The world is a lot right now. Globally, personally, often both. And when things are this intense, it can be easy to feel like your relationship with food is a first world problem, or that nothing matters, you're just going to eat. To dismiss the battle as something to deal with later, when things calm down.

But this is exactly when it matters most. We can't all collapse at the same time. If you're hungry, depleted, or consumed by overriding your cravings, you don't have the energy for your own life, let alone for showing up with the values you want to see ripple out into the world. And the conditioning that tells you investing in yourself takes from others, that you should be able to power through, that your needs are too much, is the same conditioning that keeps the cycle going.

In this episode of Truce with Food, I walk through three reasons your food battle matters more in hard times, not less. I cover why you need to be physically nourished to show up for what you care about, why the all-or-nothing thinking that says investing in yourself takes from others is the same conditioning we need to change, and why most weight and food struggles are really about a complicated relationship with power. Healing your relationship with food isn't a distraction from the work of this moment. It's part of it.

5:47 – Why overriding your hunger actually robs you of the rebelliousness and energy needed for your life

11:17 – Why learning to connect how you eat to how your body works is revolutionary

13:52 – The cultural conditioning that makes you believe investing in your own health must come at the expense of your family or work

17:23 – How this zero-sum cultural conditioning trap exists on every level

19:55 – How a client learned the emotional work of tending to her needs, instead of trying to fix issues for her daughter

21:13 – Your food battle as a doorway to examine where you’re still sacrificing yourself to unsustainable norms

24:01 – How that guilty feeling you get for overeating or not working out is often a symptom of internalized capitalist productivity

26:42 – Backlash as a sign of actual progress and how “slow and steady” keeps you in the game

31:41 – How stubborn weight issues are often linked to an unconscious resistance to dominative power, and the need to redefine power as collaborative

36:03 – The yin archetype’s association with food and body issues (including eating disorders)

Mentioned In Healing Your Relationship With Food Is a Rebellious Act

Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don’t with Erin Holt

What Your Food Stage Reveals About Why Nothing Has Worked Long Term

Freedom from Cravings course

Truce with Food

Food Stage Finder Assessment

Twenty years ago, functional medicine changed everything for me. My IBS cleared. My skin cleared. My depression lifted. And for the first time, I understood food as medicine instead of just calories. But somewhere in the last five years, functional medicine started looking a lot like what it was railing against. A supplement for every lab marker. A protocol for every person. A business model that profits from making you feel more broken than when you walked in.

So I stopped talking about it much here. But I still believe in root cause resolution. And I wanted to bring on someone who practices it the way it was meant to be practiced. That's why I brought Erin Holt on the show. Erin is a seasoned clinician, clinic founder, and trainer of other practitioners who has been vocal about what's gone wrong in this industry while still believing fiercely in what it can be. She practices what she calls intuitive functional medicine, a framework that starts with the physical body and refuses to stop there.

In this episode of Truce with Food, Erin and I get into what's actually broken in functional medicine right now, why data can never replace discernment or lived experience, and how her five-phase formula bridges the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic aspects of healing. We also talk about why you can't rewire an inflamed brain with mindset work, and what it really means to self-source your health instead of outsourcing it to someone in a white coat.

2:48 – Introduction to Erin and how she and her trainees help one-on-one clients

7:56 – The shift in functional medicine over the last five years that’s recreating the exact problem it was designed to solve

11:25 – Defining functional medicine and comparing it to more conventional medicine

16:46 – What intuitive functional medicine is and what it looks like in Erin’s practice (and her training of other practitioners)

24:08 – Self-sourcing vs. outsourcing your health and the long, underexamined history of the loss of self-trust in so many people

34:09 – A basic example of how Erin helps her clients rebuild their self-trust (without forcing it)

39:55 – Why too many choices in the name of empowerment can actually cause someone to freeze in response (and what skilled practitioners do differently)

44:11 – The real point of fear-based marketing and how to spot it before it sells you something you don't need

47:00 – Why the nocebo effect, medical hexing, and the labels a practitioner puts on you can quietly become the ceiling on your healing

49:15 – Functional labs that are actually worth it and the very contextual, individualized way Erin administers them as a practitioner

51:43 – Erin’s framework for whole-person healing, why the starting point doesn’t matter, and what needs to happen before you can rewire your brain using mindset work

1:00:42 – The importance and meaning of self-compassion and why you must only work with those who see your potential to heal

Mentioned In Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don't with Erin Holt

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Funk’tional Nutrition Academy (FNA)

Funk’tional Nutrition: How Belonging, Not Willpower, Shapes Your Eating

Find Your Food Stage Quiz

You've tried the plans. The protocols. Maybe therapy, journaling, intuitive eating. And food still feels like a battle. The problem isn't that you haven't tried hard enough. It's that no one has ever shown you where you actually are.

I've spent 19 years working with women who've tried everything and nothing's worked long term. What I keep finding is that the approach mismatches the stage. And you can't know what to do next until you know where you're starting from.

In this episode of Truce with Food, I walk through I walk through the four developmental stages of resolving your food battle and introduce my free Food Stage Finder Assessment. If you've ever wondered why you're still struggling despite everything you've done, this is where to start.

1:40 – How women's healthcare concerns get dismissed and what led Ali to this work
3:59 – Why food struggles fall into two extremes and why both miss the point
6:26 – What the Food Stage Finder Assessment is and why Ali created it
7:34 – Why more information stopped being the problem for Ali's clients
9:03 – Women's health span post-menopause and why midlife is the time to get this right
11:56 – Taking responsibility for your own body literacy without burning out
13:11 – Why intuitive eating is hard when you've never had healthy eating patterns
14:06 – How adolescent culture shapes our food culture and why quick fixes dominate
19:50 – Why maturity, not more learning, is what actually creates food freedom
22:38 – The four developmental stages of resolving your food battle
25:53 – Stage one: Gathering Evidence
27:04 – Stage two: Breakthrough Ready
29:37 – Stage three: Practicing Freedom
32:48 – Stage four: Trusting in Satisfaction
36:19 – Why most people are surprised by their Food Stage Finder results
36:32 – How to take the free Food Stage Finder Assessment

Mentioned In What Your Food Stage Reveals About Why Nothing Has Worked Long Term

Truce with Food

Food Stage Finder Assessment