nothing wrong with you because your blood work comes out normal. That doesn't mean that you should stop seeking answers. Right.

[00:16:31] You know, I think this conversation is making me think, too, of diet and the way that those are formulated as well. Yes. Because the diet says you eat this, this much at this time and this is what you do. And it has it takes into no account your own body. Like when you're hungry, when you're getting full, how the body, how the food sits in your stomach.

[00:16:54] Like and we have given our power a way to to dieting and diets and then also exercise and exercise plans. Oh, you should do this or you need to do this. It has to be at least this much versus wait, wait, wait. How can I start to really tune in and listen to my body? And that's what you're saying is sometimes it just takes time to pause and stop and step back and go, what is my body saying?

[00:17:24] Yes. What does it feel like when I'm hungry? What does it feel like when I'm getting full? How does that exercise make me feel? All of those, all of those things. Exactly. And just even tuning in, I know for myself, you know, when I wake up in the morning, I love to do a workout. And if I'm running my trainings and we're going eight to five every day, you know, 13 days in a row and, you know, you're getting up at 6 a.m. Some mornings, I just don't have it in me to do a full workout. Right.

[00:17:51] And so it's listening to our body and going, OK, I'm not going to do my full workout. I could do some stretching or I could do some yoga. It's, you know, I can still move my body in a different way. Correct. And starting to listen to that a little bit more, depending on all a lot of other circumstances. Stress, sleep, what's going on in your life, you know, relationships, all of those things. We want to take all of those things into account because they do affect our body. Absolutely. Absolutely.

[00:18:21] So I love how you talk about, you know, body neutrality as well as creating an inner ally because you can't heal a body that you hate. So let's talk a little bit more about that and the process of how you guide people from this place of potentially hating their body to creating their inner ally. Yeah.

[00:18:44] And, you know, in my book, The Body Joyful, it talks about this space of body hatred and body shame that I lived in for so many years. And I never, I never thought I could ever love my body, but that's all I ever heard. So as I sit in this place of body hatred and then everybody tells you, you just have to love your body. Can't you love your body? There's a long distance between hate and love. Yes.

[00:19:12] And so I think about this body image continuum and body neutrality is this place in the middle that really made me go, I can not buy into hating my body anymore because that's not serving me. I'm realizing that's not serving me, but I also don't have to love my body.

[00:19:31] I can sit here in my body, turn down some of my inner voices on the negative critic and that person and then society's voices and then kind of turn up the volume on, boy, what does my body do for me on a daily basis? Yes. And it's this mini shift from appearance to function. Yes. That really starts to change the relationship that we have with our body.

[00:20:00] And so that's kind of this starting point and changing the relationship we have with our body through what our body does for us on a daily basis on allowing ourselves to be grateful for some of those things. And then also just noticing that inner critic and the bully that comes out so quickly. And how do we start to shift the conversations that we have in our head and start to turn those down a little bit? I love that.

[00:20:30] Taking it from that hating our body to gratitude. That is such a powerful shift, right? Because we also get what we focus on. And so in my trainings, I'm always like, focus on what you want because that's what you get. And so if we're focusing on the hatred, it's self-perpetuating, right? And it's very hard to get out of that and the inner critic becomes louder and louder and louder.

[00:20:53] Whereas when we can come to this place of gratitude, now we start to see not only the gratitude in our body, however, we can see gratitude elsewhere in our life as well. Yeah. And gratitude when practice comes can be like an emotional quick switch. Yes. It switches us from that place of negativity and criticism and judgment or comparison to a place of being more optimistic and seeing things differently.

[00:21:23] And then when we start to see things differently, they look different. And that's very, very much like how we start to see our bodies and trying to, if I start to see my body differently, might I even take care of my body differently? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because again, you see it as something that is serving you. And so when we know something is serving us, we will care for it and look after it very differently.

[00:21:52] And, you know, the funny thing is, and I use this analogy a lot and I've heard many other people use it, that we have one body. The first time something goes wrong with our car or the engine oil light comes on, we deal with it. We go and get the car fixed. And yet we could actually go buy another car if the car totally died. Our house, something goes wrong. We fix it. We could potentially go buy another house.

[00:22:21] And yet with our own body, we ignore the engine oil light coming on. And again, it's societal norms having us push through, right? You're tough. You're strong. Just keep doing what you're doing, et cetera, et cetera. Work harder. Work harder. Exactly. And then, you know, there's more stress. And we know stress is a factor in hormones and in weight gain, et cetera, et cetera. And then that results in body image issues.

[00:22:50] And it's, again, societally induced. And when we start to recognize. And encouraged sometimes. Yes, absolutely. Especially in the workforce to work harder. And so when we start to recognize that we can actually have our own beliefs and we can shift them. And we don't have to follow that societal norm. That's when we can start to shift things.

[00:23:13] And so that's such a huge piece of the work that you're doing and even shifting people from the belief of hating to the belief of gratitude. I use this analogy called the good gift, bad gift analogy. And I think if we, whenever we get a good gift from a friend or from someone, we just, we take care of it. It's just unconscious. We just love it. And it's important.

[00:23:39] And then when we get a bad gift, it just kind of, it drifts off to the back of the closet or wherever it goes. And if we're thinking about our bodies as a bad gift, you know, we don't treat them as well as we could if we were thinking them like a good gift. This is my home. Right. The only body that I have. Exactly. Go buy another one. Right.

[00:24:04] How can I, how can I like listen to it and start talking to it nicely and treating it in a way, in the way that I would treat a good gift. And this is, comes full circle to what we're talking about advocating for yourself and listening to yourself and that you, you are the best person to know about what's going on in your body. Exactly.

[00:24:29] And so that reconnecting with our body and the intuition and paying more attention to that than the inner critic, letting the inner critic silence and let the intuition, which is always in our best interest to come forth. So on your journey of all of these years, did you also fall into that trap of yo-yo dieting?

[00:24:56] You know, you lose the weight, you gain the weight, you lose the weight, you gain the weight. Back and forth and back and forth over and over and over again. Compulsive exercise. I had a couple of in my late twenties and then right around 40, I had two kind of dips back into eating disorder behavior. And it really wasn't until my body broke down that I realized I had to do something different because I was always overcompensating.

[00:25:26] Right. Exercise was punishment for food that I ate or food that I didn't eat. So it was either restricting or binging or overexercising. It was always this cycle of, and regardless, my body was never good enough. Right. Right. And so it was a constant, it took up 95% of my brain space or more. Right.

[00:25:50] That was all I was thinking about was counting and calculating and then beating myself up over what I did or I didn't do. Right. And so it was only when I started to be quiet that I could start to hear myself. And I was kind of forced into quiet with, by my body breaking down and not listening for many, many years until I kind of had to listen.

[00:26:16] And when I ended up having to have a knee replacement and I was sitting in recovery, plotting my revenge, putting back in there, you know, that's when I actually slowed down long enough to say, you know what? You've been doing the exact same thing.

[00:27:03] I'm going to have to go back to school and change really the trajectory of my life to be able to do this work now. To help others look at their bodies and see their bodies differently. Notice how their body feels with food. Trying to take the morality out of food. Trying to see exercise and movement as independence and quality of life, you know.

[00:27:25] The ability to do the ability to do the things that we want to be able to do, not having to do a certain amount or burn so many calories. Like that's taking, divorcing those two things. Exercise doesn't belong with weight and weight management. We want to look at it differently. Right. To your point around movement and maintaining our ability to move and therefore independence as we get older. Right. Something we take for granted in our early years.

[00:27:54] However, you look at elder people who haven't had a lot of movement in their life and, you know, you can see them on, you know, in on those ride on wheelchair things. You know, I've been to Las Vegas and you go to the hotels there and you see, you know, even middle aged people that are riding those chairs because they don't have their mobility. And so that's a loss of independence. Correct. You know, I think about the statement, I walk so that I can walk.

[00:28:22] Right. So that I can take myself to the doctor. Yes. So that I can go to the store. Yes. So that I don't have to rely on somebody else. Right. And, you know, asking ourselves, what do I want to be able to do in my body going forward? And how do I help myself do those things so that I can continue to take care of myself and pick things up off the floor or, you know, get down on the floor and play with grandkids now. You know, get down on the floor and play with them now. And get back up.

[00:28:52] And yeah, absolutely. If I can get down, I have to be able to get back up. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah. So I love what you are doing here and how you are helping people. And, you know, a big message to the audience is if you're listening to this and relating to this and going, this is me. Recognize that to, again, quiet that inner critic.

[00:29:19] Don't beat yourself up for everything that's come before. Celebrate this moment as the moment of awareness that you can move forward and you can do something different. And, yes, it's going to take some time. It didn't take you overnight to get where you're at right now. It's happened over months, weeks, months, years. It's going to take some time. It's going to take some effort.

[00:29:45] And yet, going through your day right now is also effortful. When you have extra weight that isn't serving your body, that's using a lot of energy. And so understanding that the effort will be different. However, working with and to guide you through that process makes that journey so much easier than you having to navigate it on your own.

[00:30:11] Yeah, that inner, I think about how much that inner critic kept us, keeps many people stuck in the same loop. Right. It is that definition of insanity. And so when we think about that inner critic and all the negative voices of beating ourselves up and the shame because we did or we didn't do something, how has that actually been working for you? Right.

[00:30:34] To realize that it does keep us stuck actually in the problem versus being curious and being a little bit more compassionate with self. Just the act of curiosity and softening the voice makes a difference, makes us see things differently and start to shift those things. And as we do that, then also we start to look at our bodies differently. Yes. And it is that gratitude that can change everything.

[00:31:03] And even if you're listening and you feel like I'm not grateful for anything of my body, I hate my whole body, I would have you take a nice deep breath and think about maybe what's your favorite sound or what's your favorite smell or what can you do with your hands? Can you write? Can you read? Can you hug your loved ones?

[00:31:26] Think about the little things on a daily basis that come through your body because it's just a different way of thinking about this body that we have and that we live in as opposed to the size of my thighs or always kind of going to that place that you hate about your body. No, let's look differently. Let's see it differently.

[00:31:57] Exactly. I love that. And again, stop looking at the exterior of our body and being critical and being grateful for all that's going on inside our body. You know, every second of every day, just the fact that our heart is pumping for us every second, that our body is breathing us and keeping us alive. And that, you know, we can feel our emotions of love for our loved ones, etc. That our body is digesting the food that we're eating without us even having to think about it.

[00:32:25] There's so much going on that we don't give a moment's notice to that we may not even know is going on because we've never been taught it through the school system either. Right. That we can be grateful for. Right. As we start to shift into that moment of gratitude. Yeah. It got you up this morning, right? Exactly. Exactly. Today's a new day. And today can be the day that you decide to do something different. Correct.

[00:32:52] Because the moment you decide to do something differently, it's going to lead you on a path to different results. And, you know, maybe that decide to do something differently is to reach out to Anne. And in a moment, I'm going to ask her how you can do that. However, before we go there, what I also love to ask every single guest on the show is what does don't wait?