How A Pinch Of Curiosity and Self-Compassion Is The Recipe For Peace with Food With Raegan Perkins

Hola amigos! Welcome back!

Is your inner critic pecking at your eating habits? What if self-compassion was served at the table? Tune in to listen to Raegan’s conversation with David how curiosity and compassion help our health.

Highlights of this episode:

• Curiosity and Compassion’s Impact
• Introspection and Mindfulness
• Curiosity Opens Experimentation
• How To Start Real Change

Announcements:

• David’s book releases April. It focuses on real clients, heroes and sheroes, that took one small bite towards their health that improved energy, mood, or  sleep. The website has a sign-up sheet to launch a feedback group prior to publishing!

Episode Show Notes: 

[03:56] Meet Raegan

Raegan is an RDN, whose niche is intuitive eating, gentle nutrition, PCOS, diabetes. She loves her two dogs and husband, and plays the alto saxophone. She currently is working on the cantina bar music from Star Wars. This is her second time on the show. If you haven’t already, check out Episode 92, How to Combat Chronic Illnesses in an Anti-Diet Approach with Raegan and David.

[07:14] Curiosity and Compassion’s Impact

Curiosity and compassion go a long way in our human growth. This helps facilitate the work Raegan does with her clients. Raegan likes to bring these elements into the session, and when she sees the client down on themselves, she is there to remind them to come as they are. Life happens, she says.

Curiosity is amazing. Raegan always asks why. Let’s get curious about food. We have been eating since we were born, and we continue to eat.

Curiosity has been studied for a long time as far back as 1890. Why do humans wonder, why is it innate? Curiosity leads to innovations and progress.

Raegan shows up as curiosity in sessions with people. Her clients describe their struggles or rules around food, and Raegan creates a mindful dialogue around the client’s experience. Pausing can be beneficial to slow down, stop the autopilot and contemplate our own actions.

[15:36] Slow Down and Introspect

With food, this depends on the client. For example, a client who snacks often at night, got curious about hunger cues that were happening during the day and how the client responded to them. As it turned out, the client was not listening to her own hunger cues during the afternoon, which built up a seeking food behavior more at night.

Raegan and the client learned more about how hunger can appear. Although, Raegan cannot comment on how this will affect a client’s weight – that depends on something no one can control. What she likes to hone in on, is that the shame the client felt about late-night snacking is gone because the client understands more about what her hunger is about.

[19:51] Curiosity Opens Experimentation

“HUH” is a more positive mindset than “UGHH,” I have to do this. Plus, curiosity there’s no right or wrong, just an exploration. And without a wrong, there’s room for self-compassion. And if there is a failure, that is just a learning opportunity. As Yoda said, “Greatest teacher, failure is.” Failure does hurt, but a mindset can drive you forward.

[24:35] Self Compassion

What is self-compassion? What’s interesting is that clients usually have a lot of compassion for others, but think they should be doing better. If people think they are prioritizing themselves, they are being selfish. Yet, if we cannot take care of ourselves, we cannot take care of others.

Think of the airplane safety instructions. If the air drops, you have to put the mask on yourself first, before helping others.

In binary terms, masculine people are often estranged from compassion. Compassion is not a masculine trait, so traditional men may have a hard time finding self-compassion to make peace with food.

[30:21] What is the Body Telling Us?

Imagine being able to eat aligned with your values. That is a key for having peace with food. Many clients are simply overwhelmed by life stressors: deadlines, children, caretaking, etc. By creating a 1 hour set time with a dietitian, this can be a pause for you. If that is not an opinion, try a 30 second pause during your day.

[33:03] Ok, I’m Mindful, Now What?

Raegan explains the body is usually communicating with us. If we listen, great things can happen. For example, her client with Type 2 diabetes wanted to lower her A1c, and the mindful practice of more consistent eating, helped stabilize her blood sugars.

Raegan took the shame out of carbohydrates (carbs) and medications. Her A1c went from 8% to 6.5% during her work with Raegan.

[40:47] Practical Advice

If you are critical about yourself, the first step is to slow down and provide compassion to yourself. Being curious about your own motivators can be so helpful to making changes.

Resources:

Self-compassion, book by Dr. Kristin Neff

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Once again, I greatly appreciate you for listening and supporting my show. Remember, it really only takes One Small Bite to start transforming your life.

Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!