Nicole F., Account Executive
Before I worked with Katelyn, I was stuck in cycles of dieting, bingeing (specifically night-time eating), and over-exercising. I was anxious, frustrated, and occasionally depressed.
Most of my free time and thoughts were consumed by negative body image, anxiety over food choices, how much + when I could workout, and overall not living for what felt good but for what would calm this anxiety - which ultimately never happened in this cycle. I did not trust myself or my body.
There is so much I could say about how working with Katelyn improved my life.
Mentally I feel free of food anxiety. And while body image will be a lifelong relationship to manage, I have tools that I can rely on when I am having a difficult moment or day with myself.
Saying I feel free of food anxiety is not a small upside, I have struggled with disordered eating for most of my adult life (over 10 years). I’ve sought out many different therapists, treatments, and self-help that ultimately never stuck.
Working with Katelyn I had hoped would be different, but deep down I didn’t know if I would really ever get “there” with food.
Meeting with her regularly and the relationship we built was truly life-changing.
I knew I wanted to get pregnant in 2020 and always had the intuition I would have a girl. I knew something needed to drastically change with my relationship with food and my body image before I brought a child into this world.
I got pregnant about 7 months into working with Katelyn and now I feel I have a real shot at teaching my daughter how to have a healthy relationship with food.
I also have tools I never would have had otherwise to help me handle the challenges of postpartum body image and to keep me from slipping back into old patterns.
Working with Katelyn helped me embrace and enjoy the physical changes of pregnancy and honor my cravings, rather than trying to manipulate, fight, and control them as I would have in the past.
I am able to exercise in ways that feel good, rather than as punishment motivated by anxiety.
Katelyn helped me work through a lot of previous experiences that contributed to my struggles in the first place, and to understand it was never about the food. This was another line I used to hear and roll my eyes at, but once I uncovered the root causes of these struggles, the long-term healing really began.
I feel lucky to know Katelyn. The fact that I can sit here and not know exactly what I am going to eat today, or if I will work out and have zero anxiety about either is a testament to working with her.
In addition to feeling prepared to become a mom to a daughter who is going to pick up on my eating habits and how I treat/talk about my body, I am now more than ever in touch with the things I want to do, eat, and feel.
This sounds small, but in the past, all of my decisions were made through anxiety and control about what I thought I “should” eat or “should” be doing.
I feel a sense of calm that I didn’t have previously.
Of course, life throws things our way! There are days when I eat more than feels comfortable, or a couple of days go by where I realize I haven’t had a vegetable, or I haven’t worked out, but I am no longer derailed by these situations.
Working with Katelyn has also indirectly improved my relationship with my husband. I no longer cook my own food every night because I “can’t” eat what he eats. I’m not cranky and argumentative when we try to decide where to go out to eat because I need “healthy options”.
We are able to enjoy meals and cook together in a way we never did before.
I don’t spend the entire day Sunday in a bad mood because I “have to” grocery shop and meal prep exactly what I am going to eat all week.
There is so much more free time, energy, and mental space without these constraints I used to put on myself.
This work has even spilled over into making travel more enjoyable! I used to torture myself leading up to trips about what I would eat and how I would work out. Now vacations are a time to relax and enjoy new experiences. If I get in some exercise that’s great. If not, I know where the gym is when I get home and that it will always be there.
The body image work I’ve done has also helped me with packing. This might sound silly, but accepting my body right now and having clothes that fit comfortably- there is no need for anxiously overpacking “just in case” I don’t like how something looks.
Since working with Katelyn I’ve eliminated binging. If I do eat more than feels comfortable I can pinpoint what happened & move forward without drama
Other areas of my relationship with food that have shifted:
Reduced emotional eating.
Social anxiety about eating in a public setting.
Anxiety about always needing to know what my next meal is going to be, or knowing the exact ingredients.
Wasting hours of my weekend meal prepping.
Categorizing foods as “good” and “bad”. Orthorexic tendencies/beliefs about food. Allowing dairy back into my life.
Not seeing carbs as the enemy. Enjoying foods that I am nostalgic about that I previously cut out of my life (hello pizza and pasta!).
Enjoying Halloween without bingeing on candy and then having a deep sense of failure.
Enjoying holidays and my birthday without dreading the dessert table and actually being excited about it knowing I can have dessert whenever I want.
Getting in touch with what I really want to eat.
Understanding fullness/hunger cues.
Seeing food as what it is- just food and also so much more (memories, nostalgia, comfort, love, celebration, tradition) and knowing that is all ok.
I trust my body knows what it needs and how to handle food. In the past, I believed I did not have a good metabolism and therefore needed to restrict and manipulate constantly with food and exercise.
Today, I have so much more free time and energy and believe I am more fun for my family and friends to be around. I was always cranky with all of these thoughts going on in my head on a daily basis!
I would say the one constant thing that has stuck with me is knowing I can eat whatever I want whenever I want. At first, this idea felt like a floodgate. But eventually, I realized unconditional permission to eat is how I get in tune with my body- what it really wants and how much of it.
For example, I know I can have pizza whenever I want it and I do. So now pizza is just pizza - it’s not something I have to avoid or be resentful that my husband can eat and I can’t. It’s just one meal- there will be thousands more in this lifetime!
Working with Katelyn was Completely life-altering for the better.
The mental struggles I never pictured myself being free of are now a part of my story but no longer control my life.
