Loving yourself enough to give your body what it truly needs is at the heart of eating intuitively. Rachel Cole is an inspirational example of how radical self-love can transform a harmful eating disorder into an nationwide phenomena of celebrating health at every size. I had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel and she shared some precious jewels of her wisdom; I especially love her ideas for connecting to your own wisdom and finding what you’re TRULY hungry for. Read on to get Rachel’s best advice for eating – and nourishing your whole self – intuitively.
Rachel Cole is a certified life coach, retreat host, instigator of ease, and hunger-satisfier. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent years steeped in the vibrant Bay Area food community while earning her MA in Holistic Health Education. Rachel is a mission to guide women towards knowing and feeding their truest hungers. Through all her varied endeavors, Rachel is an inimitable inspiration for each of us to feast on our lives!
Kellie Adkins: You help women nourish themselves well and develop a healthy-at-every-size mentality. What drew you to this work?
Rachel Cole: Everyone sees the world’s problems through a different lens. For some people when they look what stands out for them is AIDS, or environmental pollution, or campaign finance. I see a world of starving women – and not just starving for food. Women are hungry and we’ve been taught that being hungry is okay – and it’s not. Period.
I do the work I do because I know how to go from being hungry to full, from being at war with food and my body to being at peace. I know how to turn an internal landscape from one studded with landmines of self-loathing to one awash with self-love. I also have innate gifts that allow me to connect, coach, intuit, inspire, and guide others into a deeper relationship with themselves.
I do what I do because it’s simply what I’m here to do.
KA: You’re such a pillar for self-acceptance and intuitive eating now but it hasn’t always been that way. What was the turning point –or the rock bottom moment?
RC: Hitting bottom was seeing the damage not eating (anorexia) or eating hyper perfectionisticly (orthorexia) was doing to my body and seeing that it was taking meaningful living from me. There comes a point when going the hard road is actually easier, if that makes sense.
KA: What is your favorite way to connect to your inner wisdom/intuition?
RC: Get quiet. Write. (I use the Wild Writing method taught to me by Laurie Wagner). Ask myself my guiding question: “Rachel, what are you TRULY hungry for?”
KA: How has connecting to your inner wisdom helped shape your relationship to food and heal your relationship with your body?
RC: Overtime, trusting my inner wisdom and my body to know what is best and right for me has allowed a strong, unwavering bond to form. At first it was a leap of faith that I could trust my body to know what was best for me, but that leap has equipped me with a strength and knowing that will last me a lifetime. It’s priceless.
KA: What advice would you give someone who is struggling to connect with their body’s wisdom, maintain a natural weight, and trust their health & wellness choices?
RC: Adopt a Healthy At Every Size mentality. Throw out the scale — forever. Commit to self-love and acceptance with the same intensity you commit to a diet. Find 5-10 body/food role-models. Find a meditation group and attend weekly. And, if it’s serious, find a DBT therapist or therapy group.
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