Food noise and our complex relationship with food

The relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex and we all

have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a reward, you know, is

it a right? Is it a is it nourishment or is it just something that you do a

mindlessness to it? There's so much, you know, what is [music] it? Well, I think

about it as food noise. Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise

was in my life until I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically. I was

like, I have not self-controlled myself around food consumption. I have

not berated myself about anything that I've eaten. I have not felt like I have

let myself down with the way and I would not have identified [music] as somebody

who had any type of eating disorder. whatsoever. This was first noise that I think is incredibly common in our

society and experienced by [music] most people to some degree. And once I

understood that about myself, because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in the first place. Once I

realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating and that ordered eating really

stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered thoughts around food and that

creating structure around food actually gave me freedom from it. And I see that

that's the way that's the way I work with people who know that they have disordered eating. I think the beauty of

metabolic balance is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance that's [music] right for you.

And that once you actually crack that, then the freedom from food noise is

really quite profound.

Introduction to the Metabolic Balance Stories Podcast

And welcome to the Metabolic Balance Stories podcast. This is where we share

real stories and insights to help you on your journey to optimal health with personalized nutrition and metabolic

balance. I'm Cherry Wills. I'm your host and today I'm delighted to welcome a

fabulous practitioner, Arolina. And today we are going to discuss the

realistic and sustainable nature of health transformation through metabolic

balance. So, hello Arreolina. It's wonderful to have you here. This is one of my favorite topics and I think this

is also one of your favorite topics too. Yes. I um this is one of my favorite things

to talk about and to witness actually the best part of it is I get to witness

it with so many people. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean if we start

off I think it would be really interesting for you to start off sort of sharing your insights into you know that

Why real health transformation happens gradually

real longterm getting well with me bodybuilds because it's not always it's

not about it's it's not curing anything. We are just slowly really building up

the resilience and just getting the body well. Yeah, that's it's um it's so

tempting to believe that we can just move from struggling with our health and

our weight to like overnight wholesale change.

But I don't find that that is quite as powerful as

um what I see happen to people over a number of years. Once they start eating

metabolically, they start to uncover bit by bit new parts of themselves and um

that week by week, month by month, noticing that you have more energy. Um noticing

that you have better clarity of thought, better sleep, better stress resilience.

And it's sort of like a um like unspooling some a big a big mess of

string or a huge mess of wool and little by little you start unraveling that mess

and creating your nice neat ball of wool.

And I think it really surprises people how far they actually get

um when instead of seeing it as a monumental unobtainable

Small daily habits that rebuild metabolic health

thing when they just break it down and each day they eat great food um drink

water and get enough rest that that builds each day. It builds and and

builds and builds. Yeah. I think it's it I mean like it's so important to remember where a lot of

people come from. They don't just overnight become chronically ill, unwell

over, you know, it's a it's a it's a slow kind of process of somebody slowly

going down a path of just their body not really know being well. um and various

conditions showing themselves um inflammation really ramping up and building and causing issues and and I

think that's really where we have to remember that what we are doing is we are bringing in the right foods that

really ensure that somebody can kind of I like to almost say we flick a switch and put everybody into a different

direction and we're we're just building that that resilience and that repair and

that like you say that unravel traveling of the mesh in order to and then see

really how how somebody can um can be well. I think um as well the way we eat

How childhood habits shape our relationship with food

that has formed from childhood. So, I'm thinking of one particular

client that I've worked really closely with and um I worked with naturopathically for quite a long time

and they had a soft drink drink drinking habit that had formed in their childhood

and they carried it through into their um early 50s and it would always cause

problems but the problems just started escalating in their 40s and their 50s.

And look, you know, we we see this really commonly, I guess, or I see this commonly. And when I was working with

her naturopathically, I was doing all the right things. She was making the best effort she could, but we were

always struggling with the soft drink. When we moved to metabolic balance

Client story: overcoming a lifelong soft drink habit

because her metabolism was more strongly supported,

she actually was able to kick a 50ear soft drink habit. And the change that

I've witnessed in her over the last 12 weeks, she's just graduated

um is is incredible. And that's not the end of the change because I think this is the

thing is that what I'll get to see is I'll get to see that change evolve over

the next couple of years. It doesn't stop after 12 weeks. People just keep

getting stronger. For this particular person, she has lost 12 kilos easily.

And so she describes it melting off. She's like, I just enjoy the food that I'm eating. I don't feel any urge to eat

anything else. She has gone from she's got very complex health um

inflammatory health conditions that have sort of arisen like you said over a really long period of time and they're

starting to get a little more and more manageable. Just a little bit every day

more manageable. Yeah. less brain fog, more energy, and

it's just happened very very consistently over the last three months. It's people really digging like

understanding how they can feel. So, you slightly start to fall in love with this idea of

I actually could feel good here. I I do feel good. I want to carry on feeling

Stable energy and balanced metabolism through structured meals

like this. I don't want this feeling to stop. Therefore, I'm going to carry on

just doing what I'm doing because I just love how I'm feeling. And you are eating

beautiful, whole, gorgeous, fresh, vibrant food at the same time. So, it's it's a win-win in every in every sense.

I reckon that really captures it because it's not about it becomes not about

drinking soft drink or not drinking soft drink. It just becomes I have my

breakfast and I feel good and have enough energy to um she had a physical

job. So suddenly she had enough energy to get through to lunch. And she's like,

I drank water. I felt good. Uh I ate breakfast. I felt good. I would get

hungry and I'd realize that lunch was coming up in half an hour and I'd eat lunch

and then I'd have enough energy to do the physical my physical job in the

afternoon and then I'd get really hungry and I'd noticed that dinner was only 20

minutes away and so it it whereas before it was always

trying to um deal with the urge to drink soft drinks because her metabolism

was underfunctioning and wasn't giving her enough energy for her body or her brain to get through. Yeah. It was

reaching for the shortterm quick fix solution to the immediate problem of,

you know, that dip in energy or that dip in the a crisis point. Yeah, let's let's

let's fix a crisis point. But then we're we're always lurching from one crisis to

another crisis as opposed to just actually just doing you know sailing

through the day in a nice steady and controlled way. The you've worked a lot

with people who have got that um you know a much bigger health journey. So it

Supporting clients with larger weight loss journeys

is those people that are needing to or wanting to release sort of 30 plus kg.

How would you talk about their journeys? I get really inspired by their journeys

because having an opportunity to live a little bit differently

and then really enjoying it and focusing on how good they feel

and really listening to their bodies. And when I hear those ingredients coming

together, I get super excited because I know that if people are able

to bring themselves to experiencing the positivity and um the the energy and the

what I notice is even at the beginning of their big journey of like wholesale

body change that often what they'll be saying to me is I just feel more relaxed

about my body. You know, they might be a quarter of the way to where they want to

be, but they are already feeling so much

better in themselves. And that gives me tigles. As soon as

they start saying things like that, I'm like um because what I know is if they start

Finding the “sweet spot” for sustainable eating

feeling better in in and of themselves and they're enjoying the food and they

they seeing it as an enjoyment like this

is actually me getting enjoy my life, then that's sustainable. And when I'm

working with metabolic balance, sustainability for for me is the key. It's not how quickly um can I release

weight or how quickly can I get to my goals. It's how do I make eating and my

relationship with food sustainable? not just when I'm at home, but when I'm

socializing, um when I'm at work, uh when I'm on holiday, how do I eat and

live in a sustainable way? And when people reach that sustainability,

I now know because I've been a metabolic balance practitioner for for years,

I now know they've they've achieved something really impressive, and I know

where that can take them. And it's because

if you if you just change, oh, I'm going to, you know, cut out carbs or I'm going to

eat this different style and you you make this sort of change and you get somewhere, but it's a constant effort,

then that going to produce the long-term uh results that I know people can

achieve with metabolic balance. Because what I see is I see many many of

my clients who have required decades of naturopathic support to just be able to

live a normal life and are carrying 30, 40, sometimes 50 kilos above what they

feel and and is clearly above what is a good weight for them. And I know the

sort of cost and effort that they undertake for a long period of time

before they find metabolic balance. And that I also know once they find metabolic balance and they find that

sweet spot of sustainability with it where they feel like I love what I eat

and I love how I'm living. I know that over the course where they will get to.

Yeah. because I think that's really that's I love that point, the sweet spot. Um I try so hard to get the

message across that we are we don't we're not looking for perfection. It

what we need is the right space for each person that it actually works for them

that but that they're not that they're also being real with what they actually do have to do as well. Um because you

Moving away from toxic diet culture

know we we have to accept that there are a lot of toxic things in our world.

There's a there's a lot of toxic foods. You know foods in common here they're not actually food. They're just stomach

filling kind of substances um that in the short term won't kill you

but over the long term they will slowly build up in that inflammatory response.

And it's that understanding that, you know, the idea that you just do sort of

focused good health or good eating for you for a short period of time and then

you revert back to a standard western diet that lead led you to your problems

in the first place. It's actually understanding that sweet spot of space that really allows you to

continue feeling good and allows the the health journey to continue evolving and

um and be expressed in that feeling of good health. It's really getting people to shift from

um unconsciously eating whatever is in front of them

to tuning into their body. and discovering what their body needs.

And I find it almost always tracks back

right into childhood. Um, one of the most profound

uh things actually that you taught me, Cherry, is that there are only two places that food ends up.

One of them is the toilet and the other one is the bin. And so so many of us have been

indoctrinated with the belief that we have to eat everything that is given to

us, everything that is put in front of us, everything that is in the supermarket, everything that our

children don't eat in their lunchbox, that it all must be consumed by us in

Understanding metabolism and structured meal timing

order for us to have value or life to have value or the food to have value.

But it's not true. And when people start actually listening to what food their

body wants to eat, what when they eat things, how do they feel, what feels

good, what feels really ordinary. Um when people learn that it's not just

about what they eat, but how they eat like the the schedule on what in which

they eat. Um, I find the in my weekly sessions I I run

weekly coaching with my clients and that what I teach most

is actually how the metabolism works. that when it our body goes into a food

storage mode and that if you were eating every couple of hours your body is just store

and it it's never being prompted to burn anything. A a lot of diets and food

solutions are all about um what you consume and not enough about how you

consume and why why we why metabolic balance is the way

it is like why is there this structure around eating food

um so I find that once people that it's life-changing

yeah and it's it's really enjoying the times that you are eating as well. It's

actually really ensuring that we have we're regularly fueling three lovable

meals a day. Um we are, you know, having really good uh food in those meals. And

it's it's a really sustainable way of of moving forward in into the future. But

there's always going to be and it's important to have the celebratory times, you know, as well. We have to I love

Celebrations, flexibility, and enjoying life with food

being you know being able to have the relationship with food that I mean is

you can celebrate in the way that you enjoy the event you enjoy the people

around you um but the the pressure is of around how much you know having to eat

or even how I'm going to feel post you know how the recovery periods there

shouldn't be a recovery period after period after celebrating

really should. Well, it's the the beauty of the metabolic balance hack because it I see

it as a hack is that you get lots of opportunity um to test things out and to work out

like ah actually when I eat out I know exactly what works for me. I get to

enjoy it and I don't have to pay I don't have payback. Yeah. There's no um like oh you have to

eat this or you can't eat that. What I love about metabolic balance is it's try it and see body will tell you. Yeah.

Yeah. It's that it's that real constant learning and and appreciating checking

in with yourself and um and and and moving forward. Um, and I think, you

know, I talk a lot about that real, it needs to, it needs to have a real lovely honesty around the relationship you have

with your body and and your food. Well, it's a slowly evolving of that honesty.

You learn and then you go, "Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm getting it. I'm sort of recognizing it now." Whereas we can all

kind of have that slightly kid ourselves that this doesn't matter and oh that little bit won't make any difference

whatsoever. But actually you go okay I think it really does. So you learn that

you learn that honesty yourself and you start to go do you know what I'm worth it. And that's another thing I I just

love when when somebody actually starts to really say my health is worth it. I

am worth this. I am worth this effort. I am worth putting the effort into because

I I feel good on this and it's and I deserve to feel good. I shouldn't have

to put everybody else ahead of me. I can actually feel good myself. I love one of

my clients um who who actually this particular client had a 35 kilo um

weight change over 2 and 1/2 years

and partway through I think one year into the change they were walking past a

kickboxing studio. Now context, this is somebody who was struggling with um

broadspectctrum inflammation. Uh struggled to move around basically

When metabolism improves, movement becomes natural

even walking medium short to medium distances was difficult. Um would sleep

in, couldn't do appointments before 2 p.m. a year into eating metabolically.

Could do an appointment at any time of day. um said she naturally woke up between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning and

happened to be walking past a kickboxing studio and found herself. She said she didn't

even think about it. She just sort of was walking past, thought, "That's interesting." Wandered in um and got

signed up for kickboxing. It gives me goosebumps just hearing the story. Yeah. like two months in. She's

like, I'm actually quite good at kickboxing. This is somebody who struggled to walk. And uh I don't know

if you get a much opportunity to talk about this, but I knew straight away

what was happening because I learned about this as a metabolic balance practitioner, not as a naturopath, as a

metabolic balance pract. Yes. Yes. So what I knew and this is the

long-term sustainability aspect or one of them for me about metabolic balance is that you get hormonal in the body

which means that the body moves towards movement.

It wants to move. Um, one of the biggest things that I notice is that when people

first come to see me, you've already named it. Um, most of the people that do

metabolic balance through me have been chronically unwell um, and are carrying

quite a lot of weight and the last thing they feel like doing is exercising

and yet they receive a lot of societal pressure and a lot of medical pressure

to exercise. when you're inflamed, unwell, um when you exercise, you do

stuff. Yeah. It's it's hard. It's so hard to to do. It's hard. It's it's infinitely

harder than what people were telling them that they need to do it realize that it's hard. And so when I tell them

that I don't want them to do any exercise, they're so like relieved and a bit

afraid. Like people are but we're god what will happen and I'm like nothing

bad will happen and when they then hit the point that they want to exercise. I

know that the hormone foxit 2 has started to rise and I call it the wrigle

hormone. So they just get the wriggle, you know, like they don't maybe haven't even ever experienced that before and

before they know it they're wandering into their local kickboxing studio. Yeah. Yeah. And and realizing that they

actually enjoy that movement and exercise that they previously kind of

couldn't even could never see themselves doing. Um it's it reminds me that you

know there's a lot of research that's really you know we talk we know that we there's childhood obesity and that has

been rising over the years for a number of years now number of decades. Um, and

there's been that hypothesis. Is it that people the kids are getting bigger and therefore they stop moving or do they

stop moving and they get bigger? Well, the research when we look at it in in the context of what we know, it's

actually the food is causing metabolic problems and leading them to be to start to feel

unwell and and gain the weight in a in an in not in not fully healthful way.

And then it's just hard for them to to wrigle. You know, kids should be wriggling all the time. I mean that's

really we that's that's what we know kids do and uh yeah but but it it is

that what what comes first and then how do we correct it? Yeah. And how do we really correct it? Because what's very interesting is I had

a client recently um one of my male clients who said look I've always

identified as somebody who exercises. If somebody asks me you know who I am I'd say I'm a bike rider. I'm a runner.

uh really outdoorsy person, but he said that he did actually realize

he didn't enjoy it until he was 10 weeks into metabolic balance.

So, I think maybe eight 8 to 10 weeks into metabolic balance and he had his

first completely physically enjoyable exercise experience.

And it's like I didn't realize I didn't enjoy it before. But now when I

exercise, I'm not thinking about when does this end. I'm not thinking about like how hard it is. I am just doing it

Why sustainability matters more than quick weight loss

and my whole body is singing. Yeah. Oh, isn't that a lovely lovely idea? Whole body is singing

beautifully harmoniously. Wow. I also wanted to sort of you know this the consistency and the sustainability is is

really where we're coming from because um with that is what we have to get to

that allows people to you know have the the the health transformations over the

long term and and it's not about forcing the body into anything.

Correct. And sometimes it's about giving the body a lot of

time, but the body has its own priorities. Like we think weight loss is important, but

your body might have a completely different set of criteria that it has to

fulfill. And its innate wisdom has to be listened to. And if we listen closely

enough, we will hear what it needs and we'll be able to guide it through. And that's

what I love about metabolic balance. Well, another thing that I love um is that it's delivered by a practitioner

and it's why I I opt for more face-toface time than less. Um because I

find the more you get an opportunity to talk to metabolic um talk about

metabolic balance and the more you get to see other people's journeys um I'm often directing people through to

the podcast just to listen to people's story um because the more you get inspired

um and the more you learn that that everybody has their own unique journey through metabolic balance the more

you're able to honor your own journey through it and listen carefully to your

body. Yeah, I love that. Honoring your own journey. I love that phrase. Um I think

we we live in a society that sadly has got this, you know, a lot of diet

culture which is incredibly toxic. Diet culture is horrible. Um it is it is

cruel. Um there has been a lot of it's a it's a it's a blamed space. It's also a

space I think of a lot of rushing. You know it's like a okay deprivation,

starvation, force. Um I exercise really hard. Uh you know it's your fault. It's

you know it's it's it's the person's fault that they find themselves in in a

place. It's it's that whole a lot of negativity and I can't bear it. judgment.

Yeah. And and I think when we can actually because we have to recognize that um the the the space really we need

to have a solution as we need to have the metabolic solutions. And when we can

actually just take somebody on this journey out of the toxic space, it's almost like let's really let's really

like take you from that start this this self-care journey. start this approach

of really looking at what's going on and allowing the body to go at its own pace.

Um, one of the if I if I can just indulge you because I know I want to I want to I just want to share um for

people. One of my favorite things to talk about or just to talk to clients about is one of Esop's fables. Um, do

you know you know Esop's fables? It's one of it's a very old stories, kids stories, but they often have a very

strong moral uh to a lot of the stories. The one that I always love about and in

this context is um the story of the sun and the moon who were having a little bitty argument. Uh sorry, not the sun

A powerful story about kindness versus force in health change

and the moon. Sorry, it's the sun and the wind. Sorry, the story of the sun and the wind who were having a little

argument and they were arguing over who was the strongest. And so the wind said,

"Okay, see that traveler down the road? He's got a cloak on. Whoever is stronger

is the one that can get that cloak off and and and get get him to throw it and get it away from him." So the wind goes

fast and he blows really really hard. He is really putting all of his force and effort into this. But all the traveler

does is wrap the cloak even tighter around himself and does up. Then the sun

comes out and it's now his turn and he then shines and he just rays down, you

know, shines down at beautiful grapes, the warmth, the light, the loveliness of

the sun and the traveler relaxes and he then slowly unbuttons his coat and he

takes it off and then he's happy and he's relaxed and he's walking. Basically

I always see this as a lovely lovely way of looking at when we are gentle and

kind and nurturing and really place ourselves in a safe place our bodies in

the safe place the release and the improvement of health can just slowly

beautifully all we can't force ourselves or force things to happen just by you

know punishing in in the in the gym or starving ourselves. We just that's

that's not where we're going to get healthy. Absolutely. And I I I one thing that um

I think really makes metabolic balance sustainable and work is this idea of

moving between what I call the eight um pillars. They're like foundation. And

then the celebrations and being able to move seamlessly between the two because

Building metabolic resilience over time

you get to have the celebration because you've got the foundations. Yeah. And to see the foundations is actually

like your foundations into the earth and they come up out of the earth and they

support you in your life and they support your metabolism to function

effectively. And then once your metabolism is functioning effectively, it can deal

with all sorts of things that it couldn't handle before. I sort of think of the metabolism a bit

like a train that if the train is ground to a halt and it's like just choing

along at like a few ks an hour, any bandit can jump off and cause a whole

lot of havoc. Whereas your um train is speeding along at 50 or 60 ks an hour

every single day because your foundations are holding you up, supporting you, then you know not so

many bandits are going to be able to jump on and you know you can throw a lot at a moving

train and that just the speed of the train horse feel that that's creating

just just sort of doesn't even

Yeah. So is that it is that building the resilience. It is the building of the resilience. But at the same time, we've

talked about this before. I know we are um uh probably privately, but um we've

talked about this where it still doesn't mean that we're not we're not human beings who are just going to get ill as

well. You know, it's like this idea that just because we eat well,

we stay we keep our train moving beautifully, but every now and again you're still going to you're still

human. You're going to catch cold. I still get colds. I still, you know, have

moments of tiredness and and and I'm a normal human being. [laughter]

We're not super super humans. And and I think that's something that people also need to understand. You know, we we eat

well is over time you get you get better resilience and you're not going to be

flawed by something. But sometimes you still get can get flawed by something. Absolutely.

And even I actually find that when your train starts to run properly, you might

get sick whereas before you never got sick. Um because actually your body now has

enough resources to mount a response whereas before you just felt exhausted,

depleted and were you know um your body was

handling the challenges of life differently. So, I think we often think of, you know, getting a cold or a flu or

an illness as a bad thing, but when you put it into the context of it's your

body having a response, then maybe it's not such a bad thing at

all. Like, actually being able to mount uh an immune response requires a certain

amount of vitality. And if your food wasn't giving you any vitality before, you might not have even

had enough substance to mount an immune response. That's a fascinating way of

looking at it as well. Um that this is, you know, this is a normal thing. We

obviously it is it's getting over something nice and quickly, bouncing back. Well, that's what resilience is,

isn't it? I mean, that's really what resilience is. We can't stop uh the things coming at us. We can't stop the

stress of life, but we can change our response to it and improve our ability

to spring back up again as as opposed to being flawed. And

the the other thing is um actually and I

Resetting habits and returning to healthy foundations

think you've said this as you've just sort of said this as well really. It's about not expecting ourselves to be

anything other than human. So even even um once you are eating

metabolically, you will things where you think

like I' I've just had a write off of a weekend or I went on a holiday and oh I

fell into some really bad patterns. Um what what what I encourage people to do

is to think about metabolic balance as a hack, a life hack. So you can go back to

your second phase of eating at any time for a day

for two days week. Um that I think of the the phases of metabolic balance a

little bit like driving a car. I'm like, you know, ultimately, you know, when you really

nail metabolic balance, you're just banging down the the freeway in fifth

gear at a pays an hour. But that you

can't drive your whole life on a freeway. And there are going to be times when you

need to re-evaluate. you need to um return back to your roots and and and

reacquaint yourself, reset yourself. And that this is the beauty of metabolic

balance because it's no longer a mystery to you how to do that. Done it before,

you can do again. And ultimately, I think it's that really coming back to a

different relationship with food. And that's where you know even coming full

circle from what we talked about at the beginning the relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex

and um we all have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a

reward you know is it a right is it a is it nourishment or is it just something

that you do a mindlessness to it there's so much you know what is it

and recognizing that you know in the body needs to be nourished and and it

also needs to be safe. You know that relationship with food can be where people you know don't feel safe even

thinking about food or talking about food. Um, and it's an incredible um,

incredible um, sadness left for for many people who are in that maybe disordered

dating space. But at the same time, you could say a lot of people have, you

know, different relationships with food. Well, I think um, I think about it as

How Metabolic Balance quiets food noise

food noise. So, how much food noise is in your life?

Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise was in my life um until

I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically and I was like I have not self patrolled

myself around food consumption and I was like oh I have not um berated

myself about anything that I've eaten um I have not felt like I let myself

down with the way and I would not have identified as somebody who had any type

of eating disorder whatsoever. Um, this was first noise that I think is

incredibly common in our society and experienced by most people to some

degree. Um, and once I understood that about myself

because because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in

the first place. Once I realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating

and that ordered eating really stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered

thoughts around food. And that creating

structure around food um actually gave me freedom from it.

and and I see that that's the way that's the way I work with um people who know

that they have um disordered eating. Um I think the beauty of metabolic balance

is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance

that's right for you and that once you actually crack that then the the freedom

Why practitioner support makes the journey personal

from food noise is really quite profound. Yeah. And it's really recognizing that

it is it can be tailored and that's why it's practitioner only. I mean I get we

get often people asking why can't I just get my own burn. It's like it's please

talk to a practitioner about really how we can make this work for you in your

life and um and just take you know you can understand something so to totally

different to this idea that um you know it's a diet and it's you know it's so

you know it's so much more. It's so it can give you so much more if you allow it to and you you give yourself the

space to learn in it. It's actually about because we we have no I have no

idea when I hand somebody their plan. I have no idea how that is actually going

to look when they start eating it. Some people end up eating twice needing not

just eating needing twice the amount of food that is on their plan. And I have

people who they're just eating what is on their plan feels like more food than

they've ever eaten in their life or is more food than ever eaten in a day their life.

And there is no predicting this and until

until somebody starts to really nourish their bodies and the body starts to change and and and and become well. Um

that's why yeah it's it's a it's an ongoing wonderful journey. Um I have

absolutely loved talking to you today army. I think uh I think you're doing

wonderful work uh for your clients. Um and uh it's really, you know, it's such

Closing reflections on long-term health transformation

a such a lovely space that um that where

we get to talk to people and actually really change things and and get that

long-term approach, you know, really help people have a different relationship themselves and um and and

their futures. That's what it enables. That's what I see is that Uber over years people are

able to make a profound change not just to what they eat, not just to the size

of their clothing, but really to their entire experience of life. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. Well, I think

we need to we need to finish there, but I could carry on talking all day. Um,

thank you so much, Arreolina, for joining me. I've got a discovery call that I've got to go to.

Absolutely. So, thank you. And if you'd like to hear more about Arolina and her

practice uh down in Melbourne, uh do uh do check out the show notes. Um check

out the website www. metabolic heightenbalance.com

and check into all the other Metabolic Bounce stories podcast episodes because

as Arlina said it's so there are so many wonderful stories and each person is

unique and um take those as inspiration. Thank you again to our leader and we

will catch up again soon. Thank you. Thanks Jay.Food noise and our complex relationship with food

The relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex and we all

have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a reward, you know, is

it a right? Is it a is it nourishment or is it just something that you do a

mindlessness to it? There's so much, you know, what is [music] it? Well, I think

about it as food noise. Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise

was in my life until I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically. I was

like, I have not self-controlled myself around food consumption. I have

not berated myself about anything that I've eaten. I have not felt like I have

let myself down with the way and I would not have identified [music] as somebody

who had any type of eating disorder. whatsoever. This was first noise that I think is incredibly common in our

society and experienced by [music] most people to some degree. And once I

understood that about myself, because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in the first place. Once I

realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating and that ordered eating really

stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered thoughts around food and that

creating structure around food actually gave me freedom from it. And I see that

that's the way that's the way I work with people who know that they have disordered eating. I think the beauty of

metabolic balance is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance that's [music] right for you.

And that once you actually crack that, then the freedom from food noise is

really quite profound.

Introduction to the Metabolic Balance Stories Podcast

And welcome to the Metabolic Balance Stories podcast. This is where we share

real stories and insights to help you on your journey to optimal health with personalized nutrition and metabolic

balance. I'm Cherry Wills. I'm your host and today I'm delighted to welcome a

fabulous practitioner, Arolina. And today we are going to discuss the

realistic and sustainable nature of health transformation through metabolic

balance. So, hello Arreolina. It's wonderful to have you here. This is one of my favorite topics and I think this

is also one of your favorite topics too. Yes. I um this is one of my favorite things

to talk about and to witness actually the best part of it is I get to witness

it with so many people. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean if we start

off I think it would be really interesting for you to start off sort of sharing your insights into you know that

Why real health transformation happens gradually

real longterm getting well with me bodybuilds because it's not always it's

not about it's it's not curing anything. We are just slowly really building up

the resilience and just getting the body well. Yeah, that's it's um it's so

tempting to believe that we can just move from struggling with our health and

our weight to like overnight wholesale change.

But I don't find that that is quite as powerful as

um what I see happen to people over a number of years. Once they start eating

metabolically, they start to uncover bit by bit new parts of themselves and um

that week by week, month by month, noticing that you have more energy. Um noticing

that you have better clarity of thought, better sleep, better stress resilience.

And it's sort of like a um like unspooling some a big a big mess of

string or a huge mess of wool and little by little you start unraveling that mess

and creating your nice neat ball of wool.

And I think it really surprises people how far they actually get

um when instead of seeing it as a monumental unobtainable

Small daily habits that rebuild metabolic health

thing when they just break it down and each day they eat great food um drink

water and get enough rest that that builds each day. It builds and and

builds and builds. Yeah. I think it's it I mean like it's so important to remember where a lot of

people come from. They don't just overnight become chronically ill, unwell

over, you know, it's a it's a it's a slow kind of process of somebody slowly

going down a path of just their body not really know being well. um and various

conditions showing themselves um inflammation really ramping up and building and causing issues and and I

think that's really where we have to remember that what we are doing is we are bringing in the right foods that

really ensure that somebody can kind of I like to almost say we flick a switch and put everybody into a different

direction and we're we're just building that that resilience and that repair and

that like you say that unravel traveling of the mesh in order to and then see

really how how somebody can um can be well. I think um as well the way we eat

How childhood habits shape our relationship with food

that has formed from childhood. So, I'm thinking of one particular

client that I've worked really closely with and um I worked with naturopathically for quite a long time

and they had a soft drink drink drinking habit that had formed in their childhood

and they carried it through into their um early 50s and it would always cause

problems but the problems just started escalating in their 40s and their 50s.

And look, you know, we we see this really commonly, I guess, or I see this commonly. And when I was working with

her naturopathically, I was doing all the right things. She was making the best effort she could, but we were

always struggling with the soft drink. When we moved to metabolic balance

Client story: overcoming a lifelong soft drink habit

because her metabolism was more strongly supported,

she actually was able to kick a 50ear soft drink habit. And the change that

I've witnessed in her over the last 12 weeks, she's just graduated

um is is incredible. And that's not the end of the change because I think this is the

thing is that what I'll get to see is I'll get to see that change evolve over

the next couple of years. It doesn't stop after 12 weeks. People just keep

getting stronger. For this particular person, she has lost 12 kilos easily.

And so she describes it melting off. She's like, I just enjoy the food that I'm eating. I don't feel any urge to eat

anything else. She has gone from she's got very complex health um

inflammatory health conditions that have sort of arisen like you said over a really long period of time and they're

starting to get a little more and more manageable. Just a little bit every day

more manageable. Yeah. less brain fog, more energy, and

it's just happened very very consistently over the last three months. It's people really digging like

understanding how they can feel. So, you slightly start to fall in love with this idea of

I actually could feel good here. I I do feel good. I want to carry on feeling

Stable energy and balanced metabolism through structured meals

like this. I don't want this feeling to stop. Therefore, I'm going to carry on

just doing what I'm doing because I just love how I'm feeling. And you are eating

beautiful, whole, gorgeous, fresh, vibrant food at the same time. So, it's it's a win-win in every in every sense.

I reckon that really captures it because it's not about it becomes not about

drinking soft drink or not drinking soft drink. It just becomes I have my

breakfast and I feel good and have enough energy to um she had a physical

job. So suddenly she had enough energy to get through to lunch. And she's like,

I drank water. I felt good. Uh I ate breakfast. I felt good. I would get

hungry and I'd realize that lunch was coming up in half an hour and I'd eat lunch

and then I'd have enough energy to do the physical my physical job in the

afternoon and then I'd get really hungry and I'd noticed that dinner was only 20

minutes away and so it it whereas before it was always

trying to um deal with the urge to drink soft drinks because her metabolism

was underfunctioning and wasn't giving her enough energy for her body or her brain to get through. Yeah. It was

reaching for the shortterm quick fix solution to the immediate problem of,

you know, that dip in energy or that dip in the a crisis point. Yeah, let's let's

let's fix a crisis point. But then we're we're always lurching from one crisis to

another crisis as opposed to just actually just doing you know sailing

through the day in a nice steady and controlled way. The you've worked a lot

with people who have got that um you know a much bigger health journey. So it

Supporting clients with larger weight loss journeys

is those people that are needing to or wanting to release sort of 30 plus kg.

How would you talk about their journeys? I get really inspired by their journeys

because having an opportunity to live a little bit differently

and then really enjoying it and focusing on how good they feel

and really listening to their bodies. And when I hear those ingredients coming

together, I get super excited because I know that if people are able

to bring themselves to experiencing the positivity and um the the energy and the

what I notice is even at the beginning of their big journey of like wholesale

body change that often what they'll be saying to me is I just feel more relaxed

about my body. You know, they might be a quarter of the way to where they want to

be, but they are already feeling so much

better in themselves. And that gives me tigles. As soon as

they start saying things like that, I'm like um because what I know is if they start

Finding the “sweet spot” for sustainable eating

feeling better in in and of themselves and they're enjoying the food and they

they seeing it as an enjoyment like this

is actually me getting enjoy my life, then that's sustainable. And when I'm

working with metabolic balance, sustainability for for me is the key. It's not how quickly um can I release

weight or how quickly can I get to my goals. It's how do I make eating and my

relationship with food sustainable? not just when I'm at home, but when I'm

socializing, um when I'm at work, uh when I'm on holiday, how do I eat and

live in a sustainable way? And when people reach that sustainability,

I now know because I've been a metabolic balance practitioner for for years,

I now know they've they've achieved something really impressive, and I know

where that can take them. And it's because

if you if you just change, oh, I'm going to, you know, cut out carbs or I'm going to

eat this different style and you you make this sort of change and you get somewhere, but it's a constant effort,

then that going to produce the long-term uh results that I know people can

achieve with metabolic balance. Because what I see is I see many many of

my clients who have required decades of naturopathic support to just be able to

live a normal life and are carrying 30, 40, sometimes 50 kilos above what they

feel and and is clearly above what is a good weight for them. And I know the

sort of cost and effort that they undertake for a long period of time

before they find metabolic balance. And that I also know once they find metabolic balance and they find that

sweet spot of sustainability with it where they feel like I love what I eat

and I love how I'm living. I know that over the course where they will get to.

Yeah. because I think that's really that's I love that point, the sweet spot. Um I try so hard to get the

message across that we are we don't we're not looking for perfection. It

what we need is the right space for each person that it actually works for them

that but that they're not that they're also being real with what they actually do have to do as well. Um because you

Moving away from toxic diet culture

know we we have to accept that there are a lot of toxic things in our world.

There's a there's a lot of toxic foods. You know foods in common here they're not actually food. They're just stomach

filling kind of substances um that in the short term won't kill you

but over the long term they will slowly build up in that inflammatory response.

And it's that understanding that, you know, the idea that you just do sort of

focused good health or good eating for you for a short period of time and then

you revert back to a standard western diet that lead led you to your problems

in the first place. It's actually understanding that sweet spot of space that really allows you to

continue feeling good and allows the the health journey to continue evolving and

um and be expressed in that feeling of good health. It's really getting people to shift from

um unconsciously eating whatever is in front of them

to tuning into their body. and discovering what their body needs.

And I find it almost always tracks back

right into childhood. Um, one of the most profound

uh things actually that you taught me, Cherry, is that there are only two places that food ends up.

One of them is the toilet and the other one is the bin. And so so many of us have been

indoctrinated with the belief that we have to eat everything that is given to

us, everything that is put in front of us, everything that is in the supermarket, everything that our

children don't eat in their lunchbox, that it all must be consumed by us in

Understanding metabolism and structured meal timing

order for us to have value or life to have value or the food to have value.

But it's not true. And when people start actually listening to what food their

body wants to eat, what when they eat things, how do they feel, what feels

good, what feels really ordinary. Um when people learn that it's not just

about what they eat, but how they eat like the the schedule on what in which

they eat. Um, I find the in my weekly sessions I I run

weekly coaching with my clients and that what I teach most

is actually how the metabolism works. that when it our body goes into a food

storage mode and that if you were eating every couple of hours your body is just store

and it it's never being prompted to burn anything. A a lot of diets and food

solutions are all about um what you consume and not enough about how you

consume and why why we why metabolic balance is the way

it is like why is there this structure around eating food

um so I find that once people that it's life-changing

yeah and it's it's really enjoying the times that you are eating as well. It's

actually really ensuring that we have we're regularly fueling three lovable

meals a day. Um we are, you know, having really good uh food in those meals. And

it's it's a really sustainable way of of moving forward in into the future. But

there's always going to be and it's important to have the celebratory times, you know, as well. We have to I love

Celebrations, flexibility, and enjoying life with food

being you know being able to have the relationship with food that I mean is

you can celebrate in the way that you enjoy the event you enjoy the people

around you um but the the pressure is of around how much you know having to eat

or even how I'm going to feel post you know how the recovery periods there

shouldn't be a recovery period after period after celebrating

really should. Well, it's the the beauty of the metabolic balance hack because it I see

it as a hack is that you get lots of opportunity um to test things out and to work out

like ah actually when I eat out I know exactly what works for me. I get to

enjoy it and I don't have to pay I don't have payback. Yeah. There's no um like oh you have to

eat this or you can't eat that. What I love about metabolic balance is it's try it and see body will tell you. Yeah.

Yeah. It's that it's that real constant learning and and appreciating checking

in with yourself and um and and and moving forward. Um, and I think, you

know, I talk a lot about that real, it needs to, it needs to have a real lovely honesty around the relationship you have

with your body and and your food. Well, it's a slowly evolving of that honesty.

You learn and then you go, "Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm getting it. I'm sort of recognizing it now." Whereas we can all

kind of have that slightly kid ourselves that this doesn't matter and oh that little bit won't make any difference

whatsoever. But actually you go okay I think it really does. So you learn that

you learn that honesty yourself and you start to go do you know what I'm worth it. And that's another thing I I just

love when when somebody actually starts to really say my health is worth it. I

am worth this. I am worth this effort. I am worth putting the effort into because

I I feel good on this and it's and I deserve to feel good. I shouldn't have

to put everybody else ahead of me. I can actually feel good myself. I love one of

my clients um who who actually this particular client had a 35 kilo um

weight change over 2 and 1/2 years

and partway through I think one year into the change they were walking past a

kickboxing studio. Now context, this is somebody who was struggling with um

broadspectctrum inflammation. Uh struggled to move around basically

When metabolism improves, movement becomes natural

even walking medium short to medium distances was difficult. Um would sleep

in, couldn't do appointments before 2 p.m. a year into eating metabolically.

Could do an appointment at any time of day. um said she naturally woke up between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning and

happened to be walking past a kickboxing studio and found herself. She said she didn't

even think about it. She just sort of was walking past, thought, "That's interesting." Wandered in um and got

signed up for kickboxing. It gives me goosebumps just hearing the story. Yeah. like two months in. She's

like, I'm actually quite good at kickboxing. This is somebody who struggled to walk. And uh I don't know

if you get a much opportunity to talk about this, but I knew straight away

what was happening because I learned about this as a metabolic balance practitioner, not as a naturopath, as a

metabolic balance pract. Yes. Yes. So what I knew and this is the

long-term sustainability aspect or one of them for me about metabolic balance is that you get hormonal in the body

which means that the body moves towards movement.

It wants to move. Um, one of the biggest things that I notice is that when people

first come to see me, you've already named it. Um, most of the people that do

metabolic balance through me have been chronically unwell um, and are carrying

quite a lot of weight and the last thing they feel like doing is exercising

and yet they receive a lot of societal pressure and a lot of medical pressure

to exercise. when you're inflamed, unwell, um when you exercise, you do

stuff. Yeah. It's it's hard. It's so hard to to do. It's hard. It's it's infinitely

harder than what people were telling them that they need to do it realize that it's hard. And so when I tell them

that I don't want them to do any exercise, they're so like relieved and a bit

afraid. Like people are but we're god what will happen and I'm like nothing

bad will happen and when they then hit the point that they want to exercise. I

know that the hormone foxit 2 has started to rise and I call it the wrigle

hormone. So they just get the wriggle, you know, like they don't maybe haven't even ever experienced that before and

before they know it they're wandering into their local kickboxing studio. Yeah. Yeah. And and realizing that they

actually enjoy that movement and exercise that they previously kind of

couldn't even could never see themselves doing. Um it's it reminds me that you

know there's a lot of research that's really you know we talk we know that we there's childhood obesity and that has

been rising over the years for a number of years now number of decades. Um, and

there's been that hypothesis. Is it that people the kids are getting bigger and therefore they stop moving or do they

stop moving and they get bigger? Well, the research when we look at it in in the context of what we know, it's

actually the food is causing metabolic problems and leading them to be to start to feel

unwell and and gain the weight in a in an in not in not fully healthful way.

And then it's just hard for them to to wrigle. You know, kids should be wriggling all the time. I mean that's

really we that's that's what we know kids do and uh yeah but but it it is

that what what comes first and then how do we correct it? Yeah. And how do we really correct it? Because what's very interesting is I had

a client recently um one of my male clients who said look I've always

identified as somebody who exercises. If somebody asks me you know who I am I'd say I'm a bike rider. I'm a runner.

uh really outdoorsy person, but he said that he did actually realize

he didn't enjoy it until he was 10 weeks into metabolic balance.

So, I think maybe eight 8 to 10 weeks into metabolic balance and he had his

first completely physically enjoyable exercise experience.

And it's like I didn't realize I didn't enjoy it before. But now when I

exercise, I'm not thinking about when does this end. I'm not thinking about like how hard it is. I am just doing it

Why sustainability matters more than quick weight loss

and my whole body is singing. Yeah. Oh, isn't that a lovely lovely idea? Whole body is singing

beautifully harmoniously. Wow. I also wanted to sort of you know this the consistency and the sustainability is is

really where we're coming from because um with that is what we have to get to

that allows people to you know have the the the health transformations over the

long term and and it's not about forcing the body into anything.

Correct. And sometimes it's about giving the body a lot of

time, but the body has its own priorities. Like we think weight loss is important, but

your body might have a completely different set of criteria that it has to

fulfill. And its innate wisdom has to be listened to. And if we listen closely

enough, we will hear what it needs and we'll be able to guide it through. And that's

what I love about metabolic balance. Well, another thing that I love um is that it's delivered by a practitioner

and it's why I I opt for more face-toface time than less. Um because I

find the more you get an opportunity to talk to metabolic um talk about

metabolic balance and the more you get to see other people's journeys um I'm often directing people through to

the podcast just to listen to people's story um because the more you get inspired

um and the more you learn that that everybody has their own unique journey through metabolic balance the more

you're able to honor your own journey through it and listen carefully to your

body. Yeah, I love that. Honoring your own journey. I love that phrase. Um I think

we we live in a society that sadly has got this, you know, a lot of diet

culture which is incredibly toxic. Diet culture is horrible. Um it is it is

cruel. Um there has been a lot of it's a it's a it's a blamed space. It's also a

space I think of a lot of rushing. You know it's like a okay deprivation,

starvation, force. Um I exercise really hard. Uh you know it's your fault. It's

you know it's it's it's the person's fault that they find themselves in in a

place. It's it's that whole a lot of negativity and I can't bear it. judgment.

Yeah. And and I think when we can actually because we have to recognize that um the the the space really we need

to have a solution as we need to have the metabolic solutions. And when we can

actually just take somebody on this journey out of the toxic space, it's almost like let's really let's really

like take you from that start this this self-care journey. start this approach

of really looking at what's going on and allowing the body to go at its own pace.

Um, one of the if I if I can just indulge you because I know I want to I want to I just want to share um for

people. One of my favorite things to talk about or just to talk to clients about is one of Esop's fables. Um, do

you know you know Esop's fables? It's one of it's a very old stories, kids stories, but they often have a very

strong moral uh to a lot of the stories. The one that I always love about and in

this context is um the story of the sun and the moon who were having a little bitty argument. Uh sorry, not the sun

A powerful story about kindness versus force in health change

and the moon. Sorry, it's the sun and the wind. Sorry, the story of the sun and the wind who were having a little

argument and they were arguing over who was the strongest. And so the wind said,

"Okay, see that traveler down the road? He's got a cloak on. Whoever is stronger

is the one that can get that cloak off and and and get get him to throw it and get it away from him." So the wind goes

fast and he blows really really hard. He is really putting all of his force and effort into this. But all the traveler

does is wrap the cloak even tighter around himself and does up. Then the sun

comes out and it's now his turn and he then shines and he just rays down, you

know, shines down at beautiful grapes, the warmth, the light, the loveliness of

the sun and the traveler relaxes and he then slowly unbuttons his coat and he

takes it off and then he's happy and he's relaxed and he's walking. Basically

I always see this as a lovely lovely way of looking at when we are gentle and

kind and nurturing and really place ourselves in a safe place our bodies in

the safe place the release and the improvement of health can just slowly

beautifully all we can't force ourselves or force things to happen just by you

know punishing in in the in the gym or starving ourselves. We just that's

that's not where we're going to get healthy. Absolutely. And I I I one thing that um

I think really makes metabolic balance sustainable and work is this idea of

moving between what I call the eight um pillars. They're like foundation. And

then the celebrations and being able to move seamlessly between the two because

Building metabolic resilience over time

you get to have the celebration because you've got the foundations. Yeah. And to see the foundations is actually

like your foundations into the earth and they come up out of the earth and they

support you in your life and they support your metabolism to function

effectively. And then once your metabolism is functioning effectively, it can deal

with all sorts of things that it couldn't handle before. I sort of think of the metabolism a bit

like a train that if the train is ground to a halt and it's like just choing

along at like a few ks an hour, any bandit can jump off and cause a whole

lot of havoc. Whereas your um train is speeding along at 50 or 60 ks an hour

every single day because your foundations are holding you up, supporting you, then you know not so

many bandits are going to be able to jump on and you know you can throw a lot at a moving

train and that just the speed of the train horse feel that that's creating

just just sort of doesn't even

Yeah. So is that it is that building the resilience. It is the building of the resilience. But at the same time, we've

talked about this before. I know we are um uh probably privately, but um we've

talked about this where it still doesn't mean that we're not we're not human beings who are just going to get ill as

well. You know, it's like this idea that just because we eat well,

we stay we keep our train moving beautifully, but every now and again you're still going to you're still

human. You're going to catch cold. I still get colds. I still, you know, have

moments of tiredness and and and I'm a normal human being. [laughter]

We're not super super humans. And and I think that's something that people also need to understand. You know, we we eat

well is over time you get you get better resilience and you're not going to be

flawed by something. But sometimes you still get can get flawed by something. Absolutely.

And even I actually find that when your train starts to run properly, you might

get sick whereas before you never got sick. Um because actually your body now has

enough resources to mount a response whereas before you just felt exhausted,

depleted and were you know um your body was

handling the challenges of life differently. So, I think we often think of, you know, getting a cold or a flu or

an illness as a bad thing, but when you put it into the context of it's your

body having a response, then maybe it's not such a bad thing at

all. Like, actually being able to mount uh an immune response requires a certain

amount of vitality. And if your food wasn't giving you any vitality before, you might not have even

had enough substance to mount an immune response. That's a fascinating way of

looking at it as well. Um that this is, you know, this is a normal thing. We

obviously it is it's getting over something nice and quickly, bouncing back. Well, that's what resilience is,

isn't it? I mean, that's really what resilience is. We can't stop uh the things coming at us. We can't stop the

stress of life, but we can change our response to it and improve our ability

to spring back up again as as opposed to being flawed. And

the the other thing is um actually and I

Resetting habits and returning to healthy foundations

think you've said this as you've just sort of said this as well really. It's about not expecting ourselves to be

anything other than human. So even even um once you are eating

metabolically, you will things where you think

like I' I've just had a write off of a weekend or I went on a holiday and oh I

fell into some really bad patterns. Um what what what I encourage people to do

is to think about metabolic balance as a hack, a life hack. So you can go back to

your second phase of eating at any time for a day

for two days week. Um that I think of the the phases of metabolic balance a

little bit like driving a car. I'm like, you know, ultimately, you know, when you really

nail metabolic balance, you're just banging down the the freeway in fifth

gear at a pays an hour. But that you

can't drive your whole life on a freeway. And there are going to be times when you

need to re-evaluate. you need to um return back to your roots and and and

reacquaint yourself, reset yourself. And that this is the beauty of metabolic

balance because it's no longer a mystery to you how to do that. Done it before,

you can do again. And ultimately, I think it's that really coming back to a

different relationship with food. And that's where you know even coming full

circle from what we talked about at the beginning the relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex

and um we all have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a

reward you know is it a right is it a is it nourishment or is it just something

that you do a mindlessness to it there's so much you know what is it

and recognizing that you know in the body needs to be nourished and and it

also needs to be safe. You know that relationship with food can be where people you know don't feel safe even

thinking about food or talking about food. Um, and it's an incredible um,

incredible um, sadness left for for many people who are in that maybe disordered

dating space. But at the same time, you could say a lot of people have, you

know, different relationships with food. Well, I think um, I think about it as

How Metabolic Balance quiets food noise

food noise. So, how much food noise is in your life?

Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise was in my life um until

I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically and I was like I have not self patrolled

myself around food consumption and I was like oh I have not um berated

myself about anything that I've eaten um I have not felt like I let myself

down with the way and I would not have identified as somebody who had any type

of eating disorder whatsoever. Um, this was first noise that I think is

incredibly common in our society and experienced by most people to some

degree. Um, and once I understood that about myself

because because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in

the first place. Once I realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating

and that ordered eating really stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered

thoughts around food. And that creating

structure around food um actually gave me freedom from it.

and and I see that that's the way that's the way I work with um people who know

that they have um disordered eating. Um I think the beauty of metabolic balance

is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance

that's right for you and that once you actually crack that then the the freedom

Why practitioner support makes the journey personal

from food noise is really quite profound. Yeah. And it's really recognizing that

it is it can be tailored and that's why it's practitioner only. I mean I get we

get often people asking why can't I just get my own burn. It's like it's please

talk to a practitioner about really how we can make this work for you in your

life and um and just take you know you can understand something so to totally

different to this idea that um you know it's a diet and it's you know it's so

you know it's so much more. It's so it can give you so much more if you allow it to and you you give yourself the

space to learn in it. It's actually about because we we have no I have no

idea when I hand somebody their plan. I have no idea how that is actually going

to look when they start eating it. Some people end up eating twice needing not

just eating needing twice the amount of food that is on their plan. And I have

people who they're just eating what is on their plan feels like more food than

they've ever eaten in their life or is more food than ever eaten in a day their life.

And there is no predicting this and until

until somebody starts to really nourish their bodies and the body starts to change and and and and become well. Um

that's why yeah it's it's a it's an ongoing wonderful journey. Um I have

absolutely loved talking to you today army. I think uh I think you're doing

wonderful work uh for your clients. Um and uh it's really, you know, it's such

Closing reflections on long-term health transformation

a such a lovely space that um that where

we get to talk to people and actually really change things and and get that

long-term approach, you know, really help people have a different relationship themselves and um and and

their futures. That's what it enables. That's what I see is that Uber over years people are

able to make a profound change not just to what they eat, not just to the size

of their clothing, but really to their entire experience of life. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. Well, I think

we need to we need to finish there, but I could carry on talking all day. Um,

thank you so much, Arreolina, for joining me. I've got a discovery call that I've got to go to.

Absolutely. So, thank you. And if you'd like to hear more about Arolina and her

practice uh down in Melbourne, uh do uh do check out the show notes. Um check

out the website www. metabolic heightenbalance.com

and check into all the other Metabolic Bounce stories podcast episodes because

as Arlina said it's so there are so many wonderful stories and each person is

unique and um take those as inspiration. Thank you again to our leader and we

will catch up again soon. Thank you. Thanks Jay.Food noise and our complex relationship with food

The relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex and we all

have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a reward, you know, is

it a right? Is it a is it nourishment or is it just something that you do a

mindlessness to it? There's so much, you know, what is [music] it? Well, I think

about it as food noise. Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise

was in my life until I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically. I was

like, I have not self-controlled myself around food consumption. I have

not berated myself about anything that I've eaten. I have not felt like I have

let myself down with the way and I would not have identified [music] as somebody

who had any type of eating disorder. whatsoever. This was first noise that I think is incredibly common in our

society and experienced by [music] most people to some degree. And once I

understood that about myself, because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in the first place. Once I

realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating and that ordered eating really

stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered thoughts around food and that

creating structure around food actually gave me freedom from it. And I see that

that's the way that's the way I work with people who know that they have disordered eating. I think the beauty of

metabolic balance is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance that's [music] right for you.

And that once you actually crack that, then the freedom from food noise is

really quite profound.

Introduction to the Metabolic Balance Stories Podcast

And welcome to the Metabolic Balance Stories podcast. This is where we share

real stories and insights to help you on your journey to optimal health with personalized nutrition and metabolic

balance. I'm Cherry Wills. I'm your host and today I'm delighted to welcome a

fabulous practitioner, Arolina. And today we are going to discuss the

realistic and sustainable nature of health transformation through metabolic

balance. So, hello Arreolina. It's wonderful to have you here. This is one of my favorite topics and I think this

is also one of your favorite topics too. Yes. I um this is one of my favorite things

to talk about and to witness actually the best part of it is I get to witness

it with so many people. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean if we start

off I think it would be really interesting for you to start off sort of sharing your insights into you know that

Why real health transformation happens gradually

real longterm getting well with me bodybuilds because it's not always it's

not about it's it's not curing anything. We are just slowly really building up

the resilience and just getting the body well. Yeah, that's it's um it's so

tempting to believe that we can just move from struggling with our health and

our weight to like overnight wholesale change.

But I don't find that that is quite as powerful as

um what I see happen to people over a number of years. Once they start eating

metabolically, they start to uncover bit by bit new parts of themselves and um

that week by week, month by month, noticing that you have more energy. Um noticing

that you have better clarity of thought, better sleep, better stress resilience.

And it's sort of like a um like unspooling some a big a big mess of

string or a huge mess of wool and little by little you start unraveling that mess

and creating your nice neat ball of wool.

And I think it really surprises people how far they actually get

um when instead of seeing it as a monumental unobtainable

Small daily habits that rebuild metabolic health

thing when they just break it down and each day they eat great food um drink

water and get enough rest that that builds each day. It builds and and

builds and builds. Yeah. I think it's it I mean like it's so important to remember where a lot of

people come from. They don't just overnight become chronically ill, unwell

over, you know, it's a it's a it's a slow kind of process of somebody slowly

going down a path of just their body not really know being well. um and various

conditions showing themselves um inflammation really ramping up and building and causing issues and and I

think that's really where we have to remember that what we are doing is we are bringing in the right foods that

really ensure that somebody can kind of I like to almost say we flick a switch and put everybody into a different

direction and we're we're just building that that resilience and that repair and

that like you say that unravel traveling of the mesh in order to and then see

really how how somebody can um can be well. I think um as well the way we eat

How childhood habits shape our relationship with food

that has formed from childhood. So, I'm thinking of one particular

client that I've worked really closely with and um I worked with naturopathically for quite a long time

and they had a soft drink drink drinking habit that had formed in their childhood

and they carried it through into their um early 50s and it would always cause

problems but the problems just started escalating in their 40s and their 50s.

And look, you know, we we see this really commonly, I guess, or I see this commonly. And when I was working with

her naturopathically, I was doing all the right things. She was making the best effort she could, but we were

always struggling with the soft drink. When we moved to metabolic balance

Client story: overcoming a lifelong soft drink habit

because her metabolism was more strongly supported,

she actually was able to kick a 50ear soft drink habit. And the change that

I've witnessed in her over the last 12 weeks, she's just graduated

um is is incredible. And that's not the end of the change because I think this is the

thing is that what I'll get to see is I'll get to see that change evolve over

the next couple of years. It doesn't stop after 12 weeks. People just keep

getting stronger. For this particular person, she has lost 12 kilos easily.

And so she describes it melting off. She's like, I just enjoy the food that I'm eating. I don't feel any urge to eat

anything else. She has gone from she's got very complex health um

inflammatory health conditions that have sort of arisen like you said over a really long period of time and they're

starting to get a little more and more manageable. Just a little bit every day

more manageable. Yeah. less brain fog, more energy, and

it's just happened very very consistently over the last three months. It's people really digging like

understanding how they can feel. So, you slightly start to fall in love with this idea of

I actually could feel good here. I I do feel good. I want to carry on feeling

Stable energy and balanced metabolism through structured meals

like this. I don't want this feeling to stop. Therefore, I'm going to carry on

just doing what I'm doing because I just love how I'm feeling. And you are eating

beautiful, whole, gorgeous, fresh, vibrant food at the same time. So, it's it's a win-win in every in every sense.

I reckon that really captures it because it's not about it becomes not about

drinking soft drink or not drinking soft drink. It just becomes I have my

breakfast and I feel good and have enough energy to um she had a physical

job. So suddenly she had enough energy to get through to lunch. And she's like,

I drank water. I felt good. Uh I ate breakfast. I felt good. I would get

hungry and I'd realize that lunch was coming up in half an hour and I'd eat lunch

and then I'd have enough energy to do the physical my physical job in the

afternoon and then I'd get really hungry and I'd noticed that dinner was only 20

minutes away and so it it whereas before it was always

trying to um deal with the urge to drink soft drinks because her metabolism

was underfunctioning and wasn't giving her enough energy for her body or her brain to get through. Yeah. It was

reaching for the shortterm quick fix solution to the immediate problem of,

you know, that dip in energy or that dip in the a crisis point. Yeah, let's let's

let's fix a crisis point. But then we're we're always lurching from one crisis to

another crisis as opposed to just actually just doing you know sailing

through the day in a nice steady and controlled way. The you've worked a lot

with people who have got that um you know a much bigger health journey. So it

Supporting clients with larger weight loss journeys

is those people that are needing to or wanting to release sort of 30 plus kg.

How would you talk about their journeys? I get really inspired by their journeys

because having an opportunity to live a little bit differently

and then really enjoying it and focusing on how good they feel

and really listening to their bodies. And when I hear those ingredients coming

together, I get super excited because I know that if people are able

to bring themselves to experiencing the positivity and um the the energy and the

what I notice is even at the beginning of their big journey of like wholesale

body change that often what they'll be saying to me is I just feel more relaxed

about my body. You know, they might be a quarter of the way to where they want to

be, but they are already feeling so much

better in themselves. And that gives me tigles. As soon as

they start saying things like that, I'm like um because what I know is if they start

Finding the “sweet spot” for sustainable eating

feeling better in in and of themselves and they're enjoying the food and they

they seeing it as an enjoyment like this

is actually me getting enjoy my life, then that's sustainable. And when I'm

working with metabolic balance, sustainability for for me is the key. It's not how quickly um can I release

weight or how quickly can I get to my goals. It's how do I make eating and my

relationship with food sustainable? not just when I'm at home, but when I'm

socializing, um when I'm at work, uh when I'm on holiday, how do I eat and

live in a sustainable way? And when people reach that sustainability,

I now know because I've been a metabolic balance practitioner for for years,

I now know they've they've achieved something really impressive, and I know

where that can take them. And it's because

if you if you just change, oh, I'm going to, you know, cut out carbs or I'm going to

eat this different style and you you make this sort of change and you get somewhere, but it's a constant effort,

then that going to produce the long-term uh results that I know people can

achieve with metabolic balance. Because what I see is I see many many of

my clients who have required decades of naturopathic support to just be able to

live a normal life and are carrying 30, 40, sometimes 50 kilos above what they

feel and and is clearly above what is a good weight for them. And I know the

sort of cost and effort that they undertake for a long period of time

before they find metabolic balance. And that I also know once they find metabolic balance and they find that

sweet spot of sustainability with it where they feel like I love what I eat

and I love how I'm living. I know that over the course where they will get to.

Yeah. because I think that's really that's I love that point, the sweet spot. Um I try so hard to get the

message across that we are we don't we're not looking for perfection. It

what we need is the right space for each person that it actually works for them

that but that they're not that they're also being real with what they actually do have to do as well. Um because you

Moving away from toxic diet culture

know we we have to accept that there are a lot of toxic things in our world.

There's a there's a lot of toxic foods. You know foods in common here they're not actually food. They're just stomach

filling kind of substances um that in the short term won't kill you

but over the long term they will slowly build up in that inflammatory response.

And it's that understanding that, you know, the idea that you just do sort of

focused good health or good eating for you for a short period of time and then

you revert back to a standard western diet that lead led you to your problems

in the first place. It's actually understanding that sweet spot of space that really allows you to

continue feeling good and allows the the health journey to continue evolving and

um and be expressed in that feeling of good health. It's really getting people to shift from

um unconsciously eating whatever is in front of them

to tuning into their body. and discovering what their body needs.

And I find it almost always tracks back

right into childhood. Um, one of the most profound

uh things actually that you taught me, Cherry, is that there are only two places that food ends up.

One of them is the toilet and the other one is the bin. And so so many of us have been

indoctrinated with the belief that we have to eat everything that is given to

us, everything that is put in front of us, everything that is in the supermarket, everything that our

children don't eat in their lunchbox, that it all must be consumed by us in

Understanding metabolism and structured meal timing

order for us to have value or life to have value or the food to have value.

But it's not true. And when people start actually listening to what food their

body wants to eat, what when they eat things, how do they feel, what feels

good, what feels really ordinary. Um when people learn that it's not just

about what they eat, but how they eat like the the schedule on what in which

they eat. Um, I find the in my weekly sessions I I run

weekly coaching with my clients and that what I teach most

is actually how the metabolism works. that when it our body goes into a food

storage mode and that if you were eating every couple of hours your body is just store

and it it's never being prompted to burn anything. A a lot of diets and food

solutions are all about um what you consume and not enough about how you

consume and why why we why metabolic balance is the way

it is like why is there this structure around eating food

um so I find that once people that it's life-changing

yeah and it's it's really enjoying the times that you are eating as well. It's

actually really ensuring that we have we're regularly fueling three lovable

meals a day. Um we are, you know, having really good uh food in those meals. And

it's it's a really sustainable way of of moving forward in into the future. But

there's always going to be and it's important to have the celebratory times, you know, as well. We have to I love

Celebrations, flexibility, and enjoying life with food

being you know being able to have the relationship with food that I mean is

you can celebrate in the way that you enjoy the event you enjoy the people

around you um but the the pressure is of around how much you know having to eat

or even how I'm going to feel post you know how the recovery periods there

shouldn't be a recovery period after period after celebrating

really should. Well, it's the the beauty of the metabolic balance hack because it I see

it as a hack is that you get lots of opportunity um to test things out and to work out

like ah actually when I eat out I know exactly what works for me. I get to

enjoy it and I don't have to pay I don't have payback. Yeah. There's no um like oh you have to

eat this or you can't eat that. What I love about metabolic balance is it's try it and see body will tell you. Yeah.

Yeah. It's that it's that real constant learning and and appreciating checking

in with yourself and um and and and moving forward. Um, and I think, you

know, I talk a lot about that real, it needs to, it needs to have a real lovely honesty around the relationship you have

with your body and and your food. Well, it's a slowly evolving of that honesty.

You learn and then you go, "Oh, yeah. Okay, I'm getting it. I'm sort of recognizing it now." Whereas we can all

kind of have that slightly kid ourselves that this doesn't matter and oh that little bit won't make any difference

whatsoever. But actually you go okay I think it really does. So you learn that

you learn that honesty yourself and you start to go do you know what I'm worth it. And that's another thing I I just

love when when somebody actually starts to really say my health is worth it. I

am worth this. I am worth this effort. I am worth putting the effort into because

I I feel good on this and it's and I deserve to feel good. I shouldn't have

to put everybody else ahead of me. I can actually feel good myself. I love one of

my clients um who who actually this particular client had a 35 kilo um

weight change over 2 and 1/2 years

and partway through I think one year into the change they were walking past a

kickboxing studio. Now context, this is somebody who was struggling with um

broadspectctrum inflammation. Uh struggled to move around basically

When metabolism improves, movement becomes natural

even walking medium short to medium distances was difficult. Um would sleep

in, couldn't do appointments before 2 p.m. a year into eating metabolically.

Could do an appointment at any time of day. um said she naturally woke up between 6:30 and 7:30 every morning and

happened to be walking past a kickboxing studio and found herself. She said she didn't

even think about it. She just sort of was walking past, thought, "That's interesting." Wandered in um and got

signed up for kickboxing. It gives me goosebumps just hearing the story. Yeah. like two months in. She's

like, I'm actually quite good at kickboxing. This is somebody who struggled to walk. And uh I don't know

if you get a much opportunity to talk about this, but I knew straight away

what was happening because I learned about this as a metabolic balance practitioner, not as a naturopath, as a

metabolic balance pract. Yes. Yes. So what I knew and this is the

long-term sustainability aspect or one of them for me about metabolic balance is that you get hormonal in the body

which means that the body moves towards movement.

It wants to move. Um, one of the biggest things that I notice is that when people

first come to see me, you've already named it. Um, most of the people that do

metabolic balance through me have been chronically unwell um, and are carrying

quite a lot of weight and the last thing they feel like doing is exercising

and yet they receive a lot of societal pressure and a lot of medical pressure

to exercise. when you're inflamed, unwell, um when you exercise, you do

stuff. Yeah. It's it's hard. It's so hard to to do. It's hard. It's it's infinitely

harder than what people were telling them that they need to do it realize that it's hard. And so when I tell them

that I don't want them to do any exercise, they're so like relieved and a bit

afraid. Like people are but we're god what will happen and I'm like nothing

bad will happen and when they then hit the point that they want to exercise. I

know that the hormone foxit 2 has started to rise and I call it the wrigle

hormone. So they just get the wriggle, you know, like they don't maybe haven't even ever experienced that before and

before they know it they're wandering into their local kickboxing studio. Yeah. Yeah. And and realizing that they

actually enjoy that movement and exercise that they previously kind of

couldn't even could never see themselves doing. Um it's it reminds me that you

know there's a lot of research that's really you know we talk we know that we there's childhood obesity and that has

been rising over the years for a number of years now number of decades. Um, and

there's been that hypothesis. Is it that people the kids are getting bigger and therefore they stop moving or do they

stop moving and they get bigger? Well, the research when we look at it in in the context of what we know, it's

actually the food is causing metabolic problems and leading them to be to start to feel

unwell and and gain the weight in a in an in not in not fully healthful way.

And then it's just hard for them to to wrigle. You know, kids should be wriggling all the time. I mean that's

really we that's that's what we know kids do and uh yeah but but it it is

that what what comes first and then how do we correct it? Yeah. And how do we really correct it? Because what's very interesting is I had

a client recently um one of my male clients who said look I've always

identified as somebody who exercises. If somebody asks me you know who I am I'd say I'm a bike rider. I'm a runner.

uh really outdoorsy person, but he said that he did actually realize

he didn't enjoy it until he was 10 weeks into metabolic balance.

So, I think maybe eight 8 to 10 weeks into metabolic balance and he had his

first completely physically enjoyable exercise experience.

And it's like I didn't realize I didn't enjoy it before. But now when I

exercise, I'm not thinking about when does this end. I'm not thinking about like how hard it is. I am just doing it

Why sustainability matters more than quick weight loss

and my whole body is singing. Yeah. Oh, isn't that a lovely lovely idea? Whole body is singing

beautifully harmoniously. Wow. I also wanted to sort of you know this the consistency and the sustainability is is

really where we're coming from because um with that is what we have to get to

that allows people to you know have the the the health transformations over the

long term and and it's not about forcing the body into anything.

Correct. And sometimes it's about giving the body a lot of

time, but the body has its own priorities. Like we think weight loss is important, but

your body might have a completely different set of criteria that it has to

fulfill. And its innate wisdom has to be listened to. And if we listen closely

enough, we will hear what it needs and we'll be able to guide it through. And that's

what I love about metabolic balance. Well, another thing that I love um is that it's delivered by a practitioner

and it's why I I opt for more face-toface time than less. Um because I

find the more you get an opportunity to talk to metabolic um talk about

metabolic balance and the more you get to see other people's journeys um I'm often directing people through to

the podcast just to listen to people's story um because the more you get inspired

um and the more you learn that that everybody has their own unique journey through metabolic balance the more

you're able to honor your own journey through it and listen carefully to your

body. Yeah, I love that. Honoring your own journey. I love that phrase. Um I think

we we live in a society that sadly has got this, you know, a lot of diet

culture which is incredibly toxic. Diet culture is horrible. Um it is it is

cruel. Um there has been a lot of it's a it's a it's a blamed space. It's also a

space I think of a lot of rushing. You know it's like a okay deprivation,

starvation, force. Um I exercise really hard. Uh you know it's your fault. It's

you know it's it's it's the person's fault that they find themselves in in a

place. It's it's that whole a lot of negativity and I can't bear it. judgment.

Yeah. And and I think when we can actually because we have to recognize that um the the the space really we need

to have a solution as we need to have the metabolic solutions. And when we can

actually just take somebody on this journey out of the toxic space, it's almost like let's really let's really

like take you from that start this this self-care journey. start this approach

of really looking at what's going on and allowing the body to go at its own pace.

Um, one of the if I if I can just indulge you because I know I want to I want to I just want to share um for

people. One of my favorite things to talk about or just to talk to clients about is one of Esop's fables. Um, do

you know you know Esop's fables? It's one of it's a very old stories, kids stories, but they often have a very

strong moral uh to a lot of the stories. The one that I always love about and in

this context is um the story of the sun and the moon who were having a little bitty argument. Uh sorry, not the sun

A powerful story about kindness versus force in health change

and the moon. Sorry, it's the sun and the wind. Sorry, the story of the sun and the wind who were having a little

argument and they were arguing over who was the strongest. And so the wind said,

"Okay, see that traveler down the road? He's got a cloak on. Whoever is stronger

is the one that can get that cloak off and and and get get him to throw it and get it away from him." So the wind goes

fast and he blows really really hard. He is really putting all of his force and effort into this. But all the traveler

does is wrap the cloak even tighter around himself and does up. Then the sun

comes out and it's now his turn and he then shines and he just rays down, you

know, shines down at beautiful grapes, the warmth, the light, the loveliness of

the sun and the traveler relaxes and he then slowly unbuttons his coat and he

takes it off and then he's happy and he's relaxed and he's walking. Basically

I always see this as a lovely lovely way of looking at when we are gentle and

kind and nurturing and really place ourselves in a safe place our bodies in

the safe place the release and the improvement of health can just slowly

beautifully all we can't force ourselves or force things to happen just by you

know punishing in in the in the gym or starving ourselves. We just that's

that's not where we're going to get healthy. Absolutely. And I I I one thing that um

I think really makes metabolic balance sustainable and work is this idea of

moving between what I call the eight um pillars. They're like foundation. And

then the celebrations and being able to move seamlessly between the two because

Building metabolic resilience over time

you get to have the celebration because you've got the foundations. Yeah. And to see the foundations is actually

like your foundations into the earth and they come up out of the earth and they

support you in your life and they support your metabolism to function

effectively. And then once your metabolism is functioning effectively, it can deal

with all sorts of things that it couldn't handle before. I sort of think of the metabolism a bit

like a train that if the train is ground to a halt and it's like just choing

along at like a few ks an hour, any bandit can jump off and cause a whole

lot of havoc. Whereas your um train is speeding along at 50 or 60 ks an hour

every single day because your foundations are holding you up, supporting you, then you know not so

many bandits are going to be able to jump on and you know you can throw a lot at a moving

train and that just the speed of the train horse feel that that's creating

just just sort of doesn't even

Yeah. So is that it is that building the resilience. It is the building of the resilience. But at the same time, we've

talked about this before. I know we are um uh probably privately, but um we've

talked about this where it still doesn't mean that we're not we're not human beings who are just going to get ill as

well. You know, it's like this idea that just because we eat well,

we stay we keep our train moving beautifully, but every now and again you're still going to you're still

human. You're going to catch cold. I still get colds. I still, you know, have

moments of tiredness and and and I'm a normal human being. [laughter]

We're not super super humans. And and I think that's something that people also need to understand. You know, we we eat

well is over time you get you get better resilience and you're not going to be

flawed by something. But sometimes you still get can get flawed by something. Absolutely.

And even I actually find that when your train starts to run properly, you might

get sick whereas before you never got sick. Um because actually your body now has

enough resources to mount a response whereas before you just felt exhausted,

depleted and were you know um your body was

handling the challenges of life differently. So, I think we often think of, you know, getting a cold or a flu or

an illness as a bad thing, but when you put it into the context of it's your

body having a response, then maybe it's not such a bad thing at

all. Like, actually being able to mount uh an immune response requires a certain

amount of vitality. And if your food wasn't giving you any vitality before, you might not have even

had enough substance to mount an immune response. That's a fascinating way of

looking at it as well. Um that this is, you know, this is a normal thing. We

obviously it is it's getting over something nice and quickly, bouncing back. Well, that's what resilience is,

isn't it? I mean, that's really what resilience is. We can't stop uh the things coming at us. We can't stop the

stress of life, but we can change our response to it and improve our ability

to spring back up again as as opposed to being flawed. And

the the other thing is um actually and I

Resetting habits and returning to healthy foundations

think you've said this as you've just sort of said this as well really. It's about not expecting ourselves to be

anything other than human. So even even um once you are eating

metabolically, you will things where you think

like I' I've just had a write off of a weekend or I went on a holiday and oh I

fell into some really bad patterns. Um what what what I encourage people to do

is to think about metabolic balance as a hack, a life hack. So you can go back to

your second phase of eating at any time for a day

for two days week. Um that I think of the the phases of metabolic balance a

little bit like driving a car. I'm like, you know, ultimately, you know, when you really

nail metabolic balance, you're just banging down the the freeway in fifth

gear at a pays an hour. But that you

can't drive your whole life on a freeway. And there are going to be times when you

need to re-evaluate. you need to um return back to your roots and and and

reacquaint yourself, reset yourself. And that this is the beauty of metabolic

balance because it's no longer a mystery to you how to do that. Done it before,

you can do again. And ultimately, I think it's that really coming back to a

different relationship with food. And that's where you know even coming full

circle from what we talked about at the beginning the relationship with food that people have is incredibly complex

and um we all have a different way of looking at what food is and is it a

reward you know is it a right is it a is it nourishment or is it just something

that you do a mindlessness to it there's so much you know what is it

and recognizing that you know in the body needs to be nourished and and it

also needs to be safe. You know that relationship with food can be where people you know don't feel safe even

thinking about food or talking about food. Um, and it's an incredible um,

incredible um, sadness left for for many people who are in that maybe disordered

dating space. But at the same time, you could say a lot of people have, you

know, different relationships with food. Well, I think um, I think about it as

How Metabolic Balance quiets food noise

food noise. So, how much food noise is in your life?

Personally, I didn't even realize how much food noise was in my life um until

I was probably 6 months into eating metabolically and I was like I have not self patrolled

myself around food consumption and I was like oh I have not um berated

myself about anything that I've eaten um I have not felt like I let myself

down with the way and I would not have identified as somebody who had any type

of eating disorder whatsoever. Um, this was first noise that I think is

incredibly common in our society and experienced by most people to some

degree. Um, and once I understood that about myself

because because of its absence, not because I realized it was there in

the first place. Once I realized that about myself, I started to understand so much more about disordered eating

and that ordered eating really stemmed from disordered feelings and disordered

thoughts around food. And that creating

structure around food um actually gave me freedom from it.

and and I see that that's the way that's the way I work with um people who know

that they have um disordered eating. Um I think the beauty of metabolic balance

is that it's not about restriction. It's all about finding the balance

that's right for you and that once you actually crack that then the the freedom

Why practitioner support makes the journey personal

from food noise is really quite profound. Yeah. And it's really recognizing that

it is it can be tailored and that's why it's practitioner only. I mean I get we

get often people asking why can't I just get my own burn. It's like it's please

talk to a practitioner about really how we can make this work for you in your

life and um and just take you know you can understand something so to totally

different to this idea that um you know it's a diet and it's you know it's so

you know it's so much more. It's so it can give you so much more if you allow it to and you you give yourself the

space to learn in it. It's actually about because we we have no I have no

idea when I hand somebody their plan. I have no idea how that is actually going

to look when they start eating it. Some people end up eating twice needing not

just eating needing twice the amount of food that is on their plan. And I have

people who they're just eating what is on their plan feels like more food than

they've ever eaten in their life or is more food than ever eaten in a day their life.

And there is no predicting this and until

until somebody starts to really nourish their bodies and the body starts to change and and and and become well. Um

that's why yeah it's it's a it's an ongoing wonderful journey. Um I have

absolutely loved talking to you today army. I think uh I think you're doing

wonderful work uh for your clients. Um and uh it's really, you know, it's such

Closing reflections on long-term health transformation

a such a lovely space that um that where

we get to talk to people and actually really change things and and get that

long-term approach, you know, really help people have a different relationship themselves and um and and

their futures. That's what it enables. That's what I see is that Uber over years people are

able to make a profound change not just to what they eat, not just to the size

of their clothing, but really to their entire experience of life. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. Well, I think

we need to we need to finish there, but I could carry on talking all day. Um,

thank you so much, Arreolina, for joining me. I've got a discovery call that I've got to go to.

Absolutely. So, thank you. And if you'd like to hear more about Arolina and her

practice uh down in Melbourne, uh do uh do check out the show notes. Um check

out the website www. metabolic heightenbalance.com

and check into all the other Metabolic Bounce stories podcast episodes because

as Arlina said it's so there are so many wonderful stories and each person is

unique and um take those as inspiration. Thank you again to our leader and we

will catch up again soon. Thank you. Thanks Jay.