Holistic Health Coach, Holly Toscanini coaches women who are ready to walk away from diet culture and redefine their relationship with food while establishing a peaceful relationship with their bodies. Her approach includes mindful-intuitive eating, intentional movement, and unconditional body acceptance. In this interview Holly shares insights to intuitive eating.
Can you tell us a little bit about what you do and how you’re different from a nutritionist?
I coach intuitive eating and take a gentle approach to nutrition, not one that’s based on calorie counting, restricting food groups, or assigning the label of good or bad to any food.
What are some of the reasons you hear most frequently as to why your clients initially come to see you?
I coach women who are ready to walk away from dieting and redefine their relationship with food and aging while establishing a peaceful relationship with their bodies. This is important because it allows them to stop wasting precious time and energy trying to change themselves to fit some unrealistic ideal of beauty and speaks to their underlying desire to feel valued and worthy just as they are.
How does diet affect a happy, healthy headspace?
I don’t think “diets” are good for anyone. However, I do believe in learning to listen to your body to know what’s best for you and your nutritional needs.
Do you have any tips to share on how to manage your mood with food?
I see managing our mood with food as a last resort. If we are feeling empty, stressed out, or unhappy it’s best to learn to manage our minds through a process of self-coaching. I don’t think eating emotionally is a bad thing to do sometimes. I think it’s perfectly ok to feel sad and eat ice cream. In order to experience lasting change, we have to learn how to manage our minds. The thoughts we have about our circumstances create our beliefs. These thoughts also create feelings or emotions that cause us to take action. The actions we take create the results we get. If we want different results in life we must practice managing our thoughts.
If you could share one important nutrition tip for us, what would it be?
Stop dieting. Dieting is stressful, restrictive, and never delivers on its promise of lasting weight loss followed by the perfect life where all your problems magically disappear.
