Episode 32: Making Peace With Your Body

Body peace and food freedom. Sounds really good, doesn’t it? Today we are sitting in circle with Lisa Dahl - an intuitive eating and health coach. She has taken her journey with food and body image and turned it into her passion to support others to break free from diet mentality and find the practice of kindness on their journey of self-love. 

This journey, as we will hear today, relates to getting to know ourselves, blocking out the noise and trusting our intuition - key characteristics of change-makers.  This is also a journey of self-love - and when we love and accept ourselves more, when we heal stories that remove us from living life fully, we get to share more loving energy with the world. 

What’s in this episode for you:

• A warning message to hear before you sign up for any spring Beach Body program

• The ten principles of intuitive eating that restore your natural relationship with food

• How satisfaction plays into food freedom and why it’s important on this journey

• Lisa’s powerful story about healing intergenerational food stories starting with your kids

• A special message for anyone struggling with ongoing dieting patterns

Tools for Change

Lisa has gifted you with a beautiful free resource:

5-Day Mindful Eating Experience

Learn more about Lisa’s program Body Peace & Food Freedom here.

Poem

Yung Pueblo - Inward

As her love grew, her ability to feel the

unseen and listen to the wisdom of the

eternal strengthened. the walk on the path

to freedom had changed her; though she

still experienced times of difficult release,

the feeling of unity remained ever present

in her body. now that she lived her life in

the grassy field between mortality and the

infinite, she could feel that the space in

her heart was the same as the heart of

the earth and the heart of the universe.

Who’s in circle with us:

Lisa Dahl Wellness delivers a premier Intuitive Eating program called Body Peace & Food Freedom. As a certified Intuitive Eating and Body Image Health Coach, Lisa uses her skills to guide women through the process of dismantling diet culture, helping them find food freedom and make peace with their bodies.

Lisa teaches her clients to listen, trust, and respect their bodies. With her expertise, women will learn to cultivate sustainable lifelong practices for whole-body wellness. The results are clients who are empowered with the knowledge of how to be happy, healthy, and confident at any size.

Lisa has certifications in Intuitive Eating, Mindful Eating, health and wellness coaching, and personal training. She is a skilled group facilitator, with certifications from The Body Positive and Gratefulness.org. Lisa has a coaching philosophy that teaches women how to ditch the diet and focus on progress, not perfection.

This is a conversation for any gender identity and any age so if you have someone in your life that you know struggles with cyclical dieting and body image, please share this episode with them. Welcome to Circle.

Connect with Lisa through, www.lisadahlwellness.com, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

Pick up the talking piece: 

What came up for you as you listened to this episode? I'd love to hear your experiences with any of the reflections and exercises. Send me an email at podcast@humconsulting.ca or leave a voicemail (click the voicemail button on the right).

Transcript: (Some words may not be accurately recorded. Please let us know if something seems off.)

[00:00:00] Ame-Lia: Change begins from within. As easy as it is to look outside of ourselves and want the world to change, the truth is, it never will if we remain the same. This podcast was created for change-makers like you who want more love and connection in your community. Today you are going to hear stories that will inspire you, and also challenge you to be the change. We are going to go deep, my friend, so take a deep breath and settle in. My name is Ame-Lia Tamburrini - Welcome to the Circle of Change.

Hi, friend. Body Peace & Food Freedom, hmm, that sounds good, doesn’t it? I know that I could use some of that and I think I’m not alone.

In this spring season when diet mentality is all the rage, we are going to dive into this topic that I know impacts millions of people.

I was just chatting with a friend the other day about how much energy I waste on negative body talk, wanting my body to be different, shape, size, or ruminating on what item to order on the menu. Oh, my goodness, it’s exhausting. And sometimes I ask myself, what would I do with all of that energy if I didn’t spend it on that?

This is why I was so excited to sit in circle with Lisa Dahl, an intuitive eating and health coach. She has taken her own journey with food and body image and turned it into her passion to support others to break free from a diet mentality and really find the practice of kindness on their own journey of self-love.

That sounded so amazing to me and I wanted to hear more and bring her wisdom to you.

Now, you might be wondering, oh, what does this have to do with being the change? Well, there are actually many reasons. This journey as we will hear today relates to getting to know ourselves and really blocking out the noise and trusting our intuition, a key characteristic of the change-maker.

This is also a journey of self-love and when we love and accept ourselves more, when we hear stories that remove us from living life fully and completely, we get to share more loving energy with the world, and that is powerful.

So, here’s what’s in this episode for you. We start with a warning message to hear before you sign up for any spring beach body program. Whoops! That was too late for me, but I hope you can hear it.

We get into the ten principles of intuitive eating that restore your natural relationship with food, how satisfaction plays into food freedom, and why it’s so important on this journey.

Lisa shares a really powerful story about healing intergenerational food stories starting with the conversations you’re having with your kids. And, there’s a special message she leaves us with for anyone struggling with ongoing dieting patterns. I know I needed to hear the message and I hope you do too or somebody that you love does.

So, let me introduce you to Lisa.

Lisa Dahl Wellness delivers a premiere intuitive eating program called Body Peace & Food Freedom. As a certified intuitive eating and body image health coach, Lisa uses her skills to guide women through the process of dismantling diet culture, helping them find food freedom and making peace with their bodies.

Lisa teaches her clients to listen, trust, and respect their bodies. With her expertise, women will learn to cultivate sustainable lifelong practices for the whole body wellness.

The results are clients who are empowered with the knowledge of how to be happy, healthy, and confident at any size.

Lisa has certifications in intuitive eating, mindful eating, health and wellness coaching and personal training. She is a skilled group facilitator with certifications from The Body Positive and Gratefulness.org.

Lisa has a coaching philosophy that teaches women how to ditch the diet and focus on progress, not perfection.

Now, this is a conversation for any gender identity and any age. So, if you do have somebody in your life that you know struggles with this cyclical dieting and body image, please share this episode with them.

Welcome to Circle.

Lisa, it’s so great to have you here and circle with us. Thanks for being here.

LD: Thank you for having me.

[0:05:00]                     

I’m excited to dig into our conversation. We’ve been talking about this for a while.

AT: Yeah. Me too. [laughs]

I love that we share a love of food and wellness and also a desire to get our messages out there. We – I think we both spoke at the Voices of Women Summit just his past month?

LD: We did. It was a great experience and I’m always so grateful to have a platform to be able to share my voice and to be able to support women and let them know that they do have choices on how they can have a relationship with food and their body.

AT: Hmm. Yeah. It’s so, so important. I, personally am really eager for this conversation. As a former competitive athlete and a kid who heard a lot of messages about the importance of looking good, I am uncovering more and more of my own relationship with food and body image on this journey of getting to know myself.         So, from that level, I’m really curious about what we will uncover today.

And, I also know that I am not alone obviously in this journey. And my hope is that the person listening right now gains the insight that they need to let go of something they might be holding onto or that one nugget that will help them find a bit more freedom to celebrate their beautiful selves.

LD: It takes – it’s – and you hit on so many points in that, you know, our stories, you know, this is what it was like when I was growing up. These are the things that I’m discovering and it’s about how do we unpack those bags and not about what you did, what’s happened to you who helped pack those bags and now, you have the opportunity to change your – your story.

And it doesn’t have to stay in the past, that you get to rewrite or create how you want to have that relationship. And if you are listening to this and you have a challenging body story, you are not alone – at all. And the more that we talk about it, my wish is the less guilt and shame that goes along with the conversation.

AT: Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Thank you.

Well, with that, I want to open us up, open the circle up with a poem. And this is our opportunity to really settle in, to get present, to transition from whatever it is we are doing to this important conversation right now.

So, I encourage you the listener and, Lisa, feel free to join in if you want to close your eyes, feel free. But, take a deep breath in through your nose and let it all out. Take one more deep breath in and invite yourself to be open to what it is you are here to receive today in this divine conversation.

I’m going to read us a poem, feel free to keep your eyes closed if you would like. This poem is by Yung Pueblo from his book, Inward.

As her love grew, her ability to feel the unseen and listen to the wisdom of the eternal strengthened. The walk on the path to freedom had changed her. Though she still experienced times of difficult release, the feeling of unity remained ever present in her body. Now that she lived her life in the grassy field between mortality and the infinite, she could feel that the space in her heart was the same as the heart of the earth and the heart of the universe.

I love this poem. When I came across it, it reminded me of the work that you’re up to because I do feel for my outside perspective that you’re really helping us people tap into that universal wisdom that is always there guiding us, that we have in so many ways been conditioned to ignore.

LD: Some of the words remind me because the name of my – part of my work is to help women find body peace and food freedom. And, the words when I, you know, relating to that freedom finding space and that’s what it’s about is finding your space, your path, learning to be understand who you are and what your relationship to things are.

[0:09:54]                     

And, you know, with me, it’s about your body and food. And it really pertains to everything to be able to connect yourself to whatever it is that you value or to discover your values and what is important to you.

AT: Yeah. Oh, I love the holistic nature of what you’re speaking of right now and the work you do.

Speaking of holistic, I would love for the listener to get to know you a little bit more. I always start my podcast with who are you, that question. And, I think this journey of getting to know ourselves is so profound and I know that you have been doing a lot of this work over your own lifetime.

So, in this moment, in this time right now, who are you, Lisa?

LD: So, it’s funny is that I would normally just start with, you know, what I do for – for, you know, for work would actually came to mind with, you know, I am a mom. I am a partner with an amazing man, who I have been with for eleven years. I have a 15-month old puppy, who has become our new baby and has brought us so much joy, because my kids are grown. I have a 29-year old daughter and a 25-year old son.

 And, my partner and I do not have kids together and our puppy, Evie, has been our baby. And it has been so amazing to share her and create our community there. As well as, you know, my kids are part of it, but this one is just is ours and everyone else comes in from the outside.

 Who I am in my day job is I am an intuitive eating and body image health coach. And I work with women to help them break free from the shackles of dieting, diet culture, and to help them learn how to undiet their life.

So, it’s really learning how to break away from those diet rules and to learn that you can be the expert on yourself and that you have the ability to learn to listen, trust, and respect your body and that you can be happy, healthy, and confident at any size.

So, I work as hundred percent weight-inclusive, no weighing of food, no weighing of bodies, so you cannot fail this program. So, if you are somebody who’s listening saying, well, I’ve tried this program, I’ve done this, I’ve done that, you don’t – you cannot fail this. It is about a practice. And it is learning to be kind to yourself and really being open to discovering your relationship to food and body and to heal, that your body isn’t a project that needs to be fixed. You are not broken.

So, I, you know, my message is really about I help women heal their relationship to food and body through the practice of intuitive and mindful eating.

AT: That is beautiful. Especially, I love this message at this time of year. We were speaking a little bit before we started recording about spring and all the messaging that is so prevalent right now in terms of, yeah, getting our bodies ready for the summer season or whatever that happens to look like. I think you – how did you word it actually?

LD: It is – I don’t know that I can say it verbatim, but, you know, the spring diet season is coming. It is reliving New Year’s Day all over again with the resolution. And the diet industry, you know, health coaches, everybody’s coming at you telling you how to get your beach body, how to do this in, you know, six weeks, twelve weeks, there is still time.

And it doesn’t have to be this way. You know, it’s like they’re preying on your insecurities. They are preying on the fact that you continue to have the same body that you have year after year because our bodies aren’t projects. And when we get off of that diet roller coaster, we learn to have a better relationship to food in our body and it’s not about restriction depravation and rules. It is about learning to feed and nourish yourself that makes you feel good at that moment in time.

So, I’m starting to see trends, I’m looking around and I’m just seeing all those ads that are coming at you and telling you that your body is not good enough and you are not enough. I’m here to tell you that whatever body you are in, you are enough. And that you need to be healed and not fixed.

AT: I love that. And I’m having this moment of regret, I don’t know, but literally just this morning I signed up for eight-week program that has got all about that. And I was, ah, I should have stopped and said, wait, I’m about to have a really insightful conversation with some of you might give me wisdom.

Anyways, I’m laughing at that because I just, yeah, went right – went right there and I know I am not alone. So, I would love to – to pull this back a little bit more and learn more about your own journey in terms of what has the path been for you to here to get here? Why are you doing this work?

[0:14:58]

LD: It’s something that I am super passionate about. And, if somebody had told me five years ago that I would be supporting women not to lose weight, I would have said, that’s not possible, that’s not me, no way no how.

So, my back story is that my challenging relationship with my body started when I was in third grade.  I was told at gym class that I needed to go to special gym because I couldn’t walk on the balance beam.

I, then, was, you know, the kid who had no coordination. I was the kid who was picked last for every team. I was now the kid who wanted to avoid gym at all cost. It just ruined my love of freedom and play.

And then, when I was in freshman in high school, we were all lined up and everybody was being weighed and measured and thinking, oh, you know, I hope that skipped breakfast was enough to, you know, change that number on the scale and I’m looking at a sea of in my opinion, you know, pixie thin girls who had “better” bodies than I did.

And by the time I was, you know, a freshman in high school, I was already a member of weightwatchers. So, I grew up with weightwatchers Miss America pageant and Snack Well’s.

And everybody’s body was based on comparison. And I continue that diet cycle for up until three and a half years ago, where highs and lows, I could stick with my lows better than most people. What keep me – kept me stuck for a long time is, you know, people says, “Oh, you know, it’s so good to see you. You look amazing. How much weight did you lose?”

Translated to, ooh, I can’t eat in front of this person, make not allow to eat, not giving myself permission to eat because, you know, the dirty little secret is that you feel better than somebody if you have a “smaller, thinner”,  in our world a better body.

And in the end, it’s really not true. Like, you know, all of these is those messages that I receive that made me think that I was true. So, if I couldn’t be the best at something else, I could stay small, until I couldn’t. And then, you go into hiding and you have your last suppers and you eat and you binge and then, you start all over again.

And, when I started to go into practice I’m a former caterer and I, when I shifted careers, I went back to school for a year and I thought, oh, I’ll be a weight loss coach. And what I really discovered is that when I started to work with clients, I was really feeling the stress of weighing my body because, you know, how could I be in a larger body if I’m helping women lose weight, I really now have to make sure that I stay small.

And I started to feel the stress of the clients across from me on, you know, “share their progress” day. They would be making amazing strides in their actions in their behaviors, only to feel diminished and defeated by a number on the scale.

So, I started to naturally take that off the table. I didn’t quite know what to do with it and I took it off the table. And because of my desire to be the best coach that I could be, I am always reading taking classes and I discovered a community called, Health in Every Size. And that started to debunk all of the things that I thought to be true.

What do you mean you can be in a larger body and still be healthy? What do you mean that that number on the scale doesn’t tell me if I’m good or if I’m bad?

That led me to the practice of intuitive eating, which led me to the body positive. The three of those things combined shifted my entire world and really began my healing journey with my disorder in eating. And I knew ethically and morally that I could no longer support anybody to lose weight, you know.

So, I tell my clients, you know, take the scale and throw it out the window. Please do not pass it on to somebody else because you’re passing on something that has such a negative thing to give. Destroy it. Make it go away.

So, it really has become my passion to help women and to really help women not only heal their relationship to understand that it’s up to us to break that cycle of the next generation, because when you have children or you’re a caregiver, unless you have healed your relationship to your body, you’re passing on your body stories and giving them the good food bad food, I’m good I’m bad, I’m worthy I’m not worthy. It’s up to us to start to break that cycle.

And it really – it’s so important to me because I have wasted so much time, money, tears on what my body looked like and missed experiences and lack of enjoyment on experiences because I was so in my head on, well, I’m not as thin as I used to be and, you know, what are they going to think and what am I going to look?

[0:19:58]                     

And, when I was dating and during my divorce, you know, men liked me because I had a small thin body and then, what? You’re still left with nothing because if you’re not healed in your head, you have, you know, it’s your – it’s your head in your heart that have value, not the vessel that we have landed in.

So, it’s been – it’s been an experience. And, you know, what I do now is all based on my personal and professional experience.

AT: Hmm. Thanks for sharing that story. I know that somebody listening is going to resonate strongly and share that journey and might be – be in it themselves right now in terms of where they are with preoccupation with food and body and needing to be a different way. So, thank you for that.

LD: And what’s interesting is I have been with my partner for eleven years and when we first, you know, he tells the story when we first started dating, he said, well, you know, you were so little I didn’t know – he’s like, I was worried about you. Because, I mean, I was on – I was borderline on crossing over that edge to an eating disorder.

And, you know, I’m in – I’m in a bigger body than I am now, I still have thin privilege. I’m still in a small body, but bigger than what I have been comfortable with for many years.

And I’ve been very fortunate that my community supports my body change. You know, it’s not easy every day, you know, it’s I’m no different than anybody else, I just know where to go to on how to make sure I don’t go down that rabbit hole, because I really believe to my core that I am much healthier mind, body, spirit than I was in my thinner smaller body.

AT: Yeah. I would love to get more into that in terms of the things that you go to. But, first, I want to hear more about this word, intuitive. Because intuition, it’s a lovely word and it’s very powerful word and it – I’m not sure people get it all the time. And so, what does that word mean? What does intuition mean to you?

LD: So, it’s a great question. And, you know, intuition is allowing yourself to believe that you are the expert. And with the practice of intuitive eating, it brings you to being the expert on yourself.

So, intuitive eating is based on ten principles. We’re not talking rules, we’re not talking restrictions, it’s guiding principles to help you heal. So, you’re not on again off again, it is about a practice.

And with practice, think about practicing the piano.  How many times do you make a mistake and you do a do over. Every eating experience, every opportunity, you do a do over. That’s it.

And the principles are all about learning how to listen, trust, and respect your body. So, the first principle is rejecting the diet mentality. And that’s really recognizing all the rhetoric that we have been taught to be true about dieting, diet culture, thinner bodies are better bodies.

It’s a social justice issue. How do we make all bodies, all colors, all nationalities, ethnicity, and, you know, I do not claim to be the expert in those fields and weight is definitely part of that component. Learning where and naming it, seeing it, you know when you go to the grocery store and you look at that magazine and somebody’s in a thinner body and this poor person is seeing the before and after picture and it’s horrible.

Noticing it, what is your social media feed look like? What are you looking at, what are you consuming?

With dieters, we ignore our hunger. With the practice of intuitive eating, it’s called honor your hunger. So, think about if you have a full bladder and you feel the pressure and you know you have to pee, you will go to any extent to go find a place to properly relieve yourself.

Think about noticing your hunger and honoring that and allowing yourself to eat. We need food to thrive. That is the bottom line. The only way that we can survive is to eat. How do we honor our hunger, so that we get out of that starvation?

Permission to eat, which is a hard thing especially when you have all those rules and regulations about the good food and the bad food, learning to give yourself permission to eat food.

Managing or challenging the food police, all the rhetoric that you hear in the back of your head about what you can eat, what you can’t eat. Like my biggest nemesis was the nutritional informant. Everything was in the name of healthism.  I could go to the grocery store, I ate extraordinary well. I’m a former cook, I mean, former caterer, I had the capacity to make anything that I really want to create.

[0:24:54]                     

I would go – you know, when I would go to the market, you know, granted I would just, you know, oh, just shop the outside. Well, sometimes, you still need to go in and out of the aisles and I would see food as labels. So many calories, this many macros, you know, proteins, carbs, fats. Oh, no, can’t have that, it has this ingredient. Black and white. And if I did bought – break it, there was a whole lot of guilt and mind drama that went with those foods.

When you’re a dieter, satisfaction never comes into the equation. And satisfaction isn’t just about the food. Who are you eating with? What are you eating? How does the food make you feel? What is your emotional state? What is your financial status? What is your relationship? How happy are you in your job?

Your whole life determines your satisfaction factor. One of the worst meals that I can remember is when I was in the middle of my divorce and my ex-husband wanted to – my soon-to-be ex-husband at the time wanted to go out to dinner and have this conversation and he picked this lovely restaurant with, you know, five-star reviews and great food. And we ordered this food, I don’t even know if I tasted anything. It was the worst meal I think I’ve ever had.

So satisfaction. Here is this beautiful meal with great-tasting wine and I didn’t enjoy any of it. So, that leads me into managing your emotions with kindness because if you are not understanding your relationship to what’s happening with your thoughts and your actions, you cannot find satisfaction.

Honoring your fullness. We eat while we’re multitasking. Imagine if all you did at a time was just to eat your food, that you weren’t on the phone, you weren’t looking at your phone, you weren’t working, computing, multitasking with all those things, driving. Imagine if all you did was eat your food and notice how your body shifted from being hungry, you know, or super hungry to hungry to full to over full, how did things taste, being present with your food.

The next principle is respecting your body, because when you respect your body, you are far more kinder to your body.

Movement. Feel the difference, which is different than working out and working out to a compensatory reaction to I ate this or shrinking your body or what is my BMI. Movement that makes you feel best.

One of my clients says – she’s really struggled with her purpose to move. And we finally discovered that she lives in this beautiful area and she loves to see the wildlife and the deer and the birds and to hear the sound especially in the spring.

And she decides, well, I’m going to go out and find my joy. She’s not going out for walks, she’s going to go find her joy and the movement comes with it because that’s the one that she’s going to go do over and over again.

And nutrition comes last. And the reason for that is because if you have food in, a lot of these principles are about getting you out of your head and into your body. So, we want to be cautious that when we start talking about nutrition, that we don’t start talking about 3 oz of chicken breast and 2 oz of this and making sure – we want to make sure – we really want to focus on how does the food make you feel.

How do you feel when you eat this? How do you feel when you eat that? How satisfied, how satiated, not because it’s X number of calories or not because it’s a perfect meal, it’s getting you far more connected to how things feel in your body and how you want to feel.

And we’re going to make mistakes and we’re going to eat until we’re overfull and we’re going to eat until it’s unpleasant and we’re going to let ourselves be super hungry, which is an unpleasant feeling.

We’re going to focus on pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral versus I feel good, I feel bad. Getting out of that terminology.       

AT: These stuffs are beautiful. And I love how they are helping people root back into their body to build that relationship with it that has been so externally  -- like, I feel like – well, I’ll speak for myself. Like I build with the relationship with the information coming in and what I’m supposed to be doing and how I’m supposed to look and all of that stuff and what I’m supposed to be eating, versus, yeah, what – what is my body – how do I honor my body and love it and go on this journey with the utmost compassion that I possibly can.

LD: And we’re all born intuitive eaters. It’s helping people go back to the basics. It’s, you know, we have temp it down or if you have children or a caregiver or if you’ve ever watched somebody with a baby or a child and the baby cries and the first thing we do is pick him up, comfort, and either offer the breast or a bottle. And then, the baby settles and as soon as comforted and satiated and full and the baby pulls away from the nipple or detaches from the breast. And they know best.

[0:30:08]

Then, comes the mom or the caregiver because we really know best. And, you know, and this was I’m so guilty of this one was that I always wanted to make sure that my baby had enough. Because I was nursing, how would I know?

So, I always quickly like, oh, you know, trying to get them to latch on again and to make sure that they were topped off, because, you know, well, maybe they’ll sleep better and maybe, you know, I don’t want my baby to be hungry, I want to be a good mom.

How do we give that trust to our babies and how do we let our children have a bellyache occasionally, so that they can learn, oh, when I do this, this doesn’t feel good. You know, mom is there to say, oh, you know, tell me what, you know, how do you feel. Not, good for you, I told you so. More about, here is the learning experience that if you had two cookies or four cookies, you felt great. When you had a dozen cookies, I notice that you’re, like you’re bend over and your tummy doesn’t feel so good or your head hurts or whatever it is.

And helping them understand the correlation, they weren’t good or bad, the cookies weren’t good or bad. It’s helping them self-regulate and we take that away from our children. Many of us do. That we know better and we put our food stories and create their food stories and then the cycle continues.

How do we save – it’s up to us to break that chain. And one of the best examples that I could give and I’m very liberal and my kids are grown, 29 and 25. I took the approach that I would much rather have my kids be drinking and making their mistakes in my house than going off to college for that very first year and getting drunk and being with a bunch of kids who aren’t going to take care of them.

So, that they probably still did that. It doesn’t mean that it was perfect. At least they had some experience and boundary – and understanding, so that it was a choice, but at least it wasn’t their first time that they had to make that choice.

So, it’s hard. We want to just keep our kids safe and it’s also our responsibility to help them discover their relationship to help foster a natural relationship to food and body.

AT: Yes. I like – I love that you take that intergenerational approach that this is for us in this moment to experience more joy and freedom and there’s a real opportunity here to heal across generations. That feels very meaningful and powerful.

And even adds motivation to when people might not want to, you know, whatever, do the thing that – that would actually make them feel good, that coming back to that feels very grounding.

LD: And to say, you know, if you have disorder eating patterns or you struggle with an eating disorder, to – to feel comfortable with time and practice, to own that and to share that information with your children, so that they, you know, that it’s your body story.

And, you know, just using the words that, you know, I recognize this is what’s happening and I’m working to heal my relationship because it’s going to be better for me and I want to set that example of how, you know, it could be better for you.

So, changing that language and it opens up communication and gets out of that guilt and that shame. I do not work with women who have eating disorders, so I work with disordered eating. So, it’s also a very different conversation and I always want to clarify that, you know, eating disorders are not my area of expertise.

AT: So, there might be a person listening right now who’s really struggling with food addiction or with some of those thoughts that you initially brought up, I’ve tried this before, this isn’t going to work.

What is in your heart right now to tell that person in this moment?

LD: That you are not alone, that you are not – you are not broke, you don’t need to be fixed. That you need somebody to support you, not to hold you accountable, that somebody to walk by your side to help you discover your path and your next steps.

This is not about, you know, I’m begging you do not sign up for something new and somebody is going to beat you into submission. We’ve already done that, you’ve been there. It hasn’t worked. It’s not about trying and being better and you’re going to do it harder and all of those things.

Perhaps it’s time to try something different that brings kindness and compassion into your journey versus being held accountable, because there’s a big difference between support and accountability.

[0:35:01]

Helping you discover your best path. It’s not my journey, it’s your journey. I can’t tell you when you’re going to be ready to do this. I can help you practice and discover and to do it with kindness and compassion.

AT: Beautiful.

What has been one of the greatest gifts that you’ve received from doing this work yourself or doing it with others?

LD: One of the, you know, unsolicited comments on their journey and the one that stands out most recently for me is that one of the women who I work with in my Body Peace & Food Freedom program, she said, “It’s really about the journey and not the destination.”

And she nailed it because it is about your day-to-day actions and behaviors, because as soon as you put a destination, the destination is usually a number on the scale. I don’t want to know about that number. I don’t even want you to know about that number because that number doesn’t exist.

It is about how do you feel day-to-day. It is your actions and your behaviors, what are you noticing, what are you aware of. And these things that they’re learning are life changing, that it really like the name body peace and food freedom is really what they are discovering. And the name is very purposeful and intentional.

AT: So, tell us about that? Any – do you have an upcoming program that is on its way?

LD: Yes. So, I work with my clients one-on-one. And everything is, you know, where you are in the world or listening, everything is through Zoom, which is amazing today.

And then, I have my six-month program called, Body Peace & Food Freedom. And I offer it several times a year, so depending on when you’re listening to this. My next program is starting May 25th of 2022.

And what I love about that program is that it is one-on-one coaching with a small group experience. So, the group part is about connection, community, and education. So, we meet once a week as a group and really it is as I just said, it’s connection, community, and education.

We really dive into the five pillars that I work with which is intuitive eating, mindful eating, health at every size, non-judgmental self-awareness, and self-compassion.

And then, every other week, we dive into what’s happening with you for deep dive coaching and I always have available, my free five-day mindful eating experience.

So, for those of you that are like kind of like, hmm, this sounds really out there, like I’m not quite sure what to do with all these information because it is new and it is exciting and frightening at the same time. So, I get that.

So, I have a free five-day mindful eating experience, which is a series of five emails that you will get each day for five days and it has a very short video. And you can dip your toes into mindful eating.

One of the questions I always get that I want to – that I find it very important to share is, you know, will I lose weight? And the honest answer is I have no idea if you’re going to lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same. I don’t know where you are in your diet cycle, if you are binging, restricting with your food security or insecurity has been, your relationships. All of these things, it is about whole body health and I work with you to help get rid of that goal of whether you are going to gain, lose, or stay the same because you are so much greater than the number on the scale.

AT: Yes. Oh, I love that message and I needed to hear that message today, so thank you for that, Lisa.

LD: You’re welcome.

AT: Ultimately, Circle of Change is an opportunity for other changemakers out there to learn about the various ways they can step into being the change in the world, whatever that means to them.

And it’s a question I love to ask all guests that come join us in Circle. So, what does it mean for you to be the change?

LD: It’s – I think it’s really about living my life in – in what I’m talking about that in order to be the change, I have to be part of the change. I don’t just teach this, I do this every day. And I’m no different than any of you.

I, you know, there’s days that I struggle and fortunately, I have the experience and nowhere to go, so that when I do look in the mirror in the days, like, you know, my belly is not quite as flat as it used to be. That I don’t run and hide anymore and think like, oh, no, like I can’t eat all day. I know how to bring that voice that says, you know, it is okay, our body has changed, you are 56 years old. You are healthy, you have an amazing life, your value is not based on the numbers of inches around your circumference – circumference of your waist.

[0:40:13]                     

And I’ve had to work hard to be able to believe it myself to be able to support other women in that journey. And in order for us to change, it’s going to help our next generation not have to suffer so much with their body stories and to help them grow up with their own authentic beauty.

AT: Your mission is beautiful, Lisa, and as is the work that you’re doing. I think it’s so, so important especially in this transition that we’re in of really stepping away from getting all of our wisdom from external sources and coming within.

 And that – that is relevant for how we run businesses, for how we show up in relationships, for how we show up with ourselves and the food and how we nourish our bodies.

 And I’m so grateful to you for really taking your journey and turning that into your passion to support this generation and the generations to come. So, thank you so much. I appreciate you.

LD: Thank you. And it’s just been lovely to speak to you and to get to know you and to be part of your community. I’m just I love to be able to have a platform to share my message and to talk with heart-centered women on – on really unpacking what we’re talking about and getting rid of the guilt the shame stories that we – like, there’s so many women that suffer. There’s very few women that I know that don’t suffer with their body story and where did it come from and how do we unpack and make peace with it all.

AT: Yes to that. Yes to you. Thank you.

LD: You are welcome.

AT: I'm now passing the talking piece to you. If you feel called to put your voice in the circle, please head to humconsulting.ca/podcast and share your story there. I cannot wait to hear what has come up for you as you have listened to what has been shared here today. I wish you love and joy beyond your wildest imagination. Thank you so much for being here in the Circle of Change.

I also wanna express my gratitude to the following peeps: Circle of Change is recorded on Lekwungen territories and I am so grateful to live on this land. Our opening and closing music was created by the talented E-Rol Beats. You can find his creations at erolbeats.com. And special thanks to my coach, Mary Chan, of Organized Sound Productions for bringing this podcast to life. Until next time, Ciao!

Gratitude: 

Circle of Change is recorded on lək̓ʷəŋən territories.

Our opening and closing music was created by the talented E-Rol Beats. You can find his creations at www.erolbeats.com

My fabulous podcast coach, Mary Chan of Organized Sound Productions, brought this podcast to life www.organizedsound.ca