The world of nutrition is in the midst of a dizzying pendulum swing. With so many loud and conflicting opinions, it’s hard to know what’s right for you. In this episode, I chat with my colleague, Whitney Shook, NTP, about how to find (and trust!) what works for you.
What’s Covered in Episode 7
- The latest (and loudest) conversations in the nutrition world, including orthorexia, anti-diet culture, the autoimmune paleo protocol (AIP), intuitive eating, and more
- How to trust your body and listen to yourself, despite what others around you may prosthelytize
- The benefits and potential pitfalls of healing diets like AIP, paleo, etc.
- Whitney’s personal story of healing alopecia, depression, anxiety, bipolar, and more, using food as medicine
- The importance of “finding your center,” so you can always return to it when you fall off track
- What steps to take when you find healing nutrition protocols emotionally triggering or overwhelming
- The importance of a holistic self-care routine that goes beyond food
Relevant Links and Credits
- Whitney’s website, Rooted in Healing
- Whitney’s awesome Instagram page, @rooted.in.healing
Podcast Transcript: Navigating Nutritional Noise with Whitney Shook, NTP
Hello and welcome back to the show. Today we’ve got a really, really great conversation with Whitney Shook. She is a fellow Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and we are going to be talking all about this crazy pendulum swing between uber-restrictive healing diets, and on the other hand, anti-diet culture and where, where is the middle space and where can you find your happy place with all of this nutritional noise that’s out there in the world. So we’re going to be talking a lot about that today. But let’s go ahead and welcome Whitney to the show. Whitney, thank you so much for being here.
Thanks so much for having me. Holly, I’m so honored that you asked me to come on the show today.
Of course, I knew I wanted you on the show for a very, very long time, even before my podcast was born. Whitney, tell us a little bit about what you do and who you serve.
Like you said, I’m a nutritional therapist and um, I run a business that focuses primarily on helping women heal autoimmunity through a mind body, soul approach. My biggest focus with them is sort of creating a foundation for healing through food. But as I’m sure you’ve learned in your practice, it’s never just about the food. Um, so I also work with women on sort of overcoming limiting beliefs, creating self care routines, letting go of old coping mechanisms that are no longer serving them right. And all the inner child healing future self creation. Um, you know, this sort of multifaceted approach has been incredibly healing for people on a really deep level. So it’s been really incredible.
That’s amazing. And Oh my gosh, it is never, ever, ever about the food. Whitney, can you just tell us real quick, your clients, what are the typical health issues that they struggle with?
Yeah. So my clients really, it’s a very wide range. Um, oftentimes, you know, the majority of the time I’m seeing clients I think with Hashimoto’s seems to be the most common. But, um, you know, there is also, you know, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and um, other people who are struggling with autoimmune symptoms but haven’t had diagnoses yet. Um, and other people who are dealing with underlying root causes, you know, like candida or sibo or environmental toxicity
Yeah. And in all autoimmunity, like it all falls under the same umbrella. So lots of different conditions, but we’re often supporting kind of similar root causes and all of those. Totally. Awesome. Well, I just, uh, I love you and I love what you’re doing over, on your Instagram and your business Rooted in Healing. And I’m really honored that you came on the show today. And what I’d really love to dive in and talk about is, like I said at the beginning, this huge pendulum swing between like extremist nutrition of like you have to be keto or you have to be perfectly adherent to this protocol and there is no wiggle room and there’s no room for humanity or else you’re poisoning yourself and your children and we’re all gonna die. So there’s that side and then swinging over to the other side of the pendulum, you know, with anti-diet culture, which is a completely different narrative of eat whatever you want, do whatever you want.
Um, you know, if you want to change your body at all, the patriarchy is winning and there’s, there’s space in the middle of that. But I feel like especially if you are new to the space of healing yourself through nutrition and you get on Instagram and you try to find thought leaders and people to follow, there’s so much noise out there and there’s so many opinions and those opinions are very, very loud and it can be hard to know where to start. It can be intimidating to know where to start. And a big trend that I’ve seen is it is all of these conversations, people tune into them and then their trust in themselves starts to erode and they’re like, I don’t know who to listen to and I don’t know what to believe and I’m scared and so I’m just going to do nothing at all because I don’t know who to listen to. Um, do you have any initial thoughts on that, Whitney? Or like what have you seen in this space?
Yeah, I think it’s, you know, like a lack of trust in ourselves and our own innate knowledge. Um, our, our bodies are so intelligent and so when we don’t trust ourselves and we’re constantly looking to other people for answers instead of tuning in and it gets really, really confusing and there’s all this mumbo jumbo going on. Right. Um, and I do think that these leaders are really important, right? So that people can collect information and create something that works for them, but instead of doing that, they see one person, something worked for them and then cling to it. Right. Because, you know, we all have something that drove us to that, right? So whether it’s I’m uncomfortable in my body or I struggled with an eating disorder or, or I’m losing my hair because I have Hashimoto’s, right? We all have these, these motives that are very close to home and we just claim to anybody who can like possibly give us answer or find a solution and it’s just not black and white.
And so what I always encourage people to do is tune in and check in and take what works for them from these different people and leave the rest. And because we’re human, right? This is part of the human experience. It takes a lot of trial and error. Um, and, and that’s maybe the unfortunate and also the fortunate part of it, right? Because you are a human and you have the ability to try different things and to synthesize information and figure out something that works for you. Um, so, so yeah, it is. It can be. I do see that the space is kind of problematic and that women are, are, and people in general are shifting away from that. You know, that inner knowledge and that trust in themselves and, and um, yeah, it’s, it’s tough to see, but I know that people can get back to themselves.
I know that too. And I love what you said about trial and error because, you know, I spend a lot of time talking to clients about, you know, you’re gonna see a lot of noise out there, but we need to teach you how to tune into you. And so then they get this idea of, okay, I’m not going to be perfectly black or perfectly white, but I need to be perfectly in the middle. It’s almost like even when we’re trying to exist in the middle, we still need to be black and white and perfect about it. But I just love what you said about like, it’s a messy journey. Don’t expect this to be linear. Yeah. Love that Whitney. Like what have you seen, I know you talked about it a little bit, but what have you seen in your practice in terms of how these conversations can affect your clients? Or how have you seen this sort of pendulum phenomenon affect your clients?
Yeah. So honestly, a big part of the reason why I started doing mindset work in my practice is because my clients felt like failures. If they didn’t do something, you know, to the T a certain way, like if they had a day where they weren’t an a plus student, quote unquote, um, with a certain protocol, then they would just feel terrible about themselves. And that’s because it’s honestly, I kind of think it’s because of these old stories, right, that we, these narratives that we’ve developed over time and when you’re, you know, if it’s the, the child that felt like they had to be perfect at everything, otherwise they weren’t deserving of love, right. Or something like that, if they end up messing up on a protocol, then it, it just kind of, it reiterates that to them, it, it’s incredibly triggering. Right. And so, you know, maybe for the other person who feels like they’re a mess up all the time, right.
If they’re not staying on the protocol, then they feel like, Oh man, you know, I am, um, I’m, I’m, it reinforces that story. Like, I’m not good enough. I’ll never be good at anything, right? And it’s like, Oh my gosh, this is just food like you. This is just you nursing yourself. Right? And like there’s no right or wrong way to do it. So, um, so I do, I see this, this swinging back and forth with like, Oh, I’m great. I’m doing this. I feel really good too. I’m such a failure here. I’m going to eat this way that, you know, isn’t really serving me right now. And for me it’s kind of like regardless of of how your gut is doing or how your healing journey is going, that if you’re experiencing shame, you’re doing the opposite of healing. Right? And so that’s why we have to have to look at this and so many different layers and really help people find that center, that area where it’s like they’re eating, the diet is right. They’re eating something that’s making them feel better, but they’re also taking care of themselves emotionally. And sometimes you have to give and take a little bit to get yourself to center.
I love that. Just shame has no place on the table regardless of whatever protocol or whatever you’re doing. I love what you just said, Whitney, have you ever had somebody who’s maybe doing really well on a protocol and feeling really good about it and you’re doing the mindset work and everything’s going great and then maybe they listened to somebody on the internet who has a completely opposite opinion and then they come back and say, well now I feel like I’m doing it wrong. Has that ever happened in your practice?
Honestly, I have not had a big, had a lot of experiences around that, but I think that I’m very clear at the beginning with people that like there’s a lot of different ways that we can do this right now and tuning into yourself is super important. I do, I’ll be honest, like there are times where people go out and they’ll be like, Oh, I listened to Mark Hyman’s podcast the other day and I learned this, this and this. And I’m like, Oh. And then I have that fear like, Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, you know, are we doing this right? But we are right. I have to get back to my own intuition and be like, okay, I know, I know how to guide. I know how to help women tap in. I know how to help them find their inner healer. Um, so yeah, so I do think that there’s so much information out there and it’s wonderful and it’s beautiful because I’m sure in your situation, you know, especially I experienced it in mine is like I wouldn’t have gotten achieved the level of healing that I did without gathering information on the internet. And so if something resonates with you, go with it. Right? Like if it’s in your core, you’re like, this feels like it’s the right path for me, then do it. Right. And why should I feel intimidated by somebody feeling that feeling?
Absolutely. It’s that question of does it resonate? What I’ve seen happen is people can get distracted by shiny objects, but it’s almost like they don’t know whether it’s, it’s like a true yes of like, Ooh, yes, I’m being guided to this. Like, I feel really called to this and I think this would be super supportive for me or whether it’s coming from a place of fear, like a fear of missing out. Like, Ooh, I saw this thing and it looks really cool and I’m afraid if I don’t do it then I’m going to be missing out. So I think it’s like you said, it’s helping people discern between intuition and fear and I think sometimes that’s a little bit of a blurry line. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that you just help women tackle that right from the get go. Like I’m going to teach you how to listen to your body.
Totally. Totally. Yeah. And it is, it’s like the newest trend will come out and it’s like maybe I should try that, you know? And if, if they want to, again, it’s like if you want to do that, that’s great and I will support you, but these are the paths that I’ve seen be very productive in terms of healing. But I never want to shut somebody down just based on something that they are like, you know, thinking could work for them because it is, again, going back to that trial and error thing, like we all have to to find our sweet spot for what, what works for us. Although, you know, the carnivore diet, that was something that was like a little bit, Whoa.
So there’s that. And then somebody’s like, recently, and I haven’t looked this up, but somebody told me there’s this thing called the snake diet. Have you heard of this? So it has something to do with like the timing of your eating where like a snake, you’re only eating once every 24 hours. I’m probably totally botching it. And like all this snake diet people are gonna come after me now because I’m messing it up. But sometimes you just see these things and you’re like, okay, where did this come from? Totally. Yeah, the snake diet and what? Oh, and then there’s the gerbil diet.
Oh, well I love that you, that you exist in that space as a practitioner to help people find what works for them. Because I think any flavor of dogma is, is where it starts to get sketchy. I joke that like the internet has turned into this place where it’s not you do you, it’s you do me like, I know what’s best for you. And I love that you have this general framework that you start with for a lot of your people because you know, you’re, you know, you know what generally works, but you’re not coming from a place of you do me. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a lot of that. I see a lot of that out there and, and you know, maybe it’s, it’s easier to get attention when, when you’re that extremist or you have that strong of an opinion, but it’s kind of scary. Yeah.
I think that like, I think what I see is that people have an experience and then they put their blinders on and they’re like, this is the only truth, right? Yeah. And when we do that, we’re negating bio-individuality, right? That everybody has something different going on in their system and there’s going to be things that work for some people and don’t work for others. And if you’re, so I’m like, it gets scary when people are speaking with such conviction or it seems so self-righteous around things write it because you want to listen to somebody who’s speaking with conviction. But I think the practitioners who are really making the biggest impacts are the ones who say, let’s take a step back and look at how you’re feeling and this experience that you’re having and let’s pivot if we need to. Right.
Amen. Amen to that. What are, what are some of the conversations that you see happening right now that are maybe like veering a little bit left if you’re comfortable talking about that? If not, we can just skip forward. Oh, so a big part of my healing journey and what I teach to clients is, is the autoimmune paleo diet, which is sort of like the paleo diet, but a little bit further. I’m taking out other triggers that are pretty common for people. Um, and, and it is a fairly restrictive diet. It’s meant to be short term, um, at the very most, you know, 90 days is at the least, you know, around 30. It has been profoundly healing for me personally, but also I’ve seen that professionally and in many of my clients, it’s been a really great healing tool for, for so many people struggling with autoimmunity and currently and in the healing community, particularly for autoimmunity.
Um, there are people who are really throwing daggers at the AIP saying that it’s, you know, unnecessarily restrictive suggesting that, you know, they work with them so that they can get more testing done. Um, and for me, you know, I, I think there’s, again, there’s so many ways that you can achieve healing and get to the root cause. And if you want to spend hundreds of dollars on tests and that’s financially feasible for you, then like by all means, please do it. Testing is a wonderful tool, but there’s also this tool which is cutting out inflammatory foods and then reintroducing them one at a time. And most of the time that’s not going to make as big or as scary of a dent in people’s wallets. Um, it’s something they can, it’s a tool they can do on their own if they need to. Or that they can work with a practitioner on and oftentimes find similar results. Right?
Absolutely. And I’ve used AIP, the autoimmune paleo protocol in my practice as well. Um, and have seen phenomenal results with it for the people that it’s right for. I actually, I don’t use it with a lot of people, but the people that I do use it with, I think our client bases are a little bit different. The people that I do use it with. Um, I mean I’ve seen some phenomenal results. I’ve had clients discover food sensitivities, you know, particularly like nightshades, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, those sorts of things that if we were just doing like straight up paleo or gluten dairy free, they wouldn’t have gotten to the root of like, Oh my gosh, this is why I have cystic acne. Um, so I think it can be a phenomenal tool. And, and I’ve noticed this as well, it’s like, can people have a negative experience with the autoimmune paleo protocol? Absolutely. But do we need to throw the baby out with the bath water and say that it’s the devil and nobody should ever touch it ever? I think that’s just as damaging because I mean, it basically saved your life, right? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, absolutely. I mean, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it saved my life, but I mean, kind of in a lot of ways it did, right? Because I’m sitting here today because of it, you know? Um, I, I was struggling with alopecia, which is, um, for those of you who aren’t aware, it’s hair loss and I had like spots, the size of quarter is falling out around my head. Um, I was chronically stressed. I was depressed. I had really painful periods where I had to call out of work because of them. Um, and, and ended up finding out I had Hashimoto’s. And so doing a transitioning to the AIP, um, really, I mean, within eight weeks my hair was growing back and within, you know, three, four years, I realized, Oh my gosh, I’m not having panic attacks anymore. It was this gradual, like, Oh my gosh, I’m not like curled up in the fetal position on my bed every like every couple of weeks feeling like I want to die, you know? And, and so, yeah, in a lot of ways it did save my life. I was able to come off medication for antidepressants. You know, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed with clinical depression and ADD and you know, I was able to come off my medications because I figured out how to eat in a way that serves me. Right.
Yeah. There’s the power of the food mood connection. And I know you and I have a lot in common on the mental health front and healing our guts and being able to come off of our medications and stepping into our power and building businesses that we love. And that was all through the portal door of healing diets. And I mean, thank goodness we had access to those and we had the resources and the knowledge and the information and we could choose that path for ourselves because I know not to toot our own horns, but you and I both have really amazing recovery stories.
Yeah. Yeah. And we’re not the only ones, right. So many people out there who’ve had these similar experiences. And um, I don’t think we can negate that. Right. And sometimes I get frustrated because people are like, well those are just anecdotal stories. Show me the research and it’s like anecdotal stories saved, saved me that got me here to where I am. Right. And so you can’t dismiss those just because there isn’t money going into studies that are giving us that evidence on paper. Right.
Absolutely. I’ve been doing, um, I just did a post on Instagram yesterday and I’ve been doing this hashtag it’s hashtag I am the evidence because I get so sick of people asking like, you know, where’s the science? Or can you prove that in a study? And I’m like, bitch, I am the study.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it is. It’s like frustrating and it’s demeaning and it discounts our story. And I think those are the moments where it’s great. Like you step up, you step into your power and say, no, this is my true and I want to share that truth with the world because it will make an impact.
Absolutely. And I think some of these conversations like, well, we shouldn’t talk about AIP or any, you know, quote unquote restrictive healing diet at all because it could be damaging to somebody’s mental health and it could eventually lead to an eating disorder. Okay. Maybe it could, but it could also lead to radical recovery. And I think everybody deserves a voice, you know?
Yeah, yup. Absolutely. Yeah. And I think with the eating disorder conversation is like particularly interesting to me. And I don’t know what your thoughts are, but I always, like I said, like we said at the beginning, like it’s always more than just the food, right? Like, so to point your finger at a diet and say that that’s the thing that caused an eating disorder or orthorexia or obsessiveness, like it’s never just about the food, right? So we need to not only be approaching like, okay, is this unnecessarily restrictive for somebody who is maybe having obsessive thoughts, um, but also say like, what’s, what’s making them feel like they need to be so in control? Like, why are these obsessive thoughts coming from? Is it, you know, is it this fear that like they’re never going to get better and if they waver a little bit that like everything is going to fall apart.
Or are these like deep seated issues from childhood that are coming out to play in, in this, this healing process? Right. And so I think it’s really great to take a partner who can sort of be a witness for you and teach you how to be a witness for yourself and these thought patterns and what’s coming up for people. And so I wished that that was sort of what we were, what the solution was that people are aiming for as opposed to like this diet is awful and wrong and it’s going to give you an eating disorder. You shouldn’t do it. Right.
Absolutely. Because it truly is the mindset with how you are approaching food and if you can get some support there, you know, whatever that looks like for you. If you can get some support around your relationship with food and your thoughts around food and how you’re thinking about it, I mean not makes all the difference, you know, it’s just like you said, it’s, it’s not the diet, it’s the relationship with food and there’s so many things that play into our relationship with food. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What, so I know you are clearly an amazing partner and huge advocate for your clients and you guide them along this journey. But what are your recommendations for people who find healing protocols, healing diets, emotionally triggering?
Yeah, so, um, you know, like I said, I think it’s important to take a partner, but I know that that’s not, you know, necessarily a financial like possibility. You know, not everybody has the money to take partner, right? So I think that your job is to recognize when you’re feeling emotionally triggered and that’s easier for some people than others. But if somebody is starting to feel, you know, obsessive about food, then pump the brakes. Just take a step back so you take a step back for a month or six months or a year, that’s okay. You can work on sort of recentering and then you can try again and maybe by then you know, you will have worked through some of those things or just have more awareness moving into it the next time.
Absolutely. And I think there, there’s so many different layers to healing, physical and emotional and different people need to work on different layers at different times and in different stages. So I know for me personally, food food was like my entry portal door into healing. And when I was able to get my gut healed and my blood sugar stabilized and that really gave me some stability with mood. That was when I was able to go in and do deeper healing on an emotional level because I wasn’t wondering like, Oh my gosh, am I anxious because my blood sugar is so screwed up? Or am I anxious because I’m thinking about my childhood trauma? I was like, I could tell the difference and then I could do the emotional work. But I know that it happens in reverse for some people, like some people, they need to do the more emotional work before they approach a healing diet or healing program.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like nobody’s journey is going to look the same.
No, never, never, ever, ever. And I think when we start comparing our journey to other people and it start making comparisons again, there’s that shame and we start comparing and we start feeling shame. That’s also when we need to pump the brakes because it’s, it’s amazing to look to people for inspiration and say, you know, I can do that too. But when we start looking at people and saying, Oh, I didn’t do that, or I haven’t done that, or it didn’t look that way for me, it’s, it’s just as dangerous.
Totally. You go into that spiral of shame and like shame is the root of so many mental health issues, right? And so we don’t want that. We want you to feel centered and to trust yourself. Right?
Absolutely. Maybe I’m going to retitle this, the shame podcast or this episode, the shame episode. And our third guest today is Brene Brown, Brene, welcome to my closet. Oh my gosh, I love it. Um, Whitney, I know and I really admire about you that you don’t eat quote unquote perfect AIP all the time. I know that that still serves as kind of like the foundation of how you nourish yourself, but you don’t eat perfect all the time and you’re really transparent on Instagram when you’re like, I had all this paleo junk food or I ate out and like, I don’t feel well. Like you’re so transparent and I’d love to ask you like, how do you find that balance for yourself? Because I know for some people it’s really hard to get out of that all or nothing mindset.
Yeah. Yeah. So one thing that I always say to my clients is that a healing protocol is a tool to helping you become an empowered eater, right? And so meaning that once you have the knowledge of what works for you and what doesn’t, you can kind of kind of make conscious decisions around food. Um, and, and part of life is celebrating and its community and its cookies and its wine, you know, and, and I want to live fully while I’m here. Um, so knowing what my feelings, boundaries are, I will push them sometimes and I make a conscious, I just like having that decision around it. Like I know I’m going to bounce back because I trust myself. And, um, I think that too is part of the problem with social media is that we don’t have a lot of people being transparent about the fact that they’re not perfect, right? Everyone’s trying to show up in their little squares and be like, Hey, look at me eating my healthy nutrient dense salad. Um, but like, that’s not real life. And if it’s, if, if you’re, I personally believe like if you are that rigid and like constantly eating that way, like, you know, there is some, there needs to be flexibility, right? Like we can’t just be perfect all the time in any aspect of our lives. This is not normal. It’s not the human experience. And it is, it will drive you crazy and it makes sense.
Absolutely. Um, yeah, and nobody’s eating kale salads and green smoothies and going to yoga four times a day. And it’s just, it’s just like, okay, what’s, what’s, what’s in your closet? Like tell us all the things that’s in your closet. And I just love how you keep it real and you show that like, yes, I do prioritize healthy food, but I’m also a real human and sometimes my life is a hot mess. And I think that just makes you so accessible and so real. And I also love what you just said about, I know I’m going to bounce back and kind of return to my baseline because I trust myself.
Yeah, we’ve all got that center. Like I think our jobs as practitioners is teaching people how to find their center and then when you got that center you trust that you can go anywhere and always get back to it. And when I say that to people they like, like, wow, that really resonates with me. And I’m like, good, it’s good. I’m glad that you’re feeling like, like you can flex, right? That’s my goal. At the end of the day it’s like, yeah, let’s spend time together and get you to center.
Yes, I love that because eventually, you know, as much as we love our clients and you know, I have amazing like heart bonds and friendships with my clients and I love them so much, but eventually like I want them to ride off into the sunset on their own. Like I want them to trust themselves and, and be able to support support themselves.
Yeah. Our goal at the end of the day is for them to not need us anymore. Exactly.
Exactly. It’s a beautiful thing. Um, I want to talk for a minute because I feel like this ties into the conversation. I want to talk a minute about intuitive eating because I feel like first of all, I think intuitive eating is amazing, but I think there are so many versions of intuitive eating out there on the internet and if you’re new to intuitive eating and you’re trying to learn about it, learning about intuitive eating is not intuitive intuitive at all. It’s like one person says intuitive eating is like, I’m going to eat brownies all day long and then somebody else has this other version of intuitive eating. Um, so what are your thoughts on intuitive eating?
Yeah, so, um, I really love that intuitive eating encourages people to be less rigid and to listen to their bodies. Right? That’s awesome. And it’s a beautiful thing. Um, but again, you know, I think that shame can be associated with it because your body isn’t always going to be sending you the best messages about food or for things that are necessarily going to be the best for you, especially if there are chemical processes happening that are urging you to each sugar, you know, et cetera. Um, and then the other component where like, it’s just as much of the diet as anything else because it’s creating rules around food. Right?
Oh my gosh, such a good point.
If you’re anti-diet, you can’t just be standing on your podium and saying like, Oh, I’m an intuitive eater and I’m anti-diet. Right? Because those things are, are, are essentially opposite, right?
It’s like your diet is the anti-diet, so it’s still a diet. It’s like at the end of the day, the focus is still on the food when really, I don’t know, maybe this is just me, but like I don’t want to be thinking about food all day. Like I want to live my life. Like I do want to think about food because I care about food and I care about my nourishment, but I don’t want to be obsessing about it 24/7 even if it’s like obsessing about it in the opposite way.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s still, the focus is still on food.
Yeah, and I love what you said about it’s not always possible to access your intuition if it’s been hijacked by processed foods because you know, we’re living in a world of processed food that that is designed by food scientists and chemical engineers to be hyper palatable, to be insanely addictive. It’s loaded with sugar and hidden sugars. And if we want to talk about the patriarchy and like throwing up our middle fingers to the patriarchy, I think the ultimate middle finger to the patriarchy is to stop eating processed food because it is designed to be addictive and hijack your intuition and get you to spend all of your money on it. I mean, that’s not saying that I never eat processed food, but I think in the context of intuitive eating, how can we access our own intuition when it’s being hijacked 24/7 by chemicals and sugar and things that are designed to, um, you know, make us shell out a lot of money on it.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And yeah, they’re addictive. And then they’re also like, you know, I have clients who are struggling with candida and they have been told that they have a binge disorder because they feel like they have no control around food and sugar, particularly. Like I’m just constantly want sugar. I constantly want sugar and like, and then we work on healing the candida and then you’re not having those cravings anymore and then they’re not experiencing all that shame around food. Right. And it’s like if someone with candida starts eating intuitively, they’re going to be like pounding, you know, cane sugar, I don’t know. Or like some cookies, right? Like it just, you know, so there is a balance there and um, and, and it’s finding what works for you. Again, like getting to your center where your body feels really good and then you can like play around. Right? Like what makes me where that’s what I think kind of intuitive eating is, right? It’s like once you find center, once you find that place where you’re feeling good, then you can play around with intuitive eating and listening to your body and what’s feeling good for you.
Yeah. And I think what you just said about like, we have to find our center first and I don’t, I’m not even gonna say, I don’t think I’m going to say I know I would not have been able to lean into intuitive eating personally if I first didn’t do an elimination diet to find my center. And I mean, that was my path in and that’s my truth. I don’t think I could be an intuitive eater unless I had done an elimination protocol to figure out what does and doesn’t work for me. Because before I did that, I was addicted to the very foods that were making me sick.
Yeah, yeah. Totally. Yeah. And that’s, that’s like the hardest part about all of this right? Is like, is figuring out how to wake up to the things that are, that are making us sick. And I’m like so glad that both of us and so many people have had that experience where they’re like, I’m not, I don’t feel sick anymore.
Absolutely. And then we can, we can shine the light for other people who are walking the path. Can you just briefly, um, you don’t have to go into super depth, but can you just briefly touch on what candida is and why it causes sugar cravings for people who might be like, what’s candida?
Yeah, sorry. So a candida is essentially a yeast overgrowth in the small intestine. Like normally, typically we have yeast, like a balanced, in our system, it’s healthy to have yeast, but when you sort of gets out of control because of processed diets or poor digestion, right? And then what feeds yeast is sugar, right? And really high carb foods make it happy. So what it does is it kind of sends those signals to your body to get more and more and more and eat more and more. And then we have problems like brain fog and bloating and rashes and you know, the anal and rectal itching, all of the fun things. Right.
That NAQ questionnaire. Totally. That’s an inside NTP joke. We send our clients forms that ask about anal itching and it’s super embarrassing for everybody. Oh yeah. Do you want to talk about this with me? I’m sure that was what you were hoping to do today.
Welcome to your appointment. Let’s talk about your itchy butthole, hashtag NTP life. Oh my gosh. Oh, you’re like, I did not think the interview was going to go in this direction.
Great. That’ll be great. Very informative to some people, I’m sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, there’s this narrative out there, Whitney, that talks about loving ourselves no matter what we look like, no matter what we eat, no matter what. And I think that is awesome, but I also don’t think it’s black and white. And I think loving ourselves looks very, very different for all of us. You know, one person’s version of loving themselves, like that might make me really, really not love myself. I think there’s a spectrum of practices and you know, different, different ways that that’s going to look for all of us. Um, so what does loving yourself unconditionally look like for you within the context of a healing diet?
Yeah, so I think this changes all the time for me. Like some days loving myself looks like eating a bag of Willoughby’s cookies, driving home from the grocery store when I am not in a parasympathetic state. And I’m just like, you know what? I really want these cookies today. Right? And, and it’s like fuel. It’s, it’s helping me love my emotional self, right? Like it’s, you know, I’m like, I’m going to do this for myself cause that’s what I want right now. Right? Um, and then other days it’s eating a giant salad and having a balanced breakfast and dinner, you know? And so I definitely, you know, that was my dog, welcome to the show Gus.
He loves to hang out. Um, so yeah, so I, I mean like I swing a little right because I know what my center is and so I’ll be like today loving myself as cookies tomorrow. Loving myself is salad. And, and then the other thing that I think is, is constant is sort of loving myself unconditionally means having grace for my imperfections and um, you know, making decisions each day that my future self will be grateful for. Um, cause I like to tap into her and think like, would I, will I be proud or happy or okay with these decisions that I’m making today?
Hmm. I love tapping into the future self. I do that all the time. And you know, I have to say loving myself looks very similar. Like I love me some dark chocolate. And there are days when I’m just like, yeah, I’m gonna eat this whole dark chocolate bar and it’s gonna be awesome. And I am not even gonna think twice about it. And then the next day it looks like eating all the vegetables. Um, for me it looks like saying no a lot. Um, which is something that that was a skill that I’ve had to build over time is knowing when to say no and when to prioritize myself. So I love all of these things. Whitney, is there anything, anything that we haven’t chatted about in this episode that you want to throw in here at the end? Any, any thoughts that you have?
No, no. I just, I love the boundaries thing, right? Like I love that part of you loving yourself is saying no. And I think that’s something that so many of us as women can start trying to implement. Um, cause oftentimes when we constantly say yes to people, we’re giving our power away, right? We’re draining ourselves. And it is so hard to take care of yourself when you’re constantly taking care or trying to appease other people. So I think boundary setting is a really important thing when you’re on a healing journey and learning how to love yourself.
Absolutely. And I think that’s one of the things that contributes to us getting sick in the first place is we’re just giving away all of our energy and then we have no reserves left for ourselves. I, I mean, I see that pattern across the board in my practice and I know it was a pattern that I used to have to. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, Whitney, tell us a little bit about what’s going on in your business. Do you have anything coming up, any freebies or any launches that you have or how can we connect with you all those good things?
Yeah, so you guys, I would love to hang out with you on the gram. Um, you can find me on Instagram over at @rooted.in.healing, or you can find me online at rootedinhealing.net. Um, and I have group coaching programs that um, you know, usually launch like every two to three months. I also see one on one clients. It sounds like you want to work with me. Um, and then I also have a lot of freebies around the autoimmune paleo diet. Um, so if you’re thinking, okay, I’ve got autoimmune disease, this might be something that I want to do, definitely check out my, my website and you can find some free resources.
Awesome. And we will be sure to tag a Whitney and all of her goodies in the show notes and I definitely recommend following her on the ‘gram. She is one of my favorite follows. She keeps it so real and she’s hilarious. Lots of goodness over there. So go give her a follow at @rooted.in.healing. And Whitney, thank you so much for your time today and coming on the show.
Holly, it is an honor to be here. I love watching what you’re doing. You are exploding right now and like so many good things are happening and coming your way and I’m just like in complete awe of you. So thanks for, thanks for having me. Um, and thanks for everything that you put out into the universe. I think that it’s so helpful for people.
Oh, likewise. I feel the exact same way about you. Thanks for chatting with me!
All right ladies and gentlemen, that’s it for this week’s episode. Be sure to go follow Whitney over at @rooted.in.healing on Instagram. She is a gem of a human. And speaking of guests, there are many very exciting guests coming up on the show. It’s weird saying guests, guests, it’s very difficult. I need a vocal coach. Any vocal coaches out there wanna a vocal coach me? I’m having a hard time breathing, anyway. Um, yeah, guests coming up on the show and still gonna be sprinkling in those solo episodes. And if you haven’t downloaded the self sabotage guide and bonus audio, head over to mindspeakpodcast.com/sabotage. Get hooked up. And until next time, go believe in you. I do.