Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Willhoft.
Hi Emily, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ll start this story by telling you about the girl that I used to be. I started my struggle with disordered eating in college because I had gained weight freshman year out of unhappiness. I felt uncomfortable in my own body and I didn’t feel like myself anymore.
I decided to take action when I entered my sophomore year. To lose weight, I started controlling food and eating in a very restricted way. I ate low fat everything, I had periods of time when I wouldn’t allow myself to eat dessert (unless I truly “earned” it) and I avoided meat because I viewed it as extra calories that I didn’t need. I thought about food all the time. Meanwhile, I had also taken up endurance running as a hobby and I was starting to compete in triathlons. I was spending hours every week training, which obviously was not a good combination with restricting calories. My habits were nonsensical. While my behavior wasn’t a full-blown eating disorder, it was becoming a problem.
This went on for a few years. After a candid conversation with my best friend, I decided in that moment to stop being restrictive. While still fearful at times, I slowly started reintroducing dessert and meat into my diet. I began eating when I was hungry instead of using willpower to wait until an “appropriate time” to eat. It’s taken a while, but I now have a much healthier relationship with food and exercise. Ultimately, going through that experience completely changed my life and taught me how important it is to continuously work on yourself – in terms of self-love and respecting your whole being, including your body.
Now, I help other people through similar struggles. Disordered eating is a spectrum and a lot of people are on it somewhere whether they realize it or not.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Having a damaged relationship with food, being stuck in a dieting cycle and/or succumbing to restrictive behaviors is more common than we think. Truthfully, I don’t talk about my story often, but I’m starting to share it more after working with more and more clients who have similar stories or behaviors. I know a lot of people can relate to my story and telling it explains why I care so much about what I do.
The hardest part has been the internal work I’ve done on myself over the years. I’m actively working on slowing down, trusting myself, allowing myself to do a good job (not a perfect job) and relaxing my control freak tendencies.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I first launched my business as a general nutrition coach who works with people on any health goal, which typically ends up being weight loss. As I started to work with more and more people, I took note of common themes and began to see what the real problems were. The two most common things clients would say to me are “I don’t know what to eat” and “I hate my body”.
I strongly believe that diet culture is the culprit for both of these issues. External messaging has us believing that carbs are bad, fat is bad, meat is bad, dairy is bad, eating at night is bad, processed foods are bad, gluten is bad…I could go on. While there are threads of truth in each of those, if all of those things are bad….what’s left to eat? Of course people are confused! We’re also taught that a smaller body is a better body. It’s really sad that so many people are constantly trying to change their shape because, for some reason, body size has become a measure of social currency.
As a result, I’ve recently focused my business to address the above issues instead of weight loss. I want to dissolve the unasinous thoughts that we need to eat as little as possible while exercising as much as possible. My sincere goal is for people to enjoy food again and learn to trust, respect and listen to their bodies. I don’t believe that restriction and deprivation work and I do believe that a successful eater has a diet that they can maintain everyday without feeling guilty or shameful. The healthiest meal is the one that is the most satisfying because taste and nutrition go hand in hand and a balanced meal considers both.
To be clear, I am not against weight loss if you’re someone who wants to prevent or is at risk for chronic disease or if you’re someone who wants to live a healthier life and, for you, that means losing weight. I also don’t work with people who have been diagnosed with a true eating disorder because that is not within my qualifications. Instead, my coaching business addresses the gray area: people who have been inevitably influenced by diet culture’s unrealistic standards and who have lost the innate ability to listen to their bodies and eat intuitively without rules. Because that used to be me.
My personal experiences, combined with what I’ve learned as a graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and from the pillars of Intuitive Eating, are what make my nutrition program unique.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Having a strong support system is so important and I’ve been really lucky to have people around me who care, which has made the entrepreneurship adventure feel safe. When I decided to quit corporate life, surrender a steady paycheck, and launch a business that’s meaningful to me in the middle of the pandemic, I was blown away by the support I received. Especially from people in the dustiest corners of my life. It’s been really rewarding and I’m extremely grateful!
Contact Info:
- Email: emily@poweredbyemcoaching.com
- Website: nutritioncoachem.com
- Instagram: @nutritioncoach.em
Image Credits
Nora Sanchez
