Breaking up with Diet Culture

Ever feel like it might be time to break up with diet culture:  that whole mindset that equates thinner with “better,” moralizes food, and keeps you stuck in endless rules and guilt? You’re not alone.

This week, we revisit a powerful conversation with Erin Tennant, a national board-certified health and wellness coach and self-described “recovering dieter.” Erin opens up about losing—and keeping off—over 130 pounds not through strict diets or obsessive calorie counting, but by shifting her mindset, practicing self-compassion, and building a thoughtful, peace-filled relationship with food.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• how Erin stepped off the dieting roller coaster and found a sustainable path forward
• mindset shifts that turn “failure” into “trial and correction”
• real-life food choices that work in everyday situations
• a kinder view of movement as self-care, not punishment
• encouragement to honor your body as a God-given gift and embrace new mercies each day

If you’re ready to loosen diet culture’s grip and pursue genuine health and freedom, this episode is for you.

Get in Touch with Erin Tennant from Grow Well Coaching

Thegrowwellcoach.com

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"Imagine Yourself" is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach—two dynamic voices with a passion for inspiring and uplifting others. Lanée, a TV writer, producer, motivational speaker, and podcaster, brings powerful storytelling and insight. Sandy, a radio personality, voiceover artist, and podcaster, delivers warmth and wisdom with every conversation. Broadcasting from the Detroit Metro area, they welcome guests from around the world to share valuable perspectives on health, career growth, faith, and personal transformation. Tune in and imagine the possibilities for your life!

Transcript

Sandy Kovach [00:00:01]:
Ever feel like rules like good versus bad foods and constant guilt have taken up way too much space in your life? You're definitely not alone. Welcome back to Imagine Yourself podcast. I'm Sandy and today Lanee and I will revisit a powerful past conversation because its message still matters so much today. This episode is called Breaking up with Diet Culture. And if you've ever felt overwhelmed by the endless cycle of dieting, restrictive rules and the pressure to conform to whatever society is saying these days about their idea of health and the way you're supposed to look, this conversation is for you. We're re airing a part of our interview with Erin Tennant, a national board certified health and wellness coach and self described recovering dieter who spent years riding the weight loss, weight gain rollercoaster before discovering a healthier way forward. She's maintained an over 130 pound weight loss without being super restrictive or obsessively counting calories, focusing instead on mindset, self compassion and a more thoughtful relationship with food. Now this is not an overnight fix or any kind of a miracle, but in this episode you will hear practical tips when it comes to food and getting your body moving.

Sandy Kovach [00:01:25]:
More some myth busting and some gentle encouragement to care for your body as a God given gift. We are saying hello to Erin Tennant.

Erin Tennant [00:01:35]:
Thank you ladies for having me on. I am so excited to chat all things with you guys. One of my specialties is sustainable weight loss without dieting. I am a recovering dieter, I would like to say spent years trying to follow diets to lose weight and I was the expert at failing at all of them. Every single one of them. I was like either not losing weight or I lost some weight but I could never keep it off. And finally one day I just said, you know, enough's enough, I'm gonna figure this out. I'm a smart lady.

Erin Tennant [00:02:09]:
I was able to, you know, bag myself a incredibly nice, fine looking man as a husband, another best friend. We have two wonderfully high functioning, intelligent, loving, kind children. So I think we're doing good on the parenting aspect. It's hard but we're doing it. You know, I'm able to maintain relationships, I'm able to get myself an education. I am confident and competent in so many areas but I cannot figure this weight thing out to save my life. But I'm going to give myself the opportunity to do so. And I did.

Erin Tennant [00:02:48]:
I lost over 130 pounds and I have been maintaining it for a couple years now and it feels really good to know that I did this for myself. And I was able to give myself freedom from something I felt very attached and shackled to and I struggled with for a very long time. Wow.

Sandy Kovach [00:03:09]:
Before we get into some of your tips and tricks for our audience, because I know I'm sitting here wanting to know how this all happen, but a little about your personal journey. When you were going through all of this, how did you not quit? How did you not give up? Because it had to take a long time.

Erin Tennant [00:03:24]:
Yeah. I knew that I had this one thought, and I still have this thought as I grow my business and I'm still challenging myself in other areas. And trying to grow is I will figure it out no matter what it takes or how to do it and how long it will take. So I give myself a lot of space and grace to figure it out. And I use that theme when I set goals, when I set constraints or rules for myself that I want to follow, when I, you know, try to build healthy and rewarding behaviors and habits, I give myself a lot of space. So even though I am failing, even though I am maybe not getting the result I want or I'm learning a behavior and I'm not getting that immediate result, I give myself a lot of space to succeed. And I think that's something that I've struggled with for a long time. And I think that's why diets didn't work for me in this restrictive mentality, because it backs you up into a corner and it gives you very little room to succeed because you have to follow this and that to the T.

Erin Tennant [00:04:26]:
And if you're a recovering perfectionist like I am, you're just going to fail ahead of time. So I try to do two things. I try to front load it by saying, okay, I'm going to try not to view things as failures, but if I do, because I have a human brain, and we will view things as failures in our life, and that's a healthy process to do to be able to manage failure. Because as we all know, you can't succeed and learn and grow without failure. It's required. You need to do it, because all the learning happens in the failure part of it. So I tried to change my perspective and insight about failure. Put.

Erin Tennant [00:05:01]:
But also when I was going through failure and I truly believed I was in failure, I was able to create a mindset that this was necessary. I had to go through it, and this is where all the value is. And so for me is when I'm working with my clients and myself, I don't say trial and error. I say trial and correction.

Sandy Kovach [00:05:20]:
Love it.

Erin Tennant [00:05:21]:
Everything is a trial, and you just have to correct it. It's not an error. Nothing went wrong. It went exactly how it was supposed to go, but it just didn't give you the result you want. So what's the correction? You're smart. Figure it out. I really spend time believing and understanding that failure is necessary and failure is an opportunity for growth. So that way I can kind of reduce that friction I feel about failure.

Erin Tennant [00:05:48]:
Before I started the weight loss, it's not so serious, it's not so heavy, and it's not going to keep me from holding myself back or stopping. Stuck. From growing.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:57]:
So that's a good start. Like you said, you start off with kind of defining what you're going to have, even the language of what you're going to have for failure, or correction, things like that. But now we're curious too, though. How did you, like, what did you do? Because if you're not dieting and you're not just running on a treadmill all day long, what are you doing to make such a drastic transformation?

Erin Tennant [00:06:26]:
I spent a lot of time thinking, and I spent a lot of time practicing thinking, building my awareness of how I felt about my relationship with food and my body and myself. So, for example, I knew when I was ready to lose the weight once and for all, I was not going to diet. I did not want to rely on anything outside of myself. So. So that means if I'm at a gas station and I have to eat, I'm not going to be like, oh, my gosh, I got to track the calories. What if the Internet's down? I don't have my Fitness Pal or Weight Watchers and this and that. No, I know exactly. I'm at a gas station, I'm hungry, I'm going to give myself permission to eat, and what am I going to eat and be done with it? Because that's what I noticed was happening for people in my life that were of an ideal weight, that had a healthy relationship with themselves, their body and food that they weren't stressing.

Erin Tennant [00:07:18]:
I was stressing about everything. What I was eating when I was eating, how I was eating it, tracking this, tracking that. I will say I think tracking is a great tool if you don't know what you're doing and you want to get started, but you can become dependent on it very, very quickly. So I knew that I wanted to disengage from any tracking mentality in terms of calories or points or anything like that. And I just Wanted to trust myself to walk into that gas station or if I was in at an airport and there was a chick fil a or whatever it may be that I could go in there, I could eat, I could enjoy what I was eating because I'm a foodie. And I think that was one of my fears about losing a weight, that I would lose my love of food. Food is such a big part of my life and my culture, my upbringing, that I didn't want to lose that. But I could still enjoy the food.

Erin Tennant [00:08:09]:
I can still do that without worrying about what to eat, when to eat and how to eat it. So it took a lot of time for me to think about what that meant for me. So I knew dieting was very restrictive and focused on what you couldn't eat versus what you could eat. I said, listen, you can eat whatever you want whenever you want, but you got to feel good about it.

Sandy Kovach [00:08:31]:
So what would be your gas station choice? I'm just curious.

Erin Tennant [00:08:34]:
It depends. For me, let's say we're driving all night and we stop in the morning and I haven't eaten a thing. And one of my pillars of the way I eat is and I'll go through kind of what I've called and I've coined in the past, like a conscious living method, a wellness blueprint of how you want to live your life. And for some of us, that entails of what we eat, how we eat, when we eat. One of the things I knew with dieting, some diets restrict on when you can eat again, I wanted to go far away from restriction. So I knew I was going to eat and I was going to eat consistently. So for me, that meant breakfast, lunch and dinner and snacks. And I tried to aim for two to three snacks based on my hunger.

Erin Tennant [00:09:19]:
That is what I like. That's worked for me. So if I'm going in and it's breakfast, my mind's going straight for the munchies bag, you know, where it has the Doritos, the pretzels, the cheese, eggs, Then it may be going first Snickers. I'm like salty and sweet. That's always where my mind goes to this day. But then I've trained myself to say, is that going to make me feel good? Is that going to provide nutrition for me? And especially if I'm eating a meal, my meals are food uniform. They are based off of macros, they are based off of nutritional buckets. So when I go to eat, I always make sure there's a source of protein and I always make sure there's a fiber.

Erin Tennant [00:10:01]:
So for me, I know I'm going to look for if there's fresh fruit or maybe there's like a packet of carrots if there's. If that's available. Sometimes you can go into like a sheets and there's like great options for fresh fruit and veggies. That would be like, best case scenario. I'm like, great, love it. You know, if there's a Subway and they have a breakfast sandwich with an egg, I may get that as well. With a piece of fresh fruit. If it's like, oh, my God, we're in the middle of nowhere and we are working with bottom of the barrel.

Erin Tennant [00:10:28]:
Maybe they have one of those protein drinks and I'm drinking a protein drink with coffee in it and I mix it like a premier protein. But I'm not going to go for the munchies and the Snickers for breakfast because there's no nutritional value in it. However, I give myself permission to indulge in those for snacks 150%. But I focus on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. A protein and a fiber. I don't even worry about carbohydrates. I don't count anything. And I eat carbs.

Erin Tennant [00:10:59]:
I love carbs. I eat bagels, I eat bread. Now, a trick I do that was really useful and helpful for me with weight loss is I focus on carbohydrates. Either pairing them, like I said, with the protein or finding carbs that have protein infused with them. So, like, if you've ever seen Dave's Killer breads, I love their products. So if I'm eating at home, put some avocado on it and put some eggs and have some avocado toast, you know, use that for a sandwich for lunch. It just makes it easy for me. But if I'm out and I don't have that, I just make sure to add protein and fiber with that.

Erin Tennant [00:11:37]:
And I really just focused on that. That was a big thing for me to start eating consistently because I was the person who was like, well, I don't eat breakfast or I'm not hungry at breakfast. But what happened would be, is then I would get really hungry at lunch and then from there on it was like a free for all. And I am a habitual, like nighttime snacker. Like, to this day I still am working on snacking when I'm not hungry and still maintain my weight and I'm able to do so. So again, it's not being a perfectionist. It's about being consistent. And when I consistently ate and I consistently focused on eating fibrous foods and high protein foods.

Erin Tennant [00:12:15]:
I started to lose weight. That was the first thing I did. Focus on the protein, focus on the fiber, focus on eating consistently and not skipping meals.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:24]:
You told us a few minutes ago you said that you had to start by thinking and practicing thinking. And I was thinking I don't get it. But now I think I get it. Because you're thinking about not just if it's going to make your body feel good and your emotions feel good or not, but also you're thinking about combinations that are helpful for you individually. You're thinking about making a choice before you just make a grab. You're thinking about eating before you get to starvation, hunger, crazy, free for all mode. That's what you.

Erin Tennant [00:13:01]:
Yeah, that's what I mean. And building the self awareness of like what's important to me, what, what do I want to prioritize? How do I start losing weight by my own rules And I was no longer going to make it about me, like there is a problem with me, there is something wrong with me. And that is where I started. Then I started to notice, ok, well I am losing weight. This is awesome. This is my relationship with food. But what else is causing that number on the scale to be that way? What is causing me to carry around this extra weight? That is for me. And I am only talking about my specific experience because I'm a big advocate for body positivity and I am not here to shame anyone's body or weight.

Erin Tennant [00:13:45]:
That is always a personal decision. I know plenty of people that live in bigger bodies that would be medically deemed obese or overweight and they have a quality of life, they are happy. So I am not here to convince anyone to lose weight or tell them that is a personal choice. So if you are in a body, whatever it may be, and you feel uncomfortable in it, you are unhappy with it. That is work for you to do. That is a personal, really intimate place for you to look at and go if you want to go there.

Sandy Kovach [00:14:15]:
Not for society to tell you exactly, because we.

Erin Tennant [00:14:18]:
Because as coaches and studies have shown, when you go to do something you will have more success. When your motivation is intrinsic, meaning it comes from within. If I'm losing weight because my husband is like, well I'm really concerned about your health and I don't want to be a single parent, that's not going to motivate me to lose weight. But if I go in deep in myself and I say, yeah, I want to be Around a long time. I don't want to have to be on medications early on. I don't want to have to give myself insulin. I want to be able to run with my kids and travel or in the past when I've had to book a second seat or get a seatbelt extender. I don't want to feel that way.

Erin Tennant [00:14:55]:
I don't like the way I feel and that is for me and I accept that and I own that and I'm going to do something about it. So finding that motivator for yourself is so important versus listening to external sources. Because if you don't have that intrinsic motivation to lose weight, then don't just be happy, enjoy yourself.

Sandy Kovach [00:15:13]:
Right, so you talked about the protein and the fiber as one of your pillars, but then the other pillars with the, the self motivation is that one.

Erin Tennant [00:15:22]:
Of them or so that ties into the coaching. But when it's really, if you're talking about weight loss, you know, looking at what are you doing now, how often are you eating? And start taking stock about people around you. Like my husband, he's never struggled with food. He's always had a really healthy relationship with food. He eats all things. He eats everything. He doesn't restrict himself, but he eats abundantly. And he eats a lot of things that would promote weight loss.

Erin Tennant [00:15:51]:
But he also indulges in cookies and cakes and things that add up quickly and don't have a lot. Not nutrient dense foods. So I started taking stock around people that I admired and I started to replicate that. So I started eating consistently. I started focusing on the two main nutrients that I felt would promote weight loss. And studies and research have shown that they are successful things to focus on. I also decided that I need to work on my relationship with food because I use food as a source of pleasure. So I am a master compartmentalizer.

Erin Tennant [00:16:28]:
And I learned this as a child that when I feel any negative emotion, sadness, hurt, pain, disappointment, frustration, overwhelm, I struggle with anxiety, I immediately want to go to pleasure. And that's everybody. Our brains are set up and operate under the motivational triad where we seek pleasure, we avoid pain, and, and our brains want to be efficient. So whenever I'm avoiding pain or discomfort, I go to food. That's my go to. And I still do that and I'm okay with that. And I give myself permission to do that under the constraints of do you want to eat this? Knowing that you're not physically hungry but you're emotionally hungry, knowing that it's going to give you short term Gratification. And if you're going to get it, how do you not let this affect your other important motivators, which is being healthy, being happy, being at an ideal weight for your body that you feel good in, being strong, being fit, having energy, not feeling bloated or fatigued or sick to your stomach.

Erin Tennant [00:17:28]:
How do you manage both of those? So one of those pillars is giving yourself permission to eat for emotional and physical hunger. If that's something you've struggled with, and learning how to do that to lose weight. If you don't want to do that, you can disengage from that behavior. But for me, it's something that I've done and I really enjoy doing and I'll probably continue doing the rest of my life, but I'm no longer going to have it work against me. I'm no longer going to gain weight from it. So when I go to emotionally eat, it's usually at nighttime, it's usually after dinner, so I'm not physically hungry. It's within an hour. We sit on the couch, we watch tv.

Erin Tennant [00:18:04]:
It always is usually in wintertime versus summertime because it's cold, it's dark. Earlier on, I'm in Columbus, Ohio. There's not much to do and I get tired at night, so I want to emotionally eat. So we do this. And I allow myself to indulge in those sweet treats. And I always aim for one serving. I practice counting out servings. I practice measuring things because I was so unaware of how much I was eating.

Erin Tennant [00:18:31]:
So I just practice that. That's what I do for me. And if I want more than I check in, what's going on? How are you feeling? What are you thinking about? What is happening for you? That you think an extra bowl of popcorn and M&Ms. Are going to help you with long term? And I have to answer that. I do not eat until I answer that.

Sandy Kovach [00:18:50]:
Wow. So you're sitting there and reasoning with yourself in the midst of emotions. And that's pretty good, all of it.

Erin Tennant [00:18:56]:
Because, listen, if not, I'm going to react and just get the M&Ms. And the popcorn and a lot of the work I do with my clients, it's really not about the decision. It's about feeling good in your decision. Because we all know what to do to lose weight. We all know what to do to feel better. But then we find ourselves not doing it because we are on autopilot, because we are reacting to the emotion, because we have not turned on that prefrontal cortex, which you can actually do by practicing self awareness, by checking in, by really building that relationship, that connection with your brain, your body and yourself. And when you do that work, it will compound and add up and you will see results. I promise you that.

Erin Tennant [00:19:38]:
Because I've seen them. And if it's possible for me, it's possible for anyone else. Another one that I have created for myself is this was a big one and I cannot take credit for this. And I'm going to give credit to a person you both know. Elizabeth Sherman.

Sandy Kovach [00:19:52]:
Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:54]:
We've had her on Imagine Yourself podcast before.

Erin Tennant [00:19:57]:
Yeah, she's fantastic. Yeah, she's amazing. She was my very first one on one coach and this is her concept that she shared with me. I no longer look at physical activity as a way to lose weight. Meaning that I really thought about how I move my body and like what I want to do and how does that look when I am at my ideal weight. I did this work when I was overweight and trying to lose weight. I realized there were two things happening. There was this idea of movement and then there was exercise.

Erin Tennant [00:20:33]:
There were two buckets for me. I wanted to exercise and follow the protocol of what the guidelines are. They say, I think 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week. I wanted to work up to that, but also I wanted to move my body every day, but as a form of self care, as a way to honor my body and take care of my body. And one of the ways I love to move my body is walking. I love to put on my headphones, listen to my favorite podcast like yours. I love to listen to music. I sometimes like to just sit with my thoughts and just walk and just be mindful.

Erin Tennant [00:21:11]:
I like to go with a girlfriend or my husband or my family, but I love to walk. It's really good, it's beneficial and it's something I can do As I age and I grow and into different seasons of my life. So every day I go for a walk. No matter the weather, no matter the time of season, the day, as long if I can get out of bed, I'm walking. Wow. And I either walk outside or I've invested. By invested I mean pick up from the side of the curb and walk it to my in laws and then drive it back to my house, a treadmill someone threw out for trash. And I'm like, I hope this works because this looks really nice.

Erin Tennant [00:21:47]:
And I don't use it every day, but I use it when it rains or it's really cold outside because I will. I've Set constraints for myself. I don't walk when it's pouring rain and I don't walk when it's below.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:58]:
20 degrees and icy out, slippery.

Sandy Kovach [00:22:01]:
Yeah, we're in the Detroit area, so. Same, same, same thing.

Erin Tennant [00:22:05]:
Or, you know, investing in a really cheap gym membership that you can go to on your off days. Like if you're not a gym person, but at least you have a backup, you have a plan B. Or you, you can say, oh, well, I'm going to go shovel snow. But I move my bodies in way in ways that make me feel good, that makes me happy, and I like to do it on my own time and quiet. I'm a busy mom. I like my own times.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:28]:
And you're not tracking it and making sure that it's this faster rate and you are doing it in a fun way.

Erin Tennant [00:22:36]:
Yep. And I just started saying, what if you walked 30 minutes? What would that look like? And when I went to go do it, it was hard to walk 30 minutes. And I was like, okay, if this was really difficult, what if I give myself a range? What if I say 15 to 30 minutes? Cut it in half. And so for the first couple months, I walked 15 to 30 minutes. Then I got curious. I was like, I wonder how long I'm walking. And then I noticed I was picking up speed and I was walking longer. And now I walk about 2 1/2, 3 miles in 45 minutes to an hour.

Erin Tennant [00:23:08]:
And no problem, but it takes time. I'm not going to go from weighing over 300 pounds and doing that in my body for my specific fitness level. I had to grow to do that. I had to give myself space and I had to honor where I was at. So one of the tips I want to share with you in talking about failure, too is that we get so obsessed with numbers and we get so, so obsessed with ideas of like, I have to walk three miles in 30 minutes. F that. Stop doing that to yourself, people. It is terrible.

Erin Tennant [00:23:41]:
You're backing yourself up into a corner. Why don't you just say, hey, I'm going to go for a walk today. And give yourself a range if you want to give yourself a goal and make it challenging. Because when we talk about goals and, you know, you want them to be challenging enough that they're interesting, but you also want them to be achievable. If you can walk away with anything from today, honor yourself by giving yourself room to succeed, not to fail. I love that so many of us just back ourselves into a corner. And why do that? It's a waste. You're just going to feel terrible and probably stop engaging in the behavior you want to do to get the result you want and then you're going to be miserable again.

Erin Tennant [00:24:20]:
Just show up to the activity. James Clear in atomic habits talks about not breaking the link. Do whatever you can to set yourself up to succeed and not break that link. So if you go out for a walk and it's only five minutes, go out for five minutes and just do it and get it done.

Sandy Kovach [00:24:38]:
It's so interesting you're saying that because. Okay, so I have an apple watch and I do like that it tracks your steps and I do like that you complete your circles. But for a while when I first got it it was like if I couldn't complete my circles then it was just like, well I'm not gonna do anything and I had to learn to live with that. There are going to be times where I'm not going to complete them, but I still got some exercise in. But don't you know, it took a while to get there. So. Yeah, because I think tracking is good and I like having the ability to do it and Fitbits and Apple watches or whatever you're using. But if you stay too strict with it, just like you were saying about anything, it can backfire on you.

Erin Tennant [00:25:18]:
It most likely will. And for high achievers, people who maybe have confidence or low self esteem, me, which I've struggled with and self trust, you're going to use it against yourself. I think it's great to you. I first of all I love my Fitbit because it just gives me an idea of where I'm at. But in the beginning and even now I still use that idea of ranges and your baseline and finding out what your non negotiable baseline for you. So for your rings I don't have an apple watch but I do know like complete. Aren't there three rings?

Sandy Kovach [00:25:52]:
There are three rings. Yep.

Erin Tennant [00:25:54]:
So maybe there are going to be days that you complete tumoring and what are the one ring days that you're okay with? Like for me I know if I have a migraine or I'm sick and I'm not getting out of bed or I have a fever or something, I am not going for a walk and I feel good in my decision, really get clear and find clarity of when you are okay hitting that one ring, that two ring so you don't beat yourself up because it's unnecessary because you're right. There are going to be days that are not going to be perfect. Life is going to happen. Cars break down, you get sick, meetings run over, things happen. So how do you want to show up for yourself as best as you can in the moment with what you have?

Lanée Blaise [00:26:37]:
I think the other part here too is all the time that people maybe take trying to count the calories and look at the clock and they could be spending that time, like you said, with that really novel idea of having a relationship with your brain, with your body, with food, with yourself and talk through some of this stuff. And like you said, give yourself some grace, give yourself some ranges, because it's going to take time. And we knew that at the start of this episode. But the way that you're saying it's like it just takes daily time consistently checking in with yourself because, oh my gosh, I'm going to just be honest. Sandy and I, we definitely had some questions that we were thinking about, like how you did it as far as, you know, was it intermittent fasting? Was it counting calories? Was it, was it that? And I am a bit blown away that it was none of the things on our little cheat sheet here, none of the above.

Erin Tennant [00:27:33]:
Done. I did all those things and I failed miserably at them long term because it required so much energy. And when I did not meet those expectations I set for myself, I would quit. I would fail ahead of time. So I knew that pattern about myself because I spent time asking myself, what did you do in the past that didn't work for you? And I realized it was the tracking, it was the diet and the restriction. And what I had to learn was the complete opposite. Grace, space, consistency, and not perfection. And what does that look like for Aaron Tennant? What does that look like for me as a mom of two, a wife, entrepreneur? And if it's not the same as my friend or my co worker or my client or the mom at pickup, that's okay.

Erin Tennant [00:28:21]:
But really feeling good with how I do things. Because guess what? I'm alone in my brain, I'm alone in my body, and I've got to feel good in all of it, not somebody else. The only time you truly fail is when you are giving up on something you want because you're scared you don't have what it takes or you don't know how to do it.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:41]:
But even then, you can pick it back up.

Erin Tennant [00:28:43]:
And that's a beautiful thing because fresh starts are available at any time. The invitation is always available to you, and you just have to be willing to accept it.

Sandy Kovach [00:28:52]:
So if somebody's given up on the resolution already, no problem. Just pick it back up, pick it back up.

Erin Tennant [00:28:58]:
I literally been in mid moment of when I was losing weight and I was like, I have an urge to eat and I ate something that I didn't plan for or I ate too much of something and as soon as I was in mid bite or took my last bite, fresh start. Okay, what was that about? Why did you take it too far? What can you do better next time? How does this make you feel? Really checking in and seeing what was coming up for me so I could take value from that and go at it again next time. Maybe I had to change what I ate. Maybe I had to change how much I ate. Maybe I have to eat more early on in the day or different thing. It could be a million different things, but there are solutions always available.

Lanée Blaise [00:29:42]:
And that self talk you had was really actually good. Questioning, not judgmental, not me, not beating yourself up, not chastising yourself in this terrible way, but also not just totally letting everything off the hook either, but a really beautiful balance of asking why and how to change it and correct for next time. I love it.

Erin Tennant [00:30:03]:
I could talk for hours. This is my life work. This is my passion. And to any of your listeners, don't put all of the responsibility on that diet or on that program or on that coach or on that program or certification or degree, whatever you're going after, don't put all the value into that. Put it into yourself.

Sandy Kovach [00:30:22]:
And for those of us who have a faith relationship, take it to the Lord in prayer and have him strengthen you through this as well. Pray because as you were saying this stuff about starting mid bite, you're starting again. That was so cool. And I was thinking too of the God's mercies are new every morning. So also they're new every mid bite.

Erin Tennant [00:30:43]:
And I want to say this too, because I have a lot of clients, you know, they use their faith every day to keep them moving, going. And your spirituality or your religious wellness will obviously increase. And the only way I can face my fears and show up to do the hard thing is by understanding what is happening for me in my brain and my body and then deciding what to do with it. From a place that feels good, with my core values and my ethics backing it up. And when you can align all three of those, then you realize truly you can do all the hard things that you're scared to do.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:22]:
Boom. Drop the mic.

Sandy Kovach [00:31:23]:
That was a good takeaway.

Erin Tennant [00:31:24]:
Awesome.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:25]:
So thank you for listening. Thank you for coming on, Erin.

Erin Tennant [00:31:28]:
Thank you for having me.

Sandy Kovach [00:31:30]:
Now you may just want to get in touch with Erin, you might just want to check out her website or maybe even book a free consultation with her. You can check out thegrowellcoach.com thegrowwellcoach.com we'll put a link in the show notes and on our blog page as well. Thank you so much. Hopefully this was helpful. And if your New Year's resolution is to get healthier, we hope and pray that this all works out and on your terms, not because somebody else is making you feel pressured. If this is an area of concern for anybody else that you know, please share the episode and please give us a rating or review. We'd love to know what you think and it helps people find our podcast. Visit us on our website imagine yourself podcast.com and we're also on Facebook and Instagram until next time when we have something new to imagine.

Sandy Kovach [00:32:23]:
Wishing you God's blessings and peace and happiness in your life.