Own It with Samantha Warren

This week’s podcast is a snippet from my signature course, Breakthru The Binge. In our journey to food freedom, we often focus so much on the food and the weight loss. Often we forget about the simple things like learning to love ourselves and to give ourselves a break. When I think back to times I restricted or didn’t give myself permission, I didn’t allow myself to have fun. To enjoy myself. To slow down. Now I look at it and think “Where did that get me?” And the answer? Absolutely nowhere. One of the most important shifts we can make in our journey to food freedom is to come at it from a place of love and compassion. We need to be our own best friends and take care of ourselves. Top Takeaways Give yourself a break. Judging ourselves and giving ourselves a hard time will not create change. Be kind to yourself and remember that you’re doing the best you can. You can't beat yourself up into success or yell at yourself into changing. We have to do it with love. Take steps to start liking yourself. Start by just introducing the possibility to yourself. How would it feel? If you let in the possibility of liking yourself, the journey you’re on will become more grounded in a place of love. You want to have a healthy, confident feeling and most of all, you want to feel good about you. If you don't believe in yourself fully right now, that's okay. Remember to be kind and take each day as it comes.

On today’s episode of Balance with Sam, I talk to a former client and now an amazing friend of mine, Alex Chang. Alex made such incredible progress working with me over the past year or two, and is now transitioning into another phase in her life. We have an open and honest conversation about what it's like to make the leap from a 9 to 5 and to take total control, feel good in your body, build up the confidence to be able to make that leap. Top Takeaways The unknown can feel so scary and it can be hard to take that leap. Where do you find the courage and faith? It’s about cultivating the trust within yourself that you will figure it out. You’ve probably been through the hard stuff in your life but you got through it. You know how to look after yourself. You might need to face down some opinions from your friends, your family or your coworkers. Hold on to that belief inside you. Find your mentor and someone you can borrow belief from. Someone who's where you want to be. If having a business of your own means freedom and family and the life you want and balance, being able to create your own schedule and clients and all of these things, talk to someone in your life who has that. They won’t have the exact path and the exact steps you need to take but they can guide you, they can keep you on your path. They will be your cheerleader. You are your purpose. Your life experience is your purpose. You get to teach others from your life experience. Whether it be the skills you've learned, the experiences that you've had or the mistakes you've made. When you teach from your place of purpose, that’s where the magic happens. You can rewrite your story and reclaim your most authentic self. Think about what freedom means for you. What does that feel like? What does it look like? What does it taste like? What does it smell like? You'll know when you're ready. Trust yourself to carve your own path.

In today’s episode of Balance with Sam, I share a coaching call with one of my clients (for the sake of the podcast, we’ll call her “Amanda”). Amanda shares with me the struggles she has with persevering with her food journey when she doesn’t see or feel an immediate difference. We discuss using breathwork as a tool, being in tune with your body and how breaking the journey down into priorities can help it seem more achievable. Not seeing immediate results is something we all struggle with. As Amanda puts it, “How much longer do you need to do this work?” For example, breathwork is an amazing tool for emotional eating. It allows you to calm yourself, especially if you are in a heightened state of fear or anxiety, and consciously brings you back into your body. But it takes time to see the results of it. It’s underwhelming to begin with but it’s the continued repetition using breathwork as a practice that will teach your body to change its response. The same goes for your emotional eating journey. Top Takeaways If something brings out a fear or anxious response, the longer you avoid looking at it, the bigger and more scary it becomes. The only way out of that is to just take ownership and accept it. Do your breathwork. Tell yourself “I’m here. I am alive. I am safe”. It's acknowledging the fear that happens and then breathing your way through it. Breathwork allows you to use your body to move the emotion, instead of your head. All the steps in the journey might feel overwhelming. The working out, the eating, the breathing. The last thing you want is for it to feel like a chore. Remember, you’re creating a toolbox and you can make a conscious choice in those moments. If we aren't aware in time, our body will just default to the autopilot of “I'm going to eat or drink” unless you make the choice to think “Oh wait, I have other tools in my toolbox.” Prioritize being mindful of your calorie intake and take time to learn when your body is actually physically hungry rather than emotionally or mentally hungry. When we start getting a healthier relationship with hunger and fullness, like when to eat or when to stop, that is when we can turn back inward and listen to our body. Our body is way smarter than our head at making food decisions. Find what your non-negotiables are. It might be just doing some movement throughout the day. Or doing 2 minutes a day of breathwork. Something doable. Something is better than nothing and you lift up those around you by just being you and by taking care of you. Set boundaries and nurture yourself.

Today’s episode is a recording of my recent masterclass, Hello Food Freedom! I discuss my own history with disordered eating and give you practical tools you can use to kick-start your own journey out of emotional eating. I always used to feel like my external world and physical body didn’t match who I was on the inside- a strong bad-ass. I felt misaligned. Growing up, I was really short (I'm still short) and all my friends were tall. All my friends were “sticks” and I was the athletic build. I never felt like I fit in. I was also taught from an early age that feelings are weak. I didn’t cry. I didn’t express emotion. Instead, I ate. Food was the accessible thing for me. It helped me cope with hard things. It helped me soothe and helped me numb out. Food was the one thing that always had my back. And then I got sucked into dieting culture. Restrictive eating. Dieting culture taught me that skinny equaled happy. I broke free and now I teach women to do the same. Top Takeaways You are good enough right now. Generally, emotional and disordered eating is not about the food. It's your beliefs and conditioning that have held you back from reaching your goals and potentials. Through societal conditioning, you’ve been led to believe that being smaller means you are worthy. That is not true. You are worthy and deserving and good enough right now. Make this a mantra in your life: I am good enough. I am deserving. You are conditioning your truth. You can start living your life right now and you can start putting yourself out there right now. Listen to your body and its needs. You're in a partnership. Your body is always trying to reach homeostasis and it will tell you what it values and what it needs. We can then learn to trust it, instead of fearing it and trying to control it. Listen to your inner child and ask her what she needs. Listen to your hunger cues. Are you eating for hunger? Or something else? Change the language you use. It's a really small shift but it makes so much difference. You can use tools like mantras, affirmations, visualization, breath, work, meditation or  journaling. Tell yourself every day things like “My body loses weight naturally and easily” “I eat enough to maintain a healthy body weight” “I eat for hunger and health, not to avoid feeling.” It might sound cheesy but it works. Food freedom is about finding the middle ground. All foods are good foods. Some foods are good for your physical health. Some foods are good for your mental and emotional health, but they're all important as part of the overall health. Listening to your body's needs is the middle ground. The goal is to stop dieting and to start giving yourself permission to eat the things you love in an amount that feels good. This is about finding a balance.

On today's episode, I’m joined by my amazing friend and client, Laura! Laura is a marriage and family mental health clinician and one of the most badass, epic human beings I’ve ever met. Laura came to me about six months ago wanting to improve her relationship with food, feel more confident in her body and just feel better about herself. She was caught in a spiral of binging and wanted to find a way out. We started to work together and she got to a really good place mentally and physically but then something interesting happened. She started to spiral but while she was feeling she was going “downhill” physically, she felt like she was spiraling up mentally. The shift looked different than how she thought it would. It meant she really stepped back from the fear of healing, my relationship with food and embraced it. While this has led her to put some of the weight back on, Laura felt different. She was a better mental and emotional headspace. She was aware of her triggers and the binging stopped. She gave herself the permission she needed. She started to ask herself “Do I feel happy with my body?” “Do I feel healthy?” “Am I healthy?” Top Takeaways If you are going to heal your relationship with food, you have to embrace what that means for you. Whether it means weight gain, whether that means eating things that you tell yourself you're not allowed to eat because they will make you fat or you will never stop eating them or you will overdo it. Allow yourself to tell yourself that you’re going to heal and by healing, we have a little less emotional baggage. It’s about allowing your body to be where it is and take the pressure off yourself. You don’t have to eat that donut when it’s offered because you can have it anytime. Look at it as a full integration of health- spiritual, mental, emotional and the physical Be kind to yourself and be present. Especially during COVID, there’s been a weight on all of us. You might get to a place where you feel like you can’t hold yourself in that space anymore. The space where you have to be “on'' 100% of the time or you always have to be on track. Give yourself a little bit of grace, cut yourself some slack and be compassionate. Focus on what you’re great at. For Laura, when she worked out, it used to be about punishing herself but when she gave herself the space, it became about seeing what she could achieve. She was in awe of what her body is capable of. Give yourself permission to not be perfect.

In today's episode, I'm joined by my incredible friend, Ronni Robinson. Ronni is an Author and a former Iron Man Competitor, Triathlete, Spin Instructor and someone who has been a huge part in my eating disorder journey. Her recently released book, "Out of the Pantry" details her disordered journey that started in childhood and controlled her life the majority of her early adult life until she heard the phrase "compulsive overeater" and decided to make a change. During our conversation, Ronni talks about the emotional void she experienced as a child from her family and how she used food to try and fill that void for so many years. From a young age, she was groomed not to question actions and started to hide her overeating from her parents any way she could. Patterns of her disordered eating began to develop and the older she got, the easier it became. Even after leaving an emotional abusive relationship and marrying her now-husband, Ronni continued the pattern. Her life was focused on food- when she could next eat, what she could eat. It wasn’t until she was watching TV one night where she saw the words “compulsive overeater” that it became clear what was happening. It had a name. From there, she developed the four main tools she needed to recover and began the journey of healing herself. Ronni Robinson Top Takeaways: Talking about it and naming it for what it is- an eating disorder- is so important. Until recently, the narrative around eating disorders was solely focused on anorexia and bulimia. So many of us didn’t understand that compulsive eating was a thing and that others were going through it as well. There is so much shame associated with it and it can be isolating. Knowing that you are not alone is a huge relief. By naming it and talking about it, you can start to understand what it is and how you can recover. It helps remove that shame and opens you up to healing. Therapy is key to recovery. In discovering the “why” behind your disordered eating, you will come to understand your body and mind in new ways and respect what it has been through. Therapy will help you work through the issues that led to you using food as a coping mechanism and how those experiences shaped you. You can develop the inner tools you need to cope now and into the future. Having a food plan was vital to Ronni’s recovery. Don’t work for a place of deprivation (she always ended the day with five Hershey’s kisses!). Think about how you can get the most out of your food, in both nutrition and quantity, with the least amount of calories. It will take time and early on, you will need to learn to trust yourself again around food. Calorie tracking can also help, especially in the early stages, when you are learning about food and what your body needs. Understand that food needs to be part of your life but it shouldn’t be the most exciting part. Finding another way to fill the “void” that food filled. For Ronni, it was starting to compete in triathlons. Doing something out of your comfort zone will put the spotlight and your focus on something other than food. It can feel like a selfish choice but it is empowering. It’s about filling up your cup in a different way and finding the grounding practices that work for you. Relevant Links https://www.instagram.com/ronnirobwrites/ https://www.amazon.com/Out-Pantry-Disordered-Eating-Journey/dp/1735184802/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2CKZKYSHDXA7I&dchild=1&keywords=out+of+the+pantry+book&qid=

Today, I wanted to share yet another solo episode discussing something that hits close to home for me. It’s about the topic of toxic body image. I’ll be giving you strategies for you to heal your relationship with your body and ultimately with yourself so you can start treating yourself with acceptance, respect, and love. If you’ve ever struggled with body shaming, hating your body, or wanting to “fix” yourself, this episode is for you. I’ve always been at war with my body. Until very recently, I’ve always tried to be a different body type than I actually was. If you’re this same place, you are not alone. Nearly every woman struggles with this mentality. “Healthy” does not look like a size. It’s about cultivating a sense of self worth. Helping to create a positive body image is the perfect place to start. “If you’re always focused on being somebody else, you will miss your entire life being you.” - Sam Altieri Top Takeaways: When you live in a place of fear, it consumes your mind. If you’re living your life and not doing what you want out of fear, just start doing it now! It will give you the confidence you need to reclaim your health and honor your body. Remember, you only get one! Everyone will always have an opinion about you. We all judge one another. It’s part of human existence. Just remember that judgement is a projection of one’s personal insecurities on you. Use your energy to instead move your own life forward in a positive way. Think about people who have what you have and are already confident. Find other people that look like you that are simply loving their life. They are known as “expanders.” They’re reenforcing the things you feel insecure about and teach you that those things are ok. This is called “mirror neurons.” You can start to think about yourself in that way. This takes time, but it’s scientifically viable. It gives you permission to thrive right at this very moment. You don’t get to postpone your happiness any longer. You get to be happy and confident right now! Mute or unfollow any social media account that “triggers” you. If you see an account and feel less than or not good enough, that’s not inspiration anymore. Remove it from your life. The most important thing you can manage is your energy. Think, what boundaries do you need to set up so you can feel good day to day? People in your life accept you and love for exactly who you are. It’s not about how much you weigh or what you look like. When you try to curate your body image by amalgamating different aspects of different people, you end up looking like no one at all. You instead still look just like you. You get so focused on where you’re not. This is miserable. It is time to stop this mentality immediately! If you refuse to respect your body, it will revolt against you. It wants to be seen and heard exactly as it is right now. You are WORTHY. Right here and right now. In your CURRENT body. You can accept your body AND want to change it. I encourage you to do so from a place of HEALTH and STRENGTH, not restriction and fear! Get Connected and Supported by Sam: Sign up for Breakthru the Binge Course WAITLIST [Launches Sept 2020!]: https://www.balancewithsam.com/breakthruwaitlist Instagram for Free Content: www.instagram.com/saltylifts

Today, I have another solo episode for you to enjoy! One of the most common questions I get from my clients involves never knowing what to eat. So I wanted to give you a strategy to help make this decision infinitely easy every time. We are often overwhelmed by the mere number of decisions in the different areas in our life. This is called “decision fatigue,” and is defined by having too many options, which overwhelms you and paralyzes you from being able to make a decision at all. This episode is here to ease this very fatigue and you create a structure for yourself so that you can get through the day with way more energy and life. “I come from a place of nourishing and being best friends with my body, because I only get one of them. And so do you.” - Sam Altieri Top Takeaways: As a consumer, if you are given too many options, you won’t buy anything at all. Your brain needs a small number of options to choose from. The same goes for food. The less options you have, the easier it is for your brain to commit to and feel confident about a decision. “The 5 S’s”: Salad, Stir Fry, Sandwich, Smoothie, Soup. This is a quick and easy way to think about your food options. Whenever you’re ready to eat a meal, think carefully about what it actually is that you’re craving. Then pick from one of the 5 options that fits best. If you prepare something ahead of time, you may not actually want what you prepared in the future. This will leave you unsatisfied. When this happens, you will either eat more to compensate or even overeat at your next meal altogether. When you’re trying to feel satisfied, be sure you’re satisfying both your physical and psychological needs. Not every meal will be a “party in your mouth.” If you set out with that expectation, you’ll spend a lot of energy being disappointed and frustrated. Get more comfortable with meals that have the option to be less satisfying while you understand what truly makes you feel satisfied. Eating is for enjoyment and nourishment and to make you feel healthy. It’s not to restrict or limit you. Think about your current relationship with food. What helps keep you on track? Incorporate what actually makes you happy when you eat! Food is complex and dynamic. Be flexible with it so you can make better, more satisfying decisions. Food shouldn’t restrict, it should enliven you. Eat, enjoy, and move on so you can focus on living in the present in the rest of your life. Think of food as art. How many colors can you add to your meal? That is the basis of overall health, not dieting. You can lose weight while you get healthy. Eat from a place of health, not weight loss. If you master this mindset, weight loss becomes the bonus! Get Connected and Supported by Sam: Sign up for Breakthru the Binge Course WAITLIST [Launches Sept 2020!]: https://www.balancewithsam.com/breakthruwaitlist Instagram for Free Content: www.instagram.com/saltylifts

In today’s episode, Karoline Stevens joins me again for a deep dive into MONEY and ABUNDANCE!  As an empowerment coach with years of incredible experience under belt, Karoline has been a crucial figure in the personal journeys of many of her clients, and has likewise been pivotal in my own. During our conversation, Karoline discusses how our mindset shapes our experience and relationship with the world, what it means to find focus in your vision, how to truly embrace your own journey, and much more. She presents an enlightening perspective on the perceptual pitfalls we tend to fall into and how to shift it so you can live a life that’s fulfilling and meaningful right away. “What you’ve created is because of your patterns of thinking. Change those, and you can create something different.” - Karoline Stevens Top Takeaways: It’s easy to be identified with our conditions. We look at our money, our health, our body image, etc. and we allow our mindset to be dictated by our circumstances or story. It requires help to get out of that mindset. Consider a mentor or coach to support you in this respect. It’s an investment that is meant to help you see your blind spots. You want to constantly be focused on your vision and what you love in your life. Our fullest potential is often hindered by something within us that makes it difficult to accomplish what we need to be accomplishing. It’s much like a pebble in a shoe. Once that pebble is identified and removed, you’re finally able to walk comfortably again. Ask yourself, “What is my vision? What is my purpose?” Ultimately, your highest purpose is yourself. Don’t fall into the trap of destination addiction. You want to be fully committed to your vision without living in the future. Don’t postpone your happiness for when you achieve your next arbitrary goal. Happiness should not be conditional. Find happiness now in your current situation. Remember, it’s not the end goal that matters. It’s the journey that matters. Everything that you do is part of your vision. Nothing is separate. Do everything with gratitude and with perspective on how it contributes to helping you develop into the person you’re working to become. Ask yourself, “Who do I have to be in order to become the person that I want to be?” Act like the kind of person who already has that. When you live into it, you very quickly become it. We are allowed to live a life we love. Allow your imagination to go wild in thinking what you love in all areas of your life. Then affirm it in your life every day. Beliefs run our lives. Your experience is a mirror of your beliefs. What you’ve created is because of your patterns of thinking. All you need to do is change those and you can create something different. Relevant Links: https://instagram.com/karolinestevens Get Connected and Supported by Sam: Sign up for Breakthru the Binge Course WAITLIST [Launches Sept 2020!]: https://www.balancewithsam.com/breakthruwaitlist Instagram for Free Content: www.instagram.com/saltylifts

In today’s episode, my incredible friend, bestie and light worker, Gabby Ortega. A trauma specialist with a background in neuropsychology, Gabby now coaches female entrepreneurs in healing and wellness. With so much practical knowledge and education, I wanted to bring her insight to light and reveal the true secrets of her and her clients’ success. In our interview, Gabby discusses her experience growing up with trauma in all areas of her life, her battle with PTSD and chronic anxiety, and how she decided to take total control of her own healing by becoming a trained therapist. In light of the frightening inefficiencies and injustices of our current mental health care system, it is her mission to change the world by helping to foster more and more businesses that promote the client’s healing first, instead of simply maximizing their own profits. “When there is self compassion, there is no room for shame.” - Gabby Ortega Top Takeaways: Once you crack open into exactly who you are and find your true alignment, the world opens up to you. Everyone hits their own rock bottom. Once you do, realize that you now have a choice - You can either end it all or you can finally confront the issue at hand and figure it out. Organize your experience and take charge once and for all. The world around you will seem as if everyone is successful and happy and you’re the only person who isn’t. This isn’t true! Everyone has their own issues they’re battling as well. No matter what you’re feeling, you’ve never been alone in feeling them. When you place the focus on healing as opposed to the symptom, such as “weight loss” or “muscle building,” then you’re truly free. How you cope with your anxiety and trauma has been a mechanism for survival. You’re here, you’re alive, and that was the purpose from the start. Release the guilt. Your “root” is not who you are. It’s what you’ve done to cope and keep yourself alive. Your body is always moving towards self healing, not destruction. It’s us who confuses what’s actually helpful and what isn’t. “Trauma” is anything that you consider to be traumatic. It’s always from your own perspective. What might be traumatic to one person may not mean much of anything to another. So don’t judge or degrade your own trauma. No matter what your trauma is, don’t try to find a quick fix. Recognize you’re strong enough and face exactly what it is head on. Rip it open, stitch it up, and finally move on. Once you do, the only voice that’s left is the voice of your highest self. Your inner critic doesn’t belong to you. It’s an automatic thought that’s responding to a stimulus, relating back to a past bad experience that’s meant to ultimately save you. This exists within the reptilian brain and it’s completely out of your control. That inner critic is a monster. Identify it! Physically draw whatever that voice is. Give it a name. Then use that to remind yourself that those voices don’t belong to you, but rather it belongs to that. Relevant Links: https://www.instagram.com/om_therapy_coaching/ Get Connected and Supported by Sam: Sign up for Breakthru the Binge Course WAITLIST [Launches Sept 2020!]: https://www.balancewithsam.com/breakthruwaitlist Instagram for Free Content: www.instagram.com/saltylifts Facebook Support Group: www.facebook.com/groups/fitandfreelife