Creating Healthy Body & MInd through intuitive Eating

with Simone Harding BSc MSc MBPsS
SImone Harding BSc MSc MBPsS

SImone Harding BSc MSc MBPsS

Nutritionist, Counselling Psychologist in training

I help you understand about the science of nutrition, metabolism, and health, but also I help with you with the underlying reasons for food, eating and body image issues. I help you by integrating nutrition science and counseling, mindfulness, Intuitive Eating, CBT and also narrative work. It means that my clients can explore many perspectives on their issues without having to bounce from therapist to therapist. 

Over the years I have recorded several episodes about intuitive eating and eating disorders. The reason why I continue to do so is because the message needs to be heard.

Fitness industry pushes out pictures of fitness models and we subconsciously compare ourselves to those pictures. Some of us can resist it better than the others, but in the end we are all influenced by information presented in media and our culture.

Just think about what is our relationship with fat. We want to have the least possible amount. It is just the amount of it that differs from person to person.

That is where education about body image, intuitive eating and even therapy come into place.

Simone Harding joined me in this episode to talk about these issues and I think we hit it off!

Simone Harding helps people to create a healthy relationship with food and with their body. Often, her clients weight does not change, but how they relate to their body does!
Her views and expertise involve her previous experience with distorted body image, yoga practice, clinical practice and behavior change.
 

TIME STAMPS

3:50 Introduction
6:50 Simone’s first introduction to intuitive eating
9:38 Does a person who diets down to their ideal body image become happy? – It depends.
  • Perceived embodiment of “I take up too much space.” 
  • People connect dieting to feeling good about themselves as a result of feeling in control (no diet = out of control). Smaller, leaner means to them happiness. 
17:30 Fear of not being enough and how it speaks to the idea of unhealthy relationship with food.
  • Focus on long term goals.
  • Setting up expectations for weight-loss: The most important conversation you can have with yourself and your clients
  • Consider what is your client’s knowledge base, first.
  • What is your why? What do you get by achieving your body goals?
33:00  Addressing your WHY?
  • People who come to PTs and nutritionists are usually people who don’t need their help as much as people who really need it. Why is that? Because people who struggle with their diets and need help are so far from healthy living that they consider it unreachable.
43:10 Pros and cons of vegan diet:
  • “They (people) take a dietary principle that might be rooted in reasonable science but rather than do it moderately they do something to the end of degree so rather than having a plant-based diet they have a plant only diet. And they wonder why they don’t feel good on it, because they are not meeting their nutritional needs.”
  • What’s great about the vegan diet is that you need to become mindful about what you eat.
  • Eating on the go can be problematic.
  • Develops skills in the kitchen.
  • It brings people together via cooking and posibly inspires them to make healthier choices.
47:30 Intuitive eating – what is it? 
  • Is it eating whatever you want, whenever you want? 
  • We are conditioned to look at food as good/bad, Healthy/ unhealthy and we become disconnected from what we really want to eat.
  •  We have in our minds the idea that if we could if all foods were equal and had no caloric value, we would choose burgers, pizza, ice cream. It is not true.
  • Intuitive eating is just a framework about thinking about food differently. It can be adapted to any individual.
  • It (intuitive eating) looks at health as a continuum not an outcome.
Some of the principles of Intuitive eating that leads you to trust your body a bit more and choose foods you really want to eat rather than what you think you are supposed to eat:
  • Reject the diet mentality
  • Make peace with food
  • Challenge the food police 
1:05:00 Confirmation bias – 
  • What we look at constantly we seek. You need to look at things that are more inclusive to be more realistic.
  • Most women don’t walk around at 20% body fat!
  • Choose who you follow consciously.
  • Sometimes knowing more is detrimental for your success.
1:10:00 Basics of nutrition 
  • Look at the basics! Don’t miss forest for trees.
  • Be playful.
1:19:00 Wrapping things up
  • When and who intuitive eating is not ideal for
  • “Moderating your feelings through foods is no different to moderating your feelings through drugs or alcohol.”

Mentioned in the episode: 

@bodiposipanda https://www.instagram.com/bodyposipanda