It's episode 100 of the Emotional Eating (and Everything Else) Podcast--I can't even believe it! And to celebrate, I thought I'd invite two amazing women who I've had the honor of working with come into the show and share their experience with IFS.

Kali and Amanda are two former clients who graciously agreed to talk about their struggles with food and their bodies and how IFS and Intuitive Eating have helped them to heal. They have very different histories and backgrounds, different body types, and different experiences, and I have no doubt that you will resonate with so much of what they share.

In my interview with Kali, we focus on the constant need she felt to change her body due to the pressure from others. She discusses the numerous diets she tried (including the high-protein diet that led her to eat a meat cake for her birthday--yes, you read that correctly), the damage those diets have done, and the fear those programs created. We also discuss the impact of the medical community, food scarcity, and a certain infant part that led her to binge. Kali also shares her journey with IFS--not just in terms of changing her relationship with food and her body, but also in getting to know herself. Indeed, she states, ”IFS has changed my relationship with myself entirely.”

Amanda's experience is different, as she doesn't recall outside pressure to be thin. Regardless, she was never comfortable in her own skin, and her eating disorder was a way to control her world. She discusses the secrecy involved in her eating disorder, the lack of attention by the medical community, and how the wellness industry sent her spiraling even further. We also talk about what was missing in other types of therapy she tried, and how IFS finally got to the heart of her eating patterns. We end with her sharing that she is finally able to truly feel love for herself: ”I’m worth all the work that it takes.”

I'm so thankful to Kali and Amanda for sharing their stories with us, and I know you'll hear yourself in some (or a lot) of what they're saying. Take a listen!

Where to find me:

Email: kdanielspsyd@gmail.com

CE Course: Unburdened Bites: Helping Your Clients Heal Their Relationships with Food and Body Using IFS

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I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that at some point in your life, you've tried to change what you're eating. Perhaps because you started a diet. Or you were trying to "eat healthier." Or maybe you were trying to move toward a more Self-led or Intuitive Eating approach to food (where you're really tuning into your body and feeding your body in ways that work well for it).

Regardless of why you were trying to change what you were eating, it probably wasn't all that easy. There may have been foods that you tried to cut out but couldn't, foods that you stopped eating but found yourself dreaming of, or even foods that you restricted and then binged on.

And there are likely a few different reasons for this, the first being that our parts like certain foods--and they miss those foods! But they may also like the rituals that you have surrounding those foods. The shopping, the preparing, the anticipation, the cooking, the aroma that fills your kitchen. Or perhaps the evening at your favorite restaurant where you feel cared for and attended to. Or maybe even the gatherings with friends, where everyone brings their favorite dishes and you get to eat things you've never tried before.

All of those rituals have an impact on our parts. And when we lose them, our parts can feel real grief.

On this week's podcast, we're talking about these food rituals and the impact they can have. Sure, our parts can get very attached to specific foods, but they also get attached to all of the rituals surrounding food. And I think it can be really helpful to get curious about these rituals.

In fact, it might be helpful to think about your favorite foods and/or the ones you have a hard time changing (even when you know they don't sit well with your body). Is it the food itself that's hard to give up? Or is it everything else?

Take a listen, and try to get curious!

Where to find me:

drkimdaniels.com

kdanielspsyd@gmail.com

CE Course: Unburdened Bites: Helping Your Clients Heal Their Relationships with Food and Body Using IFS

On the last podcast, we talked about "blocking parts." And by blocking, I meant parts that tend to come up when you’re trying to get to know another part. Like when you’re headed for the kitchen and a part of you says, "I should get to know the part that’s leading me to the kitchen right now" but another part comes up and says, "Nope! I don’t want to get to know that part. I’ll do it next time." I hope that the episode was helpful and that you noticed more of those parts over the past couple of weeks.

This week, I thought it would be helpful to focus on another group or cluster of parts that many folx have that I’m calling "disconnecting parts." These are parts that disconnect you from your body for various reasons. They can show up in various ways, such as:

• Not feeling hunger or fullness cues
• Not noticing physical cues from your body
• Having difficulty knowing where parts are within your body
• Difficulty or reluctance to focus on physical self-care
• Inability to experience enjoyment or pleasure

Those are just a few examples. You may be noticing other ways in which parts may disconnect you from your body. If that's the case, just be curious. Disconnecting parts tend to be protectors who for whatever reason feel the need to separate us from what our body is telling us. They're trying to help us.

On this week's podcast, we're focusing on the parts that disconnect us from our body and make it difficult to connect with hunger and fullness cues. We're focusing on:

• What disconnecting parts are
• Why they're there
• How they show up and block hunger and fullness cues
• What to do about them

AND

I'm sharing some suggestions from Intuitive Eating that can help you connect to your body even more. We go through four exercises from the Intuitive Eating Workbook that help you to tune into your body as well as your hunger and fullness cues.

If you're someone who feels as though you're unable to read your body's cues, you may have some disconnecting parts in your system. Take a listen to find out!

Intuitive Eating Workbook

Intuitive Eating Book

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