DIETING AND DEADLIFTS ARE NOT THE MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT YOU.
Welcome to the 6th episode of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Eating Psychology Expert and Body Image Mentor Lu Uhruch.
This interview took place a couple of years back on my YouTube channel but it's too good not to bring to the podcast. Before I officially met Lu, I stalked her on Instagram. I could not get enough of her bold, clear, body-loving, shame-softening, words of wisdom.
She is one of the most unusual women I've ever met in that she actually grew up without painful body image issues! I think I mentioned a few episodes back that there was a time in my life where I just ASSUMED that all female people wanted to lose weight. I didn't think much about the male people apparently but my shock in hearing a friend say that she wasn't trying to lose weight really shook up my paradigm.
So Lu is one of these unicorns. Her story is also fascinating because she developed disordered eating, self abuse, and body dysmorphia as an adult and today you'll hear that story.
What I relate with Lu's journey most on is this idea that the body could be doing something other than it SHOULD be doing. Both of us, when we were hypnotized by having the perfect diet and the perfect body were completely baffled when our bodies responded negatively. And instead of looking at the body's response as a MESSAGE, we made ourSELVES and our BODIES wrong. Instead of looking at our dietary approach as needing questioning, we questioned ourselves.
In my case, in all of my years of trying to obsessively cleanse and detox and lose weight - I berated my body for being HUNGRY, and not losing weight, and not having energy. I was looking at my BODY as wrong rather than LISTENING and backing off on my agressive approach.
I had such romantic ideas about what a free spirit looked like. I thought I should only need to eat bird-like quantities and float through my day feeling like perpetual magic. And while I still hold space for my body to experience all the magic available - I've learned to be with her NOW and to not make her wrong.
So back to Lu.
Today we'll talk about:
What it's like to develop an eating disorder later in life.
How she reached for control with FOOD when her LIFE felt out of control.
The health issues she developed when she stopped listening to her body and started forcing it.
The letter she wrote to her scale before smashing it.
The difference between trying to make a relationship with the SCALE work vs. the relationship with YOURself.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Lu Uhrich.
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