#22 Eating Disorder Recovery & Finding Balance with Holistic Nutritionist Erin Holt

Clean Eating for Women with Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition

Erin Holt is a holistic nutritionist and a very strong woman. I have been listening to her podcast, and it is an honor to have her on the show today to talk about a subject that is very sensitive to me. Today, we discus eating disorders and recovery from eating disorders.In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, We talk about:

• Erin’s health journey
• Eating disorders and diet culture
• Healing never comes through restriction (there is a time and place for therapeutic elimination diets)

Some highlights of this episode:

1. Erin grew up as a chunky kid, but as she grew and became more lean she received a lot of positive reinforcement. She started running and drastically reduced what she was eating, and she started a 13 year struggle with eating disorders. She started clinging to the restriction model in high school, but in college she was introduced to bulimia. [02:40]
2. Erin decided to get her life together and become a dietitian. After graduating, she decided she didn't want to become a dietitian. Conventional medicine looks at things in a black and white way. She became a health coach, a yoga teacher, she stopped dieting, and starting eating whole food. She finally started to heal. [05:58]
3. After getting married and having a baby, her health fell apart and she was diagnosed with systemic scleroderma an autoimmune disease. This influenced how she lived and practiced nutrition. She wants to empower women to live free of diet culture and chronic disease. [07:54]
4. We don't have to let diet culture dictate our lives. We can break free from that. How we live our lives and the thoughts we have all matter. [08:42]
5. How chronic illness makes us feel betrayed by our bodies. There is a huge correlation between eating disorders and body Image issues and the way chronic illness can make you feel. Your body hasn't betrayed you. These things are actually protective mechanisms to try to keep us safe and keep us alive. [10:03]
6. How responsibility means responding to the situation. We don't have to follow every restrictive message and take more and more things out of our diet. How restriction and the diet mentality is beat into us. How people with autoimmune diseases are taught that healing comes from restriction. Even with autoimmune disease, Erin tries to move away from the restriction. [13:19]
7. How healing never comes through restriction.The stress of the diets were outweighing the potential benefits for Erin. Why would you be given something in which the only solution is restriction. Food manipulation is pretty easy. Changing our relationships to ourselves, other people, and stress is where the hard work is at. This is also where the magic and the healing happens. [17:44]
8. First and foremost, things need to be approached with love. Weight loss and healing are not always simultaneous goals. It's very rare that Erin sees healing come through dieting. Erin actually had to put on 10 pounds to feel better. This really created an internal struggle for her. [20:17]
9. Listening to our bodies and connecting with how foods make us feel. How we need to find a way to get back online with our bodies. This is how Erin healed from an eating disorder and an autoimmune disease. Getting back in touch with yourself and feeling things including how your body responds to food and how you feel emotionally. [29:35]

Links mentioned in this episode (some affiliate links included):

• Erin Holt Health
• Funk’tional Nutrition Podcast
• Erin Holt Health on Instagram
• Erin Holt Health on Pinterest
• Chris Kresser Revolution Health Radio
• Why I Gained 10 Pounds
• Jessica Flanigan
• Otto’s Cassava Flour (use code CLEANEATING for 10% discount + free shipping over $35 during checkout)
• Rachel Yehuda