—Welcome to another exciting episode of Mealtime Magic & Mayhem! 🌮🎉

In Episode 18, our host, Tricia Clark, is joined by special guest Alyssa Booth, licensed professional counselor and empowered body coach. 🎙️💪

Get ready for a deep and thought-provoking conversation as they dive into topics such as food restriction, mental and physical health, emotional eating, and healing from negative experiences. 🍽️💭💔

Tricia shares their love for baking bread and how it relates to life's ups and downs, while Alyssa emphasizes the importance of embracing our core selves and going beyond surface-level healing. 🍞💖🌟

Discover how Tricia's work in meal planning helps clients develop their own process and skills in the kitchen, while Alyssa's virtual private practice focuses on counseling and coaching individuals toward a nourished mind and body. 📋💼🥕🧠

Join them as they discuss the impact of shame, trauma, and societal pressure on our relationship with food and our body image. 💔😔💪

Learn how to find motivation and creativity in cooking, set realistic expectations, embrace individual preferences, and create freezer meals for busy times. 🍳🕰️🔥

Stay tuned for a future episode where they explore fascinating methods of using your body intuition to determine if specific foods are beneficial for you. 💃🍎🔮

So, grab a seat, get inspired, and tune in to another amazing episode of Mealtime Magic & Mayhem! 🎧✨🍽️

Alyssa's Links:

Website: heyalyssabooth.com

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alyssabooth_lpc/

Shoot Alyssa a DM to schedule your free 20 minute consultation call

Tricia's Links:

🔗 Click here to join Trish's Cook Connect & Conquer Club! : https://triciasbitesoflife.com/connectcookconquer

Connect with Trish for Your Free Strategy Call: https://link.feacreate.com/widget/bookings/connectwithtrish

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/tricia.clark.161

Website:triciasbitesoflife.com

Her YouTube channel is launching here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmGEincPtA74cyPzpggzMZw

Grab Your Free Guide to Bringing Fun Back to Mealtime Here:

https://triciasbitesoflife.com/bring-back-fun

Tricia:

This is the Mealtime, Magic, and Mayhem podcast. I'm Tricia Clark, your host, cooking coach, and kitchen mentor. We're here to talk about all things food, wine, travel, cocktails, and mealtime memories. So many memories are made around the table. We all know mealtime can be stress full, full of chaos and mayhem. But it's also the universal connector, a catalyst for communication and connection, and a time to create magic and memories. So many of our memories are tied to food, and I can't wait to share some of those stories with you here. I'm here to share ideas, inspiration, and stories to help you experience mealtime.

Tricia:

With a dash of magic and just a sprinkle of mayhem, you can expect new episodes weekly, including a mixture of interviews, personal stories, and some fun conversations about our adventures and misadventures in the kitchen and around the table. I hope you walk away feeling inspired to try something new in your kitchen or around your table to create more connection with your friends, family, and beyond. Thanks for being here. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Mealtime, Magic and Mayhem. Today I have Alyssa Booth. She is a licensed professional counselor and empowered body coach. She's the owner of the Nourished Mind Counseling and Wellness, a virtual private practice that services the state of Texas. She provides counseling through her private practice as well as other services, including community psycho education workshops, webinars, mental health courses, and coaching services.

Tricia:

Her approach is to bring it all to the table where no topic is off limits, and she really wants you to have real conversations about real issues. Alyssa's mission is for you to step into your authentic self and live in line with your values, time, and energy. All right, Alyssa, thank you for being here. I'm so excited and can't wait to talk some of this diet culture with you.

Alyssa:

Thank you. I'm really happy to be here, and calling out diet culture bullshit is one of my favorite things to do.

Tricia:

Awesome. Mine too. I feel like anything where we label food as good or bad already puts us on the wrong path in general. And there's just so many unrealistic expectations out here, out there all the way around, right?

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Tricia:

So before we get into the juicy stuff, I'm going to ask you a fun question, and I can't wait to hear your answer. And it is, if you were to participate in a food eating competition, what food would you pick?

Alyssa:

Okay, so my initial thought is I would want to pick something that I like, but then my second thought is that I would want to pick something that might be easier to eat. And I also have follow up questions, right. Like, is it a timed competition? Most of them are timed competition.

Tricia:

Like, how many or how much of this can you eat in X amount of time?

Alyssa:

I don't know. The first thing that comes to my mind is pasta. Like spaghetti. I'd want lots of spaghetti.

Tricia:

I could eat a lot of pasta.

Alyssa:

It's a feel good meal for me.

Tricia:

Yeah, I like that one. Be a whole lot easier to eat than hot dogs, too.

Alyssa:

Yeah, hot dog. I don't know.

Tricia:

I feel like those would make me vomit.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I feel like that would yeah, I agree with that. Hot dogs are just a no for me.

Tricia:

And I love pizza, but the idea of eating, like, those are so heavy and I don't know, they're great.

Alyssa:

It's hard to chew. I feel like pasta, you just slurp it up.

Tricia:

Yeah, I like that answer. I like that answer. I actually haven't thought about it. What would mine be? I don't think wine really counts for me. It would probably be rice. I feel like I can eat my weight in rice. It's one of those comfort foods for me that my body genuinely feels better. Like, it is one of those healing foods for me.

Alyssa:

Yeah, rice is definitely a good option. Buttered rice.

Tricia:

But I feel like you'd have to eat a lot of rice to win a food eating competition.

Alyssa:

Yeah.

Tricia:

Now this makes me want to Google and find out what all the eating competitions are out there.

Alyssa:

I know. I think there's a lot I think there's a lot of different things, and there's a lot like, what was that show that was on Food Network where they would eat all the different competitions that restaurants had?

Tricia:

Was it, like, Andrew Zimmerman or something? It was all the weird foods. Or was it food? I don't remember the food competition.

Alyssa:

Yeah, it was a show where they had, like I don't know, restaurants would be known for the giganta burger or weird, so they either had large amounts of food and sometimes it was, like, spicy and people be sweating. I was like, oh, I don't know.

Tricia:

About no, I'm not cut out for any of that. I love me some food, but I am not cut out for that. Not cut out for that.

Alyssa:

Like, the spicy stuff. Yeah, no, I could not do that. I like spice, but not like yeah.

Tricia:

I don't want to sweat when I eat.

Alyssa:

No. Yeah, not a good combo.

Tricia:

All right, well, let's get into the nitty gritty of what we're here to talk about. So in your role as an empowered body coach, I love that you prioritize having open conversations about a wide range of topics. So can you share an example of a conversation that unexpectedly led to a breakthrough for someone struggling with their relationship with food and body? Or examples of what do some of those real conversations look like? What do you mean when you say open to real conversations about real issues?

Alyssa:

Real conversations means to me that we are not doing surface level stuff. I actually was in the middle of writing an email earlier, and I kind of paused because I was like, is this a little intense? Is this a little too much? Because one of the things I said was, I want to dig into the depths of your soul. And I was like, okay, I don't know how people are going to respond to this, but I really think that a lot of times we want to do this surface level healing. And especially when it comes to our relationship with food and body, we think, well, if I just eat healthier and lose weight, I will be so much happier. And I'm like, okay, maybe initially or maybe for a little bit, but I don't want you to just be happy with how you look. I want you to be happy with the core of who you are. And a lot of times, especially when we're talking about breakthroughs and things like that, people don't realize how much shame and trauma plays a role in how they see themselves, how they talk to themselves, how they treat themselves. How they think others perceive them, how we decide to take up space, or how we decide that we don't want to take up any space.

Alyssa:

We don't want to be seen or heard because we feel like we're going to be judged. And so I think a lot of the work that I like to do is really unraveling a lot of our limiting thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that keep us held back, that keep us living small. You know what I mean?

Tricia:

Yeah, no, I totally do. And I find that in my work as well, in that I know that just as an example, I know that meal planning can be stressful or that you might not like cooking, but that resistance is there for a reason. And why is it there? Let's not just talk about the fact that you're busy. There's something deeper. And I've always been a big fan of deep conversations, and I totally get what you're saying about writing that email and thinking, like, is this too far? Because how many times have we been told that we're too much, too deep, too loud, don't go there so quickly. It's almost like we've been trained to play small. And it's interesting to hear you talk about those things in terms of how we choose to take up space and how we choose to show up and don't be seen and be seen and not heard. I think of even all the things that as a parent, I've probably said and things I remember hearing from my parents that you don't even recognize as a parent the effects of what you're saying.

Tricia:

Right. But you don't even recognize as the child who heard that, how that affects you until so much later in life. And when you realize that and you can flip the script on that, it really does make you feel like you weigh 100 pounds less. Like, forget the number on the scale. The weight of all of that is so fucking heavy.

Alyssa:

Right? And so a specific example came to mind as you were speaking, too. There are times when I kind of go back and I'm like, okay, what was your parents relationship with food? Or how did your parents interact with you and food and eating and all of that. And I've had clients tell me, well, I was never allowed to go have seconds, or I had to always finish my plate, even if I didn't like the food or even if I wasn't hungry anymore. And so I'm like, okay. That's when that distrust with your body started, right? Like, you were denied a basic need and kind of going back to we were talking about one of my reels earlier, about just like our bowel movements and things like that. And it's like, that would be denied. Like, oh, I really need to go to the bathroom. It's like, no, you don't, you don't need to go anymore.

Alyssa:

Like you're done.

Tricia:

We don't talk about that.

Alyssa:

Tricia:

You could not pay me to go back, right?

Alyssa:

And doctor is like, oh, you know what, you probably could lose a couple of pounds or, hey, you've gained too much weight, and so you need to watch what you eat, or whatever, right? So somebody makes a comment about your body. And I've had clients that are in their forty s, fifty s, sixty s even, and they remember, they remember those comments like it was yesterday. They could have had a comment from a family member or a friend or a doctor or someone that they deem of importance or significance, and they remember exactly what that person said and exactly how they felt and what the change was from that comment, from that experience, from that moment. And so when I say we're going to dig deep into the hard stuff, that's where I want to meet you is in those moments. Because, yes, I can give you skills. Of course I have tons of skills, like the Barney bag, like, it just keeps coming out, right? And I can give you a lot of skills, but that connection to yourself and that healing of those wounds, to me, that's where I want to meet you. That's important because and you probably experience this too, when it comes to meal planning, sure, you can say, here are the tips on how to meal plan, here's a guide of how you can structure. But if you're not meeting somebody where they are in their current moment of life, I could give you the best plan in the world, but it might not resonate because you have to meet yourself exactly where you are.

Alyssa:

And sometimes it's not pretty, sometimes it's a little dark and it's a little uncomfortable. But I love those moments. I love those moments so much.

Tricia:

Tricia:

But they're hard. Yeah, they're hard. It's hard to go there. And you really do have to have an extreme level of trust with someone. Right? I know we've talked, but I really appreciate and love the way you're showing up on social media, like, just really being authentic and whether you're wearing makeup or not or talking about pee or poop or whatever, you're showing that vulnerability that people need for that trust to happen. Right. And I really applaud you for that because that is also hard. Yeah, it takes a while to get there.

Alyssa:

It is hard.

Tricia:

So as we talk about food, carrying these deep emotional connections and memories, from your perspective, how can someone navigate that intricate balance between finding comfort in their favorite meals like you've mentioned, your grandma's mac and cheese, but then also fostering a healthier relationship with food and body? It just seems like in our society today, those are two very conflicting things. You can have this or you can't have this. And this whole restriction mentality.

Alyssa:

Yeah, I think it's hard because I feel like a lot of people are either dieting or they're not dieting, right? And I think that when we look at it from that all or nothing perspective, the pendulum is just going to swing. So we've all experienced this, right, where it's like, okay, I need to start eating better. Okay, cool. I'm going to start logging all of my meals in my fitness pal. I'm going to boil some chicken, throw some brown rice, no seeds in it. You know what I mean? Like meal prep or whatever, in that kind of way. I'm going to go to the gym, I'm going to get my sleep. I'm going to drink out of my Stanley Cup, all my water, blah, blah, blah.

Alyssa:

All these different things, right? So we tend to overdo it in that way. And then when it comes time to have a meal that we enjoy, we're like, oh my God, that's good.

Tricia:

Right?

Alyssa:

Because we've been restricting and there's different kinds of restriction, right? There's like the physical restriction, which is like reduction of calories or not allowing yourself to eat those things. But then if you're like, quote unquote, feeding yourself enough calories, but you have the mental restriction, right? Like, oh, I can't eat the cake, or I'm not going to. My coworker brought brownies for Deborah's birthday, whoever, right? But I'm not going to eat those brownies because brownies are so bad for you. And I'm on a diet, and I have to be good. And over the course of time, you might feel like applauded. People will say, well, you have a lot of discipline, you have a lot of willpower. Look at you, you're doing so great. Wow.

Alyssa:

Which, by the way, a lot of that approval is what we really need when we dig deep, is if we experience that shame and emotional neglect, that almost gives us a false sense of validation and approval when we hear those messages.

Tricia:

Interesting.

Alyssa:

But I think when we start to heal our relationship with food, emotional eating isn't a bad thing, right? We are emotional beings. We happy eat, we sad eat, we celebratory eat. We eat for so many different reasons. And so to say, oh, you shouldn't emotional eat. Well, then what are you turning into a robot? You're also not a robot. You also don't need the same amount of calories every single day.

Tricia:

And especially as women, you shouldn't reward yourself with food. Let's not forget that one. Don't reward yourself with food.

Alyssa:

Don't reward yourself with food.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

You shouldn't enjoy food. Food is just fuel.

Tricia:

That is my least favorite.

Alyssa:

Yeah, it's both.

Tricia:

For anybody who's listening, food is fuel. But food can also be fun. Food is food. It is both. It is so many things, so many different things.

Alyssa:

So when you strip away all of the messaging, you get to now be in control and decide, do I want to eat for comfort? Like I'm making the intention to eat something that is just comforting and good and hearty and cheesy buttery goodness and this mac and cheese, and it reminds me of my grandma, and she passed away when I was ten, and so I really just cherish things that make me feel connected to her. And you couldn't pay me to change that recipe. And I think that's the other thing, too, that we see a lot as well is, oh, like, healthier versions of this and that. And I think there's a time and a place, right? There's a time and a place when we might want to increase certain types of nutrients for different reasons, but not my grandma's mac and cheese. That's not the time and the place. You know what I mean? I can be more cognizant of protein or more intentional about getting some fruits and vegetables in, but I'm not changing.

Tricia:

No, but you've brought up so you've used the word. And I think the key here is intention. It's not mindless emotional eating. It's not just mindful healthy. It's just about being intentional, about the choices that you're making versus doing it on autopilot. You're really talking about being present in the moment and honoring your body and honoring your feelings, but I do think we have to have those hard conversations before we can get there, right?

Alyssa:

Yeah, we do.

Tricia:

Or at the minimum, think to yourself, like, when was the time? And am I eating right this moment because I'm angry? Or is this really going to make me feel better? Am I eating my feelings or am I eating because it feels good? I think there's a difference, right.

Alyssa:

And I think a lot of times emotional eating is deemed as the worst thing that you could ever do. You know what I mean? And a lot of times we do fall into the mindless emotional eating where we become overly full. And so there's probably a lot of physical feelings of, I'm full, I don't feel good, I feel sick, or I feel, like, really bloated or whatever. So we have those emotion, or we have that physical experience, then we have the emotional experience of like, oh, my gosh, I'm ruining all my progress. I'm going to get so fat, I'm going to gain all this weight. I'm such a failure. I feel guilty, I feel shame, I feel anxiety, I feel disappointed. And all of those emotions and thoughts make us even feel worse physically, because when you experience those emotions, it does not feel good either.

Alyssa:

And so you're just kind of compounding a lot of things. And so I offer meeting yourself again where you are from a place of compassion and non judgment. Like, yeah, maybe overeating did make you feel really uncomfortable, and maybe you could have used other types of coping skills as well. But rather than continuing to beat yourself up and staying stuck in that shame spiral, how can we talk to yourself like you would a loved one or best friend or partner or somebody that you deeply care about.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

I would never call you and be like, oh, my gosh, you are such a disgusting, fat cow.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

But these are the things that we stay ahead, right? I mean, it really is.

Tricia:

Yeah. I can't believe you ate all of that. Did you just blow all your calories in one meal?

Alyssa:

Yeah. You are so horrible. I can't believe you did that. You ruined your progress.

Tricia:

Right?

Alyssa:

But that's the voice that we have in our head, and it's really mean. It's a really mean voice.

Tricia:

I would never talk to anybody else the way she talks to me. I can't even say I just like to think of her as, like, a third person.

Alyssa:

Yeah. And sometimes we do that. We name that, you know, brenda's coming in again, sorry if there's anyone named Brenda listening to this, but, you know.

Tricia:

Like, okay, I call mine Bambi, and she looks like a stripper because I can't take her seriously if I think about it. But, I mean, if there know a stripper named Bambi out there, that's it. I'm really sorry.

Alyssa:

Yeah. So I think when we are able to better understand our emotions, we can cope with them with a lot more compassion and intention and see our emotions as things that can work for us rather than against us. And we can expand our coping skills.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

Eating can still be one. It's just the same as like, sometimes I want my coping skill to just be binge watching Netflix or staying in bed or not doing anything. Right. So, I mean, we can just kind of expand the way that we take care of ourselves and stop judging ourselves for it.

Tricia:

Yeah, absolutely. So this kind of brings me to another thing I wanted to ask you about, because I know that we all know I'm obsessed with food and cooking, and you enjoy both cooking and a variety in meals. So what advice do you have for individuals who really want to embrace cooking but struggle to find the motivation or creativity? And I use the words motivation and creativity in terms of as we think about diet culture, right. That we put all that pressure on ourselves to count the macros, and not just counting if they're important, but count the macros, log the food like you mentioned, the boiled chicken, the rice, no seasoning. There's so many things that we're thinking about to be good, to be healthy. How are some advice that you have on how cooking can become more nourishing and enjoyable experience for those people rather than a source of stress?

Alyssa:

Yeah, I mean, I would say start with things that you enjoy, like what kind of food do you enjoy right. Outside of nutritional value? What sounds good to you? What do you like? And then I like to add I don't like subtracting. I like adding.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

So I feel like diet culture is a lot of subtraction is a lot of you can't have this, like no gluten, no dairy, no carbs, no fats, no whatever it is.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

It's just subtracting so many different things. And so to me, I say, let's start with things that you like. And how do we add to that to make it if your intention is to have certain types of nutrient value in there, we can add things we don't have to there's no judgment. You get to eat however you want to eat, full permission to do so. So starting out with what you like, what you enjoy, and then setting realistic goals around that, like, what is your capacity when it comes to time, energy, motivation? We start out slow. So maybe if your goal, if you actually enjoy cooking and you want to cook, can we start once a week? And what does that look like? How do we add in other things? I know for me, whenever I was postpartum this last time, we did a lot of freezer meals. And so for most of my meals, for the first I don't even know how many months we did it for a few months, I would say like maybe four or five, maybe even more. My husband and I would pick one day, typically on a Sunday, where we would make a bunch of freezer meals and that's what we would eat for the whole month.

Alyssa:

And so we weren't cooking. And I love cooking, so it was a very weird experience for me. So I was like, oh, my God, I'm not cooking. But it was also nice because I was like, oh my God, I'm not cooking. But it was just a season in my life where I just did not have the capacity to do so. And so I think you have to, again, look at where you are and what are those realistic expectations that you have on yourself or that you can have on yourself, and then start with what you like. Start with what sounds good and what sounds good for me and what I want is going to be different. So we have to really individualize it and you can get ideas right? And I love your Facebook group for that because there's always so many great ideas for meals.

Alyssa:

And so, yeah, I think just meeting yourself where you are and setting realistic goals and expectations, I love that.

Tricia:

So as you talk about freezer meals, I am putting together a freezer meal workshop. There will be a virtual freezer meal workshop. It'll be $27 and we'll put together five meals in an hour. And I'll walk you through that step by step. So if you're listening and you're interested in that, leave a comment, contact me through the website and let me know if you're interested and I can share more information about that. But I love freezer meals because I love that you had them available. You found a solution in your time of need, in that season of your life when cooking just wasn't an option. And we all have those.

Tricia:

But rather than start binging takeout or feeling guilty because we're eating takeout or eating fast food, there are ways we can set ourselves up for success in those moments. And maybe it's not a freezer meal every night. I love to put those together and have them in the freezer. Because if shit goes haywire and I'm having a really crazy week, I can throw it in the Instapot or I can throw it in the slow cooker and I can let it cook all day or it's already done. All I have to do is ask my husband or one of my kids to do the same thing if I'm in meetings all day. And so it allows us also to ask for that help that I find we as women so struggle with asking for. Is that help and having that backup plan of those things, right. Even as you're, wherever you are on your journey with your relationship with food, you can make freezer meals.

Tricia:

You can make them as healthy in air quotes or as delicious and fattening and comforting as you want like, they come in all shapes and sizes and flavors, right?

Alyssa:

Yeah. And I think having a combination right. Of allowing yourself to eat what's good, you can do both.

Tricia:

Right.

Alyssa:

You can have intuitive eating. The term is gentle nutrition, where yeah, we don't just throw nutrition out the window, but we also don't worship it like it's God, you know what I mean?

Tricia:

Either way. Yeah.

Alyssa:

And so I think that you can find that place and that space inside where you're eating in a way that feels good for you, where you are in your moment. And I think that's why I probably have such a hard time articulating that, because people are like, well, what is it? And I'm like, It's whatever you need it to be. And people are just, like, mind blown. They're like, what do you mean? You don't give me a step by step? And I'm like, no, because you get to create the steps. I want you to create your steps because I want you to return back to yourself and rebuild that trust and intuition that is there that has been lost.

Tricia:

Yeah. So that's really kind of interesting that you say that, because that's really where my work comes in and so my services are really kind of a I'm going to call it a done with you. But to some extent we start off with done for you so that you get used to following whatever that meal plan looks like. We talk a lot about what are your goals, what do you like, what's your schedule, what's your lifestyle now let's talk about it's for you. Right. And then I come up with a 30 day meal plan that you approve, and then we work together as you follow that for you to develop your own process that feels good in order to be able to create those skills that you're talking about. If we're specifically talking about cooking and meal planning. Right.

Tricia:

Because I do find that it's whatever you want it to be is a really hard place to start for some people because they don't even know where to start or even how to create that for themselves. And that's really where people need guidance and a partner in this journey, whether you or me, depending on where the need lies. Right, right. And I think that's why our two things really blend well together. Like, we're really speaking the same language. It's just a different mechanism to get there or a different piece of the journey, I guess I should say.

Alyssa:

Yeah, absolutely. I actually was having a who was I talking to? I feel like I have so many conversations, I'm like, I don't remember who I talked to about any of these things, but I was telling them. I was like, this journey is a lot of trial and error. We're trying things on and seeing how that fits and then being able to say, okay, I can now make this. My own. Right. The way that I will use my skills and my understanding of my body and my needs is absolutely going to be different than you, whoever's listening. Right.

Alyssa:

And I might want to try to do things one way and try it on, be like, oh, you know what?

Tricia:

Never mind.

Alyssa:

I don't know if that's going to work. Or I might tweak it or change it. And you're allowed to change your mind. You're allowed to change direction. You're allowed to say, you know what? I have the 30 day plan, but today it's not going to work. It's not going to work for me. And I think that, again, the compassion piece is really what comes into play. I think a lot of times when people make goals, it becomes rigid.

Alyssa:

Even if the person is like, this isn't rigid. We're just going to see. We're like, oh, my gosh, perfectionism comes in and anxiety comes in. We're like, we have to do it perfect. But I think just giving yourself full permission to be like, you know what? I don't think this is going to work. Or I'm trying, and it's just not working for me. And feeling like you have the voice to say that, but also have this safe space on your journey to say, you know what? I don't know.

Tricia:

Right?

Alyssa:

I love it when people are like, I don't know, this isn't resonating with me. And I'm like, great, then let's do something else. Let's switch gears, let's retrace our steps, and let's figure out what's working. Because how many times are we stuck in a plan and especially a diet plan, that we're like, oh, my gosh, this isn't working. But it's like but it's on the plan, so I have to do it.

Tricia:

Because this is what works, but that doesn't mean it's what works for my body or your body.

Alyssa:

Right.

Tricia:

Yeah.

Alyssa:

Restoring that trust within yourself, to me, is really important. And yes, there's a lot of guidelines out there, and I love guidelines. I give guidelines, but essentially being able to make it your own, I think is important.

Tricia:

I like to think of them as loose guardrails. They've been run into a few times. They're kind of dented up and they've got some scuff marks, and it's kind of like they're just to keep you going down the road. We're just trying to keep you from going off the ditch. We're not trying to keep you on the straight and narrow. Right? Right. Okay, well, I want to talk about two things before we finish up today, and one is I really want to show you listeners that Alyssa really does practice what she preaches. And what I mean by this is she does love to cook.

Tricia:

We've talked about her grams mac and cheese, but she has a love of cooking, particularly sourdough. She loves to make fresh bread. So again, that's one of those foods that so often it's like, cut out the carbs. Don't eat bread. Make sure it's whole grain. Make sure we have, again, all this noise. But I'm curious what it is about sourdough that you have found so enjoyable. What is it that got you hooked on sourdough? Because I feel like those that cook sourdough, like, you're all in, you're obsessed.

Alyssa:

Yes, I have definitely noticed that in the community of sourdough baking, I have always loved the idea of gardening, kind of like the homestead life, even though I'm like, 0% a homesteader, but gardening. And that also goes back to my grandma. My gram.

Tricia:

Call her Graham.

Alyssa:

Alyssa:

It was great and super helpful. And I was able to successfully make sourdough bread. And it's just my favorite type of bread. Anytime I go somewhere, I just want the sourdough bread, like the fresh sourdough, like the artisan bread. It's always been my favorite. And so being able to bake it has felt like a huge success for me. I actually baked some this morning. Okay, I'm trying to think, what day is it? Yeah, I baked some this morning.

Alyssa:

I've had three slices of sourdough bread today already. I had a slice for breakfast, and then I had a sandwich for lunch, and it's so good. There's something about baking bread and the process of it. There's lots of steps, there's lots of waiting. There's almost like life, right? Like trial and error, trying to figure things out and getting into the rhythm of it. And even in the support group of women that I took the class with will kind of talk back and forth about, what are you doing for this and what are you doing for that? And I'm like, okay, some people have different ideas. And I'm like, I have kind of found my own rhythm of how I do it. And even the guy who taught the class, I do things just slightly different than him.

Alyssa:

And so it's like, okay, even though we're all doing sourdough, there's so many different ways to create the loaf. And anyways, I could talk about it.

Tricia:

For a long time. That's beautiful, though, because you're right, there's the planning, there's the measuring, there's the process right there's, the anticipation of is it going to turn out or not? That feeling of accomplishment when it comes out, not to mention the smell of freshly baked bread, that just and I'm not a great baker, but when I think about baking bread and cooking. For me, it is about being present. Like, you have no choice but to be present in the moment. Right. And then there's that anticipation, and really all of your senses get involved, from the forming of the loaf to the smell of the baking bread to how it looks to the sound when you break that loaf of bread.

Alyssa:

It really is all of it so good. Well, and now I'm on pinterest and the scoring of the bread.

Tricia:

Oh, I was going to ask you if you were scoring it.

Alyssa:

Yes. There's all different kinds of pat, and.

Tricia:

Some of them I've done. I'm really proud.

Alyssa:

And some of them, like, didn't turn out so good. So still trying to master the art of scoring the bread, but yeah, it's so good and it's rewarding. And I think that having those moments with food where it's not like, okay, well, I had a slice of bread earlier, so I can't have a slice of bread now, and I've already eaten enough bread, or you know what I mean? Like, all of those thoughts when you can just let go of all of that chatter in your brain and just enjoy what you're doing and be at peace with yourself.

Tricia:

Well, and listen to your body because it will tell you whether it likes something or not. I had a fascinating conversation the other day with somebody who talked about testing your body, and then we got to finish. She was talking about testing your body to understand if your body is telling you that this food is good for you or not. And her methods were fascinating, and it was kind of like using your body as a pendulum. And there'll be a podcast episode with her coming out too, but just really you'll be amazed at what your body can tell you if you can slow down and listen. Yeah. Before we're done, tell us what you have going on your coaching program that you're launching and where people can get.

Alyssa:

In touch with you. Yeah, so I'm most active on my Instagram, and I love being on there. Slide into my DMs. We'll have a great conversation. I have a coaching program. It's called the Empowered Body Collective. And this is my baby. This is something that I am so excited to launch and offer.

Alyssa:

And it's really just a safe space for women to come in community with each other and have these hard conversations and allow themselves to be vulnerable and to heal deeply and to have a better relationship with their mind. To have more compassion with themselves, to really build that up, to be able to eat and enjoy food, restore trust in their bodies and restore trust in themselves. I talk a lot about authenticity, stepping into our authentic self and living in line with our values and using that as anchors to kind of keep us grounded in the crazy chaos of life.

Tricia:

I love it. And I just can't wait. I mean, you're going to help so many women in this program and it's always so much fun to talk to you. I feel like we could talk for hours about all of this. And so thank you so much for being here today and I really hope that your message resonates with someone who's listening. And we'll, of course, have all the links in the show notes for you to learn all the things and follow Alyssa as well as all the links to work with me as well. And I do want to hear from you. We both do.

Tricia:

Like, what did resonate? What are the hard conversations, even if you're not willing to have them yet? What are the hard conversations you're putting off message either one of us? Leave some comments below and I will talk to you all on the next episode. Alyssa, thank you so much.

Alyssa:

Thank you so much. Bye bye.

Tricia:

Thanks so much for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode, please go hit that follow button. Subscribe. Leave us a review. And if you're ready to change what mealtime looks like for you, breaking that cycle of chaos and having more fun in the kitchen, build some confidence and discover your love of cooking. Schedule your free dish with trish. Call at the link in the show notes. We'll chat a few minutes and you'll walk away with personalized strategies to take your mealtime routine from tired to inspired.

Tricia:

See you next time.