March 13, 2025 • 39 mins
In this episode of the podcast, we welcome Sabrina Magnan, an intuitive eating and food freedom coach, to discuss the complexities of our relationship with food and body image. Sabrina shares her personal journey from a life consumed by disordered eating and extreme dieting to one of balance and self-love. She explains the distinctions between disordered eating and eating disorders, and highlights the impact of diet culture on our perceptions of food and health. The conversation also delves into the importance of intention behind food choices and exercise. Sabrina shares insights on how reconnecting with one's body and aligning actions with personal values can lead to a more joyful and fulfilling life. We emphasize the broader impact of these changes, noting how they positively affect other areas of life, including relationships and career choices. They provide actionable advice for listeners struggling with similar issues, making it a valuable discussion for anyone looking to improve their relationship with food and exercise.
Sabrina Magnan is an intuitive eating coach who helps women overcome food obsession, binge & emotional eating and yo-yo dieting so that they can eat without guilt, anxiety or constant fear of losing control.
If you want to connect with her, you can find her at the links below!
info@sabrinamagnan.com
https://www.instagram.com/sabrina.magnan.health/
00:39 Sabrina's Background and Mission
01:59 Understanding Disordered Eating
04:25 Diet Culture and Its Impact
06:16 Finding Balance in Nutrition and Exercise
08:53 Sabrina's Personal Journey
20:20 The Turning Point: Italy Experience
22:43 Healing and New Perspectives
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:00):
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast.
(00:02):
If you've ever felt like foodtakes up way too much space in
your mind, like you'reconstantly thinking about what
you should or shouldn't eat,whether you've earned your next
meal, or if you're doing enoughexercise to justify it, you're
not alone.
Today I'm joined by SabrinaManya, an intuitive eating coach
who helps women break free fromfood obsession, binge and
emotional eating, and theendless cycle of yo yo dieting.
(00:24):
She teaches women how to stopfearing food, release guilt, and
finally feel in control.
Well, not by restricting more,but by trusting their body
again, in this episode, we havea great conversation and dive
deep into how diet cultureconditions us to believe that
extreme discipline equalshealth.
Why so many runners strugglewith disordered eating and
(00:45):
overtraining and how to shiftyour mindset so that you can
fuel, train, and live in a waythat feels Good without fear,
guilt, or burnout.
So if you're tired of feelingtrapped by food and exercise
rules, and you're ready to breakfree and find more joy in
running, eating, and moving yourbody.
This episode is for you.
I'm so excited to introduce youto Sabrina.
(01:07):
So let's get started.
(01:31):
Welcome to the podcast,everyone.
I'm so excited to welcomeSabrina Magnan to the podcast.
I'm sorry if I pronounced thatwrong.
I tried my best.
You killed it.
I'm so glad that you're here.
Sabrina (01:44):
Thank you for having me.
I'm super excited to chat withyou.
Angie (01:47):
All right.
Me too.
Sabrina, tell us a little bit.
about who you are, what do youdo, who do you help for
everybody that doesn't know you?
Sabrina (01:54):
Yeah, so I'm Sabrina and I'm an intuitive eating and
food freedom coach and I helpwomen heal their relationship
with food and their bodies sothat they can finally leave food
obsession, binge and emotionaleating, yo-yo dieting behind and
focus their time, energy, andmental space on actually
(02:15):
focusing on things that matterto them and creating a life that
they love.
Angie (02:20):
That is so beautiful.
Isn't it wild?
Like, when you say that it justmade me think how wild it is
about how much time and effortwe put into thinking about food
and how much food takes over ourlives in so many ways.
Sabrina (02:35):
Yeah, I always try to explain it to people who have
never struggled with therelationship with food.
Do they exist?
It does.
Not a large number, but it does.
And I remember, like, when I wasreally struggling with
disordered eating It really doesconsume the majority of your
(02:55):
day, and to explain to someonethat everything used to revolve
around food, you can't evenconceptualize how big of an
issue it really can become.
Angie (03:07):
Yeah.
I would love to start off withthat term that you just used,
disordered eating, because Ithink that there's some
misconceptions or maybe justlack of understanding around
disordered eating versus aneating disorder.
Can you tell us the difference?
Sabrina (03:21):
Yeah, so when we're talking about disordered eating,
we're talking often aboutbehaviors that have been
normalized in the diet culturethat we live in.
If you think about not eatingwhen you're hungry because you
think that hunger is somethingthat you should push off or that
it's this weakness.
(03:41):
We're talking about bingeeating, but not to the extreme
of binge eating disorder.
So if you think about.
it as a continuum.
You've got eating disorders onone end, which is what people
know.
Anorexia, binge eating disorder,there's orthorexia, right?
So those are, they have certaincharacteristics and factors that
(04:01):
you need to hit.
I'm pretty sure that bingeeating disorder, you need to be
binge eating like three to fivetimes a week for a period of
time for it to be qualified asan eating disorder.
But then on the continuum,you've got people who maybe
binge eat.
two or three times a week, orwho emotionally eat, who use
(04:22):
food for comfort, people whorestrict, who go into extreme
dieting.
Those are all going to be on theeating disorder spectrum, but
not necessarily qualified as aneating disorder.
And I know for me, I used tothink that my disordered eating
was I thought it was good that Iwas obsessing over the food
(04:47):
labels and that everything wasabout how many calories are in
the food.
And eventually, after healing myrelationship with food, I looked
back and I realized that I didhave a full blown eating
disorder.
I lost my period, I was losingmy hair, I was underweight, but
(05:08):
at the time I didn't realize itbecause it was encouraged and I
got compliments for it.
Angie (05:15):
Oh my gosh, that's so true.
So why do you think thathappens?
Like I think that there's likesuch a bigger conversation that
we can have here, right?
Of like, why is this kind ofbehavior encouraged and
celebrated?
And why are we made to thinkthat this kind of thing is okay?
Sabrina (05:34):
Yeah, a big part of it is diet culture.
Like, when I was deep in thatkind of mentality, my entire
social media, was filled withpeople who were confirming that
this is the right thing youshould be doing.
It's all about discipline, andwillpower, and work hard, and
(05:55):
say no to temptations.
Or they would be encouragingcheating.
You've got your cheat meals onthe weekend.
And I, being a Type A,perfectionist, high achieving
girl, was like if I can do wellin school and I can do well in
my sports, then I'm going to doas well as I can in my eating.
(06:17):
I'm going to be as perfect aspossible, and I'm not going to
eat sweets, and I'm not going tocheat, and I would even look
down on people who had this, atthe time, I didn't realize, just
a normal, healthy relationshipwith food.
And I'd be like, oh, you'regonna eat that?
(06:37):
You're gonna have that whitebread?
You're not gonna have wholewheat bread?
And you develop this superioritycomplex because you're You have
an unhealthy relationship withfood, but you are conditioned to
believe that's better.
You shouldn't be eatingprocessed food.
You shouldn't be eating sugarthat makes you weak or that
(07:00):
makes you undisciplined.
Angie (07:02):
Ooh, you just went into so much goodness right there.
It's wild.
Wow.
It's so true.
And I love so many of the thingsthat you just pointed out there.
The, that type A perfectionistis perfectionistic personality.
That is, a lot of the types ofpeople that are drawn to running
in our audience, right?
Same kind of idea of okay, I'mgonna do this thing and I'm
(07:23):
gonna do it right.
And then we do Are we areexposed to so much now in social
media with the right way to dothings and the wrong way to do
things and there are a milliondifferent things that we are
being thrown, things that arebeing thrown at us every single
day of even I, coach my runnerson the best way to fuel their
bodies and all these things, buthow can we find some sort of
(07:45):
balance with that, right?
Because there are certain thingsthat are important, I talk about
the importance of protein withmy athletes to make sure that
they're getting enough to buildmuscle and to build bone and the
importance of carbohydrates.
How can we have a healthyrelationship with food without
going more into that obsession?
Sabrina (08:03):
Ah, I love that question.
And I get that question a lotand the one word that comes up
for me is intention.
What is the intention drivingyour choices?
I now live a very healthylifestyle.
I love moving my body because itmakes me feel good.
I love eating nourishing foods.
(08:25):
I prioritize protein.
I do all of these things thatsomeone might deem as quote
unquote healthy, but theintention behind it is a place
of self love.
a place of self care.
I do it because I want to.
I do it because I know it makesme feel good.
And a lot of people, and we weretalking about this before we
(08:47):
started recording, get sodisconnected from themselves
that everything they do is froma place of should.
And it's driven by an intentionof restriction or punishment.
The emotions driving thedecisions are guilt, fear,
shame.
And so I was talking to one ofmy clients last week and she was
(09:10):
saying that there was one nightwhere her impulse was to have a
cookie.
And then she paused and askedherself, what am I really
craving?
And turns out that she wanted anapple with peanut butter.
So we were chatting and she waslike, I know that you don't
recommend that when we have acraving for something, we
replace it with somethinghealthier.
And then I stopped her and I waslike.
(09:31):
No, that's not what I said.
Because you wanted to do that.
You actually enjoyed the appleand peanut butter, and when you
were done, you were supersatisfied with that choice.
You didn't come at it from aplace of shoulds.
You came at it from a place ofdesire.
So that's the biggest thing, isasking yourself, What is the
(09:54):
intention driving the choicesthat I make around my health?
Angie (10:00):
I love that so much.
So you weren't always this waythough, right?
Like you're at this wonderfulplace now where you can be more
intentional with your choicesand I couldn't agree more that
intention is behind so much ofwhat We need to be doing to help
take care of ourselves and Italk about that a lot with my
students as well But tell us alittle bit about your story
(10:22):
because you have a runningbackground as well here and I
think that a lot of ourlisteners could connect with
your story and You can help themhave some hope if they are
struggling with these kinds ofthings as well.
Sabrina (10:34):
For sure.
My story begins when I was asynchronized swimmer.
Ooh,
Angie (10:40):
that's fun.
Sabrina (10:40):
Yeah, so a lot of people find that so interesting.
It's, for me, it's common.
Angie (10:45):
It's it's different in the world, right?
My daughter does Irish stepdancing, and I get that reaction
a lot too, right?
Because there's a lot of kidsthat do ballet and jazz and,
different kinds of dance, butIrish step dancing is more
unique, right?
And I feel like synchronizedswimming is one of those things
as well.
It's unique, for sure.
Sabrina (11:02):
And you'll find a lot of Taipei perfectionists in
synchro because it's a sport.
And you have to be.
Exactly.
It's literally based inperfection.
I did it from the age of 8 to 16at a high level.
And already in that environment,you get conditioned to compare
yourself to others.
(11:23):
Everyone is in a bathing suit.
You're judged on how you look,how long and skinny your legs
are.
And It got conditioned in me ata very young age that my worth
and my success was attached tohow I looked.
And so when I retired from thesport at 16, I remember comments
(11:45):
being made to me a year earlier.
People saying, when you stoptraining this much, if you keep
eating the way that you do,you're going to gain all this
weight.
And for me, that was the biggestfear that I could ever have, was
gaining weight.
When I stopped training 20 24hours a week, I thought now I
(12:07):
have to be quote unquote carefulwith what I eat, so I started
counting my calories and eatinglow cal and low carb and doing
all these different diets, and Ialso didn't know What kind of
exercise to do because I was soused to people telling me what
to do and spending so much timeat the pool that now to move my
(12:32):
body, I didn't know what thateven meant.
So I would spend like.
Two hours at the gym liftingweights hating every minute of
it I would that's when I startedrunning and I would run on the
treadmill for so long and Istarted training for half
marathons and running throughshin splints and runner's knee
(12:59):
and bursitis in my hip like Iwould just push and push and
everything was about burningcalories and eating as few
calories as possible I rememberthere was once I was training
for my half marathon and I did a13K and I hadn't eaten anything
(13:19):
before it.
And then once I came back frommy run, I was starving.
And in my current lifestyle, Iwould be like, okay, big meal.
To replenish because I justburned a lot of my fuel, but at
the time it was, okay, you gotto eat your small little omelet
(13:41):
and you got to eat as little aspossible because you just burned
a lot of calories.
So make sure you don't overeaton calories now.
So everything was like this mathequation instead of seeing my
body as this vehicle, as thismachine that needs.
Angie (14:00):
Yeah, and I feel like so many runners fall into that trap
and it's one of those storiesthat I wish was not as common as
it actually is but I fear is fartoo common than I even realize
and One of the things that yousaid in there I think was really
important to point out was thisAbility of yours, which a lot of
(14:21):
other people have to disconnectto your body to disconnect to
the signals and the signs thatyour body was throwing at you,
your body was like, Hello, yourknee hurts.
Hello.
I've got bursitis.
Hello.
Like all these things arehappening.
And you just essentially triedto ignore it and keep pushing
through.
Where do you think that camefrom?
Sabrina (14:40):
That's a great question.
I think it came from a fewdifferent places.
My dad.
He's a very impressive man interms of he is so Disciplined
and he would wake up at 5am anddo his exercise and then go to
work and support our family offive and he really was like, you
just put your head down and youdo the work and you allow
(15:03):
yourself to sacrifice somethings about yourself for this
greater good.
So that was one piece of it.
And then synchronized swimmingis such a difficult sport.
You really learn to just pushthrough.
And I was actually, it's funnythat you asked me that question
because I was thinking aboutthis week, because as I was
telling you, work has beenExtremely busy lately, and I'm
(15:28):
able in terms of work to justpush through you have your eye
on the prize and you just shortterm pain for long term gain.
So that's just what I wasconditioned to think.
And I don't do that with my bodyanymore because I know that is
not worth it.
I will just burn myself out andtruthfully, I probably shouldn't
(15:49):
do it with work either.
But I really do think that Ijust learned that.
You just push through and Iremember there was one run I was
on and my shin splints Have youever had shin splints?
Angie (16:04):
A little bit when I was a new runner.
Yeah,
Sabrina (16:07):
they are so painful And I remember just running through
the pain until at a certainpoint I couldn't even walk
anymore that I had to call mymom to come pick me up because I
just had put so much pressure onthem.
Yeah.
So I just learned shut it down,push through it.
Angie (16:30):
Yeah, and it's so interesting, too, because you
bring out the example of yourdad, which is such a beautiful
example, and I think that's partof it, right?
We look up to people that havethese qualities, like discipline
and commitment, and they show upwhen they say that they should,
and they do what they say thatthey're gonna do, and I follow
(16:50):
my training plan exactly as itis, even though my body's
telling me not to, and that isalmost revered and celebrated in
our culture, and so it makessense, and it's not that, your
dad wasn't trying to tell you tocompletely ignore your body, but
like you saw him as thisexample, and how Our brains just
see these things and interpretthem and make stories up right
(17:13):
and tell us okay this isobviously what I need to be
doing when in reality That'sProbably not necessarily the
best thing for us, at least notall the time.
Sabrina (17:22):
Absolutely, and I come from a family of overachievers.
I'm the youngest of five kids,and like everyone, very smart,
did well in school, athletic,and so It got ingrained in me
that the way to experience loveand to be seen, especially as
the youngest of five, is toaccomplish and to succeed,
(17:47):
whether that was in school or mysport or just exercise, like
really craving that love andthat support from my dad made me
develop those qualities.
Angie (18:02):
Yeah, I can.
Definitely relate.
I have a very similar story aswell and it's funny how, we
equate accomplishment with lovewhen in reality it has nothing
to do with that and Yeah, Ithink that's one of those things
that a lot of us can definitelyrelate to.
What changed for you?
What was the turning point thatallowed you to realize, okay,
(18:24):
maybe this is not the best wayfor me to approach food and my
body and exercise and this allor nothing mentality and these
extremes that we go to, which somany runners can relate to.
How did you break free from thator what made you realize that
there was even anything wrongwith it?
Sabrina (18:41):
Yeah, so I would say it was my second year of
university.
At that point, it had gottenreally bad.
I had a Fitbit, so now I wascounting how many calories I was
burning every day and trackingevery calorie into MyFitnessPal.
And I didn't realize it at thetime, but I had developed
(19:03):
orthorexia, so I had thisunhealthy obsession with being
Healthy quote unquote healthy,and it was really extreme.
I could not miss the gym in themorning Even if I worked out
when I had the flu when I hadback injuries It was you have to
be at the gym and I stoppedgoing out socially because going
(19:27):
out for food made me anxious Ididn't know how many calories
were gonna be in my food.
I was scared.
I was gonna lose control, quoteunquote, and binge and then ruin
my progress.
And I really had this beliefthat just lose a little bit more
weight and then you're going tofeel whatever I thought I was
(19:50):
going to feel loved or acceptedor part of the group.
And so it really wasconditional.
Once I lose this amount ofweight, then I will feel
differently.
And I.
I was so concentrated on that Ilost sight of the fact that all
those things that I thought Iwas gonna feel once I lost the
(20:13):
weight, I was moving furtheraway from, like I was less
connected to people, I was lessloved, like I wasn't a fun
person to be around for myfriends, like I was tired all
the time.
I was 30 pounds underweight.
Everything was about disciplineand control.
(20:35):
And eventually it was mysister's baby shower.
And this was the first time Iwas becoming an aunt.
It should have been thisbeautiful day with my family.
And I just binged the entireafternoon.
I spent the entire day by thebuffet table.
I made myself sick.
(20:56):
That entire day, I just rememberthe food.
And that night, I was like, Whatam I doing with my life?
I'm so unhappy.
I'm so miserable.
And when you're, when you havean eating disorder you really
feel like you're in this prisonwhere you know it's not helping
(21:18):
you, but you cannot let go ofthe control.
So I knew I needed to get thisshock to my system because I
knew I wasn't going to do itmyself.
So I ended up going to Italythat summer, which had been a
dream of mine to become an aupair.
So I was terrified to go becauseI knew it would mean I would
(21:43):
have to eat carbs and pizza andice cream.
Really good carbs.
Really?
Yeah.
Seriously.
And gelato.
And anyone would look at thatand be excited about it.
And I was so scared.
And even people in my life whodidn't realize the extent of my
eating disorder would tease meand be like, you're going to
gain so much weight in Italy.
(22:04):
Like you're going to have to eatcarbs and cheese, things that I
didn't eat at the time.
And I, the first day I gotthere, the Nana, whose home I
lived in, looked at me and goes,Oh my goodness, you're so
skinny.
Let's get you some food.
And my mind was like, I've madea mistake, this was such a bad
(22:25):
idea, like this is going to bethe worst summer ever.
And progressively, in Italy,they have such a healthy
relationship with food.
It's about celebration andenjoyment and slowing down and
being present.
No one talks about burningcalories or going to the gym
(22:46):
tomorrow to make up for havinggelato.
And I just it like planted thisseed little by little I ate a
little bit more I had morevariety I stopped binge eating.
I wasn't consumed with food.
I had more energy.
My workouts were better And itjust planted this seed of Oh, I
(23:07):
think the way I've been doing itwas really wrong.
And I think the way that we doit in North America in general
is very wrong.
So that summer didn't fully healme, but it planted the seed.
Cause when I came back here, Imade the decision.
I'm going to try to maintainwhat I was doing there.
(23:31):
I'm really going to beintentional, keep buying pasta
and keep eating those things.
And it was like a multi yearjourney of learning about
intuitive eating and yourrelationship with food and the
psychology of eating.
But that was really like theturning point for me.
Angie (23:50):
That's so beautiful.
One of the things that you saidreally stood out to me because
I've heard this from my clientsbecause one of the big things
That we talk about in inside ofmy program with our students is
not being afraid to eat morefood Like the importance of
fueling your body for yourtraining sessions for whatever
it is that you're asking yourbody to do You're trying to
(24:11):
build muscle.
You need to fuel yourself.
You're trying to run a marathon.
You need to fuel yourself and Mystudents have come back and told
me it's really scary for me toeat more food.
Like this whole thing is veryscary to me.
How do, how does it get to thatpoint, right?
Like how, food is not scary inand of itself, right?
But it's like these stories thatwe make up around food that
(24:35):
literally make us afraid ofeating.
Sabrina (24:38):
Yeah.
First of all, I think it's sobeautiful that you teach your
students that because it reallyis so important.
And I think in the fitnessworld, we forget, and in the
fitness world, it's evenencouraged to have disordered
eating habits.
But I, at least for me, I thinkthe biggest thing is that most
of the time, the reason we havefood issues.
(24:59):
The root causes body issues andso we associate eating more with
maybe gaining weight and thenit's the stories that we have
around that feel really And thenthere's Triggering and
dysregulating for our nervoussystem for me.
My story was that if I had thislike healthy identity, so I was
(25:23):
the healthy girl, the one whowas disciplined and at the gym
every morning, the one who saidno to pizza and sweets, the one
who never quote unquote cheated.
And I really like the story Icreated was that people admired
and loved me for that.
And so to let go of thatidentity, I fully thought people
(25:46):
won't love me anymore.
Like I won't have these peoplewho admire me.
And it was only once I reallyhad to push myself because it
was, you're driven away frompain or towards pleasure.
And for me, it was the pain ofstaying the same was much
greater than the discomfort ofunraveling this identity that I
(26:09):
had for myself.
And it was only through actionand through exposure that I
realized.
No one loved you because yousaid no to pizza.
No one was only in your lifebecause you were eating and
exercising a certain way, orbecause of your body.
(26:29):
In fact, you are now so muchmore fun to be around because
you actually love yourself.
And when you love yourself, youhave love to give to other
people.
So it was through healing myrelationship with myself that I
realized how much closer andmore vulnerable and connected I
could be to the people aroundme.
Angie (26:51):
That's so beautiful.
And it, I think it's sointeresting though, right?
Because like you said, you have,you were probably celebrated and
Reinforce, right?
Those behaviors were reinforcedbecause people would point them
out oh, that's so amazing thatyou get up every day at 5 a.
m.
and go to the gym.
I could never be that.
I could never do that.
(27:11):
You're so disciplined.
I could never do that.
Yeah.
And you're like, you're right.
There is that sense of yes, I'mdoing a really good job here.
And Sometimes I think it canmove into that like superiority
type of complex where you'relike, yep.
I'm doing it, right?
I'm doing it best here and I'mgonna keep this up.
So it makes sense, right?
But all of that is happening ona subconscious level.
(27:33):
We're not thinking to ourselvesmost of the time like yeah That
means I'm better than you oryeah this that you're gonna love
me because of this or you'regonna admire me because of this
Like we're not consciously awareof any of that.
So what are we?
Consciously aware of and how canwe start to find some of those
subconscious beliefs andpatterns that might be driving
(27:54):
us to do these things?
Sabrina (27:55):
Yeah, so I would say before I answer that question,
one of the things that has beenreally helpful for me was to get
clear on what I actually value.
Because now, the things thatbring me pride, quote unquote
pride, are are almost theopposite of what it used to be.
(28:17):
Like what it used to be wasdiscipline and willpower and
achievement.
And now I take pride in the factthat I can take rest days.
without feeling guilty.
My sense of accomplishment andpride comes from treating myself
with love and with self care.
(28:39):
And that looks like taking arest day when my body needs it,
having a soft yoga day when mybody needs it.
It means I feel really proudabout the fact that I can eat
all foods and I don't feelguilty about it.
And so like my definition ofsuccess has really changed.
(29:00):
And so to answer your question,I think one of the biggest
things that I do with my clientsis get really clear.
on what your definition ofsuccess really is.
Because oftentimes we have thissubconscious definition of
success that was donated to usby culture.
(29:21):
Like we didn't fully decidethat's what it was.
But whether it's discipline orit's looking a certain way or
having a certain body, that issubconsciously our definition of
success.
But then when you take the timeto ask yourself, What do I
actually value and what willmean something to me when I'm 70
(29:41):
or 80 years old?
What will a successful life looklike?
That thought for me reallychanged everything because I
realized I will not feel proud.
I will not feel happy if myentire life was focused on
looking a certain way, obsessingover food, hating my body.
(30:01):
I won't feel like that wassuccess, a successful life at 80
years old.
I will feel successful if I waskind and compassionate, if I
surrounded myself with peoplethat I loved, if I loved so
fully, and I showed up as myauthentic self.
That was my definition ofsuccess.
So when you can get clear onwhat your definition of success
(30:24):
is, then you've got your roadmapon what needs to change in how I
think and how I feel.
Angie (30:30):
I love that so much.
That's so beautiful.
And I think that the other thingthat I would love to add to that
too is that sometimes we arewrong in What we determine to be
the path to success or the pathto achieving those things.
For example, when I'm older,will I have want to will I be
(30:53):
proud of myself for running amarathon?
A lot of people would say yes tothat, right?
That was a huge accomplishment.
But they think that they need totrain more, restrict their food,
do those things in order toaccomplish that thing.
And that part is wrong, right?
They have a It's a faulty viewof what is required to achieve
(31:14):
the thing that will make themproud, when they are older.
And I think that can be anotherplace where we get tripped up.
Sabrina (31:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially because we live in aworld of a lot of
misinformation, of a lot ofextreme views.
Yeah.
I shared this reel on myInstagram last week that
basically had the message of ifyou don't want that person's
life, don't take that person'sadvice.
(31:43):
So if you don't want to besaying no to spontaneous ice
cream dates, if you don't wantto be constantly terrified of
eating carbs, if you don't wantto make running your entire day
a Life so much so that it takesaway from your family or your
(32:04):
social life or your ability tobe spontaneous or to just decide
today I'm not going to runbecause my body is asking for
rest, like really make sure thatyou don't just get clear on what
the end goal is, but the lifethat you're creating, because
yeah, you might achieve thething, you might get the half
(32:25):
marathon, the marathon, the halfmarathon.
And that's only going to be like0.
00001 percent of your life,whereas everything else
surrounding it, that is thestuff you really want to focus
on.
Angie (32:37):
Yeah, and if you feel like junk when you do it, how
much of an accomplishment is itreally?
That's what I like to try toremind my clients of as well is
like, how do you want to feelduring this process?
Sure.
It's great for you to have agoal of a half marathon, a
marathon, an ultra marathon,whatever it is that you want to
accomplish.
I am on board to help you getthere as long as you do it in a
(33:01):
healthy way.
Now, granted, we all havedifferent definitions of
healthy, which is what youpointed out before, which I
think is super important toacknowledge as well.
But in a way that works withyour real life, that makes you
feel more joy and morefulfillment and feel like you're
taking care of your body.
Not that you're just ignoring itand getting injured along the
(33:21):
way and feeling miserablethrough the process.
And there's a lot of people thatthink that's what running's
supposed to feel like, becausethat's how it's always felt.
They don't know that it can bedifferent.
I think for you, with yourclients, it's probably the same
with food.
There's a lot of people thatjust have this disordered
relationship with food, and theydon't know that it can be
different.
When in reality, there's thiswhole world that is available to
(33:45):
them.
They're just not sure, A, thatit even exists, right?
It's this kind of like utopiaover here.
And then B, how to even getthere.
Sabrina (33:53):
Yeah, and it's all about giving that new
perspective when you're so usedto thinking a certain way and
thinking this is the way it hasto be.
And I'm all about, I, I tell myclients, I'm like, I'm still a
foodie, and I love food.
I love enjoying food.
It doesn't mean that food is thecentral focus of my life.
(34:16):
It's like really helping peopleunderstand that there's a way
that you can get to where youwant to be, while, like you
said, While feeling good, whiledoing it from a place of
connection with your body andalignment with the kind of life
that you want to live.
Angie (34:35):
I love that so much.
And I think that's like such aperfect place for us to wrap
this up because I think that'sone of those messages that we
just need to keep shouting fromthe rooftops.
And the more of us that aredoing it, the better.
So Sabrina, thank you so muchfor coming on today.
Is there anything that I forgotto ask you that you would like
to share with our listeners?
Sabrina (34:55):
Anything that I forgot?
Honestly, no.
I think that it's so beautifulbecause I focus more on the food
and nutrition side and clearlyyou're doing the nutrition as
well but The fact that you arepromoting this healthy
relationship with exercise andrunning is just as important
because I had a reallydisordered relationship with
(35:17):
exercise that was driven by fearand anxiety and guilt.
And so, there's so much beautythat comes from being able to
find the joy in running.
I have not found the runnershigh ever since doing those half
marathons, but I know that somepeople do.
And so to be able to bring thatlove and that joy and the
(35:39):
benefits that you get fromrunning, but from a healthy
place, I think what you're doingis just really special.
Angie (35:45):
Thank you.
But I think that, so much of itis exactly aligned with what
you're saying is like startingto release some of those
expectations on, what your paceshould be like all those shoulds
that we like to throw atourselves, right?
Of Oh, I don't, I can't go belowthis pace, or I can't go below
this distance.
And we make up all of thesearbitrary rules, both with
running and with food, thingsthat we should or shouldn't do
(36:08):
of what's good and what's bad.
And when in reality, when welearn how to move our bodies, in
a way that feels good and eat tofuel our bodies in a way that
feels good, then we can start torelease some of those
expectations and shoulds that weput onto ourself, which is so
important.
Sabrina (36:25):
Have you noticed that your clients, once you teach
them this, how to break free ofthe molds and structures that
they created for themselvesaround running?
And for me, it's around food.
They start noticing it in somany other areas of their life
and how much they've beenputting themselves in a box in
like relationships and looks andall of these different aspects.
Angie (36:48):
Yes, and it's so beautiful because my population
is mostly women over 40.
Like all people, but like wetend to work with a lot of
women.
But seeing women starting tomake these shifts, even in their
50s and 60s and realizing, Oh mygosh, I can't believe all these
ways that I was thinking beforeand starting to see those
(37:09):
shifts.
Like people say, you can'tchange when you get older.
That's a big fat lie.
There's a lot of realizationsthat you can have.
And I do.
And it's amazing to see.
The ripple effect of all of it,how they end up with different
relationships with their spousesand with their family and I've
had people leave successfulcareers and turn, go into life
(37:30):
coaching or health coachingbecause they want to help other
people and they realize thatWhat the stress of their current
job or career was completelydamaging their health in so many
ways.
And so they start to, reach outand explore and just that idea
that there are otherpossibilities out there.
is such a beautiful thing.
(37:50):
And yes, I definitely have andit sounds like you have too.
That's
Sabrina (37:53):
amazing.
Yeah, it really is like theripple effect once you, you get
through the door and you come infor one thing and then you
realize there's just so manymore doors that open up for you.
Angie (38:03):
Yeah I always like to say that like health and fitness is
like the gateway drug intopersonal development.
Sabrina (38:08):
If you do it the right way.
Angie (38:10):
If you do it the right way, yeah.
You don't want it to be like thebad drug, right?
You want to go the other way.
And realize all the good thingsabout it.
So this has been such a greatconversation.
Sabrina, where can our listenersconnect with you?
Sabrina (38:23):
Yeah, they can find me on Instagram at Sabrina Mangyal
Health.
They can listen to my podcast,which you've been on, which is
called the Live UnrestrictedPodcast, and that's where we
talk all things, body image,relationship with food, healthy
habits, and all that fun stuff.
And on my website, which issabrinamagnan.
com as well.
Angie (38:43):
Can you spell that for our people?
And we'll definitely put it inthe show notes as well.
But go ahead and spell that out.
So it's Sabrina.
Sabrina is
Sabrina (38:50):
pretty commonly spelled.
And then my last name is M A G NA N.
There we go.
All right.
Angie (38:56):
And of course, we'll link all of that in the show notes
for you guys with her websiteand her Instagram and her
podcasts and all of that for youto connect with her and let her
know, reach out to her, send hera DM on Instagram, let her know
that you listened to thisepisode and what you, Loved
about it.
I loved all of it.
So thank you so much for comingon and we'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast.
(00:02):
If you've ever felt like foodtakes up way too much space in
your mind, like you'reconstantly thinking about what
you should or shouldn't eat,whether you've earned your next
meal, or if you're doing enoughexercise to justify it, you're
not alone.
Today I'm joined by SabrinaManya, an intuitive eating coach
who helps women break free fromfood obsession, binge and
emotional eating, and theendless cycle of yo yo dieting.
(00:24):
She teaches women how to stopfearing food, release guilt, and
finally feel in control.
Well, not by restricting more,but by trusting their body
again, in this episode, we havea great conversation and dive
deep into how diet cultureconditions us to believe that
extreme discipline equalshealth.
Why so many runners strugglewith disordered eating and
(00:45):
overtraining and how to shiftyour mindset so that you can
fuel, train, and live in a waythat feels Good without fear,
guilt, or burnout.
So if you're tired of feelingtrapped by food and exercise
rules, and you're ready to breakfree and find more joy in
running, eating, and moving yourbody.
This episode is for you.
I'm so excited to introduce youto Sabrina.
(01:07):
So let's get started.
(01:31):
Welcome to the podcast,everyone.
I'm so excited to welcomeSabrina Magnan to the podcast.
I'm sorry if I pronounced thatwrong.
I tried my best.
You killed it.
I'm so glad that you're here.
Sabrina (01:44):
Thank you for having me.
I'm super excited to chat withyou.
Angie (01:47):
All right.
Me too.
Sabrina, tell us a little bit.
about who you are, what do youdo, who do you help for
everybody that doesn't know you?
Sabrina (01:54):
Yeah, so I'm Sabrina and I'm an intuitive eating and
food freedom coach and I helpwomen heal their relationship
with food and their bodies sothat they can finally leave food
obsession, binge and emotionaleating, yo-yo dieting behind and
focus their time, energy, andmental space on actually
(02:15):
focusing on things that matterto them and creating a life that
they love.
Angie (02:20):
That is so beautiful.
Isn't it wild?
Like, when you say that it justmade me think how wild it is
about how much time and effortwe put into thinking about food
and how much food takes over ourlives in so many ways.
Sabrina (02:35):
Yeah, I always try to explain it to people who have
never struggled with therelationship with food.
Do they exist?
It does.
Not a large number, but it does.
And I remember, like, when I wasreally struggling with
disordered eating It really doesconsume the majority of your
(02:55):
day, and to explain to someonethat everything used to revolve
around food, you can't evenconceptualize how big of an
issue it really can become.
Angie (03:07):
Yeah.
I would love to start off withthat term that you just used,
disordered eating, because Ithink that there's some
misconceptions or maybe justlack of understanding around
disordered eating versus aneating disorder.
Can you tell us the difference?
Sabrina (03:21):
Yeah, so when we're talking about disordered eating,
we're talking often aboutbehaviors that have been
normalized in the diet culturethat we live in.
If you think about not eatingwhen you're hungry because you
think that hunger is somethingthat you should push off or that
it's this weakness.
(03:41):
We're talking about bingeeating, but not to the extreme
of binge eating disorder.
So if you think about.
it as a continuum.
You've got eating disorders onone end, which is what people
know.
Anorexia, binge eating disorder,there's orthorexia, right?
So those are, they have certaincharacteristics and factors that
(04:01):
you need to hit.
I'm pretty sure that bingeeating disorder, you need to be
binge eating like three to fivetimes a week for a period of
time for it to be qualified asan eating disorder.
But then on the continuum,you've got people who maybe
binge eat.
two or three times a week, orwho emotionally eat, who use
(04:22):
food for comfort, people whorestrict, who go into extreme
dieting.
Those are all going to be on theeating disorder spectrum, but
not necessarily qualified as aneating disorder.
And I know for me, I used tothink that my disordered eating
was I thought it was good that Iwas obsessing over the food
(04:47):
labels and that everything wasabout how many calories are in
the food.
And eventually, after healing myrelationship with food, I looked
back and I realized that I didhave a full blown eating
disorder.
I lost my period, I was losingmy hair, I was underweight, but
(05:08):
at the time I didn't realize itbecause it was encouraged and I
got compliments for it.
Angie (05:15):
Oh my gosh, that's so true.
So why do you think thathappens?
Like I think that there's likesuch a bigger conversation that
we can have here, right?
Of like, why is this kind ofbehavior encouraged and
celebrated?
And why are we made to thinkthat this kind of thing is okay?
Sabrina (05:34):
Yeah, a big part of it is diet culture.
Like, when I was deep in thatkind of mentality, my entire
social media, was filled withpeople who were confirming that
this is the right thing youshould be doing.
It's all about discipline, andwillpower, and work hard, and
(05:55):
say no to temptations.
Or they would be encouragingcheating.
You've got your cheat meals onthe weekend.
And I, being a Type A,perfectionist, high achieving
girl, was like if I can do wellin school and I can do well in
my sports, then I'm going to doas well as I can in my eating.
(06:17):
I'm going to be as perfect aspossible, and I'm not going to
eat sweets, and I'm not going tocheat, and I would even look
down on people who had this, atthe time, I didn't realize, just
a normal, healthy relationshipwith food.
And I'd be like, oh, you'regonna eat that?
(06:37):
You're gonna have that whitebread?
You're not gonna have wholewheat bread?
And you develop this superioritycomplex because you're You have
an unhealthy relationship withfood, but you are conditioned to
believe that's better.
You shouldn't be eatingprocessed food.
You shouldn't be eating sugarthat makes you weak or that
(07:00):
makes you undisciplined.
Angie (07:02):
Ooh, you just went into so much goodness right there.
It's wild.
Wow.
It's so true.
And I love so many of the thingsthat you just pointed out there.
The, that type A perfectionistis perfectionistic personality.
That is, a lot of the types ofpeople that are drawn to running
in our audience, right?
Same kind of idea of okay, I'mgonna do this thing and I'm
(07:23):
gonna do it right.
And then we do Are we areexposed to so much now in social
media with the right way to dothings and the wrong way to do
things and there are a milliondifferent things that we are
being thrown, things that arebeing thrown at us every single
day of even I, coach my runnerson the best way to fuel their
bodies and all these things, buthow can we find some sort of
(07:45):
balance with that, right?
Because there are certain thingsthat are important, I talk about
the importance of protein withmy athletes to make sure that
they're getting enough to buildmuscle and to build bone and the
importance of carbohydrates.
How can we have a healthyrelationship with food without
going more into that obsession?
Sabrina (08:03):
Ah, I love that question.
And I get that question a lotand the one word that comes up
for me is intention.
What is the intention drivingyour choices?
I now live a very healthylifestyle.
I love moving my body because itmakes me feel good.
I love eating nourishing foods.
(08:25):
I prioritize protein.
I do all of these things thatsomeone might deem as quote
unquote healthy, but theintention behind it is a place
of self love.
a place of self care.
I do it because I want to.
I do it because I know it makesme feel good.
And a lot of people, and we weretalking about this before we
(08:47):
started recording, get sodisconnected from themselves
that everything they do is froma place of should.
And it's driven by an intentionof restriction or punishment.
The emotions driving thedecisions are guilt, fear,
shame.
And so I was talking to one ofmy clients last week and she was
(09:10):
saying that there was one nightwhere her impulse was to have a
cookie.
And then she paused and askedherself, what am I really
craving?
And turns out that she wanted anapple with peanut butter.
So we were chatting and she waslike, I know that you don't
recommend that when we have acraving for something, we
replace it with somethinghealthier.
And then I stopped her and I waslike.
(09:31):
No, that's not what I said.
Because you wanted to do that.
You actually enjoyed the appleand peanut butter, and when you
were done, you were supersatisfied with that choice.
You didn't come at it from aplace of shoulds.
You came at it from a place ofdesire.
So that's the biggest thing, isasking yourself, What is the
(09:54):
intention driving the choicesthat I make around my health?
Angie (10:00):
I love that so much.
So you weren't always this waythough, right?
Like you're at this wonderfulplace now where you can be more
intentional with your choicesand I couldn't agree more that
intention is behind so much ofwhat We need to be doing to help
take care of ourselves and Italk about that a lot with my
students as well But tell us alittle bit about your story
(10:22):
because you have a runningbackground as well here and I
think that a lot of ourlisteners could connect with
your story and You can help themhave some hope if they are
struggling with these kinds ofthings as well.
Sabrina (10:34):
For sure.
My story begins when I was asynchronized swimmer.
Ooh,
Angie (10:40):
that's fun.
Sabrina (10:40):
Yeah, so a lot of people find that so interesting.
It's, for me, it's common.
Angie (10:45):
It's it's different in the world, right?
My daughter does Irish stepdancing, and I get that reaction
a lot too, right?
Because there's a lot of kidsthat do ballet and jazz and,
different kinds of dance, butIrish step dancing is more
unique, right?
And I feel like synchronizedswimming is one of those things
as well.
It's unique, for sure.
Sabrina (11:02):
And you'll find a lot of Taipei perfectionists in
synchro because it's a sport.
And you have to be.
Exactly.
It's literally based inperfection.
I did it from the age of 8 to 16at a high level.
And already in that environment,you get conditioned to compare
yourself to others.
(11:23):
Everyone is in a bathing suit.
You're judged on how you look,how long and skinny your legs
are.
And It got conditioned in me ata very young age that my worth
and my success was attached tohow I looked.
And so when I retired from thesport at 16, I remember comments
(11:45):
being made to me a year earlier.
People saying, when you stoptraining this much, if you keep
eating the way that you do,you're going to gain all this
weight.
And for me, that was the biggestfear that I could ever have, was
gaining weight.
When I stopped training 20 24hours a week, I thought now I
(12:07):
have to be quote unquote carefulwith what I eat, so I started
counting my calories and eatinglow cal and low carb and doing
all these different diets, and Ialso didn't know What kind of
exercise to do because I was soused to people telling me what
to do and spending so much timeat the pool that now to move my
(12:32):
body, I didn't know what thateven meant.
So I would spend like.
Two hours at the gym liftingweights hating every minute of
it I would that's when I startedrunning and I would run on the
treadmill for so long and Istarted training for half
marathons and running throughshin splints and runner's knee
(12:59):
and bursitis in my hip like Iwould just push and push and
everything was about burningcalories and eating as few
calories as possible I rememberthere was once I was training
for my half marathon and I did a13K and I hadn't eaten anything
(13:19):
before it.
And then once I came back frommy run, I was starving.
And in my current lifestyle, Iwould be like, okay, big meal.
To replenish because I justburned a lot of my fuel, but at
the time it was, okay, you gotto eat your small little omelet
(13:41):
and you got to eat as little aspossible because you just burned
a lot of calories.
So make sure you don't overeaton calories now.
So everything was like this mathequation instead of seeing my
body as this vehicle, as thismachine that needs.
Angie (14:00):
Yeah, and I feel like so many runners fall into that trap
and it's one of those storiesthat I wish was not as common as
it actually is but I fear is fartoo common than I even realize
and One of the things that yousaid in there I think was really
important to point out was thisAbility of yours, which a lot of
(14:21):
other people have to disconnectto your body to disconnect to
the signals and the signs thatyour body was throwing at you,
your body was like, Hello, yourknee hurts.
Hello.
I've got bursitis.
Hello.
Like all these things arehappening.
And you just essentially triedto ignore it and keep pushing
through.
Where do you think that camefrom?
Sabrina (14:40):
That's a great question.
I think it came from a fewdifferent places.
My dad.
He's a very impressive man interms of he is so Disciplined
and he would wake up at 5am anddo his exercise and then go to
work and support our family offive and he really was like, you
just put your head down and youdo the work and you allow
(15:03):
yourself to sacrifice somethings about yourself for this
greater good.
So that was one piece of it.
And then synchronized swimmingis such a difficult sport.
You really learn to just pushthrough.
And I was actually, it's funnythat you asked me that question
because I was thinking aboutthis week, because as I was
telling you, work has beenExtremely busy lately, and I'm
(15:28):
able in terms of work to justpush through you have your eye
on the prize and you just shortterm pain for long term gain.
So that's just what I wasconditioned to think.
And I don't do that with my bodyanymore because I know that is
not worth it.
I will just burn myself out andtruthfully, I probably shouldn't
(15:49):
do it with work either.
But I really do think that Ijust learned that.
You just push through and Iremember there was one run I was
on and my shin splints Have youever had shin splints?
Angie (16:04):
A little bit when I was a new runner.
Yeah,
Sabrina (16:07):
they are so painful And I remember just running through
the pain until at a certainpoint I couldn't even walk
anymore that I had to call mymom to come pick me up because I
just had put so much pressure onthem.
Yeah.
So I just learned shut it down,push through it.
Angie (16:30):
Yeah, and it's so interesting, too, because you
bring out the example of yourdad, which is such a beautiful
example, and I think that's partof it, right?
We look up to people that havethese qualities, like discipline
and commitment, and they show upwhen they say that they should,
and they do what they say thatthey're gonna do, and I follow
(16:50):
my training plan exactly as itis, even though my body's
telling me not to, and that isalmost revered and celebrated in
our culture, and so it makessense, and it's not that, your
dad wasn't trying to tell you tocompletely ignore your body, but
like you saw him as thisexample, and how Our brains just
see these things and interpretthem and make stories up right
(17:13):
and tell us okay this isobviously what I need to be
doing when in reality That'sProbably not necessarily the
best thing for us, at least notall the time.
Sabrina (17:22):
Absolutely, and I come from a family of overachievers.
I'm the youngest of five kids,and like everyone, very smart,
did well in school, athletic,and so It got ingrained in me
that the way to experience loveand to be seen, especially as
the youngest of five, is toaccomplish and to succeed,
(17:47):
whether that was in school or mysport or just exercise, like
really craving that love andthat support from my dad made me
develop those qualities.
Angie (18:02):
Yeah, I can.
Definitely relate.
I have a very similar story aswell and it's funny how, we
equate accomplishment with lovewhen in reality it has nothing
to do with that and Yeah, Ithink that's one of those things
that a lot of us can definitelyrelate to.
What changed for you?
What was the turning point thatallowed you to realize, okay,
(18:24):
maybe this is not the best wayfor me to approach food and my
body and exercise and this allor nothing mentality and these
extremes that we go to, which somany runners can relate to.
How did you break free from thator what made you realize that
there was even anything wrongwith it?
Sabrina (18:41):
Yeah, so I would say it was my second year of
university.
At that point, it had gottenreally bad.
I had a Fitbit, so now I wascounting how many calories I was
burning every day and trackingevery calorie into MyFitnessPal.
And I didn't realize it at thetime, but I had developed
(19:03):
orthorexia, so I had thisunhealthy obsession with being
Healthy quote unquote healthy,and it was really extreme.
I could not miss the gym in themorning Even if I worked out
when I had the flu when I hadback injuries It was you have to
be at the gym and I stoppedgoing out socially because going
(19:27):
out for food made me anxious Ididn't know how many calories
were gonna be in my food.
I was scared.
I was gonna lose control, quoteunquote, and binge and then ruin
my progress.
And I really had this beliefthat just lose a little bit more
weight and then you're going tofeel whatever I thought I was
(19:50):
going to feel loved or acceptedor part of the group.
And so it really wasconditional.
Once I lose this amount ofweight, then I will feel
differently.
And I.
I was so concentrated on that Ilost sight of the fact that all
those things that I thought Iwas gonna feel once I lost the
(20:13):
weight, I was moving furtheraway from, like I was less
connected to people, I was lessloved, like I wasn't a fun
person to be around for myfriends, like I was tired all
the time.
I was 30 pounds underweight.
Everything was about disciplineand control.
(20:35):
And eventually it was mysister's baby shower.
And this was the first time Iwas becoming an aunt.
It should have been thisbeautiful day with my family.
And I just binged the entireafternoon.
I spent the entire day by thebuffet table.
I made myself sick.
(20:56):
That entire day, I just rememberthe food.
And that night, I was like, Whatam I doing with my life?
I'm so unhappy.
I'm so miserable.
And when you're, when you havean eating disorder you really
feel like you're in this prisonwhere you know it's not helping
(21:18):
you, but you cannot let go ofthe control.
So I knew I needed to get thisshock to my system because I
knew I wasn't going to do itmyself.
So I ended up going to Italythat summer, which had been a
dream of mine to become an aupair.
So I was terrified to go becauseI knew it would mean I would
(21:43):
have to eat carbs and pizza andice cream.
Really good carbs.
Really?
Yeah.
Seriously.
And gelato.
And anyone would look at thatand be excited about it.
And I was so scared.
And even people in my life whodidn't realize the extent of my
eating disorder would tease meand be like, you're going to
gain so much weight in Italy.
(22:04):
Like you're going to have to eatcarbs and cheese, things that I
didn't eat at the time.
And I, the first day I gotthere, the Nana, whose home I
lived in, looked at me and goes,Oh my goodness, you're so
skinny.
Let's get you some food.
And my mind was like, I've madea mistake, this was such a bad
(22:25):
idea, like this is going to bethe worst summer ever.
And progressively, in Italy,they have such a healthy
relationship with food.
It's about celebration andenjoyment and slowing down and
being present.
No one talks about burningcalories or going to the gym
(22:46):
tomorrow to make up for havinggelato.
And I just it like planted thisseed little by little I ate a
little bit more I had morevariety I stopped binge eating.
I wasn't consumed with food.
I had more energy.
My workouts were better And itjust planted this seed of Oh, I
(23:07):
think the way I've been doing itwas really wrong.
And I think the way that we doit in North America in general
is very wrong.
So that summer didn't fully healme, but it planted the seed.
Cause when I came back here, Imade the decision.
I'm going to try to maintainwhat I was doing there.
(23:31):
I'm really going to beintentional, keep buying pasta
and keep eating those things.
And it was like a multi yearjourney of learning about
intuitive eating and yourrelationship with food and the
psychology of eating.
But that was really like theturning point for me.
Angie (23:50):
That's so beautiful.
One of the things that you saidreally stood out to me because
I've heard this from my clientsbecause one of the big things
That we talk about in inside ofmy program with our students is
not being afraid to eat morefood Like the importance of
fueling your body for yourtraining sessions for whatever
it is that you're asking yourbody to do You're trying to
(24:11):
build muscle.
You need to fuel yourself.
You're trying to run a marathon.
You need to fuel yourself and Mystudents have come back and told
me it's really scary for me toeat more food.
Like this whole thing is veryscary to me.
How do, how does it get to thatpoint, right?
Like how, food is not scary inand of itself, right?
But it's like these stories thatwe make up around food that
(24:35):
literally make us afraid ofeating.
Sabrina (24:38):
Yeah.
First of all, I think it's sobeautiful that you teach your
students that because it reallyis so important.
And I think in the fitnessworld, we forget, and in the
fitness world, it's evenencouraged to have disordered
eating habits.
But I, at least for me, I thinkthe biggest thing is that most
of the time, the reason we havefood issues.
(24:59):
The root causes body issues andso we associate eating more with
maybe gaining weight and thenit's the stories that we have
around that feel really And thenthere's Triggering and
dysregulating for our nervoussystem for me.
My story was that if I had thislike healthy identity, so I was
(25:23):
the healthy girl, the one whowas disciplined and at the gym
every morning, the one who saidno to pizza and sweets, the one
who never quote unquote cheated.
And I really like the story Icreated was that people admired
and loved me for that.
And so to let go of thatidentity, I fully thought people
(25:46):
won't love me anymore.
Like I won't have these peoplewho admire me.
And it was only once I reallyhad to push myself because it
was, you're driven away frompain or towards pleasure.
And for me, it was the pain ofstaying the same was much
greater than the discomfort ofunraveling this identity that I
(26:09):
had for myself.
And it was only through actionand through exposure that I
realized.
No one loved you because yousaid no to pizza.
No one was only in your lifebecause you were eating and
exercising a certain way, orbecause of your body.
(26:29):
In fact, you are now so muchmore fun to be around because
you actually love yourself.
And when you love yourself, youhave love to give to other
people.
So it was through healing myrelationship with myself that I
realized how much closer andmore vulnerable and connected I
could be to the people aroundme.
Angie (26:51):
That's so beautiful.
And it, I think it's sointeresting though, right?
Because like you said, you have,you were probably celebrated and
Reinforce, right?
Those behaviors were reinforcedbecause people would point them
out oh, that's so amazing thatyou get up every day at 5 a.
m.
and go to the gym.
I could never be that.
I could never do that.
(27:11):
You're so disciplined.
I could never do that.
Yeah.
And you're like, you're right.
There is that sense of yes, I'mdoing a really good job here.
And Sometimes I think it canmove into that like superiority
type of complex where you'relike, yep.
I'm doing it, right?
I'm doing it best here and I'mgonna keep this up.
So it makes sense, right?
But all of that is happening ona subconscious level.
(27:33):
We're not thinking to ourselvesmost of the time like yeah That
means I'm better than you oryeah this that you're gonna love
me because of this or you'regonna admire me because of this
Like we're not consciously awareof any of that.
So what are we?
Consciously aware of and how canwe start to find some of those
subconscious beliefs andpatterns that might be driving
(27:54):
us to do these things?
Sabrina (27:55):
Yeah, so I would say before I answer that question,
one of the things that has beenreally helpful for me was to get
clear on what I actually value.
Because now, the things thatbring me pride, quote unquote
pride, are are almost theopposite of what it used to be.
(28:17):
Like what it used to be wasdiscipline and willpower and
achievement.
And now I take pride in the factthat I can take rest days.
without feeling guilty.
My sense of accomplishment andpride comes from treating myself
with love and with self care.
(28:39):
And that looks like taking arest day when my body needs it,
having a soft yoga day when mybody needs it.
It means I feel really proudabout the fact that I can eat
all foods and I don't feelguilty about it.
And so like my definition ofsuccess has really changed.
(29:00):
And so to answer your question,I think one of the biggest
things that I do with my clientsis get really clear.
on what your definition ofsuccess really is.
Because oftentimes we have thissubconscious definition of
success that was donated to usby culture.
(29:21):
Like we didn't fully decidethat's what it was.
But whether it's discipline orit's looking a certain way or
having a certain body, that issubconsciously our definition of
success.
But then when you take the timeto ask yourself, What do I
actually value and what willmean something to me when I'm 70
(29:41):
or 80 years old?
What will a successful life looklike?
That thought for me reallychanged everything because I
realized I will not feel proud.
I will not feel happy if myentire life was focused on
looking a certain way, obsessingover food, hating my body.
(30:01):
I won't feel like that wassuccess, a successful life at 80
years old.
I will feel successful if I waskind and compassionate, if I
surrounded myself with peoplethat I loved, if I loved so
fully, and I showed up as myauthentic self.
That was my definition ofsuccess.
So when you can get clear onwhat your definition of success
(30:24):
is, then you've got your roadmapon what needs to change in how I
think and how I feel.
Angie (30:30):
I love that so much.
That's so beautiful.
And I think that the other thingthat I would love to add to that
too is that sometimes we arewrong in What we determine to be
the path to success or the pathto achieving those things.
For example, when I'm older,will I have want to will I be
(30:53):
proud of myself for running amarathon?
A lot of people would say yes tothat, right?
That was a huge accomplishment.
But they think that they need totrain more, restrict their food,
do those things in order toaccomplish that thing.
And that part is wrong, right?
They have a It's a faulty viewof what is required to achieve
(31:14):
the thing that will make themproud, when they are older.
And I think that can be anotherplace where we get tripped up.
Sabrina (31:22):
Yeah, absolutely.
Especially because we live in aworld of a lot of
misinformation, of a lot ofextreme views.
Yeah.
I shared this reel on myInstagram last week that
basically had the message of ifyou don't want that person's
life, don't take that person'sadvice.
(31:43):
So if you don't want to besaying no to spontaneous ice
cream dates, if you don't wantto be constantly terrified of
eating carbs, if you don't wantto make running your entire day
a Life so much so that it takesaway from your family or your
(32:04):
social life or your ability tobe spontaneous or to just decide
today I'm not going to runbecause my body is asking for
rest, like really make sure thatyou don't just get clear on what
the end goal is, but the lifethat you're creating, because
yeah, you might achieve thething, you might get the half
(32:25):
marathon, the marathon, the halfmarathon.
And that's only going to be like0.
00001 percent of your life,whereas everything else
surrounding it, that is thestuff you really want to focus
on.
Angie (32:37):
Yeah, and if you feel like junk when you do it, how
much of an accomplishment is itreally?
That's what I like to try toremind my clients of as well is
like, how do you want to feelduring this process?
Sure.
It's great for you to have agoal of a half marathon, a
marathon, an ultra marathon,whatever it is that you want to
accomplish.
I am on board to help you getthere as long as you do it in a
(33:01):
healthy way.
Now, granted, we all havedifferent definitions of
healthy, which is what youpointed out before, which I
think is super important toacknowledge as well.
But in a way that works withyour real life, that makes you
feel more joy and morefulfillment and feel like you're
taking care of your body.
Not that you're just ignoring itand getting injured along the
(33:21):
way and feeling miserablethrough the process.
And there's a lot of people thatthink that's what running's
supposed to feel like, becausethat's how it's always felt.
They don't know that it can bedifferent.
I think for you, with yourclients, it's probably the same
with food.
There's a lot of people thatjust have this disordered
relationship with food, and theydon't know that it can be
different.
When in reality, there's thiswhole world that is available to
(33:45):
them.
They're just not sure, A, thatit even exists, right?
It's this kind of like utopiaover here.
And then B, how to even getthere.
Sabrina (33:53):
Yeah, and it's all about giving that new
perspective when you're so usedto thinking a certain way and
thinking this is the way it hasto be.
And I'm all about, I, I tell myclients, I'm like, I'm still a
foodie, and I love food.
I love enjoying food.
It doesn't mean that food is thecentral focus of my life.
(34:16):
It's like really helping peopleunderstand that there's a way
that you can get to where youwant to be, while, like you
said, While feeling good, whiledoing it from a place of
connection with your body andalignment with the kind of life
that you want to live.
Angie (34:35):
I love that so much.
And I think that's like such aperfect place for us to wrap
this up because I think that'sone of those messages that we
just need to keep shouting fromthe rooftops.
And the more of us that aredoing it, the better.
So Sabrina, thank you so muchfor coming on today.
Is there anything that I forgotto ask you that you would like
to share with our listeners?
Sabrina (34:55):
Anything that I forgot?
Honestly, no.
I think that it's so beautifulbecause I focus more on the food
and nutrition side and clearlyyou're doing the nutrition as
well but The fact that you arepromoting this healthy
relationship with exercise andrunning is just as important
because I had a reallydisordered relationship with
(35:17):
exercise that was driven by fearand anxiety and guilt.
And so, there's so much beautythat comes from being able to
find the joy in running.
I have not found the runnershigh ever since doing those half
marathons, but I know that somepeople do.
And so to be able to bring thatlove and that joy and the
(35:39):
benefits that you get fromrunning, but from a healthy
place, I think what you're doingis just really special.
Angie (35:45):
Thank you.
But I think that, so much of itis exactly aligned with what
you're saying is like startingto release some of those
expectations on, what your paceshould be like all those shoulds
that we like to throw atourselves, right?
Of Oh, I don't, I can't go belowthis pace, or I can't go below
this distance.
And we make up all of thesearbitrary rules, both with
running and with food, thingsthat we should or shouldn't do
(36:08):
of what's good and what's bad.
And when in reality, when welearn how to move our bodies, in
a way that feels good and eat tofuel our bodies in a way that
feels good, then we can start torelease some of those
expectations and shoulds that weput onto ourself, which is so
important.
Sabrina (36:25):
Have you noticed that your clients, once you teach
them this, how to break free ofthe molds and structures that
they created for themselvesaround running?
And for me, it's around food.
They start noticing it in somany other areas of their life
and how much they've beenputting themselves in a box in
like relationships and looks andall of these different aspects.
Angie (36:48):
Yes, and it's so beautiful because my population
is mostly women over 40.
Like all people, but like wetend to work with a lot of
women.
But seeing women starting tomake these shifts, even in their
50s and 60s and realizing, Oh mygosh, I can't believe all these
ways that I was thinking beforeand starting to see those
(37:09):
shifts.
Like people say, you can'tchange when you get older.
That's a big fat lie.
There's a lot of realizationsthat you can have.
And I do.
And it's amazing to see.
The ripple effect of all of it,how they end up with different
relationships with their spousesand with their family and I've
had people leave successfulcareers and turn, go into life
(37:30):
coaching or health coachingbecause they want to help other
people and they realize thatWhat the stress of their current
job or career was completelydamaging their health in so many
ways.
And so they start to, reach outand explore and just that idea
that there are otherpossibilities out there.
is such a beautiful thing.
(37:50):
And yes, I definitely have andit sounds like you have too.
That's
Sabrina (37:53):
amazing.
Yeah, it really is like theripple effect once you, you get
through the door and you come infor one thing and then you
realize there's just so manymore doors that open up for you.
Angie (38:03):
Yeah I always like to say that like health and fitness is
like the gateway drug intopersonal development.
Sabrina (38:08):
If you do it the right way.
Angie (38:10):
If you do it the right way, yeah.
You don't want it to be like thebad drug, right?
You want to go the other way.
And realize all the good thingsabout it.
So this has been such a greatconversation.
Sabrina, where can our listenersconnect with you?
Sabrina (38:23):
Yeah, they can find me on Instagram at Sabrina Mangyal
Health.
They can listen to my podcast,which you've been on, which is
called the Live UnrestrictedPodcast, and that's where we
talk all things, body image,relationship with food, healthy
habits, and all that fun stuff.
And on my website, which issabrinamagnan.
com as well.
Angie (38:43):
Can you spell that for our people?
And we'll definitely put it inthe show notes as well.
But go ahead and spell that out.
So it's Sabrina.
Sabrina is
Sabrina (38:50):
pretty commonly spelled.
And then my last name is M A G NA N.
There we go.
All right.
Angie (38:56):
And of course, we'll link all of that in the show notes
for you guys with her websiteand her Instagram and her
podcasts and all of that for youto connect with her and let her
know, reach out to her, send hera DM on Instagram, let her know
that you listened to thisepisode and what you, Loved
about it.
I loved all of it.
So thank you so much for comingon and we'll talk to you soon.
Thank you.
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