All products featured on Self are independently selected by our editors.
However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
Kelsey Miller had spent her whole life dieting.
The idea behind intuitive eating is simple.
and Elyse Resch, M.S., R.D.N., C.E.D.R.D., Fiaedp, F.A.D.A., published their bookIntuitive Eating.
She’s conquered fears like being photographed in abikini.
She’s pushed back against the “rules” ofplus-size fashion.
She’s confronted trolls.
Before you learned about intuitive eating, what were your habits like?
What were you struggling with?
I had been in the diet cycle since I was a child.
It was never like I was eating normally.
I was either on a diet or in-between diets.
And when you’re in-between diets, you feel like you’re being “bad.”
You’re drenched in shame.
I was a mess.
Food was either salvation or the enemy, depending on the day.
This content can also be viewed on the site itoriginatesfrom.
What brought you to intuitive eating?
I’d heard about it, because I was always on the prowl for a new diet book.
So I stumbled across it a couple of times, but I wasn’t ready to hear it.
There’s a reason my brain kind of hung on to the concept.
It teaches you how to eat like a normal person again.
It dawned on me all at once.
“Oh, I’m done with dieting.
Oh, I’m done hating myself.
And I think this might be the tool I need to help myself get out of the woods.”
Or did you make smaller changes with the way you were eating?
Retraining your brain to think differently about food must have been very challenging.
Oh, yeah, it’s a constant.
The thing that’s disappointing to meand to everyoneis that it’s never really over.
With a diet, you have the rules in place and you follow the rules.
But with this, there are principles, not really guidelines or rules.
It’s never over.
There were radical changes and the first thing was, no more food rules.
And that was a radical change in and of itself.
But that doesn’t stop your brain from looking at a potato and seeing it in Weight Watchers points.
You have to practice it a lot to make the potato just a potato again.
Did you work with any specialists?
A dietitian or a therapist?
I was really, really luckyI knew that I needed help.
So I found an eating coach who is a registered dietitian, and she specialized in intuitive eating.
She was basically the person who sat there with me and talked through my day.
That kind of thing.
So what made you decide to share this so very publicly?
Not everyone would be able to do that.
I think a lot of it comes from who I am as a person and as a writer.
I also had a very messed up relationship with exercise.
I really wanted to share the lessons I learned along the way.
Did you change the way you exercise as well?
Before, I was really all-or-nothing with exercise.
I have lifelong injuries from going too hard and just being an idiot.
It was very extreme.
So I realized, there’s got to be a way to be active.
I had to learn the difference between being a gym junkie and being an active person.
I had to relearn the way I saw exercise and really challenge my old feelings on that.
How do you feel about the reaction you’re seeing to your column and the book?
It makes me feel less alone.
That you’re unfixable.
And that’s just not true.
Big Girlis now available online and in stores.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
