Meet Gillian Hood, Intuitive Eating Counselor & Eating Disorder Recovery Coach. In the soon-available book, The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools for Transformation, Gillian shares her journey from overcoming binge eating and body image challenges to making peace with food & her body.
The Wellness Universe (WU): Hello Gillian, please tell us about yourself and what inspired you to write your chapter in the book The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care: 25 Tools For Transformation.
Gillian Hood (GH): I struggled with binge eating and body hatred for years. I believed binge eating was a character weakness, and my body was a problem I needed to fix. The reality was that I ate to soothe or avoid overwhelming emotions. It was how I took care of myself, because, like so many, I hadn’t learned how to feel and manage my emotions. It took years before I understood binge eating was a coping mechanism.
Binge eating also served as a distraction from difficult situations. It allowed me to focus on beating myself up for eating, and it provided continued distraction through attempts to “fix” my body (by making it smaller). It was easier to plan another diet or find all the flaws of my body than it was to ask for support or name that I was lonely or sad.
Fixing my body was an all-consuming project. With every diet or so-called “lifestyle change” I tried, any weight I lost returned, usually more than when I started. I was trapped in the diet-binge cycle for years before understanding that diets don’t work.
It wasn’t a lack of willpower or inability to control what I put in my mouth. The human body is programmed to follow a genetic blueprint that we have minimal control over. Dieting is seen as a threat to survival, and we end up in a struggle against our body when it’s simply doing its job of keeping us alive.
When I stopped dieting and learned to work with my body (instead of fighting it), I developed a peaceful relationship with food and a respectful partnership with my body that exists to this day. I wish I had learned this sooner, which is why I’ve supported others in making peace with food and their bodies since my own recovery.
WU: What tool do you share in this book, and what can we expect to experience as a result of using this tool?
GH: I introduce the concept of Mutual Trust™, which is my approach to finding peace with food and your body. It describes a sustainable, positive partnership between the self and the body. We were born with it – babies want to eat when they’re hungry. They don’t concern themselves with how many calories they’ve consumed or if they’re eating “clean” food. They feel hungry and demand food until they receive it.
Once they’re satisfied, babies stop eating. They don’t feel guilty because they finished the entire bottle. They don’t worry about “burning off” what they just consumed. When they’re done, they stop eating and focus on something else. And babies are amazed by their bodies! We aren’t born hating our bodies; we learn this behavior.
Mutual Trust™ is about trusting our body to communicate its needs, and we fulfill those needs, so our body learns to trust us. I share an experiment that involves eating a “challenging” food: something you enjoy but typically avoid because it evokes fear, guilt, or shame when consumed.
Part of overcoming binge eating or other problematic eating patterns is allowing yourself to eat all foods with full permission and enjoyment. The food isn’t the problem; challenges arise from how we think, feel, and treat ourselves when we eat specific foods.
When you discover the sky doesn’t fall after eating cookies (or whatever your challenging foods are), you’re on the road to rebuilding trust in yourself and your body. Just as important, your body will begin to trust you again. Mutual Trust is key in making peace with food and your body.
WU: What would you say to someone struggling with binge eating or chronic dieting who wants a better relationship with food and their body?
GH: I would tell them that there’s nothing wrong with them or their body. And they’re under no obligation to change their body; bodies come in all sizes and shapes. While binge eating has many causes, it’s a coping mechanism you’ve developed because you didn’t have another way to manage emotions and meet your needs. This is not your fault.
Just as important is understanding that dieting and attempting to change your body through other methods are perpetuating the problematic eating patterns. Binge eating isn’t cured by losing weight. The pursuit of weight loss and trying to make your body conform to unattainable standards will exacerbate and can cause disordered eating and eating disorders.
Despite the messages we’re sold, no one has complete control over the size, shape, or appearance of their body. Marketers sell products by making false promises and playing on our fear of not measuring up or being good enough.
They tell us that we, too, can have our ideal body, perfect health, and desired social status by buying their product and shrinking our bodies. And when it doesn’t work, they convince you it’s all your fault. You need more willpower, desire, dedication, and so on. They never tell you that dieting has a failure rate of 95-97 percent.
Restricting certain foods often leads to compulsive or binge eating. Putting off living until you attain the ideal body leads to isolation and loneliness. It’s not your body that becomes smaller, it’s your life and your world.
There’s no one right way to have a body. Want a beach body? Put on a bathing suit and go to the beach. Worthiness isn’t determined by your shape, size, number on the scale, or what you eat or don’t eat.
When you partner with the body you have right now, it may or may not change. What will change for the better is your relationship with food and your body. The freedom that comes from regaining Mutual Trust™ is far more fulfilling than a few months at a smaller dress size or fitting in with people who only care about your appearance.
What I hope more people understand is that your body is on your side. If you work with it, rather than attempting to beat it into submission, it will provide you with a way to explore and enjoy your world and connect with those who mean the most.
Connect with Gillian on The Wellness Universe.
Follow Gillian on Instagram and LinkedIn.
LAUNCHING SOON!
The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care, 25 Tools for Transformation
Sign up TODAY!
The Wellness Universe’s July Business Intensive Workshop
Collaborating with Competitors for Powerful Cross-Promotion
There’s power in the mix when we come together—even with those we once saw as competition. This month’s Business Intensive Workshop opens the door to next-level collaboration strategies that may surprise you. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or new to business, discover how working with “competitors” can lead to unexpected partnerships, expanded visibility, and powerful results.
Save 35% with code: Save35
Register Now: https://bit.ly/WUBICollaborate
Wellness Quarters with Gayle Nowak
Guest: Jean Voice Dart
Topic: Transforming Trauma with Expressive Arts
Jean Voice Dart shares an immersive creative arts experience to open the mind and heart to the beauty, truth, and wisdom in everyday life.
Register & Join Live: https://bit.ly/WellnessQuarters
Take My Hand Support Series
Grief is never easy, especially for children. On July 12, join Take My Hand: It’s Ok to Not Be OK for a free, live event focused on helping kids cope with loss and giving caregivers the tools they need to guide the healing process. With expert insights, a loving community, and a mission to uplift, this event offers real support when it’s needed most. Donations benefit Susie Q’s Kids, bringing light and comfort to children facing life’s hardest moments.
Register & Join Live: https://bit.ly/WUTakeMyHandSupportSeries
Check out our library of classes today.
Grab your copy today!
The Wellness Universe is your resource for health, wellness, well-being, and transformation. We serve and support professionals who make the world a better place and individuals and groups who seek their best life.
A woman owned company; having the vision in 2013, Anna Pereira launched the first directory in 2015 bringing together a community of members making the world a better place to be found by those seeking their best life. The Wellness Universe has grown since then to be a one-stop shop for total wellness support! We are a vetted community, online directory, book publisher, resource center, event producer, content platform, and so much more, supporting whole-health and well-being on a global scale.
The Wellness Universe is a home that connects industry professionals in the health, wellness, and well-being fields to seekers of total well-being. WU provides our WU World-Changer members with peer support, Wellness Universe produced events (live and online), projects, visibility, business mentoring, and community. Through The Wellness Universe our WU World-Changer members serve WU Friends, seekers of health, wellness and transformation, with coaching, workshops, content and more.
The Wellness Universe provides individuals and groups seeking their best lives with access to our members, wellness content, educational resources, and guidance in all areas of wellness to transform visions of how they want to live life into the life they experience.
Through the directory, WU Featured Blog, SoulTreat wellness retreat, Self-Care Books, group well-being programs, and online learning center, The Lounge, The Wellness Universe provides many avenues to support whole health, mind, body, spirit and planet.
Join us today! Wellness Professional or Seeker of Your Best Life
What a powerful and heartfelt share, Gillian! Your journey and the wisdom of Mutual Trust™ remind us that true self-care is about compassion and partnership with our bodies, not fighting against them. Thank you for showing us that freedom is possible when we trust ourselves again — so inspiring!