Mindful Eating: Embracing Body Positivity and Joyful Nutrition in Midlife Wellness Journeys

Are you tired of the never-ending cycle of diets and the pressure to conform to unrealistic body standards? Join us as we dive deep into the transformative journey of mindful eating with Heather Fusile, a nationally board-certified health and wellness coach. In this enlightening episode of Real Food Stories, host Heather Carey invites you to explore the intricate relationship between food, body image, and self-acceptance, especially for women navigating the complexities of midlife and menopause health.

Heather Fusile opens up about her personal struggles with weight management and disordered eating, shedding light on the societal pressures that often lead women to feel inadequate. Her journey reveals that true health isn’t just about fitting into a specific mold; it’s about embracing joy, balance, and the unique needs of our bodies. Through this conversation, we uncover the essence of mindful eating practices that empower women to cultivate healthier relationships with food, breaking free from the chains of diet culture and food fads.

As they discuss the importance of intentional work and mindfulness, Heather shares invaluable insights on how to navigate the emotional landscape of food beliefs and culture. This episode is packed with practical nutrition advice and healthy eating tips that resonate with anyone looking to improve their wellness journey. Whether you’re facing hormonal changes, exploring the Mediterranean diet, or simply seeking to nourish your body with real food, this episode offers a wealth of knowledge.

Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the seven pillars of abundance and how they can apply these principles to their personal food journeys. Heather and Heather discuss the impact of societal expectations on women, particularly during the transition into their 40s and 50s, and how self-compassion plays a crucial role in overcoming food confusion and embracing body positivity.

Throughout the episode, you’ll find empowering conversations about the myths surrounding weight loss and the importance of cooking for wellness. From meal planning to cooking techniques, this episode is a treasure trove of culinary nutrition insights that will inspire you to make healthier lifestyle choices without guilt. Join us as we celebrate the beauty of vulnerability and personal growth, reminding you that your journey to wellness is uniquely yours.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from Heather Fusile’s personal food stories and expert advice on mindful eating, emotional eating, and sustainable living. Tune in to Real Food Stories and discover how to empower your menopause journey, nourish your body, and embrace the joy of eating!

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Hang out with Heather on IG @greenpalettekitchen or on FB HERE.

Let’s Talk!
Whether you are looking for 1-1 nutrition coaching or kitchen coaching let’s have a chat. Click HERE to reach out to Heather.

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Transcript:

Speaker #0
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. And if you are just tuning in with me for the very first time, it’s so nice to meet you. And I’m really glad you’re here with me today. I am your host, Heather Carey, nutritionist, chef, mom, and a woman who has been around the block with food. I want to open up about real food in relation to health, weight, and our bodies so you can make peace with what you eat. Hey everybody and welcome back to the Real Food Stories podcast. Today I am with Heather Fusile and Heather is a nationally board certified health and wellness coach who holds credentials as a wellness coach, certified tobacco treatment specialist, certified running coach. She is an author, a trainer, and employee well-being consultant. Heather helps clients achieve a range of goals including weight reduction and management, stress management, life balance and tapping into the incredible power of visioning, proper goal setting and achieving progress, not perfection. But before all of her coaching certifications and help with people, Heather had her own personal story of experiencing overweight, being undernourished, stressed out and fed up. She felt like she did everything right, but could never achieve her fitness goals. And I imagine through some exploration, Heather, you changed the way that you approached your wellness and in turn lost weight, gained energy, balanced your life and even quit your job so you could help coach others to do the same thing. Thanks again for being on the show today. I want to hear more about your. personal story with weight and stress that got you into coaching other people to lose weight with a focus on, I believe, on mindfulness and mindset. That’s really what I am particularly interested in. So why don’t we just jump in and tell me a little bit about your story?

Speaker #1
Well, thanks. It’s great to be here. And in hearing that portion of my story through in your voice is really interesting because I… feel like, you know, nobody’s story is a straight line, you know, and I think when we sum it up into a couple of paragraphs, it sounds like, oh, well, and I just did this. And then I just did that. And then poof, everything was better. And we all know there’s a lot more to the story than that. But yeah, I mean, when I was so frustrated, felt like I was doing all the right things, and really had this vision of… of really being super fit. That was my goal. I’ve always been fascinated by the human body and the potential that we have, especially in sports and athletics, like watching the Olympics and seeing the gymnasts and what they can do with dedication and work. I really admired that, And I wanted to emulate that. I felt like I was working really, really, really hard and doing all of the quote, right things. And it just wasn’t happening for me. And that was difficult for me to accept that that might not be part of what my body was going to do. And so I, I reinterpreted what health and fitness meant and redefined it. And then it became much more of a joyful journey. when I was working with myself rather than trying to force myself into a category that I don’t know I was ever meant to be in.

Speaker #0
So you said that you’re doing all of the right things or you want, you know, you wanted to do all the right things. What were, what were those things that you were trying to emulate?

Speaker #1
This is back in the day. So let’s go all the way back to Denise Austin. Do you remember Denise Austin?

Speaker #0
Of course I remember Denise Austin.

Speaker #1
She’s such an inspiration and she was an inspiration to me then and still is now, but I would get up and I would, um, I would do my Denise Austin workout. And then I, um, at the end, she would always make a smoothie in her Hamilton beach, um, blender. So I would make a smoothie and then I would follow all of the rules about don’t eat anything white. Don’t eat anything. carbs, which for in my mindset, that meant starches and bread. You know, always whatever diet promised was going to. helped me burn fat. Thinking back, I didn’t have any fat to burn, but my mindset was that I need to achieve this ideal that I couldn’t really conceptualize other than I knew it was different from how I was. And so a lot of that process was chasing, trying to fit into the mold of what the media portrayed. as fitness. I remember the first time I read an article in a magazine about Gabrielle Reese. Do you remember the volleyball player, Gabrielle Reese? Yeah,

Speaker #0
of course.

Speaker #1
Gorgeous, fit, strong woman. I saw her picture and I thought, that’s what I want to be like. I want to be like Gabrielle Reese. And in her little write-up, it had her her kind of her health stats and her weight was like 165 pounds. I could not figure out how that could possibly be because she was so fit. And I thought, how could that possibly be? And that’s when I started putting the pieces together. It was one of the first times I started to think outside of that kind of stereotypical image of what fitness was and realize. There’s more to this than the very limited worldview that I’ve been operating in. It’s very confusing.

Speaker #0
I mean, diets, food. Yeah, it’s all confusing, especially when you’re a woman in the 80s, the 90s. Right. I mean, we’re just inundated with diets and ways to eat and standards for. body image and what bodies look like. And then there’s Gabrielle Reese, who’s 165 pounds. What? That doesn’t make sense. You know, that’s but and she was, you know, really fit and athletic. And it’s I couldn’t understand how you’d want to emulate that, you know, that that type of person. But I’m curious to just go back in your story a little bit before that, maybe when you were younger. How did this, you know, this want or desire to. just be really fit or like a Gabrielle Reese or, you know, I mean, that doesn’t happen to everybody, right? I mean, there’s pro athletes for a reason, right? Because they are just maybe genetically predisposed.

Speaker #1
Yes. That make them athletic. And yeah, people have different body types. Some are than others.

Speaker #0
I mean, supermodels, right? These super athletes, like bodies that we will most of us will never aspire to. Do you have a story back then that got you into that mindset?

Speaker #1
The earliest that I can remember starting to become really focused on that area of achievement was, gosh, probably in elementary school. I was never athletic or sporty, but I was intrigued by the idea of being athletic. and really being able to do those types of things. And I remember like the 1984 Olympics. And that’s when I think Mary Lou Retton and gymnastics started to be something that I was into. And I was just absolutely fascinated by it. And I wanted to be that type of a person who could do those types of things. And I think I always knew that the level of work that it would take to get to that point was just not really going to happen for me. Like I wasn’t there. It wasn’t that much of an obsession. But I still had that seed planted that I could be like that. But unfortunately for me, it didn’t go to a healthy place. It went to a place that was kind of like it started to… to become more and more prevalent in my thought processes to the point where I started, I, I, I’m not somebody who has a lot of limiting thoughts to begin with. I have a pretty big interpretation of what I’m able to achieve. And so it did feel very achievable that if I just keep working and I just keep, you know, following these rules, then I’ll be like Mary Lou Retton. too. And I’ll be super fit and strong and I can do all of those things as well.

Speaker #0
Yeah, I understand that. I remember feeling too, I was not, I was not that athletic growing up. And, and so I. And I didn’t, I was, I was on and off diets, you know, for like half my life, but I didn’t ever want to be like a waif, you know, like model thin like that, that was, but I wanted to be in shape, you know, or like whatever, what I’m trying to remember what we used to call it back then. I guess it was like in shape or strong or, you know, you know,

Speaker #1
more like we would probably And I think that when it comes to… You know, these types of disordered eating patterns and thought processes, it’s hard to pin down because it’s just part of you. My brain always thought that way. And I don’t really remember ever thinking otherwise. I just had a brain that automatically went to what’s the ideal? What’s the pinnacle? Am I at that point now? then how do I get there in the categories that I was interested in? And I don’t know whether other people who have similar issues that I have share that experience, but that’s just how my brain works.

Speaker #0
So you mentioned disordered eating. What type of eating issues do you feel like were coming up for you?

Speaker #1
For me, I was very much in a restrictive eating pattern that would backfire into overeating. And so I was always about control, always trying to meet an ideal that in my mind was always going to be thinner than I was. And I was very aware of anorexia and I did not want to develop anorexia. But I wasn’t as aware of other types of eating disorders. And when I look back now, I realize that I was definitely in an eating disorder pattern. But we didn’t have names for binge eating disorder back then. And so for me, it was, you know, feeling like, oh, I can’t control myself or, you know, I just have an addiction to food or, you know, some other type of rationalization when really, when you look back on it, I had binge eating disorder. And so it was a constant battle of trying to keep myself in control and then being out of control. And, and I had to learn how to be comfortable in the middle, which for somebody who is, is a high driven, achieving person is really, really hard to do.

Speaker #0
Yeah. Especially with binge eating disorder. I mean, you’re right. You have this out of control and control and, and wanting to really hold onto that control. Was this a decades long. challenge that you had? Did this go into your 20s? Did it?

Speaker #1
Yeah, I mean, I kind of feel like it’s always been part of my life. And even now at, you know, my late 40s, I’m experiencing a different version of it. You know, I think, you know, through some, you know, intentional work and lots of lots of work, you know, just lots of hard work to change my mindset. really partner up with myself, understand my tendencies and patterns, understand my kind of my personal psychology and working hard to create a different type of a framework for myself. I felt really, really good for a long time and probably like 15 years felt really, really good. And then And just… Just somewhat recently, really in my 40s, around the time that, you know, everything starts to shift, I started noticing that some of those thoughts were bubbling up again. Now that I have the skills and the awareness to shift my mindset, it’s a much easier process. But I honestly feel like that’s the type of thing that’s with you forever. You know, it’s always part of your thought process and you have to, you have to check it and you have to be aware. And when it shows up, just, you know, deal with, with it in the moment.

Speaker #0
Yeah. I understand that. I mean, I grew up a very emotional eater. You know, I definitely ate in reaction to big, scary things going on in my life. So it’s something that, yeah, really doesn’t, I think ever go away fully. It’s not, it doesn’t. dominate my life now and I have tools to help me like mindfulness and mindset and things like that but it’s yeah it’s something that almost you have to practice daily. So you said that, you know, you did a lot of intentional work. Talk to me more a little bit about that. What is the definition of intentional work to you?

Speaker #1
The definition of intentional work to me is seeking out resources that are going to help me get to a different place. I think sometimes people will you attach themselves to diets, or I’m going to follow this program, or this is going to be finally the one that, that works for me. And they don’t really have an end result. I wanted to be living in harmony with myself, I really wanted to, to be able to enjoy, gosh, it sounds weird to say enjoy life, because I’ve always enjoyed life. But I really wanted to just get to a place of harmony and get to a place of balance. So I worked with a counselor and that was really helpful just to have somebody to teach me some skills and help me to change my mindset and gain different perspective. And then I practiced, and really just worked hard to reframe my relationship with food, be really honest with myself. And talking about it, you know, talking about having an eating disorder is not the easiest thing to do, especially as an adult, because I think people really think of that as being a teenage thing, but it’s not. And I know that there are a lot of other women who are in my shoes. And I know that firsthand because I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of people in my 15 plus year. coaching career who have told me similar stories to mine. But not very many people really talk openly about what it’s like to have this experience and to not feel like it’s some type of a shame isn’t the right word, but shortcoming. It’s not. It’s just part of psychology. It’s just a brain thing. And when you can look at it that way, it becomes a lot easier to be intentional about creating a different path and then choosing that path every day. And, you know, kind of knowing that it might be scary, it might be weird, you know, might not always be very well lit, but it is the path to stay on.

Speaker #0
Yes, I think practicing every single day. Not as in I have to do this again today is another 24 hours and I have to get it. But it just it I think when you hook into mindful eating, you know, like have it. It’s just something that kind of runs in the background. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. But like for me, that’s how it’s just, you know, like I’m just I’m constantly just in touch with my hunger, my physical hunger, my emotional hunger. am I doing this because I’m having a bad day or am I genuinely hungry? And if I’m hungry, I’m going to honor that hunger and eat. But I wanted to mention something too, just go back to something that you said that, you know, you got into your 40s. So like, you know, you had a number of years where like things were sort of settled and then you got into your 40s and things started coming back up. And I think that’s such a great point. And And something I agree with, I want to keep that conversation open more and really be talking about this more because I do think that a lot of women have disordered eating right in their 20s or teens and stuff. And then it might go, maybe have learned to manage or it goes dormant a little bit or you have kids now and your focus is, you know, out there. And then by their 40s, the perimenopause, menopause, we are going through such an incredible change in our bodies and women are gaining weight in, or either you’re gaining weight or your weight’s distributing and you’re, you know, you have, you know, maybe more weight in your belly and, and it’s really confusing because now you are feeling out of control again, you know, of your. body of, I just, I mean, I, I, so many of my clients say, I just look at food and I gain weight. I mean, that’s like the number one thing that I hear. So. It’s, it’s really, yeah. And I think that it’s, it’s like a recipe for just all the, you know, eating issues kind of coming up to the surface again.

Speaker #1
For sure. For sure. That’s what it was for me. And I just had to laugh because when I recognized what it was, I thought, oh my gosh, we’re here again. And part of my reaction was, gosh, it really is still about control because when your body starts changing with no… participation on your part, that is very frustrating. And, and then, you know, you want to be this enlightened person who’s like, Oh, it’s fine. This I’m just aging. This is the way my body ages. And I think like 75% of me is there. But there’s always that, that that part that’s always been there. That’s like, this can’t happen. Fix it. But I think that the motivation is different. When I was younger, the motivation was the size of my body. Now the motivation is my personal well-being. I’m not as hung up on the size of my body as I used to be, but I am completely committed to my personal mental and emotional well-being. And I just don’t want to go back to that way of life of… all the circular thinking and the second guessing and the self-doubting, the amount of energy that’s wasted thinking about food, I’m just not willing to do that anymore. And so when I started noticing, oh my gosh, we’re here again, I do not want to deal with this. It wasn’t because I was necessarily afraid to get fat in air quotes, but that I just don’t have patience for it anymore.

Speaker #0
I know because it’s it’s you realize that it’s exhausting to constantly be obsessing about a couple of pounds or what you’re eating next or good foods versus bad foods. And it really is. It’s draining. I know we’re at an age where you feel like I’m done with that. You know, like I’m I’m over that. But we have got social media to contend with. then I mean It’s just, it’s out of control on social media. The ads targeted towards women in perimenopause and menopause and how we have to lose weight and like, you have to get rid of your belly fat. And it’s just, we are at a very unfair advantage, you know, like just a big disadvantage with just as women in our 40s and 50s. Well,

Speaker #1
and that’s part of the intentionality that I bring now. of I hide those ads. I mean, I see they, as soon as, you know, our phones are always listening. So probably after this, I’ll start getting all kinds of stuff because as soon as I start seeing those ads about perimenopause or menopause weight gain, and here’s what the solution I hide, hide, hide, hide, hide, because I know that if I even let that into my airspace, that it’s just going to be mental clutter for me. But that’s a proactive thing that we have to be intentional about, you know, curating our own media diet of what we let in.

Speaker #0
That’s a great point. Yeah, no, I like that. I usually, I know what you mean. I mean, just to like delete those ads. I know we have control over that. I usually just keep them going sometimes because I just, I feel like it’s almost my job sometimes. So I’m just curious to see what’s out there. And I, and you know, once you click on one. I agree with you. We’ll be talking when we’re done with this conversation. My phone will probably be blowing up with ads.

Speaker #1
I look up a lot with like I will look up the different products or programs and read the reviews that are, you know, from credible sources because clients ask me a lot. Well, what do you think about this and what do you think about that? And I want to have an informed and fair answer for them. Um, but you know, I think that we, I personally have my limits and my boundaries of like, how much am I willing to entertain that in my space?

Speaker #0
Exactly. Yeah. Oh no, I’m not, I’m not in there looking like, should I try that? It’s, it has nothing to do with that. It’s just that I want to know, I want to be informed when people come to me and say, have you heard about that diet? I just want to know, but it’s.

Speaker #1
But that there’s still that voice that’s like, oh, you should do that. I was like, no, we are not doing that anymore.

Speaker #0
Exactly. Exactly. No, it’s all very alluring. It is because when you are vulnerable. And feeling that loss of control and you’ve got ads coming at you and saying, I got the solution. It’s it is very it can be very alluring. So I understand that. So with your work now with your clients, you know, you said, you know, and I really like this, you know, like intentional work. What are some of the top things you do to work with your. It sounds like they are similar to you. Like maybe they’ve come to you for weight or they feel out of control with their eating or some disordered eating.

Speaker #1
They’re in a mix. I think that right now, a lot of my clients are in the same category that I am of. I’ve had disorder eating patterns for a lot of my life. I might not have recognized it or maybe I did. And, you know, either it’s back or I’m still there. And I just want peace of mind. I want to heal my relationship with food. And I totally get that. And then I also have clients who really when it comes down to is priority management, you know, and identifying priorities, identifying values, you know, where are your boundaries and deal breakers in life? And are you living according to that? And many times if they’ve made to me, it’s because they’re not. and they’re in such a place of… stress and unhappiness over it that they want to reconnect. And so it starts with identifying what is your life about? You know, what are you, what are you doing here? What do you want to be doing with your life? And doing a gap analysis, how close, how close is the life you’re living in now to the one that you would like to be in? How do we get those two things to be the same? And, you know, just not. quickly, but identifying where the gaps and then how can we start to bridge those gaps is as in as uninvasively as possible without changing very much of the life that you’re already comfortable in that where most things are working fine. In other words, I don’t want to flip somebody’s life upside down, hand them something and say, here’s your new life, do this, because that’s diet mentality. That’s diet for your life. But rather helping people to identify where are the gaps? How can I gently build a bridge over that gap so that I am more in line with my values and my priorities in life, whether that is related to your health or your family or your career or your general well-being.

Speaker #0
Yeah, that sounds like a nice action step. I mean, just envisioning the bridge, you know, to fill in like the gaps rather than, you know, like get into the water and swim with the sharks, you know, which is like the diets, you know, try this new plan, try this other desperation diet. And we know this does not work. If women, you know, around like this mid-lifetime perimenopause, menopause just really honestly feel stuck, which many of them do. I see them myself. What’s the first big thing you would do with them?

Speaker #1
I would want to know what else, what they would like instead. You know, what would unstuck feel like? What would you be doing if you weren’t stuck? And, you know, I guess that’s kind of a different version of the gap analysis idea, you know, of, well, what would be, what would be better than this? And really name it, like, let’s get specific so that you know whether or not you’re successful. So I want to be spending my time doing these things. I want to stop feeling this way. I don’t want this to be a burden or a challenge anymore. And then we can start getting some ideas because until we know really what’s the goal, how do you want to be living? Then we’re just spitballing ideas. You can do that with a friend.

Speaker #0
Right, right. Yeah. The word mindfulness. I mean, that whole theory around mindful every, you know, there’s even magazines of noticing grocery stores called like mindful living or think, you know, things like that. Tell me about your relationship with mindfulness and mindful eating, because for me, that was the ultimate game changer when I discovered what mindfulness around food.And this is years ago, but this was a really radical concept for me, because even though I went to graduate school for nutrition, clinical nutrition, they never taught us about mindfulness. They taught us about fat grams and carbs and how to count calories and BMIs and all and all of that. They never mentioned mindfulness, mindset, you know, compassion, any of these other like which I I can. consider like the foundation to weight loss or just healthy eating and living. And it’s the difference between being on a diet and being just eating for the rest of your life happily and at peace with your food. So what’s your take on mindful eating specifically, you know, just with food and weight and diets?

Speaker #1
For me, mindfulness was a game changer for me as well. And I think Thank you. The reason is because it put my hands back on the steering wheel and I was charting my own course driven by different motivators than I had been before. Whereas before it had been about follow these instructions, you do these things. This is the map to get to where you want to be. Everybody follows this map. If it doesn’t work for you, you must be doing it wrong. Whereas that was mindless. That was, I am thinking, I am not thinking at all. I am only following directions. And I am doing what it says, regardless of whether that feels authentic to me. Mindfulness is the complete opposite of that. You know, it’s deciding where you want to go and having the, I’d say courage, but then also confidence that You don’t necessarily need a step-by-step instruction guide to get there, that you can start with one step forward and then decide what’s the next step and what’s the step after that. And you have the skills within yourself through all of your life experiences, plus things you haven’t even tapped into yet to be able to make that decision for yourself. And so it puts you in the driver’s seat to where even though we’re not in control of the circumstances of our life. we’re always in the position to be in charge. And I think that is a really powerful place to be at any stage of your life because we have so much noise around us telling us what we should be doing or opportunities to compare ourselves to what other people are doing. And I think mindfulness really just gives us the opportunity to acknowledge, notice that, interesting, and then make your own decision. something that’s informed from your own body wisdom and from what you’ve already determined you want out of life, not what you’ve been told you should want.

Speaker #0
Right. Yes. I mean, that takes the shoulds out of life because you are ultimately in charge of all the decisions you make around food. And yeah, and just to bring up what you said about mindless eating, which is total diet thinking. I mean, I. But those are diets, right? Step by step, do this, do that. Don’t eat this, eat that. Anyone could do that for 30 days. I mean, we can all suck it up and do that. But the game changer is being mindful because that’s what’s going to keep you going for the long term, right? To just always be checking in with yourself. What do I want today? Like, what do I want to eat? What am I in the mood for? What tastes good?

Speaker #1
And I still have clients that are working towards weight loss goals. And that’s totally fine. You can absolutely be working towards a weight loss goal using mindfulness because you’re going to be mindful of what your needs are for where you want to go with your body composition. If you’ve identified a goal and you know what the… logical action steps are for that outcome to happen, you’re still mindful of that and you’re still working towards that, but it’s at your direction, at your pace.

Speaker #0
Yes, exactly. Right. You have thought it through, you have made a decision and it’s all within you. And that’s, yeah. And that can bring a lot of peace, I think, around just making decisions about any… meal that you’re eating, you know, any food, any time of the day, you know, because sometimes when there’s rules that say you cannot eat past eight o’clock at night, you know, those are the society’s rules that we’re not supposed to be eating late, but you really craving. a cookie. And if you’re doing it with mindfulness, you are having a conversation with yourself and you really want that cookie. Have the cookie. I mean, that’s what I tell my clients all the time. You know, as long as you’re like, you’re not just going mindlessly into your kitchen, grabbing a dozen cookies and going in front of the TV with your phone and your computer in your lap. And, you know, you were really just giving it some well thought, you know, intention and attention.

Speaker #1
You know, it’s interesting because I think that, you know, we could use those same words about about binge eating. Plenty of people put intention and planning into a binge. They know what they’re going to get. They know what the setting is going to be. They know exactly how they’re going to set things up. And then they totally immerse themselves. in that experience. And I could see how somebody would say, oh, well, that’s very mindful. I am totally paying attention to this and I have made this choice. And that’s the key. You made that choice. And so, yeah, I mean, yeah, anything can be flipped and used kind of against you, I guess would be a way to say it. But ultimately, I mean, I think that what we want is for mindfulness to be used for the power to be used for good and that you’re really being true to yourself about what you really want out of life and is that truly the path that will get you to what you’ve decided that you want and that you’re committed to because

Speaker #0
I would argue that it’s probably not yeah I mean that’s a great point and to just reiterate right that’s something like a Binge. definitely take a lot of mindful planning and, and, and set up and everything. And that’s, could be confused with attention and intention. Yeah. And so I think that’s, that’s not where, right. I think if it’s in alignment with your goals, your vision for your life, then, then so be it, you know, and that’s, so that’s, yeah, that’s the mindfulness that I was talking about, but very good point to just bring that up. you know, because that’s true. Yeah. Anything can be mindful, I guess, alcohol, drugs, I mean, whatever. I guess you could do it with mindfulness. Yeah. But I mean, if it’s as long as it’s in alignment with your like the vision, the long term vision that you have for yourself. Good point. Heather, how can people find you and work with you? And do you have programs around mindful eating? And tell me more about how you work.

Speaker #1
I work in a variety of ways. The easiest way to find me is to just go on Google and type in Heather solves everything. That’s the name of my website. I have a podcast called Heather solves everything. And this current season is all about mindful eating. I also teach the, am I hungry, mindful eating class. I offer three cohorts a year. And if you go to Heather solves everything.com, then you can see what the dates are for those classes. And I also work with individual clients with one-to-one coaching. And that’s just such an honor and a privilege to be invited into somebody’s life to help them with some of their most personal and vulnerable elements of life. And I take that very seriously. So Heather Solves Everything is the place to find me. And I’m on all the stuff. And I love engaging with people who are curious about what they could do with their life. you And especially if they want to work with somebody who has been there and understands what they’re going through.

Speaker #0
Yes, absolutely. Well, I will put all of those links in the show notes so people can grab those after they are done listening. And I really appreciate you telling your story today and being here. I think this is really important to get our stories out so women especially do not feel like they are alone. So thank you so much.

Speaker #1
Thank you for providing the opportunity to share. I really enjoyed being here.

Speaker #0
And as always, if you loved this podcast, please consider gifting me with a five-star review. It is so helpful for me to get the word out on real eating, our real bodies, and real food stories. Thank you so much and have a great week. Bye for now.