17 Experts Reveal their Top Eating Empowerment Tips
As I celebrate 3 years of helping men and women heal their relationship with food and body, I have been so lucky to collaborate with and learn from some other incredible mentors, fellow coaches and practitioners in the field of Eating Psychology, Health at Every Size (HAES) Nutrition, and body image.
Too many people feel confused and conflicted about what, why, and how much they eat or don’t eat. The 17 experts I’ve invited to participate in this article are doing important and powerful work to help create a paradigm shift in how we view ourselves as eaters.
In my practice, I’ve been particularly interested in how people can reclaim empowerment around their eating by turning inward into trust, embodiment, and communication.
The experts that I’ve invited also share my vision that when we return home to our own bodies to find the answers about how to eat intuitively, intentionally and devoid of shame and morality, we feel more empowered than ever around food and at peace with our relationship with eating.
I am thrilled to share their wisdom, personal stories, and tips around Eating Empowerment.
Michelle May
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
It is an intentional shift from fear-based, restrictive decision-making to fearless, mindful decision-making. It is an inside-out approach that guides us to balance eating for nourishment with eating for enjoyment to fuel the vibrant life we crave. I summarize it with “eat what you love, and love what you eat” (also the titles in my book series).
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
I developed the Mindful Eating Cycle to provide the necessary structure for helping people recognize the thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and habits driving their eating decisions. It is also a useful tool for learning from the inevitable challenges that arise as they transform their relationship with food and their body.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
I believe that the root cause of food fear and disordered eating is diet culture–a systemic pattern of moralizing food selection and valuing size, shape, and weight more than health and well-being. It is so pervasive and innocuous that most people do not recognize, and even deny, that diet culture exists or justify it with the same arguments that create it.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
While practicing as a Family Physician, I recognized that many of my patients were struggling with the same issues with yo-yo dieting and body image that I was! This helped me realize that the problem wasn’t me, or them, but diet culture. I eventually “retired” from my medical practice to develop mindful eating programs and trainings to help people break free of the eat-repent-repeat cycle.
Cathy Wang
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
To me, Eating Empowerment is the process of learning to meet one’s needs for physical and emotional nourishment. It’s gaining the strength and freedom to eat food for health, for pleasure, and for greater connection with yourself and others around you.Eating Empowerment is being compassionate to yourself, honoring your true needs, and setting boundaries to protect what’s important.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
I think the most powerful thing we can do for another person is to give them the space they need to heal. I encourage clients to acknowledge their eating experiences with kindness and curiosity, so they can begin to recognize their challenges and strengths when it comes to food and eating. Other times, I’ll share my experiences with binge eating/ food restriction if I feel it would be beneficial for my client.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
I think the root cause is that we’re human beings. We inherently want to be comforted, to have control over our lives, and to feel like we’re worthy. Food is something that can give us a sense of comfort, control, and love. I see food fears and disordered eating as behaviours arising out of legitimate needs. But for one reason or another, these behaviours around food has gotten out of hand. Leaving behind food fears and disordered eating is really about (re)gaining a sense of balance in your relationship to food, and ultimately, yourself.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
My own experiences with binge eating and food restriction led me down this path to help others who are currently struggling with similar issues. There’s so much struggle when it comes to beating disordered eating/ eating disorders, and a lot of doubt when you decide to embrace Intuitive Eating/ Mindful Eating. If I can help someone regain even a tiny bit of trust in themselves when it comes to food and eating, I think that’s a huge win.
Joe Bernstein
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Feeling free to eat what I want, when I want. Knowing that pleasure, cravings, and appetite are all my friends and connected to deep intuition and deep needs. Having the mindfulness to eat in a way that I feel good about and the compassion to love myself through the moments or periods where my food and eating choices don’t align with my life vision or values. Learning and growing through every body or food-based obstacle or challenge. Having a relationship with food and body that enables me to thrive, not just survive.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Helping people reframe their past experiences, challenges, patterns or behaviors. With my clients, the first challenge is to create a belief that all of these happen for reasons that are meant to help us become the people we are really meant to be. I draw upon Hillman’s Acorn theory and my own “drop the armor” journaling and coaching processes in early work with clients.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
The root cause is our culture/worlds continuing domination of self, other, nature, animals. This domination logic or patterning has many people suffering for many reasons. We as a people (locally and globally) are challenged by many side effects of what I refer to as “unconscious consumption”. This is at the core of all addiction, as well as compulsive behavior around food, body, sex, love, and money. We need to begin to access mental, emotional, social and systemic solutions that are based on liberation rather than domination.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I’m most passionate about helping people understand how change works for humans. I’m fascinated by how hard change can be but how simple it can become when we see ourselves and the world with more clarity and connection to possibility/abundance. After I had liberated myself from excessive emotional and physical weight, I knew I couldn’t walk the face of this earth without helping others liberate, empower, heal, grow and expand. I didn’t decide to become a coach…I was born for it and my life’s struggles were the river I got to ride to get me to that point in life where there was a threshold I walked through and there was no turning back.
Julie Duffy Dillon
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating empowerment means choosing ways to take care of our body including food and movement that comes from a place of self-compassion. The food choices themselves are a moot point.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
I want people to know that they are valuable and worthy just as they are in this moment and every moment. In connecting with that truth, I hope it helps to reconnect them to their innate wisdom for self-care, nourishment, and movement.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Fatphobia keeps all of us from accessing our own innate wisdom. The culture we live in demonizes certain bodies that leads to stigma and discrimination. No wonder we fear weight gain and scared of pleasure from food!
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
This career found me and I love connecting with people individually. I love the moment when it CLICKS and I see the person sitting across from me aligning with their body. It makes me misty-eyed every time!
Cathleen Meredith
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Healing the disconnection with food, the abuse of it, and blind eating: eating without thought or consideration of what it’s doing to your body.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
That is not a service I offer.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
There are a LOT of reasons: food as a crutch, food as a drug. Food deserts and not having access to decent food, generational food abuse. We have so much to learn about food, obesity, poverty, and sickness.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I was interested in seeing the effect of the actual practice and lifestyle of a dancer on plus size women. Not for health reasons, as exercise, or as a means to lose weight. I wanted to know how the lifestyle of dance affects everyday plus size women. Not just the physical strains it puts on our bodies. It’s more than that. I want to know how our minds, hearts, and spirits will shift when constantly faced with something we think we can’t do. Either because it’s too hard, too fast, too intense, or just not “for” us. And then, time and again, discovering that we were dead wrong.
In short, we can do anything when we don’t give up. Dance is a living breathing practice of that. To create that type of discipline in lives and in our bodies is the greatest gift we can give.
It is the gift of limitlessness.
Jenna Free
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
It means listening to your body and your own desires instead of listening to arbitrary rules that diet culture lays out for us. It means eating intuitively and ditching the diet for good.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Our top technique is spending a lot of time on mindset. If the deeper work around the diet mentality isn’t focused on for quite some time, it can be nearly impossible to listen to our bodies. For instance, if fearing weight gain is at the forefront of your mind, it is impossible to be intuitive with the way you eat because your dieting brain will always second guess your choices and you will then turn Intuitive Eating into a diet.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
The root cause of food fear and disordered eating is fatphobia and the fact that we live in a diet culture. We are told from a young age that fat is the worst thing that we can be. If we were born into a world where we didn’t talk about weight and our bodies all the damn time, there would be no disordered eating or food fear. It’s really not the food we fear but fat.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
For over a decade I struggled with disordered eating and poor body image. It didn’t matter how thin I got, I was modeling overseas and I was still completely miserable and self-conscious. This shows me that it isn’t about the weight. Even clients that we work with who have lost weight in the past realize that even at their thinnest, they never felt good about their bodies.
Once I found food and body freedom through Intuitive Eating I knew this was my life’s work. I teamed up with Lauren McAulay a couple of years ago and we created The Body Love Society where we teach women to become Intuitive Eaters, not just learn about Intuitive Eating. We are so passionate about healing the mentality that creates the restrict/ binge cycle (and all of our disordered eating patterns) so that people can be free and stop flipping back and forth from dieting and trying to listen to their bodies.
We like to say that this journey is 90% mentality and 10% physical. It honestly doesn’t matter what you eat, if you have disordered thinking around food. We encourage anyone who is stuck between knowing diets just don’t work for them anymore but not knowing how to move forward into becoming an Intuitive Eater to find professional support. We run the Intuitive Eating Academy which is an intensive 6-month program that helps women actually become intuitive eaters and find food freedom.
Rebecca Scritchfield
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
It means that no matter where you are in the present moment, you have what you need to embody the food choices that are meaningful to you and that’s all that really matters.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Make food morally equivalent. Carrots = Carrot Cake, forget what you think you “should” do, and allow yourself to fully experience permission to enjoy and savor food.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
The root cause, in my opinion, is “the patriarchy”. The first diet book, ads, and bathroom scales were created by white men and then used to target women. Layer that with the Eurocentric beauty ideals and we have a system that keeps women stuck, funding the $60 Billion plus diet industry. There are real consequences to not fitting thin ideals, people who have a BMI for obesity are likely to make less money and not have leadership roles and face social isolation. Secondarily, humans have an obsession with “biohacking” and a fear of death so today’s “wellness” devotions are at least partly upheld by the fact that we want to live forever.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I am most passionate about spreading the message of Body Kindness — that you can create a better life, something more meaningful than how bodies take up spaces AND never be “on a diet” ever again by connecting to your inner caregiver and creating meaningful habits that fit you best personally.
Samantha Russell
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
It means eating with a solid sense of self-trust. Knowing deep down that you can trust your choices, your self-talk, your hunger signals, and you sense of nourishment. Through that self-trust you can make choices that align with your values and that fill you up physically, mentally, and spirituality.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Tapping into their pleasure-based self-care. I’ve found that every single client who comes my way has a distinct lack of pleasure in most life areas.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
A lack of self-trust. We make promises to ourselves that we can’t keep (like try to do too much too fast or choose goals that are out of alignment), and as we ‘fail’ we lose trust. We’re also taught not to trust ourselves, being told to weigh ourselves because we can’t trust how we feel, to count calories because we can’t trust our own hunger, and to change how we look because we can’t trust in our own innate beauty. All this mistrust and lack of pleasure gets put onto food (among other things) and creates an atmosphere of fear and disempowerment.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I’ve been some form of teacher my whole adult life, and the transition to coach was a natural progression of my own interests and personal journey. I focus on emotional eating because I’m passionate about helping people regain their joy, trust, and empowerment both with themselves and with food.
Robyn Baker
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating without rules; listening to my body and honoring what it tells me.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Help them understand where their food rules came from and how the diet industry profits from their rules. That health and beauty can exist in a variety of sizes and shapes.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Unhealed trauma. Food is a culturally acceptable modality to abuse in order to numb trauma and disconnect from the body especially when trauma involved the body.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I once suffered from anorexia and obsessive-compulsive exercise. Healing people’s relationships with their body and understanding the root of their disorder. Also healing their relationship with movement and their body.
Brianna Wilkerson
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
To me, eating empowerment means understanding that you have power over food, it does not have power over you. As someone who has struggled with multiple eating disorders, I constantly felt like I was powerless to food and a victim. But when I started to empower myself to learn 1) what true health and holistic nutrition was and 2) how I could nourish myself in a simple, natural and sustainable way, everything changed. I enjoyed eating well, exercising and other healthy activities by taking one small step at a time. And best of all, I found freedom
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Reflection. I use my Healthy Mind, Healthy Body resource in my Free Resource Library to help my clients reflect on what their relationship with food, exercise, their bodies and themselves are like. From the results of that reflection exercise, we work through what’s holding them back and what can help them move forward.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Shame. Our culture thrives on shaming us into a box. This shows up in how we look, our body sizes, what we eat or don’t eat and so much more. We all want to belong and we all want to be healthy. But too often we start “taking care of ourselves” so that we can belong or fit in. Instead, we need to fight shame by taking care of ourselves for OURSELVES and replace the negative thoughts and opinions we now hold as TRUTH about ourselves with loving and truthful thoughts.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I struggled way too long and way too deeply with my sense of self-worth, food, exercise, weight, eating disorders and more. When I started to find freedom and learn the truth about getting a healthy body in a natural, joyful, shame-free and sustainable way, everything changed and I KNEW I had to help other women who struggled with the same. My favorite part about what I do is walking with women in their journey to a healthy body and healthy life – the hard days and the good days. I love each client I have and each woman in my tribe and it’s an honor to serve them day in and day out
Natalie Baack
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating empowerment means taking our power back collectively from diet culture and food rules, learning how to listen to our what our unique body needs, and develop the inspiration we need to truly nourish ourselves and make supportive choices out of love, rather than shoulds and shame.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
I never tell my clients to cut ANYTHING entirely. In fact, I invite them into giving themselves full permission to eat whatever they want at all times. But we add in presence and body attunement.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
The root cause connects to me is a disconnection from our true nature as humans (flow, living connected to and from the land) combined with a society structured on the individual rather than the village. We are terrified on a subconscious level that we won’t fit in or belong. And when we’re told that being thin or perfectly “pure” (ie clean eating) is what will keep us in our “tribes”, than we do whatever it takes to stay safe and belong. Including thinking starving ourselves makes sense.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I’m most passionate about helping people release the pain of shame and self-loathing so they can live lives that both fulfill them and make a difference. When we reconnect to our bodies, and our true nature, and food, we reconnect to the earth, which really needs our help right now.
Tanya Mark
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating empowerment means that we as individual human beings, in our own uniqueness, have the power to choose or not choose what to eat versus feeling like food and outside authorities have the power over us. It’s food freedom. The freedom to choose is an internal choice. We tune in to our own internal guidance cues to choose what’s best for us versus being steered by an external voice – being “told what to do” from the latest diet book, nutrition philosophy, family member and so much more. Eating empowerment frees up the energy that we used to use worrying about food to give our unique gifts to the world.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Letting go of food rules is a key practice in helping my clients heal their relationship with food. I use the practice of “habituation” (from Intuitive Eating) to empower my clients with unconditional permission to eat – any food, in any amount, at any time. No rules. This has been such a powerful practice as we live in a culture of food rules – good and bad foods that can also create self-judgment and shame. Food is food and isn’t morally good or bad.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Food fear and disordered eating have become an epidemic. I believe the root cause stems from generations of repeating a cycle of what we hear and see about food and our bodies from our own families and media, the latest eating craze, books, diets – and now on social media, every single day. The words and phrases that we’ve adopted from culture and media around food, such as “good” and “bad” foods, “clean” eating and “you are what you eat” has shifted eating as nourishment to a form of judgment and self-judgment depending on what we choose.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
As a former exercise trainer, I believed that in combination with fitness, teaching my clients how to eat better would solve their health and wellness challenges. But I was wrong. When I finished nutrition school, I found that my relationship with food and my body was actually worse than beforehand. I had become “orthorexic.” In my pursuit of a healthy diet, I had become obsessive with my food choices. Yes, I was eating “healthier” foods but my mindset was a mess. Food and eating had become a stress instead of nourishment. I strove for perfection because if I didn’t, I felt like I was out of alignment with my role as a nutritionist. I intuitively knew that this wasn’t the right direction for me personally and professionally. My next step was to become a Mind Body Nutrition and Dynamic Eating Psychology Coach (IPE), Body Image Movement Global Ambassador and teach the practices of Intuitive Eating, which is my true passion – helping humanity make peace with food and their bodies.
Jenna Hollenstein
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Having trust in your body and confidence in your judgment as you navigate eating with flexibility and awareness.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Meditation!
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Our culture teaches us not to trust our bodies and, perhaps more importantly, it wrongly tells us that sculpting our bodies to be different than they are will satisfy our longing for love, inclusion, acceptance, and visibility.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
After beginning my own meditation practice, I felt compelled to share it with my nutrition clients. I am most passionate about helping people clear our the mental real estate occupied by diet mentality so that they can be truly themselves.
Stephanie Hutchinson
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating empowerment is a state of being where food no longer has power over you. You are free to eat without restriction, rules, or shame and the eating experience is enjoyable, as it should be!
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Letting go of food rules and restrictions and diving deep into WHY they are at war with food in the first place.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
Speaking from experience, it because of media and experts in the field that promote different ways of eating. We learn to fear certain foods that will make us sick, give us diseases, and ultimately kill us. We are taught carbs are bad, fat is bad, sugar is bad, etc. and we fear disease and weight gain, so we restrict and ultimately have a terrible relationship with the very thing that keeps us alive.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I went through the very things I help clients with. I know what it feels like on the other side and I want this for more women. I am most passionate about helping women feel freedom. It is something many women are not used to because they are busy trying to do and be everything for everyone all the time. When they can come home to their body and stop expending all of their energy on the war they have with food, it is remarkable the life they begin to live- one they were not even aware was possible.
Lisa Lewtan
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Confidence to make your own choices based on how your particular body feels
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food
Stop labeling good or bad.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
We rely on willpower and that just doesn’t work!
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
Most people just need someone to believe in them. I love to help them thrive.
Jodi Baretz
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
Eating empowerment means being in control of my eating, not giving food power over me, eating what I want when I want, listening to my body and not abusing food.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
Listening to body cues. Eating when hungry and stopping when full.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
From a young age we are told to clean our plate even if we are not hungry. We were taught to use food as a means to celebrate or when we were upset, our parents shoved a brownie in our face to make us happy.
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I’ve always wanted to understand why people did what they did and were interested in human behavior. Once I can understand the issue and can help, I love watching others transform and change.
Cara Harbstreet
What does Eating Empowerment mean to you?
For me, eating empowerment means I feel confident and secure in my food decisions to trust my body and allow it to trust me. My food decisions are not coming from a place of restriction or fear, but rather an informed place that factors in many considerations beyond the nutrition content of those foods. At the same time, when I feel empowered in my food choices it doesn’t occupy a large percentage of my thoughts and I am free to enjoy other aspects of life without any lingering sense of guilt or regret after eating.
What is one of your top techniques for helping clients heal their relationship with food?
I have many favorites and it depends on the individual client, but I love encouraging clients to come up with their own mini experiments to walk into the discomfort of intuitive eating. Rather than simply giving them a task or homework for the week, I let them brainstorm what’s realistic and practical for their lifestyle based on what their priorities are. If they get stuck, I’m happy to support them with examples or suggestions but I want to hand the control back to them to determine what they want to start with and what they choose to do.
Why do you believe so many people suffer from food fear and disordered eating? What is the root cause in your opinion?
This is such a tough question because I think there are many causes, including the systemic oppression of groups that extends back far beyond this generation of dieters. The only common theme I notice is that food fear and disordered eating is not only normalized in our culture, but celebrated and applauded. It’s rarely questioned because the influential voices we hear, from the media to individuals to friends and family, reinforce the idea that health is linked to weight and it revolves around self-control (or lack thereof).
Why did you decide to work in your field as a coach or practitioner? What aspect about it are you most passionate about?
I’ve always been curious about food and eventually realized I could turn my interest into a career that helps other people. At the same time, I was experiencing my own struggles with food and body image and thought by learning all I could about health and nutrition, I could continue to control my body and my weight. That’s completely shifted to adopting an intuitive eating, HAES-informed approach with the intent to “do no harm” and support people in rediscovering joy in eating without restriction or fear. These days, I’m most passionate about sharing information to inform and empower decisions around food and supporting those who are struggling in similar ways as myself.
I hope you feel as inspired as I do after reading these responses and understanding that there can be a different path than dieting. Learning to nourish ourselves in a balanced and joyful way seems like it should be easy but can often feel extremely difficult due to our food and dieting culture that inserts shame and morality into the picture, obfuscating our own sense of sovereignty, efficacy and our own self-care.
I encourage you to follow each of these eating empowerment influencers and join the food freedom path.