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Turning It All Around
Episode 121st September 2022 • The Nutrition Edit • Jeannie Oliver Wellness, LLC
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If you’re a woman who’s been successful in nearly every area of life but your health is still a sticking point for you, you’re in the right place.

Do you wish that you had more energy and felt better in your own skin? Are you doing everything “right” but still not seeing the results that you want? You’re in good company. If the eat-less-exercise-more model actually worked, then everything would be a lot easier, but womens’ bodies are far more complex than that.

Today I’m sharing a little of my own story and how I overcame disordered eating, anxiety, insomnia, and chronic illness. If I could change my relationship with food and my body, you can too and I’m here to support you along the way! My relationship with my body shifted in my late 30s, after finally being diagnosed with a thyroid disorder and finding joy in making myself stronger. I became fascinated with finding out how to use food as medicine and enrolled in nutrition school shortly after. It’s my mission to help you feel better in your own skin, and empower you to take control of your health while avoiding common pitfalls along the way.

You deserve to have a healthy relationship with food and to actually enjoy what you eat. Exercise should be FUN, and something that works for you in whatever stage you’re at right now. The first step is deciding that you want more for yourself. 

Interested in working with Jeannie one on one? Schedule a 30-minute Coffee Talk here.

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Music credit: Funk’d Up by Reaktor Productions

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Transcripts

Jeannie Oliver:

Hello, and welcome to episode one of the nutrition edit podcast.

Jeannie Oliver:

I'm your host, Jeanie Oliver, and I'm a functional nutrition and lifestyle coach.

Jeannie Oliver:

And for the last 10 years, I've been helping busy professionals dial in

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their nutrition and fitness to cultivate healthy lifestyles that they love.

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Are you a woman who's been successful in nearly every area of your life,

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but you feel like your health is still a sticking point for you.

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Do you wish that you had more energy and you felt better in your own skin,

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so you could enjoy your life more, or maybe you feel like you're doing

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everything right when it comes to nutrition and exercise, but you just,

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aren't seeing the results that you want.

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If this is you, I am.

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So glad that you joined me today and you're not alone.

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Many of the women who come to me are struggling with things like

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sleep, chronic stress, gut health, hormonal issues, and excess weight.

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And what used to work for them is no longer moving the needle.

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So many of us have all tried the fad diets.

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We've counted, calories, counted macros.

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We try to eat less and exercise more.

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But while those approaches may have worked in the short term for

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us, the results didn't last and they certainly didn't teach us

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how to create a healthy lifestyle.

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That's actually sustainable long term.

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If the eat less exercise, more approach actually worked.

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It would make things a lot easier, but the body is not that simple.

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And women's bodies are far more complex than men's are.

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So we need to understand those differences and figure out what it works for us

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as individuals, instead of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

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, but there's so much noise out there, right?

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When it comes to nutrition and fitness, and it's hard to know what's actually

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legit and what's just nonsense.

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That's beautifully packaged up with good marketing.

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It's really easy to get overwhelmed by all the information or get

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discouraged after we try something and it doesn't work for us.

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And because of all the demands on our time and energy, it's often easier

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to give up on or put off our goals.

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If we have no guarantee of.

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And I totally understand this.

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I mean, life happens and we focus on different things during

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different chapters of our lives.

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For example, when we're young and we're building a career, it's easy to put work

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before our health, because we can still get away with eating like teenagers and

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going out every night on the weekends.

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And we kind of are trying to get ourselves established in our

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workplace or whatever we're doing.

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And then once we get married or start families, it's harder

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to prioritize our health.

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Now that we have children to keep alive and partners are

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aging parents to care for.

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So we put everyone else.

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Needs first and sacrifice our workouts and our nutrition to accommodate

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everyone else's needs and schedules.

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But the reality of this is that nobody benefits from that in the long term.

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If we end up losing our health, if this sounds familiar to you, I have been in

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your shoes and I'm here to tell you that you can overcome these things and start

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feeling great again and learn how to create a healthy lifestyle for yourself.

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And.

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Maybe you'll start feeling good again, or maybe it's actually the first time that

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you'll start feeling good in your life.

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And either way, it is never too late.

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Like now is the time to start, regardless of what place that you're at or what stage

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in your life that you're at right now.

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And while it's never too late to start taking good care of

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yourself, it's definitely easier to learn and maintain self care.

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If we started an earlier age, which is true of any skill, right?

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So younger people out there, if you're listening, just believe me.

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When I tell you that you.

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So glad that you did not put off learning how to care for your body

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and prioritize your wellbeing.

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Just start it now and know that you'll be really pleased later

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in life that you did that.

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you know, if any of this sounds familiar to you, you're in good company since

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this is the first episode I wanna share with you, just a little of my

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backstory and how I got into this.

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Because I'm not somebody that's on her high horse who has a list of

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degrees, but no real life experience.

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I have been in the trenches, so to speak.

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And I've struggled with many of the same things that you.

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From thyroid issues to chronic pain, depression, anxiety, I've had eating

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disorders, dealt with adult acne.

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Well into my late thirties.

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Um, I've been 50 pounds overweight.

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I've struggled with insomnia.

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You know, my own health issues have kind of run the gamut.

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Since I was a kid, I was given antibiotics, almost nonstop from birth

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all the way through my mid twenties.

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And I'm still working on healing.

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My gut as a result of that.

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I grew up in Southern California, which is a very body conscious culture.

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You probably know and I was a naturally thin kid, but I was still

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always worried that I was too fat.

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I started thinking that my thighs were too big at about age 13, and I remember

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drinking slim fast shakes in high school instead of eating real meals.

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Whenever I wanted to lose a few.

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I'm horrified at that thought now because I was five foot 10, and I only

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weighed about 125, maybe 130 pounds, but that was the culture at the time.

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And all the women I knew were constantly dieting.

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So the mindset was reinforced.

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I was also an athlete.

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I was running track and cross country, and we were pressured by our

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coaches to stay as lean as possible.

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and, you know, again, looking back, it's just kind of crazy to me because

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we were all pretty, pretty lean, healthy kids, and there was no reason

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that we should have been focused on.

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Or weight at the time, it was also the age of fat free, everything.

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Many of you will remember this nonsense and I was trying to be a

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vegetarian, but I had absolutely no clue how to do that in a healthful way.

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So it meant that I was eating mostly processed carbohydrates, and I

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was what I now refer to as a star.

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I shedder at the thought of all the like snack Wells and plain

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bagels and bowls of fat, free pasta and fat free candy that I ate.

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But, you know, during that time, that was what we were told was healthy.

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And I did not know any better.

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So.

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Fast forward to my early twenties and I had put on about 50 pounds.

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I was also regularly binging and purging.

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I was struggling with depression and insomnia and had a few of mysterious

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health issues going on that no one seemed hands have answers for me

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about, um, thankfully I did find a naturopathic doctor who diagnosed

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me with a thyroid disorder and as soon as I started treatment for

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that, I started to feel better.

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Shortly after I did an intensive outpatient treatment program

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for my eating disorder.

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And that was, I'm so grateful that I actually had access and was able

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to do that because everything did gradually start improving, but I still

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had a pretty negative body image.

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Um, I still was struggling with acne at that point.

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I had trouble sleeping and I just generally didn't feel that great.

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It wasn't until probably my late thirties.

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after trying all the fad diets at quick fixes without success.

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When I finally hit a breaking point, I remember standing in front of the mirror

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in my room and asking myself how much more of your life genie are you gonna waste

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feeling like crap and hating your body.

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And I had already spent good two decades, wishing I was Thinni prettier.

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You name it.

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And it was exhausting.

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I decided in that moment that I was sick of feeling disappointed in myself

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and that I was no longer willing to postpone my happiness until I reached

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a certain weight or a certain size.

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I just wanted to feel good in my own skin for once and start enjoying my.

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I still wasn't sleeping.

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Great.

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And during one of my sleepless nights, I saw an infomercial for a

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fitness program that looked like fun.

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So I actually bought it and committed to doing the entire 90 days and other

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than running track and cross country, when I was in high school, I had never

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stuck with working out consistently for more than a few days at a time.

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So it was a really big deal for.

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And after a few weeks of doing this, my energy and mood had improved a lot.

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And I started sleeping better, which was really huge for me

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for the first time in my life.

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I started feeling strong and my relationship with my body shifted it,

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it changed from not only worrying about losing weight, to wanting to get stronger.

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And I actually started appreciating what my body could do.

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It felt really empowering to.

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Just embrace, like feeling strong and seeing what my body could

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do for me instead of just being focused on, you know, all the

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imperfections and my looks only.

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And, you know, I did lose some body fat with that workout

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program, but it wasn't my focus.

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Instead of counting calories, I started eating to fuel my workouts

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and build muscle and the fat loss just ended up being a side benefit.

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Um, the more that I continued to learn, how to personalize my diet and workouts,

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the better I felt and the more healthy and kind my relationship with my body.

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and I really became fascinated by nutrition and the idea

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of using food as medicine.

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So a year or so later, I enrolled in nutrition school

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and I have never looked back.

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I absolutely love what I do.

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I feel really lucky and I am someone who loves to nerd out on information.

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And thankfully nutrition is something that's constantly changing.

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There's always new information out there.

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So it's nearly impossible to get bored.

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There's always something new to learn.

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You know, I also am really determined to take all of those challenges that I

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had in my life and turn them around into something that's good and beneficial.

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And I wanna use my experiences and my knowledge to help make your life easier.

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My goal here is to help you avoid the mistakes that I made, learn how

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to use food as medicine and start learning how to honor your body.

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And, you know, I share this journey with you because I want you to know that

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if I can overcome all the challenges that I have had, you can too, and

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know you don't have to feel crappy just because you're getting older.

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I'm in my forties now.

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And I feel, and look better in many ways than I did in my twenties and thirties.

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And I can't tell you how often I hear clients say.

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After, you know, working with me for a little while and making some changes to

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their food and their fitness that they had forgotten what it was like to feel good.

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And honestly, people like you deserve to have a healthy relationship with food.

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You deserve to actually enjoy what you eat and.

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Stop moralizing.

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You know, I was good.

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I was bad.

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All of that nonsense, you know, feeling deprived all the time or eating, you

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know, bland rabbit food that, that you don't enjoy at every meal, you can have

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more energy in your thirties, forties, or fifties than you did in your twenties.

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And you can sleep well at.

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Feel more productive and focused during the day.

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And you may even find that you feel a lot less stressed once you replace the foods

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that are stressing your body out with the ones that nourish and nurture you.

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And when it comes to movement and exercise, this should be fun.

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A hundred percent.

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You should be having fun with exercise, getting more in tune with your body

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and learning what works best for you in whatever stage you're at right now.

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It's really about finding something that you enjoy and that gives you

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joy and that you wanna stick with.

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And that works for you.

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It's not about forcing yourself to do what you think should be doing.

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So many people tell me, oh, I, I should start running.

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I really feel like I should run, but they hate running.

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Like, don't do that.

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Don't force yourself to do something that you hate.

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You'll just create a negative relationship with exercise and

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you're not gonna wanna do it.

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So, but the first step that we have to take is really deciding

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that you want something more for.

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You have to get to the point that you decide that your wellbeing is worth making

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some changes and be willing to unlearn all the bullshit, the society and the media

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and whatever those voices in your head.

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All those things that they've ground into your head all these years.

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It does take some work to unlearn that for sure.

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But you have to make the decision that, you know what it's worth it to

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me, it's worth it to put some effort in to make the change, change the

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narrative and start really caring for myself and honoring my body.

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My mission as a coach.

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And my goal for this podcast is to empower you by giving you the practical

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guidance, the tools, and the support that you need to better understand your body,

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learn how to advocate for your health and start feeling like your best self.

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I have some really great guests line up for you this season, and we're gonna

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talk about mindset, emotional healing, um, we'll touch on health trends and.

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Fads, things like that.

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We'll talk about metabolic health and even funk you're gonna learn some

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practical and surprising sometimes even quick ways to improve your physical and

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mental health and your overall wellbeing.

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So be sure to subscribe.

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So you don't miss anything anyway, that is all I've got for you today, but we have

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so much fun coming up this season, and I'm super excited to have you with me.

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So thanks for joining me today.

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And if you enjoyed the show, please take a second to leave me a review and share

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it with anyone else who might enjoy it.

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All right.

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