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Healing Your Relationship with Food and STOP DIETING! · Create The Best Me

• 0:01
  Have you ever felt trapped in the cycle of eating, not out of hunger, but to bury the stress, silence the emotions, or just to feel something?
• 0:14
  Maybe it starts with a few bites, then spirals into guilt, frustration, and a sense of losing control.
• 0:24
  This isn't just about food.
• 0:26
  It's about being disconnected from your body.
• 0:30
  Today's guest, Anne-Sophie Reinhardt has overcome her own challenges and has helped many women have healthy relationships with food, manage their emotions, and begin to love their bodies.
• 0:44
  Anne-Sophie will explain why this happens and provide helpful tips that you can begin to do now to help gain control and begin to feel comfortable in your own skin.
• 0:56
  Let's join the conversation now.
• 1:00
  Anne-Sophie Reinhardt welcome to Create the Best Me it is an honor to have you on.
• 1:06
  Thank you so much.
• 1:07
  I'm really excited to be on.
• 1:09
  Great.
• 1:10
  Hey, before we get started, can you please tell the audience a little bit about who you are and what you do?
• 1:17
  Sure, I am a single mom born and raised in Germany.
• 1:24
  New mom to a puppy that we've had for a month.
• 1:29
  And, through many twists and turns in my life, I turned out to be a coach working with women who are, sometimes fighting with their, their bodies.
• 1:38
  Sometimes fighting with their, inner wars.
• 1:42
  Sometimes feeling like they're lacking and at the same time, I work with women who, who have this sense, and I think everyone does, that there's more for them.
• 1:56
  And that more doesn't have to be, you know, something huge and big and grand and something out there.
• 2:02
  It could be something that is mostly very personal.
• 2:06
  But, um, yeah, there's just something that they want, other than fighting with themselves or feeling like, you know, I'm not worthy, I'm not deserving.
• 2:15
  And I've been doing this for a long, long time.
• 2:20
  It's, incredible work and I'm very blessed to be doing what I do.
• 2:23
  And I can do it all from home, right?
• 2:26
  Raising my son at the same time.
• 2:29
  That's great.
• 2:30
  So I do know from reading your profile, you are also someone who specializes in helping women with body acceptance.
• 2:40
  Right, right.
• 2:43
  I, that actually was born out of my own relationship with my body.
• 2:49
  I, at a very young age, I developed, an eating disorder that turned into several different eating disorders and then, into other mental health struggles.
• 3:00
  And when I started to recover, which was about 15 years ago, there was, we didn't talk about eating disorders or body image issues, not even eating disorders, but simply body image issues the way we do now.
• 3:15
  And when I started to heal, I felt like I, I, the little glimpses and the little stories I heard of people who had been through, something similar gave me so much hope.
• 3:31
  It felt like I was understood and at the same time, you know, there's a life after you struggle after this darkness.
• 3:40
  And I started to share my own content, to share my own journey.
• 3:45
  Mainly because I felt, you know, something like that helped me and maybe if it could just help one person.
• 3:52
  And back then it was very innocent, right?
• 3:54
  I was writing about it in my little blog and I was recording podcasts simply because I had many friends doing the podcasting back then and, It started to turn into, something bigger back then.
• 4:08
  Actually, we had one of the first podcasts about body image in the world.
• 4:15
  Yeah, it's something that I'm very, very, very passionate about that I feel has changed a lot.
• 4:22
  The dialogue around body image and self-love has come a long, long way.
• 4:27
  We're still far from, allowing every body type to exist and celebrating it, but we are definitely in terms of actually talking about it and shining a light on.
• 4:38
  You know, it's something that can really impact your life and it impacts many more lives than we actually think.
• 4:48
  And I'm very happy that we've come to a place where this is something that we can openly talk about and share.
• 4:56
  Yeah, and I think that the reason why I asked you to come on the show is because of that and because my show focuses on women who are entering perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
• 5:10
  And I think that when we start to enter this particular phase in our life, we might struggle with those body image and we might isolate ourselves because our bodies changed.
• 5:26
  Right, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:28
  And that's actually, most of my clients are in that age range because it's a beautiful time in your life when maybe you've had children who are now grown.
• 5:40
  Maybe you are at the end of your career, right?
• 5:44
  Maybe there's, there is life transitions and it can be a thing where you're like, oh my God, this is happening.
• 5:52
  And on top of that, my body might be changing.
• 5:55
  I'm really scared of this next phase, or it could be something where you're curious and where you're like, okay, what is next for me?
• 6:01
  But oftentimes when you're in this transition time, you might ask yourself also, what is my relationship with my body?
• 6:08
  Because the body changes naturally.
• 6:11
  And you might, for the first time in a while, have the time or the capacity to actually focus on your relationship with your body.
• 6:19
  Or you might be at a point where you're like, I'm so tired of fighting my body.
• 6:24
  Of hopping from one diet to the next, of being always in fight or flight mode.
• 6:30
  And you know you may feel like now is the time to actually take a look at it, to really dig deep and there's so much that can happen from allowing yourself actually ask yourself, what is behind why I feel the way I feel about my body, right?
• 6:50
  Why do I feel X, Y, and Z?
• 6:52
  Why do I not like it when I look in the mirror?
• 6:55
  Why does my weight go up and down or whatever it is?
• 6:58
  Right?
• 6:58
  And how can I use what I can find, what I can undig in a way?
• 7:04
  And allow myself to, to make peace with that part.
• 7:07
  And there's so much that can happen from that.
• 7:10
  So much freedom is what I see when you take away that constant worry about what you eat, how much you weigh, when you eat and all that, there is so much time and energy and love for life.
• 7:26
  That sometimes the world is your new playground in a way.
• 7:30
  And you, you get to, to experience yourself and the world in a whole new way.
• 7:35
  Yeah.
• 7:35
  But I think that how do you get to that point?
• 7:38
  Because a lot of times we can get frustrating because let's say, a woman tries to do fasting because, everybody's doing fasting.
• 7:46
  And so if I do this, I'm going to look like I used to look.
• 7:52
  Or, just try all these different diet plans and it can get frustrating.
• 7:57
  And I know that when we get frustrated, the first thing we do is we become emotional.
• 8:02
  And where do we seek satisfaction for that emotion is in the pantry.
• 8:08
  Right.
• 8:09
  Right.
• 8:10
  It's this vicious cycle, right?
• 8:12
  Where you're like, uh, Well, the first thing that I would suggest is, allow yourself to go on a diet from your diet and the fasting and all the fads that are out there.
• 8:26
  And there may be some things that are great.
• 8:28
  There may be some things that work for you, but allow yourself to take a break.
• 8:32
  And, you might want to say, all right, I'm going to give myself a year, maybe three months, whatever you feel comfortable with.
• 8:39
  And in that time, you give yourself the permission to really explore.
• 8:44
  And, and for the first time, ask yourself, what kinds of food do I really like?
• 8:48
  And do I like this food because it tastes good?
• 8:52
  Or is it something that I only eat when I feel frustrated, when I feel angry, when I feel upset?
• 8:59
  Is it something that I feel like I'm supposed to eat or is it something that nourishes me?
• 9:05
  And, it sounds really simple, but if you sit down and, and really taste what you're eating, sometimes, eating in in silence or by yourself, there's so much emotion that can come up, so much suppressed emotion.
• 9:24
  So, start simple and then, you know, make a list of, you know, this kind of food actually, it's supposed to be great, but for me, it causes stomach aches or whatever.
• 9:35
  One of my first clients and she was like, everybody's always telling me to eat cucumbers, but really cucumbers make me feel so nasty.
• 9:44
  And she had some kind of, they just didn't sit right with her.
• 9:47
  And I was like, well, just don't eat them.
• 9:49
  And that was a revelation because it was like, no, I'm supposed to eat those.
• 9:53
  And, you know, it could be anything, but, for me, you know, I would binge on everything.
• 9:59
  And when I started to really like, I would eat cake and cake and cake, and I don't like cake.
• 10:05
  Like seriously I, I would rather eat ice cream or chocolate, but it was like something I had to really figure out.
• 10:11
  I, I, I will pass on a piece of cake any day and you would, you can give me some kind of chocolate and I'm I'm going to be just perfectly fine.
• 10:21
  And it's these things where you allow yourself the time and sometimes the patience, a lot of time, and patience to really explore.
• 10:32
  And, you know, sometimes it's baby steps that will get you to break the cycle of, okay, I'm going to fast, I'm going to go on a diet, I'm going to lose a lot of weight, in a very short amount of time, and then I'm going to gain it again.
• 10:45
  And maybe there's something else that you can do.
• 10:49
  And the same goes, with exercise.
• 10:50
  Sometimes this time of your life might be a time where you're like, okay, I'm going to explore exercise again.
• 10:56
  I'm going to go back to walking, running, cycling, whatever it is you may or may not have been doing.
• 11:03
  And there's also a lot of fears that can come up with that, right?
• 11:09
  I mean, I'm not going to go to the gym because I don't look the way I used to, I'm not going to go to the gym because there's so many younger people there who you know look whatever um then don't.
• 11:21
  Then, go for a walk, go for a swim, go hiking, do something that makes you feel good.
• 11:28
  And it can be anything, could be weightlifting.
• 11:30
  It could be ballroom dancing, but find something where you feel, I am connecting with myself and this is really, really fun.
• 11:39
  And when you do that, that connection with your body it will come back.
• 11:43
  And it's a different kind of relationship.
• 11:45
  It's a different kind of way of living where you're not, I often say, you know, sometimes we, pretend that we have this head and the rest of it is like the body that is just supposed to function and we're just going to tell it what to do.
• 12:01
  And it's not a pretty way to live, right?
• 12:03
  We can live with our body and really have so much fun with our body.
• 12:08
  And it's about this process of allowing.
• 12:14
  Yeah, I mean, cause I know like myself, I had children at a very young age, my first round.
• 12:19
  And I was like 38 years old this is when I noticed the change.
• 12:23
  If I gained a little bit of weight, all I had to do is stop eating the junk and then I was back to my normal weight.
• 12:30
  But then when I hit 38, my body became this strong-willed toddler that does whatever it wants to do even if I modified my diet, it just did whatever it wanted to do.
• 12:47
  It didn't do what I wanted it to do and look like I used to look because my heaviest before I was at 135 pounds; between 135 and 128.
• 12:59
  Hit 38 and all of a sudden the strong willed child came out and does whatever it wants to do.
• 13:06
  And so that acceptance.
• 13:07
  And then what did you do?
• 13:08
  Its difficult.
• 13:10
  It is, and it is difficult.
• 13:12
  And feel like, first of all, yes, it's totally fine to accept that, and to say this sucks, this is really difficult.
• 13:19
  This is hard because what we're being told and what we've always been told is thinner is better, right?
• 13:27
  Or this is how you're supposed to look.
• 13:29
  And there's so much identity attached to that for us women.
• 13:33
  And it's almost like it's a grieving process where you're like, you're grieving that body that is just not the way it used to be.
• 13:41
  So there's the acceptance.
• 13:42
  There's the compassion that needs to come with it because it is a time of change and it is a time of, when we think back of when our bodies changed the first time, well, not the first time, but in a huge way where we notice it during our teenage years, right.
• 13:59
  It's not a pretty time I remember it.
• 14:01
  I didn't feel great.
• 14:03
  Yeah, your emotions are going up and down and, you may gain weight.
• 14:07
  You may, grow really tall or whatever.
• 14:10
  Hormones are just going crazy.
• 14:11
  And it's kind of the same when we go into, these phases later in life.
• 14:17
  But just, because we're grownups, we're not supposed to, obviously act it out, but at the same time, it's also just take it in stride, right.
• 14:25
  But there's a lot of it that really goes deep and that, can begin to unravel a part of who you thought you were.
• 14:33
  And that takes time, a lot of patience, like I said before, and also I feel honesty with yourself and and with others because not everyone, but a lot of women are going through the same thing, right.
• 14:45
  And it's like, there's the shared, experience that almost like, you know, body image issues or eating disorders where 15 years ago, nobody talked about it.
• 14:56
  It's still something that not everyone likes to talk about, but 15, 20 years ago, it was you know, really, it was like, hush, hush.
• 15:05
  And I feel like the dialogue that is being opened up is so helpful to, to not feel ashamed, to not feel alone and to, feel like, all right, I can somehow learn to live with this and somehow get to know my body at this stage too, where we can move to a new place.
• 15:25
  And I want to say this with regards to, when we feel like I used to have a body that and my body used to be.
• 15:34
  Yeah, we also used to be, this tall, this tall, this tall.
• 15:39
  We used to be, tiny babies that couldn't walk or crawl or anything.
• 15:43
  And we changed.
• 15:44
  And life has at its core, this process of change and the body always changes.
• 15:49
  Always, always, always, every second, every day.
• 15:53
  Holding onto it is what is causing so much pain.
• 15:58
  Like holding onto one specific weight or shape or form, is what can cause so much inner turmoil.
• 16:06
  And you may want to ask yourself, is that what I want?
• 16:09
  Or do I want to move to a different place in peace?
• 16:13
  And I'm not saying that this different place, but you may still look the same.
• 16:17
  You may, I don't know, learn to adapt to, have a few pounds more or less, but it might also be a place where, the inner dialogue is a little bit kinder.
• 16:28
  Yeah.
• 16:28
  And I know that a lot of times, because you'd mentioned, community, being around other women, that are going through the same change.
• 16:35
  I think another thing is understanding that when we go through that change, it's kind of like when we first were in puberty, we were all changing at different levels, looking a little different.
• 16:46
  Here we are, we're older and we're all going through either peri or menopause or post-menopause and understanding that the girls or the women around you are not going to look the same or I'm not going to look like them.
• 17:03
  And just because I don't look like them isn't a bad thing.
• 17:09
  Oh yes.
• 17:10
  And that is such an important point.
• 17:11
  It's really, the, thief of joy is the comparison, right?
• 17:16
  And When we can turn the focus around and, and, look at ourselves, but really look on the inside.
• 17:24
  I always feel like, turn the flashlight around and be like, okay, what can we learn from ourselves, when we actually spend time exploring who we are instead of comparing ourselves all the time to others.
• 17:36
  Whether that, you know, sometimes we compare ourselves and we feel better and sometimes we feel worse.
• 17:42
  And nobody gains joy from that, real joy.
• 17:46
  And we're doing it, I do it, we all do it.
• 17:49
  It's asking yourself, you know, is this really beneficial what I'm doing right now, or do I better just shut down Instagram and I'm actually going to look at a magazine, but a book or play with my puppy or whatever, right, turn it around and, and do something that gives you, joy in the moment that distracts your thoughts from, all right, I'm comparing my body to hers.
• 18:13
  And we are all different.
• 18:15
  And, I think that is one of the biggest thing in, all the diversity that we're celebrating these days.
• 18:23
  I feel like if we really can get to a place where we feel women, um, and every individual woman feels that my body the way that I'm built, the way that, my height, I'm a, very, very, very short person.
• 18:41
  I stopped growing when I was 11 and I always wanted to be taller.
• 18:44
  I was like, just, I once, a really grotesque thing, on TV when I was a teenager, I saw that you can actually break your legs and then you can put in some steel to grow really well.
• 18:58
  And I was like begging my dad to go, to allow me to do that, like silly stuff.
• 19:04
  But you know, I got over it and now nobody cares how short I am.
• 19:08
  I don't care.
• 19:09
  And it's, I feel like the same goes with our weight or with our body shape, right?
• 19:14
  If we can get to a place where like, this is, who I am.
• 19:18
  I can desire to have longer legs or shorter, hair or prettier X, Y, Z.
• 19:27
  You have what you have.
• 19:29
  And if you want to be at peace with yourself, it is about that acceptance of this is, and then you can go with the change, but yearning for something that has been will never allow you to, move forward with joy.
• 19:46
  It's celebrating what your body looked like and being like, yeah, this was a part of my story.
• 19:53
  This is what got me here.
• 19:55
  But, ever since I had this kind of body, whatever, whatever, whatever happened and now I'm at an indifferent place.
• 20:04
  So it's all about reframing and really working on it.
• 20:07
  It's not something that comes easy and it is something that is worthwhile.
• 20:14
  And in the end, it's about do I want to have that joy, that sense of joy, or do I always want to look in the mirror and feel like, ugh, no, no, I don't want to look at myself.
• 20:28
  Yeah, and I mean, I have an 11 year old daughter and sometimes she'll tell me, oh mom, I just hate that I have all these moles on my face.
• 20:37
  Why do I have all these moles on my face?
• 20:39
  And I would say, Jasmine, you know what?
• 20:41
  You have what you have and you look the way you look and all you can do is just make the best with what you have and embrace it.
• 20:53
  I said, there's going to come a day where you're going to say, jeez, I can't believe I used to complain about this.
• 21:00
  How often do we say that?
• 21:01
  Right.
• 21:01
  How often do we say that when we look at photos and pictures of ourselves, we're like, wow, and back then I thought, you know, insert whatever you want to.
• 21:12
  Yeah, and, when I have bad body image days or days where I feel like, ugh, I'm like, this body, this face, this whatever, there's only one, right?
• 21:24
  In this entire big, big, big, big world.
• 21:27
  Like there's one person and that's me who looks like that.
• 21:32
  And I think if we celebrate that uniqueness and that whatever it is you don't like, and turn it around to being something this only exists in this shape and form in my body and you know in my core then how can I not celebrate it?
• 21:49
  How can I not feel like this is this is really something miraculous.
• 21:54
  And also allowing yourself to have that sense of gratitude, right?
• 21:59
  Um, not just obviously for the looks, but also for what your body enables you to do every, day.
• 22:05
  So if you feel like today is a really rough day, try to start with that gratitude, that sense I might feel that way today, but really this is, this is unique.
• 22:15
  This is the only person that looks like it, right?
• 22:18
  Like, like that, this is just me.
• 22:20
  And, there's so many people who look at me that don't see what I see, right?
• 22:27
  That don't judge myself the way that I judge myself, which is so true.
• 22:32
  We judge ourselves so harshly and others look at us with love, with affection, with care, with pride.
• 22:42
  They don't you know, look at you and they're like, oh my God, you should remove that or this doesn't really look right, right.
• 22:47
  They don't do that.
• 22:48
  It's just us.
• 22:50
  Yeah.
• 22:52
  Do you find, cause you work with women of all different shapes and sizes.
• 22:56
  Do you find that some women might look at you because I think you look amazing.
• 23:00
  I'd love to be as thin as you.
• 23:02
  Do you find that sometimes they feel a little bit of resistance?
• 23:05
  Like, how is Anne- Sophie going to understand me?
• 23:09
  Cause she doesn't look anything like me.
• 23:11
  Right, yeah.
• 23:12
  I did get that.
• 23:13
  And it's something that I struggled with too, and sometimes struggle with, putting myself out there.
• 23:20
  I remember with a coach I had many, 10 years ago, and we were talking about that.
• 23:26
  And I am a very active person, I run a lot.
• 23:30
  It's something that I had to learn to allow myself to do.
• 23:34
  It's because I work with women of all shapes and sizes, right?
• 23:39
  But I love being active and I feel like I can relate with women because I have been on both ends of the struggle.
• 23:48
  I've been at the deepest depth of I'm not eating and I am exercising myself to a point where I'm this close to being in the hospital and at the same time, I cannot stop eating and I've gained a lot, a lot of, I've doubled my weight in months because I have been on the other side of the eating disorder spectrum and everything in between.
• 24:13
  And that is, I feel like, I've never had a client tell me anything that I had not in some shape or form experienced.
• 24:23
  I think that when it comes to others, we project a lot of our own fears and insecurities on others.
• 24:31
  And I am healthy and I'm eating and as long as I can say that with all of my integrity and all of my heart, I can look any client in the eye and, say this is the body that I have in this moment.
• 24:44
  And it's changed in the last 10 years.
• 24:47
  I had a period where I griefed my father and my weight dropped.
• 24:52
  And then I went back up and it was like, I know now how to go kind of with the waves of, of life, right?
• 24:58
  And to be like, okay, now I have to look out for my mental health and my general health and make an extra, focus on that.
• 25:08
  And at the same time, I'm just a very active, healthy person who, who loves to eat and embraces life.
• 25:17
  And I don't look in the mirror anymore the way that I used to before, like I don't scrutinize myself.
• 25:23
  Like I said, my weight goes up and down with life's changes, like, but not in the extremes it used to.
• 25:29
  And sometimes that is something beautiful also to share with clients where, now I'm just going, like I said, with life's many, many, many changes, right.
• 25:42
  That we never see coming.
• 25:43
  Yeah.
• 25:44
  And I think that's the key, you just hit it right there.
• 25:47
  Cause I was scrolling through Instagram this weekend and I saw a woman talking about, being in this phase of life.
• 25:53
  And what really resonated with me is she said, I don't stress about being skinny.
• 25:59
  I don't stress about being on a diet.
• 26:02
  I focus on being healthy.
• 26:04
  And you touched it right there.
• 26:05
  You said, I am healthy.
• 26:08
  Yeah.
• 26:09
  And sometimes we lie to ourselves and we're like, I'm not eating because I want to be healthy, but really that's not it.
• 26:15
  And you get to this place where you really feel like I'm doing this for my body.
• 26:22
  I'm eating for myself and I'm nourishing my body.
• 26:27
  And that comes with I have no restriction on what I, like, you know sometimes we say this food is good or this is bad.
• 26:35
  I don't do that anymore.
• 26:36
  This is something we don't talk about in my house.
• 26:39
  It's food is food and there's space for all kinds of food and everything and it's dose.
• 26:47
  But everything, right?
• 26:49
  And when you focus on, you want to feel full of energy or full of life or something that really speaks to you, then you don't have time for that pang of hunger anymore, where you're like, I'm not going to eat because I want to lose weight.
• 27:02
  I'm, it's just like, no, I want to, I want to engage in life.
• 27:06
  I want to be able to be present, to, focus on relationships, on conversations, on work, on life outside of work and everything, right?
• 27:19
  Where I don't want to feel weak or, frustrated all the time or hangry or all that, right?
• 27:26
  And at the same time, I also don't want to feel like I'm so full all the time that I cannot move.
• 27:32
  And it takes time again.
• 27:33
  And this is a process.
• 27:35
  Uh, when I started to work on my relationship with food, that was 16 years ago, and it's something that just takes time.
• 27:44
  And if we allow ourself to have that too.
• 27:46
  And that's something that sometimes in our quick fix world it is a little bit, unsexy to say maybe, but that's the I'm doing this for my body.
• 27:57
  Truth it just takes time, and sometimes it takes a few attempts where you're like, ah, I don't want to do this anymore.
• 28:07
  And then, six months later, you come back to, no, I really want to try this.
• 28:12
  And then you're all in.
• 28:13
  And in the end, there's really no going back to it anymore.
• 28:17
  And like, sometimes when I talk to my clients, they say the same thing, they're like, you know, I don't even know 10 years ago, who is that person.
• 28:25
  I cannot relate to the way she thought anymore.
• 28:29
  And, that's just something amazing.
• 28:32
  Yeah, and I think another thing, as you were saying that, I just thought about this, is when you make the decision that you're all in, you're going to make mistakes.
• 28:42
  And if you make a mistake, give yourself the grace to say, yeah, I made a mistake today.
• 28:48
  I made a mistake yesterday, but guess what?
• 28:50
  Today's a new day and I get to start all over again and see what happens today.
• 28:57
  Right.
• 28:58
  And I don't know if you know this, but sometimes when I, when I still dieted, you know, you would be on that diet and then you would eat something you're not supposed to eat and then it was like, all right, doesn't count now I can eat everything.
• 29:13
  And so you're like, okay, the diet is just totally, done.
• 29:17
  And it's a free for all for the next weeks.
• 29:20
  And when you stop, like you just said, when you stop feeling like, oh, I failed, right?
• 29:26
  I ate something that I'm not supposed to eat and now I'm just, whatever.
• 29:32
  And you're like, no, I ate this, it was yummy, and tomorrow I'm going to continue the way I would continue if I hadn't eaten this or whatever it is, right?
• 29:41
  Or today my inner dialogue was really nasty today.
• 29:45
  And, it's not something that I'm very proud of tomorrow might be better, right.
• 29:50
  So there will be so many slip ups and so many setbacks and days where you don't feel motivated, right.
• 29:57
  And it's all about, continuing.
• 30:00
  And I actually had a conversation with a client once who, for her, that was a big, big, big deal, this just keep going.
• 30:08
  It doesn't matter if it's not perfect, and it might not be perfect for a long time.
• 30:14
  And it might never be perfect, actually.
• 30:17
  But just keep doing something in that direction, right?
• 30:21
  In the direction you want to go to.
• 30:23
  And sometimes it might just be taking three breaths before you go and eat the thing that you're so compelled to eat and you know, it's not something you want to eat, but it's something that deep within, it's a behavior that in this moment just needs to happen.
• 30:38
  But you're taking a small pause, you're acknowledging that it's happening, and then you continue.
• 30:44
  Sometimes that alone is a huge step and it is about that continuous effort towards freedom, your North Star, whatever you want to, call it, right?
• 30:59
  Yeah, and I remember a couple weeks ago I went to my doctor's office and I saw the physician assistant and I told her, oh my goodness, you've lost a lot of weight.
• 31:08
  When did you do that?
• 31:09
  Did you take Ozempic or something?
• 31:12
  And she told me, she's like, no, I didn't.
• 31:15
  I have changed my habits, and I've adopted some healthy habits.
• 31:20
  And I've been doing this for three months.
• 31:23
  Unfortunately, it took three months before I started to see results from no more drinking wine, going for a walk in the evening with my daughter.
• 31:34
  You know, just these, no more snacking.
• 31:37
  If I snacked, it was, on healthy stuff versus, bad stuff.
• 31:41
  And she says, but it took three months to see results.
• 31:45
  And so she says, I learned to be patient.
• 31:50
  Yeah.
• 31:51
  And we all know, yeah, it's frustrating when nothing is happening, but if you take it like three months, what is that?
• 32:00
  It's really, it's, it's nothing when we think back to many, diets we've all tried and how often we started again and again and again and again, right?
• 32:11
  That took a lot of effort and a lot of time.
• 32:14
  And yeah, it's about rethinking and implementing, like sometimes, you know, when I work with women who might not be mobile or, or feel like, I've just never put an emphasis on my physical health.
• 32:30
  And I've never had the time or made the time to go for a walk or to do any form of exercise.
• 32:38
  Go for a walk for five minutes or maybe a hundred steps, like start small and build these habits.
• 32:46
  Make it really easy on yourself to say you know, maybe.
• 32:49
  Different client that I worked with in this spring and she's a mom of two young children, with a busy life, a job that is, you know, busy and everything is just like, we all know what it's like with small kids.
• 33:03
  And she was like, I have this hike I want to go on with colleagues in this month and I'm really, really terrified because I'm not in shape.
• 33:13
  Or I feel like I'm, I can't, like, I'm so out of shape, but I'm really scared.
• 33:19
  Like, where do I have to get the time?
• 33:22
  And I don't really like working out.
• 33:23
  And we really did five minutes a day, walk five minutes and it was up to 10 and it was up to 20.
• 33:31
  And it was ah like three to four months of, these small things, but it made a huge difference to the way she felt about herself.
• 33:41
  The way, you know, she was like, I can walk easier.
• 33:45
  I feel like I'm breathing a little bit easier.
• 33:48
  It doesn't have to be the big, you know, big stuff that everyone always sees.
• 33:52
  It can be the, and actually the tiny changes are often the most effective because you're actually doing them, right?
• 34:00
  When you say, I'm just going to go for a walk for five minutes, it is much easier to get out of the door than if you're like, I have to run for you know two hours, you're not going to do that.
• 34:13
  But if you feel like, okay, five minutes, that is doable.
• 34:16
  I can do that.
• 34:17
  And 10, or maybe after the five, you may feel like this is actually great, I'm just going to continue.
• 34:23
  And if you stop at five, perfect.
• 34:26
  It's about these habits.
• 34:27
  It's about this also, you know, allowing yourself to, if if you do the minimum, which I don't like, but it's like, that's enough, like, that is great.
• 34:37
  I feel good about it.
• 34:38
  And not always feeling like, oh, I'm so behind.
• 34:41
  I only did, no, it's enough.
• 34:44
  Life can get so busy and if you're a mom, if you're a woman, it's almost revolutionary if you're like, I have five minutes for myself on some days.
• 34:56
  So, yeah.
• 34:58
  that's enough.
• 35:00
  Yeah.
• 35:00
  And like I always say, something is better than nothing.
• 35:04
  Doing something whether it's five minutes, gives you that mental clarity, reduces that big giant stress demon that was on your back, just making your life miserable.
• 35:19
  Yeah, and it's true.
• 35:20
  And, sometimes even when we're in the shower and we're like, just taking a long deep breath, sometimes that can be like, this is the moment I had for myself today.
• 35:31
  Um, yeah, it is always better when we feel like we're in a space where things are especially frantic or hectic or stressful, it's sometimes the intention where you're like, okay, I'm brushing my teeth and this is the moment I have for me and really being mindful and having this intention like this, these are my two minutes.
• 35:52
  That can change the way you feel about it.
• 35:56
  And sometimes it's like, okay, this was my me time.
• 35:58
  Now let's get the kids ready for whatever.
• 36:02
  Or let's go rush, rush out the door to XYZ.
• 36:06
  And sometimes it's that, okay, this is what I've got and I'm going to work with it.
• 36:13
  So tell me three pieces of advice that women can start doing right now to begin their journey to have a better relationship with food so that they can shift their mindset, and start to see things for what they truly are as opposed to the negative things that they perceive.
• 36:40
  Ooh, I love it.
• 36:41
  All right, let's see.
• 36:43
  one of the things.
• 36:45
  I would suggest, and this um is something I feel very strongly, but it's also something that, can be met with a lot of resistance is throw away your scale.
• 36:56
  You don't need a scale, you don't need it in the bathroom, you don't need it.
• 36:59
  And if you don't want to throw it away, put it somewhere where you don't see it every day.
• 37:06
  And with that, it's more of a symbolic step towards letting go of the focus on the external and allowing yourself to focus on the internal, so that would be step number one.
• 37:18
  Step number two is to ask yourself, a few questions, whether that might be when you're journaling, maybe you want to, you're someone who journals.
• 37:28
  Maybe you're someone who likes to talk with yourself.
• 37:31
  Maybe you want to talk with a friend or a therapist or a spouse or someone.
• 37:35
  Or just have the thoughts in your mind, but really ask yourself, what's the intention behind, I always say how I do food, like when I eat, do I eat?
• 37:46
  When I eat, do I beat myself up while I eat?
• 37:49
  Like what is going on in my mind in regards to food and weight?
• 37:56
  Is there, is it a competition?
• 37:58
  And do I need to weigh less than my friend?
• 38:02
  Is it a competition I had with my mom?
• 38:05
  Sometimes we are, when we eat, we are internally in competition with our husbands.
• 38:10
  Like, I'm not allowed to eat more than my husband because women are not supposed to eat more.
• 38:14
  Like, there's a lot of stuff that might come up, but that might be number two.
• 38:19
  And the third one is, I think I mentioned it, we talked about this, but really start small.
• 38:26
  Allow yourself an open mind to experience food again without the rules, without all the information that you may have.
• 38:35
  And there's so much information out there and there's great information out there, and there's really, really awful information about food out there.
• 38:44
  And we talked about it, like our bodies are all different.
• 38:49
  The way we metabolize food is different for everyone.
• 38:54
  And there's foods that work for one person, but that don't work for another.
• 38:59
  And there's different lifestyles or way of ways of eating that work for one person and that don't work for another.
• 39:06
  But try to detach yourself from what the doctors and the professors and the, lifestyle gurus and the models and everyone says.
• 39:14
  And really go back to the basics and be like, okay, how do I feel about this?
• 39:19
  Is this something that I like?
• 39:21
  Is it something that I want to eat and does it really taste good?
• 39:25
  And that would be like, these are big steps, but those would be the ones that I would start.
• 39:31
  And there's a bonus one.
• 39:33
  Start a list of foods that you have labeled as good and foods that you've labeled as bad.
• 39:39
  And there's a story that most of us can tell with every single one of these foods.
• 39:44
  And, sometimes that's very, very eyeopening when you're like, oh, okay, this is why I think this is bad.
• 39:52
  This is why I think this is good.
• 39:54
  I feel like, don't take it so seriously because in the end it's just weight.
• 39:59
  It's just the weight, right?
• 40:01
  Um, so sometimes laughing about it is, is very healthy.
• 40:06
  Those are great.
• 40:08
  Based upon the conversation that we have had here today, what is the one thing that you would like the listener or the viewer to hold close to their heart?
• 40:20
  Ah, there's so much, but in the end, I think it goes back to.
• 40:25
  every one of us, we have one body, right?
• 40:28
  There's one body that we were born into, that you were born into.
• 40:33
  And you have this body for the rest of your life.
• 40:36
  It's your ride or die.
• 40:38
  It's the one thing that's always going to be there forever and ever.
• 40:42
  And, remember that, remember that uniqueness.
• 40:46
  Remember that, ah sometimes when I think about it, I get goosebumps because it's like, yeah, this is the one thing that it will always be there.
• 40:54
  Remember it, bring it to mind.
• 40:56
  And sometimes that alone might change the relationship you have with your body and be, yeah, sometimes we can be a little bit kinder to our bodies.
• 41:08
  Yeah.
• 41:08
  Anne-Sophie, what are you currently working on now?
• 41:13
  And when will we expect to see those things?
• 41:16
  Oooh, right now I'm really focusing on working one-on-one with women.
• 41:22
  And I love, love, love the one-on-one sessions, where we can go deep and, have conversations and really explore that very tricky and glorious and adventurous and sometimes scary and annoying relationship we have with our bodies and ourselves.
• 41:44
  And that is something that I think since COVID, I've really crave to just be in that connection and it's been working really well.
• 41:53
  So that is one thing that I'm focusing on right now.
• 41:56
  And, you know, like you just shared, I'm also a content, or like you shared before we, hit record.
• 42:03
  I love creating content.
• 42:04
  There's always new content on my website and then, you know, blog posts and there's podcasts and everything.
• 42:10
  But the main focus is on the one-on-one work.
• 42:14
  And where can women begin to work with you one-on-one?
• 42:19
  Or how can they begin to work with you one-on-one?
• 42:22
  Um, you can go over to my website.
• 42:24
  That's annesophie.us.
• 42:27
  And, you can find all the information there.
• 42:30
  And, if you want reach out, also on Instagram and say hi.
• 42:36
  I, I always love to hear from listeners and, you know, just have conversations about this.
• 42:44
  Anne-Sophie, thank you so much for coming on.
• 42:48
  I appreciate all of the valuable information you have provided us with.
• 42:52
  I will include all of your information in our show notes.
• 42:56
  Thank you so much.
• 42:57
  This was really, really wonderful.
• 42:59
  Great.
• 43:00
  And there you have it.
• 43:02
  We started with cake and now we're wrapping up with something much sweeter, freedom from those foods and body hang ups.
• 43:11
  Anne-Sophie shared such beautiful advice on breaking the cycle.
• 43:16
  Starting small and most importantly, being kind to ourselves.
• 43:21
  Now here's your challenge for the week.
• 43:24
  Take a moment to reflect how you really feel about what's on your plate and maybe, just maybe, skip the food that doesn't truly bring you joy.
• 43:37
  If you loved today's episode, make sure you hit subscribe.
• 43:41
  Give us a thumbs up and share this episode with someone who needs to hear it.
• 43:47
  If you'd like more information or links to Anne-Sophie's resources, you can find them at createthebestme.com/ep092.
• 44:00
  Don't forget to come back next week for another amazing episode made just for you.
• 44:07
  Until then, keep dreaming big, take care of yourself, and remember you are beautiful, strong, and capable of creating the best version of yourself.
• 44:19
  Thank you for watching.
• 44:20
  Catch you next week.
• 44:22
  Bye for now.