Fixing 50+ Years of Food Obsession. Here's What We Did That a GLP-1 & Weight Loss Surgery Failed To | Client Confessional with Heidi

What happens when you’ve spent your whole life thinking about food and your weight from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed… and suddenly your mind feels calm for the first time ever?

In today’s Client Confessional, Heidi (now in her mid-60s) opens up about a lifetime of struggling with her weight, binge eating, food noise, and the constant mental chatter that dictated her every day. From Weight Watchers at 14, to lap-band surgery, to Overeaters Anonymous, to GLP-1 medications… she tried everything hoping something would finally “fix” her.

But nothing touched the emotional and psychological roots keeping her stuck.

And after decades of failures, she genuinely believed she was “too far gone” to change.

Inside this episode, Heidi shares:

• What it’s like to live a double life with food for over half a century
• The moment she realized weight loss strategies weren’t the issue—the emotional patterns were
• Why she joined Nourished & Free even though she was convinced it wouldn’t work
• The mindset shift that finally stopped her daily convenience-store binges
• How a GLP-1 helped her, and where it fell short.
• What healing looks like in your 60s, and why it’s never too late to rewrite your story

If your life revolves around food, if you feel stuck in cycles you can’t break, or if you’re scared that you’ve “tried everything,” this episode is the reminder you need: peace is possible at any age, you might just need to dig into your head a little more.

Transcript

Heidi (00:00)
has literally opened a new chapter in my life that I didn't think

It made me cry because I didn't think it was there. I Thought I was really at the end of my rope. I thought you know, I'm gonna go out of this world against the same Roadblocks I have been dealing with for years and be honest I went into this with great hope but

probably completely sold on it I mean, I have failed more than I have ever succeeded. it has far exceeded my expectations.

Michelle Yates (00:36)
Hello and welcome back to Nourished and Free, the podcast where mental health meets physical health, food guilt gets ghosted and toxic wellness advice gets roasted. Today I'm joined by one of my lovely clients, Heidi, who is awesome for taking the time to sit down with me today. I wanted to do a little case study with her and just talk through her experience with working through healing her relationship with food and with her body in...

I would say a pretty new way for you, right? This is not exactly something you've done before. Yeah. Well, Heidi, I would love for you to just share. Tell us whatever you're comfortable with in terms of what life looks like for you.

Heidi (01:08)
Correct. Yes.

Well, I am in my mid-60s. I live in Midwest Nebraska. lived here, yeah, lived here all my life. ⁓ I have a couple of kids. I have some grandkids that live on a farm. I am married. ⁓ I'm looking to retire in about a year.

Michelle Yates (01:27)
All right.

exciting.

Heidi (01:46)
Yes, yes. And that is a whole different mindset. I have worked all my life ⁓ with people and I'm kind of, I'm really looking forward to retirement, but yet I'm kind of nervous about it because you know, you're in the routine of every morning you get up at this time, you know what your day looks like pretty much, and you know at five o'clock you're gonna leave, you're gonna go home. And then when you think about your whole life changing, you know, it's not like pulling the plug and you're gonna walk out of the office one day and not go back and

Michelle Yates (02:14)
Yeah.

Heidi (02:17)
And it's part of it makes me nervous. Part of me is really looking forward to it. ⁓ No, not part. know, 99 percent of me is really looking forward to it. And, know, on the on the side of. ⁓ My relationship with food, I have struggled.

with my weight my whole life. Well, I mean, not probably the first maybe five, six years, but ever after that I have, and it's probably been first.

Michelle Yates (02:48)
So since six years

old, basically.

Heidi (02:51)
Yes, yes, I have struggled with it. have... It's probably... If your thoughts were lined up in your head, it's probably been the first one in my head for, you know, 58 years of how I'm going to deal with it and how I'm going to...

cover up my shortcomings. I'm going to try and make people think maybe differently of who I really am under the skin. My life has revolved around food. Growing up, my mother was a great cook. Not only a cook, but a baker. As a matter of fact, she had a personal license place that said pie baker. So

you know, if that tells you anything about the home life I grew up in and, and, know, lucky for her, she, she was able to, cook the food and not eat it. Me, if that, if that food was there, especially anything with sweets, you know, I love sweets. And, ⁓ so, I mean, there was good and good and bad. ⁓ I shouldn't say bad, but,

Just a lot there.

Michelle Yates (04:15)
Yeah.

I remember you sharing that the relationship with your mom was kind of conflicting because she did make these really fun sweet foods for you. But then there was also this pressure to look a certain way, right?

Heidi (04:32)
Yes, yes. At one time when I was a teenager, she said to me, she offered me $100 if I could lose 25 pounds. 25 pounds at that time, it didn't seem like that much. And so in my high school years, my cousin and I, we were both overweight and we signed up for a local Weight Watchers group that we went to every week.

I'll be honest, it was more of a, you know, let's get out of the house on a night. And, you know, I think we'd probably starved ourselves two nights before the meeting and then, you know, went out and drove around for an hour and, you know, messed around. I don't know. I can't remember if I even lost 25 pounds or if I got a hundred dollars, I'm guessing I didn't. Um, but, and, and, and I had struggled with this my whole life. My, I mean, if there was a diet ever invented, I have been on it.

I've kind of made a list and going through this list was like, oh my gosh, I've done Jenny Craig. I've done Weight Watchers so many times. I'm probably the co-founder at this point. I have done the great. They should be paying me at this point.

Michelle Yates (05:44)
You're like, where's my check?

Heidi (05:54)
I have done the

grapefruit, I have done keto, have done Atkins, and I got to thinking, I have done the cabbage soup diet. That's how old I am.

Michelle Yates (06:01)
⁓ no,

not the cabbage soup! How traumatizing.

Heidi (06:05)
Yes. Yes. I have done low fat.

I've done slim fast. I've done meal replacement. I've done pills. I've, I'm telling you, I've had lap band surgery. That was 20 years ago. So if it's been offered, I've been there. I've done it.

Michelle Yates (06:21)
Hmm.

Did you with the surgery, did you lose weight?

Heidi (06:34)
I did. I did. oh, it definitely came back. I mean, I was so proud of myself when I lost that weight. But, I never learned how to deal with the emotions. I always told people, you know, I could take the weight off. But I was always so afraid of putting it back on. And every time in my life I have put the weight back on because I never dealt with

Michelle Yates (06:35)
Did it come back or did it stay off? What happened there?

Mm-hmm.

Heidi (07:03)
what was going on in my head.

Michelle Yates (07:04)
Yeah, like the drive towards food in the first place.

Heidi (07:10)
Yes, and what made me, what were my triggers? made me, or what I thought, what made me eat this way? Because I felt like I was self-soothing, you know, I never felt, I shouldn't say never, but when my emotions came out, I would grab something to eat and that would always calm me down.

Michelle Yates (07:31)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, food was your friend.

Heidi (07:35)
Yes. Yep.

Michelle Yates (07:36)
and

also the anime too.

Heidi (07:39)
Absolutely. Yes.

Michelle Yates (07:41)
Yeah, it's

like that love hate relationship with food where you're like, I love it so much, but I hate what it's doing to me. It's a hard, it's hard to figure that out. So where was there like a moment where you realized, I actually need to address what's going on in my brain instead of the size of my stomach or the type of how many carbs I'm eating, you know, is there a moment that you were like, I got to do something different here?

Heidi (07:48)
Yes. Yeah.

Well, a year ago, I went on Weight Watchers again. so my daughter and I decided she did it first and she lost a substantial amount of weight. And so I thought, I'm looking at these pictures of she and I when we were in Corpus Christi. And I'm just I'll be honest, I was just disgusted by the way I looked. So I thought, OK, well, she can do it. I can do it. So I did. And I lost quite a bit weight. And but I knew again.

Michelle Yates (08:30)
Hmm.

Heidi (08:39)
that there was still some underlying problem that I needed to fix. so, you know, I'm always looking on Google or something of the binge eating and the, that sort of thing. And, you know, I came across narration free and I thought, what have I got to lose? What have I got to lose? I, I've tried it all. ⁓

And it looked intriguing and I thought if there is actually something out there, I think, especially since I had lost the weight, if there is something out there that I can try that will help me not gain the weight back, I'm going to give it a try. But I never told people when I was going on a diet, I never told people

⁓ Like if I was any exercise or anything because if you didn't tell people and you failed, they didn't know that you failed. So I've never told anyone, of course, except for the people that are in this group that we have these chats with. of course, I've never, I haven't shared it with my daughter ⁓ because if you fail, then you don't have to fess up and be like, well, I tried this and I failed again.

Michelle Yates (09:38)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, it was almost like an expecting of I'm gonna let myself down again so I don't want to let others down too or I don't want them to know.

Heidi (10:10)
Yes. Yeah.

Michelle Yates (10:11)
Yeah.

Yeah. So you lost the weight on Weight Watchers. You were thinking, okay, I don't want to gain this back. I'm going to try this out. This looks intriguing. What have I got to lose? What kinds of fears or skepticisms did you have going into this?

Heidi (10:29)
Well, the fear of failure. I just remember, like I say, so many things that I've tried. At one time I was taking a thermogenic pill because I was supposed to speed up your metabolism and whatnot. And I remember one time going to a luncheon and I was supposed to take this pill 30 minutes before you eat because then it's supposed to curb your appetite. And I'm frantically trying to find a bathroom so I can go in there and know.

Michelle Yates (10:32)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Heidi (10:58)
take this pill. And I just, I'm, tired of the

It's just this continuous, continuous, over 50 some years. And I think I was fearful of failure, but I'm getting tired, I think. I'm tired of going through all the motions and not ever

learning or having it stick with me, I think.

Michelle Yates (11:34)
Yeah, yeah, just like an exhaustion of I can't keep doing this. Yeah, yeah. You mentioned binge eating a little bit earlier. Can you share what that looked like for you? sometimes sometimes people mean different things when they say that. would a binge look like for you?

Heidi (11:37)
Yes. Right. Right.

A binge would be, ⁓ like I say, I love sweets. And so if I would stop at the convenience store and pick up a candy bar, I would probably pick up four or maybe five. He went on the way home before anybody ever knew and then hide them in a drawer. Thinking, my mind, well, I can have one of these every day. Well, I probably ate three of them that night.

And then knowing in my mind that they're in that drawer, I would have to eat them the next day because it was just like a gnawing something in the back of my head. Like, you know, there's candy here and you love it and it makes you feel better. So we're going to eat it. was I'm not I mean, I like my chips, but I'm but it's more sugar. ⁓ You know, if I had I mean, I've been to the point where I have. ⁓ But I don't know, maybe.

Maybe some bingers aren't like this, I, you're embarrassed about it. And so you try and hide the evidence too. You hide your wrappers in the trash can. You throw away your wrapper somewhere else because if somebody, and it's not my family now. I think it's more of when I was growing up. I never wanted my mother to see my wrappers because if there was no evidence, well then I didn't need it.

Michelle Yates (12:58)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Heidi (13:17)
So that just stuck with me as the years went by. yeah, and you would, so you would binge on these things and then meal time would come, well, you couldn't fess up that you'd eaten all this stuff. So then you'd have to eat your meal on top of it, even if you were, know, even though you wanted to throw up, but you, it was just this front that you had to put on.

Michelle Yates (13:43)
Yeah. Did you feel like you were living a double life?

Heidi (13:47)
Oh, 100%. Yes.

Michelle Yates (13:50)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And I remember you saying to at one point, I can't remember exactly how you phrased it, but it was when we were having a conversation about how everybody always thinks that you're great. You're doing good. You know, like you're, what did you say? You're like, my house could have burned down the day before and I'd come into work and be like, I'm good. How are you? ⁓

Heidi (14:10)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

I don't wear my feelings on my sleeve. I come in and act like everything is great. And inside, I not okay.

Michelle Yates (14:19)
Yeah.

And food is a source of comfort.

Heidi (14:27)
Yes. Yes. And I think growing up too, and I hate to blame things on my parents, but this is how they grew up too. They didn't talk about their feelings. they didn't, my parents didn't talk to their children about their feelings or about our feelings. know, sit down and have a conversation with us and say, how are you feeling? You know, is there something, you know, that we could maybe work on or.

Michelle Yates (14:29)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Heidi (14:57)
There was none of that.

So.

Michelle Yates (14:58)
shoved

it all under the rug.

Heidi (15:01)
Yes, I had a thought today too when I was thinking about this was ⁓ when I was a kid and you you had an earache or sort of throat we got taken to the doctor. Well, I as I think about this now and we have talked about this on our chat in the racial free as well people had talked about going to the doctor and the doctor you could talk about what was wrong with you.

like for what you got brought in there for, but it always came back around to your weight. Okay, I'm 12 years old and I'm overweight, but this doctor, I knew going in there, I had to go to the doctor and get some medicine to heal whatever was wrong with me, but I knew I dreaded it. I dreaded being a topic of that conversation with that doctor of, you know, with my mother, you know, this child was overweight. What are you doing? What is she doing? And this old man telling me what I needed to do and

Michelle Yates (15:32)
Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Heidi (15:59)
hated going to the doctor. And I just think, I think to, could my mother, how could you let him make me feel like I did, you know?

Michelle Yates (16:02)
Yeah.

Yeah.

It's hard to imagine because now you have your own daughter, it's probably hard to imagine ever putting her in that situation and not intervening. Yeah. Yeah. So you also went to Over Eaters Anonymous too. We haven't talked about that yet.

Heidi (16:21)
Right? Yes.

I did, ⁓ see, I forgot that in my list of repertoire.

Michelle Yates (16:33)
We missed one. Well, I thought of it because you mentioned

sugar, how like sugar was always your choice. so with Over Eaters Anonymous, know that was, didn't you say something about how they wouldn't let you talk about Oreos or something? There was something you weren't allowed to talk about, right?

Heidi (16:42)
⁓ yes.

you couldn't mention

specific foods. And it was almost like brainwash. And so when we have our conversations and nourish them free, see these thoughts come back to me. And it's like, my gosh, I can't mention what food I overate on because, ⁓ that's taboo.

Michelle Yates (17:12)
And I'm like, no, no, tell me more. Tell me everything about the food. Tell me what you're thinking and feeling. I want to know it all. It's very different.

Heidi (17:19)
Yes, no, couldn't mention

it. Yeah, you couldn't mention it because it might trigger somebody.

Michelle Yates (17:23)
Yes, yes, yes.

So, but I mean, then what do you do? It's just, that's so, how are you supposed to work through that?

Heidi (17:32)
Well, because you were supposed to be abstinent from this food, so you shouldn't be eating it anyway. So then you shouldn't have a need to talk about it. And I really feel like if you ate it, it took you, okay, we'll say like, oh my gosh, you've had 30 days of being abstinent from this food. And if you ate it, if you ate any, we'll just say for instance, for me was sugar. If I ate anything with sugar, it like,

knocked out those 30 days and you were knocked back down to zero. So you had to start all over on your, counting days that you were abstinent.

Michelle Yates (18:10)
that's like

the signs that they put up in a workplace where it's like, however many days since an accident has happened, you have to erasing, go back to zero. It's so depressing.

So demotivating to like, well, I'm already down to zero. I might as well keep going until I'm ready to reset and keep counting back up. That would motivate me to keep doing the thing. Already at the bottom, might as well stay here. So how do you feel like the approach in Nourished and Free has been different for you?

Heidi (18:31)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Right. Yes.

Michelle Yates (18:48)
⁓ from all of these other things that you've done before.

Heidi (18:51)
It has literally opened a new chapter in my life that I didn't think

It made me cry because I didn't think it was there. think I thought of I Thought I was really at the end of my rope. I thought you know, I'm gonna go out of this world Up against the same Roadblocks I have been dealing with for years and I'll be honest I I went into this with great hope but

I probably wasn't completely sold on it because like I say, I mean, I have failed more than I have ever succeeded. I went into this, like I say, with great hope thinking that I hope this is going to be great, but I have, it has far exceeded my expectations. Far, far exceeded.

Michelle Yates (19:49)
Hmm.

That was so good to hear. love to like, I'm thinking about your first week. And I remember you posting about how you did module one, and you were like, I could have totally just avoided it. Could have decided not to dig in not to go deeper. But I did it and it was hard. But I did anyway. And I think that was I mean,

just evidence of the effort you've been putting in and how not failing yourself. You are doing this work and making it happen for you. It's so cool to watch you learn. I remember you saying at one point to encourage that I'm learning new things.

It's not the end. And I think we do get stuck in that mentality, especially when you've done the weight loss surgery and you've done the over eaters and you've done the weight watchers 17,000 times. It feels like, okay, I guess that I'm just gonna be this way forever, which is so depressing.

Heidi (20:55)
It is. It is.

Michelle Yates (20:57)
But clearly not true. I mean, if we're able to learn at our jobs, we're able to learn how to, I don't know, cross stitch for the first time or learn anything in life, then that means we can learn how to have a different relationship with food too. Just you need somebody to give you tools that's not just don't eat this. You know, yeah, don't talk about... Does that help?

Heidi (21:14)
Yes.

Right, don't talk about it.

Michelle Yates (21:26)
anybody I don't understand. Maybe it does. Do you feel like there was a specific like aha moment or anything that flipped a switch for you in this process like a specific tool or coaching moment or reframe or something like that that really changed things for you?

Heidi (21:30)
No. No, it's ridiculous.

even after I started.

Michelle Yates (21:53)
Yes.

Heidi (21:55)
Yes, I feel like the light bulb really went on after... I remember you making the comment that said, you we have so many thoughts that go through our minds you don't have to... you're gonna have a first thought but you don't have to act or react on it. And that, I swear that has been my mantra every day because...

Michelle Yates (22:18)
Hmm.

Heidi (22:20)
I do. mean, and I think these are, this is like a standard thought that comes through my mind. When I get in my car and I leave work, I go buy one convenience store because I live out in, you know, nowhere land. ⁓ That I thought I had to stop at that convenience store and pick up a candy bar my way home because that's my last, that my last place, you know, to be able to get something like that short of having to make something at home. ⁓ And when I get my car now,

Even though that thought comes to my mind, ⁓ I don't know. I don't even know why it does. It's just like embedded in my brain. Hey, now. Yes. But I don't. And, you know, after I'm about two miles down the road, it leaves my mind and I never think about it again until the next day when I get my car and I leave work. Yeah, even when I drive by the convenience store, I don't even think about it. It's just it's bizarre.

Michelle Yates (22:59)
Just habitual at this point, yeah.

Mm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Heidi (23:19)
And I just,

think about that ⁓ so many times a day. Just, I mean, things like that, about not having to listen to that first thought.

Michelle Yates (23:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, you can't choose your first thought, the automatic one, but you can choose the second, you can choose the follow up how you respond to it or don't respond to it.

Heidi (23:39)
Yes.

Right.

Michelle Yates (23:44)
Is there any moment that in the last three months you were like to somebody else, this might not seem like a big deal, but to me it was a really big deal.

Heidi (23:53)
I think, and this is probably gonna sound silly, I, leaving plate, or leaving food on my plate.

You know, because we were taught as kids, you clean your plate. You know, you don't want to throw it out. And my mindset has really changed on that.

my husband is always like, you know, you might have two or three bites of fun to play. Oh, just finish that. You know, I was like, oh, but I'm really, I'm, I have to keep saying, I'm full. I'm full. And that is like foreign words to me. I'm full.

Michelle Yates (24:24)
You

Heidi (24:25)
I've never been full. That's another thing. I thought maybe I had that, I don't know, there's a disease I think or something, you people who never feel full. I think I actually thought in my life I had that. thought, I've got to, that's what I have. I self-diagnosed with that's what I have because I never feel full.

Michelle Yates (24:28)
you

Yeah.

And now you

do. That's amazing. What do you think helped you find that fullness again?

Heidi (24:51)
And now I do. Yes.

Michelle Yates (24:58)
Was there anything

Heidi (24:58)
Nourished & free. I mean, honestly,

Michelle Yates (25:02)
So I want to touch on the GLP-1 because I know you're on one currently. When did you start that? Was it a year to what was the timeline of that?

Heidi (25:12)
I started that,

last summer? I can't even think now. But I probably, yeah.

Michelle Yates (25:14)
Okay, so a year and a half ish.

Okay. Okay.

then when you started it, did you notice things change? Did the food noise go away? Were you able to notice when you were full? What happened after you started it?

Heidi (25:34)
well, after I started it, I, I noticed that the food noise was better. ⁓ I didn't eat, I didn't eat near as much. ⁓ but it's like the longer you're on it, ⁓ you're in my case anyway, I, I stayed at the dose at the original dose is as long as I could before I increased it any. and

Michelle Yates (25:42)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Heidi (26:02)
I think it really did help, I will say that. But I also, and that was another thing, because you know, when I came into this, I was on it then. And I kind of thought, because you and I have talked about, you know, does the GLP-1, does it mask? Or am I really feeling what I need to feel? Or is it kind of like a protective barrier?

Michelle Yates (26:05)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Heidi (26:31)
And

I can say within the last, you know, I would say at least a couple months anyway, I feel anyway, like I, even though I'm on the GLP one, I still have the cravings. I still go through the emotional type thing. And so I feel like

Michelle Yates (26:54)
Yeah.

Heidi (26:55)
I don't really know how to say it. I mean, it's helped me. But I also feel like if I had to rate it, you know, like where it played a part in this, Nourished and Free wins out by volumes, what I have learned here. Even though I think the GLP one has definitely helped me, this is...

Michelle Yates (26:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Heidi (27:25)
This is what I needed.

Michelle Yates (27:27)
Hmm.

Heidi (27:27)
I think that if they complemented each other. Because even if I would have been on the GLP-1 ⁓

It's not going to cure me. It's not going to cure my, what goes on in my mind. It's, not going to, I mean, okay, eventually I'm going to go off of it. I'm not going to stay on it for forever. So the tools that I have learned through Nourished and Free, I mean, they're the ones that are going to take me to the end in my life. You know, I mean, like I say, the GLP helped me, yes, but

Michelle Yates (27:57)
Hmm. Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Heidi (28:04)
This, what I got from here is absolutely priceless. But that's, there's just no other way to say it.

Michelle Yates (28:08)
Hmm.

Hmm. So cool to hear where you're at now, especially just from where you started where you're like, well, we'll see. I know this is just another thing. Which like justified, I can understand. I think everybody feels that way when they start this or like, we'll see.

Heidi (28:18)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah, I have, I've done it all. I just had a thought now, you know, I used to drive 60 miles like once or twice a week to get B12 shots because that was supposed to be the answer too.

Michelle Yates (28:34)
Yeah.

yeah,

60 miles, that's commitment.

Heidi (28:46)
Well, that's desperation.

Honestly, honestly, I mean I bet I have, if I, if I probably stopped and thought about how much weight I have gained and lost over you know 55 years.

Michelle Yates (28:51)
Yeah.

Heidi (29:01)
I can't even put a number on it.

Michelle Yates (29:03)
How much money do you think you spent on all the things?

Heidi (29:06)
Well, I wrote down today I've made enough I'm sure to sail around the world numerous times.

Really, I can't imagine. Yes. my gosh. It's a lot of money. A lot of money.

Michelle Yates (29:11)
Like if you put all of that together, all that you spent together, yeah. man.

Yeah,

which can feel so frustrating when going through the emotional roller coaster. I mean, at the end of the day, that's really what it is. It's the emotional roller coaster that sucks. And so I'm glad that this was the end for you. You're like, I'm good now.

Heidi (29:28)
It is. Yes.

Yeah, I'm good now. I wish I could tell a million people.

I feel like a lot of the anxiety is gone. I feel like.

It's a work in progress though. It's not a, I'm going to do this, this program for four months and I'm cured. That, that is, if people think that, I don't know, maybe they're better than me. I, but, you have to practice and continue on with this.

Michelle Yates (29:54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Heidi (30:05)
⁓

Michelle Yates (30:06)
It's like a foundation for the rest, you know, like you're getting the tools, you're learning to react in situations, but there is that effort that continues on of practicing what you've learned and using the foundation that you got and taking it with you.

Heidi (30:08)
Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I think too, it's very important that people have to realize they have to put themselves first. I mean, we all have families. mean, don't kid yourself. ⁓ And everybody has a little piece of us here and there and they need us, in which I'm very good at taking care of everybody else. That's kind of my thing. ⁓ And so then I kind of put myself on the back burner. ⁓

I like my job and so I do human resources. And so, you know, I'm used to taking care ⁓ of a lot of people. You know, I have this cup over here that says, I'm not your babysitter. so I'm used to taking care of people. And so when I had this come this check in with Riley, you know, we talked about, I don't know, exercise or something like that. And I used to exercise every day and I really liked it.

Michelle Yates (31:07)
like human resources.

Heidi (31:20)
But I'd gone about three months without doing it because I was so focused on getting to work and getting these things done and making everybody else happy. And after I had that conversation with her, it was like, yeah, I need to get back to the gym because I like it. It makes me feel good. And even if I go to the gym and walk for 30 minutes, you know, it's not like I'm...

you know, doing some sprinting around the gym or running and practicing for a half a marathon. But it gets my blood flowing and gets my mind on something else. It gives me a sense of accomplishment. And so what if I come into work? I mean, even if I get here 45 minutes later, I'm still here before everybody else. So.

Michelle Yates (32:05)
There you go.

Heidi (32:06)
I am, I'm taking care of myself and I've, I've told myself, you know, God forbid I can get plucked out of this world tomorrow and somebody would come in here and fill in just know, I wasn't here. have to take care of yourself.

Michelle Yates (32:22)
Yeah, yeah, that's such a sobering thought of, okay, I guess I actually could be replaced. So am I prioritizing something where or some role where I'm replaceable over the places that I'm irreplaceable, including just your relationship with yourself too? You you're the person around your body the most in your life and around yourself the most. So you do have to make sure that...

Heidi (32:31)
Yeah.

Yes.

Michelle Yates (32:51)
you got a good relationship with yourself because you can't you can't get away. There's no. All right. I'll see you later.

Heidi (32:56)
No, you know,

right, and your relationship with yourself, we all know it affects everybody else, because when you're not happy with yourself.

Michelle Yates (33:06)
Yeah.

Heidi (33:06)
You know,

it's.

It says bad vibes. Whether it just the I notice myself. mean, like I say, even though I'm happy all the time, I mean, there are undertones. You know, my my tone of voice sometimes is not great, but I say that for my husband, so.

Michelle Yates (33:09)
Right.

What a lucky man. Anything that you feel like outside of food and weight, we didn't even talk about weight, but we don't need to unless you want to. But is there anything that you feel like improved that you were kind of surprised by, like quality of life wise?

Heidi (33:44)
⁓ yes, I think that,

I just think it's my mindset and my mood. My mood is so much better. Maybe it's because I don't have this internal fight with food. I'd gotten to the point where I didn't leave home a whole lot because I would have friends that would invite us out for dinner and I always had an excuse not to go.

Well, first I was always on a diet and so, you what can I eat if I went? I thought, you know, I didn't like what I looked like. And this is another, we didn't really touch on this either, was the coaching calls with Dani about body image. And that is so important in this program.

Michelle Yates (34:26)
Hmm. Yeah.

Heidi (34:34)
everybody chimes in, they're on the calls and we talk about how we feel and...

Michelle Yates (34:32)
game changer.

Heidi (34:40)
I don't know, one of the things I wrote down was, you know, my size and weight is nobody's business but my own.

Michelle Yates (34:45)
Mm, preach.

Heidi (34:46)
And, ⁓ you know, when I talk about me going to the gym, you know, I, was always, and I think this is another thing that I've just thought of. I always went very early in the morning because there was nobody there. And then that was my, that was my safe place because if nobody's there, I don't, nobody's looking at me. Well, now that I'm, I'm back to going there's somebody there.

Michelle Yates (35:00)
Hmm.

Heidi (35:12)
And I'm okay with it. It's, I don't know, but I'm okay with it. I don't feel, I don't walk in feeling like, ⁓ I just feel so dumb here.

I think the body image thing is a lot of it because I feel like the other ladies too, talk about when you look in the mirror and how you feel it plays a big part.

Michelle Yates (35:39)
it's a big perspective change to not only talk through your own feelings about your body that we don't normally realize until we're asked the right questions. ⁓ But then also to hear other women that you might think don't have those thoughts, share that they do. That's like, my gosh, everybody feels this way. So maybe what if what if none of us felt this way? Let's

Heidi (36:03)
Mm-hmm.

Michelle Yates (36:08)
rally and decide to stop, you know. Okay, so I've got one more question for you for anybody that's considering taking the step into getting support and joining Nourished and Free. Maybe they're a little scared that it's just another program. Man, what would you tell her?

Heidi (36:12)
Mm-hmm.

Dive in. Don't jump in. Dive in.

Michelle Yates (36:32)
Ooh, I love that, head first.

Heidi (36:33)
⁓

Yes, head first, don't hesitate. ⁓ I would tell anybody, this program has helped me deal with feelings. I think that I had stuffed down in there for so many years. You don't even realize these feelings were there until they get brought to the surface. And you and I have talked before, ⁓ Riley and have talked, Dani and I have talked, I've cried.

Because when these feelings come to the surface, it's...

It's something that needs to come to the surface. You need to talk about them. You need to deal with them. And you need to know that you're not alone. There are probably millions of people that deal with the same thing. ⁓ If anybody ever wanted to reach out to me and talk to me one on one, I would be more than happy. I think realizing that you're not the only one is...

I don't know, it's kind of a freedom to know that there are other people that feel the same way that I do. I said, people who have encountered this program and receiving the feedback from you and Dani and Riley, it has been really nothing short of amazing. And just side note, I'm not paid to be saying this.

Michelle Yates (37:59)
That's a good thing.

I'm glad you said that. I should have clarified.

Heidi (38:03)
Yeah,

this really is coming from my heart and I'm not a person who ⁓ talks in front of other people, know, that has these conversations. I'm usually the one standing in the corner saying nothing. ⁓ But this is something that I feel very strongly about,

I could sing praises all day long.

Michelle Yates (38:26)
Now it's your turn. Head to the show notes and apply for Nourished and Free if you're ready to be my next success story. This is the perfect fit for you if you are sick of your life revolving around food and you just want to be at peace in your mind and you want to attack the issues from the source. The emotional relationship you have with food, your body image, the things that happened in your childhood, if that is what you know in your heart of hearts, the reason that you're struggling with food.

those deeper things, then nourished and free is where we're gonna get all of that addressed. head to the show notes, fill out an application and we'll get back to you as soon as