Not only is this an interesting time of year, but it's also an interesting year!

And because it's a double-whammy of unconventionality, I wanted to take some time to completely change the conversation in your head, but...

...let's talk about all of this BEFORE the holiday season moves into full swing!

So many women think they have to make a choice: either get trapped in the vicious cycle of overeating, over-consuming, and being unhappy with their bodies… OR feeling like they have to go down the diet ‘Rabbit Hole’, restrict, control, and NOT even enjoy their holidays. 

But I want to show you a third option: one with more freedom and permission and enjoyment built-in!

Because you shouldn't have to make a choice.  And you shouldn't have to sacrifice your HAPPINESS for your HEALTH or your HEALTH for your HAPPINESS.

Every woman deserves to know what life is like when you ditch the restriction, control, punishment, and obsession. And life is too short to live with all the self-judgement, self-criticism, and SHAME!

In today's episode, I've teamed up with my partner-in-crime Laura Lea Bryant to bring you the Holiday Success Guide. Because the holidays should be about way more than just "surviving" - - we want you to actually prosper and move forward and feel amazing about where you end up in the new year. And the best way to do that is by starting NOW!

Head on over to StresslessEating.com/holiday and sign up for the LIVE Stressless Eating Webinar on December 3rd where Laura Lea and I will walk you through the exact 5 Step Game Plan My Female Clients Use To Conquer Emotional Eating, Self-Sabotage, and finally heal themselves from the restrictive the all-or-nothing diet mentality for good....but without obsessing or spending years in therapy to address it. We are going to lay it all out there for you in 5 easy steps. 

★ Sign Up For The Live Webinar December 3rd:

StresslessEating.com/holiday

Lisa had been living in a 20-year food and diet prison, and after the death of her husband, she had spent so many years being a caretaker, she forgot what it looked like to take care of herself!

Diets eluded her, and even though she had hope that there was a better way to go about her relationship with food, her body, and her health, she was almost at that point that she felt helpless. Food and her body was a topic that carried a lot of shame and guilt, and she found herself isolating a lot more.

Knowing she could not go back on another round of the Weight Watchers diet cycle and committed to solving the struggle for good, Lisa scheduled a call with me and took a leap of faith to finally commit to herself, and she began taking steps toward healing her body & mind and reclaiming her life.

But as you'll learn, it's never too late! In this interview she shares how her 62-year old self found life again after losing her husband, ditched the diet mentality, and got her groove back!

Have you ever gone to start a new plan or program, and on the surface you're gung- ho -- ready to take it by the reigns, deeply committed, and hoping (praying!) that this time really IS different -- that this will be the 'the thing' that changes everything for you...

...but secretly in the back of your mind, you're WAITING for it to fail? 

Perhaps you're even outright EXPECTING it to fail, because you know in your heart-of-hearts that even though the plan or the program itself might be different....

...you know deep down that YOU haven't changed -- that you haven't gotten your mind, your head, your brain, and your heart aligned in a way that WOULD cause things to be different?

Don’t worry, you are SO not alone. This is one of the most common struggles that women have today when it comes to their relationships with food, their bodies, and themselves. 

In today’s episode we are going to get you clear on exactly why this happens (why you lose trust in yourself or in the possibility that it will ever get any better), and how you can finally shift this for good. 

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar:

 https://www.StresslessEating.com

When it comes to the diet mentality, body shame, disordered eating, and all the internal stress and chaos that comes long side all of that, for so many women this is their deepest held secret. 

This struggle with food, their body, the war in their head, the fight in their hearts, and the shame. All that shame about their body, feeling so out of control all the time, feeling like a failure….for so many women, no one even knows what's really going! 

★ No one knows how much they are REALLY struggling and suffering. 

★ No one knows how much time and energy they are spending thinking about what they should or shouldn’t eat, what they should wear — or what they can wear that fits or doesn’t look tight.

★ No one knows how much time they are thinking about how bad they actually feel. 

★ No one knows that they aren’t even fully present in their lives— that even though they are there in the flesh and blood, they aren’t really ‘there’ -- they aren’t fully present. 

What’s even worse is: no one is talking about this OR how to get past it. In today’s episode we are not only going to take a look at this overlooked subject, but I also share the “What I know now that I wish I knew then” steps to actually get PAST it. 

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar:

 https://www.StresslessEating.com

What do you do when one of your best friends in the world also happens to be a leading transformational expert in the world of women's confidence and radical self-love? You get him on the podcast!

I'm excited to share with you one of the most powerful and impactful people in my life: Kevin Donahue. In this interview Kevin shares with us 5 powerful distinctions that are pivotal in helping you create what he calls your "Confidence Blueprint".

I guarantee you've never heard confidence talked about like this before, and Kevin’s insights are sure to challenge you, make you think, and show you a view of the world (and yourself) that you can't unsee once you see it.

★ What's God Got To Do With It?: 

https://leanneellington.com/episode16/

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar:

 https://www.StresslessEating.com

★ Learn More About Kevin’s Transformational Work With Women:

http://CaptivateHim.com/

I believe that I can tell a lot about a woman's emotional health based on how much time she spends on social media. I know that might sound a little bit weird, but social media has a bigger impact on your mind, brain, self-esteem, and self-image than you might think.

And THAT is the elephant in the room that I bring up on today’s podcast:  Facebook and Instagram and other forms of social media (if you allow it) can be used as powerful tools to connect, share parts of your life, and keep your finger on the pulse of the lives of people that matter to you. But if you're not careful, they can easily become a weapon of comparison-itus, unattainable standards, isolation, and loneliness. 

On top of that thought, for the women out there that ALREADY struggle with self-esteem, body image, or self-worth, I believe it can be even MORE dangerous.  And that’s why I felt called to simply have a conversation about it and take a look at how it is TRULY impacting us. 

In this episode of the podcast, I teach you some valuable distinctions that will help you discover if you are the one influencing it, or if it is the one controlling you. I even give you an action plan on how you can take back ownership of your Social Brain and how to  ensure that you have a healthy ‘relationship’ with social media.

★ 4 Things With Amy Brown Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/self-sabotage-lasting-change-cost-of-skinny-gratitude/id1442391141

★ The Tale of 2 Cookies: Busting Through ‘The Diet Mentality’ Myth: https://leanneellington.com/episode1/

★ Are You Using Food & Exercise As A Weapon? (4 Tell-Tale Signs That You Are): https://leanneellington.com/episode8/

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar:

 https://www.StresslessEating.com

When I met Heather, she felt like she had tried everything in the book -- every diet under the sun -- from Weight Watchers to Paleo to Keto and everything in between. The month before we first spoke, she even called Overeaters Anonymous, hoping THAT would be her answer, but she also knew she didn't want to go through life abstaining from foods, counting points, or obsessing. 

Desperate to change, feeling like she was a prisoner to food (always thinking about dieting OR simply feeling like a failure for not being able to stick with anything long-term), she found me and booked a call to speak with me about getting help. 

There was so much information out there, and she was so overwhelmed and tired of thinking about it all, but she knew she had to do SOMETHING radically different.  She knew that the problem was in her BRAIN. 

But there was something else factoring into Heather’s journey: Our phone call happened to take place about two months into the worldwide Pandemic that we are all now navigating. That was not about to stop Heather though!

In this episode of the podcast, Heather shares the in's and out's of her struggles, her journey, and the steps she took that finally led her to freedom after DECADES of feeling out of control. 

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar: https://www.StresslessEating.com

We are back for Part Two of The Truth About Your Fat.  

Last week we talked about fat and fascia, and how it's so much more than just a food or fitness conversation.  We also talked about how not ‘taking care of’ your fat could be the THE thing keeping fat stuck on your body. 

This week we are going to talk about what you can actually do about it - - how to influence it, and how to identify which of the 5 "types" of fat you have so you can finally make peace with your body. 

Resources:

★  The Truth About Your Fat (Part 1): https://leanneellington.com/episode17/

★ Z-Health Education: https://zhealtheducation.com/

★ Thomas Myers & Anatomy Trains: https://www.anatomytrains.com/

★ Ashley Black:  https://www.ashleyblackguru.com/

★ The Fascia Blaster: http://fasciablaster.com/

★ The Cost of Skinny (The Truth About What the Diet Mentality is REALLY Costing You): https://leanneellington.com/episode6/

★ The Tale of 2 Cookies: Busting Through ‘The Diet Mentality’ Myth: https://leanneellington.com/episode1/

★ Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar: https://www.StresslessEating.com

Nowadays fat has a bad rap.

We hate it. We fear it. We name it. We blame it. We shame it.

Some people will do whatever they can to destroy it and eliminate its "wrath" from their lives. But who ever said that fat was ugly, or something to be ashamed of?

And what if you could work WITH it (learn how to actually take care of it on a nervous system level so you can actually get rid of it if that's what you want to do) instead of working AGAINST it?

Since it IS such a prevalent "enemy" in today's world, and since it's not going away anytime soon, we might as well learn about it, right? 

Unfortunately no one is talking about that side of it. 

What you eat and how you move is PART of the equation, but it doesn’t cover the whole picture. Not even close!

And I truly believe (and science will back me up!) that your health, body, and emotional struggles are simply EFFECTS of something going on ‘higher up’ in your brain and nervous system (SEE ALSO: That system of systems that dictates EVERYTHING!)

And in this episode of the podcast, we are going to talk about a subject matter that baffles most women and causes more shame and sadness than any topic I’ve encountered:

The Truth About YOUR FAT (and what you can actually do about it....

Resources:

The "Heat It" Music Video: https://leanneellington.com/

Huffington Post Article: All About That Bass (3 Great Reasons To Embrace Your Fat): https://www.huffpost.com/entry/all-about-that-bass-3-gre_b_6117880

What's God Got To Do With It?: https://leanneellington.com/episode16

The Cost of Skinny: https://leanneellington.com/episode6/

Watch The Stressless Eating Webinar: https://www.StresslessEating.com

This is one of the most personal episodes I have ever recorded and definitely my most vulnerable share to date. It’s the part of my journey that I don’t typically talk about or share about out loud: My Faith.  

Not only is my faith relatively new to me, but it’s particularly vulnerable for me because I feel like faith CAN be one of those taboo topics. It gets batched into conversations about religion or even politics and can have connotations or associations and meanings that might not be intended.

For purposes of this podcast and my own definitions, for me, this is a story and a tale about FAITH, and to me that simply means believing in something that I cannot see or taste or touch or feel or experience with my human senses. Faith is something i didn’t have until recently and it’s something i didn’t even know that I didn’t have in the first place...or that I could have.

And in this episode of the Stressless Eating Podcast, I share the unconventional tales and journey that caused this bacon-loving, hebrew-speaking Jewish woman to suddenly walk into a church and seek out God, having no idea the crazy twists and turns and miracles that would abound.