Nurturing a Healthy Relationship with Food and Body with Rachel Engelhart
In this enlightening episode of Health Gig, host Tricia and guest Rachel Engelhart, a registered dietitian, licensed professional counselor, and certified intuitive eating counselor, delve deep into the world of intuitive eating and cultivating a healthier relationship with food and our bodies. Rachel shares her personal journey of overcoming an eating disorder, which eventually led her to specialize in helping others heal their relationship with food. She emphasizes the importance of being gentle and self-compassionate, recognizing that we are all more than our size or shape.
The conversation explores the impact of diet culture on our perceptions of food and appearance and how embracing intuitive eating can lead to a more joyful, peaceful existence. Together, they discuss the power of curiosity and mindfulness in intuitive eating, promoting a balanced and nourishing approach to food that truly resonates with our individual needs. Tune in for an inspiring discussion that encourages embracing self-acceptance, reducing judgment, and finding joy in our relationship with food and ourselves.
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Quotes:
We can all benefit from being kinder to ourselves and using more gentle language when talking about our bodies and food. - Rachel Engelhart
I feel fortunate to be able to assist individuals in improving their relationship with food and their bodies, ultimately aiding them in achieving better health. - Rachel Engelhart
Everyone deserves support when it comes to our relationship with food and our bodies. It is important to acknowledge that we all have work to do in this area, and to seek the support we need without hesitation. - Rachel Engelhart
Show Notes:
Rachel Engelhart: I work with people to have a healthier relationship with food. I specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, but I also love working with families and individuals to just cultivate a healthier relationship with food and to feel better in their bodies.
Rachel Engelhart: I actually started going to Jazzercise with my mom and it was a really nice bonding experience, but I think my body just kind of did need more movement than I was getting and I ended up losing a lot of weight. Rachel Engelhart: Probably was also puberty. And then I went on to really restrict and I got positive attention for the comments that I got with regard to the weight loss. And it really grew into a full fledged eating disorder, one that I had for probably like seven years in college.
Rachel Engelhart: couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if I had had someone along the way who could have just supported me or helped me see things differently. Really, that's what's informed my career. It's that I know what it feels like to feel uncomfortable and it feels like to feel not good enough. And I just feel so lucky that this is the work that I get to do to help people get to a healthier place with their own relationship to food and body.
Rachel Engelhart: I feel that there are many people who are rather high functioning and navigate the world with an eating disorder or at least disordered eating.
Rachel Engelhart: anorexia nervosa is what I would say I had. I was never officially diagnosed. But knowing what I know now, I'm confident that that's what I struggled with.
Rachel Engelhart: I think that we all have a lot of work to do in terms of our relationship to how we feed ourselves, how we feel in our bodies. And we should all have a very low threshold for getting the support around that that we need.
Rachel Engelhart: we live in this world that is like if you ever heard the term diet culture, it's the idea that we live in this environment, this society that puts so much pressure on us to look a certain way, to eat a certain way, to act a certain way. And really that has such an impact.
Rachel Engelhart: unfortunately, magazine covers don't yell at us to feel more proud of ourselves and to really acknowledge the things about us that make us so special. They tell us how to avoid certain foods so that our body looks like or what organizers to buy so that our linen closet looks cleaner. It really harps on our anxiety and our beliefs that we're not enough. Our society really harps and benefits from us feeling like we're not good enough.
Rachel Engelhart: We are so much more than our food choices.
Rachel Engelhart: For most people, feeling full is a sensation that passes and then they're able to realize, like, you know what? I think I might have overdid it with a dessert. You know, maybe next time I should just have a little bit less dessert or maybe next time I'm going to order differently. And just having the ability to just be curious about what happened and how to learn from that experience and move on so that they don't repeat it next time. But rather than having a judgment, Oh, I'm so bad or oh, I shouldn't have done that. Instead being curious, huh? Wonder what that why I'm not feeling great. What could I do differently next time? So I think curiosity is definitely one takeaway that I want people to have.
Rachel Engelhart: I'm a mom of young children and so I just love the idea of raising a generation of kids who feel joy and connection around food, because that's really what food does for us.
Rachel Engelhart: we're not always going to have a perfect week and it's not always going to be a perfect day of eating and just being gentle with ourselves and recognizing that we're just going to do the best that we can. It's okay. There's no perfectionism.
Rachel Engelhart: It's good to give kids variety. It's good to show them that you can prioritize your own mental health and just kind of go order in the pizza or go to the drive through again. I think it's better. Like, I appreciate that people want that to be the exception, not the rule. I think that that's a fine way to approach it, but it's also okay if that sometimes is the reality for your family.
Rachel Engelhart: Mindfulness is a really big part of intuitive eating, and they really do go hand in hand.
Rachel Engelhart: I did a segment recently around stress and foods that reduce stress, and I think it's unrealistic to think that any food is going to magically just suck the stress out of our life. That said, if we're really hard on ourselves and how we're thinking about food, then that's definitely going to increase stress levels.