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WELCOME TO THE FOOD ANXIETY MINI SERIES Part 4!

These conversations are based around food fear, anxiety, disordered eating, intuitive eating, and changing our relationship to food.

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Find Part 2 Here

Find Part 3 Here

Find Part 4 Here

Find Part 5 Here

In this episode, we discuss:

I’ll be chatting with Wren Emert. She is a wife, Functional Diagnostic Nutrition (FDN) practitioner, mom to 6 rad kids all while healing her body of Epstein Barr virus, extreme anxiety, and multiple chemical sensitivities.

Additional Resources:

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BOOK: 21 Days of Healing

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Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the Healing Uncensored Podcast. My name is Sarah Small, and I’m a health and mindset coach for women with autoimmune disease. Just like you, I absolutely love helping you tap into your self-healing power, uncover the energetic, side to annually and release limiting beliefs around your body and your life. Think of this podcast as everything you wouldn’t hear at your doctor’s office. It’s a place for empowered souls to move beyond food, and heal themselves on a soul level. I hope you enjoy today’s episode. Now let’s begin.

Welcome to part four of this mini-series on food anxiety. During this episode, I will be chatting with Wren Emert. She is a wife, functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, mom to six rad kids all while healing her body of Epstein-Barr virus, extreme anxiety and multiple chemical sensitivities. As you’ll hear today, Wren is an amazing human being. She has so much knowledge to offer you, and I really love her approach. So let’s dive in and learn from Wren.

Wren’s personal healing story

Sarah: Hi Wren, welcome to the Healing Uncensored podcast. I am super excited to have you on today. I’d love for you to start by just sharing some of your own personal healing story.

Wren: Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me on, I’m super excited. And as I said earlier, when we were talking, I am slightly terrified. Where do I even begin? October 4th, I’m just kidding. I guess, my biggest healing, I would say, crisis was back after I had my youngest biological son. And so, I guess it’s been about three and a half years ago. All of a sudden I was just yanked into what was probably postpartum psychosis. Though, you don’t tell a woman in the middle of that, that she is in psychosis by any stretch. So I had severe postpartum psychosis anxiety, OCD, you name it, sister had it.

And it came on very fast and ferociously and that’s where it started for me. I was already on a pretty big healing journey. My oldest son, he’s 12 right now, and he is on the autism spectrum. And we have worked on healing his body through food and supplements and lifestyle change. We were already there, but now, we’re there for mom. Mom’s there. It just came on so quick and very scary, to go from one minute being able to be fully functional, doing everything like a quote unquote normal person would do. I hate to even use the word normal. Hey, we’re all weird and not normal. But I was struggling to even leave the couch. To get off of my couch and walk to the bathroom brought me so much fear and terror. It was like a tornado was about to come into through the house. It was horrible.

And so, I started to figure out what’s going on here? What’s happening. Obviously, these symptoms have come up. They’re very uncomfortable, now what do we need to do? My first course of action was diet. I started to see a woman that did some cranial sacral on me. I started seeing a therapist once a month and I did that. I started to heal. Fast forward now, I guess since the two major ones, I was coming out of the postpartum, depression, anxiety, all that. And then, about a year ago, I woke up one morning and I had vertigo so bad, I started screaming. And I’m yelling at my husband, get up, get up, get up. And he jumped out of bed, and said, What the hell is going on with you? And I’m braced, I’m holding the bed. I could not even do anything besides just hold on to my bed and hold onto it for dear life. Because it literally felt like the earth had tipped over and was shaking me off.

And that was the first and biggest symptoms. And over the course of this year now, I have learned that I have chronic Epstein-Barr virus possible lyme, multiple chemical sensitivities, add back in that anxiety and agoraphobia, depression, you name it. I can probably use it as a label. So this year though, has been diet supplements, rest rest, rest, rest, and then, a lot of work internally for me. Who am I? Who is Wren? Who is she deep down in here? Where are my beliefs? What do I feel? What do I see? What do I experience? And in a nutshell, that’s been my journey so far. I’m still in it. I’m not magically healed, but I’m healing. My body’s incredible and it’s doing it.

How food has played a role in healing

Sarah: I love that. And I think it’s important for us to acknowledge that this process, it keeps going. It’s not like we hit this finish line and everything’s fine now. There are deeper and deeper layers to keep diving into and discovering about ourselves, especially on the emotional level. So how has food played a role in your healing? And then, what was your relationship to food before all this, and what is your relationship with food now?

Wren: I love it. I will have to backtrack a little bit. I love how you said there’s no end, finish line. Don’t we want that damn finish line?

Sarah: We do. We want the fireworks.

Wren: Yes, the ta-da! You’ve arrived, you get a medal. It’s over! You have to realize that you may not always have the symptoms, but you’re not magic. You’re not healed. You will never be healed and that’s a big deal. So, yes, food has always played a huge role in my family. Like I said before, my son is on the autism spectrum and I believe that we’ve been healing. He has not healed, but healing his body through food, has made the biggest impact with him and some other things we have added. And so I knew the importance of food. But of course, I’m a junk food queen, and I love chips and cupcakes. I have a cupcake tattooed on me. So, I go back and forth. My son, I was strict, but mom’s going to go eat cookies in the pantry while he’s taking a nap. But I think it’s been about two years now that I started an autoimmune protocol (AIP) diet. So I always explain AIP, I’m sure you’ve explained it on here before. It’s like paleo on steroids, or paleo’s punk rock ass older sister. That’s what AIP is to me. And you know, no nightshades, no chocolate, with nuts, seeds, no coffee, eggs, of course, all your typical paleo things. So you’re left with a very restricted diet. But I did AIP in hopes that I could pinpoint some sensitivities in my own body because I know that food plays a huge role in how you feel. So after doing some research, I felt AIP was going to really be able to pinpoint those things. And then I would just, add them all back. Which I giggle because that’s not how it went. But, yes I did AIP for about a year.

Sarah: Have you been able to reintroduce any foods? Or have you tried, what has your reaction been?

Wren: I’ve started to reintroduce foods probably about nine, 10 months in. And I will say when I did AIP, I had so many symptoms disappear, and I was really starting to feel good. I did AIP after the postpartum psychosis with my little spawn and I started to get energy. I was feeling great. I was able to go places on my own and drive and do all the things that I hadn’t been able to do. But I said, I know there’s more healing, so I’ll just stay on this diet. And I started to add back some things and, nothing I was adding in was going well, at all. Every day my symptom, I know everybody’s symptoms are different when they have a reaction to a food. Mine personally is, I get this burning sensation in the middle of my back. And my asthma starts to flare up really bad. It feels like I can’t take a deep breath, every time. So anytime I eat something too often, or I eat something that doesn’t settle well with me, I don’t have the pain. I don’t have the ingestion. It’s that burning pain in my back. And that tells me, Hey, no, don’t do that.

Sarah: Your body’s way of just sending that message to you. And you’re right, it’s so unique for each of us. Mine tends to mostly be anxiety, sometimes digestive, but most of the foods that my body does not like, and it’s going to tell me it is bam, right into the panic attack. And so, what emotions were you feeling as you were going through this? So you said, I love that AIP is like paleo’s punk rock older sister. And it is, it’s pretty intense. It’s very strict. There’s a lot of this cannot eat. You are going to feel, Oh my God, I can’t eat freaking anything anymore. And so, then there’s this hope that you will be able to reintroduce foods, and it will go well. What was that emotional roller coaster, as you go through that process?

Wren: Well, I feel I started out really strong. I never cheated. I never fell off the wagon, because I’m one of those, I’m head fucking first. I don’t go slowly. I am a giant being, headfirst into the deep end, and I was so determined to get out of this. I was tired of feeling all the emotions I was feeling. I just wanted to get better so I could love my baby. And when I started to reintroduce these foods, and they didn’t go, well, it made me so mad. Because I’m doing it. I’ve been perfect. I have been perfect. I’m not eating a morsel of chocolate. I sit there and I’ll smell the bag, like a being. Just let me smell the chocolate, but I refused. And so when I would introduce things and it did not go well, I just became so frustrated. Why, what is wrong with my body? And so those thoughts started coming into my head, which are not the thoughts to be having.

Sarah: So, smelling, snuffing the chocolate.

Wren: My kids, they just look at me like, mom, are you okay over there? I’m, well, no, but just let me be.

Sarah: So that is hard. It’s not easy to say no to some of the things that you really love. And so, how did you then heal that relationship to food, and not get stuck in this place of lack?

Wren: Well, the fact that I did improve was a huge motivation. I was feeling good. I think it would have been a lot different if I hadn’t been feeling good. I think I would have become very depressed by it, but because I felt really good, then I was, I don’t care if I have to bring my food everywhere. Here I come with my lunch box to parties and the get-togethers. I’m hiding Redmond sea salt in my purse. It didn’t matter to me because I did feel so amazing. So, to me, that’s what helped me the most. I feel good, I am not having anxiety, I’m connecting with my baby, I’m getting out there and I’m doing. I feel Wren again. I feel like myself again, that kept me going. But again, it would have been different if it would have been the other way.

Sarah: Now, do you feel like you still experience any food fear, food anxiety at this point in your healing process?

Wren: Oh yes. So I was on AIP when my quote-unquote, second health crisis hit, with my vertigo and then subsequent diagnoses of PPD. And again, those thoughts, I’m doing it perfectly. I’m already on an auto-immune protocol diet. How much more damn diet can I do? And so, I was able to start to reintroduce quickly, some things into my diet. Because I started to have reactions to foods that I was eating normally, like sweet potatoes, turkey. I have been eating the same turkey, the same brand of turkey for a year, not a single reaction. And then, one day, I eat a meal that I have eaten a hundred times at this point, and my mouth starts to feel tingling, swollen. It felt like I had a lot of extra saliva in my mouth. And I said, well, that’s weird. Okay, let me just up and shut off. It happened again. Then it happened, with another food, and I started to dig down into it and start to look at some other people and experiences they’ve been through. And there’s a lot of people out there that have been on restricted diets and AIP in particular that have the same thing. And some people were, as far as having anaphylaxis reactions to foods that normally, would have been a-okay. The day before was fine and then all of a sudden we are having to go to the hospital because they were having adverse reactions. This was not as uncommon as I thought. So that was terrifying. I read horror stories of people coming down with five or ten foods they were safely able to eat. So I very rapidly, started to introduce some starches into my diet. Because when you’re on those restrictive diets for so long, the bacteria in your gut changes.

And we need certain things in our diet, the rice has been really beneficial for me. It gave me that resistant starch. I was eating more of that, I was able to introduce oatmeal. But the worst part was, right after we started SKB, because at that point I was just about bedridden with EDD and my husband was caring for me. So if I say we, it’s my husband that I’m speaking about. But then we were introducing as many of those that we can, but every time I eat, it was so much that came out of it. If I eat too much of anything right now. Every breakfast, lunch, dinner, any meal that I had to eat I was terrified. What if this happens? It was very hard for me to be happy eating turkey, that’s Thanksgiving and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, that’s Christmas, and smores by the fire, that’s fourth of July and summer time.

I was hating food so much. Every bite I was having to put in my mouth, and I was telling myself you are safe. The sweet potatoes are nourishing me. Thank you chicken for giving me the protein I need for the day. I was thanking all of my food. And then some days I would straight up yell at my food. I would start with picking up my chicken or my food container and I’ll say, Fuck you I’m eating you and shove it in my mouth and that was the end of it. And my husband was there cheering me and said, Just go, go, go do it, do it. Because I said, no, you’re not going to win. I was giving my power over to this food, over to a sweet potato, to an avocado. I laugh, but I think that was probably the game-changer. That’s probably what helped the most was yelling at it and saying, you will not win. You are here to nourish my body. You’re not going to me make me terrified of you. And if I have to scream fuck you sweet potato across my house, then so be it.

Having negative emotions towards food

Sarah: You just had so many amazing things. First, this is the first time in this food anxiety series that it’s come up to talk to your food. And I think it’s a really, really important piece that we’ve missed so far, is sitting down and either having immense gratitude for that food nourishing us. Or taking back our power and not letting food control us so much. And I think that’s a huge part of it, is that we can’t let food control our lives. There’s so much more to our life than just food. And I love that you realized that and taken back your power in this just beautiful freaking way. So thank you for sharing that and being real about it. Also, this just came up too. I think so many of us are afraid to get angry and some people might’ve been listening to you just there and going, Oh, well I don’t want to be angry at my food, or it’s bad to yell. It’s bad to have negative emotions. And what would you say to people who think that it’s bad to have these negative emotions?

Wren: Well, I would say wishful thinking if you really think that. And I don’t see that in an ugly way, of course, but if you really think that you’re always going to be happy and perky, and life is going to be good, you’re lying to yourself. And those emotions will come out. Those emotions, they want a little spotlight. They want some time in there and I think it’s okay to honor them and say, no, fuck you sweet potato, you don’t own me. And yell at that sweet potato because it was almost something primal, I don’t know what comes out. Just yelling at it and just getting mad and I felt powerful in that moment.

Sarah: So many of us probably feel that anger towards the fucking sweet potato, they are afraid that we can’t be angry at it. And so, what you’re doing is just expressing that emotion, so that you can process it and move through it instead of it having to like find this place inside your body where it hides forever. You’re just expressing it. And like you said, that is this primal thing, it’s real, this raw, that’s a natural thing that you’re just expressing how you really feel. Because it can be freaking frustrating and you can be pissed, but then you also get to take back your power through that conversation with food as well.

Wren: Absolutely. I just have learned through this journey that it’s okay if I’m sad. Honor it. It’s okay if I’m angry, honor it. It’s okay, but yes, I’m not saying, let me sit in my anger all day and just be bitter and frustrated. No. But yes, it’s giving that, like you said, that little moment to that sweet potato or to whatever you’re dealing with and getting mad and yelling, get it out, get it out of your body. Because it’s going to be worse if you smush it down in you, and it’s going to come out. Now, it might come out when you’re talking to your spouse and he leaves his socks on the floor. And you can just lash out at him, because oh my gosh, why did you leave your socks on the floor again? Or it might come out in illness, it might come out somewhere else, but it’s going to come out. And I’m just allowing, the term where you just allow those emotions to come across, like clouds. Let them pass in front of you. Hey, I see you anger. Okay, let me sit with you for a minute, I see you. All right, bye. See you later. Thank you for showing me whatever you’ve needed to show me and now you can go on your way.

Sarah: I think just to take a pause for a second and just tell everyone, listening that you all have permission, give yourself permission to be angry. And like those clouds, let the anger come out, and then it’ll pass. Let it come up, be sad and then let it go. Instead of letting it manifest into something bigger, like you said, the examples of yelling at your spouse or chronic illness or whatever that may be. Because I think so many of us are that are listening that have chronic illness of any kind there’s certainly a physical component to it. But oftentimes, there’s this emotional baggage that we’ve just been carrying, that’s fucking heavy. And you’re tired of carrying it. Just let it go.

Wren: Yes. Let it fucking go. If that hasn’t been my mantra for the past several months, ‘Let that baggage go’. Yes. I don’t want to hold on to the anger. And honestly, reading about other people’s story about how they’ve overcome the food restriction and able to put it back in their diet. It’s been months and months and months of process and certain supplements and certain this and that. And not to say that this would be for everybody, but for me personally, I’m not taking a single supplement to combat the food issues. Me, literally, either giving thanks to my food or screaming, curse words at it, has worked. And now, I mean, there are still things that I have chosen not to eat for my best health, but I’ve been able to eat that sweet potato. I’ve been able to eat that turkey. And I’m still pushing myself more and more. It’s going to sound so silly, but my husband will get a french fry, a frozen fry and it’ll have some things that I normally wouldn’t eat. Maybe some not super great oils or a spice, but I’ll sit there and I’ll say, Nope, no french fry you do not get to win. And I’ll either lick the fry or I take a bite out of it, almost like in rebellion. Of course, I have no idea what’s coming. We’re having this moment, but I have fought hard to get out of this food fear. And again, it’s an ongoing process. You’ll come over and you’ll see me lick potato chips or bite a french fry, or yell at my food, but I’m fighting, I’m going to beat it.

Sarah: Yes. That’s so powerful Wren. I think too, just admitting that there’s, not even like admitting, just being truthful and vulnerable that, this is still something that I’m going through. This is still something that I’m working through and, and there’s room for it to continue to improve as well. So you also became an FDN. And I’ve had my FDN come on the show before. So it’s a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. And were there any ‘aha’? First of all, what inspired you to do that? Second, were there any ‘aha’ moments during that process of learning and just gleaning more knowledge about food in that training?

Becoming a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner

Wren: I became an FDN. I think it’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Like I said, with my son who is seven, I would say it’s my hippie journey. Whatever you want to call it, granola, crunchy, whatever you want to say. But it started with him and how I saw how we were able to work to healing him through diet, lifestyle change. And so I think it’s always been something on the back of my mind. And then last year, I guess it’s now been over maybe about 18 months now. I said, no more, no more putting mom on the back burner. This is what I want to do. I’m so passionate about it. I’m so passionate. And then even as I got into my second health crisis, I said it was even more motivation to keep going and to keep finishing school because I love this kind of stuff. I love the food. I love digging in deep on the root causes of these symptoms that pop up and seemingly not even relative symptoms that pop up.

And this was just something I knew that I was here to do. Mom was my first hat, very young and I’ve been wearing the mom hat for now 12 years. But I have to say, I can wear another hat and I want to help other women. And I want to be right down in the trenches. I am in the trenches with these folks and in my own healing, I am not perfect and let me hold your hand and we’ll walk this health journey together. And I will be honored for whatever woman chooses me to hold their hand and support them. So, I love it. I can’t even say enough good things and how I feel seeing women thrive and be the best that they can possibly be, and work on themselves. And then, them turning it to their family and seeing that it’s going to turn into generational healing for people. That’ll make me cry right here. Hearing people, their kids will be affected, which only make their kids be affected. Thank you. How humbling and honoring is that to walk alongside these women.

Sarah: Yes, you’re right. There is, it’s the one soul you touch then impacts their entire family potentially. And then there is this generational healing. That this knowledge is being spread, and to be the catalyst for that is so powerful and so humbling as you know. So a lot of this has also been inspired, like you said, you’ve mentioned your family several times, so let’s talk about that. Tell me about your family. And also, I’m curious, you know I don’t have any kiddos yet, but I’m thinking about my future, because my fiance, still getting used to saying that word.

Wren: I love that word.

Sarah: We feel like a hoitie-toitie, we’re like, whatever. We don’t mind. So we plan to have kids. And one of the things that I have on my mind is, right now he eats pretty much the same food as I do. But then, when you bring kids in the picture, how does that all play out and impact? Do the kids eat the same as you, does your husband eat the same as you? And tell me about your big family.

Wren: Oh man. Okay. Well, I’ve been with my husband for 14 years. We’ve been married for 12, 11? He’s looking at me, he’s my audio guy today, so he’s making sure all my equipment’s working properly. And we have six children. We have Aiden, he’s 12; Penelope, she’s 10; Milo, he’s six. We have Malakai and Zane, they’re twins and they just turned four. And then we have Rowan who is three and a half.

Four of them are biological. And then the twins, Malakai and Zane are adopted. We adopted them. Their adoption day is coming up in October. But they’ve been with us for about a year and a half now. And they have special needs. Zane, has traumatic brain injury because they were shaken when they were about four months old. And we knew that we wanted to adopt children with special needs or a child. And we’d just laugh and say that we got a bonus baby. We got twins. So yes, we have six kids. We have a dog and we have four cats and two rats, because my son loves Harry Potter and he wanted rats. So, now, I’m a rat grandmomma. I’m still getting used to that. But it’s just some crazy, crazy life that has come into this life.

And I am just so thankful. This is not what I ever expected. And I’m so grateful for all these little humans that I get to raise. But with the food, I have to share this story. When we were looking at changing our diet for our oldest son, we were talking, we need the gluten-free thing, and we’re going back and forth. And I always had wanted to be a vegetarian. And I told my husband and we knew nothing about anything. And I said, I’m going to be a vegetarian, I’m cooking all vegetarian meals. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it. I do not recommend saying that to your spouse. So that’s what I said to him. And thankfully he’s been on board with whatever I’ve chosen to do. And if I need to juice, the man’s juicing for me, if I need something particular, he’s getting it. If I’m making stinky bone broth for days on end, he’s smelling chicken’s feet from around the house. He’s been very, very gracious. My kids all eat pretty much a paleo diet. I feel that’s what they thrive best on. He has been gluten-free for as long as I can remember at this point. And then, I do try to allow them treats here and there. For the little boys’ birthday, the twins, Malakai said he wanted pizza. So I bought the best pizza I could. And then, it had cheese on it, but I said, it’s okay. Let it go.

I know that nutrition is important and I know that food is important. But also to keep in the mind, it is also, why am I giving the cheese power? Giving the cheese power to take over my kids body and make them sick? But I’m saying, enjoy it. They are not eating lots of cheese every day, but here’s a birthday treat for you. Let us celebrate your brother’s birthday. So they eat pretty paleo and they’re happy about it. We joked about what kids’ food is when we were bringing our twins home, and I went to all the kiddies food, the macaroni and cheese, and chicken nuggets in shapes of dinosaurs, and all these things because I wasn’t really sure how they’ve been eating. And my son, my oldest, he said, What is kid’s food? I don’t understand. And I said, well, baby it’s just food like macaroni and hot dogs. I’m trying to explain it to him. He said, Oh, you mean other kids don’t eat chicken liver? I said, no, not quite. Because he loves chicken livers and sardines out of the can. That’s his favorite foods.

They know how important that food is, that it can either make us feel really good, or it makes you feel really crappy. And there are some days that I allowed them to eat things that will probably make them feel pretty crappy, because I want them to understand their bodies. And I want them to understand, Hey, we had a bite of all this pizza at this birthday party. I’m sick, my stomach hurts. Then we know, Hey, maybe we can enjoy one slice, and maybe not 10 slices. Or maybe let’s just say no to the pizza next time. Letting them be empowered to make their own choices. I can guide them, but I don’t need to dictate what they eat. I just do offer them the best choices, I can and allow them to know what’s the best choice for their body. And to let them understand your body.

Sarah: I feel like you’re the cool mom.

Wren: Oh my gosh, I love that. That just makes me laugh all the time. Because I have friends that’ll say that to me. You’re so cool, Wren. You’re such a rock star. And I’m literally 80 years old and trapped in an almost 32-year-old body. I am not the least bit cool. They’re just convinced. I’m, come into my house about 8:00 pm, this cool mom sleeping.

Sarah: In your robe. Grandma robe.

Wren: I have my robe, I’m knitting something. I take the grandma role part pretty hard.

Sarah: Well, you are a rat grandma you said.

Wren: I am a rat grandma, literally. So I am a rat grandma.

Sarah: I think some of my friends that are moms are afraid to give their kids certain foods because it’s not X, Y, Z. You made a really, really beautiful point, which is that you’re also empowering your kids to notice their own intuitive feelings, their own reaction to food. Does this make me feel good? Does that candy bar make me feel like shit? Probably. Versus this, whatever home-cooked meal or something, or the sweet potatoes, or the chicken or the broccoli, does that make you feel good? Potentially, yes. And each of our bodies is so going to be unique in that sense, but I just think that’s a really, really good perspective. And something I’m going to take with me. I’m going to steal that from you, whenever I have kids.

Wren: Take it, take it. In the beginning, I wanted to be that dictator and say, no, you have to have this. And no, no to that hard candy, you can eat that. And they’re still learning themselves too. And I don’t want to steal that from them. I don’t want to take away their power, in the same way, I’m afraid that that food’s going to. Giving that food, that power. I’m doing it just as much as the food, if I’m so terrified of everything. Even yesterday, my daughter made gluten-free cupcakes for the twins, and she found, I don’t know how, but in the pantry, I think it was the old science experiment because we homeschool our kids. And it was sprinkles and not the good sprinkles. They were at the junky food coloring. And every bit a part of me wanted to die. I wanted to say, No, don’t put those on those cupcakes. And I had to let it go. I said, sure, do it. Let’s have sprinkles on there. Have fun. You have to learn to let certain things go, and let them make their own choices.

And they’ll surprise you. They’ll do amazing because you let them. If you let go, and you let them make those choices. Yes, maybe they’re going to shove 10 slices of pizza in their body the first time. But watch them the next day, watch them the third time. It will shock you with what choices they make and what choices they share with their friends. Or what foods they offer to their friends. Hey, try these seaweed snacks. They’re really good. And getting their friends to try it. I mean, you’ll be blown away. We don’t give our kids enough credit. We don’t give them enough credit that they have that power too, if we allow it. We say, okay, I’m going to let them. I’m going to let them go it on their own.

Sarah: Yes. I love that. I love that you brought up those seaweed snacks too, because our nephews live in Oakland, California, and they actually love those. But these are my fiance’s sister’s kids. And I was, they like those seaweed  things? What? No way, but it’s possible. You do give them their own choices, and I just think that’s so fun and so beautiful. So for the person listening, that feels like they’re in the trenches of, they’re just struggling with that relationship with food. They have the food fear, they had the food anxiety. maybe they’ve done the elimination diet or AIP. And they’re unable to reintroduce the foods that they wish they were able to reintroduce. What words of wisdom or advice would you give that person?

Wren’s words of wisdom

Wren: So I would say hello because I’m laying right there in the trenches with them. ‘d love to give them a hug and let them know that I know it feels really fucking hard right now. And there are probably times when you don’t even want to eat because you don’t even want to deal with it. I absolutely get that, just even saying it out loud, and then thinking about how far I’ve come, from hating every meal I’ve eaten, to now where I eat my breakfast and it’s just, having breakfast. It’s not a thing anymore. First, know that it’s not going to be like this forever. I think that’s the biggest thing when we’re in the middle of shit, we just feel like the shit is going to be on us all the time. And it’s not, a little bit by little bit, it’s going to fall off, and it will be better. So first, hello, we’re going to get there. And then just taking that really slow. And really thinking about why are you feeling that fear? What about it is scary? Are you feeling afraid that certain food is going to hurt you? Are you giving your power to that food? Or are you feeling fear? Because it’s a misplaced fear, I should say. Maybe you’re feeling financial fear, do I have enough money in the bank? I cannot pay this bill. Or this is stressful, I have got to go pay for this. Or I have got school supplies. Are you then, pushing that fear over onto you? Because that’s easy to do. So I feel really sit in that why. And I know that’s the shitiest fucking answer because you really want, okay, for me, I’m, don’t give me that stupid answer. Don’t give me the why. Give me the number one, take this for a minute. Take this, do that. But it’s simple, and again, it’s not so simple. It’s simple that, when you get down into the why, I think there’s so many and you are allowing your body to speak to you, and say, okay, this is why. For me, I know a lot of the times it’s okay, I am fearful of this french fry because I’m afraid of, it doesn’t have great oils and it probably has crappy salts. And god only knows where the potatoes came from. Am I worried that that’s going to derail all my healing if I eat one french fry?

I keep feeling like I keep saying this over and over again, but you’re just giving that power to that french fry. You’re saying french fry, you have all the power to derail everything I have worked for, for the past week, month, year. And that’s not true. I’m not saying eat those french fries every single day, for every meal. No, me obviously not that, but you’re letting that fry rule over you. And once you say, no, I’m not going to allow that to happen. And again, you take back your power and curse up that thing. Take a bite out of that french fry and say, fuck you fry. You’re mine. Just let it come out. For me it was letting all those emotions come out, and yelling at it. Whatever crazy thoughts came into my head, I don’t really want to say they are crazy, but just wild thoughts that would come into my head. That was so helpful, because I wasn’t letting that french fry win. And then, when you get to the foods that are really nourishing, like broccoli, brussel sprouts and potatoes, you can say, thank you, sweet potato for nourishing me. And look up all the nutrients in a sweet potato. Somebody had given me that advice and I loved it because I was able to say, okay Google, nutrients in a sweet potato. And I was able to dat-dat-dat, all the things that a sweet potato can offer me. And I was thank you super potato for offering me Vitamin C. Thank you sweet potato for giving me carbohydrates to help my body have energy. Thank you sweet potato for not just that, go down the list and just thank it, every bite. Thank you sweet potato. And just let it nourish you.

Sarah: This has been solid gold. Thank you so much, Wren. I appreciate your perspective. I love hearing about you and your family. I love all of you, even though I haven’t met you yet.

Wren: If I were to open their bedroom door, you’ll hear a stampede very quickly. So I will just keep them in there for now.

Sarah: A little bit longer, mommy is almost done.

Wren: I know they’re doing really, really well. That is the crazy thing about being a work at home mom, plus being a homeschool mom, and having so many kids and so many different needs, the house is, mom just needs to go hide in the laundry room for about five minutes, can you just let her be? Mom wants to talk to a client. But again, that’s why I love the clients that I do because they’re women, or they’re wanting to have kids, or they have kids. And we can relate and they know that yes, I’m probably going to get interrupted four times in this call, but so are you.

Sarah: Yes. So are you. Perfect. Well, I just want to thank you again. Where can our listeners find you and follow along with your healing story or work with you?

Wren: You can go to my website, worthitwellness.com. I’m also on Instagram, which I host all about my healing, about my kids, about just everything about me. I try not to hold anything back because I feel we hold back way too much. We don’t let her true shit come out and I’m a hot mess most of the days, but so is everybody else? So let’s just be loud and proud about it. So @worthitwellness (now, @thepriestessofrebirth) is my Instagram handle. Then, my family and I are building a school bus in order to travel full time across the country. And we are on Instagram right now as @libertythehealingbus. She is going to be a very sustainable, chemical-free as possible school bus. We are stripping it down to her bones, and then building up everything from the glue to the paint, to the woods, everything will be as safe as possible. To just continue to heal myself and everybody when we get on the road. So we’re really excited about that. So if you love a school bus, conversion, come and check out Liberty. I’m always on Worth It Wellness (Now, thepriestessofrebirth) on Instagram. So come check me out.

Sarah: I’m definitely going to be following along that journey. A secret bucket list item is to do some sort of cross country travel in a van, or a bus, or something. So I know I’ll be inspired by you doing it with six kids, as well. Amen to you sister.

Wren: And the animals and the chaos.

Sarah: I forgot about the animals.

Wren: Yes, I know. I am already like what? I think it’s how many square feet is it? 225 square feet inside the bus. So we have floor plans taped out on our living room right now trying to figure it out. But yes, when we come to Colorado, we have to stop by.

Sarah: Please do.

Wren: Take your for a ride on the bus and a hang out.

Sarah: I love that.

Wren: So, so freaking fun. I can’t wait to visit everybody. I’m so pumped.

Sarah: Amazing. Well, thank you again Wren. I so appreciate your time and hopefully we will have you back on again soon.

Wren: Yes, thank you for having me.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today’s episode. I am beyond honored to hold this space for you, to create this content for you, and to stimulate our brains and make us think in a different way, including me. This podcast has shifted the way that I have thought as well. And, if there’s anything that you’ve taken away from this episode or any other episode, I would be so honored and grateful if you would share that with me on social media, even through a personal message or put it in your Instagram story, tag @autoimmunetribe. And know that we are in this together. That is is truly a community. That our paths are truly interwoven for a reason. And that we get this opportunity to come together for the greater healing of all our unique bodies.

So if you love this episode or any of the other episodes of the Healing Uncensored podcast, please share them with a friend, a loved one, an acquaintance. You’ll never, never know whose life you might be impacting or changing with just a simple share. That’s all for now tribe. I will see you next time, have a beautiful rest of your day. I love you so much.

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