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August 27, 2022 22 mins

OUTWEIGH: Licensed Paramedical Aesthetician Hannah Ellis is our expert guest in this 3-week series with Amy. In episode 1 of 3 they talk about disordered eating and how it affects our skin. Hannah says it’s so common for her to see clients that speak negatively about food & have self blame (i.e. about food for their skin). 

 

Hannah Ellis is a Licensed Paramedical Aesthetician and founder of Hannah Ellis Skincare here in Nashville, TN. 

 

As a Paramedical Aesthetician, her approach to skin starts internally and works its way to the surface by changing the way your skin functions at a cellular level via truly nourishing the skin without ablative and harsh treatments but strategically thoughtful and custom treatments for every skin condition. Hannah and her team of expert aestheticians she has trained specialize in acne, melasma and pigmentation issues, rosacea, aging concerns, and so much more all with a holistic approach through skin changing treatments, custom complexion home care routines and detailed education their clients can't find anywhere else. Her motto is “I empower my clients to achieve the healthiest skin of their life."

 

Hannah Ellis 

Owner | Hannah Ellis Skincare 

@thenashvilleaesthetician

hannahellisskincare.com

 

To contact Amy about Outweigh: hello@outweighpodcast.com

Best places to find more about Amy: RadioAmy.com + @RadioAmy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I won't let my body outwa out way everything that
I'm made do. Won't spend my life trying 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 way if you

(00:24):
feel it with your hands in there, She'll love to
the boom that. Let's say good day and did you
and die out? Happy Saturday? Outweigh fam Amy here and
my expert for the next three weeks is Hannah Ellis. Hey,
Hannah Hi. Now, Hannah is the owner of Hannah Ellis Skincare.

(00:48):
And I gotta say, I'm I'm not with you in person,
even though you are here in Nashville, but I'm looking
through you on zoom and you are radiant and glowing
and you also are about to give birth to a baby. Literally,
baby could pop anytime. Um, I like it could be

(01:10):
pregnancy sweat. You don't know. But we're shiny in here.
We're part of the Dewey family. Yeah, I'm I'm here
for the Dewey And yeah, it'd be great if you
go into labor during the podcast. That'd be we really
did it. You know, it was just I was doing
this podcast, and it all happened. Then it came, and
I'm excited to have you on to talk about the

(01:31):
effects of eating disorders on our skin. I think that
this is a very interesting topic and not one that
we have really covered. So let's talk about eating disorders
and disordered eating and how it affects our skin. Why
is this something that you're passionate about. I feel really fortunate.
Like my mom, she was always so good at talking
about food and feeding us and making sure we all,

(01:53):
like me and my sister like had pretty positive body
image references for ourselves. But when I stepped out into
the world and when I became an esthetician, like you're
just like aware that people kind of like have eating
disorders or something. And I mean I just knew it,
like like as if it was in the movies, like
oh my god, people have bulimia and axia, and I

(02:16):
thought it was like these extremes. But when you start
consulting with women, especially every day, and you're hearing them
talk about themselves. I'm meeting with people and asking them
about their lives, asking them about their health history and whatever,
and they are repeatedly saying the same things to you.
I just started to notice these common things where people

(02:36):
are associating like how they look with like how they
eat and the way they're talking about I'm like, oh
my gosh, these people have like really messed up views
of how they're eating and views of just of themselves.
I just started to notice the consistencies, and I was like,
this is super messed up. And in my first real
year of being an esthetician, it took a toll on

(02:58):
me because I started to be like, should I like
care about this stuff, like should I be watching how
much of X, Y and Z that I eat? Like
I never have I what I know about skin It
doesn't really matter as much as people probably think it
does what we're eating. I started to hear those words
and put them on myself, and I was like, hold

(03:18):
on this, something is like really wrong here, Like I
can't start internalizing these thoughts so starting to give me
like weird thoughts around food. Oh no, it absolutely makes sense.
Like I've been guilty of being that person. I can
say with a certainty that I would have been a
client that maybe sat in your chair or laid on
your table, and as you're working on me, may be like, uh,

(03:40):
I don't know what's going on. I just yes, I
ate this or ate that, and that's what's causing this.
And it was my birthday or I was celebrating that,
like you had to have a reason to have X
y Z. But society has made that type of talk acceptable.
And I feel as though you're upbringing as an exception. Yeah,
because what it if to not have had that that

(04:02):
brainwash in you early on. But it is a bummer
how easily it can transfer off to people, and in
such a and so wait, you're just there trying to
do your job doing skincare, but then you're going home
and then second guessing what you're eating or what you're doing.
And I would have passed that on to you as
an aesthetician. I know That's something My sister shares. She
never had food labeled as good or bad, and we

(04:24):
grew up in the same household, but somehow I did
because I was exposed to dieting younger. She was a
lot older by the time it was brought into our house,
so it didn't affect her as much. And so then
as adults, when I was in the thick of my
eating disorder, I would make her feel shame, and she
would be like questioning, should I feel bad about eating

(04:46):
this cake? What? I didn't mean to, right, I just
didn't realize that it isn't always just those extremes like
in the movies or in TV or where people have
like these extreme meeting disorders, that it's like little stuff
that hangs with you. It's these thoughts. It's these things
that kind of consume how you dictate what you're doing

(05:06):
in your life and how you're eating and how you
feel about yourself that we're constantly being brought up. And
I started to be like, WHOA, It's insidious the way
it like creeps in and then just starts to like
loop in your brain. Like sometimes I have clients who
are like downright beautiful, and I know they're like expressing
all of their like issues to me or whatever, but
I'm like looking at them, like you're beautiful and you

(05:28):
think this way, so should I. So I did some
research on you know, like is this even really related?
Is there actually causation between your skin and the food
that you're eating or not eating? And I really got
passionate about it. And then I met Kat and it
was funny because I was already like dealing with this,
and then Cat became like a good like friend client

(05:49):
of mine, and I swear there was like must have
been like smoke coming out from under the door of
her treatments, because it's just like we would meet and
we would just like explode, like great conversation and whatnot.
But like I was like, Oh, here's a person who
like gets it. So I think I just became super
passionate that you're like, no, you can get results in
your skin, but without dieting, without restriction, without certain goals

(06:14):
of like having to eat certain things. And then I
also started to learn like what to look for too,
And unfortunately I see it a lot in my brides.
So they'll come to me or I've been seeing them
for years and then they get engaged, and then all
of a sudden, I'm like, where are you getting all
this like acne, Like what is happening? You know what
I mean? And I'm like, oh my god, did you
start a diet? Like what are you doing? They're like yeah,

(06:37):
I've been like doing this whole other diet thing. It
started this like crazy workout plan and I'm like, your
face is so inflamed. This isn't good. Like something's wrong,
and I can see it in somebody before they even
admit to me that they've started doing anything differently. I
almost always know if someone started eating differently than they
have and I have to kind of like lightly ask.

(06:58):
You know, I can't like probe or judgy about it,
but I'm like, hey, are we doing anything different? Your
skin is looking really stressed out, And honestly, that's what
it is, is that you're starting to put your body
in this place of stress when you were like restriction,
in a restricting mode. And then you know that stress
leads to cortisol being released. Cortisol leads to like acidity,

(07:20):
and the body ascidity leads to inflammation, and inflammation leads
to acne. It can lead to pigment being created and
more stress, and then you know, cycles just circulate. It
keeps going and going. Also, now that you're equipped with
this knowledge, and you had some clients obviously that said
stuff to you that then led to you questioning yourself.

(07:41):
But then it led to you being like, nope, I'm
not falling for this. I'm gonna do some research here.
And you know, you took your power back. How do
you now help clients with that if someone were to
lay down and say a certain thing, like do you
have protocol now that you do, because like you said,
it's hard, you can't there's only so much of you,
I'd say, but did they know that you're someone that

(08:04):
they can come to for Hey, how do what's going on?
How can I navigate this? For sure? So the first
thing that I will always say, especially if it's like
the first time I'm meeting a client, is that we
like don't have to talk about diet here, Like you
never have to feel bad for what you're eating. Myself
and my team get people results without any restriction or

(08:25):
without any like food guides or anything. But if you're
concerned about that, or if you feel like you have
food sensitivities or allergies that are like directly relating to
like when I eat this, I see this in my skin,
I'm like that is caused for like seeing a nutritionist,
a registered dietitian, somebody whose license is actually meant to
help you guide you through like those types of symptoms.

(08:49):
But that we don't have to feel bad in our
bodies here. Don't come in here, You don't have to
come in here and apologize, you know, what I mean
for anything, We're gonna give you an outline a plan
for what I know works, but like that has nothing
to do with what you're eating at home, Like we're
just going to leave that out of it completely. I
think you had an episode on like what do you say?
Like it was maybe aimed around like Thanksgiving time or

(09:11):
something like what do you say at the table? It's
a lot of like stuff like that when someone is
kind of staying something a little triggering to somebody who
might have had an eating disorder, or just like maybe
I didn't have one, but I would just be like, Oh,
I don't talk about my body like that. You don't
have to say that about yourself. It's okay, let's try
to say it with a smile. I mean, of course
I have a mask on, but I hope it comes

(09:31):
across as kind where you're just like, oh no, you
don't have to feel like that in here. You're laying
the ground rules for like, hey, yeah, you're welcome here,
but I'm not going to let you talk about yourself
that way. That's not how we talk about things here,
and this is a safe space for you. Yeah, I

(09:55):
feel as though that people that are coming to see
you for skincare. Even with simple statement when they walk
in the door, they're leaving with so much more. In
the skincare industry, I do find a lot of people
are practicing outside of their scope and trying to give
diet advice. I think it comes from like good intention
because they're like, oh, let's like reduce inflammation as much

(10:18):
as much as possible. You know, I get it, I
see it. But the research behind like the causation of
like these foods equals x or something like the correlation
doesn't equal causation. There there's not a lot of backed
up data between like certain foods and acne or student
certain foods and pigmentation. Like it really is not as

(10:38):
like researched and proven as it seems to be on Instagram,
especially because there's all these people like saying it's this,
it's that, it's this, it is that, And I think
it's really different to come across a skin practice that
like is actually like no, we're just like not going
to talk about that. I hope that is kind of
what sets my practice and the astheticitions that I train

(10:58):
apart a little bit in that you can come here
and be completely safe the whole point is that you
are getting results driven skincare in like a nurturing and
safe environment and not just like on the outside because
we have like cute marketing or like plants everywhere. I
mean seriously, like, I'm not gonna let you talk about
your body like that. We're just going to take care

(11:18):
of you here. That's literally it. I saw some quote
and I'm going to paraphrase it now and I don't
even remember who said it, but I was reading something
and it was like, if we just talked to ourselves
like we talked to our best friends. Gosh was it?
Maybe Megan marcle I might be completely during that, but
it's something along the lines of that. Just She's like,

(11:39):
imagine how awesome we would be because we want to
pump our best friends up. We don't want our best
friends to talk down about each other, or like, as
a mom, how would you talk to your daughter? And unfortunately,
some of this conversation because we grew up talking a
certain way. We talk about things nonchalantly like oh, don't
eat that sugar that's going to be bad for your face,

(12:01):
or don't don't eat that because we grew up with it.
And then we just regurgitate it. But I will say
whoever came up with the whole thing that, yeah, what
you eat is going to show up on your skin.
And like you said, it's not as well researched as
we would think. I would have put money otherwise because
it is what you hear all the time. It's the

(12:23):
loudest at least, and so that's tricky. It's tricking out
to fall into it because I mean, I hope this
doesn't sound too negative, but like if you're like not
seeing results in clearing your blemishes or getting certain results,
some professionals, like estheticians, I think they get frustrated and
they're like, well, are you still like drinking soda every
day or something? And then you're like, I like think

(12:46):
that can be really toxic in this industry. I feel
like it is where you start scrambling because the professional
might like not know what the next step is because
they're they've reached their like level of education at it.
I wonder if they're like, well, I'm gonna start just
like saying well, it's on the client, then you know
what I mean, it's not on me to like try
and find another route or another alternative treatment for this client.

(13:07):
It makes me think about how we have believed, because
doctors have made us believe that body size equals health
and right equals health. And how I mean, we've had
doctors here on our way that have said no, absolutely not,
And I would never treat a client that way. I
would never have them come in with one particular ailment

(13:27):
and then just try to tell them to lose weight. Yeah,
well you need to lose weight first before we like
even do any work or like see check hormones or
any of that kind of stuff, right, right, But then
why is it so common, you know, like just even
in the industry, even with doctors. I just feel like
we come across so many doctors that are like saying
exactly that, oh, you should lose like x amount before

(13:50):
we're going to run any of these tests or whatever.
I'm like, run red flat, get a second opinion. Like
It's kind of the same in the skin industry a
little bit too. And I think it's just like a
lack of education or you know, professionals reaching a limit
at what their level of accesses to certain treatments and
how far they can go with it. So I don't
really think it comes out of malice or anything. They're

(14:12):
probably in it too. They have believed those things for themselves. Yeah,
and so when you're training a steticians, this is something
that you put at the forefront, so you make sure
to pass it along. Yeah, most of them have had
a past with disordered eating. I feel like it's just
so common. Most aestheticians had a skin condition at one point,

(14:33):
and that's how we kind of find ourselves in this
industry because we have a passion for it because we're like,
oh my god, I struggled with my skin and then
I figured it out, and here's how I did it,
and I want to help other people, right, That's how
I got into this. And so along with all of that,
people are like, oh, well, I tried restricting my diet
and doing X y Z. So I do find that

(14:54):
a lot of estheticians have their own experience with disordered
eating as well, and I think it feels we all
kind of get it in a sense. So I really
actually look for people who understand that already and already
have that empathy because they're going to be a good
fit in my practice, if that makes sense from the start,
Because if I have to be like don't say that, Like,
then maybe we're not on the same page everybody. Uh,

(15:17):
we do not make food suggestions or restriction restrictive suggestions,
and we have a list of registered dietitians and nutritionists
in the Nashville area that we hand out to like everybody.
If you're like this, if you're really concerned about this,
here's where you can go. And so I would like
to hear a little bit more of your story of
how you got into skincare because you mentioned that, you know,

(15:38):
I feel a little backwards. We've been just like jumping
all into it. But we can, um, we can do
that on episode two, So we'll break that down next Saturday.
But I love that you're doing things differently and hopefully
this will start to pick up and that we can
just get to a place no matter what. I just
keep picturing the girls land out. We immediately just start

(16:01):
trying to make excuses for ourselves and all the labeling
food as good and bad, but food has nothing to
do with being good or bad. So I love that
you're a part of that story, even though yeah, you're
not a registered dietitian, but you're working with mostly women
I assume every day and this type of stuff affects

(16:22):
men as well, definitely. But I love how conscious you are.
Even before we started recording, I kind of thought, well,
with all your wisdom, you probably know some nutrients that
are good for us to have our some foods that
are like, oh, your skin loves this, like it's very
like an avocado. I don't know. I'm not in skinholt,
so I'm just throwing that out there. But I love

(16:43):
that you're like, oh, we really don't like to make
food suggestions because I don't want anybody to get tripped
up on like, oh, now all I can have is avocados.
And that's why I like to have the experts on
because I am in a place of recovery. So now
I want to use things as as information for me.
But I know that a lot of people listening may
not be exactly where I am. And I used to

(17:05):
listen to any little thing and I would grab onto
it and then I would use it to fit into
my orthorexiam, my my little box of foods that I
was only allowed and I would only eat those foods,
and it got so restrictive, and yeah, again probably caused
me so much more stress. I got one of those
blood tests done or whatever to tell me what foods

(17:28):
that we're going to cause inflammation to me. I guess
so that I was sensitive to, and some of the
stuff that showed up on my severe I really enjoyed.
And it then because they were on my severe, I
completely cut them out, and it caused me so much
stress because I think, speaking of avocados, I love avocados
and I love guacamole, and I no longer could have them,

(17:53):
but I could have cash shows. So I ate cash
shows all day long, and I ate way more cashows
than I ever haven't. I don't. If I never see
a cash you again, I'm going to be good. Because
during that season which I had, my eating disorder had
a lot of different little seasons, but this was my
blood test season, and it was crazy how I looked

(18:15):
at it like it was the Bibles. You use that
information to like validate your confirmation bias, right to be like, oh,
I see I shouldn't eat this, that and this and
the other. And if I just like am good and
do these three things, then like my skin will be
perfect or my body will look perfect, or I'll have
this and then I'll finally be happy. You know, it

(18:37):
always like leads down to right, and here's no way
that you or I he sitting here on this podcast
can guarantee that for anybody, because everybody's bodies are so different.
So I just wanted to acknowledge your wisdom and that
you're legit the real deal, because I definitely wasn't testing
you by any means, but I was just kind of

(18:58):
curious about things that are skin in my like, and
You're like, oh, I try to stay away from that,
and I'm I completely respected that, and I'm like, that's
what I'm talking about. I felt like I was like, Okay,
I don't want to like jump into it too hard
or be like Amy, we're not going to talk about that.
But I felt like you were like, I just, you know,
maybe there are some good things we can eat that

(19:18):
are like good for your skin. And I'm like, of
course there are, yes, we don't need to mention that.
I don't know if we need to like list it.
I mean, you're not wrong. Avocados might have things that
are inflammatory to some people, but there's lots of essential
fatty a sid's and that's good for you. So I
don't know, I'm not a nutrition iss, not a just
your dietitian. But it's like, you know, you're you're not wrong.

(19:40):
I know what you're looking for. When people say stuff
like that, well, what can I eat that is better
for me? I'm like, I feel like that is like
intuitive to you, and like, also that's not always fair
to say, because sometimes people really aren't trained to like
be intuitive around food about like what's good for them
what's not. So I'm sorry, but I did say this
earlier to you. Vitamins, A, C, E, antioxidants, Omega's like,

(20:03):
it's it's just the it's the easy stuff that you're like,
I can eat this and it's good, and I can
also like have a burger and expect that. You know,
there's beta carotene and antioxidants and the tomato and there's
green and the lettuce, and you know, it's a whole
about like you get every you get things from everything.
So I don't mean to demonize or like say you

(20:24):
have to focus on X y Z either. I think
we're getting enough in our diets intuitive eating. That's something
everyone's on their own journey to figure out what that
looks like for them. And when we've spent you know
for me decades completely going against anything our body is
telling us, in us trying to control it so much,

(20:45):
it is difficult to kind of take the steering wheel
again and be like, oh, I can do this, and
it just takes time, and I never thought I would
get there, but I feel as though I'm getting there
as I'm in my recovery and I feel it. So
I can offer at least that hope for people that
it is overwhelming at first to think or just to think, well,

(21:06):
maybe that's other people can do it, but I cannot.
And I just want you to believe in yourself that
you can learn to trust yourself, not even just when
it comes to food decisions. I think we have a
hard time trusting ourselves with a lot of decisions. Yeah,
as we were just talking about it, I just I
feel guilty. First thing intuitive so much just because I
know so many people like really like you're disordered. Eating
can really like detach you from that intuitiveness and even

(21:30):
trusting yourself. So if you need help with that, you know,
that's what your nutrition is just for. That's what your
registered dietitian is for, to help you kind of gauge
what are these things that I like that that I
like to have, or I don't mean to be like, oh,
you know, you know what's good for you, Like it's fine,
it's easy. I don't mean for it to sound like that. Um.
I just meant like someone can guide you back to

(21:52):
those kinds of listening to your body kind of stuff.
But what I meant is that it's definitely less about
like you've got to like not eat certain things and
eat these other things, and I just I don't like
any of that. Yeah, well, at least I thank you
for being a safe place for people to come and
get glowing skin. Now. You're the owner of Hannah Ellis

(22:15):
skin Care. We talked about that on Instagram. You're at
the Nashville Esthetician and Hannah Ellis skin Care dot com
is where people can find out all the details. Well,
thank you for talking with us about disordered eating and
how I can affect or not affect are it does
affect our skin, but food in general, how it can

(22:37):
affect or not affect our skin. And Hannah will be
back for the next two weeks. We'll see it in
amazing See you then,

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