Intuitive Eating Model (EP 55: The Vegan Life Coach Podcast)

If you’re over dieting, and “INTUITIVE EATING” sounds appealing, yet daunting, you’re not alone!

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.


In this episode of The Vegan Life Coach Podcast (following some fun storytelling involving skinny margaritas😉) we dive into our simple, 6-Step process for eating intuitively.

The “Intuitive Eating Model” has been a complete game-changer for our coaching clients. It allows you to feel confident about every food choice you make because you make those decisions CONSCIOUSLY (not based on your subconscious programming which runs on autopilot).

Steps for Making Conscious Food Choices

 Next time you have a craving, utilize the “Power Pause” (as taught in episode 7), approach yourself with curiosity and compassion, go through the following steps, and record your thoughts and experiences

Step #1: Ask yourself WHAT specific food are you craving right now? Describe in detail including the quantity.

Step #2: Ask yourself WHY do you want to eat right now? Does your craving seem PHYSIOLOGICAL (true hunger/your body’s need for nutrients)? Is it being caused by a craving due to food addictions? Or is the craving PSYCHOLOGICAL (trigger related to a mental/emotional state (“self-medicating”, avoiding or numbing feelings)?

Step #3: Pause to reflect about how you will FEEL AFTER you indulge? Take yourself through the imagined experience and notice how you’ll feel immediately after you finish eating, 5 minutes after that, a few hours later, and the following day. Consider the positive/negative consequences.

Step #4: Use the Self-Empowered Coaching Model to introduce new thoughts that are in line with your values. Walkthrough the steps of the Self-Empowerment Coaching System and describe.

Step#5: Try an ALTERNATIVE PLAN to address your true needs and take actions that are in line with your values. For a physiological craving, is there a healthier food substitute that will be more in line with your values? For a psychological craving, refer to what you discovered using the Self-Empowerment Coaching System and explore alternative actions that will serve you better (eg taking a walk, calling a friend, putting on a guided meditation, etc.)

Step #6: Whatever decision you make, decide it consciously and eat mindfully with pleasure!

 

 


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Episode 7 (Self-Empowerment Coaching System)

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Subscribe to Ella’s Soul-Aligned Sunday Newsletter HERE.

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Check out Ella’s website HERE and learn about current coaching opportunities HERE.

Aging (EP 54: The Vegan Life Coach Podcast)

Aging… A touchy topic that we unravel, layer by layer, in this important episode of The Vegan Life Coach Podcast.

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.


We break it down into two categories… Physical and Emotional. 

We first talk about the physical effects of aging, and how you can use a healthy vegan lifestyle to slow the aging process. We then dive into the complexities involved with the emotional effects of aging, society’s role, and the tools that help people foster unconditional self-love, step into their power, and reinvent themselves at any age!

 


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Seaspiracy

The Last Pig documentary

The Self-Empowerment Coaching System

 


CONNECT WITH US!

Take Our New Going Vegan Quiz HERE!  

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary Website

Dr. Elsa Spencer: A Fascinating Story of Passion & Resilience (EP 51: The Vegan Life Coach Podcast)

Throughout my conversation with Dr. Elsa Spencer, we bounced from how she became a vegan and her activism, to how she overcame childhood trauma and an eating disorder, to her favorite healthy brownie recipe.

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Subscribe: Apple Podcast | Stitcher | Spotify |  YouTube

*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.


It isn’t often that I get a chance to talk with someone who’s been vegan for longer than I have. Elsa’s expertise and authenticity is refreshing, and much of her story will resonate with our listeners (as it did for me) in powerful ways! Elsa reminds us of just how challenging life can be, and the beauty that can bloom from facing adversity.

Dr. Elsa Spencer, Nutritionist, Professor, Biologist (and So Much More!) 

Dr. Elsa Spencer earned her Ph.D. in nutrition in 2003. She trained as a researcher and teacher in various topics from cell biology to food chemistry and clinical trials throughout her education. Elsa understands what food can do at a molecular level, and she can break the information into bite-sized pieces. 

Throughout her career, Elsa has performed nutritional research, written papers on nutrition, gotten these papers published in medical journals, coached individuals in plant-based nutrition, and teaches at her local community college. She continues her passion for nutrition by coordinating food for a local plant-based children’s camp during the summer months.

One item that is critical to Elsa is making sure she gives back to the vegan community. She owes (and discusses in our podcast) her copious physical and mental energy to living her last 28 years as a vegan. She volunteers for the Vegetarian Resource Group, is a former intern for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and is a regular contributor at Anonymous for the Voiceless Actions. 

When she’s not running around spreading the word about good nutrition, she can be found bicycling to work, challenging herself with yoga, and running (or walking) around Charlottesville, VA. 

The Discussion of Veganism

Elsa’s vegan story started about 28 years ago. During her freshman year of college, Elsa began toying around with the idea that she wanted to become vegan. While already a vegetarian, she and her high school friends decided that they wanted to do something about the environment and know more about animal cruelty. They believed they would be able to slow carbon emissions by omitting meat products from their daily diet. She realized that carbon emissions were still being released not only from cows killed for meat but also from dairy cows. It was the light bulb moment that turned her vegan.

As with every first-year student (Elsa kindly points out), the first year of college can be quite jarring. She had moved out of her home at 17, started going to college, lost her first serious boyfriend, and met her father for the first time. 

On top of those life-changing events, Elsa started to remember events from her childhood. Her eighteen-year-old brain decided that she was finally ready to old enough to remember the incidences of sexual abuse that had occurred when she was a child.

Feeling out of control, Elsa turned to food as something she had the power to control, which led to anorexia.

As she began to come to terms with everything, Elsa sought out a therapist who helped her through her eating disorder. The therapist also helped her realize she might have underlying OCD. 

Even now, at 46, Elsa still sees a therapist to help her work through her thoughts and emotions. While her eating disorder is well under control, she admits to it taking over a decade to get it truly sorted out. 

Life after College but Still a Full-Time Vegan

Elsa described how excited her in-laws were when they came to her with a quiche they made, incorrectly thinking it was vegan-friendly. She was touched that they tried, and when she asked what was in the meal, they responded, “no cheese, broccoli, and eggs . . . “ They had removed the dairy component but forgot about (or were unaware) that the eggs were not vegan. 

While she never compromised her veganism, even to appease her in-laws, Elsa saw that others around her did. She felt driven to spread awareness to everyone who wanted it, and this is where her spunk for activism stems from. 

She wants to make sure that everyone who wants information about veganism and plant-exclusive nutrition can find it easily. 

Three-Question Speed-Round (in Elsa’s words)

If you were a non-human animal, what kind of animal would you be? 

I go back and forth between a dolphin and a bird, but right now, I’m a bird. I love flying dreams. I’ve had very lucid dreams since I was about 12 years old. I could always just tell myself I’m going to fly, and I’d be flying, and then, of course, I’d wake up and realize that I couldn’t fly and I was so disappointed. 

But, it would be a bird, like a big soaring bird—like an eagle or a falcon or a hawk.

If you could choose a time or place that you could be reincarnated, what year and location would you choose? 

I have to say that I don’t know if I would ever go back in time. I was born still-born. My heart stopped when I was inside of my mother, and I was born blue and unmovable. While the doctors and nurses did give me CPR and extra oxygen, they told my mom that I would never walk, talk, and probably be quadriplegic because of the experience. 

I didn’t end up talking until I was three. However, I saved up all my words and built sentences, and I’ve barely stopped using them since. 

I’m very grateful for the life that I do have. Living in the century I do live in, in the Western world as a woman. I don’t know that I would have internalized all the classically-American values, but I would possibly choose France or Denmark (a properly socialist country). 

What is your favorite Dark Leafy Green? Your favorite nut? Bean? Sweet treats you can make or buy . . . 

Kale, pistachios, chickpeas, brownies (black bean, no salt, oil, or sugar, but used with date paste). You could do so many great things with them; you can add stuff (like nuts or dried fruits, or add peanut butter to the top).


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Elsa’s LinkedIn

 


CONNECT WITH US!

Take Our New Going Vegan Quiz HERE!  

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary Website

Our Single Most Life-Transforming Tool: A Client Favorite! (EP 50: The Vegan Life Coach Podcast)

After having some fun with topics like being an introvert during the Pandemic and getting high off of Wim Hof’s breathing techniques, we dive into a discussion on Our Single Most Life-Transforming Tool (a client favorite).

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*Links mentioned in the episode are at the bottom of this page.


The “Power Pause” is a game-changer (just ask any of our coaching clients)!

In fact, one of our clients, Dawn, was so inspired she wrote an entire blog post on this tool for the Sexy Fit Vegan blog. 

The Power Pause is meant to allow you to explore your thoughts and emotions before you take action. It allows you to respond, with intention, rather than react and immediately fall into old unhealthy patterns (aka programs).  

With this tool, you have the power to become the designer of your destiny.

The Power Pause is the key step in our Self-Empowerment Coaching System, which you can learn about in Episode 7, and hear specific examples of by listening to this episode.

We often talk about being the observer, but we don’t realize how challenging it truly is… at first. Using the power pause is how we grasp the opportunity to become the observer of our thoughts and emotions. From there, we have the power to choose new thoughts that will serve us better. We then are able to CHOOSE our actions and can choose HEALTHY behaviors, like eating a nutrient-packed meal, rather than going for the junk out of habit. 

We had a client recently asked, “Am I denying myself of what I am truly feeling.”

Taking a power pause doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be seeing rainbows and unicorns. This technique is more of an opportunity to give yourself the chance to feel your feelings and then choose what you’re going to do about it. 

What we call “the human experience” includes both positive and negative emotions. When something sad happens, feeling sad is what needs to happen (NOT feeling sad is a symptom of a sociopath after all)!

Susan David puts it so eloquently in her extraordinary TED talk. She says, “Negative emotions are our contract with life. We cannot be fully human and experience negative emotions.” 

When Shye jumped off the bed last month, l felt guilty. If I had put her steps in the right place, maybe she wouldn’t have jumped. However, instead of getting lost in guilt and spiraling downward as I used to do, a took the Power Pause, and observed the guilty feelings, and the thoughts causing them. I chose new thoughts. “It’s not my fault. Accidents happen. It is what it is.”

I let myself be sad and scared that it was happening. I even gave myself a couple days to not be on my game (have a bit of a pity party), and after that, I figured it out. 

I didn’t overeat, under-eat, over-exercise, under-exercise; I just let myself sit in those emotions and was able to make healthy choices out of love for Shye and myself. 

Society tends to shame people, especially in this “positive” culture. It’s easy to get embarrassed when things are going wrong, which spirals into shame and then turns into dysfunctional patterns, even major emotional disorders including major depression, eating disorders, and destructive anger issues. 

So, your homework is to start practicing the Power Pause in your life every day. It takes practice, and you may not remember to take the pause in the moment. 

When you DO remember, you can use it to run back through the past situation. 

Think to yourself, how could the power pause have helped me at that moment? And then replay that information to you, approaching yourself with curiosity and compassion.  

With consistent practice, over time, the Power Pause will become part of your new “operating system” and will be the key to helping you build an empowered mindset and healthy habits for the rest of your life!


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Episode 7 (Self-Empowerment Coaching System)

From Bitch to BFF: The Power of the Pause in Everyday Life


CONNECT WITH US!

Take Our New Going Vegan Quiz HERE!  

Grab the valuable gift we have for you HERE.

Have a question you’d like us to answer, or feedback you’d like to give us (we love hearing from you!)? Leave us a voice (or written) message HERE.

Interested in receiving a free coaching session to air on an upcoming episode? Apply HERE.

Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary Website

To Cheat or Not to Cheat (EP 48: The Vegan Life Coach Podcast)

How would you like to build a relationship with food you never need to cheat on?!

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Subscribe: Apple Podcast | Stitcher | Spotify |  YouTube


The idea of “cheat meals” and “cheat days” is one I became familiar with as a fitness professional and bodybuilding competitor. It’s a concept that goes hand-in-hand with diet culture. 

Most of our clients and Vegan Life Coach Academy members come to us wanting to remove the stress around food. They want to be free from obsessive thoughts about food and their bodies. They long for eating to simply be an enjoyable and easy part of life… A way to fuel and nourish their bodies without spending tons of time and energy thinking about what, when, where, or how much they need to eat every day to achieve the results they desire. 

In this episode we explore how using “cheating” as related to diet promotes disordered eating and self-sabotage. We share how our clients have been able to eliminate refined sugar from their diets permanently without feeling deprived. 

We discuss how to make the powerful mindset shifts necessary to create a balanced LIFESTYLE where there are no more wagons to get on or fall off… How refreshing is that?!

(All with the SIDE EFFECT of losing excess body fat FOR GOOD.)


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

EP 7: SECS

Wim Hof on Goop

Wim Hof on Russel Brand’s Podcast

Wim Hof App


CONNECT WITH US!

Subscribe to Ella’s Soul-Aligned Sunday Newsletter HERE.

Take the NEW FREE Self-Assessment to explore your relationship with food, exercise, and your body, and receive valuable, personalized insights and resources from Ella herself!

Check out Ella’s website HERE and learn about current coaching opportunities HERE.

Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary Website