I had one of those “a-ha” moments on Monday, one of those moments where suddenly you wake up and realize your life looks drastically different now than it did a year ago. It was a wonderful moment and I want to share it with you. Monday was my day off after a weekend of work and I felt just kind of exhausted and gross. I didn’t want to move but I took my dog Charlie to the Botanical Gardens anyway and instead of pushing myself to run or do squats, I just enjoyed the time there. I knew I hadn’t eaten well the week prior but instead of beating myself up about my food choices, I just sat on a bench and got curious. I used compassion with myself and I decided I’d needed that comfort food last week and that was okay. This week is entirely different, I’m back on my intuitive eating that feels so right. And that moment of curiosity and compassion was so much different than the self-flagellation I used to engage in.
I had one of those “a-ha” moments on Monday, one of those moments where suddenly you wake up and realize your life looks drastically different now than it did a year ago. It was a wonderful moment and I want to share it with you. Monday was my day off after a weekend of work and I felt just kind of exhausted and gross. I didn’t want to move but I took my dog Charlie to the Botanical Gardens anyway and instead of pushing myself to run or do squats, I just enjoyed the time there. I knew I hadn’t eaten well the week prior but instead of beating myself up about my food choices, I just sat on a bench and got curious. I used compassion with myself and I decided I’d needed that comfort food last week and that was okay. This week is entirely different, I’m back on my intuitive eating that feels so right. And that moment of curiosity and compassion was so much different than the self-flagellation I used to engage in.
Our relationships with food are difficult to heal. Our cycles of restriction or binging, of calorie counting or beating ourselves up for “failing”, are so ingrained in us. But as slow as the healing can be, it does happen bit by bit. There are steps in the journey that I’ve identified. The first step is restoring our biology. Eating enough to sustain us at regular intervals. The second step is learning how to have our feelings and manage our emotions. The third is to create new neural pathways in our brains. New habits. And the fourth is acknowledging what the root cause of our food struggles is. What is the underlying issue? I’m going to tell you how I worked through each step and give you some ideas on how you can work through them too. This is an episode where I share my healing journey and encourage you to examine your own. We all deserve to get to a place of healing and balance. Together.
About Dr. Michelle Tubman
Dr. Michelle Tubman is a physician and health coach. She helps women ditch dieting and thrive at any size. For the longest time, she believed that weight loss was the answer to all her problems. But decades of yo-yo dieting and restriction left her miserable, unhealthy, and exhausted. Now she teaches women how harmful dieting can be and shows them the way to true health and wellness.
As a physician specializing in both emergency and obesity medicine, with additional training in nutrition, eating psychology, and coaching, Michelle can tell you with certainty that dieting is dangerous. Studies associate compromised health more with yo-yo dieting than higher body weight. Yet, everywhere you turn, shrinking your body is hailed as the solution. Women don't need to change. Attitudes do. So let's stop self-shaming, speak out against sizeism, and fiercely champion unconditional self-celebration!
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