🎧 251: Intuitive Eating, Self-Awareness, and How To Overcome Stress with Eva Rodriguez

What’s your first instinct when you’re feeling stressed? Is it more coffee, a go-to sweet or crunchy treat, or just bypassing the bad feelings? As easy (and good) it feels to dig deep into the cookie jar or chip bag, it’s only pushing the truth deep down: you’re coping. Whether it’s stress, sadness, anxiety, or anger… you’re attuning your awareness to something else so you don’t have to confront the hard truth.

And you know what? That’s a choice conditioned by our reliance on stress. So many of us, especially older generations, hustle for the money without acknowledging the deeper (and more negative) side effects of overworking. Operating in survival mode has become so deeply ingrained into our lifestyle that we forget who is the ultimate victim: us.

So when Eva Rodriguez came to with paramedics swarming her after a fainting spell, she knew that her body (and nervous system) was trying to hit her with the hard truth- and it did. What began as her budding desire to live a healthier life flourished into something massive! 

A month after receiving her certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Eva embarked on her journey towards understanding the interconnectedness of physical, emotional, and spiritual health! Now she’s an awe-inspiring Holistic Weight Loss & Life Coach who specializes in the emotional eating psychology and intuitive eating!

Wise women like Eva know just how badly we need to unlearn our acceptance of unhealthy stress levels. That’s why I invited her onto this IHML Show episode- to have us all asking ourselves what we really need to heal. In this episode, Eva and I discuss the psychology behind emotional eating, why awareness is our ally, and how to reawaken your intuition for ultimate healing!

For my fellow yoyo dieters and chronically stressed listeners, let this episode serve as a gentle loving reminder that you are not a number on a scale or cog in the machine. What you are is human, and someone who deserves to feel fulfilled at every level!

In This Episode:

[0:22]  Eva kicks us off this episode with her hard-hitting story! [3:34] The decision Eva didn’t realize was going to change her life (and career). [6:32] Do you know where your acceptance of stress comes from? Eva does- and shares how we’ve been conditioned to push our health aside because of it. [10:43] Listen to why Eva pursued the Institute of Integrative Nutrition as the solution to her chronic stress and fatigue. [15:23] This was the key that unlocked Eva’s transformation… [18:18] Here’s how Eva learned to reawaken her intuition! [19:20] Why you should be looking (and treating) yourself like a whole person with interconnected parts. [24: 06] Eva shares where the emotional eating really comes from- and how to work on it! [30:44] This is the first step you can take to heal from your emotional eating according to Eva’s expertise! [34:43] And of course, Eva divulges one way she believes you can create a life beyond your every dream!

Quotes

“And I realized that a lot of these illnesses like cancer and high blood pressure and all of that, they come from stress, not eating well, not taking care of your body. All of that starts to manifest. And it comes out as illness. And all of this hit me like literally a ton of breaks. Like as I landed on the floor, it all hit me. And I was like, I have got to change my life because I will end up in a similar place and I'll be ill” — Eva Rodriguez 

“[about getting her certification] I started learning something I'd never heard of before, which was the mind body spirit connection and how it's all interrelated. And my mind was blown. I was like, whoa, wait a minute… so you mean to tell me that it's the foods that I'm eating that are making me feel its way. It's the fact that I'm not managing my time properly, I'm not managing my stress? That my stress is literally making me sick? All of these things started dawning on me and I made a complete change in my life.” — Eva Rodriguez  

“All of these things became so crystal clear to me as the ways that I inadvertently wasn't taking care of myself, and in turn how I was showing up in the world as not my best self.” — Eva Rodriguez 

“It starts with just putting yourself first. Oftentimes we forget to do that because we just get so busy and it's not until sometimes something very detrimental or very dramatic happens that we realize you have to take a break and reassess and put yourself [and your health] first.” — Eva Rodriguez 

“There's a scarcity mentality of just ‘do as best as you can, work as hard as you can and save all your money cuz you never know’. And so even growing up with that, you don't realize [that conditioning] until you think about it very consciously.” — Eva Rodriguez 

“I thought up until very recently in my journey that life is supposed to just be hard. And those things just happen to you, you know? And that you just kind of make due with what comes your way.  I was never taught that it's all a choice.” — Eva Rodriguez 

“When you invest in something, you have invested not just your time, but also your money. It makes you a lot more accountable to yourself to not only apply it, but also to complete it.” — Eva Rodriguez 

“You have to be ready to make the choices, to do the difficult things, to deal with the difficult emotions, to deal with the discomfort. Because whenever you start something new, it's very uncomfortable.” — Eva Rodriguez 

Links & Resources

Follow the I Heart My Life Show on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-heart-my-life-show/id1569047758 

Subscribe to the I Heart My Life Show on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zw6fI37FrfVjZMXlMiZZ6

Connect with Emily:

Emily Williams Website https://emilywilliams.com/ 

Emily on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emilywilliams/ 

I Heart My Life Website https://www.iheartmylife.com/

I Heart My Life on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/iheartmylife/

I Heart My Life on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/iheartmylifenow

I Heart My Life on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/i-heart-my-life/

Join the IHML community to receive exclusive announcements and tips. https://www.iheartmylife.com/newsletter

Email: [email protected] 

Connect with Eva:

Eva’s Website https://www.eva.fit 

Follow Eva on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/itsevarodriguez 

Listen to Eva’s podcast Uncomplicating Weight Loss https://www.eva.fit/podcast