062: What is Diet Culture? + How It Affects Your Business with Sarah Newman

Kate Kordsmeier 0:00

Well hello there. Welcome back to the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host Kate Kordsmeier. And today I am so excited to introduce to you as somebody who has been behind the scenes with me for about four years now and who I attribute much of my own business success to because without her, I would never be able to be where I am today. So my guest today is Sarah Newman. She started with me, she was my very first hire as a VA back in 2017. And she has worn just about every hat in my business at this point. She still works with me to this day, but she has also branched out on her own and started her own incredible business and I could not be prouder of her and more excited for what she is doing. The work is so important and when I see her in her element, it is just so clear to me that she has found her true calling. So what is this true calling, Sarah is now a certified intuitive eating counselor. Her business, The Body Reclaimed, is for women who are ready to ditch dieting, heal from food and wellness obsession and reclaim their innate power and happiness. She is a body image enthusiast and former disordered eater who learned to make peace with her body food and life. And now she's giving women the tools to do the same. So Sarah helps women learn how to trust and accept their bodies at any size, including how to eat intuitively and become the experts of their own bodies. If you want to reclaim your body, mind and life, you can focus on the things that truly matter like your business, your family, your hobbies, your passions, then you'll definitely get a lot out of today's episode, I'm going to be sharing some of my own personal journey with intuitive eating and particularly the wellness diet. Some of the big aha moments I've had and Sarah and I are digging into root unravel. Sarah serves as the editorial director of Route and rebel now. And route and rebel has seen a lot of change over the last few years. So this episode, we're going to give you kind of an inside look into how we've changed our minds and our messaging around what holistic wellness truly means. How we have healed ourselves and our business route and rebel from the wellness diet, and so much more. And it's just a really fun conversation that I'm excited to have. I love sharing a little bit more behind the scenes with y'all. So without further ado, let's get into it. Take it away, Sarah. You're listening to the Success with Soul podcast with Kate Kordsmeier x journalists turn CEO of a multi six figure blog and online business. But it wasn't that long ago that Kate was a struggling entrepreneur who lacked confidence, clarity, and let's be honest money. But all those failures, experiments and lessons learned helped Kate create a thriving business that impacts 1000s and brings freedom, flexibility and fulfillment to her life. If you're ready to do the same and make something happen with holistic, soulful, step by step strategies from Kate and other experts, you're in the right place. here's your host, writer, educator, Mom, recovering perfectionist, bookworm, and sushi connoisseur, Kate Kordsmeier. Well, this is a real turn of events here because we have Sarah with us today who is part of the production process of this podcast. And Sarah has worked with me for many years. So welcome to the show. Sarah, welcome to the other side.

Sarah Newman 3:37

Thank you. It's so fun to be on this side of things.

Kate Kordsmeier 3:40

Yeah. So Sarah and I first met because I was looking for a VA at the time this was now what over four years ago? Yeah, for route and revel. And Sarah applied for the job and loved her. And we started working together. And she was my first hire, I think really ever, which is kind of cool. And our relationship has definitely grown and evolved with both of our businesses in our lives. And now, it's really exciting to have her on the show because Sarah has started her own business. And I think it is going to resonate with so many of you. So I won't give any details away. Sarah, tell us your story and about what you're up to these days.

Sarah Newman 4:24

Yeah, so I help women heal and improve their relationship to food and their body so they can reclaim their time, energy, happiness and freedom. So I do that at thebodyreclaimed.com, my website. And it's Yeah, really rewarding work because it's been my own story, my own journey to get to where I've gotten today to be able to do that. I've struggled with food and my body image for honestly, as long as I can remember. And we can go into that story now but if you'd like yes, please, but we're One of my earliest memories was in first grade and I was made fun of for my weight by a boy who was a friend of mine, he lived across the street. And he used to play together a lot. And in front of the whole class, he called me fat. And as we know, fat is often used in a insulting way in our culture. And just as a little side note, these days, I don't use fat at all in that way, I use it in a reclaimed way, or it's just a neutral word. It's just a descriptor, just like we say, Sure, all or any other adjectives. But you know, in the mind, of a six year old, it was this little T, I guess, yeah, little t trauma, where I'm like, oh, something's wrong with me. And I, you know, I'm like being made fun of, and that was just this really foundational moment for me, where, from that point onward, I was just very self conscious of my body, I didn't connect with my body as very, like living outside of my body. And then in middle school, I was made fun of again, by some boys that my friends and I were hanging out with, and they were both very, very skinny. And I wasn't, and they called me a whale. And so that, again, is like, more trauma of relating to me. So mean, so unnecessary. And that just really haunted me for a long time. And then as far as like, my whole life goes, my parents worked a lot. They're entrepreneurs as well. And they just want around because they were so busy working. And my brother and sister are older than me. So they were off gallivanting with friends, but I was home alone, you know, elementary school age. And so I just use food a lot for love and for comfort. And that was just my, my go to, as I was, you know, at home alone on a Friday night. So then as I got older and into high school, I was never diagnosed with anorexia, because I never saw a therapist or anybody that could diagnose me. But I'll say I have self diagnosed myself with anorexia. It was between my summer the summer as a junior and senior year, and I was just eating like one small meal a day, and felt like that's what I needed to do in order to be accepted. Especially at that point, I was getting more interested in boys and just like more concerned about my appearance and things. And what's really awful. I mean, there's so many awful things about eating disorders, but they're really normalized and reinforced in our society. Because my experience was, I got a lot of compliments for it, like, Oh, you look so great, and you've lost weight. And now, that is not where I'm at today, I can say that I will never compliment anyone's weight loss. One because it doesn't matter. It's not what matters at all about them. And two, we don't know what people are doing in order to get to that weight. And in my case, in many people's case, it's very disordered, unhealthy methods. And so that reinforced this belief of like, oh, when I'm thinner, I'm better. And people like me more, and I'm more accepted. So yeah, that was tough. But lucky for me, I really liked foods, I couldn't be anorexic. Just wasn't, wasn't suitable for me. And then as I got older, I started to get really into health. I wasn't into health when I was younger. But I've had more than my fair share of lots of challenges when it comes to digestive health and certain things that I've always Yeah, I've been on the hunt this feeling of like, I need to fix something. And we'll come back to kind of that mentality later. But I'd say about 11 years ago, I got on the gluten free train. And I'll call it the, like the gateway drug for diet culture.

And we can also come back and define diet culture in a moment, but I have been gluten free. And then I was just like, what else can I do to like improve my quote unquote, health and then from there, I just got so obsessive for years about health and wellness, and then also my weight because I was at the highest weight I've ever been in my body. And when I went to the doctor's office and saw that on the scale, I was like, Oh, well, that's not okay. And so then I was just yo yo dieting, like, I've tried dozens and dozens of different diets on the chain off the chain. Of course, they never ended up working in a sustainable way. And, yeah, we'll be talking a lot about that today. But I felt like it really stole my life because all I could do was focus on food and my body and am I doing this right and trying to be so perfect about every little thing. And so I didn't have any energy left for other interests in my life. I all of my time went to this I spent so much money on things that I just didn't need to spend money on. My whole identity was wrapped up in what I look like and what I weighed. And eventually I've found my way out of that, thank goodness. over recent years with intuitive eating, I'm now a certified intuitive eating counselor and just I'm a personal growth junkie. So I've just done it all when it comes to all kinds of Lulu things and so, I've really come up with my own processes now of like, okay, trial and error, what has worked and what hasn't like put it all together. Now of the things that I have found have worked for me to get to this place now where I honestly have so much freedom around my food and around my body and accept my body as it is. And just like anybody share, I have my moments where I'm challenged in that, and something comes up where, you know, I'm not in full acceptance. But now I know how to work with that. And so that's how I support other women with these days.

Kate Kordsmeier 10:27

I love it. Thank you for sharing your story. I know some of that is horribly painful to dig up. And it's just kids are so mean. But it's not just kids, even as adults, we get told things like that. And like you said, even complements can actually be harmful. Because if you're participating in disordered or unhealthy behaviors in order to look a certain way, and then somebody is telling you, you look great, then what does that really accomplishing? So there's, there's so many things I want to dig into here. One of them though, and for anybody who's listening in is like, wait, what does this have to do with online business? I think the thing that you said about this diet culture and this obsession with being healthy and being thin, and one of our mutual mentors, Christy Harrison calls it the life thief. And I think it's so true, because as you said, it was like, it's all you could think about it was all you could focus on. And I think so many other women can relate to that and how it relates to online business. And entrepreneurship is because it's probably preventing you from either starting a business growing your business showing up in a true and authentic way in your business. I mean, what are some other ways You see? And we'll define diet culture, too, for anybody who's unfamiliar with that term? But what are some of the ways that you think that this obsession, or even if you don't feel obsessed, but it feels like something that yes, I think about what I look like, and how that could maybe be affecting your business.

Sarah Newman 11:57

Yeah, so many of the ways that you have named, it is a giant distraction from what matters. And I do want to dive into that, because there's this political piece to it and like patriarchal piece to it that I really want to dive into, because it's super important on a bigger scale. But in the day to day, yeah, it's if you're so hyper vigilant about every single morsel of food that's going into your mouth, and your whole day is planned around, you know exactly what you want to eat and the correct portions and the timing, all that stuff that is so much energy and so much control that we're exerting. That it's it's a it's not sustainable, we can't live like that forever. It's this like false sense of control that we're trying to feel. And then when we don't adhere to that, then we feel like we're failing at something. And we can apply that same thing to business of how we try to control our businesses so much. And really, you know, that's just not something that's going to really work in the long run. And it really did disconnects us from our intuition. And our bodies, as she talked about so much on the show, our bodies have so much wisdom in them they are, to me, it's like that is where my home is that is my truth. And that is how I now can navigate the world is when I'm connected to my body. And so when we're taking, like diets, for example, I'm subscribing and we have to like follow them perfectly. We're not tuned into our own body and our own needs, and like our own hunger or fullness, our pleasure and satisfaction, like there's just so much that it takes from us. And yeah, just like the energy to have to focus on all of that when you could really be focusing on your business, your family, your hobbies, your interest, other things that you find value in just living life in this beautiful world. And having experiences any you know, friendships, I mean, there's just so many things that we can be putting our energy into. And yet Instead, we're so worried about our bodies, what they look like. And ultimately, that doesn't even matter. Like, we're not going to get to our deathbeds and go, you know, what I wish I did differently in life is that I put more time and energy into like, looking a certain way and being on diets and like getting eyelash extensions, and just all of these things that we do for beauty, we're going to wish that we had spent more time with our loved ones. It's actually there's that book The regrets of the dying. There's a few in the top five, that's like, yeah, that's one of those people wish that they just like had more fun and spent time with people that they loved and that they listen to themselves and not to other people, not they followed their own truth. And when we're subscribing to things outside of ourselves, whether it's diets or beauty ideals. That's not our truth. And that's not ultimately what matters.

Kate Kordsmeier 14:34

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, I'm thinking to have even somebody as big and successful as Amy Porterfield, and she's talked about many times and now has a separate podcast dedicated to this very topic called talking body. And she's mentioned before how she did not show up on video for years because she was so self conscious about the way that she looked Now there's a lot of things that have changed in her business. And I don't mean to speak for her or to say that, and look, then she started showing up on video and her business has totally skyrocketed. But there's a change when she stopped worrying about that kind of thing. And I don't know that she would say that she's ever actually fully stopped worrying, but when she's done it anyway, and I think that a lot of people could relate to that, oh, I don't want to show pictures of myself or, you know, show up on video or even just show up at all. Like, I think when you've been told that you should be smaller than starting your own business, where you're the face of a business is the opposite of staying small. So I feel like there's so much intertwined in that.

Sarah Newman 15:44

Yeah, those are a lot of practical pieces of how that can show up in the day to day, you know, not wanting to do every brand on your website, not wanting to go live on Facebook, not wanting to be on Instagram, all of these things because of the fear of how we look. And so yeah, there's this merging of like, our professional and personal success with our appearance. And there's a lot of people and I've been this way in the past myself, that's like, Okay, I'm not worthy, if I'm not successful, and I'm not successful if I'm not thin. And it's like, wait, why, like, how does this get so merge, because they literally have nothing to do with each other. It's just like this arbitrary value that we're placing on our weight, when it's literally just a number and it has nothing to do with who we are. And so I think if we can really start to untangle that and have our self worth be in things outside of that, that that is just one of the most powerful things that we can do for our well being. And it's interesting, because I feel like there's, I say, like diet culture is to health and wellness how bro marketing is to online marketing, where it's like, it comes from so much scarcity, and preying on people's rolling abilities and being like, hey, you're not good enough as you are, you're not perfect, don't you need this thing to make your business better or to make your you know, your body better, and they have the same fundamental things under the surface of, you know, what they're marketing to us, and then we do the thing. And then we're like, oh, wait, that actually didn't work, or that isn't what I wanted or needed. And I got kind of tricked into buying this thing, because I felt like I was unworthy. And that I needed to change. And so yeah, it's really interesting to see how these, like the same tendencies that we can have in our business, we can also have in relationship to our bodies as well.

Kate Kordsmeier 17:26

Yeah, such a good point. I love that. So we've been throwing around this term diet culture a few times. Now. What is diet culture,

Sarah Newman 17:35

diet culture is a system of beliefs that promotes thinness, as the solution to happiness and health. So it says, when you're thin, you will have this magical land open up to you where everything is perfect, and you have the career that you want, and the partner that you want, and the family and the friends and you're also like a millionaire. And it just all of these things come because you're thin. And it sounds kind of even ridiculous, like just to say that, but it is how I mean, I know that's how I have experienced it. And that's what it really is selling us it's saying that fitness better fat is bad. And it's like this moral virtue to because we are told that we can control our body size, when in actuality we can I can come back to some of those steps in a moment. But it's like, oh, because body size is under your control. If you're not thin, then you must be lazy, or you must not work hard enough or just not care and all of these terrible things that we associate with our weight, when really our weight is very much outside of our control, it's largely influenced by our genetics. And diets don't work 95 to 90% of diets literally don't work in the long term and more than five years, when you look at the research. And ironically, the biggest predictor of dieting is weight gain. So we go on diets thinking that we're going to lose weight, and of course, that's what the promise is, but the yo yo the gaining weight, losing weight, and that cycle that we go on, actually causes up to two thirds of people gain back the weight or more in the long term and so that our setpoint actually increases over time. And suddenly we're in like a larger body and the more that you yo yo diet and go on and off of them, the larger your body tends to get because you're increasing your setpoint the body thinks that starving when you go on a diet so even though it's self induced, the body doesn't know that our bodies are wired to do everything they can to prevent against famine. That's how we've survived all of these, you know, 1000s of years. And so even though we're you know, intentionally restricting the body's like, oh, shoot, I you know, I don't want that let me pump up those hunger hormones and let me put on you know, the

Kate Kordsmeier 19:51

Yeah, you ever noticed when you're on a diet, your cravings for things go up so much, and it's like that is your body's biological response to say You're restricting and weed, or like, we're being restricted. We don't know why. So we're pumping all these hunger hormones, we're increasing your cravings, because we're desperate for you to give us food.

Sarah Newman 20:09

Yes, exactly. And so, yeah, it's just, it's just really devastating, because people don't know that this is how it works, right? Like, I think a lot of people know. Okay, diets typically don't work, but they don't realize the extent to which they don't work and the harm that they caused. So it's not just like, Oh, well, I tried, it didn't work. It's actually causing so much harm to our mental health, emotional health. It can be our relationships, like we talked about in business, there's all of these ways. I mean, it can create eating disorders, which literally can kill you. I mean, it's a very serious thing, of what dieting does to your well being. So yeah, just causes so much harm. And it's like this really false claim of like, in order to have a happy and this like, beautiful, I can get all the things that you want, you need to shrink your body to get there. And that's just not true. Like, that's totally not true. And it's literally no one's life purpose on the planet to lose weight. Like, that's not what we're here for. That's not, you know, going to be ultimately fulfilling. And it's this trap, because we think that it is but for people who actually do at some point, lose weight, this was my story as well. The thinnest when I got to the fitness that I've ever been in my life, I still wasn't happy. It didn't get me what I thought it was going to get me I wanted more. It wasn't enough, it doesn't get to that underlying issue of Well, what's really going on here, like, why do I not feel worthy as I am? Why do I not like myself, and so we have to go really deep with that. And that's something that I would encourage people listening to do is like, okay, so if it doesn't come from shrinking our body, how do we improve like our worthiness and our self acceptance? And that's a huge topic. I mean, that's exactly what I spend every day talking about, but I'd say one, like something more practical is like, okay, so it's not changing our body size, but it's our body connection. So how can we come into more acceptance of our body more play more vulnerability, more love, more compassion, all of these things, our own authenticity? How can we invest our energy into these things, because that's what we're looking for. Right? Like we go to try to change our body so that we can feel better, so that we can have love so that we can, you know, have all the things I just mentioned, but we can actually have them without having to shrink our body. So that is what I would encourage anyone listening to do is like, Okay, how can you actually put your energy into those things? You don't have to go the circuitous route of trying to change your body.

Kate Kordsmeier 22:49

Interrupting this programming with a very important message. A little bit of a soapbox moment here for y'all. All right, modern women have far more power today than at any time in history. And yet, we still aren't fully free. We still live in a patriarchal society that enforces beauty ideals as a way to keep women preoccupied and unable to believe that we have the power over our own lives and bodies. Sadly, diet culture leaves women at war with food and our bodies feeling uncomfortable in our own skin stuck in self doubt and shame and living a half life. The problem is, we've all been sold these lies for so long. It's a system that has told us we are incomplete and that we must either need more, or be less, be smaller, be quieter to succeed. This pressure to fulfill the false patriarchal directive to quote unquote, look good, creates a constant state of anxiety, competition and disconnection from the wisdom of our bodies that causes many of us to overeat, Andree obsessed with food resist movement fixate on our looks, spend an ungodly amount of money on products meant to make us look better, avoid our lives and get distracted from what truly matters. Take this for example. It's estimated that by the time most women hit their 45th birthday, statistically speaking, we've tried 61 diets, plans, programs, detoxes cleanse, meal plans, regimens, eating systems, whatever you want to call it. That's the equivalent of decades of time being wasted and spinning in a circle unknowingly being the victim of diet culture. It's an unending battle to shrink our bodies with the hopes that it will reward us with our dream life. But the truth is, it doesn't work that way. Because I promise you, you can have your dream life right here right now, regardless of what you look like. Like everything in life. It's all about the inner journey and coming back to trusting ourselves and believing in our inherent worthiness instead of looking for outside validation. If you're resonating with this and wondering where to start, take my friend Sarah's free intuitive eating assessment at successwithsoul.co/body. intuitive eating has truly transformed my own life not only in healing my own And disordered relationship with food obsession and the wellness diet, but also in helping me realize that I am so much more than a body. It's given me the energy and freedom to claim back my life helping me be a better mom, a better wife, and more fully owning my badass entrepreneurial self. If you want to take the first step towards improving your relationship with food and your body, and you're ready to learn more about intuitive eating, go to successwithsoul.co/body to get this free assessment and discover what's getting in your way. My friend, Sarah will guide you from there on your next step so you can start to transform your life today. One of the things that my friend Madison always says is like you take your same brain with you. And so if you didn't feel worthy at x weight, you're not going to feel worthy. Why wait, even if it's smaller, because it's not actually the weight that's making you feel unworthy? Yeah, yeah. So it's like, you gotta you have to do the deep inner work, which is so much harder and feels so much less like we have control. And I've been thinking a lot about this control piece lately. Because sometimes it feels like going on a diet or following some kind of plan, whether it's like a fitness regimen, or even not a traditional diet to necessarily even lose weight. Like when I first got on my first quote, unquote, diet, I didn't think it was a diet because I wasn't trying to lose weight, I was trying to heal my body, I was having these chronic health conditions. And I was told that if I ate a certain way, these conditions would go away. And so when I started doing that, I feel like part of the reason that I felt at the time, like, Oh, I think this is working, is because I had, I felt this sense of control of like, I have the power to do this. And that was really empowering. It made me feel really good. And it lowered some of my stress, of course, then once this lifestyle change, became unsustainable, then I spiraled out of control and didn't feel all of those things. But then, ironically, my symptoms didn't come back, because it was really the stress of everything that was causing them in the first place.

Sarah Newman 27:16

Yeah, I'm so glad that you highlighted this, because it's just so important. So someone listening could be like, well, I'm on a diet or like I haven't gone on not diets, or really tried to change my weight. But there's these things that are diets in disguise. And what you just described is what Christie Harrison would call the wellness diet. And anyone who's interested in this, Christy is a huge inspiration for me. And I know for you as well, her book, anti diet is just one of the most amazing books in this world, though, totally recommend that we'll put the link in the show notes, so you can get your hands on that. But the wellness diet is a diet in disguise, because it's still this fixation on all of these things outside of ourselves that causes these obsessive behaviors, it's very dogmatic with these black and white rules of like, here's good, and here's bad. And if you do all of these things, then you'll be healthy. And the thing is, we can have influence on our health. Absolutely, we are powerful like that. But we cannot absolutely control it. Like, I think the promises like if you just do all of these, like hundreds of things, you know, or don't do all of these hundreds of things, then you'll just live this like perfectly healthy life forever. And that's not true. We know that people get cancer in mysterious ways. People that are like they help these people out there that are juicing every day and doing all these things that we think are great, they're still getting sick, there's just so much that goes into health. That's way beyond diet, and exercise. And while that is a lot of estimates, say maybe like 20% ish, could be even less of what goes into our health, but our health is actually made up of our genetics and our adverse childhood experiences, like the trauma that we had growing up. And if we had, you know, a single parent or a parent that was in jail, or what kind of, you know, abuse we may have gone through, there's just so many other factors when it comes to health that don't get a lot of attention. So we have this perspective, from diet culture, that's like, you know, if you just do these things with food and exercise, then you're just gonna, like get this picture perfectly. Like Actually, that's a small percent. And there's so much else that goes into it. So I come from a health of every size perspective, which is a weight neutral approach to health. And it's, it really talks about what are the things that we can do for our health that have nothing to do with our weight because no matter your body size, there's things that we know are great for our health, right, getting enough sleep and drinking water, moving our bodies having close social relationships with healthy boundaries, and there's just so many things that are good for our health that anyone can pursue and we all have the right to pursue, regardless of our body size. And just to complete that thought about how that every size that's important is to say you cannot make any assumptions. About a person based on their body size. So you can't look at it in person and say, oh, they're healthy. You can't look at a larger body person and say, oh, they're unhealthy. We don't know anything about their health simply by looking at them. So that's what puppet every size is, is that we can all find health.

Kate Kordsmeier 30:18

Yeah. And I think that's probably some of the resistance that if you're listening and feeling some resistance to what we're talking about, it took me a while to come around to this idea as well, because it is so ingrained in us, it's why we call it diet culture, because it is so pervasive. And it's, it's been sometimes subtle, sometimes in your face part of everyday life for so long, that you don't even really realize that it's happening. And I think one of my first like, well wait a second, when I heard Health at Every Size, and heard about intuitive eating and these other approaches was like, but what about obesity? And like obesity is bad. And there's health consequences from being overweight? Right? Isn't isn't that right. And then it was like I started doing the research and turns out, nope.

Sarah Newman 31:11

Yeah, it is really just a huge paradigm shift when you dive into this work, and it's like, we're all that analogy of being fish in water. And fish don't know that they're in the ocean, right. And the ocean for humans is diet culture, and we don't really know we're in it. But then as you start to see it and start to learn about it, you see it everywhere, because it is everywhere. And there's so much money, what's really sad about it again, one of many things is that there's just so much money to be made in it, which is one of the ways that we got here, there are many things that have contributed to it. But the day culture is, gosh, the stats now it's like 70 something billion dollars, and it's only going up to you know, in the next decade, it's gonna grow by like another $20 billion, or something like that. It's just a huge, yeah, just there's a lot of money to be made a lot of profits. And so anything in our world that has that kind of power, there's just a lot going on there of when you actually start to look at a lot of the things of like, why, you know, you'll look at research a backhoe, this day at work for weight loss, it's like, oh, well, it was actually funded by a pharmaceutical company that has a weight loss pill, for example, if you start to see, interesting, all these studies

Kate Kordsmeier 32:24

have been funded by pharmaceutical companies who have a stake in the game. And even if they don't have a weight loss pill, they want to sell you on blood pressure medication, and they're going to convince you that the reason your blood pressure is high is because you're overweight, when actually, it could be something totally unrelated.

Sarah Newman 32:40

Yeah, and there's just so much that and even with the whole of the speaking, which I'll say and air quotes, when I say the word obesity is it wasn't an official diagnosis until 2013. And actually, the American Medical Association, their panel of advisors said not to classify it as a disease based on all of the information that they had up until that point. And yet there wasn't agenda to want to classify it that way, for some reasons, we just gave in many others that we don't have time to get into right now. But they decided to do it anyway. And so they went against their own advice. And now it's just so commonplace in our role as the media like puts all this energy into like the obesity epidemic, and all this fear mongering around it. And it just, if you really look at a lot of the research, it just really proves so much of it wrong. And And just to clarify, I'm not saying that there's literally zero correlation between your weight and health, there are correlations that we all know, like, it's higher weight is associated with things like heart disease and diabetes. But what's really interesting is that that's a correlation. And we know that we can't make correlation mean causation. And when you look at other research, there are things that are independently proven to cause those same health outcomes. So two of the biggies are the yo yo dieting that we talked about people that gain and lose weight, you know, throughout the time they even be throughout their life, it can just be, you know, that yo yo, they're susceptible to the same health outcome. So you could be a yo yo dieting, and you can still get diabetes and heart disease and all that stuff independently, regardless of your weight. And then the other big one is weight stigma. So weight stigma is the way that people in larger bodies are treated in our society. So it can be anything from being bullied, to literally there's statistics showing that they get paid less at a job. They don't get the same kind of health care that people want that our bodies get. They're just so stigmatized in so many ways that are completely unfair. And when you go through that kind of oppression in your day to day life, it impacts you. It impacts your mental health, emotional health and then your physical health. And so those have both independently been proven to cause the same health outcomes as weight. So then it makes you go, yeah, weight could have an impact independently on its own, but then The research never controls for those two things that I just mentioned. So we know that we can prevent yo yo dieting, we can choose not to go down that path. And weight stigma is a much harder one to reckon with, because it's a very cultural systemic thing. But the more that this work gets out, and the more that people can start to shift us as we talk about social justice or anything, to me, we have to include body size in that conversation of inclusion, because they're clearly have just so many harmful health impacts.

Kate Kordsmeier 35:33

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think, especially the body diversity is something that I feel like is never talked about, because we have one ideal woman that we're supposed to be and we're supposed to be thin and white, and look a certain you know, our body is even supposed to be shaped a certain way. And now and like 2020, one's ideal woman, with Kardashian stuff coming in, and other things like that. It's like, okay, you have to have big boobs, and then a teeny tiny waist, and then a huge ass and then, but like a thigh gap, and these things that are physically impossible for any woman to achieve without surgery. And that even if you happen to be one of the like, 1% of people in the world that could achieve this body, to be able to, like sustain that forever, is near impossible in itself. And I think the other thing you said that really struck a chord with me was the weight stigma. And this was something that I didn't really realize until I started reading more of so anti diet, the book that we talked about, again, like if you are if some of this is peeking your interest, but maybe it's even peeking your interest in a way that's like, I don't know about that. Or like, that doesn't sound true. I cannot recommend reading anti diet enough because she lays out all of the evidence, all of the history, all of the things that have happened over time and having it all in one place. Like with the full context, it will I mean, I say like life changing is like an understatement, because it is just so powerful to see this. And it's like once you see it, you can't unsee it. And the weight stigma piece was something that I didn't realize, and Christy talks a lot about how, you know, people in larger bodies are even like paraded at the doctor's offices, and that they're treated differently, and that they might go in and have a complaint and the only solution that's given to them to solve their problem is to lose weight. And if that same person or a person with the exact same symptoms, but in a thinner body, smaller body came in, they would actually be like that condition would be treated without weight loss as the solution. And that Now, again, this is kind of like the correlation thing of Yes, there. There is some evidence that is showing that people in larger bodies have worse health outcomes. But is that because of their larger bodies? No, it seems like what now we're finding out is well, sometimes they're they're not going to get treatment until it's too late, because they're afraid of what their doctors are gonna say, or they know their doctors are just going to dismiss them and put them on a diet. And so you can't like you're these studies aren't controlling for that, like you said, and it makes such a huge difference.

Sarah Newman 38:16

Yeah, it's really, really sad to hear the stories of people in larger bodies and their medical treatment and how they'll go in for something completely unrelated to help like a sore throat and the doctors like, oh, let's talk about your weight. And they're like, Well, I have a sore throat, like give me antibiotics. You know, it just doesn't make any sense. But so this is why it's such a systemic issue. Because it's everywhere. It's not just in like the media, or beauty industry or media. It's like it's literally in the veins of our healthcare system. I think it's slowly slowly starting to shift. But I'll be really curious to see where this goes over the next decade and beyond. Because it is just so important. And I think that as doctors can start to really look at the research and Health at Every Size perspective, if they want to give their patients the best, you know, they take this oath to provide the best care that they can. And they're not doing that when all they can do is focus on weight loss, because the thing is, so let's just make the argument that even if weight loss was the answer, that it would solve all the problems, which is not true, but let's just say it was we still don't have a solution. We do not have any literally there's not one long term sustainable solution that works to shrink our bodies in the long term. So even if that is what was needed, we don't have a way to do that. So we have to start looking at other solutions.

Kate Kordsmeier 39:40

Right, exactly. I feel like that was one of the things that I kept coming back to with Christy's work was that you know, looking at all this and saying like, okay, even if we were to go down the path and say, being quote unquote overweight is a problem. We do not have a sustainable option. To help people not be quote unquote overweight because diets do not work, and the only thing diets are good at is helping people gain weight over time, when you realize that it's such a huge shift in what we feel like we've known for so long, like there's so much unlearning that needs to happen that it it's such a process. And I think that my girlfriend and I have been kind of going through this together, we read anti diet together, and we've been talking about it. And we're like, it's like a 12 step program where I just feel like we've gone through a lot of different stages where we feel really angry that this is what's happened. And again, like, you have to look back at some of the the history of how things have been framed the way that they are, like, they're one of the things that I found most powerful to learn was that at some point in time, and Sarah, you might know, the year I can't remember, but the people who set the BMI basically said, we're going to change the BMI so that now these numbers are considered overweight, and these numbers are considered normal. And they made what is considered overweight, much broader. So overnight, even though nobody gained any weight in one day, overnight, like 40 million people were then classified as obese because of some arbitrary number that they just changed. And so that they could, again, continue profiting off of we need more people to be trying to lose weight.

Sarah Newman 41:24

Yeah, that's just such a good example. And not to mention that the BMI in and of itself is pretty much bullshit tool anyway. And we put so much credence into it as a whole nother problem. But yeah, it's just it has blown my mind again, and again, to hear these things. It almost sounds like, I don't know, like a sci fi movie, or conspiracy or something where you're like, cannot be true. Like, wouldn't everybody just notice if this was true? But sadly, no, that's just there's just, you know, too many agendas, and so much money and so much that we're up against from like, a historical perspective as well, looking back at this of the momentum of how we got here, and I do want to comment on that, yeah, this can be really overwhelming. You were saying it's like this 12 step system. And really, it's almost like this lifetime of learning that we'll continue to do. And I don't mean to say that in a way to discourage people, because I know we want a quick fix. And we want to be like, well just tell me the five things to do to, you know, change my mindset, and to change my experience, and I'll be on my merry way. And it's like, well, this is really, this journey of a lifetime of, there's going to be phases, and there's going to be like you said, the anger, there's going to bring you, there's gonna be so much that comes up. And that's why it's really important to do this work in community. Because to try to process all of this on your own is overwhelming. And it's okay, that it's overwhelming, because there's no way that it can't be. So if you're listening right now and you feel overwhelmed, then that's a totally normal response to be having right now. And I just encourage you, whether it's, you know, one of the first things that you can do is clean up your social media feed. So who are you being influenced by when you log into Instagram? And are you seeing before and after pictures? Are you getting, you know, really harmful messages about weight loss? What are what are you looking at, and unfollow those people and start following people who are healthy at Every Size perspective, or intuitive eating, and that alone can make such a huge difference? Yeah, and then I do want to go back to you, cuz I want to make sure we have time for this and how this is really a feminist issue as well. Because when you look at, again, the history, and the just the systemic nature of this, and the patriarchy, which we can link to Dr. Valerie's episode, in the show notes, because she talks all about the patriarchy and what that is, and everything. But when you look at women's political power over the course of history, you'll notice something really interesting that the ideal, quote unquote, ideal body, and just ideal beauty aesthetic for what women are, quote, unquote, supposed to look like, has shifted over time, it's gotten smaller and smaller, the more political power that women have gotten. And now it's like, you can't get any smaller, really, than what we've seen, you know, like, in the early 2000s. I, when I was in high school, it was like, Kate Moss, and like, you know, like any, like, you literally can't be smaller. And so then it's like, oh, well, we can't be smaller. Now. It's like you said, the Kardashian look of, Well, okay, so you still want the small waist, but now it's like you need the big asking the big boobs and all, you know, just all of the things that literally nobody looks like, and I'm so glad that you you mentioned that because that's a really important point. And I talk a lot about that as well. But when you look at so in, like the 1890s is when women were starting to fight for land ownership for the first time. And that's been this. It's called the gippsland girl, if you can Google it and see what what she looks like. But that's when the Gibson girl came out and it's like, this is what you're supposed to. Now, this is your beauty ideal women. So in order to be like a worthy woman, this is what you're supposed to look like. So it's the system traction from political power, then you go to the 1920s and getting the right to vote. And that's when there was the whole flapper era. And then you just keep going and going. And you can see even like in the 1970s, of wanting equal pay and equal work opportunities, there was Twiggy is like this supermodel, and you can look that up too. And it's just this correlation of the more political power that women get, the more that the beauty ideal starts to be even more extreme and more unattainable. And I wanted to read this quote from Naomi wolf book, The beauty myth, which is one of the leading feminist texts on this topic of beauty standards. And I just think it sums it up so perfectly. She says, a culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history. A quietly mad population is attractable. One.

Kate Kordsmeier 46:01

Talk about the anger, right? I'm like, Oh, I want to go punch somebody.

Sarah Newman 46:05

It's like, that just gives me chills every time that I hear it, or read it. And this is actually my why behind why I do what I do. It's not just about like what I've been through personally, which is a huge part, of course. But when I think about the global perspective of what would the world be like if women could stop hating our bodies, if all of the energy that we put into trying to change our bodies to meet some unrealistic ideal, and trying to think our bodies, all these things that we do, what if that was channeled somewhere else, but if that was channeled into service into making the world a better place, there's just so many things that we all in our hearts have a desire to do, whatever that may be, if it's ending poverty, or hunger, or just there's so many things right in this world that we live in today that need energy and attention and love. And I honestly, in my, in my heart, I feel like if I could snap my fingers, and overnight, every woman on the planet just wasn't allowed to worry, or obsess, or try to dictate her beauty and her body, that the world would just completely shipped overnight. And like all the world's problems would be solved. Because women are that powerful. Like, we really have that in us. And yet, we're so distracted by what's going on these things that ultimately at the end of our life, like we talked about, won't matter to us. And so that's why I do this in the hope that women even if you know, there's just small shifts that we can make in our lifetime to then make the impact we want to make. And maybe it's not some global thing like ending poverty, but maybe it's just being present with your family in a different way.

Kate Kordsmeier 47:39

Think about I was just going to say that same example of like, think about going to the beach with your family, and what a joyful experience that could be. And I bet you most of the women listening, their first thought is, oh, I don't want to be in a bathing suit. Oh, I don't want to like, oh, how am I going to cover myself up? Well, I'm not going to go swimming with the kids, because then everybody will be able to really see me. And like you're just gonna hide under your beach blanket. And what would your life look like if that could be a truly joyful experience that was untainted? By worries about what you look like in your bikini? Yeah. Such a good example. Yeah, I mean, spoken from true experience. I am in the thick of this. So all these things are so much easier said than done. But I think so important.

Hey, y'all, I gotta stop for a second and tell you about my friend Sarah has amazing program called RECLAIM. And in fact, I'm going to do you one better. And I have Sarah here to tell you about it herself.

Sarah Newman 48:41

Hey, Sarah, here. If you feel like you just can't seem to ever get it right with food and your body. I want you to know something. The problem is not you or your body. The problem is what you've been made to think and to feel about yourself and your body. I promise you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You just haven't had the right frameworks, tools and support to get where you want to go. And the things you have tried up until now have just made things worse, and reinforced your cycles and beliefs over time. So what's the solution? It's a non diet approach called intuitive eating, body respect and Health at Every Size. This new paradigm tosses out the outdated and unhealthy mainstream approaches to weight and health. Say goodbye to yo yo dieting, black and white rules, and unsustainable health gimmicks with no more force control, fear, shame, punishment, willpower, or restriction. Instead, we embrace food freedom and body acceptance by focusing on holistic evidence based frameworks rooted in compassion, trust, non judgmental curiosity. And it's a process of healing your relationship with food and your body so that you can experience lasting peace, improve your body image and achieve genuine wellness and health. In fact, intuitive eating has been proven to improve your physical, mental and emotional health, regardless of your body size. Yep, you heard me right. You'll not only reclaim your time, energy, autonomy, happiness and mental space around food in your body. But you'll also now have the resources to fully stand in your power, and live your most authentic, confident, thriving, and unapologetic life. Because isn't that what you've always wanted. So if you want to say sayonara to the diet culture treadmill forever, and are ready to invest in yourself so you can show up as your fullest highest self in your business and in your life, for the rest of your life, then I invite you to apply to my transformational program called RECLAIM, you can find out all the details at successwithsoul.co/reclaim. Plus, when you apply and join by June 30, you'll also get a special bonus that I don't offer anywhere else, a free one to one coaching session with me.

Again,

the link is successwithsoul.co/reclaim, where you can find out more, I can't wait to connect with you.

Kate Kordsmeier 51:28

I want to shift gears a little bit here because I think there's something interesting and something that only Sarah and I could talk about here which is Root + Revel and the evolution that that business of mine has gone through. And like I mentioned at the beginning in 2017, Sarah started with me and Sarah came she was had her own blog, which was a vegan blog at the time. And then she came to Root + Revel which was very much promoting this wellness diet, this eating a certain way to achieve optimal health and make sure that you lived as symptom free life as possible. And even though my wife at the time, which is only because at the time, I benefited from having thin privilege, my why was not about weight loss. But it was just as damaging regardless, and I want to talk about how we both kind of have gone through this evolution and how we've changed the business, Sarah still works with me at Root + Revel and how like if you have been following along, you've probably seen over the last couple of years that we've really, we've gone back and deleted posts, we've edited posts to be updated with our you know, our current views on things. And as we learn and one of the reasons I want to talk about it is to get into the wellness diet and what this really means but the others to talk about the business side of it and to show that you are allowed to change your mind and your business and you are allowed to grow and learn and evolve and do better. And part of the beauty of having an online business is that not that it's easy to change. We have hundreds of posts, and a lot of them are problematic for us now. But that it's possible. And I want to talk about just your experience with that as well. I know I was on my own personal journey, of course with dieting and the wellness, diet and intuitive eating and all this and then you've been on your own journey and how that's kind of affected your work as well.

Sarah Newman 53:30

Yeah, well, there's a lot I could say the first thing that comes up is it's hard when your identity starts to get entangled with like, I'm the healthy one or I'm the wellness blogger, or in my case, I was a vegan blogger for a few years. And then when I decided I didn't want to be vegan anymore, because that didn't feel good to me. And I was wanting to listen to my body then I had this crisis of Wait a minute. Now I'm not this like Yeah, I did. I was vegan for a variety of reasons. But part of it is like this almost I can say it now I could have never owned it up the time. But like the Savior ism, right. And this, like, again, like trying to be this perfect thing of like, I'm saving the planet and the animals and stuff. And there's so much goodness, I'm not talking about about vegans, like if you want to be vegan, that's your choice to want to do that. But there's certain ways that I was approaching it. And I think it can be problematic in just like the black and white rules with that, and then not being able to listen to your own body. But the point in that being when we had both had this identity crisis of starting to learn things that were against what we had always thought was true. And it's this cognitive dissonance that happens like wait a minute for the you know, the last 25 years I've been thinking this way and now I'm learning things that go against what I've been telling other people to do. And so that is tricky and there's there's a lot there but I think it's just another reminder of having our identity be in other things like having our self worth be and things of that are This like, external, like it's in my beauty, or it's like I'm this person that's like I'm the healthy one in my friend group like these things that could easily shift at any time. But what are the underlying things about like who we are as people, our core values are just like the things that matter to us, the way we treat people, there's just so many things that we can we can shift to focus on our identity so that when these as we evolve and grow as humans, that we're not constantly having this identity crisis. So I think for me personally, that was a big one.

Kate Kordsmeier 55:33

Yeah. Yeah, I know, Sarah and I have talked about this a lot, especially after I read some books recently, and then was just like, I want to burn it all to the ground. And I feel so guilty. And you know, you start feeling like, Oh, my gosh, I've been telling people something that wasn't true. And you gave me some good advice at the time when I came to you and was like, What do I do? And I don't know if you remember it. Now, if you do, I would love for you to share it. If you don't, I can refresh your memory.

Sarah Newman 56:01

Well, I feel like there was a number of things. So I'm not sure which one specifically made the impact for you. So why don't you share it?

Kate Kordsmeier 56:07

Well, I think it was, what you were telling me was basically like that we're doing the best we can at any given time and with what we know, and that I had good intentions. And anybody else who's doing this similar work or in a health and wellness field, and maybe feels like they've been perpetuating this harmful diet culture or something like, it doesn't mean you're bad, or you're wrong, or, you know, something like, irreparable about you. Mm hmm.

Sarah Newman 56:39

Because the thing is, pretty much everyone has to go through that journey. Like we all have been indoctrinated into diet culture, from the time that we were born, we didn't have a choice, it's just our culture. And so there's almost like no other way than to go through it. And then to, to realize that there's this whole other world that exists outside of diet culture. And I again, I think that may start to shift over time. But I think anybody who has found their way outside of diet culture, whether it's intuitive, eating healthy, at Every Size, fat activism, all these things, we went through diet culture first, like every single person has had that experience, because it's just in the fabric of our society. So just a lot of with this whole journey, just something that I say all the time is just having so much self compassion, and just also trying to come from curiosity, instead of judgment with ourselves in this whole process. Because Yeah, it's a lot. But I do believe that people are doing the best that they can and working with the information that we have available to us at that time. And as we evolve as humans that we can make different decisions as we grow.

Kate Kordsmeier 57:44

Yeah. Do you want to talk about some of the like, practical things that we've done to show the evolution of Root + Revel and some of the things you know, Sarah is our editorial director. And so she's had a large hand in this. So I think maybe it could be helpful to people who are thinking of maybe making a similar change? Or maybe they're not even ready to make a change. But they're just thinking like, well, I couldn't pass. I mean, one of the reasons you might be feeling resistance is because, oh, my gosh, if this is wrong, do I have to redo everything? Do I have to like burn my business to the ground? Do I like it's too scary, sometimes it can be too much to accept it, because of what it might mean, that is going to happen to your business. But I think I'm wanting to show us as like kind of a example of this evolution and that there are things you can do, it doesn't mean like you have to give everything up and start totally over.

Sarah Newman 58:39

Yeah, for sure. So there's a variety of things that come to mind. And also to say that we're still not perfect in this right, if you got to written Well, they're still going to be some weight, stigmatizing language. And some of the posts that just haven't gotten updated, or other more black and white kind of posts and things like that, because there's literally hundreds of posts, and we just come through all of them yet, but we've gone through the highest traffic ones, and the ones that felt like anchor content on the website as far as things around your story and your inflammation and just things that had been these pillars on the blog to soften the language. So making it less about, like, here's all the things you have to do and all the things not to do and just really talking more about the importance of things like stress and how stress affects us, instead of like making it so hyper focused on food, for example. So at stop putting a ton of language in the blog post themselves. Also, in the welcome series, I know we changed up some of the emails and we actually published a lot of new content as well about intuitive eating and just more like a different type of holistic content that talks about other self care practices and meditation and just things that anybody can benefit from that have really nothing to do with Some of the typical like wellness, I mean, meditation, you know, that could fall into multiple camps. That could be a wellness diet too. But just to say there's things like that, that it's like, we know that they are beneficial for everybody. So just trying to think of, again, that perspective of like, what are the health behaviors that anyone can benefit from? And what are the ways that we can reduce stress, and so bringing on a lot of new content to talk about that, and then in the welcome series, linking to that, instead of some of the older things, and of course, changing some of the other pillar pages like the about page and some of the some of your story? Is there anything else that I'm forgetting that we did?

Kate Kordsmeier 1:00:36

Well, I'm sure there are some other things that we've done. But I think those are the key things. And I think, like we said, looking at the stuff that's highest traffic first, and yes, there's probably pages that are extremely problematic, but they haven't had a page view or more than a handful, you know, in over a year. And so is it worth our time to do that, and at some point, we probably would actually end up archiving some content and working with our SEO firm to figure out, you know, which, which posts we could actually just delete, and, and move on from and that happens, no matter. Even if you have nothing to do with the wellness, diet, or diet culture, or anything related to food and health and wellness or anything, like, that's just a good practice, I think, too. And when it comes to like moving the needle in your business, to not feel like you have to redo everything that you can start and look at like the biggest pieces first and work from there. The other thing you said that really resonated was this idea that when I first started Root + Revel and, and really for several years, you know, to me, I thought I this is a holistic wellness blog. I think at the time, what I didn't realize was that I was taking holistic to mean, not Western medicine, and what a lot of the functional and integrative doctors and naturopaths and people that I worked with on my health journey, they really emphasized physical health, above all else, and physical health, mostly being diet and exercise. I think that there is this trap now that so many people, the wellness diet is so pervasive now. And I just think that even this term, holistic health and holistic wellness has kind of been co opted by diet culture. And to I don't know, just question things a little bit more that What does holistic really mean? It means the whole, and the whole person is so much more than what you eat and how you exercise. And I think now we've really tried to take that approach of looking at emotional health, spiritual health, relationships, mental health, and all of these other aspects that are so downplayed, but really, actually make way more of a difference than anything that we're eating or not eating.

Sarah Newman 1:02:56

Yeah, I'm really glad that you said that. Because I too have that same when I came into the holistic health space, I was really coming at it mostly from a food perspective. Yeah, as we talked about so much. It's just there's so much more that goes into it. And I just want to say now, we're probably needing to wrap up here in a minute. But wanting to leave people with a couple of things. One is that health actually is a value that we can choose. We don't have to pursue health. It's not like this moral obligation. And that was something that I used to have crossed in my head of like, oh, you're a good person, if you're pursuing your health, and people that aren't are like that people. But that's really just the diet like diet, culture, language, and stigma ties in ways of thinking about things. And so to say, you know, is like really questioning your own relationship to health and defining it for yourself. So I think it's important to take some words like health and beauty and success and start to define them for ourselves instead of like these old definitions of play used to mean for us. And alongside doing that, I think it's really important to look at our values. And Brene Brown has a great list of values, if you just Google Brene Brown values, and picking like your top, it's going to be hard to narrow it down because you read them and I read them. And I'm like, you know, all of these are like half of these that really depict like your top three to five, like what matters to me in my life. And I can pretty much guarantee you that vanity is not going to be in your top 10 values. And so picking your top few and then again, defining them for yourself and then going okay, am I living in alignment with these values? And I think that's a tangible activity that anyone listening can do because I know like, because I what I wanted to do as we wrap this up, it's like okay, well now what like, where do I go from here? And I think that's one tangible thing is what matters to you. How do you define that? And then every day you can check in with yourself to be like, Oh, am I living true to these things? And then that can help you start to slowly opt out of some of the diet culture stuff. And so for me, it's like freedom and health. This, which is sort of cheating, because the way that Bernie wholeheartedness actually includes a lot of things like compassion and trust and all these things that I'm like, Oh, yeah, like all of that stuff. So but it's all wrapped into, you know, wholehearted living. And so I look at that and go like, okay, am I living true to these values and the things that matter to me. And so when I have these old, because this is a process, and these thoughts come up all the time, as you and I box about a lot. I'm like, Oh, no, I just had this thought and like, I'm tempted to want to go on this diet, or I'm tempted to, you know, what, all these old thoughts that we're still working on shifting, but you can look at your values and just go, Oh, that's has nothing to do with what matters to me. It's easier to dismiss it and just start to write your new beliefs and anchor those and instead,

Kate Kordsmeier 1:05:44

yeah, thank you for saying that. I think that's a great place to wrap up to. And one of the things that we mentioned, but we really didn't get to touch much on is intuitive eating. And this is what Sarah's business is all about now, so tell everybody where they can find you and learn more about intuitive eating and Health at Every Size and kind of, Okay, I'm I'm in I'm like they maybe maybe they listen to this episode and feel the call. So where can they find you?

Sarah Newman 1:06:11

Yeah, thanks. So my website is thebodyreclaimed.com. And on Instagram @thebodyreclaimed, I have a program called RECLAIM, that is a mix of online course meets community meets membership. And so if you're interested in that, you can go to thebodyreclaimed.com/reclaim, we'll put the links in the show notes. And I also have a free Facebook group. So if you want to join, I go live on Tuesdays, and I do all kinds of educational content and posts a lot in there. And so that's a great free place where people can get started. And we'll put the link to that in the show notes too. Awesome.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:06:47

Well, as you know, we always finish every episode with a lightning round. So we'll have to do your lightning round. Now, what is your favorite way to make time for self care? For me,

Sarah Newman 1:06:57

it's about social connection with other soulful women entrepreneurs that are like my soul sisters, I have been lucky enough over the years to cultivate relationships. And for me, I live alone. And so I can get like really in my own space and just feel pretty disconnected from others sometimes. And so for me having voxer and zoom to meet up with other women that just get it they get the entrepreneurial journey. And they get also the soulful, spiritual side, and just to be able to talk with them, I get so much nourishment from that.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:07:30

Yeah, community so important. What is one tool or strategy you use to help with time management.

Sarah Newman 1:07:37

So this might be a little outside the box as far as time management, but I'm really leaning into my human design these days. And I'm a projector with emotional thority. For anyone who knows what that means. And so for us, it's really actually a lot less practical than a lot of the other types and doing less and having a lot of rest in our days. And so I have just been learning a ton about human design recently, and leaning into that. And that just, the more that I lean into it, the more that my time just kind of naturally sorts itself out. So it's not like so practical, like to do less than things. But it's more just following my energy and following what excites me and what I'm inspired by. And somehow things just get done when I do that.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:08:20

Yeah. So good. How about a powerful business or mindset book you've read?

Sarah Newman 1:08:27

Okay, so I'll go really practical on this one to balance things out is profit first. I know a lot of other guests have said that. But to me, that just really changed my perspective, when I read it. And our mutual friend Kelly, who has been on the podcast, recommended it to me, and it was really empowering for me to, to see how I could set up my business in a way that I knew would be sustainable for the future and profitable, so I have not set it all up yet perfectly fine. My goal is every time to implement more and more of it, but I think it's really a game changer for managing your finances. Yeah, I

Kate Kordsmeier 1:09:04

wholeheartedly agree. Okay, how about a quote or mantra or affirmation you're using lately?

Sarah Newman 1:09:10

Okay. He looked at my desk on the side you have doesn't post it notes all over. So there's always something, but I don't know what's coming to me now. Well, there's a couple and you say this a lot, too. But what if this was easy? I have to come back to that all the time, because I tend to overcomplicate things. And then this isn't so much a mantra, but it's something that again, when I'm noticing things that aren't quite feeling right to me, or I'm beating myself up or just so often, I have to ask myself, what's the story I'm telling myself? Because a lot of times it's just my own made up thing in my head of like, why I'm starting to feel down or saying things that aren't true. And then when I start to untangle out, I'm like, Oh, actually, no, that's those things are true. I can prove myself wrong and what if this is easy, then things just can really start to shift when I can be I'm like my own detective in what's going on in your brain.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:10:05

I love that. And I feel like they kind of they do go together. And also the idea that you could say when when things are feeling hard, or when you are feeling stuck somewhere, and you're asking yourself, what is the story? I'm telling myself? And then you say, and what if this weren't true? Like, what if it weren't true that

Sarah Newman 1:10:24

I never finished anything? Or what if it weren't true that whatever it is that you're getting stuck on? And then what would that look like? And I feel like I've started doing that one, which is kind of similar lately, and it unlocks a lot. It doesn't another good one is Who would I be without this belief? Hmm.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:10:41

Yeah, that is a good one. Okay, you know, the last one, I don't know, did you prepare an answer in advance? What does Success with Soul mean to you?

Sarah Newman 1:10:50

Now? I wish I had, because I've listened, of course, to every single episode. And I've heard so many get answers. And so I feel like I should have this like, beautifully curated answer at this point. But I was just trusting that I would say whatever felt right in the moment. So I think for me, it's, it's just being in alignment with myself and what I talked about earlier of creating my own definitions of what it means to be successful. And that as long as I'm being true, and in alignment with my own self, that's really all that matters. And so, sometimes it's really hard, I have to find a lot of courage to make decisions that I know are right for me that I feel are so right. And yet, it might be you know, against the grain, or it might be something that I feel like I'm gonna get shamed for whatever it might be. But as long as I feel like I'm taking action and being the person that is aligned with my highest self, then I'm just I can always go to bed at the end of the day feeling good about who I am.

Kate Kordsmeier 1:11:53

Yeah. So good. Thanks for being here. Sarah. This is fun. Yeah, thank you.

Alright, y'all now before you head out, I have to remind you about a couple things because these are just too good to pass up. So as Sarah shared when you apply for her program RECLAIM before June 30, you'll be eligible for a special bonus with an extra one on one coaching call with Sarah, which is the only way you can get one on one calls with her at this time. As someone who has had my fair share of one on one coaching calls with Sarah. I cannot vouch for these enough. Sarah is one of the kindest, most genuine, empathetic and supportive people I know which I'm sure you could tell after listening to this interview. So no matter what the subject whenever I talk with her, I feel a sense of calm and peace wash over me as she has this innate ability to make people feel truly seen heard and understood. And y'all know I've been on my own intuitive eating journey struggling with body image after having two kids and recovering from a very serious case of the wellness diet and Orthorexic disordered eating behaviors. And Sara has been a source of radiant life in my life helping me navigate the complicated emotions that have arisen postpartum and prompting me with super thoughtful questions and ideas to bring me to a place of body neutrality acceptance, and ultimately, one day I know it's coming self love. Her gentle approach has been exactly what my heart needed and I cannot recommend working with her enough. Your soul will thank you and RECLAIM is one of the most amazing comprehensive programs to heal from diet culture and the patriarchy that I could possibly recommend. Don't miss out on your chance to join now. Remember, just head to successwithsoul.co/reclaim To find out more today.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai