Anti-diet Pilates instructor Helen Phelan-Guillemot joins us to discuss her history as a dancer and how that affected her relationship with food and her body, how she moved from disordered eating into wellness obsession, how she’s come to hate toxic fitness culture while still loving physical activity, how to know when you need to take a break from fitness, why we don’t need to constantly self-optimize, and more.

Helen Phelan-Guillemot is a comprehensively certified pilates instructor, prenatal and postpartum corrective exercise specialist, Institute for Integrative Nutrition health coach, intuitive eating student, and founder of on demand pilates platform, Helen Phelan Studio with 10 years of experience. The HPS method was born because Helen was feeling frustrated about how social media portrayed wellness: one could either wholly reject exercise and athleticism, or reject their actual health and body image. Helen's intuitive pilates classes are known to be equal parts rigor and restoration to help you build strength, body awareness, while being kind to yourself. She won a Women's Health Magazine Fit Tech Award for "Best Body Neutral Workout" in 2021 and has been featured in InStyle, Bustle, Well and Good, Huffington Post and more. You can find her on IG/Tiktok @helenvphelan, on Substack writing Well Hell, or on helenphelanstudio.com to check out her anti-diet pilates classes.

If you like this conversation, subscribe to hear lots more like it!

Support the podcast by becoming a paid subscriber, and unlock great perks like bonus episodes, subscriber-only Q&As, early access to regular episodes, community threads, and much more. Learn more and sign up at rethinkingwellness.substack.com.

Christy's new book, The Wellness Trap, is now available wherever books are sold! Order it online or ask for it in your favorite local bookstore.

If you're looking to make peace with food and break free from diet and wellness culture, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rethinkingwellness.substack.com/subscribe