039. A True Story of Recovering from Binge Eating ft. Lyndie Prout; @healthynative

July 14, 2021

Hey There, I'm Ryann Nicole.

I’m a recovered binge eater who changed the story from something that happened to me to something that happened for me. Now, I’m a licensed therapist teaching you to do the same.

My mission? To help you ditch food stress and live your life with mental peace and freedom every single day!


Connect with Lyndie

📲 Instagram: @healthynative

Episode Transcript

Ryann

All right, hello everybody. I have such a special guest today. I’m so just excited to bring this episode to you. I have Lyndie here, otherwise known as Healthy Native. There’s no the, right?

Lyndie

It’s just Healthy Native. It’s Healthy Native.

Ryann

Healthy Native is in the house with us today. She is going to be dropping all of the tea on binge eating. And we’re going to be having a conversation about her story with binge eating and how she found recovery, but also how she started building some sustainable habits to live this healthy, balanced lifestyle that she is now so Lydnie. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you today?

Lyndie

Oh Thank you for having me. I’m doing fantastic It’s a rainy cloudy day here in Florida, but I’m I’m so ready and happy to be here on this call with you

Ryann

Oh my god It is kind of rainy here to actually which I’m actually super appreciative of it because it’s been so hot like oh summer is here. Summer is here and it’s weird. So for those that have not found you on Instagram yet, can you please tell us a little bit about you, your story, and how you got started with Healthy Native. We’ll dive into like the logistics, but just kind of give us like a brief overview and then we’ll go from there.

Lyndie

Yeah, so like my Instagram just itself you mean?

Ryann

Yeah, yeah. So like starting with, I would say like your history with food, body, when it started to change and then when you decided to make a change.

Lyndie

Yeah, well honestly, I mean, my whole Instagram was, actually it’s kind of funny because I first started my whole healthy native Instagram in college and it was all towards keto recipes and all the things that I’m so against here in this phase of my life. And so it’s kind of funny and all of like the archive settings of my Instagram is all just like keto high fat like meal recipe pictures and all that kind of thing, which did not last long at all. And I just shut down the Instagram after that for like a solid year. But basically who I am now is just somebody who is not for the diet world, not for not for being in a deficit. I’m just like what you said, just living life and just kind of wanting to have other women kind of feel empowered to not be afraid to eat more, lift more.

Ryann

Yeah.

Lyndie

Yeah, exactly. Just like to feel good in their own skin because I’ve lived so many years. I mean, I’m only 24, but I’ve lived so many years of my life just feeling kind of trapped in a body that felt like it wasn’t my own. And so, yeah, so my whole theory now is just like to feel good in your body, kind of, yeah, pursue health in a good and strong badass kind of way.

Ryann

So what was food and like food and body like in your family growing up like what was your family’s relationship like with that and then when did you start to view your own body in a negative way?

Lyndie

So growing up, I mean, it was a little weird growing up because my mom was allergic to wheat, my younger sister was allergic to soy. So there was like all these different like restrictions on food in our meals automatically. And I think like we never had like my mom was allergic to bread. So we never had like breaded foods, donuts, any kind of like cake, nothing was in the house. And so in my mind that stuff was already considered bad just because my mom she I mean it was like a real like thing She couldn’t have but it was just put on the whole family And so I just automatically felt like that was a restriction because if I had it elsewhere it felt weird I don’t know like it was considered bad. But other than that like grew up with very healthy food I mean like my dad’s a hunter so he ate meat like quite a bit and my mom had a garden and everything.

The biggest thing is I think the food group restriction from things that were considered bad because on my grandma and my grandpa’s side of things, I mean they grew up in that culture where low fat everything, that whole type of world. And so the influential people in my life like my grandparents, they kind of, they would look down on whenever us kids would eat burgers or something or just have a second helping of dessert. And so that pressure kind of going up really started from when I was younger. And I think once I started realizing in high school, like I can make my own food choices and everything, that’s kind of when it got into more like my food choices were very, I was very controlling of what I ate in high school.

So because I wanted to fit that kind of that view that my grandparents wanted my body to look like, if that makes sense, because my grandpa, he’s a very sweet man, but he would definitely point out a bigger person in public if you know what I’m talking about. So it was it was kind of like my whole eating patterns from growing up to high school and everything. It was just very weird and very unbalanced like there was no balance at all it was like very just like very restrictive in a sense I was a very small very petite person because of it and which I’m not now but yeah that’s how I just kind of view how that whole process was for me, like in my younger years and in high school because of just my atmosphere, all of that control kind of blew up once I left my home bubble and went to college.

Because I mean, my family wasn’t there with me in college, whole new friend group, my grandparents were across the country. So it was just like, in my mind, I was just like, whoa, I’m like this whole, like nobody knows me here. I just like, it was very freeing. But also it’s when my binging started, because I lost control, because I had so much control when I was home. And I can remember it so vividly. Like when I was, we had the Cole cafeteria, it was like buffet every single day. And I was just like, okay, the first couple weeks, it was just like salads and everything. And then they had cheesecake at the cafeteria. She’s like, huh, I mean, like, I haven’t had cheesecake in forever. I’m gonna grab me a slice of that.

And literally, it was like, I tasted the freedom of that cheesecake. And I went back and I like, duffed like five pieces into my backpack to have later that day. So it’s just like, moments like those happened like, almost every single day throughout my freshman year of college to where I honestly gained 40 pounds my freshman year. Just from that, that was like from the restraint of being so self-conscious of my body and what I ate from when I was younger and then just to having complete freedom, which it freaked my parents out a lot because they didn’t know, I mean, people noticed that I was gaining so much weight. I would have jars of peanut butter under my bed.

I would have, I would even sneak into my roommate’s candy stash. It was like, I almost felt like I was addicted to food because food was like on my mind 24 7 and it was just this, it’s just, it’s very hard to explain unless you’ve actually like had that overwhelming feeling of nothing’s going to stop you from binging tonight. And that was really hardcore my freshman year of college after getting out of… Because I lived in California, college was in Oklahoma, so that distance kind of led me to doing all those things.

Ryann

I relate to you so much. Talking about going into your roommate’s candy stash or your friend’s candy stash because I used to do that so much in college because I wouldn’t buy those Foods I would only buy the quote-unquote like safe or healthy foods And then when I was in that binge mode, like let’s say in the middle of the night I would go through and be like, okay I can have this much of this and she won’t notice and I’ll have this much of this and she won’t notice and like when I talk to clients and I’m like you know just like you said like if you’ve been through it like you understand and so I’m always like whatever you have done that you feel like is crazy I promise you I’ve been there done that the craziest things with food because just like you said when you’re in that mode it’s like you’re so sick that that is the only thing stopping you. So like when you would go through these binge phases like the next morning would you go into like okay diet starts now or were you just in this full like okay F it I’m just eating everything cycle?

Lyndie

Honestly it would depend on how the volume of food that I benched on the night before. Because, I mean, obviously, like, after I had basically finished off everything in the dorm room, like, the next day, I would, I mean, you’d sleep on it, and I just felt so disgusting, so full of guilt in myself. And to find my mind to make up for it, I would skip breakfast, I would maybe even skip lunch, and because I would skip those meals, I would just put me in that cycle of doing it all over again that night, going to the buffet and putting a bunch of extra food in my backpack to have later that night or something like that. So it was definitely like, especially on the weekends when Monday would roll around, it would be like, okay, this is gonna be my week. It’s Monday, I’m going to run on the treadmill for an hour every day this week. I’m going to eat like a yogi goddess and not have anything bad. So yeah, which obviously failed miserably because no one can really do that for the rest of their life, so.

Ryann

When you were going through this, did you know that what you were doing was binging?

Lyndie

I didn’t at first, but once I started realizing like how often it was happening, I was just like, I had heard the word binging before from other people like saying like someone one of my college girlfriends She was she was watching a movie one night, and she’s just like oh, man I’m gonna binge on this whole bag of like chips or something just because like she’s like I’ve just had a long day I’m gonna binge on this bag of chips that moment where I just realized oh, she’s like I mean I do that literally all the time. It’s called binging so I did not realize that was the term for it at first.

Ryann

I remember like, I always think it’s so interesting because I didn’t realize that what I was doing was bingeing because nobody talked about it. And this is a term that wasn’t even like coined until 2013. And so when I was going through it a little bit younger than you, because I’m older than you, I was like, okay, nobody is talking about this, I’m doing this crazy thing with food and every time I Google why do I get into this mode where I keep eating and I can’t stop, like nothing would come up. And so it really wasn’t until I asked for help that I had learned about binging that I was just like I just do this crazy thing with food, like I don’t understand it but I just do this crazy thing with food and God forbid I tell anybody that.

So I think that is so interesting and I love that there’s more information about it now because I always wonder if I would have known that that’s what I was doing sooner, would that have given me an aha moment sooner? Where I was like, this is just how I am. This is just how I am with food. I guess this is it. And this is the week where I’m not going to do it again and it was like oh well three days of the diet and then I’m right back to where I started.

When did you kind of realize like because I know like this is one of those things where we say over and over and over like this is the last time, this is the last time, this is the last time. When was your actual last time and like what was the difference when you were like, all right, I’m finally ready to do something different and to move on from this?

Lyndie

Honestly, it wasn’t until I left college, I didn’t graduate, it made it to my junior year, but because of health problems and I was just kind of struggling really badly. So it wasn’t until I kind of left college in that environment that I could kind of get a hold of what the problem was, because just like you, I felt crazy. I felt like there is definitely something wrong. Like, I used to be this 120-pound volleyball high school athlete, and now I’m just like, I feel like I’m not in my own body. And somebody actually told me about CrossFit, which is like, she gained a lot of weight too for different reasons, but she got into CrossFit and she had lost a ton of weight.

She looked strong. She looked good. And it was me seeing her, I was just like, man, that’s what I want for myself. I want to just be able to eat more food, but also have a rocking body like her. And so I signed up with CrossFit and I was doing that for a couple of years. I was still binging, even in the midst of the first year and a half of doing CrossFit, just because I still had that mindset of, I have to lose this weight fast and everything, but I still want to. I want all the food. It was this back and forth battle in my mind, but I was still getting stronger in the midst of it because I had that new workout routine. It was very back and forth. And it wasn’t like an exact moment that the binging just kind of turned off. It was very gradual.

I know right now they have like people like you to, I follow a lot of women who actually like help you overcome binge eating and step into a more intuitive eating world. I had no idea about those ladies, and so I just very much did it on my own. I was into the CrossFit thing, and I was actually following an amazing woman, Quads Like Kaylee. I don’t know if you know her. Do you know her?

Awesome. She has a podcast, too, called Quadcast. And a girl that I really looked up to in the gym recommended me to her because she was explaining to me, I was asking her what her diet was, like, how do you look so good and still get so strong? And she’s like, she’s like, honey, I’m eating 2500 calories a day. And I’m just like, doing my thing here at the gym. And I was just like, there’s got to be something else like, there’s no way you’re eating that much food and like, look so good. And so she recommended this podcast by Quads Like Haley to me. And it was about reverse dieting.

Dieting was a trigger word for me still. So it was like, okay, I’m going to listen to it. But I really, I don’t know, we’ll see how it goes. And I was listening to the reverse dieting podcast, and it was making so much sense. And it was just applying so much to me. I didn’t even know that I needed it. Kind of counting calories also, but then binging and forgetting about those calories. I didn’t realize I needed to increase my calories drastically to have it level out through the whole week, so I didn’t even feel like I needed to binge.

And so that was the whole deal with the reverse dieting because she talked about how anybody who’s like, I thought it was only for those women who get all super dark, sprayed tanned and go to the muscle competitions kind of thing. Like I thought those type of women’s were for the reverse dieting. That’s the only place that I saw that word tagged to. And so I was like, I can’t be for myself. But I was in as low of calories as those women were when they were on stage, even though that wasn’t me. So I applied it to myself and I was just like, okay, I’m going to just slowly increase my calories I guess to hopefully kind of repair my metabolism and hopefully not like binge anymore because I felt guilty for eating like 1400 calories a day, which is ridiculous.

But it was just like a very long process that took probably maybe two years to kind of fully accept like in my current state right now, I’m at a really good calorie range to where I feel like fueled and fed for my daily activities. And if I could tell myself like two years ago like that this is where I’d be, I would never believe it. It’s just kind of crazy. So that’s kind of, I know that was like a really long answer to your question.

Ryann

No, I appreciate that so much because it’s amazing that you were able to do this on your own because it is hard It is really really hard because it is that mindset thing and you are literally Going back and forth with yourself in your mind through all of it It is such an internal battle and like nobody realizes that that’s what’s going on into your mind Until you get it out and you start doing that. So like when you were going through this, did anybody know?

Like obviously like, you know, with me and like as my weight fluctuated, my parents were like, okay, something’s going on with food, obviously, because weight gain comes from, you know, food. They didn’t know that this is what was happening. I felt so alone in it because I was like, there’s no way that I can tell them what’s actually going on. And so like, nobody knew. And I feel like that was half the battle. Did anybody know when you were going through this?

Lyndie

No, I didn’t. It was all just me, myself and I. I know people like my grandparents, when I came home from college, like you said, added to the battle of it. And so it was I only kind of, besides that lady who I talked to about the podcast, about what I was struggling with, it was just me. Did you ever tell your parents about it? Like after you had kind of worked through it? I don’t think I really had to because of my Instagram, honestly. I feel like that’s with my whole, like I have three sisters. They’re all in Northern California. And I talked, I talked to them like a little bit about what I was going through, but I think they kind of knew without me telling them, just because like I was always growing up like the health conscious person, so they thought this was just like another thing that I was trying out or whatever. But I don’t think until like I started like posting like deep stuff on my Instagram about what I was going through, they didn’t really know.

Ryann

Did you end up ever having a conversation about it or was it just like, okay?

Lyndie

No, no specific conversation with my family or my sisters. I don’t know, it’s just maybe we should now. But no, I mean like maybe here and there like they obviously obviously see me and how I’m getting stronger in the gym and everything, and they want to do what I’m doing as far as my workouts go. I always encourage them to eat more food, more protein, because I have two younger sisters. One is 21 and 16, and I hope that they see what I went through and not feel like they have to go through it alone and so I talked to them probably the most about it.

Ryann

What I wanted to ask you is when you were going through this you mentioned like really working through that food guilt and like having to overcome that food guilt as you were adding in more food knowing that that was something that was going to work but it’s so hard it’s so hard so how did you manage that food guilt? And how did you kind of make peace with food as you were working through this, all of this?

Lyndie

Oh, honestly, in the beginning, like whenever I would increase my food, my automatic instinct was, okay, I have to exercise more today. Like I have to kind of balance it out. And that was my mentality for a good part of the beginning of the whole process for me. As far as the food guilt goes, I didn’t understand. Because in the CrossFit gym, they talked about macros and maximizing different nutrients to support your workouts and everything. I think that honestly really helped me with the food guilt part because I was fitting in the correct macros that still supported my new fitness routine. So I didn’t feel like crap as I was eating more food.

As the opposite would be just like upping your calories and that could be anything. I was upping my macros, which would be like extra protein instead of like, I don’t know, a bag of chips at the end of the day. So it was like very balanced. And once I, and that wasn’t at the beginning, that was more kind of in the middle when I started to learn more macros. And I think that honestly really helped me to not feel guilty about what I was eating because it was still like supporting the activities that I was doing.

Ryann

As you were doing this and your body trying to trust you again, but also you trusting your body again.

Lyndie

I cried a lot. I’m not going to lie, it’s not easy to watch your body get bigger to just see the scale go up. And honestly, the biggest battle I had was with the scale. And because I would still be weighing myself, I weighed myself at least once a week. And even doing that, it was just like crap. I gained like three pounds a sweet. Girl, that three pounds is probably not all fat, by the way. It’s probably just like I was eating more sodium foods maybe, or just like all these other factors that go into it.

Like I went to it, but seeing the scale and seeing how like my clothes from high school or the beginning of college weren’t just, they still don’t fit me, it was very, very frustrating and that went on for a good year or so and so it’s just like I felt like my body wasn’t reflecting all the work that I was doing and I just, it’s hard to accept that time is what will fix things because we live in a world where it’s just like we want what we want we want it now kind of thing and I wasn’t getting it like instantly and so it was very very frustrating but I just I was making sure to follow more influential people who are just like people I look up to on Instagram or different platforms and it was just because again yeah it was all on my own so I was just kind of fill my day with things that put me in a better mindset which is why I listen to a lot of podcasts I made sure that everything that I read or watched was like very supporting of my journey.

Ryann

How do you deal with bad body image days now?

Lyndie

Well, I mean yeah they’re still a real thing. I’m on my period this week, and so that just kind of shoots you in the foot, doesn’t it? So it’s just like, yeah, on the days you feel bloated or the days it’s just like, man, why can’t I lift as heavy as I can last week? I’m all about the whole sustainability and this is for the rest of your life. it’s not just like for an eight, like a four, eight week challenge. This is like your life we’re talking about. So bad body image days, like now I try not to like think about them too hard because honestly, like tomorrow’s a new day, everybody has their bad days.

And in those times where you just don’t feel good in your own skin, just those are the days you have to take care of yourself the most. I mean, add an extra dessert to that day, honestly, or just like do things that make me feel good and go for walks and everything, but they happen to everybody. Even like the fittest women in the world have bad body days, so it’s just when you put in perspective like that, like you’re not the only one, it’s more easier to handle for sure.

Ryann

And I think that when you can meet yourself where you’re at with that and recognize, all right, it’s a bad body image day. This is just the reality, but not let that ruin your entire day. Like that’s a difference. Like that’s the difference between where I know I was before and where I’m at now, where it’s like, okay, like I know that there are days where this is going to happen because I’m human and we live in a society that is so focused on thinness. and it’s really hard not to want to go there, especially when you’re having an emotional day or you’re on your period or you know, like, somebody eats the leftovers in the fridge, like, you know what I mean? But when you can just meet yourself where you’re at with that, oh my gosh, such, such a big difference. So, are you still doing CrossFit stuff?

Lyndie

Honestly, since the beginning of this year, since I moved here to Florida from Alaska, I haven’t, my own workouts here and there with CrossFit, but as of the beginning of this year into now, I’ve just been doing just lifting and I guess it’s a weird bodybuilding, I guess, but I’m not necessarily bodybuilding, but like solely lifting and then like, not really doing cardio, but having like, a lot of walking in my day. So that’s kind of what I’m doing.

Ryann

I love the mix of it and I know that like, for me, like having that difference of routine and then also, I mean, where you live, you have that beautiful path, like right by the beach that you can like, walk on and run on. I was just there, it was so nice.

Lyndie

Oh, you were here? Like, what?

Ryann

Like, three months ago and it was beautiful. It was right before I knew that you lived there, otherwise, girl, we would have met up for coffee.

Lyndie

Okay, you just got to come back then.

Ryann

I know, I know. I do. I do. So, if you were going to talk to a younger version of you, the version of you freshman year of college that was going through this, that was shoving cheesecake in her backpack or hiding peanut butter under her bed, like what do you wish that she knew?

Lyndie

Honestly, I would probably go back to even like my high school self and talk to her instead because she’s the one that screwed us over. I would tell just to not, the biggest thing was comparison then, like I was comparing myself to my classmates and everything. So I would just be like, you are your own unique self. Stop comparing yourself to these people because, and don’t be afraid to eat food because I was literally afraid of food. I thought if I ate the smallest thing that I would have this little tummy pudge and we can’t have that, can we? So I was just, just don’t, it doesn’t matter.

People, it’s so hard to explain because there’s so many things I would tell my younger self, but just to not be afraid to live your life, eat your food, and work out for your health and not for aesthetics. Because I was in that mindset for so long that it was all about like losing weight and just getting smaller, wearing a smaller size clothes. Yeah, that’s a hard one to answer, honestly. Yeah.

Ryann

If somebody is currently struggling with binge eating and they’re feeling in that place of hopelessness, they’re so alone, they can’t tell anybody, they think that they’re broken, what is something that you wish that they knew or something that you would recommend them to do to pull themselves out of this cycle?

Lyndie

Well, first of all, just telling them that they’re not alone and probably sharing my story with them because when it’s happening to you, you do feel alone. You feel like it’s only happening to you when, honestly, it’s like one of the highest percentage of eating disorders in the country has been eating. So it’s very common. It’s hard to break the cycle, but I would tell them to honestly just like where your mindset kind of slowly tends to shift towards thinking like that food isn’t the problem, but just like the way we think of food is the problem because if we think that food is bad then we’re going to restrict ourselves but then feel addicted to it because we’ve been deprived of it for so long when food is a necessity. I mean, you can’t go without it. And so I would tell them just to…

Ryann

What were some of the things like you started with? Like when you started reverse dieting and adding in more food, like obviously that was something that you did slowly. So like if somebody is struggling with the concept of like adding in a little bit more food or breaking some of their fear foods, like what did you do to kind of help yourself do that and be okay?

Lyndie

Well, the foods that I was so fearful of, I had to kind of take away that word, that trigger food word, because that’s how you kind of heal your relationship with food, is when you actually allow them into your life. And so for me, it was like peanut butter, or gosh, chips, anything that was just like the biggest binge for me, those are my trigger foods. And so incorporating them into like a normal day of eating was huge because I was like slowly being okay eating them and enjoying just one, a spoonful of peanut butter on a banana rather than the whole dang jar and everything else in the pantry.

And so once I realized the novelty of that food kind of diminished because I was like, this but not freak out over having it and so yeah I think yeah having just healing the relationship with the trigger foods was huge by incorporating them into my day so.

Ryann

That was one of the most helpful things for me was taking away the food from being on the pedestal where it was like cookies and crackers and chips and anything snacky like was only binge foods and the more that I incorporated them and just like you said like the novelty eventually wears off when you’re like I am eating chips all the time or like I know that I can have these whenever I want them. aren’t so incredible anymore. Like where it’s like, yes, these are delicious, but this is no longer like the best part of my day. And like having this is no longer the best part of my day.

And as I just like you, like incorporated those sugar foods, why I think it’s so important that we do is because as long as we tell ourselves that those are off limits, like we always want what we can’t have and like we have to bring those back in as we feel comfortable as you said that you did you know and give ourselves the confidence of like okay I can have a box of Oreos in my house and be okay and then okay maybe I’ll bring in some chips too and not saying that you need to have these every single day but you have the option you can have the sandwich and go for the chips or go for the salad, but either way, it’s not a big deal because you’re just honoring like what you want.

Oh, so good. So good. Yeah. So if you’re struggling right now, I would say definitely, definitely getting into that place of just bringing in a little bit more food and challenging these fear foods and and knowing that you have Lyndie and me to reach out to for support if you ever, ever need anybody to talk to because you’re not alone, you’re not alone. And we are both living proof that you can get over it. And Lindy is living proof that you can get over it by yourself, which is amazing, amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all of that.

Now, I have a list of speed round questions for you. For everybody to get to know you in another way that you kind of show but don’t show, just random questions. Are you ready?

Lyndie

Sure. Okay. Yes, I’m ready.

Ryann

What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

Lyndie

Friends, watching friends.

Ryann

Love that. For sure. Mine is always The Bachelor. So I feel you. What is a food combination that you love but other people would think is weird?

Lyndie

Okay, yeah. There’s quite a few. But I really like roasted broccoli with nutritional yeast on top of it it’s so weird but I mean because I can’t I’m lactose intolerant can’t have cheese so nutritional yeast tastes like cheese to me so yeah there is.

Ryann

And if anybody is looking for a cheese alternative there you go.

Lyndie

Oh yeah there you go I guess.

Ryann

What did you have for dinner last night?

Lyndie

Oh, I had Ashlyn, my husband, he grilled steak on the barbecue and we had roasted skewers of peppers and onions with sweet potatoes.

Ryann

What, I know you touched on this earlier, but what is currently your favorite way to move your body?

Lyndie

To move my body? Oh, definitely lifting. I feel so much power with lifting heavy, I want to say shit, but with lifting a lot of weight.

Ryann

What is your nut butter of choice?

Lyndie

Definitely peanut butter.

Ryann

And crunchy or smooth?

Lyndie

Smooth.

Ryann

And what’s your favorite way to eat it? Like what do you like to put it on?

Lyndie

Oh, pancakes for sure.

Ryann

Ooh, I haven’t gotten that answer yet. That is so good. What do you feel like or remember being the hardest food fear you had to break?

Lyndie

Hardest food fear? Honestly, it was the peanut butter because I was eating jar fulls like in one sitting. So having the fear of just like being okay with just a good Spoonful I’d say was the biggest thing because it’s just so addicting to me.

Ryann

How do you take your coffee?

Lyndie

Anybody who wants my Instagram like knows I Love so I have this I’m a chocolate like fanatic and I have this chocolate collagen That I put into my coffee every morning It just makes it taste amazing and it has like a lot of protein in it so it helps me get that in like a good start to my day so oh and then with like a little bit of oat milk because I’m you know the whole lactose thing it’s really good.

Ryann

Do you do it hot or iced?

Lyndie

Hot. I know a lot of people do the iced thing. You can’t do the iced thing.

Ryann

I’m the same. I’m like hot coffee 99% of the time unless it’s like I’m really hot like really really hot then I’ll go for a nice But for the most yeah, I’m always hot. How do you define food freedom?

Lyndie

Okay. Um, just oh, that’s a big one. I would say like Just allowing yourself all food groups and honoring your body, honoring your hunger cues, and not restricting. So many things can go into food freedom, like being okay with having dessert like at the end of your day, or just like having a donut for breakfast one morning, having an omelet for breakfast the next morning. Food freedom for me is just like balance and also just like permission to have all the things that you love.

Ryann

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Where can everybody find you?

Lyndie

I am only really on Instagram. So my Instagram, we talked about in the beginning, is healthy native. I was again, like I was saying, it was my Instagram from when I first was in college, starting the whole keto thing. I can’t believe I did that. But yeah, it’s healthy native and I’m on there and yeah.

Ryann

And I will have that link below so you can all go connect with Lyndie and add her to your social media feed because if you’re looking for a real positive ray of sunshine, you need her on your page. You need her on your page. Thank you so much for chatting with us today. I so appreciate, again, you taking the time to share all of that, be vulnerable, and just open up about that. Because as we were saying in the beginning, it is one of those things where, just like you said, binge eating is the highest eating disorder. And it’s one of those that I would say is the least talked about because of the shame and the guilt around it. So I really appreciate you sharing your story, but also all the hope that you offer for those that are struggling right now. So thank you so much for sharing.

Lyndie

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

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Ryann Nicole

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Ryann is a licensed therapist and virtual wellness coach who has assisted individuals worldwide in establishing a healthier relationship with food and their bodies.

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Ryann is a licensed therapist and virtual wellness coach who has assisted individuals worldwide in establishing a healthier relationship with food and their bodies.