Busy, Yet Pretty - Food is Fuel, Not The Enemy. (Changing Your Perspective on Food, Letting Go Of Food Noise & Restriction)

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Food is fuel, not the enemy. The majority of the world, especially women experience a rocky relationship with food at one point in life. In this episode your host, Jadyn Hailey shares how you can change your perspective on food and how to let go of food noise. Tune into this episode with your favorite comfort food, as you begin to heal you relationship with food. Become your happiest version of you, with me!! : - ⁠⁠⁠7AM MORNING ROUTINE | hot pilates, healthy breakfast & working from home⁠⁠⁠ - Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠Jadyn's Instagram⁠⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠⁠Busy, Yet Pretty Instagram⁠⁠⁠ - ⁠⁠⁠Busy, Yet Pretty Groupchat ⁠⁠⁠ - Tiktok: ⁠⁠⁠@Fairyjadyn⁠⁠⁠ - My Amazon Storefront: ⁠⁠⁠Jadyn's Storefront⁠⁠⁠ - Outfit Details: ⁠⁠⁠My Closet⁠⁠⁠   - focus on growing your business ⁠⁠⁠Shopify⁠⁠⁠   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, my love. Welcome to the Busy Yet Pretty Podcast. I'm your host, Jaden Haley. I honestly love nothing more than just sitting down with you guys and chatting and getting motivated, getting happy and excited about just even the simple things in life. And I'm very excited for today's episode because this is an episode topic that is pretty requested and I think it's very important to talk about it, especially in this day and age, and especially with summer coming up when our relationship with food is kind of rocky sometimes when we know we've just been in our little winter slump or just eating all of our favorite foods during winter and then summer's here. And all you see when you open your phone is how to lose 15 pounds for summer, how to get skinny

for summer, how to look good for summer. And let me just tell you what you look like right now is perfect. Do you seriously want to just waste your summers? you only have an average about 80 summers in your life, even less. Why would you want to waste even one summer not allowing yourself to live and be happy and just hide yourself? I know we sometimes can feel insecure or not confident about herself, but that's where self-investment comes in when we want to take care of ourselves and not in the way to look skinny or have a certain

type of body, but to feel good about ourselves regardless of what it looks like on the outside, but to work hard, whether that's working out or eating healthy, not to make an appearance on the outside, but how are we going to feel on the inside? But we will chat in depth about that today, but without further ado, let's get into our weekly review. So this week, I have just been resting and recovering from my occipital neuralgia flare. If you tuned to last week's episode, I have just been in the worst two-week flare with acypidyl neuralgia, which is basically like a nerve problem and it's my muscles are just too tight and I'm too stress that it pinches the nerve so I'm really trying to work on how to you know go throughout my days not having this pain and it's a lot

better the flare is going down but I want to do a lot more stress free things and how to just incorporate more less stress into my life and just do things that are going to help me stress less so that avoids another flare coming up. Another thing this week is I have been dialing into more whole foods, especially with this flare and stuff. I really want to try out new vegetables and fruits that I don't usually eat. And I also find cooking with new vegetables that you don't usually cook with. It's just so fun that you get to be creative and try new things out.

Another thing this week is I've been trying to spend more time in the sun. I feel like the weather is very off and on. it'll get like cloudy and then it'll be really hot the next day. But whenever the sun is out, I'm just trying to get outside. And even when it's cloudy, I'm going outside and just getting the fresh air. It just feels so nice. Now on to the current obsessions. My current obsession at the moment is sunny gratitude walks.

I will literally go on a walk with honestly nothing but me, myself, and I and just listen to my own thoughts and just think of every single thing I'm grateful for. we so often usually jump to listening to music or something. And I feel like even a podcast is great to listen to on a walk. But sometimes it's nice to just listen to nothing but our own thoughts. And just think of what we're grateful for. Another thing this week that is a current obsession is going to bed around 8 to 9 p.m., which is pretty early.

But I find myself being able to get such a full night's rest and waking up early when I do that. So trying to aim for an 8 to 9 p.m. bed. time. And my last current obsession at the moment is birds chirping in the morning. I swear, birds chirping truly just feeds my soul. I know there's a fact out there. I don't know the exact fact, but it's something like hearing birds for at least five seconds in your day improves your mood or something for the rest of the day. And I think that's so true. It literally just gives you some sort of like touching base with the purpose of nature and just pulls you away from any other stress so I just love hearing birds trip now on to the goal of the week my current goal of the

week right now is to do breath work I always say this but I really do want to try to do more breath work and even if it's a guided one because sometimes I'll do breath work and I do the breathe in for four seconds or hold it for four seconds breathe out and as those are nice there's also a lot of like routines and guidance you can get on how to practice breath work and I really want to try that Another goal of the week right now is having more turmeric tea for inflammation. I feel like I'm trying to look into a lot of things that are going to help maintain relax muscles for my cybidyl neuralgia. And I find that turmeric I've heard is really good.

Tumric with black pepper is really good for inflammation, especially for nerves. So just trying to look into more things that are going to help support my nerves and of course support just inflammation that I may have in my body. Now to your affirmation of the week. My health is my truest wealth. I love that affirmation so much because it's so classic where we have so much problems and stress on us, but when you have a lot of stress and things going on your life and then you have a health problem, you only have one problem then.

And I always try to remember that and it's so true because when my isidyl neurology flared up, I forgot about all my other problems in life, except for this, because it felt so scary, the pain I was enduring. So it's really important to remember that you have a million problems until you have a health problem and it's one problem then. That's your main priority, your main focus, and the only problem truly on your mind. So just affirming that to yourself that my health is my truest wealth is so important. Now on to the self-love questions.

What is my most unique skill? I love that question so much. Now on to your challenge of the week. Start doing morning breathwork for a slow start to your morning. I love that so much and honestly we're going to be doing this challenge together this week. Now on to the podcast review and if you want to be featured on next week's episode, make sure to leave a podcast review over Apple Podcast and rate over Spotify. This review is from Erica and she said,

I've been listening to The Busy at Pretty Podcast for a while now and have always love your insight and all your advice on everything. I started treatment for my eating disorder today after a long time battling it. Very scary stuff, but I re-listen to your episode on recovery on my way to the treatment facility and it helped me reassure me and ease my nerves before taking such a big step. Your willingness to talk about issues like this is so admirable and it really does make a difference. Listening to you talk about your experiences with recovery helps me look at it in a positive light and have hope that I will one day be able to live my life with freedom and joy just like you were able to do.

You're a real role model and I can definitely say I wouldn't be on my recovery journey without the busy yet pretty podcast. You are helping me be brave and even to be excited about the future. I will have if I work hard and give it my all in treatment. Lots of love, Erica. Erica, let me just say that review touched my heart so much. I feel like I can just remember like totally dig my back a few years, quite a bit of years ago when I had my eating disorder and I just remember that feeling of wanting like that big sister feel

of seeing someone else do it because I wanted to know that there was light at the end of the tunnel and I am just so beyond proud of you more than anything and you should be so proud of yourself. This by checking yourself into recovery and doing this big step and putting in the effort is the best gift that you could ever give yourself. Thank you so much for being so open and transparent. And you just inspired so many people right now while we get into this episode. So I am just so grateful for you and am so excited for your amazing future. Well, that review was so sweet.

And I feel like it just was the perfect way to start this episode. But without further ado, let's get into today's episode. And I want to just give a little trigger warning that, of course, eating disorders are going to be mentioned, but of course, in the way of it supporting recovery, no pro-eating disorder here. We are all pro-recovery here and helping us get a good relationship with food. So really excited to get into this episode. A huge majority of us in life, and I think honestly, almost all of us have had either a really

rocky relationship with food or just not the best relationship with food or even having an eating disorder. I feel like all people, especially women, have a point in their life, or maybe they have it all, most of their life, of having a negative perspective on food or even a negative relationship with food that could have led to an eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, etc. Which is why it just is so important to be educated on food and educated on having a different definition of food. We often frame food to be something that feels so, such a big deal. And as it is such a big deal, it is amazing. It is fuel. It doesn't need to take up your whole life. But being educated on what food really is is so amazing because you'll start to

realize how the nutrients in food are just so healing and can support us to feel our best and become our best self. So today we're going to talk about how food is fuel, not the enemy, and how to change your perspective on food, letting go of food noise, and letting go of yo-yo diets so that restriction, binge type of mindset. And let's be real, such a big majority of us suffer with a negative relationship with food or just food noise in general. So this is just a really good episode to have these tools in hand and just change your perspective. Let's be real. Wouldn't it be nice for us to just all be able to eat a limited amount of sugar and processed food, chips, and feel good. And not only that, have no effect on our body.

And of course, eat all those things with no food noise. Yes, that'd be great. But that's where I want to talk about food noise. Because food noise, everyone's like, how do I get rid of food noise? How do I get rid of food noise? And while we do want to get rid of food noise, some food noise is what also keeps us healthy and protected. I will get into that later, but as I said, that's not how our minds work.

We often have food noise. And like I said, it's not entirely all bad. Food noise can help us actually be more cautious and provide awareness on taking action for what to eat. That is actually good for our body, meaning it's protecting you. So that food noise can be like, oh, I don't want to have all these best. back of chips today. I want to have something healthy. And that's good as in a protection. It's giving you some sense of direction of what to do. But when you have too much food noise is when it becomes a problem. You have to have a bit of fear in life to create awareness. Just like stress,

not all stress is bad, but when it becomes too much is when it's bad. So we need stress to create discipline for ourselves. So for instance, if we have something due for work, tomorrow, we have to have a little bit of stress in us and in our body for us to want to take action to complete that for tomorrow, so we're turning it in on time. But when stress becomes obsessive is when it becomes unhealthy, just like fear. Not all fear is bad. When it becomes too much is when it's not healthy. But like fear, you are not going to be fearful to walk outside in your backyard and have a morning walk. But you have enough fear in you, you're not going to put yourself in a situation to walk alone at night at 3 a.m.

That is the amount of fear that you want to serve as protection, but not serve as overruling your life. So we want a touch of fear and we want that awareness when it comes to food. So we take action of taking care of herself and feeding ourselves what is healthy and what has nutrients and the same time eat with balance. But to protect us, not to scare us. from things that we actually need. When you have anorexia, as someone who's had anorexia and had orthorexia, it's very easy to fear everything. You fear so much. And you're not just

fearing, you know, that eating a bag of chips or something and you need to have something healthy. You're fearing everything. You're fearing so much that it becomes obsessive. And that's where it's no longer protecting you, that little bit of food noise. It just is hurting you. So that healthy amount of food noise is going to help fuel our bodies with the things that we need and eat with balance and eat what feeds our soul, not necessarily if it's healthy, but you know you're not going to indulge in a ton of things all day long where you're going to feel awful and it's going to help prevent you from getting sick by eating what's healthy. but like I said, when it becomes too much or we're restricting ourselves from food noise or binging is when it's revolving too much around food in our life. Too much is just revolved around food. As you know, I struggled with interrexia in the past and went through recovery. And even though it was short-lived, it was like a short-lived eating disorder where it didn't last years. Recovery

lasted a few years, but it didn't last years rock bottom. But that even was, you know, even that short amount of time that I had anorexia where I had my hard times. That little bit of me and my depth of my eating disorder has absolutely damaged my cycle, my hormones, and I'm still now at the point of trying to get my period fully back. I've gotten my period back and I'm actually pretty regular now, which is good. But it took years. It took years to heal my hormones. It does so much things on your body more than you've.

realize when you damage yourself, you're damaging yourself by not providing for yourself. By not eating, you are hurting yourself. By overeating, you're hurting yourself. And the hardest part is, is when you don't even realize you're in the depth of it until you're out of it. And that was like me. I thought I had full control over my ED and I was like, I know what I'm doing. I don't need any assistance. No one tell me that I need food or whatever. I know what I'm doing. And I really didn't. your mind actually starts to be altered and you're not thinking straight. Even though you feel you are, when you lack nutrients, you literally can begin hallucinating. You can begin having extreme brain fog, thinking differently.

There's so much that comes with having an eating disorder. And I don't want to get too much into eating disorders and more just on our other topics. But I think it is really good to be aware of that. And honestly, have that sense of awareness where you kind of. know when you start to slip into a different mindset or you start to realize, wait, maybe my mind is revolving too much about food. And this is not medical advice either, but this is just my own experience. But your relationship with food is bigger than you think. What you do now will reflect into the future on your body. And that's what I was meaning for your hormones and your period. How you treat your

body now can do so much either damage or a positive outcome in the future. So make sure to do what is kind to your body now for the future. It's so important you start looking at food as a form of self-care, whether you are eating to nourish your body, feeding it with nutrients or your usual food that you like to eat, or feeding your soul. That's something I really try to touch on is how feeding your soul and what I mean by feeding your soul is usually a comfort food that we love or some sugar or chips our favorite salty foods whatever it is our usual go-to comfort foods usually feeds our soul and it's typically not the healthiest so use food as self-care fuel your body with the nutrients it needs even if it's not nutritious it is benefiting you in the way of it's feeding your soul

I promise you, you not eating the foods, your comfort foods, your favorite meals, that is only doing more damage than actually eating the food because you're having such a horrible relationship with food, restricting it, trying to put that food item on a pedestal. And all of a sudden, you're just going to indulge in it rather than just eating it, moving on, and eating healthy. You have to start eating with balance, and it's so important. Balance is not black and white, and balance looks different. on everyone, but it is extremely important to realize that balance is what works best for us. Sometimes we start eating healthy and we're like, okay, we're going to start a new diet or a new healthy eating journey or my new year's resolution is to eat only clean foods. But realistically, that is just not sustainable.

It's not giving us a plan for longevity. It's very much setting us up for a yo-yo type of diet. Of course, you can have a goal to eat cleaner or eat more whole foods or eat this or eat that. But being in the way of, I'm just going to eat only clean foods or I'm just going to eat only low calorie foods or whatever it is is not sustainable. And you need to realize that because you're just going to keep going back to square one after many years of doing yo-yo diets. If you don't know what a yo-yo diet is, it's basically just like a diet that goes very off and on. and it's like a yo-yo goes up and down, just like the diet. It's up and down.

One month you're doing great. The next month, all hell broke loose and you're eating everything and you're covered. But like I'm saying, these diets and eating clean only is not sustainable for longevity because you want to enjoy your life as well. And you want to eat and treat yourself to your favorite foods and your sweet treats. Whether that be your birthday, a special occasion, going out with friends on the weekends, or just eating your favorite snacks at home, watching TV and dinner and dessert. Every day I eat snacks during the day when I'm not eating my meat, not every second of the day,

but I'm saying when I eat my meals, when I'm hungry and I want a snack, I'll get a snack. When I crave chocolate, I'll go eat chocolate. When I am watching TV at night, I'm having my dessert bowl. I listen to my cravings because if I push it out like I have in the past and I don't listen to them, all of a sudden I'm putting that sweet tree or that something on a pedestal and I won't stop thinking about because I want it so bad and I'm just not letting myself have it. And then one day, you just finally allow yourself to have it and then you try to eat all of it because you think I'm never going to eat these things again. I'm just going to allow myself today to eat it.

And all of a sudden, you've eaten your entire cupboard, you feel horrible, you feel nauseous and you could have just let yourself have those cravings to begin with, have those few pieces of chocolate and then put it down and move on. Not let your entire thoughts revolve around food. When it comes to food, we want what we don't have. You shouldn't be having to restrict yourself where you love something, a certain food, and something you desire is becoming so big in your head and so much fear around it because you have so much guilt and fear if you ate it. And if you did eat it, you have the guilt. And there's just so much thought put into the food when it doesn't have to be.

I know you're thinking, Jaden, that's not how it works. This is a lot harder than done. Let me just tell you, I understand it's a lot easier said than done. But I have also been in the position where I used to think when I lived at home, oh my gosh, when I finally move out, I'm going to become so skinny and I'm going to eat. nothing and my mom's not going to have to tell me what to do. I get to live my own life. Let me tell you that did not happen. I ended up recovering and now I'm like, oh my goodness, how did I ever think that way? And I would have been dead if I continued that. If I actually

did that, I would have not been alive because I only tortured myself for so long and that already set me back so hard where my heart, lots of different things, not working as good as it should have because of how I was treating myself. I can't be the only one who has this like dream item of theirs that they always see whether it's a bag, a sweater, a top and you're like, I just need that, but it's like sold out everywhere. That's me with this one vintage Duny and Burke bag. I literally was looking everywhere for it and I somehow found one on a posh mark. But not just one.

I found multiple of them at such a good price and I was like, wait, this is just too good to be true. So if you know me, you know I am a Poshmark girl. Poshmark is a marketplace where you can list and sell, as well as buy. New items, vintage pieces, gently used, luxury pieces. They really just have it all. And I feel like there's no better time to go on Poshmark now. Everyone's cleaning out their closet and listing good things. Get in bed, get cozy, and go on Pashmark to add to your new spring wardrobe.

New deals and sales are listed every day, so don't wait. Download the Poshmark app and use code busy when you sign up to get $10 option for his purchase or shop now at poshmark.com slash busy and get $10 off your first purchase. That's P-O-S-H-M-A-R-K.com slash busy. I can't be the only one who has this like dream item of theirs that they always see, whether it's a bag, a sweater, a top, and you're like, I just need that, but it's like sold out everywhere. That's me with this one, vintage, Duny and Brick bag. I literally was looking everywhere for it and I somehow found one on a Poshamark. But not just one. I found multiple of them. at such a good price and I was like, wait, this is just too good to be true.

So if you know me, you know I am a Poshmark girl. Poshmark is a marketplace where you can list and sell, as well as buy new items, vintage pieces, gently used, luxury pieces. They really just have it all. And I feel like there's no better time to go on Poshmark now. Everyone's cleaning out their closet and listing good things. Get in bed, get cozy and go on Pashmark to add to your new spring wardrobe. New deals and sales are listed every day, so don't wait.

download the Poshmark app and use code busy when you sign up to get $10 off your first purchase or shop now at Poshmark.com slash busy and get $10 off your first purchase. That's P-O-S-H-M-A-R-K.com slash busy. Your body needs food. Food is fuel. You don't have to always eat a vegetable. You don't have to always eat protein. Okay. That's another thing is I love like the part of food where it's important to get all the food groups, healthy fats, protein, a complex carb and vegetables, fiber. I love that and I think it's great and I also feel good when I do that. But sometimes we hear so much like videos or so much things that are always like, you have

to hit your amount of protein in the day. You have to have all your protein. Yes, love protein. Yes, protein makes you lean and it makes you feel strong and fit. At the same time, you don't need to shove food at your mouth when you don't want it. You don't have to just shovel chicken in your mouth if you're not wanting it. Or protein powder if you don't want it. You don't have to hit a certain protein goal.

I'm telling you, if you're off a few grams of protein, that's not going to ruin your progress of your body. I'm going to tell you that. There are some days where I eat no vegetables and I'm just eating lots and lots of red meat from my period I'm craving. the next day I'm eating so many veggies, so many fruits, and I forgot that protein even existed. Of course, you know, I don't feel the best when I do that, but you listen to your cravings. Do what feels good for you. You don't have to always hit all your food groups.

If you're not getting as much protein as you usually eat, God forbid, nothing's going to happen to you. You're okay. So stop putting so much guilt and stress and, like, like discipline on yourself when you don't need to be. If you look at someone like Bethany Frankl and I don't like know everything she does, but I know she has a book, I think it's like how to be skinny or something like that. And I know I'm talking a lot about the word skinny, which I don't like to do because

being skinny or thin is not the goal or the answer in life. But that's something, of course, we see on social media. And it's very common. You know, you're going to see weight loss ads. You're going to see lots of different type of. you know, how to get skinny for summer, those type of things. And there's nothing wrong with the how to get fit for summer or how to get toned for summer. Let's move off that topic.

Because to me, it just bothers me. Like, skinny is not the answer. Let me tell you that. Trust me, I remember thinking, all I want to do is be stick thin. When I was in my eating disorder, I was stick thin and I did not realize I was. I was shopping in the men's XL section because that's how I saw myself. That's what body image does to you. You will literally see yourself differently and have body dysmorphia.

I promise you being skinny is not the answer. Being healthy is the answer. Feeling good about yourself is the answer. Being confident. Fueling yourself. Eating what you love. Eating your favorite sweet treats. Eating with balance.

Eating your vegetables. Everything. All that is the goal is being balanced. But back to what I was saying about Bethany Frankel. She talks about this. I think in a book. I haven't read it, but she talks a lot about this on TikTok and says she's healthy and appears to be healthy and stuff and she eats lots of sweet treats. You'll look at her stuff and she's eating snacks and sweet treats all the time. But you realize she's not, she's allowing herself

to eat those. She's not thinking, this is my only day, my cheat day of the day of the month to eat these sweet treats so she eats everything. No. What she does is she has a craving and she eat some and then she moves on. That's where I think it's a really good mindset where you have to allow yourself to eat what you want and to just get those cravings out because once you eat it, that craving is most likely going to go away. You're not going to be thinking so much about it. Don't let that thought build up so big where all of a sudden you're just not even able to work. You're thinking of that cookie. You're thinking of the cookie in your pantry that you want so bad. And then all of a sudden, you ate so healthy all day long and then it comes tonight and you're like,

You know what? I'm having my cheat day today. I'm just going to eat all the cookies. And then you eat the entire box of 30 cookies. That could have been avoided because you could have just let yourself have that cookie when you wanted it. Also, if you're someone who gains weight and loses weight and, you know, you realize you gain some weight, let me just tell you the world's not ending, okay? And most likely, you probably needed that weight. Okay? And if you didn't, maybe you're, a little, you know, more heavier than you anticipate to be. Guess what? Your body is meant to fluctuate. During our cycle, especially being a woman, our bodies always fluctuate. And we have a 30-day cycle compared to a man who has a 24-hour cycle. In our different parts of our cycle, we're going to

feel more water retention in our body. We're going to feel heavier. We're going to weigh more. And other times of our cycle, we're going to be not as, you know, heavy with water attention. We're not going to have as many cravings. Our body literally needs food. And I cannot stress that enough. You have to listen to your body. We're not trying to take out anything from our diets or take out anything from our life. If you want to, sure. But let me just tell you, if you start adding in, that's what's going to do more positivity and a lot better for your life and how you feel and how you look everything. You can eat your cooking. You're cookies that you love. You can eat your hamburgers. Trust me. I will eat a burger like every other day.

I eat sweet treats every day. I love it. I have a big sweet tooth throughout my period and I am all for and eating what we crave. But at the same time, you can add in some vegetables into your diet, add in some fiber, add in some of your favorite fish into your diet. Start adding things that are healthy into your diet. Start adding things that you love into your diet. Same if maybe you haven't eaten anything sweet or anything, you know, of your favorite foods, your comfort meals. And you've been eating only healthy. You don't have to remove your healthy food from your diet.

Just add in your sweet treats to make you happy. That's going to feed your soul. Start adding rather than taking out. So like I was saying, don't put food on a pedestal. Eat healthy the majority of the time and enjoy your cravings and just know when to stop. Start removing the all or nothing mindset. and if you're familiar with binge eating, you know very well. It's all or nothing.

I know this is much easier said than done, but it takes time. And the best thing we can do is just work on it and try. But let's say you eat a few pieces of chocolate and you got your craving out, okay? Let's say you decide to not eat those pieces of chocolate that you were wanting. You're thinking about it all day. You cannot even focus on your work because you're just thinking of the chocolate that's in your pantry that you want. Okay. Now time goes on. You eat healthy during the day. You're still thinking about your chocolate. You open your cupboard and they're like, you know what? Today's my cheat day. You're eating everything.

Like I was saying about the cookies. You're eating all the chocolate then. And you eat the entire bar. Then you open something else and eat an entire pack of cookies. Why have that all or nothing mindset? Same with a bag of chips. Maybe you eat a few chips. Then you eat a few chips. you think, dang it, this is going to ruin my progress. So now you're mad and you're thinking how it's going to ruin all the progress that you worked on at the gym. So instead what you're going to do is you open the whole bag and just eat the rest of the bag. That is the same type of mindset of you doing your dishes. You accidentally get some water on your shirt while you're cleaning a spoon and it sprays on you while you're doing your dishes. So instead of just

letting that dry up and moving on, what you do is you get the faucet and you point it at yourself and drench your entire clothes in water. What is that going to do for you? All you just did right there was have the all or nothing mindset. It was either no water on your shirt at all or oops, you got a little bit of water. Now you're going to drench your entire clothes in water. If you spell a word wrong on your page that you're writing, you're not going to scribble out everything. You're going to scribble out that one word, but having the all or nothing mindset is, all of a sudden, that one little letter that you spelled wrong, that one little word, what you're going to do is you're scribbling out the entire page and restarting. If you allow yourself to think that way, being it's either

healthy food all the time or nothing, and only unhealthy food, you'll always find yourself with this obsessed mindset with food, always having guilt about what you eat, and just having that endless loop of eating healthy, finally allowing yourself to have something sweet and then eating everything out at once and then feeling sick to your stomach thinking, okay, today was my cheat day and I'm never eating this stuff again. I'm throwing everything out and then starting again tomorrow and then the next day you end up eating your entire fridge again. It just is becoming an endless loop and most of all, an endless unsustainable loop. Things do not need to be all or nothing. So allow yourself to eat your cravings like I said a million times and in moderation and have confidence

in yourself knowing that you can eat these things any time of the day anytime you want because you know when to stop so there's no need to restrict and eat nothing that you love and there's no need to eat you know every single thing in your cupboard also you can learn how to love veggies and I know this sounds so goofy, but like I actually love my vegetables. I love vegetables. But some days I wake up, I'm like, I never want to see a vegetable in my life. But you kind of just learn to see what you like and what you don't. When it comes to idolizing food, it's really good not to put a label on everything because it's very easy to idolize their favorite food or put a label and name it something bad as something that's not very healthy, like a bad food

when it's actually, you know, it just is food. Maybe it's not that nutrient dense, but it just is food. And you don't have to make it such a big label or put it as like a bad food in your mind. But by doing that and labeling your food in your head is only going to make you want it even more because you're giving it more power by not allowing yourself to think that it's accessible for you to have. When it comes to food noise, remember the purpose of food. Food is to fuel us and keep us healthy.

stop spending so much of your time and thought into food, what we eat for our next meal or what we eat for tomorrow, what we're eating for the rest of the week. It's very easy to want to overplan, but you need to let yourself almost go with the flow when it comes to food when it comes to healing your relationship with food because it's like I said, very easy to overplan of what we're eating for our next meal and thinking, oh, well, if I eat this now, then I can't have this later. There's just this too much thought getting put into it. So try to just let yourself go and not put so much thought into food. Something that I wish that was told to me earlier when I had my eating disorder was food is not a hobby. We can love food, but again, whether it's restricting or binge eating, you're always

going to have food on your mind. And personally, I was obsessed with food. And it's the truth. even in today's time, I'm recovered and everything. I love food. I've always loved food. I think it could be so beautiful. I love cooking. I love looking on like Pinterest and making like cute plates for the food. But I was obsessed with food because I was putting food on a pedestal and I didn't allow myself to ever have it. Food is great and food is fuel.

But don't allow your entire life and time to be spent always thinking about it. So my biggest advice for you is food. find a hobby. I noticed whenever I had a really bad relationship with food or when I was in my eating disorder or when I had just had a lot of food noise going on, I had too much free time on my hands and not enough time spent towards something valuable such as a hobby. I was lost on how to spend my time. So I just spent my time obsessing over food and my weight and body image. There are so many more things that are much more important in life that you could put your time towards that have nothing to do with food or maybe it can be even cooking or baking. Yes, that has to do

with food, but in a different way, you're not thinking so much about food of what you're eating next. You're just, you need to put your time in a hobby. You also have to remember that food is a way of connection and a way to create memories. You can take things slow and be mindful. Food is not about getting the task done. When you eat breakfast, when you eat breakfast, when you eat lunch and dinner, you don't have to think of it like a chore. And you also don't like, you don't have to think of it like something where you have to check it off. It can be a way to create memories and to create a time shared. And even if maybe you ate food not mindlessly, you ate food without being mindful and you kind of just mindlessly ate, that's fine too.

Move on. Don't think about the past and you move on. But you can make your food feel special. and just be present. Having dinner parties and dinners and breakfast and brunch and lunch, all that can just make so many memories. And it's not about the food. It's not about what you're eating, but the time spent with one another, the gathering, the talking, the conversation. When you go to dinner, it's not just about what you're eating, but the event. It's about getting ready and enjoying getting ready and getting excited for the dinner party and seeing your friends and your family and all the convoes you're going to have and just catching up. The food is great, but it's not the main event.

And that's also something Ina Garden says is how, of course, the food is amazing, but it's about the memory shared. And you can use food to heal you and nurture you and bring you enjoyment, not stress. And now, like I was saying, you need to heal this relationship with your binging and restricting cycle. Or maybe if you're just binging or just restricting, you have to just, just, you have to just heal and take time and effort into healing this. If food is a stressful time for you, make it comforting, light a candle, put on a podcast, maybe busy at pretty, or put on your

favorite movie and make it a comforting present time. Let's say you ate something and feel guilty. Remember, your 90-year-old self would be so disappointed if you spent so much time of your life wasting on wishing that you didn't eat something. It is so easy to just wish that you didn't eat that cake the other day or wish that you didn't eat so much of this because if you could have ate this then tonight, let me tell you something. If you ate a ton of things last night at dinner, you can still have an amazing huge brunch for breakfast. Stop limiting yourself. Have what you want because your body needs it and deserves it. And again, like I was saying, if you end up gaining a lot of weight or losing a lot of weight, your body is meant to fluctuate. It's not going to always stay the

same and at different times and stages of our life we're going to look different there's definitely times i've been skinnier and there's definitely times i've been heavier and i even my of course i'm not perfect we all have you know body image things that go off and on but i always think i'm just so lucky to be here i'm so lucky to have everything i had in my life i'm telling you you would take the problems you have now that your quote problems you have now you have now more than any other problem that's worse. Someone always has it worse, and it's important to remember that. When I had my health scare and have been going through this, like, flare the past two weeks,

I didn't even care what I looked like. I didn't even care. I felt I was in so much pain. But like, it also just was another like slap in the face of realization being like, gosh, the little things that we stress about and the little things we have guilt over or the little things that we put so much stress or thought into is so small when it comes to your health. All you want to do is be healthy and alive and that's the best thing. Nurture yourself and stop looking at food as a hobby and a way to punish yourself and a way to hurt yourself.

You deserve to eat. You deserve to have what you're wanting. You deserve to eat the healthy foods and the foods you crave. And you also deserve to rest and have open space in your mind. that's not always being taken up by food. Same when it goes to if you ate something that wasn't quote worth it. Sometimes we eat something where we're like, oh, it was not worth it enough. I wish I didn't eat that. Maybe you ate a cake and it wasn't that good but you ate it anyways. Let me tell you something.

It doesn't always have to be quote worth it. Stop having labels on everything. If you ate something that wasn't quote worth it, you drop it. It doesn't have to be the best 10 out of 10 food that you. you always eat, you're going to eat things that you ended up eating it that you didn't love, and that's okay. It fueled you. You don't need to label it as it wasn't worth it. I shouldn't have eaten it. Move on. You deserve what you want anytime, any day. Start directing your time, less on food, planning and thinking ahead of what you're going to eat,

onto something that really matters. Easier said than done, but like I said, I think getting a hobby is one of the most important things when it comes to recovery and getting a hobby that you actually put your time into. And as I wrap up this episode, I want to leave you with a few quotes that I just absolutely love. And I think they can really touch you and I think it's really good to remember. The first one is, when you stop labeling food as good or bad, the food normal. starts to phase. Peace begins and judgment ends. I love that so much and I think it's so, so unbelievably true. The next one is on healing, it says. Healing is not about eating everything all the

time. It's about knowing that you can and choosing what feels good for your body and soul at the time. I love these so much and I hope you enjoyed those quotes. And most importantly, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please let me know by leaving a review over Apple Podcasts, and leave a five-star rating over Spotify. And maybe share this episode to a friend or a family member who, you know, you've chatted about food with because I feel like this topic is very important and not enough people talk about this.

Please share over any of your platforms such as TikTok or Instagram. I have been loving the TikTok videos you guys are tagging me in. I always repost them and you guys are so unbelievably beautiful. I'm just forever grateful for this amazing community. and all the love you guys share. And anyways, I love you so much. I also always reply back to the Spotify comments. So I know you guys have been leaving like merch requests soon.

So stay tuned for that. Going to be looking into that in the next few months. But anyways, I love you so much. Remember that your body is a temple. Feed it, fuel it, and be kind to it. And do not forget to stay busy yet pretty. Ma.