How to heal your relationship with your body & food
In this podcast (episode #543) and blog, I talk to certified mind-body eating coach and top podcast host Jessi Jean about making peace with food and thriving in a body you love, how to heal emotional and binge eating, and so much more!
Jessi’s career is centered around teaching people struggling with food that they really can have it all: you can love your body, enjoy food and live a fulfilling life where you are not trapped by emotional and binge eating struggles. It is possible to heal and develop a normal, intuitive relationship with food! Her amazing online programs and her podcast are designed to help people around the world find freedom with food and their body image.
Jessi has conquered her own decade-long struggle with food and body, and uses her experiences to help others find true and lasting healing. She has found that when it comes to healing our relationship with food, transformation is more important than information. You don’t have to give up body-based or fitness goals, and you don’t have to give up on your body image to have a functional relationship with food. But you do have to work on having a healthier relationship with more than just your physical body (through practices like nervous system regulation work); healing disordered eating also needs to include the mind.
The more you think about and practice the unhealthy behavior, the more you train yourself to function this way; you program in this response. To heal your relationship with food, you need to reset or update your thinking, which help heal your relationship with your body and food as well.
An important part of this work is overcoming diet culture. This is a system of beliefs that equates “thinness” or looking a certain way and wearing a certain clothing size to health, and makes it something we should pursue at all costs. It is a toxic belief system that saturates us in guilt and shame, affecting our wellbeing.
However, this doesn’t mean we can’t have body image or fitness goals. Life is all about balance; Jessi’s work is focused around helping people find freedom from food while helping them support their own goals and needs. During this process, Jessi notes how it is important to help people see where their desires are coming from. How do you feel about how you look? Do you have complete ownership of how you feel or are you still comparing yourself to others? Do you have a well-rounded approach to your fitness and body goals? Are you trying to feel more aligned within your own skin?
The key is to heal your relationship with food and your body first. Going on a weight loss diet or working hard to look a certain way will not make you happy or help you find healing. We have to work on changing our mind and thinking. We have to change how we feel about how we look and how we feel about food before we start pursuing certain body or fitness goals. This includes developing what Jessi calls “body image resilience”: the ability to have more resilience to internal and external pressures to look or act in a certain way. We have to learn how to support our mind and body in a healthy way before we can work on looking a certain way physically.
We can start this process by becoming aware of what is happening in our mind and body when it comes to food and our body image. We cannot change what we are not aware of—observing ourselves and acknowledging we need to change is key! We then need to combine our education, mindset work, body regulation work, support and accountability to find true healing.
Throughout this process, it is important to recognize that we cannot do it all at once. We need to become experts at practicing and prioritizing what actually matters - and letting go of what is less important for the moment - to make space for healing and making sure we are mentally and emotionally fulfilled. One great way to do this is to create a priority list, focus on the top 3-5 top things you want in life, and see the rest as distractions for now. This will help you make space for what you need right now to find healing and create the life you want.
Of course, this is easier said than done. When you feel yourself on the brink, an effective way to make space in your life and connect to your mind and body is breath work. One great way to do this is using the box breathing method: breathe in deeply for 4 counts, hold your breath for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, then repeat until you feel calmer. Getting outside is also a great way to center yourself in the moment!
As we heal our relationship with food and our body image, we also need to have a good support system. One of the best ways to recover from a disordered eating pattern is to come out of isolation and connect with others. Being around people who love and support us is one of the best ways to heal an unhealthy relationship with food. It not only provides a loving support system when needed, but also a way to hold ourselves accountable and help us change our mental habits surrounding food and how we see our bodies.
For more on healing your relationship with food and your body image, listen to my podcast with Jessi (episode #543) and check out her amazing work. If you enjoy listening to my podcast, please consider leaving a 5-star review and subscribing. And keep sharing episodes with friends and family and on social media. (Don’t forget to tag me so I can see your posts!).
This podcast is sponsored by:
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Podcast Highlights
2:20 Jessi’s incredible work
5:20 Jessi’s own struggles with food
9:33 Why Jessi created her online programs
13:47 Why diet culture is so toxic
16:20 How to maintain body goals while developing a healthy food relationship
18:30 Developing body image resilience
19:53 Jessi’s healing story
25:00 Why it is important to pay attention to what our mind & body is telling us
29:00, 36:10 Tips for making space to heal
40:00 The power of connecting with your body
44:00 Changing the way your past plays out into your present
Switch On Your Brain LLC. is providing this podcast as a public service. Reference to any specific viewpoint or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by our organization. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. If you have any questions about this disclaimer, please contact info@drleaf.com.
This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional.