What if we gave you permission to eat whatever you wanted to? Would you find it difficult  to reprogram that little voice inside my head saying "put down the cookie?" Lol. You know, over the decades, women have been fed a LOT of negative body image narratives. We are forced to believe that our worth centers around looking thin, having a perfect figure, or is equated to a number on the scale. Raise your hand if you've ever felt pressure to eat a certain way and look a certain way and if YOU associate YOUR self-worth to "Thinness"! 

If you feel this way YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Our guest today, Elizabeth Harris, states that girls as young as 3 have been shown to be aware of their body image. She is here to teach us that there is truly a better way. Elizabeth is a registered dietitian, certified Intuitive Eating counselor, speaker, entrepreneur, and co-host of the podcast Wellness Rebranded. She’s passionate about empowering people to drop out of diet culture and reimagine their relationship with food, movement, and their bodies so they can prioritize their whole health with Intuitive Eating, gentle nutrition, and body image healing.

Elizabeth’s motto is “self-care, not self-control.” Because food is meant to be enjoyed, movement should make you happy, and we’ve all got better things to do than counting carbs or calories! This is sooo true, Elizabeth! Please teach us!! I mean, she even calls the practice of intuitive eating a self-care framework.

Well, we all know that's where we both fall down on the job! lol Let's be honest, Shelby, is notoriously bad at self-care practices. And, well...Trinity loves herself so much that she's willing to eat an entire box of Girl Scout cookies to prove it. Lol But, Elizabeth shows us that this is NOT self-care or intuitive eating either. Instead, initiative eating IS  living in atunement with your body and is a blend of instinct, emotion and thought.

In this episode, Elizabeth teaches us:

1. Intuitive eating is a blend of instinct, emotion, and thoughts and would be what eating were like if diet culture didn't exist and we listened to our bodies instead.
2. Guilt is not a food group, we all have a right to eat things we enjoy. One of the principles of Intuitive Eating is to have unconditional permission to eat any food you want in atunement with your body and it's cues.
3. Diet culture is a pressure to eat a certain way, exercise a certain way and look a certain way so that we begin to equate self-worth with the way we look and health with being thin. These are false narratives we need to let go of.
4. Intuitive eating starts with examining your own relationship with food. "Challenge your own food police". What are the rules that you follow when it comes to food. Making a list of these rules when they pop into your head can give you an understanding of this relationship
5. The first step to implementing an intuitive eating philosophy is to start by setting up a consistent eating schedule by eating your meals at the same time every day. In this way you'll become more aware of fullness and hunger cues.

For more of Elizabeth:

Website | elizabethharrisnutrition.com

Facebook | elizabethharrisnutrition 

And we loved this conversation because life in the middle is also a blend of instinct, emotion, and thought and we believe these drive not just EATING but, literally, everything we do. How are you feeling about your life these days? Have you ever felt stuck, like you don't know who you are anymore? If the answer is yes...you're not alone! Meet us in "The Middle" at dearmidlife.com to join our community for women in midlife just like you. Here you can build connection and find space to be honored where you are!