HAPPILY HORMONAL | hormone balance for moms, PMS, painful periods, natural birth control, low energy, pro-metabolic

E54: Struggle with an “All-or-Nothing” Food Mentality? How to Find Balance & Make Eating Healthy Easier with Sabrina Magnan

• Leisha Drews, RN, FDN-P, holistic hormone coach, period expert

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Welcome back to the Happily Hormonal podcast. I have Sabrina Magnan here with me today. She is an intuitive eating coach and helps chronic dieters heal their relationship with food and improve their body image. We're so excited to chat today about the ability to actually go too far with healthy eating and how to know if your healthy eating has actually become unhealthy.

In this episode:

  • [03:00] Sabrina’s history of an unhealthy obsession with being healthy
  • [09:44] Size doesn't matter when it comes to disordered eating
  • [11:19] The all-or-nothing mentality amongst chronic dieters
  • [16:24] Creating rules around food
  • [18:50] Changing your mindset around food


Resources
- Nourish Your Hormones Course: use the code HHPODCAST for $50 OFF Nourish Your Hormones!
- 3 secrets to balance your hormones workshop
- Free hormone balance guide

Connect with Leisha
Instagram: @leishadrews
Website: www.leishadrews.com
Apply to work 1:1 with Leisha HERE

Connect with Sabrina
Podcast: The Live Unrestricted Podcast
Instagram: @sabrina.magnan.health
Website: www.sabrinamagnan.com


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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

If you listen to any of the following shows, we're sure you'll like ours too!
Pursuit of Wellness with Mari Llewellyn, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark, Found My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick, Just Ingredients Podcast, Wellness Mama, The Dr Josh Axe Show, Are You Menstrual Podcast, The Model Health Show, Grounded Wellness By Primally Pure, Be Well By Kelly Leveque, The Freely Rooted Podcast with Kori Meloy, Simple Farmhouse Life with Lisa Bass

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Happily Hormonal Podcast. Now, if you're a little iffy on whether or not the word hormonal is a good one, you're in the right place. My name is Leisha Drews, registered nurse and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, turned holistic hormone coach, and, after going through my own hormone journey and having my three babies, i actually believe that our hormones are one of the greatest gifts that we've been given as women and that, no matter what you've been told, it's possible for you to have thriving energy, good periods and a stable mood all month long. And I am here to show you the way. I think it's time to change the narrative around words like hormones and hormonal and start to reclaim the power that we truly have as women, which is a power to change not only our own health but the health of all of our family for generations to come.

Speaker 1:

Hormone balance doesn't have to feel hard. It can actually feel simple and fun when we do it in a way that aligns with how our bodies were made. If you're ready to start trusting your body again and feeling really good in that beautiful body that you've been given, then grab yourself a yummy drink and maybe a snack, and let's do this. Hello, hello, welcome back to the podcast. I have Sabrina here with me today and she is an intuitive eating coach and we're so excited to chat today about really the excessive nature of healthy eating and sometimes how we have gotten into that in diet culture and how to know, essentially, if you're healthy. Eating has become unhealthy. Sabrina, i'd love for you to just introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you and what you do, and then we'll dive in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, i am Sabrina Mangas. You said I'm an intuitive eating coach and I help chronic dieters heal their relationship with food, improve their body image and break free from yo-yo dieting, binge eating, emotional eating, through an intuitive eating approach by learning how to eat without guilt, without obsession and without constant fear of losing control.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. In my past I definitely struggled with not binge eating so much as restricting and then just like yo-yo dieting, and so I know that there are so many women who have felt that way, and just really being able to change that perspective and move into more of a nourishment way of life has truly been the biggest game changer for me with my health. I'm super excited to just dive into that more today. I would love for you to share what you see a lot of the time with the effects, essentially, of this yo-yo dieting, or even just really what we wanted to talk about as an obsession with healthy eating and how do you know if you're actually healthy or if it's gone too far.

Speaker 2:

essentially, Yeah, and to answer that, I think it would be helpful to say how I came about doing this work, which was obviously my own history, with an unhealthy obsession with being healthy. So when I was in my late teens and early 20s, i was on that yo-yo dieting of trying keto and paleo and vegan and intermittent fasting, all in the hopes of losing weight under the disguise of trying to be healthy, and I eventually developed an eating disorder called orthorexia, which is an unhealthy obsession with being healthy. And what I didn't know at the time was that this was not normal and it was disordered. Because we live in a society, in a culture, where these abnormal and disordered eating behaviors, like tracking every calorie, or like feeling the need to burn off or to earn our food, or thinking about food and our bodies 24 seven these behaviors and these mindsets are normalized and you talk to anyone and you have a conversation with your friends and family and all conversations revolve around someone's newest diet and how they're eating and their exercise routine and their weight.

Speaker 2:

And at the time I remember I started noticing that it was negatively impacting my life. I didn't want to go to social events, i was tired all the time, I wasn't able to eat any food that I didn't know the calorie content for. I was anxious eating any food that was off plan, and what I thought was positive, what I thought was in the name of health, really was just not only harming my physical health in the sense that it was harming my hormones I was losing my hair, my hair was thinning out, i was low energy, i had no period But it was also very severely impacting my mental health, because I was losing relationships and I was anxious all the time and I was terrified of eating, yet obsessed with it, and I had wished that someone at the time would have talked to me and told me like this is not normal behavior, because it doesn't take a quick Google search or a little Instagram time to see these behaviors reinforced by diet accounts.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, i think that just that whole cascade that you're sharing of, yes, it was affecting my mental health and I was feeling really tired and it was affecting my relationships and it was affecting my hormones These are so many layers that, again, we're just told this is healthy and normal.

Speaker 1:

So I'm sure you also got positive reinforcement for being like oh, you're so good, you didn't eat that cake, or you look great, or whatever, and so it's really easy to continue that and maybe not even necessarily realize how miserable it's making you feel, or that that's what's making you feel miserable, which is truly like terrible, because you're saying, like you were young, you still are young and you were like I don't want to go see my friends, i'm too tired because I haven't been eating enough food, because I have this standard for myself that I need to be a size zero or a size two or whatever. It doesn't even matter what the size is necessarily if it's causing that much obsession and truly ruining your life, like you're not happier at the size two with no friends than the size four with a great life right.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to weight loss, we all have that mindset of when I lose weight, then I will start living my life, then I will feel confident, then I'll be happy. Under every goal is a desire to achieve a certain feeling. We don't go after a goal for the goal itself. We go after a goal for how we think it's going to make us feel. I was autopilot, subconsciously chasing this goal, thinking that when I hit my goal weight I'm going to feel confident, i'm going to feel like I've made it, i'm going to be able to start living my life.

Speaker 2:

What anyone who's ever gone on a weight loss journey knows is that when you have that kind of mindset, it's never enough. You step on the scale, you might be at your target weight, but what you realize is okay. Well, now what I'm at my weight. But I hated myself every step of the way. I've put my life on hold. I've made it my life project to achieve a certain body, thinking that when I finally hit that number on the scale, then everything's going to be easier and I'm going to feel love and I'm going to feel confident.

Speaker 2:

It's really that like gut wrenching feeling when you either get to that goal or you don't, and you realize I have sacrificed so much. I have a lost sight of my values in this endless pursuit of something that society tells me that I should want and that I need. Like you said, i was underweight, i was at a size zero and my body is definitely not supposed to be at a size zero, but yet all of these things that make a good life, like good relationships and dating and friendships and happiness and going out, were lost. What is the cost of weight loss and quote unquote healthy eating, when you sacrifice all of the important things in the process?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so true, also so hard to see when that's what you're in the middle of, even with these sizes that we're talking about. Like yes, i realized these are small sizes and that's not where everyone is who's on a weight loss journey. You can be at a much larger size and still have an unhealthy obsession with losing weight. Now, both of us would agree. Yes, there is such a thing as a healthy weight, and when that is all you are focused on, oftentimes you're not only not going to achieve it, but you're also missing out on other things in the process. I think using this weight example as an example is such a good one, because so many women have experienced this, and I also even want to bring this a little bit deeper into. Maybe you have gotten past the place where weight is the only thing that you're striving for, but you're really actually understanding health better and starting to strive for health better. But you've brought with you that diet culture mindset that you have to be doing things like perfect enough to get XYZ, whatever your results are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, i'm glad that you brought that up. Whether you're a size zero or a size 14, the size doesn't matter, because when it comes to disordered eating or unhealthy relationship with food and your body, the way that you look has nothing to do with it. When we talk about eating disorders specifically, less than 10% of people who struggle with eating disorders are clinically diagnosed as being underweight. And when I was under my set point weight and this is something that I talk about with my clients is your set point weight, which is a genetically predetermined weight that most people will fall at when they're eating, nourishing their bodies, moving their bodies in a health promoting way. I was under my set point weight, but no one who would look at me would think this girl is unhealthy And that's why I got the praises.

Speaker 2:

And so for anyone who's listening right now, who might think that, well, there's nothing wrong with me and I don't need help and I don't need support because I'm not underweight, what happens internally, what happens in your mind, in your relationship with food you can't see it and how it affects you on a daily basis. That's how to know. Is this negatively impacting my life? is this causing more stress and anxiety?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think that even in this pursuit of health and even in, like pro-metabolic eating, we can still bring that with us, and so it's. It can be. This is something I experience a lot with my clients and my students is this question of, okay, just tell me, like how much I have to do perfectly, to get the results I want, and then I'll make sure to do that. And that's a great question, and I wish that there was just like a really clear answer to that. But it does come from this mindset of if I do X, y, z, i'll get this result. And there are things that work like that for sure. And it's not to say like everything is just so totally unpredictable that, like we can't give you a clear answer.

Speaker 1:

But with hormones specifically, there are fluctuations based on the stressors that you're under, based on like how undernourished you've been, whether that's under eating or just undernourished because you're not getting like the minerals and the nutrients that you need.

Speaker 1:

And there's just a layer, i think, for so many of us, of this like perfectionist mindset that can be holding us back so much when truly being able to switch over to like how can I add in nourishment, how can I love my body without having this like black and white expectation, i think is really important.

Speaker 1:

And so when we see those hormone fluctuations and as I'm working with my clients on hormones, like there are ups and downs because as estrogen is, as progesterone is supported, estrogen moves out of the body a little bit more, and so there's just like there are going to be ups and downs in the healing journey. But when we have this X, y, z like if I only eat 1200 calories, i will lose this many pounds, and that's what we're like used to being able to control, number one, eventually that doesn't work anymore because your metabolism is so slow. But number two, like we bring that focus into our other areas of health when we truly are focused on gaining health versus just losing weight, and it can be hard to get past that. So I'd love to hear if you have any other thoughts on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that perfectionism, all or nothing mentality is huge amongst chronic dieters, and especially in the health and wellness field. Like you, look online and everyone is telling you that in order to be healthy, you need to cut out all these foods and you need to eat a certain way and to work out a certain way. And what's like paradoxical is, at the time when I was so obsessed with healthy eating, i had that all or nothing mentality, thinking I can't eat carbs or I have to lower my carbs and I can't eat processed foods. And when I actually started breaking free from those food rules and I started breaking through from those restrictions that were actually externally imposed by how other people told me I should eat and every food decision was driven by guilt instead of nourishment, and I actually started taking my power back. And that's what intuitive eating is all about is about taking your power back and powering yourself to make decisions because you want to, because that's what feels good, instead of making decision based on other people's opinions and advice. I started making decisions because I wanted to and I started turning towards whole foods because I liked how it made me feel And when you can break free from that all or nothing mentality when it comes to food and you allow yourself to live in the gray that, yeah, i actually can have a cookie and a salad in the same day, and that is part of being healthy.

Speaker 2:

That is part of creating a long term sustainable life. Instead of that all or nothing mentality, which is I will be all in for a short period of time, well then there's always going to be the flip side, which is the all out. So either I'm being perfect and I'm eating all the right things or I make one little mistake and it switches this on switch in my brain And I have to just eat all the foods and then just get back on the wagon on Monday. When you allow yourself to break free from that perfectionism and you live in the gray, then you can make you actually more likely to start craving those foods and to start wanting those foods authentically, instead of forcing yourself to have them and then resenting it because it's someone else taking away your autonomy from your food choices.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, i've experienced so much of that and explained that in a very similar way, and I think that it's always so validating, honestly, to hear someone else explain it and be like, yep, that's exactly how I felt, and I have had so many people respond that way when I have explained it, and so I know that this is something that's really not uncommon by any means, and I think that point that you just hit on is so important because, as a perfectionist in so many areas of my life, i have these really high expectations for myself that I wouldn't put on someone else And this is something that I'm working on, by the way, so just bear with me.

Speaker 1:

But, thinking about that, i used to really have this such an all or nothing mindset where it was like if I had eaten on plan, using air quotes here, and had a small breakfast and a small lunch and even like a healthy dinner, and then I was starving at 9pm and I like decided I was going to eat ice cream, well, the day was ruined.

Speaker 1:

Or, even more typically, it was like I ate healthy until 3pm and then I had a cookie And then I was like, well, doesn't even matter, i'm just going to have pizza for dinner and then more ice cream, because this day doesn't count anymore. And I don't know why that made sense to me at that point, because it truly doesn't make sense that eating one cookie means you should just like you're going to be fat forever, so you should just eat whatever you want. That's what I would tell myself, and that was just so hard to be in that mindset. But I definitely didn't think I could let up on it, because if I was to say it was okay for me to have a cookie, then I would probably eat 17 cookies. That was the perception I had of myself, that I could not be trusted all over food. That's deep.

Speaker 2:

And what's interesting is that putting food into these categories, putting food into a good category and a bad category, creating rules around food are actually what trigger this lack of trust of if I allow myself to eat this one cookie, then the floodgates open, because then there's that switch in your mind that goes well, you've done something bad, so might as well just take it all the way and start again tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

If you've been so quote unquote good, and you've broken a rule. If I'm going to break the rule, then I'm going to take advantage of it And that it's like it all feeds itself. And then we reinforce that because every time that we do have the cookie, we lose control because of the self-imposed rules And we think well, this is evidence that I can't control myself around food, so I have to create more rules. And then the rules feed the other nothing, and it really does become a cycle. And that's why people get stuck in that binge restrict cycle, that endless diet cycle, not just for a few weeks or a few months, but some people can live their entire life in that cycle, because they're never learning the mindsets and the tools that they need to change their relationship with food to break free from that good, bad, yes, no, all or nothing mentality.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, i'd love to hear your perspective on what some of the most important steps were for you and that changing, like those key mindset pieces. Yeah, because it truly is simple, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I would say that the first thing I would do is to do an audit of what is my current relationship with food and what is my current history with food. So, along the years, when you've done one diet after another, you've probably picked up a lot of rules and a lot of anxieties around food, around carbs, around sugar And for me, for example, i had rules that I couldn't eat before 9am and I couldn't eat after 8pm, and a lot of these rules don't make sense and they're self-imposed, but we picked them up because we saw someone online telling us that we should do that. And so, making a list of all of the rules that you've created around food and noticing if you tend to put foods in that good or bad category, and the most important thing, is to start getting rid of the morality around food, because as long as certain foods are on a pedestal that if you eat a certain food, you've been bad and you've broken a rule and you've screwed up then you are going to trigger that all or nothing mentality. You are going to think that you're a failure and then the negative self-talk comes in.

Speaker 2:

And so, as you said, the steps to healing your relationship with food and to breaking free from dieting is completely different from the step that anyone is used to when it comes to dieting, because this isn't about changing your behaviors and sticking to rules and being extremely rigid. It's actually about changing your mindset first, because all of your behaviors come from the emotions that you get, and your emotions are triggered from thoughts, and so a lot of it comes from doing an audit around your mindset and your thoughts that you've created around food, because that is going to be your most perfect indicator of why you do the things that you do like, getting to the root cause of the binging and the unhealthy obsession, instead of just addressing the symptoms through more dieting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, i think that's so good, and I think that the biggest shift for me was that making food not a moral issue, and I am a big believer in there are many things that I truly think are a moral issue. There is right and wrong. I am not super neutral on a lot of things And, with that being said, truly food is not a moral issue, and I know that it could be argued that severe gluttony is ruining your body and destroying something that God gave you, and I would agree with that. But generally, the way we view food as a moral issue, like you mentioned, is so extra honestly And so overachieving perfectionists and just another way to stress ourselves out, and so I absolutely, listening to this podcast, that there are foods that I believe are nourishing and foods that are not nourishing, and that it matters what you feed your body, but that doesn't mean it's right or wrong And that doesn't mean that you have to punish yourself or behaviors that were not in align with in alignment with what you were hoping to do or what you were planning to do, and so I will use the example of vegetable oils for me. I will never tell you ever that vegetable oils are good for you. That's probably the one of the first things that I would say really try to avoid these. Also, sometimes I eat vegetable oil And in the past that would have been absolutely a I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I would have said you're a hypocrite or you're like I would have made that a moral issue, and what I mean by that is I make a priority to not eat vegetable oils. I don't have them in my home, i really don't buy foods that have them, but sometimes when I go out to a restaurant I will eat fries because I know that my body can handle that when I don't eat them all the time. But I could interpret that as you failed. You're a failure like you're a liar, all the things, because I teach people not to eat those, and that's just not the case. It really, really matters what you do most of the time. And so I think that's where I was really able to switch my perspective with the.

Speaker 1:

If you eat a cookie, your day is ruined, like truly. That's not the case. But if you eat a cookie and then you don't nourish yourself because you ate the cookie, that's a whole different thing. And so my shift like really stepping away from the idea that food is a moral issue, and then being able to let myself not punish myself again and again for food was huge, but then also shifting to a mindset of nourishment and adding in good things made a really big difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and, like you mentioned, when it comes to intuitive eating, one of the principles is gentle nutrition, which means we don't ignore the facts around nutrition. I would say that looking at food from a place of how can I nourish and add instead of how can I take away and come from a place of punishment, is huge, and the intention behind our food choices is so much more important than any specific food that you'll be eating.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, i agree with that so much. So this has been so fun. I hope it's been encouraging and helpful for everyone who's listening. But I would love to hear a little bit more for you to share where we can find you and a little more about how everyone can connect with you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I have my own podcast, on which you were a guest. So Live Unrestricted is the name of my podcast, where we talk about all things intuitive eating, healing your relationship with food and breaking free from yo-yo dieting so that you can have that healthy and positive relationship with your body, with eating. You can also find me on Instagram, so you can find me at my handle, which is Sabrina Mangal Health, and, if you want to learn more about how to work with me, i have a online coaching program called Food Freedom Academy, where I walk through all of the steps needed to break free from diet mentality and create a nourishing and healthy and positive relationship with food and improve your body image so that you can live the rest of your life in a sustainable and peaceful way around eating.

Speaker 1:

I love that so much. I'm so excited for people to be able to find those resources And thank you so much for being here. This has been so fun. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Any information shared on this podcast is solely for educational purposes, is not to be taken as medical advice or to be used as a diagnosis or a treatment plan for any medical condition. I'm sharing my educated opinions and experience, but nothing shared here can be taken on a one size fits all basis. We always recommend that you do your own research, talk to your own doctors and take full, informed responsibility for any health and medical choices that you make. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today, for listening, and I hope that you were encouraged and learned something new. If you enjoyed this podcast, would you be willing to share it with a friend and to leave us a review?

Speaker 1:

I believe that every woman deserves to understand her body and feel great in it, and you can help me in this mission by sharing the podcast If you're also feeling like you're ready for the next step and you're really ready to dive in in your hormone journey. My course Nourish Your Hormones is created specifically for you. It's a step-by-step blueprint to increase your metabolism, restore energy and have better periods and mood every single month. I would love to connect with you, so come over and join me on my Instagram page at leishadrews, and send me a message if you have questions or just want to tell me something that you enjoyed about this episode. I can't wait to meet you.