Emilie Hebert | Guilt Free Eating & Attaining Health at Every Size From a Dietician & the Creator of Emilie Eats

Written By Kristel Bauer

LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS HERE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/emilie-hebert-guilt-free-eating-attaining-health-at/id1500457853?i=1000554073776

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY HERE: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7eKTBC7KiiGK0rCw40dxR4

If you are someone who is trying to eat more nutritiously, create a better relationship with food, and develop a healthier relationship with your body, you are going to learn a lot from this episode with Emilie Hebert.   Emilie shares valuable insights on how to navigate nutrition, body image and more. Excited for you to hear all the good stuff ahead!

Key Takeaways from This Episode

  • What is disordered eating?

  • Navigating your way through the standards set by the world of social media

  • Insightful thoughts on building healthy behaviors and eating patterns for every size

  • Tips on how to start good eating habits

  • Helpful recommendations on dealing with nutrition and wellness information overload

 

Disclaimer: All information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors, and are not intended to provide medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified health professionals when you have any questions regarding your specific health, changes to diet and exercise, or any medical conditions. 

 

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

 

About Emilie Hebert

Emilie Hebert, MS, RDN, is a registered dietitian, content creator, cat mom, and house plant collector. As a dietitian at the virtual private practice Nourishing Minds Nutrition, Emilie works one-on-one with clients struggling with disordered eating, orthorexia, and chronic dieting using the principles of Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size. She specializes in working with clients who are vegan or vegetarian, have food allergies or restrictions, or are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Since 2015 she has managed her food blog EmilieEats.com, where she shares delicious vegan recipes with 200,000+ people every month. A born and bred Cajun, Emilie now lives in Colorado with her girlfriend Taylor and two spunky cats. Alongside nutrition, she is passionate about interior design, DIY projects, houseplants, and finding the best margarita in town.

Connect with Emilie

 

About National Sleep Foundation

This podcast episode is sponsored by National Sleep Foundation. Founded in 1990, the National Sleep Foundation is committed to advancing excellence in sleep health theory, research, and practice. Its mission is dedicated to improving health and well-being through sleep education and advocacy.

Connect with National Sleep Foundation

 

Kristel Bauer, the Founder of Live Greatly, is on a mission to help people thrive personally and professionally. She is a corporate wellness expert, Integrative Medicine Fellow, Keynote Speaker & TEDx speaker. 

Follow her on:

To Book Kristel as a speaker for your next event, click here.

Episode Transcript

Emilie (Teaser)

I'm always coming back to the foundations of nutrition, which is are my clients eating enough orr they're eating a wide variety of foods. Are they eating balanced meals and snacks most of the time? And then we can talk about some basic nutrition concepts like adding in fruits and vegetables. 

Kristel (Guest Introduction)

If you're interested in learning about having a healthy relationship with food, you're going to love today's episode with Emilie Hebert.

Emilie's a registered dietician and she works one-on-one with clients struggling with disordered eating, orthorexia and chronic dieting, using principles of intuitive eating and health at every size. Emilie also has an amazing food blog. Emily eats.com where she shares delicious vegan recipes with over 200,000 people per month.

I'm so excited to chat with Emilie about how to navigate all the different recommendations that are out there. Information overload, when it comes to food, how to have a healthy relationship with food and how to eat your food and enjoy your life guilt free. Let's jump right into it and welcome Emily to the show.

Emilie:

Thank you. I'm excited to be here. 

Kristel: 

So right before we started recording, I was looking at your blog and now I'm definitely hungry because I haven't eaten lunch, everything looks so good. So I would love for you to share a little bit about what you're currently doing and how you got down this path. Like what inspired you to go down the road of being a dietician and having your blog and all the things that you’re doing.

Emilie:

Yeah, I guess I do like a lot of things. So I am a dietician, a registered dietician. I've been, hasn't even been a year yet, last year in June. So I'm a registered dietician. So I see clients, but I also am a food blogger. So I've been doing food blogging now for it'll be seven years in June. 

Kristel:
Wow. Oh my gosh.

Emilie:

Yeah, 2015. I was a just about to be a sophomore in college. So that's kind of like my two different jobs and that requires me to be on social media a lot. So that's a different part of my job as well. But yeah, I always been interested in cooking. I was telling you I'm from south Louisiana and food is like a huge part of our culture.

And it's like the main way that I show love. Food is just a huge part of my life. And it's like, I'm into college, just found food blogging. Like I like. It's still somewhat new, you know, 20 13, 20 14 and was like, this is kind of a combination of everything that I like cause I like food and I'm decently good at photography.

I'm good at writing. I was a Mass communication PR major in college. 

Kristel:
Got it. Okay. 

Emilie:
And so I was like, this is kind of a combination of like all the things that I like, let me just do it and so as soon as I moved out of the dorm and had my own kitchen, I started blogging and it just grew. And then yeah, a couple years later, Doing it full-time I was still in college and then around that same time, I was like, I don't actually want to do PR. I want to be a dietician, had my own like journey with disordered eating in college, which is the niche that I'm in now with nutrition, went to grad school for nutrition. And now I'm here. So.

Kristel:

Amazing, amazing. You were saying disordered eating and that's not something I'd really heard of.

And I have history working in healthcare, but I never heard that phrase. Is that something that you use personally or is that a common phrase that I just have to, haven't heard of?

Emilie:
I say it's getting more common. I think I actually find it to be more common than it actually is because I'm like in the niche, but I feel like it's becoming more widely known. So the way I like to describe it is you have like diagnosed eating disorders, like anorexia, binge eating disorder Bulimia, there's a plethora of other ones. And then you have like, on the other side of the spectrum, what we call “normal eater” like can eat a variety of foods doesn't really experience like guilt or shame with eating can kind of have spontaneous food experiences.

It's pretty balanced day to day. Like things are just kind of just a natural kind of intuitive eater. And then disordered eating is like somewhere on that spectrum in the middle of those two extremes, where maybe you don't meet the requirements for a diagnosed eating disorder, but you experience a lot of guilt with eating or a lot of shame, very fixated on weight loss.

Yeah, very obsessive with foods, cutting out different food groups, kind of doing the on and off diet thing. So it's kind of, it can wide variety of, I don't want to say symptoms cause it's not like a clinical diagnosis, but it can look different depending on the person in severity and how it presents. 

Kristel: 

Got it. Now, thank you for explaining that. And I think that a lot of people I'm sure have their own unique challenges with food and there's so many diets out there and there's new things popping up left and right. And then with social media and everything else too, I think there is this idea of like, or this I do, you should look a certain way.

Or some people may have that feeling like I'm supposed to look like that. I don't look like that. And it can be a big challenge for people. So I would love to hear just insights you have on how to navigate the world that we're living in, where there are all these filters on photos and social media, where if you are not really grounded in who you are, it can be overwhelming and challenging.

Emilie:

Yeah. What a great question. I think that, I mean, you kind of alluded to it. The first thing is just to recognize that it's not real, there are so many filters and editing that you don't see behind the scenes. You can notice a filter and you can kind of register that it's fake in your mind, but like editing you can't really recognize.

I think also it's helpful to recognize that those standards are always changing and we will lose so much time and money and energy trying to chase them. And as soon as we can obtain them, they've already changed. I think, honestly, if you want to know a perfect example in the last few years, the BBL or the Brazilian butt lift has gotten a lot of attention. It's a very, very intense, uh, surgery with high mortality rate, but it's gives you the Kardashians. 

Kristel:

I saw a billboard for it. I'm like, what in the world?

Emilie:
Yeah like actually a very incredibly dangerous surgery. And there's like some picture, paparazzi pictures that are starting to be released at the Kardashians, like actually getting there is reduced.

So now that like us common folk can like afford to chase this beauty standard and it's like caught up with the general public like they're changing now. So like where I just think that's such a good example of like, God, we're never going to be able to attain, to attain this, these standards that are made only to like, just keep us occupied with kind of surface level things.

Kristel:

Yeah. I think when it comes down to it, it's really about feeling good. So trying to be healthy in the sense of you're able to do the things that you want to do, you have energy, you know, you're able to enjoy your life and that you love yourself or wherever it is that you're at, and that you love your body, that you take care of your body.

So one thing that I read on your site was health at every size. And I really liked that. And you also talked about intuitive eating on your site, intuitive eating. So I'm hoping that you can share a little bit about that and what that means to you health at every size. 

Emilie:
Yeah. So health at every size is a movement created by it's the term is owned. If anyone wants to find out more information, it's owned by an organization called the Association for size diversity and health. And it was a, it's a movement started by fat activists years and years ago. But basically, but just a bit is that anyone at any size can participate in healthy behaviors if they desire to, and that this pursuit of weight loss that we've been on for 50 plus years has not worked, is not working. Doesn't acknowledge the real systematic barriers that we have in our general society that are keeping us from being healthy, putting a lot of individual personal responsibility on each one of us to change our bodies when that's not really evidence-based like we don't actually have any scientifically backed way to lose weight for the long term.

I know people don’t like to hear that, but I mean the longest weight loss studies are usually two years. And if they “work” they are fairy very, very restrictive. And then it is not healthy if you don't have like a good quality of life, because you're so stressed about everything that you put in your, in your mouth.

So. Basically help at every size is just saying, yeah, anyone of any size can eat fruits and vegetables can you know, do physical activity that they enjoy, can not smoke, can keep alcohol consumption to moderate amounts. You know, these things that we know actually make people healthier. But are kind of ignored because they're not the sexiest nutrition advice.

Kristel:

And I liked that you're talking about like adding in things as well. And I wanted to talk a little bit about what your views are as far as, I don't love that word. Cause I think there's a connotation associated with it, but maybe your food choices are choices when it comes to eating patterns. There we go.

So if someone is thinking about perhaps being a vegetarian or being vegan or reducing their meat intake, you know, that's kind of one end of the spectrum. And then you have the other side where people are doing things like paleo and keto and where do you stand in that? And when you see clients, how do you navigate that?

And is it like an individualized approach based on what they enjoy, what they're looking to do? Or I would love to hear a little bit about that and my personal preference like this is just from my, what I like to eat. I always plant based. I like adding more plants, adding more fruits, adding more vegetables.

So I would love to hear your thoughts on that. 

Emilie:
Yeah, it's totally individualized. It really depends on the person and their own personal values and risk factors. My biggest goal with working with my clients. I mean, my clients are in a specific niche. So people who have struggled with disordered eating, being too obsessive about food, orthorexia, which is kind of his obsession with like clean eating or like quality of food, very like wellness, see like that kind of thing.

But my main goals with them are for them to eat according to their values and to have flexibility. And so their values could look very different, but at the end of the day, I want them to be able, to be able to be flexible. I'm vegan. I've been vegan for seven years. I have a lot of clients who are vegan. I always make sure that people are vegan for the right reasons.

I always say like, if you want to be a hundred percent vegan for like ethics. Totally cool. I don't really think you need to be a hundred percent vegan for “health benefits.” Yes. There are so many health benefits to eating a lot of plants, but I don't think you have to go a hundred percent to read those benefits.

And some cases, I think it can hurt and lean into some like restrictive tendencies. Yeah. But it really just depends, but I'm kind of like always coming back to the foundations of nutrition, which is, are my clients eating enough or they're eating a wide variety of foods. Are they eating balanced meals and snacks most of the time. And then we can talk about some basic nutrition concepts, like adding in fruits and vegetables and switching to mostly like unsaturated fats or what whole grain options that they like. 

Kristel:

Got it. Amazing. And I would love to hear any thoughts you have on how to create a healthy habits. So if there's someone who wants to add in more vegetables to their diet, what would be a good place to start in your opinion?

Emilie:

Um, I have a first start with asking yourself if you feel like you should, or if you feel like you want to, because I don't really think anything that you feel like you should do that you're like very resistant to is necessarily going to stick. I don't know, like for example, I don't like raw tomatoes and if I felt like I should be eating them for whatever, like benefit, like, I don't think that's necessarily a healthy habit for me, but I can have other vegetables that I really actually enjoy.

I think it is exploring like what you actually like. Do you like raw vegetables? Have you tried roasting them? Have you tried making them into a dip, like to have with chips? Like there's just so many different options. I mean, I'm just using vegetables as an option, right? 

Kristel:

Like Kale into your smoothie, I just had it this morning.

Emilie:
Yes. Yeah. Just like, what do you actually like? I think it's honestly a, probably a great place to start because if you don't like it hen, like, what's the point. Like I recently have figured out, I do not like raw spinach salads. Like, there's just something about it that I don't like. And for so long, I forced myself to eat it.

And I just, like, I just prefer like a romaine lettuce salad or something. And I'm like, okay, well I'm not going to eat salad if all I have is spinach. So like, let me make sure that I have romaine in the house. Cause if I want a salad then, like I have what I actually like. So I think exploring different options, like using the vegetable example, what greens do you like in salad? How do you like broccoli cooked the most or whatever it might be? 

If you like something, I feel like you will probably do it.

Sponsored Ad:

I'm excited to share more of this conversation with you, but first, a quick word about our sponsor. This podcast episode is brought to you in collaboration with the national sleep foundation.

It's time to be your best slept self. The national sleep foundation advances, sleep health and wellbeing through education and advocacy. They've been studying and reporting on sleep for over 30 years. Sleep awareness week in 2022 is March 13th through the 19th and every year, NSF takes this time to reemphasize the important connection between your sleep and your health.

This year, they are helping you become your best slept self. Today many Americans are not getting the sleep that they need to live their healthiest lives, the national sleep foundation's annual sleep in America poll indicates that good sleep is within everyone's reach. The 2022 poll show sleep is a process that starts long before bedtime and is influenced by key daytime activities, including light exposure, meal regularity, stress and physical activity. 

Learn more@www.nsf.org. Make sure to follow at sleep foundation on Instagram, to learn more about the #bestsleptself giveaway for a bedroom makeover. 

Kristel:
And I think too sometimes trying new things. So there are so many vegetables out there. You may absolutely love that.You just haven't tried. We got exposed. Our family got exposed to coal Robbie, or I did, my husband had had it before and our kids love it. I love it, but I would have never have known that had I not ventured out a little bit. So I think trying to make it fun has worked for me too. Like if there's something I want to add more of, it's like adding a little excitement by getting adventurous, maybe going to a farmer's market and picking out something new, but not everybody likes to do that kind of stuff, but that's something that resonates with me.

Emilie:
Yeah. Or if like you need, I think that's a great point. Like you said, no one, not everyone likes doing that kind of stuff, but if you need something like. If, you know, when you buy broccoli and it just rots in your fridge because you don't have the time or want to cut it, then like, what's been like the broccoli is wasted.

Right. And like, yeah, you've lost the opportunity to have the broccoli, even if you might actually like it. So it could even be cutting yourself some slack and just buying some stuff, precut or buying cans or frozen or whatever it is. Yeah. Easier for yourself. 

Kristel:

Yeah. I just did that the other day. I was like, I could have bought the carrots and peel them and cut them and the salary and washed it.

And I, then I saw the pretty pre-packaged container, which was a little bit more expensive. And I was like picking that one today. 

Emilie:
Yeah. I always say time costs and money costs and sometimes one of the cost is higher for one of them. And you just have to kind of figure out where you're at, you know, that week.

I mean, I think this can be applied to exercise as well. You know, I hate running. I hate it. If I could never run ever again, that would be great. But if I felt like I should run because of whatever reason, because I felt like it was the “healthiest exercise” one, if I don't like it, then is it actually the healthiest exercise for me?

And two, am I actually going to stick with it because I don't actually, like, I hate it. Like, why would I do something? So I much prefer like walking and dancing, which is like very joyous. Oh. So yeah. And those are like two movements that I like that are sustainable that fit into my life. And I don't feel like I, oh gosh, I should do this. I'm like, I want to, and I know I'm going to feel good. 

Kristel:

I love that. And I would like to talk a little bit about how to navigate guilt that can surface. What if, if you're someone who is trying to eat really healthy, or maybe you do eat healthy a lot of the time, then when you don't. That guilt creeps in and I would just love any insights or tips that you have on that I know for me, having learned a ton about food and nutrition and working in functional medicine and and then getting trained in integrative medicine.

I had so much information. It was kind of like information overload where I was like, oh my gosh. And I started to worry about things. Cause you learned this, you learn that. And I just needed to take a step back and be like, ha once in awhile, it's going to be okay for me. You know? So I would love to hear your thoughts on that and what you, um, suggest when you work with clients.

Emilie:
Yeah, I love that you say information overload. Cause honestly, I think it's a huge issue and like nutrition and wellnes and I don't really know if it's beneficial for us to have like, or at least for like the general public to have so much information about this stuff all the time and consuming it. I mean, that's, that's probably just a critique of social media in general, but like specifically in this niche, You know, I think a helpful thing to remember is foods have different nutritional value.

They give us different things. One food is high in this nutrient, but low in the others and this food is like the opposite. Like food is different from that perspective, but no food has morality attached to it. So if you're feeling that way, I think it would probably be a helpful thing to reflect on why you might be feeling that way and what are the fears there? If you are “splurging” on these foods and feeling really guilty after, like, what's the fear there that your health is going to be like, completely ruined, like, just think through that fear. And is that actually true? Like, is that, does that like re yeah. Does that ring true?

And also like, if I'm having all this guilt and stress out after I eat a food. Like, what is that? Like, stress is not good for us either, you know, and this could go for like healthy “healthy foods” as well. Like if we're. Just feeling really stressed out about food all the time and every decision that we make, I don't really think that that stress is healthy for us either.

So perhaps that is offsetting some of the nutrients that may be in the food. So if you feel like there's one food in particular that, you know, you eat it and you feel really guilty after, or, you know, it's almost like when you see that food, it's like nothing else matters. And it's like tunnel vision and like Ben, the whole pint of ice cream is gone before you even come up for air.

That might be a sign that we kind of need to normalize that food. We've put it on a pedestal too much. We've made it too special. And at the end of the day is just ice cream. I want you to get to a place where like, you can be around just using ice cream as an example cause it's a huge food with my clients on this topic. Where like there can be ice cream and you can kind of regulate how much you want or like say no, if you don't.

And I think a lot of people, when they have the, usually people have those like one or two foods, like for me, it was chips where it was like, God, every time I'm around chips, I'm eating all of them. And like, then I'm going to feel guilty after, and now I'm in a place where like, I can be around chips, decide how much I want and stop. Or just decide like, am like kinda chipped out. Like I don't really want it don't need it. Yeah. And I think some people is so hard for them to imagine a world in which they could say no to that food, you know, because of it’s like no every time I'm around this food, I have to have it because I don't know when I'm going to let my self habit or it's like so special.

And I think, you know, we have a process of like, just normalizing it. Like it is just a food, sure it might have different nutrition than other foods, but it's not a reason to feel that you know, there's no morality in it. There's no reason to feel any shame. So that's a huge part of my work honestly, it's just removing a lot of shame.

Kristel:

Right. A lot of shame associated with these foods and the restriction associated with it. So if someone feels like they need support with navigating their relationship with food and their choices, if what types of clients are you taking on and how would people be able to reach out if they wanted to learn more?

Emilie:
Yeah. So the clients that I take on often feel like, I feel like the biggest thing I hear is, I'm thinking about food all the time and I'm sick of it. I don't want to think about, I want to like go out and live my life. And that's my main goal with my clients is like for them to eat when they need to eat and then like go and do the things that are important to them.

So they're thinking about food all the time. They're feeling a lot of guilt with food, the whole ice cream example that I described, they were feeling like they, they're kind of having these overeating things with certain or, you know, routines with certain foods and then repeat the process of like I overate this food now and I feel guilty and now I need to go on a diet and then the diet doesn't work because inevitably none of them work.

And then I'm going to binge on all the foods that I restricted. And if you feel like you've been cycle, those are the kinds of sub clients that I take on. If you feel really obsessive about clean foods and like you cannot stray from that at all. Or like all health will be lost. That's something we call orthorexia.

And then I specifically take within that, my specialties are kind of vegans and vegetarians. Um, People who have food allergies and intolerances and people in the LGBTQ community. And we also work with digestive and hormone conditions. So I work with clients with missing periods, which has kind of frequent with under eating and restricted eating and, um, oftentimes like IBS and other digestive issues. 

Kristel:

Got it. Well, thank you so much for sharing all of that, you know, and I would say for you listening, if you feel like you need support, you know, talk to your healthcare provider, look into getting the support that you need to have a healthy relationship with yourself and with food.

So at this point, anything else you'd like to add Emilie, before we go into a fun wellness lightning round towards the end?

Emilie:

Uh, no, you can get me anywhere at Emilieeats E M I L I E Eats website, Instagram. 

Kristel:
Amazing. And I'm going to put links to all that in the episode details. And as I was saying before I hit the record button, like, I'm gonna try , I want to try this recipe,I want to try that recipe. I mean, there's so many amazing things and your photography is beautiful. Are you still taking all of your photography? 

Emilie:
I have. About like half a minute at this point. And then I have it passed on because after like seven years or like equity passes.

Kristel:

It's time to do that. I know with my podcast the first, oh, year-ish I did it all by myself.

I shouldn't say that I had some help with like people giving me feedback, but I didn't have a team that I offloaded everything on. And now as far as the editing and all that, I have a team that does that for me. And it's such a relief, right? Like opens up this space to do some other things. So probably you for passing that along and everything looks amazing.

So the first question I have for you, if you're ready for the wellness lightning round, this is a good question for you. I'm really curious what you're going to say. So you're on a deserted desert island. You can only bring three foods with you. That's what's going to sustain you while you're there. What would you bring?

Emilie:
Oh, like, I know I should probably pick something that would like actually sustain me, but I want to bring like lemonade and roasted potatoes and I'll bring like some beyond beef or something like some meatless beef and like make a fire and cook it over that. 

Kristel:

Love it. Second question that I have for you is what is a self care practice that you incorporate on a regular basis?

Emilie:

I mean, I have been walking well, actually I'll say dance because I do walk a lot, but like dance has honestly been something that I have like rediscovered in the last couple of years after being a dancer for like pretty much my whole life. Like I did dance when I was younger and then I was a cheerleader and then you go to college and you like, kind of stopped doing all that kind of stuff.

So I've like found dance again. And so it's movement for me and like a good way to move my body. But it's also like really taking care of my brain and like satisfies this like part of me that just like wants to dance. 

Kristel:

I love it. Yeah. And then last question I have for you is knowing what you know today.

What advice would you give to yourself from 10 years? 

Emilie:

How old was, I was like 15 here in the middle of high school. Oh my God. Chill out. It's not like, I've just done a lot of like personal work on my own anxiety have been in therapy for years. And I had a lot of fun in high school, but I probably could have chilled out a bit, like just the typical type A perfectionist did all the things and had to get a raise and like sobbed. If I got to be sort of thing. So was like just chill out. 

Kristel:

I love that. Chill out. That's a great way to end the episode, chill out. I love it. Well, thank you so much. This has been amazing. Thank you for taking some time today to share all your insights.

Emilie:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. 

Disclaimer:
Now for a quick disclaimer, all of the information and views shared on the Live Greatly podcast are purely the opinions of the authors. They are not medical advice or treatment recommendations. The contents of this podcast are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Always seek the guidance of your physician or qualified health professional for any recommendations specific to you or for any questions you have regarding your specific health, your sleep patterns, changes to diet and exercise or any medical conditions.

Kristel Bauer
Previous

4-Step Process to Overcome Guilt: 2 Minutes of Motivation
Next

3 Tips For Encouraging Nutritious Eating For Your Kids and Family: 2 Minutes of Motivation