Women hear an enormous amount of “you should…” statements on a daily basis—from social media to our family to our friends to our own self-talk. And when it comes to weight, body image and our intentions surrounding it, women often receive messaging that promotes weight loss as salvation AND anti-diet messages that promote body acceptance.

These conflicting, black and white, either/or messages creates fragmentation within ourselves and shame surrounding whichever direction we lean. There’s no room for gray area, for both thoughts to be true, and this can be especially pronounced for those who have struggled with eating disorders or even dealt with chronic illness. It’s not wrong to have a body image goal, but in order to achieve sustainable change, health and wellbeing, it’s necessary to understand the “why” behind these goals first.

Today on the show Erin taps into these whys to really get to the root of our body intentions and offers up thought provoking questions to uncover our own belief patterns. You might hear yourself in some of the examples Erin showcases, and you wouldn’t be alone if you did—these are conversations Erin has had with others both in her group programs and 1:1 work, as well as in real life with friends and family.

If, like so many others, you’ve ever found yourself somewhere in the gray area between diet culture and anti-diet culture, this will be an especially important episode to hear!

In this episode:

-Body composition goals, our sense of worth and shame [5:32]

-Fragmentation and lack of safety as it relates to food [9:56]

-Healing Diet Orthorexia and interoceptive awareness [13:47]

-Why it’s hard to “just let things go” when it comes to emotions, mindset & weight [17:33]

-Subconscious reprogramming and identifying the fragmentation [19:48]

-Building new pathways in the brain [24:59]

-How to approach a structured food plan without restriction [28:00]

-Using self-inquiry to better understand ourselves [34:34]

-Questions to ask yourself to challenge old belief patterns [39:30]

-Why confusion is a good thing when it comes to change [45:23]

-The thing that holds people back from making change [46:32]

-Shifting into self compassion for deeper understanding [53:19]

-What’s needed for a true root cause approach to healing [56:36]

FOR OUR FULL LIST OF LINKS + RESOURCES, HEAD TO: https://www.thefunktionalnutritionist.com/podcast/205-shoulds-shames-weight-loss-goals