How to Eat Without Stress this Holiday Season with Wendie Taylor

How to Eat Without Stress this Holiday Season with Wendie Taylor

Welcome to episode 128 of  The Determined Mom Show. I am your host, Amanda Tento. In this episode,  we are talking with Wendie Taylor about how to eat without stress this holiday season. So welcome, Wendie, tell us a little bit about you and what you do, and how you got started. 

I first became a Dietician back in 2004 and I now practice using a weight-neutral or help-at-any-size approach. So that means I don’t practice using restrictions or weight as a goal for health. I read a book called Intuitive Eating.

 I first heard that term back in 2004 and it was from another Dietician. What I have come to realize is that intuitive eating is the polar opposite of dieting. When I first heard this, it made so much sense to me because I can relate to it from my own story. I’m happy to say that now I’ve been practicing it for years. 

So you think if you would’ve asked me even five years ago, what I would have been doing as a Dietician, I can look back and I was creating detox cleanses to help women get flat bellies to lose weight and all of that stuff. 

Now, this approach is something that I use personally, as well as professionally. It’s changed my relationship with food and has taken me to a better place, both in my physical and mental health. 

So it’s the opposite of what I learned in school and I had to do a lot of digging and a lot of searching to come to this point and I had to do a lot of work. I began to work with clients in my private practice, there was something different and that was; Intuitive Eating Health, that every size approach that I love. 

I can imagine that. I mean, for me listening to what we talked about on our pre-call and all of the ideas around it and the fact that you focus more on the mental aspects of the food, I can imagine that being a Dietician and being clinically trained and then coming across intuitive eating,  was almost like a culture shock for you. 

It was a total culture shock. I remember riding the fence and thinking everything had this conversation with the Dietician that initially brought it to my attention and saying, sure, we’re going to listen to the body intuitively.

I thought he was still focused on weight loss but you have to separate weight from health to understand this and talk about the mental relief once you do that. So now, I love everything about the work that I do with clients today and I love their relationship with food but it took me a long time to get here, where I’m at today.

Interesting and you mentioned something that I want to go back to and that is, you mentioned having to separate weight loss and that relationship with food.

It is confusing when people hear that because we think weight equals health but people are living in larger bodies that are healthier than people that are smaller bodies you can get on a scale and it can tell you one thing but it doesn’t tell you what your blood pressure is. It does not tell you their moods, like your mental health or stress level. It doesn’t tell you so many things but it’s diet culture. 

It’s the narrative that we have to be in a certain body size to be successful and to be loved and it’s less about the body and it’s more about your health, which is emotional, physical, and spiritual.

 So there are all these aspects to health that we forget about when we focus on weight, if anyone’s out there and they can think about when they get on the scale in the morning and what happens when it’s not the number you want it to be. So if we can just separate the weight from health and focus on not getting that downward spiral, that happens when we step on a scale.”  

How do you block messages or those false narratives out?

That’s a good question because it’s really hard during holidays, the chatter, it’s all internal chatter. First, what we have already talked about in your head is your inner voice. 

It’s like telling you what you should and shouldn’t do and making you feel a certain way and then on top of that, you’ve got your friends and your family. When you go to those parties talking constantly about something, saying things like, well, I’m going to burn this off tomorrow, etc so part of it is mentally preparing for it. 

It’s going to happen when you go home and you get around family and knowing that it’s not going to be different with social media, I recommend muting a lot of things, blocking ads, things that are coming up, that you’re looking at, it could be triggering for you during this time, so start muting ads and certain things. 

So I recommend excusing yourself from the table to get a couple of minutes to check in with yourself away from all the chatter. So take a few deep breaths, and maybe ask yourself questions like you’re there to eat.

Remind yourself of your goals and what you want. That’s part of what I teach in this program with my clients because many clients I work with said that they felt good where they’re at in their intuitive eating journey for the holidays and then when they get home, around family, it brings up a lot of their past. 

So when we work together, we go into your history, past, story, and what brought you here to where you’re today. So we work through a lot of old dieting thoughts and patterns and behaviors and when you go home, where a lot of those patterns, thoughts and behaviors come up and come rushing back to you. So those are the things we work on.”

How can people work with you, get in touch with you, all of the things, especially about your new program?

I have a Facebook group Ditching Diets Together, the same name on Instagram too. 

Great! So thank you so much, Wendie, for joining us, and looking forward to seeing your program and possibly even participating myself. To our readers and listeners, have a wonderful week.