{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Ep. #111: Steer Clear of the Wellness Diet with Lauren Redwine","description":"Lauren Redwine is an anti-diet coach who helps health conscious entrepreneurs heal their relationship with food. (Our interview is for anyone who wants to heal their food relationship; not just entrepreneurs!) Lauren shares how to look out for the \u201cwellness diet\u201d that can sneak up on us so fast. Even when we have good intentions, we can inadvertently turn \u201cbeing healthy\u201d into another form of dieting. If you\u2019re ready to relax around food this holiday season and create more joyful new year resolutions, this is a great episode for you! I have a special Food Freedom Holiday Workshop that\u2019s available on demand now! If you need some help having fun and enjoying the holidays, I\u2019d encourage you to check it out. Learn how to take care of yourself, stop stressing about what other people might be thinking, and create an amazing holiday. No wellness diet needed! An Industry Fueling Perfectionism Ultimately, Lauren works with wellness entrepreneurs who want to heal their relationship with food and their bodies. She finds this particular industry holds a lot of perfectionism, and there are constantly messages being sent about what\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d, what\u2019s \u201cbad\u201d, and what you can and can\u2019t do. The pressure to look perfect, play a role, and run a business can really feed into distorted body image and food relationships. This is something Lauren knows from first hand experience, as it\u2019s where she got her own start in business. As an adult, Lauren realized she\u2019s dealt with emotional eating since she was a child. During her higher education, however, she realized just how disordered her body image and eating were. For so long, the wellness rhetoric had made her believe that something was wrong with her\u2026.instead of being wrong with the industry. When she stepped away from wellness as a field, she realized she didn\u2019t deal with binging and restricting nearly as much. But when she came back into the industry after a few years away\u2026..she started having problems again. The big question on her mind? How come every time she got involved in the \u201chealth and wellness\u201d space\u2026.she started to have so many more body image and eating problems? Shouldn\u2019t it be the other way around? Always Obsessed Lauren realized that her own wellbeing decreased when she was knee deep in the wellness industry. Her final straw was an elimination diet she wen through, after which she hit her breaking point with business-as-usual. She knew there had to be something different out there. As soon as she found intuitive eating and the health at every size movement (HAES), it clicked with her. All the focus on her appearance and body hadn\u2019t served her at all; in fact, it had been making things worse. And all those wellness diets hadn\u2019t been working either! Now, Lauren is able to listen to her body. She eats foods that she loves, and trusts herself to know what will be best. I noted that many women will say that they DON\u2019T diet\u2026.they just like to \u201ceat healthy\u201d. They make all of their choices based on wellness diets and \u201crules\u201d about what it means to be a healthy person. Lauren shares this is often connected to a lot of fear mongering that goes on in the industry. There is so much pressure to be in a certain school of thought: vegan, Paleo, Keto, Whole 30. This list goes on and on, and most people in the wellness space are very aware of what \u201ccamp\u201d they are in, and what rules apply. Even though wellness is supposed to be holistic (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual health), what we tend to see most of the time is very focused on body image and weight loss. It promotes the message that weight is everything: that weight = health. The Trap of the Wellness Diet Even if no one would actually say that weight is the paramount factor in health, it very much is the message being sent. \u201cClean\u201d diets and wellness diets are also still very focused on weight loss and body image as well. Within the industry, Lauren notes there is often a lot of pressure to get aligned with some sort of wellness diet. There is an attitude that if *have* to be low carb, or vegan, or {today\u2019s trend} in order to be doing it right. And if you aren\u2019t doing it right, you\u2019re doing it wrong. In addition, there is very much an \u201cimage\u201d that goes with the wellness field. Thin women with the income for daily pilates, personal chefs, constant supplies of fresh green juice: there are so many ways in which the picture being painted isn\u2019t accessible or realistic for the average person! People find themselves not knowing what to eat, or how to eat. They also feel guilty about everything they are doing wrong. There is so much pressure to get it right, and it\u2019s stressful and confusing to know what to do. Lauren reminds us that are so many ways we can move for free; we don\u2019t need special outfits and expensive memberships to enjoy moving our bodies! We can also make an effort to follow more diverse voices and bodies within the wellness space. There are so many different ways to *do* wellness, and we have the ability to choose what we want to prioritize and focus on. Wellness diets and body image don\u2019t have to be centered in our narrative! Give Yourself a Break This is collective hard time. This is the time to focus on mental and emotional health first. There\u2019s no need to pressure yourself into losing weight during quarantine, or coming out of this slimmer or fitter. Wellness is holistic. It encompasses your entire life, and it is not about what you weigh. At my last prenatal appointment I asked my doctor about postnatal mental health practitioners in my areas. Why? Because we may not have child care, we\u2019re working from home, family may not be able to visit\u2026.and I\u2019m not worried about getting back to yoga and fitting into my pre-pregnancy pants! For me, I know the most important form of wellness I\u2019m going to need to protect is my mental health. For that reason, I\u2019m being proactive about that! (And when yoga feels good again, and I\u2019ll fit that in too.) It\u2019s all about listening to your own body and needs. Be Present and Enjoy It Lauren notes that the holiday season can bring up a lot of stress and anxiety around eating and food. She also shares she\u2019s been in that place where she was so worried about what would be served that she brought ingredients and made her own food, rather than eating the holiday meal that was prepared. That involved so much extra stress and worry. In retrospect, it would have been so much better to just eat was there and enjoy being present. Worrying about every bite you\u2019re going to eat, or ways in which to avoid eating \u201cbad\u201d food, robs so much joy from your life. It also makes you feel deprived and even ostracized. Your attention span and willpower are so engaged with what you \u201ccan\u201d eat (and what you \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d eat) that you don\u2019t get to be fully there with the people you love. It\u2019s okay to just go. Have fun. Engage with who is present, and eat what your body will enjoy. Ringing In the New Year (No Wellness Diet Needed!) If you\u2019re moving away from diets and the dieting mentally, January doesn\u2019t have to mean you\u2019re focusing on some new wellness diet or way of eating. What a beautiful time to focus on a goal that will be more nourishing and exciting for your overall wellness! Lauren suggests choosing a resolution that is nourishing and additive, rather than restrictive and based on deprivation. (What you WILL do, instead of what you WON\u2019T do!) This is also great because it\u2019s easier to add something new to your life than to remove something. It\u2019s also more fun! There are so many things in our days (and lives) that we already don\u2019t want to do. (Here\u2019s looking at you, dishes!) Why not let your goals be a source of joy and inspiration this year? Pursuing your dreams, engaging with your favorite hobbies, or trying new things are such worthwhile endeavors. Give it a try! (And if you do, I\u2019d love to hear about it! Tag me in a social post or send me a DM and tell me all about it.) ","author_name":"Quit Dieting for Good","author_url":"https:\/\/caitlinball.com","html":"