February 23, 2021 • 33 mins
This is Amy’s ‘5th Thing’ (a bonus episode). ‘4 Things With Amy Brown’ comes out every Thursday, but on Tuesdays Amy shares emails from you guys and answers questions y’all have sent in. On today’s episode Amy addresses that this week is NEDA week (National Eating Disorder Association)...all of the emails pertain to food & body issues.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the Fifth Thing, the bonus episode
of the Four Things podcast where I share emails that
I have received from you, and this episode I am
addressing notes that I received that have to do with
eating disorders because this week is need A Week, which
is National Eating Disorder Awareness. That's what NITA stands for.
(00:26):
So yeah, all the emails pertain to food and body issues,
and so does my quote today. I actually pulled it
from my friend Cat's instagram, Cat de Fata. She's a
licensed therapist. She also has a podcast on my network
called You Need Therapy. That's another one you should check
out this week if you feel like you've got something
going on or you know someone that does have something
going on when it comes to food disordered eating their bodies.
(00:49):
Because I know she's focusing hard this week her episodes
on NITA as well. But I just pulled a quote
from her instagram that said, the idea of the perfect
body is a lie that has been so to you,
wrapped in spanks, covered with a filter, and served with
a side of Keto approved Black Being brownies. So I
thought that quote was good because society has put a
lot of pressure on us now eating disorders aren't just
(01:11):
about looks. They're a mental illness that has to do
with like tons of things, but the underlying things. You
got those going on at on top of that, the
pressure from society to look this certain way to be
able to feel love. Which is why last week on
the podcast The Four Things Went on Thursday, I shared
(01:31):
with y'all tons of different ways you can compliment someone
without even mentioning their looks or appearance. I encourage you
to go back and listen to that episode if you
missed it. Now. The first email I'm gonna get into
is from a girl named Rachel, and she was sharing
with me that she recently wrote a book called Emancipated
Love Junkie, Liberating Myself from Anorexia. The email also included
(01:55):
a link to her blog, so I clicked on it,
went through some of her blog posts, and I want
now read one of the posts that stood out to
me because she reminds us that anyone struggling out there,
you're not alone. And I love that message. I mean,
that's why I do this podcast, not just when it
comes to eating disorders, but really anything in life, anything
we're going through, anything that I can talk about or
(02:17):
you can talk about, or my guests can talk about
can make sure that people out there know that they're
not alone. So the post that I'm going to read.
The blog post is titled even a Princess needs help sometimes,
and here is what Rachel wrote. Viewer Discretion Advised appeared
at the start of a number of the Crown episodes
this season. I was apprehensive since the advisory stated that e.
(02:39):
D would be depicted, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Fortunately,
I'm in a healthy state these days, and I have
made peace with my past, but watching e D scenes
is always challenging. Apart from eliciting strong emotions about my
own experience, observing behaviors fills my heart with grief for
the millions who struggle unexpectedly. However, my initial apprehension transformed
(03:02):
into acceptance when I realized the episode featured Princess Die.
Don't misunderstand Diana's Bolima was a complete tragedy, and I
would not wish mental health challenges on anyone. That said,
I cannot think of a better candidate to globally showcase
the realities of Bolima while manifest that anyone, even a princess,
can be afflicted by an eating disorder. I try to
(03:24):
keep my blog posts upbeaten positive. There's enough heavy stuff
out there, and recovery is a beautiful journey, laden with
victories along the way. And yet when you're deep inside
and e D, it can be immensely helpful to recognize
this truth. You are not alone. When I was in
therapy for intorexia, I was stunned by the other women
(03:45):
at my center. I expected to only see tiny young
women and to be branded as a mom of the group. Instead,
I found myself surrounded by all shapes, ages and sizes. Consequently,
if you are currently battling a dis order and ashamed
of your thoughts, know that you are one of thousands
who also need help and extra hugs. If stats help,
(04:07):
here are a few striking ones. According to the A
N A D from A N A D dot Org,
nine percent of Americans will have an e D in
their lifetime. Ten two hundred deaths are a direct result
of an e D. Eating disorders are the second deadliest
mental health illness. Less than six percent of people with
e D s are medically diagnosed as underweight, which means
(04:29):
you cannot judge a book from its cover. I was
one of these last stats, a woman with functional anorexia
who masked her pain behind a not super skinny exterior.
All through my twenties, women would call out, You're so lucky,
you can eat whatever you want, and I'd wistfully imagine responding,
I've had a banana and two diet cokes so far today,
(04:50):
how about you. Such comments aren't charging now in the
way they once were. I still cringe a bit when
someone tells me I'm looking healthier now, or I'm applauded
for eating a large portion. As many of you can
probably relate. Comments on our figures are just not cool,
and unfortunately, it will take time before society recognizes that
telling a girl she's skinny is just as inappropriate as
(05:13):
telling her she's fat. Still, I am super encouraged you guys.
Although the stats are alarming, there is so much more support,
data driven research, and social awareness about eating disorders than
ever before. So although the Royal family may abhor the series,
I wouldn't blame them, and scenes of Diana's pain might
be too painful for her people to watch, I'm grateful
(05:34):
for the Crown's power to publicize what an e D
can look like. I'm grateful for all the rad people
openly championing the importance of mental health in our world
in a myriad of ways. And I'm also grateful for
the power of connection that is far mightier than any
eating disorder voice. You are not alone in your thoughts
or physical pain, and people are available and want to
(05:55):
help you no matter what. Okay, that's the end of
the blog post. And again. Rachel's book is called Emancipated
Love Junkie, Liberating Myself from Anorexia, and it's available on Amazon.
I actually bought a copy for myself the other night,
so I look forward to reading it once it arrives.
I put it in my Amazon Favorites page under books,
(06:15):
which you can find at Radio any dot com, and
quickly I'll just read you what Amazon says about the book.
Are you trapped inside and eating disorder? If so, Rachel
will guide you towards a liberated and recovered life. And
her inspiring eating disorder memoir, Rachel shares her twenty year
battle with anorexia as she travels the planet as an
executive assistant, rock musician, teacher, playwright, and cookie company owner.
(06:40):
She's got humorous anecdotes and raw moments that are fresh
insights to pin feelings of hope onto your heart. As
you replace eating disorder thoughts with positive truths, you'll feel
empowered to join Rachel as an emancipated love junkie and
root towards recovery while flooding your world with joy. Remember
when you were a tiny human, gleeful be running half
(07:00):
naked through a sprinkler with an ice cream cone and
one sticky fist. This Eating Disorder Book will help you
embrace that healthy goodness today, tomorrow, and the rest of
your life. So thank you Rachel for emailing me, and
thank you for using your story to help others, and
thank you for reminding people that they are not alone
all right. Email number two is a note that I
(07:22):
got from Nicole Galleon, who is a friend and a
singer songwriter here in Nashville, and she just sent me
a quick note that said, Hey, lady, I watched your
i G t V about Eating Disorder week and what
you're doing is so important. I struggled for a couple
of years in college, and while that is far behind me,
I still have to work so hard to love myself
in the mirror. I wrote this song with Sasha Sloan
(07:43):
about body dysmorphea slash body image and just thought it
might touch you this week. All right, here's a clip
of House with No Mirrors. Wos didn't talking Maybe a
dream of aga if their listness and to see if
(08:05):
I lived in a house with no mad with the
laws didn't pick me up. Maybe Muskin would be sick
if I lived in a house with no mare again.
That song is called House with No Mirrors if you
want to check it out by Sasha Sloan and Nicole
(08:27):
Gallean was one of the writers on it. I hope
you all find music and people to lean into to
encourage you and inspire you and help you get closer
to whatever recovery looks like for you. If you happen
to be dealing with this, or maybe you want to
take that song and send it to a friend or
Outweigh theme song, maybe we should play that here too.
(08:47):
So let's go ahead and play the Outweigh theme song
here as well to give y'all all the music and motivation.
I've got another song coming up for y'all in just
a second to that I'm going to play, but yeah,
let's throw it in here right now here you go.
Outweigh theme song, won't let my body out the outwait
everything that I'm made do, won't spend my life trying
(09:08):
to change. I'm learning to love who I am again.
I'm strong, I feel free, I know who every part
of me. It's beautiful and then will always out with
if you feel it with joy in there, she'll love
to the boom I get there, Let's say good day
(09:31):
and did you and die out all right. Outweigh is
a podcast that I co host with Lisa Ham and
a new episode goes up every Saturday, and that is
something we put together again so people would not feel alone.
We share our stories, we have other guests on share
their stories. We have experts on that help guide us
(09:52):
and help give us wisdom on this whole journey. So
definitely check it out where you listen to podcasts like however,
you're listening to this one right now, just I've been
Outweigh and Lisa's face and my face will pop up
click that and we've got a lot of episodes there
for you to listen to if you've never even heard it.
You could definitely keep yourself busy over there all right.
Email number three is from Hannah. Hey, Amy, I just
(10:13):
finished watching your I G TV video and wanted to
reach out. I have slowly come to realize that I
may be suffering from an eating disorder. I haven't been diagnosed,
but I realized that my eating habits are extremely unhealthy.
I am so hard on myself and my body. I've
become obsessed over the way that I look, weighing myself
twice a day, beating myself up if I gain a
(10:34):
pound or two, restricting myself from things I enjoy because
I don't want to gain, et cetera. I don't even
drink Latte's anymore because of the sugar content and the calories.
I'm basically living off detox smoothies and protein shakes. I
never thought this was an issue until I started listening,
and I mean really listening to people like you. I'm
having a hard time finding beauty and myself because all
(10:56):
I see when I look in the mirror or in
pictures is extra weight and an undefined chin. I've been
a listener for years and have heard your story of
dy and how you've overcome it. I remember seeing an
insta story one day of you enjoying a latte and
you said that there was a time where you couldn't
do that. That let me know that I'm not alone
in this and that I want to get to that point.
(11:16):
I don't know if I'm ready to start the road
to recovery. I know that I need to, but it
gives me such anxiety to think about doing it. I
already weigh more than I ever have in my life,
and I'm scared to gain more. If you have read
this far, thank you for listening to me. I'm going
to continue to educate and listen and pray that this
is something that I can start to overcome. All right, So,
since Nicole Galleon and the second note that I read
(11:40):
and then Hannah just now both referenced my I g
t V post, I'm gonna go ahead and play that
here just in case some of you don't follow me
on Instagram or maybe you miss the post from Sunday night.
Here's what I shared. So, just got done recording my
four Things podcast for this week with Caitlin, and something
came up in one of our things where we were
(12:00):
talking about therapy and then um, some eating disorder talk
came up, which I'm thankful that it will be included
in this week's episode because this coming week is need
a week National Eating disorder awareness, and I think this
is an important week to acknowledge. It's not one that
I've normally spent a lot of timeline, but now that
I co host a podcast called out Way that is
(12:23):
centered around that and I'm in recovery, I'm more aware
that weeks like this exists, and I think that they're
important not only to do your own reflection, um, but
for you to just be aware of those around you
that might be UM going through this. Maybe you don't
have body image issues or um any kind of disordered
(12:43):
eating or eating disorders in your own life, but your sister,
your friend, your coworker, UM, likely someone in your life
does have it going on, and so this could be
a week that you could try to educate yourself more
to see how you could be there for them. UM.
(13:05):
I know on Tuesday's fifth thing, I'll be covering um
some eating disorder emails that I got, so hopefully those
will be helpful. And then yeah, like I said, Caitlin
and I got into it on our podcast as well.
So just a little the more you know, I feel
(13:26):
like a year or so ago, I had no idea
that Need a Week even existed. So I just want
anybody to know also too, that is in the throes,
if they're eating disorder or any kind of disordered eating
patterns or body image issues, that you are not alone,
and there are resources and tools and people and and
(13:47):
outweigh is just one of those. I would hope that
if you have access to therapy, you can get that,
but I know that other people can't. But there are
a lot of podcasts out there, there's amazing Instagram accounts,
there's online courses, there's books you can read, uh, there's
books you can download on audible. There are resources beyond
(14:07):
just therapy in case that's not an option for you.
But I just want you to know as we enter
this week that I am thinking of you, anybody that
is struggling, Like for me personally this month, like I
hit a a it's been two years since I really
(14:27):
like put in the work to just be done with it.
And the freedom that I feel, and that's why we
started out WIGH is I felt the freedom I could,
I could feel it, and I wanted other people to
have what I was feeling. So I called Lisa, and
I was like, we have to do something, and and
(14:49):
that's how always was born because a life without disordered
eating outways everything. And UM, yeah, I just want you
to know that, Um, your world doesn't have to be
so small. It can be bigger, it can be full
of other things. It doesn't have to be you know,
centred around what you ate. When you're going to eat,
(15:11):
How you're going to work out how you're going to
get rid of it, um, how you're going to restrict,
like what restaurant you're gonna go to, freaking out who
cooked what? Like hopefully you can get to a place
where you can just breathe and know that, like you
can eat whatever it is that your dad cooked. I mean,
(15:33):
they're get into this either on four things or outweigh
I've shared before, like if I could go back and
eat things that my dad made that I refused to eat,
I would give anything to go back and have those
moments with him, because now he's on a feeding tube.
He can't even eat. Someone whose love language is food
(15:54):
had surgery and now has been on a feeding tube
for you know, a long time, Like he won't never
eat again, like we thought, maybe he would have a
shot at eating again. He won't ever eat again. But
not only it's not only about the eating. For him,
it was about cooking it and serving it to others.
And now he can't even really cook because he can't
his motor skills are just different. And he can't taste
(16:16):
test things because he didn't really follow recipes and understood
his own thing, and he would taste it and then
go So yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I spent way too
many years wasting, wasting time on food and for what.
(16:38):
You know, it's not just about body or what you
look like. Some people may think that, yeah, eating disorders
are just like so you can be skinny or look
a certain way. But I had so much underlying underlying depression. Um,
the root of it is something that I had to
put in the work to get there. Um. But yeah,
(17:03):
you can do it. And I want to be an
encouragement to you, and I want you to know there's
hope and that it's just better. It's better on the
other side. But I'm not going to sit here and
say it's just easy to get there. I don't want
to be like, OK, yeah, I'm just yeah, here I
(17:23):
am look at me. No it was work. It's still
work at times. Um, but I'm thankful and grateful for
where I am. UM. I think one time I posted
about this because I was drinking like a creamy coffee
and I put it an Instagram post and I think
I said something like, I have compassion for you know
(17:47):
who I was then, Um, but I'm grateful for where
I am now. So I have compassion for that girl
that used to bring her own food to family dinners
because she was scared to eat what her dad was
going to make. That's like what's in that song that
Brittany Spencer and I put up, the Outweigh theme song,
um missing out on family meals around the table because
(18:10):
what grandma made is bad, so we're not able. UM
based that line off of my experience with my dad.
I was telling Brittany about it, and of course in
the song, it just sounded better to say what grandma
made it is bad. But like family meals around the
table is something that I missed out on a lot. So,
(18:34):
oh my gosh, I've been rambling for over six minutes
now almost seven, but I think this is important, UM
for some people. If you're still watching, then clearly this
is something that's important to you, and yeah, I want
you to know you're not alone. I don't want you
to know there's hope and you can't get better, and
when you get to the other side, it's there's I
(18:57):
can't even describe it, like there's just a whole, a
whole other life that you didn't know it was possible
and less stressful and free and just um yeah, full
of more joy. So I hope you get there and
I'm sending all the hugs virtually. Okay, So now that
(19:30):
y'all are caught up on the I G t V post, Hannah,
I just want to reiterate to you that you are
not alone. I am really glad that you recognize that
you need some sort of recovery in your life and
that there is something funky going on. But I want
to make sure that you know that however you're feeling
is very common. Your behaviors are very common as well.
(19:53):
You're in this gray area where you're not diagnosed with
a full blown eating disorder, but you know that your
behaviors with food thoughts about your body just are not healthy.
In the gray area, in fact, is even what we
cover a lot of on Outweigh, because those are the
people that often get overlooked a lot of my behaviors. Now,
I was beliemic, but I wasn't as extreme as other beliemics.
(20:16):
And then honestly, some of my other behaviors really weren't
clinically diagnosable, but they definitely were disordered. And yeah, by
sharing our behaviors on out wigh and again some clinically diagnosable,
some not, others can then look introspectively and see if
they have anything going on. And some of our behaviors
(20:38):
are honestly just so accepted by society that it's hard
to really tell if it's disordered. Like detox t for example,
or living off of protein shakes is the norm. I
have been there. People actually even praise you for it
and ask you, oh, how do you even do that?
How do you have the discipline? But the truth is
that your body needs real food and your body and
(21:00):
detox on its own. And Hannah, I do want you
to know that I understand the desire to weigh yourself
twice a day. I've definitely been there too. But my
hope for you is that you can eventually ditch the
scale altogether and that you can learn to eat all
kinds of food and trust your body and that you
will get to enjoy that latte. It will take time.
(21:21):
I remember being terrified each time that I had to
let go of a certain behavior again. I bounced from
one thing to the next often. But I finally got
to a place where I just released them all and
I was able to do it. I had to commit,
I had to stay the course if there was a setback, though,
I didn't beat myself up over it. I just kept
moving forward, one day at a time. And you know,
(21:43):
many women, they don't even realize how damaging eating disorders
are to their health. I remember sometimes in the throes
of of my bulimia, again, a lot of my behaviors
weren't throwing up. It would be more so like restriction
over exercising, obsessing over food, to orthorexia. But I did
have binge and purge tendencies. And what I would think
(22:06):
anytime I was throwing up is, oh, my goodness, what
if I were to die this way? This would be
so embarrassing. My heart was racing like crazy. I felt
like my eyeballs were going to pop out in my
head like I just felt awful I remember thinking like, ah,
I just hate this. I don't ever want to do
it again. I don't ever want to do it again.
And then there I was, however, many days later, back
(22:27):
doing it again. So anyway, my point is, when you're
in that kind of a thing, I think, you know, like, oh,
this does not feel right for my body, like this
is probably damaging my health. But it's those other gray
area disordered behaviors that we don't really realize the damage
that they're doing. So I know some of you may
be asking, well, how can I tell if I even
(22:50):
have an eating disorder? Well, some big signs. Or if
you have lost some weight in a short amount of time,
but maybe you haven't, still doesn't mean that you don't
have an eating disorder. Maybe you have some of the symptoms,
like you binge by consuming large amounts of food at
a time, often in secret. I know that I certainly did.
Or maybe you follow it up by purging again I
(23:11):
did that. You've got feelings of guilt and shame. You
may be struggling with a needing disorder. That's some signs
right there. If you are preoccupied with your body and
caught up in destructive patterns of dieting and over eating,
like I'll start my diet tomorrow and then you eat
all the things, and then you restrict, and then you
just repeat that pattern. Those are signs of disordered eating behaviors.
(23:31):
All of these behaviors can affect overall well being and
your health. So what I would encourage you to do is,
if you think you have any of this going on,
try to talk to a professional about what you're feeling,
what you're doing, your constant need to diet, your constant
need to control your food intake, or your fixation on food.
I can't even tell y'all if I could have all
(23:52):
the hours back where I was fixating on food, I
would have a lot of time on my hands from
those days, you know, and have this professional who where
they may be, whether it's a doctor or a therapist
that specializes in this, let's go over maybe a nutritionist
like Lisa who I co host out weigh At is
a registered dietitian that focuses on eating disorders. Now, not
(24:13):
just any dietitian just because they're a dietitian doesn't mean
that they legit know how to handle you. There are
actually some registered dietitians that are contributing to a lot
of pain and hurt out there, and they don't mean
to be doing it, but they just haven't quite gotten
there yet where they realize, oh, shoot, I'm part of
the problem. For a long time, you know, I sat
(24:34):
here on this podcast, I was part of the problem.
I wasn't a registered dietitian, so nobody should have been
taking health advice for me anyways. But I was dishing
it out because I wanted to share what I was doing,
what was working for me, and I was passing it
along to you guys, and I shouldn't have been. I
was contributing to the problem, which unfortunately is what a
lot of registered dietitians are doing. So make sure if
(24:56):
you do go to one, you're going to one that
has the right line of thinking. And as part of
this anti diet culture movement, So to everyone listening right now, really,
if you're concerned about your behaviors, or maybe the behaviors
of a friend or a loved one, it is important
to seek an assessment in some way, shape or form
(25:16):
from someone to help really determine where you are. And
maybe you don't have the tools or the ability to
meet with a doctor or a therapist or a nutritionist
or registered dietcition or whatever it is. Find tools elsewhere.
Like I said in the I G t V posts,
there are books you can read. Brain over Binge was
(25:37):
extremely helpful for me. It may not be the right
tool for you, but it was for me. And that's
a book that you can order and read, or you
can download and listen to, or she's got blog posts
that are up. She has a podcast called Brain over Binge.
We have outweigh Those are just things that I know
to rely on. But spending some time on Google and
(25:58):
really doing a deep I've into some stuff. Lisa has
her fork, the Noise Program. I mean, there there are
resources out there that aren't going to cost you an
arm and a leg. So I just want to drill
that into people, and I want you to know that
there is no shame in anything that you're going through
and getting help is going to be the best thing
(26:20):
for you. And it might be baby steps. You might
not be doing all of this at once, but take
the next step whatever that is for you. If it's
listening to a podcast, downloading the book, opening up some
blog posts, getting the book that I just shared with
you all you know from our listeners, So whatever that is. Now,
I'm rambling here and people don't like it when I ramble,
so I'm gonna go ahead and get to the fourth email,
(26:41):
email number four from Morgan Joy. Hello, Amy, my name
is Morgan Joy, and I've been listening to the Bobby
Bones Show for about two years now. It wasn't until
this summer when I got in a podcast and I
happened upon your Four Things with Amy Brown. You talked
about your struggle with an eating disorder, and that really
resonated with me. I developed my eating to order at
fourteen years old, a freshman in high school. I spent
(27:03):
my entire high school career in and out of treatment
for anorexia. I am twenty five now, so that's eleven
years of my life that have been affected by it.
But thankfully I am strong and healthy now. I became
strong not wanting to waste a second of my potential.
I started driving trucks and operating heavy equipment as a
career while I went to college full time. I tried
(27:23):
out for the Voice and I made it to the
final round in Nashville. Before the blind auditions, I bought
a new vehicle so many things. I learned to start
using my empathetic soul to help those in need. Music
is something that helped my soul heal. Instead of starving myself,
I feed my soul and play and write music. I
picked up the guitar not too long ago and I
(27:44):
did a cover of this song. I hope you read
this message and I hope the song brings you comfort
because I'm rooting for you. It's a sisterhood and we're
all in this together. Okay, here's a little bit of
the song Morgan Joy attached to her email, and it's
her covering Dear god By or Astbury. I'm not scared
of pro faction to questions and to Lisbon and saw you,
(28:23):
I'm to listen scholing to all right. Thanks for that, Morgan,
and I wanted to share Morgan's email to all of
you because it's another story of hope, because she has
made it to a place of healing. And then, lastly,
I've got a bonus email for you all before we wrap,
and it's actually not related to eating disorder. I just
(28:44):
saw this email and wanted to throw it in quickly
because I loved it so much. It's from Ashley. She said, Hey, Amy,
you gave me a great idea. I'm a first grade
teacher in Massachusetts. Starting March one, I'll be having my six, seven,
and eight year old sharing one thing they are thankful
for each day. I'll model it and share my own.
I am so excited to build a moment of gratitude
(29:06):
into our extremely hectic days, and I'll be sure to
email you with some of what they share. Kids have
been true rock stars this year, and I'll forever be
thankful for my twenty twenty one class. Your friend and
tired but thankful teacher, Ashley, which Ashley, I love this note.
I think that's a great idea. And you know we
(29:27):
have our Gratitude Challenge coming up in the month of March,
so it looks like you're joining us in that with
your class. But I love that you're being realistic and
more ideal for six seven eight year olds to keep
it simple with one thing that they're thankful for. I mean,
some families like to participate in our challenge, and they
maybe happen to have a family of four, so they
each share one thing and that fills up for things
(29:49):
in their journal for the day, or maybe you have
more than four people in your family. It doesn't really matter.
You can still go around the table and share one
thing or six or seven, eight nine. The gratitu To
Challenge really doesn't have any rules. We did create this
little insert that we were going to be mailing out
to people that has four steps on how to do
(30:09):
the challenge, and I will be posting that on shop
spaws Instagram account and I run that in case you'll
want to go follow me there. My personal Instagram is
at Radio Amy and the Shoppe Bla account is at
shop Espoa and then Mary runs at the Shop Forward.
Sometimes people wonder the difference, but both Shop us Blah
and the Shot Forward will be posting the little sheet
(30:32):
that we made that you can screenshot. That will help
because I think I love how many of you want
the rules. You want to make sure that you're doing
the Gratitude challenge correctly, and you're like, oh, we want
that sheet, I need something to go by, But really
it's simple. Just grab any notebook that you have, or
there's still time to order our journal, which is radio
amy dot com or four things dot com for a
(30:52):
link to that. And our journals are awesome because while
Mary and I made them, so I am biased, but
they are super cute, Like they've got encouraging quotes and
stickers in the back, and we threw in some family
recipes and they support education through Project metic Share in Haiti.
So if you wanted to buy them as a gift
and maybe get all your girlfriends together and y'all do them,
but I get it that can add up and get expensive.
(31:13):
So like zero pressure, they're literally grab any notebook you
have and write down four things. If that's overwhelming to you,
do like Ashley is doing with her kids. I don't
care if you're fifteen or fifty five or sixty five
years old and it's overwhelming, do one thing a day,
Pick one thing a day that you're thankful for and
honestly too, even if you're starting this whole road to
(31:35):
recovery with your eating disordered disordered eatings, it really helps
to focus on other things besides yourself when you really
are looking for true healing because a lot of times
we are wrapped up in our own selves, in our
bodies and our workouts, in our food. Remember all that
time that you're spending obsessing about food in your body,
shift that and focus on other things that you are
(31:57):
thankful for and then it'll be like domino effect. So
that's another reason why I threw in this bonus email
as an encouragement to people that may be listening to
this podcast this week and realize, oh man, I think
it's time for me to start putting in the work
for recovery. Well, gratitude could actually be a part of that.
It can help give you a perspective that you weren't
seeing before and help you see life in a way
(32:21):
that you have so much to be thankful for, and
why are you spending all of your energy focused on
food and your body? And I'm not saying that from
this high horse like I am down here with y'all.
I'm not yelling that at you or preaching it at
you in any way. In fact, I probably speaking more
passionately because I've just been there and I know exactly
(32:42):
what you are going through and you're feeling. I mean,
probably not exactly to each person, but you know what
I mean. Like, I've been there. I've been in the
trenches of it, and it sucks, like sorry for that
word in case you have kids listening. It sucks, like
I can think of worst words to say. I don't
it sucks a bad word. I don't let my kids
say it. All right, now I'm rambling again, so I
(33:03):
guess that means it's time to go. But y'all are amazing.
Thank you for listening to the podcast. I appreciate everybody
that sends notes for things with Amy Brown at gmail
dot com. Is the email address radio ama dot com,
like I said before, is the website? All right, Caitlin Parker,
who is Bobby Bones is fiance is going to be
(33:25):
on this Thursday's podcast with me for All four Things,
So I will see you all Thursday. By
Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the Fifth Thing, the bonus episode
of the Four Things podcast where I share emails that
I have received from you, and this episode I am
addressing notes that I received that have to do with
eating disorders because this week is need A Week, which
is National Eating Disorder Awareness. That's what NITA stands for.
(00:26):
So yeah, all the emails pertain to food and body issues,
and so does my quote today. I actually pulled it
from my friend Cat's instagram, Cat de Fata. She's a
licensed therapist. She also has a podcast on my network
called You Need Therapy. That's another one you should check
out this week if you feel like you've got something
going on or you know someone that does have something
going on when it comes to food disordered eating their bodies.
(00:49):
Because I know she's focusing hard this week her episodes
on NITA as well. But I just pulled a quote
from her instagram that said, the idea of the perfect
body is a lie that has been so to you,
wrapped in spanks, covered with a filter, and served with
a side of Keto approved Black Being brownies. So I
thought that quote was good because society has put a
lot of pressure on us now eating disorders aren't just
(01:11):
about looks. They're a mental illness that has to do
with like tons of things, but the underlying things. You
got those going on at on top of that, the
pressure from society to look this certain way to be
able to feel love. Which is why last week on
the podcast The Four Things Went on Thursday, I shared
(01:31):
with y'all tons of different ways you can compliment someone
without even mentioning their looks or appearance. I encourage you
to go back and listen to that episode if you
missed it. Now. The first email I'm gonna get into
is from a girl named Rachel, and she was sharing
with me that she recently wrote a book called Emancipated
Love Junkie, Liberating Myself from Anorexia. The email also included
(01:55):
a link to her blog, so I clicked on it,
went through some of her blog posts, and I want
now read one of the posts that stood out to
me because she reminds us that anyone struggling out there,
you're not alone. And I love that message. I mean,
that's why I do this podcast, not just when it
comes to eating disorders, but really anything in life, anything
we're going through, anything that I can talk about or
(02:17):
you can talk about, or my guests can talk about
can make sure that people out there know that they're
not alone. So the post that I'm going to read.
The blog post is titled even a Princess needs help sometimes,
and here is what Rachel wrote. Viewer Discretion Advised appeared
at the start of a number of the Crown episodes
this season. I was apprehensive since the advisory stated that e.
(02:39):
D would be depicted, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Fortunately,
I'm in a healthy state these days, and I have
made peace with my past, but watching e D scenes
is always challenging. Apart from eliciting strong emotions about my
own experience, observing behaviors fills my heart with grief for
the millions who struggle unexpectedly. However, my initial apprehension transformed
(03:02):
into acceptance when I realized the episode featured Princess Die.
Don't misunderstand Diana's Bolima was a complete tragedy, and I
would not wish mental health challenges on anyone. That said,
I cannot think of a better candidate to globally showcase
the realities of Bolima while manifest that anyone, even a princess,
can be afflicted by an eating disorder. I try to
(03:24):
keep my blog posts upbeaten positive. There's enough heavy stuff
out there, and recovery is a beautiful journey, laden with
victories along the way. And yet when you're deep inside
and e D, it can be immensely helpful to recognize
this truth. You are not alone. When I was in
therapy for intorexia, I was stunned by the other women
(03:45):
at my center. I expected to only see tiny young
women and to be branded as a mom of the group. Instead,
I found myself surrounded by all shapes, ages and sizes. Consequently,
if you are currently battling a dis order and ashamed
of your thoughts, know that you are one of thousands
who also need help and extra hugs. If stats help,
(04:07):
here are a few striking ones. According to the A
N A D from A N A D dot Org,
nine percent of Americans will have an e D in
their lifetime. Ten two hundred deaths are a direct result
of an e D. Eating disorders are the second deadliest
mental health illness. Less than six percent of people with
e D s are medically diagnosed as underweight, which means
(04:29):
you cannot judge a book from its cover. I was
one of these last stats, a woman with functional anorexia
who masked her pain behind a not super skinny exterior.
All through my twenties, women would call out, You're so lucky,
you can eat whatever you want, and I'd wistfully imagine responding,
I've had a banana and two diet cokes so far today,
(04:50):
how about you. Such comments aren't charging now in the
way they once were. I still cringe a bit when
someone tells me I'm looking healthier now, or I'm applauded
for eating a large portion. As many of you can
probably relate. Comments on our figures are just not cool,
and unfortunately, it will take time before society recognizes that
telling a girl she's skinny is just as inappropriate as
(05:13):
telling her she's fat. Still, I am super encouraged you guys.
Although the stats are alarming, there is so much more support,
data driven research, and social awareness about eating disorders than
ever before. So although the Royal family may abhor the series,
I wouldn't blame them, and scenes of Diana's pain might
be too painful for her people to watch, I'm grateful
(05:34):
for the Crown's power to publicize what an e D
can look like. I'm grateful for all the rad people
openly championing the importance of mental health in our world
in a myriad of ways. And I'm also grateful for
the power of connection that is far mightier than any
eating disorder voice. You are not alone in your thoughts
or physical pain, and people are available and want to
(05:55):
help you no matter what. Okay, that's the end of
the blog post. And again. Rachel's book is called Emancipated
Love Junkie, Liberating Myself from Anorexia, and it's available on Amazon.
I actually bought a copy for myself the other night,
so I look forward to reading it once it arrives.
I put it in my Amazon Favorites page under books,
(06:15):
which you can find at Radio any dot com, and
quickly I'll just read you what Amazon says about the book.
Are you trapped inside and eating disorder? If so, Rachel
will guide you towards a liberated and recovered life. And
her inspiring eating disorder memoir, Rachel shares her twenty year
battle with anorexia as she travels the planet as an
executive assistant, rock musician, teacher, playwright, and cookie company owner.
(06:40):
She's got humorous anecdotes and raw moments that are fresh
insights to pin feelings of hope onto your heart. As
you replace eating disorder thoughts with positive truths, you'll feel
empowered to join Rachel as an emancipated love junkie and
root towards recovery while flooding your world with joy. Remember
when you were a tiny human, gleeful be running half
(07:00):
naked through a sprinkler with an ice cream cone and
one sticky fist. This Eating Disorder Book will help you
embrace that healthy goodness today, tomorrow, and the rest of
your life. So thank you Rachel for emailing me, and
thank you for using your story to help others, and
thank you for reminding people that they are not alone
all right. Email number two is a note that I
(07:22):
got from Nicole Galleon, who is a friend and a
singer songwriter here in Nashville, and she just sent me
a quick note that said, Hey, lady, I watched your
i G t V about Eating Disorder week and what
you're doing is so important. I struggled for a couple
of years in college, and while that is far behind me,
I still have to work so hard to love myself
in the mirror. I wrote this song with Sasha Sloan
(07:43):
about body dysmorphea slash body image and just thought it
might touch you this week. All right, here's a clip
of House with No Mirrors. Wos didn't talking Maybe a
dream of aga if their listness and to see if
(08:05):
I lived in a house with no mad with the
laws didn't pick me up. Maybe Muskin would be sick
if I lived in a house with no mare again.
That song is called House with No Mirrors if you
want to check it out by Sasha Sloan and Nicole
(08:27):
Gallean was one of the writers on it. I hope
you all find music and people to lean into to
encourage you and inspire you and help you get closer
to whatever recovery looks like for you. If you happen
to be dealing with this, or maybe you want to
take that song and send it to a friend or
Outweigh theme song, maybe we should play that here too.
(08:47):
So let's go ahead and play the Outweigh theme song
here as well to give y'all all the music and motivation.
I've got another song coming up for y'all in just
a second to that I'm going to play, but yeah,
let's throw it in here right now here you go.
Outweigh theme song, won't let my body out the outwait
everything that I'm made do, won't spend my life trying
(09:08):
to change. I'm learning to love who I am again.
I'm strong, I feel free, I know who every part
of me. It's beautiful and then will always out with
if you feel it with joy in there, she'll love
to the boom I get there, Let's say good day
(09:31):
and did you and die out all right. Outweigh is
a podcast that I co host with Lisa Ham and
a new episode goes up every Saturday, and that is
something we put together again so people would not feel alone.
We share our stories, we have other guests on share
their stories. We have experts on that help guide us
(09:52):
and help give us wisdom on this whole journey. So
definitely check it out where you listen to podcasts like however,
you're listening to this one right now, just I've been
Outweigh and Lisa's face and my face will pop up
click that and we've got a lot of episodes there
for you to listen to if you've never even heard it.
You could definitely keep yourself busy over there all right.
Email number three is from Hannah. Hey, Amy, I just
(10:13):
finished watching your I G TV video and wanted to
reach out. I have slowly come to realize that I
may be suffering from an eating disorder. I haven't been diagnosed,
but I realized that my eating habits are extremely unhealthy.
I am so hard on myself and my body. I've
become obsessed over the way that I look, weighing myself
twice a day, beating myself up if I gain a
(10:34):
pound or two, restricting myself from things I enjoy because
I don't want to gain, et cetera. I don't even
drink Latte's anymore because of the sugar content and the calories.
I'm basically living off detox smoothies and protein shakes. I
never thought this was an issue until I started listening,
and I mean really listening to people like you. I'm
having a hard time finding beauty and myself because all
(10:56):
I see when I look in the mirror or in
pictures is extra weight and an undefined chin. I've been
a listener for years and have heard your story of
dy and how you've overcome it. I remember seeing an
insta story one day of you enjoying a latte and
you said that there was a time where you couldn't
do that. That let me know that I'm not alone
in this and that I want to get to that point.
(11:16):
I don't know if I'm ready to start the road
to recovery. I know that I need to, but it
gives me such anxiety to think about doing it. I
already weigh more than I ever have in my life,
and I'm scared to gain more. If you have read
this far, thank you for listening to me. I'm going
to continue to educate and listen and pray that this
is something that I can start to overcome. All right, So,
since Nicole Galleon and the second note that I read
(11:40):
and then Hannah just now both referenced my I g
t V post, I'm gonna go ahead and play that
here just in case some of you don't follow me
on Instagram or maybe you miss the post from Sunday night.
Here's what I shared. So, just got done recording my
four Things podcast for this week with Caitlin, and something
came up in one of our things where we were
(12:00):
talking about therapy and then um, some eating disorder talk
came up, which I'm thankful that it will be included
in this week's episode because this coming week is need
a week National Eating disorder awareness, and I think this
is an important week to acknowledge. It's not one that
I've normally spent a lot of timeline, but now that
I co host a podcast called out Way that is
(12:23):
centered around that and I'm in recovery, I'm more aware
that weeks like this exists, and I think that they're
important not only to do your own reflection, um, but
for you to just be aware of those around you
that might be UM going through this. Maybe you don't
have body image issues or um any kind of disordered
(12:43):
eating or eating disorders in your own life, but your sister,
your friend, your coworker, UM, likely someone in your life
does have it going on, and so this could be
a week that you could try to educate yourself more
to see how you could be there for them. UM.
(13:05):
I know on Tuesday's fifth thing, I'll be covering um
some eating disorder emails that I got, so hopefully those
will be helpful. And then yeah, like I said, Caitlin
and I got into it on our podcast as well.
So just a little the more you know, I feel
(13:26):
like a year or so ago, I had no idea
that Need a Week even existed. So I just want
anybody to know also too, that is in the throes,
if they're eating disorder or any kind of disordered eating
patterns or body image issues, that you are not alone,
and there are resources and tools and people and and
(13:47):
outweigh is just one of those. I would hope that
if you have access to therapy, you can get that,
but I know that other people can't. But there are
a lot of podcasts out there, there's amazing Instagram accounts,
there's online courses, there's books you can read, uh, there's
books you can download on audible. There are resources beyond
(14:07):
just therapy in case that's not an option for you.
But I just want you to know as we enter
this week that I am thinking of you, anybody that
is struggling, Like for me personally this month, like I
hit a a it's been two years since I really
(14:27):
like put in the work to just be done with it.
And the freedom that I feel, and that's why we
started out WIGH is I felt the freedom I could,
I could feel it, and I wanted other people to
have what I was feeling. So I called Lisa, and
I was like, we have to do something, and and
(14:49):
that's how always was born because a life without disordered
eating outways everything. And UM, yeah, I just want you
to know that, Um, your world doesn't have to be
so small. It can be bigger, it can be full
of other things. It doesn't have to be you know,
centred around what you ate. When you're going to eat,
(15:11):
How you're going to work out how you're going to
get rid of it, um, how you're going to restrict,
like what restaurant you're gonna go to, freaking out who
cooked what? Like hopefully you can get to a place
where you can just breathe and know that, like you
can eat whatever it is that your dad cooked. I mean,
(15:33):
they're get into this either on four things or outweigh
I've shared before, like if I could go back and
eat things that my dad made that I refused to eat,
I would give anything to go back and have those
moments with him, because now he's on a feeding tube.
He can't even eat. Someone whose love language is food
(15:54):
had surgery and now has been on a feeding tube
for you know, a long time, Like he won't never
eat again, like we thought, maybe he would have a
shot at eating again. He won't ever eat again. But
not only it's not only about the eating. For him,
it was about cooking it and serving it to others.
And now he can't even really cook because he can't
his motor skills are just different. And he can't taste
(16:16):
test things because he didn't really follow recipes and understood
his own thing, and he would taste it and then
go So yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I spent way too
many years wasting, wasting time on food and for what.
(16:38):
You know, it's not just about body or what you
look like. Some people may think that, yeah, eating disorders
are just like so you can be skinny or look
a certain way. But I had so much underlying underlying depression. Um,
the root of it is something that I had to
put in the work to get there. Um. But yeah,
(17:03):
you can do it. And I want to be an
encouragement to you, and I want you to know there's
hope and that it's just better. It's better on the
other side. But I'm not going to sit here and
say it's just easy to get there. I don't want
to be like, OK, yeah, I'm just yeah, here I
(17:23):
am look at me. No it was work. It's still
work at times. Um, but I'm thankful and grateful for
where I am. UM. I think one time I posted
about this because I was drinking like a creamy coffee
and I put it an Instagram post and I think
I said something like, I have compassion for you know
(17:47):
who I was then, Um, but I'm grateful for where
I am now. So I have compassion for that girl
that used to bring her own food to family dinners
because she was scared to eat what her dad was
going to make. That's like what's in that song that
Brittany Spencer and I put up, the Outweigh theme song,
um missing out on family meals around the table because
(18:10):
what grandma made is bad, so we're not able. UM
based that line off of my experience with my dad.
I was telling Brittany about it, and of course in
the song, it just sounded better to say what grandma
made it is bad. But like family meals around the
table is something that I missed out on a lot. So,
(18:34):
oh my gosh, I've been rambling for over six minutes
now almost seven, but I think this is important, UM
for some people. If you're still watching, then clearly this
is something that's important to you, and yeah, I want
you to know you're not alone. I don't want you
to know there's hope and you can't get better, and
when you get to the other side, it's there's I
(18:57):
can't even describe it, like there's just a whole, a
whole other life that you didn't know it was possible
and less stressful and free and just um yeah, full
of more joy. So I hope you get there and
I'm sending all the hugs virtually. Okay, So now that
(19:30):
y'all are caught up on the I G t V post, Hannah,
I just want to reiterate to you that you are
not alone. I am really glad that you recognize that
you need some sort of recovery in your life and
that there is something funky going on. But I want
to make sure that you know that however you're feeling
is very common. Your behaviors are very common as well.
(19:53):
You're in this gray area where you're not diagnosed with
a full blown eating disorder, but you know that your
behaviors with food thoughts about your body just are not healthy.
In the gray area, in fact, is even what we
cover a lot of on Outweigh, because those are the
people that often get overlooked a lot of my behaviors. Now,
I was beliemic, but I wasn't as extreme as other beliemics.
(20:16):
And then honestly, some of my other behaviors really weren't
clinically diagnosable, but they definitely were disordered. And yeah, by
sharing our behaviors on out wigh and again some clinically diagnosable,
some not, others can then look introspectively and see if
they have anything going on. And some of our behaviors
(20:38):
are honestly just so accepted by society that it's hard
to really tell if it's disordered. Like detox t for example,
or living off of protein shakes is the norm. I
have been there. People actually even praise you for it
and ask you, oh, how do you even do that?
How do you have the discipline? But the truth is
that your body needs real food and your body and
(21:00):
detox on its own. And Hannah, I do want you
to know that I understand the desire to weigh yourself
twice a day. I've definitely been there too. But my
hope for you is that you can eventually ditch the
scale altogether and that you can learn to eat all
kinds of food and trust your body and that you
will get to enjoy that latte. It will take time.
(21:21):
I remember being terrified each time that I had to
let go of a certain behavior again. I bounced from
one thing to the next often. But I finally got
to a place where I just released them all and
I was able to do it. I had to commit,
I had to stay the course if there was a setback, though,
I didn't beat myself up over it. I just kept
moving forward, one day at a time. And you know,
(21:43):
many women, they don't even realize how damaging eating disorders
are to their health. I remember sometimes in the throes
of of my bulimia, again, a lot of my behaviors
weren't throwing up. It would be more so like restriction
over exercising, obsessing over food, to orthorexia. But I did
have binge and purge tendencies. And what I would think
(22:06):
anytime I was throwing up is, oh, my goodness, what
if I were to die this way? This would be
so embarrassing. My heart was racing like crazy. I felt
like my eyeballs were going to pop out in my
head like I just felt awful I remember thinking like, ah,
I just hate this. I don't ever want to do
it again. I don't ever want to do it again.
And then there I was, however, many days later, back
(22:27):
doing it again. So anyway, my point is, when you're
in that kind of a thing, I think, you know, like, oh,
this does not feel right for my body, like this
is probably damaging my health. But it's those other gray
area disordered behaviors that we don't really realize the damage
that they're doing. So I know some of you may
be asking, well, how can I tell if I even
(22:50):
have an eating disorder? Well, some big signs. Or if
you have lost some weight in a short amount of time,
but maybe you haven't, still doesn't mean that you don't
have an eating disorder. Maybe you have some of the symptoms,
like you binge by consuming large amounts of food at
a time, often in secret. I know that I certainly did.
Or maybe you follow it up by purging again I
(23:11):
did that. You've got feelings of guilt and shame. You
may be struggling with a needing disorder. That's some signs
right there. If you are preoccupied with your body and
caught up in destructive patterns of dieting and over eating,
like I'll start my diet tomorrow and then you eat
all the things, and then you restrict, and then you
just repeat that pattern. Those are signs of disordered eating behaviors.
(23:31):
All of these behaviors can affect overall well being and
your health. So what I would encourage you to do is,
if you think you have any of this going on,
try to talk to a professional about what you're feeling,
what you're doing, your constant need to diet, your constant
need to control your food intake, or your fixation on food.
I can't even tell y'all if I could have all
(23:52):
the hours back where I was fixating on food, I
would have a lot of time on my hands from
those days, you know, and have this professional who where
they may be, whether it's a doctor or a therapist
that specializes in this, let's go over maybe a nutritionist
like Lisa who I co host out weigh At is
a registered dietitian that focuses on eating disorders. Now, not
(24:13):
just any dietitian just because they're a dietitian doesn't mean
that they legit know how to handle you. There are
actually some registered dietitians that are contributing to a lot
of pain and hurt out there, and they don't mean
to be doing it, but they just haven't quite gotten
there yet where they realize, oh, shoot, I'm part of
the problem. For a long time, you know, I sat
(24:34):
here on this podcast, I was part of the problem.
I wasn't a registered dietitian, so nobody should have been
taking health advice for me anyways. But I was dishing
it out because I wanted to share what I was doing,
what was working for me, and I was passing it
along to you guys, and I shouldn't have been. I
was contributing to the problem, which unfortunately is what a
lot of registered dietitians are doing. So make sure if
(24:56):
you do go to one, you're going to one that
has the right line of thinking. And as part of
this anti diet culture movement, So to everyone listening right now, really,
if you're concerned about your behaviors, or maybe the behaviors
of a friend or a loved one, it is important
to seek an assessment in some way, shape or form
(25:16):
from someone to help really determine where you are. And
maybe you don't have the tools or the ability to
meet with a doctor or a therapist or a nutritionist
or registered dietcition or whatever it is. Find tools elsewhere.
Like I said in the I G t V posts,
there are books you can read. Brain over Binge was
(25:37):
extremely helpful for me. It may not be the right
tool for you, but it was for me. And that's
a book that you can order and read, or you
can download and listen to, or she's got blog posts
that are up. She has a podcast called Brain over Binge.
We have outweigh Those are just things that I know
to rely on. But spending some time on Google and
(25:58):
really doing a deep I've into some stuff. Lisa has
her fork, the Noise Program. I mean, there there are
resources out there that aren't going to cost you an
arm and a leg. So I just want to drill
that into people, and I want you to know that
there is no shame in anything that you're going through
and getting help is going to be the best thing
(26:20):
for you. And it might be baby steps. You might
not be doing all of this at once, but take
the next step whatever that is for you. If it's
listening to a podcast, downloading the book, opening up some
blog posts, getting the book that I just shared with
you all you know from our listeners, So whatever that is. Now,
I'm rambling here and people don't like it when I ramble,
so I'm gonna go ahead and get to the fourth email,
(26:41):
email number four from Morgan Joy. Hello, Amy, my name
is Morgan Joy, and I've been listening to the Bobby
Bones Show for about two years now. It wasn't until
this summer when I got in a podcast and I
happened upon your Four Things with Amy Brown. You talked
about your struggle with an eating disorder, and that really
resonated with me. I developed my eating to order at
fourteen years old, a freshman in high school. I spent
(27:03):
my entire high school career in and out of treatment
for anorexia. I am twenty five now, so that's eleven
years of my life that have been affected by it.
But thankfully I am strong and healthy now. I became
strong not wanting to waste a second of my potential.
I started driving trucks and operating heavy equipment as a
career while I went to college full time. I tried
(27:23):
out for the Voice and I made it to the
final round in Nashville. Before the blind auditions, I bought
a new vehicle so many things. I learned to start
using my empathetic soul to help those in need. Music
is something that helped my soul heal. Instead of starving myself,
I feed my soul and play and write music. I
picked up the guitar not too long ago and I
(27:44):
did a cover of this song. I hope you read
this message and I hope the song brings you comfort
because I'm rooting for you. It's a sisterhood and we're
all in this together. Okay, here's a little bit of
the song Morgan Joy attached to her email, and it's
her covering Dear god By or Astbury. I'm not scared
of pro faction to questions and to Lisbon and saw you,
(28:23):
I'm to listen scholing to all right. Thanks for that, Morgan,
and I wanted to share Morgan's email to all of
you because it's another story of hope, because she has
made it to a place of healing. And then, lastly,
I've got a bonus email for you all before we wrap,
and it's actually not related to eating disorder. I just
(28:44):
saw this email and wanted to throw it in quickly
because I loved it so much. It's from Ashley. She said, Hey, Amy,
you gave me a great idea. I'm a first grade
teacher in Massachusetts. Starting March one, I'll be having my six, seven,
and eight year old sharing one thing they are thankful
for each day. I'll model it and share my own.
I am so excited to build a moment of gratitude
(29:06):
into our extremely hectic days, and I'll be sure to
email you with some of what they share. Kids have
been true rock stars this year, and I'll forever be
thankful for my twenty twenty one class. Your friend and
tired but thankful teacher, Ashley, which Ashley, I love this note.
I think that's a great idea. And you know we
(29:27):
have our Gratitude Challenge coming up in the month of March,
so it looks like you're joining us in that with
your class. But I love that you're being realistic and
more ideal for six seven eight year olds to keep
it simple with one thing that they're thankful for. I mean,
some families like to participate in our challenge, and they
maybe happen to have a family of four, so they
each share one thing and that fills up for things
(29:49):
in their journal for the day, or maybe you have
more than four people in your family. It doesn't really matter.
You can still go around the table and share one
thing or six or seven, eight nine. The gratitu To
Challenge really doesn't have any rules. We did create this
little insert that we were going to be mailing out
to people that has four steps on how to do
(30:09):
the challenge, and I will be posting that on shop
spaws Instagram account and I run that in case you'll
want to go follow me there. My personal Instagram is
at Radio Amy and the Shoppe Bla account is at
shop Espoa and then Mary runs at the Shop Forward.
Sometimes people wonder the difference, but both Shop us Blah
and the Shot Forward will be posting the little sheet
(30:32):
that we made that you can screenshot. That will help
because I think I love how many of you want
the rules. You want to make sure that you're doing
the Gratitude challenge correctly, and you're like, oh, we want
that sheet, I need something to go by, But really
it's simple. Just grab any notebook that you have, or
there's still time to order our journal, which is radio
amy dot com or four things dot com for a
(30:52):
link to that. And our journals are awesome because while
Mary and I made them, so I am biased, but
they are super cute, Like they've got encouraging quotes and
stickers in the back, and we threw in some family
recipes and they support education through Project metic Share in Haiti.
So if you wanted to buy them as a gift
and maybe get all your girlfriends together and y'all do them,
but I get it that can add up and get expensive.
(31:13):
So like zero pressure, they're literally grab any notebook you
have and write down four things. If that's overwhelming to you,
do like Ashley is doing with her kids. I don't
care if you're fifteen or fifty five or sixty five
years old and it's overwhelming, do one thing a day,
Pick one thing a day that you're thankful for and
honestly too, even if you're starting this whole road to
(31:35):
recovery with your eating disordered disordered eatings, it really helps
to focus on other things besides yourself when you really
are looking for true healing because a lot of times
we are wrapped up in our own selves, in our
bodies and our workouts, in our food. Remember all that
time that you're spending obsessing about food in your body,
shift that and focus on other things that you are
(31:57):
thankful for and then it'll be like domino effect. So
that's another reason why I threw in this bonus email
as an encouragement to people that may be listening to
this podcast this week and realize, oh man, I think
it's time for me to start putting in the work
for recovery. Well, gratitude could actually be a part of that.
It can help give you a perspective that you weren't
seeing before and help you see life in a way
(32:21):
that you have so much to be thankful for, and
why are you spending all of your energy focused on
food and your body? And I'm not saying that from
this high horse like I am down here with y'all.
I'm not yelling that at you or preaching it at
you in any way. In fact, I probably speaking more
passionately because I've just been there and I know exactly
(32:42):
what you are going through and you're feeling. I mean,
probably not exactly to each person, but you know what
I mean. Like, I've been there. I've been in the
trenches of it, and it sucks, like sorry for that
word in case you have kids listening. It sucks, like
I can think of worst words to say. I don't
it sucks a bad word. I don't let my kids
say it. All right, now I'm rambling again, so I
(33:03):
guess that means it's time to go. But y'all are amazing.
Thank you for listening to the podcast. I appreciate everybody
that sends notes for things with Amy Brown at gmail
dot com. Is the email address radio ama dot com,
like I said before, is the website? All right, Caitlin Parker,
who is Bobby Bones is fiance is going to be
(33:25):
on this Thursday's podcast with me for All four Things,
So I will see you all Thursday. By
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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