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Sis, let’s talk about a place that can feel like a full-on battlefield — and nope, not a restaurant, which is also terrifying - today we are talking about the grocery store. The fluorescent lights, the endless labels, the hundred little decisions, that low hum of anxiety the second you grab a cart. If the store has ever made you want to cry, freeze, or turn around and walk right back out, you are not broken, and you are so not alone. Today I’m sharing my own story and a handful of tangible tools to make grocery shopping feel safer, easier, and a whole lot less scary. My story (because I lived this): There was a season where I’d walk into the store and just get stuck. I’d spend hours in there — not shopping, scanning. Up and down every aisle, picking things up and putting them back, flipping over every package, reading every label, doing the math in my head over and over, paralyzed by the next decision. I’d leave one of two ways: empty-handed and defeated, or clutching something I grabbed in a panic that would sit untouched in my pantry until I threw it away weeks later. That’s what the eating disorder does — it turns a basic human errand into hours of dread. If that’s you right now, stuck scanning labels or avoiding the store altogether, I see you. I was you. And it doesn’t have to stay this way. The reframe: The store isn’t the problem, and the labels aren’t the problem. The eating disorder has turned shopping into a test — of willpower, discipline, being “good.” But you’re not there to pass a test. You’re there to feed the woman you love — and that woman is you. 5 tangible tools to make the grocery store easier: Let the list be the boss. Decide what you’re buying before you walk in, in a calm headspace at home. When the list runs the trip, you’re not making a hundred anxious decisions in the aisle — you already decided, you just execute. Pre-deciding takes the disorder out of the driver’s seat right when it wants control most. Give yourself permission to skip the labels. If flipping over every package and reading every number sends you spiraling, that’s not information — it’s the compulsion. Challenge yourself to put one or two items in the cart without turning them over. You’re proving you can choose food without auditing it first. Shop the “safe enough” middle. You don’t have to jump from restriction to your scariest fear food in one trip. Pick something that’s a stretch but not a panic — one step braver than yesterday. Recovery is built on small, repeatable reps. Don’t shop hungry — or alone, if alone is too hard. Eat something before you go so you’re not shopping from a depleted, fear-driven place. And if the store is just too much right now, bring your person, or let a loved one go for you while you build up to it. Backup is strategy, not failure. Set a time boundary. Remember me scanning those aisles for hours? Give yourself a window — “I’m in, I get what’s on my list, I’m out in 20 minutes.” A time boundary stops the endless put-it-back, pick-it-up loop. The heart of it: Every time you walk in and put nourishment in your cart — even shaking, even scared — you cast a vote for the recovered version of you. The woman who used to scan the aisles for hours and leave with an empty cart isn’t free because she got it perfect. She’s free because she kept showing up, one brave, ordinary trip at a time. “You’re not going to the grocery store to pass a test. You’re going to feed the woman you love — and that woman is you.” Your one thing this week: Take the list, set the timer, and go get the food your body needs. Messy, scared, imperfect — all of it counts. You don’t have to white-knuckle recovery alone. If the grocery store — or any of this — feels too heavy to carry by yourself, that’s exactly what I’m here for. Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Sis, here’s the truth: most of us wake up and immediately go into reaction mode. You react to how your body feels. You react to the number on the scale. You react to what you see in the mirror, to the anxiety about what you’re going to eat today. You’re constantly reacting to life like it’s happening to you — and when you’re in recovery, living in reaction mode keeps you right where the eating disorder wants you, because it feeds off the panic, the fear, the overwhelm. Today I’m handing you a simple 5-minute ritual that interrupts that pattern and shifts you from reaction to intention. Grab your journal — this one’s a keeper. Why this works (it’s not just woo): When you shift from reacting to practicing intention and mindfulness, you’re literally changing your brain — moving out of the amygdala (the fear-based, reactive part the eating disorder hijacks) and into the prefrontal cortex, where you make conscious, value-based decisions. Research in positive psychology also shows gratitude practices meaningfully reduce anxiety and depression and build real well-being. This little ritual puts the power back in your hands. The ritual — three questions to ask yourself: 1. What am I grateful for? Not toxic positivity — evidence of goodness, even on hard days. And get specific to recovery: “I’m grateful my body digested food yesterday without me obsessing.” “I’m grateful I sat through dinner with friends and was present.” “I’m grateful for the energy I had because I nourished myself.” You’re training your brain to find proof that your recovery is working. On the really hard days, start tiny: I’m grateful I woke up. I’m grateful for this breath. I’m grateful I get to show up even when I don’t want to. 2. What am I focused on gaining? This is the game changer — shifting from avoidance motivation (I’m scared to gain weight, I don’t want to lose control) to approach motivation (moving toward something). Instead of “I’m trying not to restrict,” ask “What am I gaining by nourishing my body?” — freedom from food thoughts, energy for your kids, mental clarity, peace in your own skin. We’re not running away from fear. We’re running toward our best self. 3. What am I choosing to release? You can’t gain what you named in question two while gripping the old beliefs and behaviors. Releasing might sound like: “I’m releasing the belief that my worth is tied to the scale.” “I’m releasing the need to know every calorie.” “I’m releasing comparison to how I looked five years ago.” “I’m releasing the expectation that recovery should look perfect.” Naming what you release creates awareness — and awareness gives you the power to say, “No, I already put that down,” every time it tries to sneak back in. The heart of it: When you live with intention instead of reaction, recovery stops being something you’re just trying to survive and becomes something you’re actively creating. “You’re not white-knuckling your way through recovery anymore. You’re intentionally choosing what you want to gain. We are going toward our very best self.” Your work this week: Use the ritual — at the start of your week, in the morning, when you’re triggered, or when you feel yourself slipping into old patterns. Five minutes. Write down one thing for each: what you’re grateful for, what you’re gaining, what you’re releasing. Intention over reaction. You don’t have to do this alone. This ritual is even more powerful in community — which is exactly why I created the Recovery Collective, where we gather to ask these intentional questions together, celebrate the wins, and tell the truth when the lies get loud. Find more: www.herbestself.co/recoverycollective  Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Sis, we’re heading into the season of triggers — and if you’re already spiraling about how you’ll handle all the food, all the people, and all the comments about bodies and what’s on your plate, this episode is your armor. You know the moment: you sit down at the table, and your aunt says “you look so healthy, are you eating more?” or “wow, you’ve lost so much weight!” — and just like that, your chest tightens, your throat closes, and before you even realize it, you’re making plans to restrict tomorrow or add an extra workout this week. I’ve been there (Thanksgiving was the trigger for me). So today I’m handing you the real-time game plan I walk through with my clients — including one, “Allison,” who texted me mid-panic from a family gathering this week. The 6-step plan for when you’re triggered: Notice your body. Drop out of your racing head and into your body. Is your chest tight? Shoulders at your ears? Jaw clenched? Holding your breath? Don’t judge it, don’t fix it — just notice. Your body is giving you all the information you need. Breathe. Hand on your belly, deep breath through your nose, slow exhale. This isn’t woo-woo — it’s how you re-regulate your nervous system. You’re safe. You don’t need to run, fight, or freeze. Breathing creates space between the trigger and your reaction — and that space is where your power lives. Name the sensation. Where’s the tension? Chest, stomach, shoulders? When you name what feels overwhelming, you make it make sense — “this is what’s happening in my body right now” — so you can address what comes next. Name the emotion. Not the story your mind is spinning, not the restriction plan — the actual emotion. Scared? Ashamed? Not good enough? Say it out loud if you can. You can’t heal what you won’t feel and acknowledge. Give it compassion. That emotion exists because at some point it kept you safe — a time you learned your worth was tied to your appearance or how little space you took up. But that old experience isn’t happening now. You’re not that former version of you anymore. Put your hand on your heart: “I hear you. I see you. I know you’re trying to protect me — but I’m okay now.” Meet your now needs. This is where action happens. Not what the disorder says — what does your body need? Maybe fresh air. Maybe texting your person. Maybe eating because you’re actually hungry. Maybe doing the opposite of what your brain screams — when you want to run from the table, you stay. The heart of it — act as if you’re already her. Your future, recovered self already knows how to move through this. So ask: would she leave the table and restrict? Would she over-exercise tomorrow to “make up” for tonight? Or would she trust her body, rest, and know this trigger is just a blip? You have to stop operating from an unhealed place if you want healed results. Wounds cannot make decisions. She’s not so distant, sis. She’s you — making the choice right now. “Triggers just bring you toward your testimony. Keep showing up for yourself, and one day you’ll look back and barely recognize that those things ever triggered you. That recovered version of you is going to wrap her arms around you and say, ‘See, sis? You did it. You made it.’” Don’t head into the holidays white-knuckling it alone. This is exactly the work we do together — walking through real triggers with live coaching, tools, and a community of women who get it in the Recovery Collective. And if you know you need deeper, one-on-one support, I have a few limited private coaching spots. Find both at www.herbestself.co  (and the Recovery Collective at www.herbestself.co/recoverycollective. Come join our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com — Lindsey would love to get to know you and walk with you through this. I believe you belong recovered — not just because I'm recovered, but because if I can do this, so can you. If this episode blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone you love. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

If recovery from an eating disorder feels so hard right now that you're white-knuckling your way through it — "why do I have to do this? why me?" — sis, I've been exactly where you are. But there's a blind spot keeping you stuck in that fight, and one shift in how you see it can make the whole thing feel lighter. Not because the work changes. Because you do. In this episode: The lie that makes recovery feel unbearable. When my treatment team told me exercise "had to go," it felt like the ultimate punishment — because exercise was my control, my identity, my reward. And because I believed the eating disorder's lie that I was being robbed, it felt impossible. That's the blind spot: when you believe recovery is a punishment, of course it feels like one. The shift that changed everything for me. I had to completely flip how I saw rest and reward. Not exercising wasn't a punishment — it was a privilege. It was the exact thing that taught me a healthy relationship with movement for life. What felt like it was being taken from me was actually being given to me. Everything the disorder calls "losing," recovery reveals as "gaining." The meal isn't a punishment — it's a privilege your body's been begging for. Rest isn't a punishment — it's a coming home to yourself. Feeling your feelings isn't a punishment — it's the privilege of finally learning to heal. You can do anything you put your mind to. Same action, completely different experience — the only thing that changed was my perspective. You can't always change the hard thing in front of you, but you can always change how you see it. And how you see it determines whether you keep going or give up. Your work this week: Every time "this is so hard" shows up, pause and ask the flip question — What if this isn't a punishment? What if this is a privilege? The meal, the rest, the fear food, the hard conversation. Not because it's easy — but because every one of those things is giving you your life back. "The women who find freedom aren't the ones for whom it was easier. They're the ones who decided to see it differently — who stopped believing recovery was happening TO them, and started believing it was happening FOR them. You get to recover, sis. That's not a punishment. That's the greatest privilege of your life." Your turn: Head to our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com and share your True Up Tuesday — what are you tuning up this week? What do you want more of, and less of? Ready for personalized support? I'm opening a waitlist — fill out a client application at www.herbestself.co so we can get you scheduled for a quick connect and see how I can help you. If this blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a woman who needs this shift in perspective today. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Sis, let's start with something true, and a little bit hard. When we first start down the long road of an eating disorder, we could never have imagined what we'd give up to become the smallest version of ourselves. It doesn't happen all at once — it's a slow sacrifice, one tiny concession at a time, until one day you look up and wonder, how did I ever let it get this far? And then, when you finally get out of denial, you ask the two questions: Will this ever change? And how do I change it? Today I'm answering that — with five things recovery taught me. And they're probably not the five you'd expect. Because recovery was never flashy. It wasn't the compliments or the "what do you do to be so skinny?" It was quiet. It was ordinary. It was doing the right thing when no one was watching and no one was clapping. The 5 things recovery taught me: What you do in the ordinary is what makes you extraordinary. Recovery isn't won in big cinematic moments — it's won in the mundane ones. Having the meal when you're not hungry. Choosing rest over the workout, even when everything in you wants to move. No one sees those choices. No one hands you a trophy. But those unseen, no-applause reps are the work. No one is going to clap for you — and that's okay. In the disorder, you got noticed. In recovery, you'll do the bravest things of your life in total silence. Let that be okay. Work you do when no one is watching, for no reward except your own freedom, is the holiest work there is. You're doing it for her — the recovered you. Recovery is lived in action, not analysis. You can't think your way out of this. Freedom isn't found in understanding it perfectly — it's found in doing the next ordinary right thing before you feel ready, before it makes sense. The doing comes first. The belief catches up later. You are only as happy as your heart allows you to be. I read a journal entry on this episode that I wrote back in October of 2007 — one line, written in the middle of my own mess, that I'm still unpacking all these years later. Your heart can't let happiness in when it's clenched shut around control and fear. Recovery is the slow opening of your heart — giving it permission to be happy before everything is perfect. You're probably going to have to gain weight — and it WILL be okay. I'll love you enough to tell you the truth: the sooner you move out of denial and into acceptance, the better off you'll be. You cannot truly live in a body that's malnourished and restricted — that's not reality, and that body can't carry the life you actually want. Acceptance isn't giving up. It's where freedom starts. The heart of it: Living in recovery means living in this moment — not the future one you're so afraid of. Not the "what if it's too hard, what if I can't do it" moment that hasn't even happened. Just this one. The meal in front of you. The rest you need right now. The ordinary choice, today. "Recovery was never going to be flashy. It was always going to be built quietly, in the mundane, when no one was watching — one ordinary, extraordinary choice at a time. You are only as happy as your heart allows you to be. So let it." Ready to find your own freedom? If you saw yourself in this conversation, I'd love to walk with you. Find coaching and community at www.herbestself.co or come join our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com  If this episode blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a woman — or a daughter — who needs to hear it. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

How's your week starting off, sis? Because mine? My Monday was a blur. The weekend was crazy, I got thrown into the week, and I needed a level set — a true up. So if you're feeling that too, this episode is your reset. Today I'm sharing a simple, repeatable weekly check-in — I call it True Up Tuesday — that realigns your goals with your authentic self so one chaotic Monday doesn't hijack your whole week (or your recovery). Because freedom doesn't happen overnight, but it also doesn't happen without tangible tools you actually use. The truth at the heart of this episode: In a recent therapy session, my therapist told me something that stopped me cold: "Lindsey, you have a faulty notion that you can get everything done. You can't be everything to everybody." And listen — I'm the doer, Miss High Standards (I know you are too, or you wouldn't be here). But here's what I had to hear, and what you might need today: you can do hard things, but you can't do all things. The True Up Tuesday check-in: Grab your journal and fill in the blanks: My number one priority this week is ______ I want to do more ______ I want to do less ______ I want to feel ______ To true up and feel this, I'm going to ______ If you get stuck on the more/less part, here are mine to spark yours: more connection, less isolation. More gratitude, less comparison. More joy, less negativity. More intention, less habituation. More self-love, less judgment. More peace, less chaos. More belief, less doubt. More creating, less procrastinating. Why this works: Doing more actually requires committing to less. You don't have to be the queen solver or fix everything. To raise your standards, you have to narrow your focus. Analyze less, reflect more. Post less, take action more. Complain less, pray more. You don't need to be doing-doing-doing. You need to focus on the less. As Peter Drucker said: "Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not have been done at all." Half the things on your to-do list don't need to be there — they're just there for the hit of checking them off. The reminder you might need today: You're allowed to heal and to grow. You're allowed to forgive, to grieve the time this disorder has taken, to let go, let be, and let in. You're allowed to love other people while also honoring yourself. You are the boss of your week — the question is just how you want to show up in it. "You can do hard things. You just can't do all things. Narrow your focus, and I promise you'll see what you want come to fruition." Your turn: Head to our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com and share your True Up Tuesday — what are you tuning up this week? What do you want more of, and less of? Ready for personalized support? I'm opening a waitlist — fill out a client application at www.herbestself.co so we can get you scheduled for a quick connect and see how I can help you. If this blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a woman who needs this reset today. 💛

Today I'm sitting down with Crysanne and Coryn, the mother-daughter duo behind the Her Healthy Body podcast — a show where faith and health meet. This conversation went places I didn't expect, and I'm so glad it did. We talk honestly about body image, self-worth, the generational patterns we pass down (and the healing we can pass down instead), and the truth about the GLP-1 era we're living in. If you've ever wondered "did I cause this for my daughter?" or "is it too late for me?" — this one's for you. In this episode: Two stories, one thread. Crysanne grew up a "high cardio, low fat" girl of the '80s whose teenage weight loss turned into an eating disorder, then decades of "orthorexia" — an unhealthy pursuit of healthy. Coryn grew up inside that environment, fell in love with the gym, then spiraled into bodybuilding, lost cycles, and disordered patterns of her own. Same damage, different faces — restriction for one, binge patterns for the other. What we pass down — and what we can pass down instead. The hard truth Crysanne names: what I said to my daughter and what I did were two different things. But the conversation flips the script — we don't only pass down the curses. We can pass down the hope and the healing too. When you honor and nourish yourself, you become the model, not the warning. When worth comes from the world. Crysanne's most vulnerable share: a marriage ending, rock bottom, and realizing her self-worth had been built entirely on the world's approval — "look how skinny you are" — which left her empty and always chasing. Everything shifted when she started seeing herself through God's eyes instead of the world's. You are worth more than rubies — and God doesn't view you as a label. Letting go of control. Both women land in the same place: surrender. You get to the end of yourself, stop future-tripping, and finally let God have it. That's where the peace lives. The truth about GLP-1s. We go there honestly. "Do you really have your dream body if it's a nightmare to maintain?" We talk about why GLP-1s can function like "an eating disorder in a shot," the muscle loss nobody mentions, what happens when the insurance runs out — and the difference between chasing fast weight loss and building a body that's genuinely healthy. (There's a place for support and healthy habits — but a shortcut that creates a worse situation isn't it.) The side effect of healthy. The big reframe: looking good isn't the goal — feeling good is, and looking good becomes the side effect. Imagine waking energetic, sleeping through the night, getting dressed without mirror-checking, enjoying the meal without the shame. That's freedom. That's "God food," presence, and joy. What it means to be your best self. I asked them both — and without missing a beat: being present, and letting go of control. Present with God, with your kids, with your clients, with your food. Because if you're obsessing over the scale or the menu, there's no way you're living as the best version of you. "When you realize you're a daughter of the Most High — worth taking care of, worth loving — you walk differently. And whether you're an extra-extra small or an extra-extra large, it doesn't make a difference, because God doesn't view you as a label." Go follow Crysanne and Coryn — the Her Healthy Body podcast is on all platforms. They keep it real, raw, and rooted in faith, and we need more of that. Ready to find your own freedom? If you saw yourself in this conversation, I'd love to walk with you. Find coaching and community at www.herbestself.co or come join our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com  If this episode blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a woman — or a daughter — who needs to hear it. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Let's start with a question that might sting a little: What are you missing out on right now because you don't believe you deserve it? Because here's the truth, girl — your mind has so much power. What you believe, you become. And so many women are stuck, not because recovery isn't possible for them, but because deep down they don't believe they belong recovered. Today we're changing that. In this episode: The belief that's keeping you stuck. You won't ever end up somewhere your mind doesn't believe you belong. For years, Lindsey missed out on a life of freedom because deep in her spirit she felt unworthy of it. Sound familiar? The first shift is asking: Do I actually believe I belong recovered? What mental conditioning really is. Just like conditioning your body builds stronger muscles rep by rep, mental conditioning trains your mind to modify your thoughts and rewrite the negative beliefs keeping you trapped. Without it, it's incredibly hard to break out of years of disordered patterns. The difference between the woman who takes action and the one who doesn't? The force of certainty behind her. The four-minute mile. Before 1954, everyone believed running a mile in under four minutes was physically impossible — until Roger Bannister trained his mind as much as his body, visualizing the finish line until it became impossible not to happen. Within two years, 37 more people did it. That's the power of a transfer of belief — and it's available to you. How to put yourself in your dream. Define your dream. Visualize that it will be hard. Get so familiar with the recovered version of you that not becoming her feels like the failure. And reject the old you — the one who's been agreeing with the lies that recovery is "possible for her, but not for me." Holding your thoughts captive. Mental conditioning is learning to say "not today" to the negative self-talk — catching the thought when you reach to check a label, when you start to put your body down — and replacing it with intentional, positive dialogue. "How can I honor my body today? That version of me is going to be so proud of the version choosing better right now." Your work this week: Write a list. What do I want? What am I missing out on because I don't believe I deserve it? What does my dream of freedom actually look like? The more your brain becomes acquainted with your dream, the more you'll believe you belong in it. "You won't ever be somewhere your brain doesn't believe you belong. Your past is not your potential — you belong in your dream. That's why you're here." Ready to condition your mind alongside women who get it? Come join our free community at www.herbestselfsociety.com — Lindsey would love to get to know you and walk with you through this. And if you're ready for personalized support, coaches help you with the here and now. Find out how you can partner together at www.herbestself.co  I believe you belong recovered — not just because I'm recovered, but because if I can do this, so can you. If this episode blessed you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with someone you love. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Real talk today, girl — no sugarcoating, no empty platitudes. If you're in the thick of it, the messy middle, exhausted from fighting the same battles in your head day after day, this one's for you. I've been right where you are, wondering if recovery was even worth the fight. So let's get honest about the way through. Here's the truth: when you're in a hard season, there are only three possible outcomes. Understanding them changes everything about how you show up. In this episode: Outcome #1: You quit. Not always quitting recovery altogether — often it's quitting on yourself in the moment. Choosing restriction over nourishment because it feels safer. Skipping meals after a bad body image day. Here's the hard truth: quitting doesn't make the hard end — it makes it last longer. When you stop moving forward, you just stay in the hard. Outcome #2: It gets better. The one we all want — the situation improves, the trigger passes, the holiday ends. And sometimes it does. But if the circumstances change and you don't, you're just waiting for the next hard season. You'll always be one comment, one bad body image day, one curveball away from spiraling. Getting better on its own isn't enough. Outcome #3: You get better. This is where your power lives. Not it — you. When you get better, you have tools for the triggers. You show yourself compassion instead of punishment. You stop waiting for life to be easy and start building the resilience to handle it as it comes. The hard times don't disappear — but they hit differently. They stop controlling you. The truth you need to hear: Hard times end — but only when you decide they end. Not when it's easy, not when the kids are grown, not when there's more in the bank. When you refuse to move through it, the hard season becomes your identity instead of something you're moving through. And the belief that "this is just how it'll always be"? That's a lie from the enemy. That's the disorder talking. Your decision today: Wherever you are right now — in your car, on a walk, lying in bed — make a choice. Quit, wait, or get better? Because you have what it takes to choose door number three. Staying stuck is the harder thing. Waking up a year, five years, ten years from now still fighting the same battle — that's the hardest of all. "The hard time you're in right now isn't forever. It's not your ending. It's just a chapter — and you get to write what comes next." Ready to choose "get better" with someone in your corner? This is exactly the work I do. If you're ready to go deep with personalized one-on-one support, apply at www.herbestself.co and we'll see if it's the right fit. And come check out the Recovery Collective — an intimate group of women doing the work and life together through recovery. You get live coaching with me, a community choosing to get better alongside you, and the tools and frameworks to move through the hard times instead of staying stuck. Join us at www.herbestself.co/recoverycollective      You don't have to figure this out alone. If this episode spoke to you, follow the show, leave a rating and review, and share it with a woman who needs to hear it today. Keep showing up, keep putting in the reps, keep choosing you — the woman you're becoming is worth every hard step. 💛 Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Surprise, girl — there's a fifth agreement. If you walked through the Four Agreements series with me (episodes 303–306), you thought we were done at four. But Don Miguel Ruiz came back years later, with his son, and gave us one more. And it might be the one you need most — especially if you're standing at the edge of your recovery, ready to leap but quietly wondering if you have what it takes. The fifth agreement: be skeptical but learn to listen. In this episode: Be skeptical of the loudest voice. The voice saying you'll never fully recover, this is just who you are — loud and familiar is not the same as true. You're allowed to doubt the voice that's been doubting you. (Holy skepticism: take every thought captive.) But learn to listen. Skepticism alone becomes its own prison. Get quiet enough to hear what's actually true underneath the noise — your body's real signals, your recovered voice, the people who love you, and the still, small voice of God. Be discerning about who helps you. You can't do this alone — but be skeptical of fit, not of support itself. If help hasn't worked before, that doesn't mean help won't work for you. Keep looking until you find someone who truly understands eating disorder recovery. You deserve the right support, not just any support. Leap before you see the whole staircase. You don't need the full picture to take the next step. We walk by faith, not by sight. The fact that you're scared and you still want to leap? That's not what disqualifies you — that's the proof you've got what it takes. This week's practice: When "I don't have what it takes" shows up, pause and ask two questions — Is that actually true? (skepticism) and What's the truer thing underneath? (listening). Then take one small step the truer voice would take. You don't have to see the whole staircase to take the step. Doubt the lie, listen for the truth, and leap — because that willingness, right there, IS what it takes. New here? Go back to episodes 303–306 for the first four agreements, then come home to this one — it'll hit even deeper. If you're ready for support that truly understands eating disorder recovery, I'd love to walk with you. Reach out at www.herbestself.co, and come join our community of women doing this together at www.herbestselfsociety.com. Follow the Her Best Self podcast so you never miss an episode — and if this one spoke to you, share it with a woman who needs to hear it today. Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Sis, if you overthink and overanalyze every choice — what do I eat next, when can I eat, is this the right thing to eat?  — and you wonder if you'll ever escape the nonsense, this episode is for you. Today I'm sharing one of my very favorite recovery tools for the woman stuck in analysis paralysis, self-sabotage, and perfectionism. Because here's the thing — waiting to feel 100% certain before you act is exactly what's keeping you stuck. And the eating disorder loves it that way. Let me show you a better way to decide. First, a word on purpose Before I get into the tool, I have to share the devotional that lit a fire in me this morning: purpose is more about realignment than achievement. You are a workmanship, created in His image and for His purpose — and your identity is found in your design, not in your passions or your resume. How you see yourself will determine what you see for yourself. So often it's your past — the ups and the downs — that blocks you from believing your potential. And that's directly linked to today's tool, because when you don't believe something is for you, you block your own ability to act on it. The tool: you don't need 100% — just 51% Here's the whole thing, and it's beautifully simple: you never need to be 100% sure about a decision. You just need to be 51% sure — slightly more convinced it's the right choice than not. I call it a "rule," but honestly, sis? It's the opposite of a rule. You're a perfectionist drowning in food rules and shoulds already — this is the one that sets you free from needing to be perfectly certain. Think of it as permission. Because total certainty is rare, and waiting to feel fully confident is what's keeping you from living. The eating disorder demands 100% (hello, Queen of Perfection) — and that demand creates paralysis. Recovery doesn't require perfect confidence. It just requires the next step. And God can't bless the actions you don't take. How to apply it — 3 steps 1. Acknowledge the uncertainty. Feeling uncertain is normal — you're about to do something brave, and brave is scary. Not knowing what to eat next or what your body needs doesn't make you a failure. You don't need all the answers. The assignment is just to go. 2. Listen to your recovery voice. Ask: What would my recovered self do? What aligns with where I'm headed? What would my support circle tell me to do? (And if you don't have a strong circle yet — sis, you can't do this alone. Come find one.) I tell my clients: if you won't grant yourself permission, take mine. 3. Make the 51% choice now. No delaying. If your recovery voice is even slightly louder than the eating disorder voice, that's enough. Lean in. Trust that 51% sure is enough to move. What 51% looks like in real life The snack: You're not 100% ready, but you're 51% convinced it supports your health. That's enough. What's in the pantry? Let's go. Getting support: You've thought about coaching off and on — maybe she could help me. If you're leaning toward even the idea, that's 51%. That's enough to take action. The dinner out: You don't know if you're ready for the Mexican restaurant with friends — but a small part of you knows isolation won't serve your recovery. That small part is the 51%. That's enough to say yes. Why it works: you're building evidence Every 51% decision in favor of your recovery does something powerful — you build evidence in your brain that you can trust yourself. Your true voice gets louder. The eating disorder voice gets quieter, because you're no longer taking its orders. You create real momentum for healing (not a Band-Aid on a bullet hole), and you practice flexibility over perfectionism. You get to be Queen Flexibility. Queen Spontaneity. You do not have to be Queen Perfection. And when the percentages feel really close and you still aren't sure? Celebrate making the decision at all — focus on the process of deciding, not the result. Treat each choice as an experiment and a learning opportunity. Recovery isn't about being 100%. It's about being brave enough to choose you — one 51% decision at a time. A few lines from the episode "You don't need to be completely sure. You just need to be sure enough." "The eating disorder demands 100% — and that demand creates paralysis." "If you won't grant yourself permission, take mine." "Every 51% decision builds evidence in your brain that you can trust yourself." "You can be Queen Flexibility. You do not have to be Queen Perfection." "God can't bless the actions you don't take." Your assignment this week Notice the moments where you can apply it. When a decision comes up, ask: Am I 51% convinced this supports the direction I want to live? Am I 51% convinced this supports my recovery? If yes — step forward. Messy, sloppy, "I don't know" action all counts. The point is to move. Ready for a circle that helps you decide? You were never meant to do this alone — and having support makes every one of these decisions easier. Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

If you're listening to this in one of those seasons where life feels messy and hard — sis, hear me before we even start: you are not broken, you are not behind, and you are not alone. Today's message is simple, and it's straight from my heart. So many of us are waiting — waiting to feel ready, waiting to be recovered, waiting to be smaller or better or "fixed" — before we let ourselves actually live. But your life is happening right now, whether you give yourself permission or not. And I don't want you to miss it. This one's for you if you're stuck in the messy middle, four steps forward and two steps back, wondering when your real life gets to start. The lie that keeps you waiting There's a part of you with dreams — the part that knows you were meant for so much more than days consumed by food and body thoughts. The part that wants to show up fully, chase what's on your heart, laugh without calculating calories. And then there's the other voice: "Not yet. Not until you're smaller. Not until you've got this eating thing figured out. Not until you've recovered." Sis, that voice is keeping you alone on your own island. One of my clients said it perfectly: "I keep thinking I need to wait until I'm recovered enough to start living — but I'm realizing that waiting for a perfect future is just another way the eating disorder is controlling me." That was her breakthrough. It can be yours too. Recovery isn't the waiting room for your life — it IS the living Here's the truth: recovering is the process of learning to live. It's not something you do and then start your life. It's the journey itself. And your eating disorder wants you to wait — because as long as you're waiting, you keep believing you need to be fixed, worthy, or "better" before you're allowed to take up space, want things, or pursue your dreams. But you don't need permission, sis. Not for food, not for rest, not for growth, not for a new hobby. This is your life. Because here's what's real: life doesn't pause while you figure out your relationship with food. Your dreams don't go on hold. Your purpose doesn't wait. How much more time do you want to give away? 3 ways to start making life happen (instead of waiting for it) 1. Name one dream you've put on hold. Just one. The thing you keep saying you'll do when you're better, when you have more energy, when the kids are older. Maybe it's applying for a job, taking a dance class, calling a friend you've been avoiding, forgiving someone, going on a date with your husband — or getting honest and reaching out for support. Write it down. Don't analyze it, don't judge it. Just name it. 2. Take the smallest possible step. Not the biggest step. Not the perfect step. The smallest. If it's the job, look at one posting. If it's the dance class, just find the studio's website (and nourish yourself with a good meal before you go). The eating disorder says it's all or nothing — but recovery, and life, are built on tiny, imperfect actions taken consistently. 3. Remind yourself: you are living your recovery right now. This mindset shift changes everything. Instead of "I'm waiting to recover," flip it to "I am living my recovery now. I'm giving myself permission to heal now." Every time you choose connection over isolation, pursue something that lights you up instead of restricting, or show up imperfectly — that is recovery. That's life. The honest part I won't lie to you — this isn't linear or easy. Some days you'll feel like you're moving backward. Some days you'll still hate your body, the thoughts will still be there, maybe even louder. But you don't have to wait until those days are gone to start living in them. Struggling doesn't mean you're doing it wrong — it means you're human, and it means you're about to do something brave. Your eating disorder is not who you are. She doesn't get the whole story of your life — she's not even the most interesting part of it. But you'll never know what the rest of your story looks like if you keep waiting for permission to write it. A few lines from the episode "You are not broken. You are not behind. You are not alone." "Recovering is the process of learning to live. It's the journey itself." "You don't need permission. This is your life." "Life doesn't pause while you figure out your relationship with food." "Every time you show up imperfectly — that is recovery. That's life." "Your eating disorder doesn't get the whole story. She's not even the most interesting part of it." "Your life is waiting for you — not the other way around." Your work this week Name one dream you've put on hold — write it down. Take the smallest possible step toward it. Remind yourself: I am living my recovery right now. You're allowed to want things. You're allowed to dream, to pursue, to have purpose — especially in the middle of healing. Your life is happening right now. Not when you're thinner, not when you're better. Right now. You don't have to walk this alone Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

Sis, today I'm getting right to the good stuff — the number one pitfall that keeps so many women trapped in disordered eating for far too long: not asking for help. For the longest time in my journey, I sat in denial. I don't need help. No one could help me. I'm fine — I'm functioning. That's a lie, and today I'm lovingly calling you out on it, because you are more than a conqueror, you are an overcomer, and it is time to step into that truth. If you've ever told yourself "I'm not sick enough," this episode is for you. The lie underneath "I'm fine" Functioning is not the same as free. You can be eating, holding your life together, "fine" on the outside — and still be trapped in the cycle. Telling yourself you're not sick enough isn't the truth; it's the disorder keeping you exactly where it wants you. Here's my tough-love truth: if you're not okay asking for help, your why isn't big enough yet — and I say that only because I want freedom for you that badly. It's not enough to hope for a healthier future. It takes a new mindset, new behaviors, and uncomfortable action taken little by little, every day. Why asking for help matters so much The reality of this illness is serious — and I share these numbers not to scare you, but to light a fire of hope: Up to 10% of people with anorexia die within about 10 years of onset, and up to 20% within 20 years — but with treatment and support, that mortality rate drops to around 2–3%. Support changes everything. The death rate associated with anorexia is roughly 12 times higher than the death rate from all causes among females ages 15–24. And yet the majority of people with eating disorders never seek help. I fell into that "never seek help" group for a long time — until a fire rose up in me that said: I am not a statistic. I am not average. Watch me. Support took me from a statistic to a survivor. It can do the same for you. Why you might not be reaching out (you're not alone) Stigma and shame — fear of judgment from family, friends, or professionals "I'm not sick enough" — the functioning, willpower, "I'm fine" trap Fear of facing reality — because not facing it feels like control (but it's an illusion of control) Not knowing where to turn — or having had past negative experiences with providers Hopelessness — believing the disorder's lie that you're "too far gone" Hear me: you can feel every one of these things and still choose today to stand up for your future best self. You can start exactly where you are You can start late. You can start over. You can recover differently than anyone around you. You can be uncertain, scared, and unsure of every answer — and still succeed in finding freedom. You don't have to know all the answers. You just have to choose. I wasn't fully ready when I started. I just showed up, day after day, and let people guide me. That's all it takes to begin: not certainty — just a choice. A few lines from the episode "Functioning is not the same as free." "It's not enough to hope for a healthier future — it's not going to happen if you don't make it happen." "I am not a statistic. I am not average. Watch me." "You can start late. You can start over. You can be scared and still succeed." "Trying to do this alone is like climbing Mount Everest by yourself — who's going to catch you if you slip?" "You either want freedom, or you don't. How bad do you want it?" Your choice this week Ask yourself honestly: Is what I'm doing right now — the direction I'm headed, the choices I'm making — in alignment with the life I actually want? And then the braver question: Do I need support? Am I trying to climb this mountain alone? If the answer is yes, let today be day one. Not "someday I'll get help" — day one of reaching out. Here's your lifeline You were never meant to do this alone. If you're ready to stop white-knuckling it and let someone who's been there walk beside you, I'd be honored. Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

If you're tired of being held hostage by the thoughts that hijack your day — "When can I eat next?" "When can I work this off?" "If I eat that, I'll look like her" — sis, this episode is about to become your secret weapon. Today I'm teaching you my signature Triple Threat tool: name it, tame it, frame it. Because here's the truth — you can't fight what you don't acknowledge, and you can't change what you don't challenge. When you ignore these thoughts, they get louder. This tool makes you the boss of your own mind. First, the truth about the thoughts Having an eating disorder thought pop up doesn't mean you're failing. These thoughts come from years of diet culture and conditioning — of course they show up. You're not your thoughts; you're the thinker of them, which means you get to choose which ones you believe. Just because you have a thought doesn't mean you have to believe it, and it definitely doesn't mean you have to act on it. The 3 steps 1. Name it. Get crystal clear on who's actually talking — your authentic voice, or your eating disorder voice? Give that voice a name (mine was Gina; clients use "Restriction Rachel," "Control Freak Carla," "Betty"). The moment you name it, you separate it from you. → "Oh, that's just Restriction Rachel trying to make me earn my food. That's not me." 2. Tame it. Claim your power back. You're not ignoring the thought or fighting it — you're refusing to let it drive. → "Thanks for sharing, Rachel, but I'm not taking orders from you today. You don't get to be the boss of me." 3. Frame it. Replace it with a new thought that's actually true and moves you toward recovery — not fake affirmations, real truth. → "My body needs consistent fuel throughout the day. This cookie is part of my recovery." It works on every kind of thought Food: "I need to work this off later." → Name it (Carla), tame it ("exercise isn't punishment for eating"), frame it ("I move because it feels good, not to earn or burn"). Body image: "I look disgusting today." → Name it (Betty), tame it ("your comments aren't welcome here"), frame it ("I don't have to love the mirror today, but I can honor myself anyway"). A few lines from the episode "You can't fight what you don't acknowledge, and you can't change what you don't challenge." "Just because you have the thought doesn't mean you have to believe it — or act on it." "You're not your thoughts. You're the thinker of your thoughts." "This tool doesn't change one thought. It changes your entire response pattern." "Your voice is actually stronger than that voice. It's just been jaded." Your work this week Decide your comebacks in advance. Write down the thoughts that show up most — waking up, at meals, in the mirror, getting dressed, around people. For each one, write your name it / tame it / frame it response. Practice them, memorize them, get ready — because the thought will come, and this is your spiral stopper. Ready to build your full toolkit? The Triple Threat is just the beginning. If you're tired of being held hostage by that voice and you want to master your whole mental game — at family dinners, in dressing rooms, during workouts, in social settings — I'd love to personally help you build an entire life toolkit of recovery skills. Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.

We made it, sis — the finale of our Four Agreements series. If you've walked through these with me — impeccable with your word, don't take it personally, don't make assumptions — I am so proud of you. Today we bring it all home. And I saved my favorite for last, because this fourth agreement holds a word that means everything to me — it's literally the name of this show. The fourth agreement is: always do your best. Not perfect. Your best. And by the end of today, I hope you feel the weight of perfection lift right off your shoulders — because chasing perfect is exactly what keeps the eating disorder alive, and your best? Your best is enough. (New here? Go back to Parts 1–3 first — they build to this.) This is the agreement that makes the others stick This one comes last for a reason: it's the engine. Doing your best is what allows the other three agreements to become habits. You don't master speaking truth, releasing what others think, or dropping assumptions in a day — you do your best with them today, then again tomorrow, and slowly they become who you are. This agreement isn't about knowing. It's about action. Because information isn't enough — doing your best is how the knowing becomes the living. Not perfection — excellence Doing your best is not being perfect. Perfect is a moving target that doesn't exist — and the eating disorder is obsessed with it, moving the goalposts so your best is never enough. Chasing perfect keeps the disorder alive, because perfect can never be reached, so you can never rest. Your best is different. Your best is excellence — showing up, in alignment with your values, as fully as you can today. And here's the freeing part: your best won't always look the same. Your best in the morning is different than your best at night. Your best on a strong day is different than on a hard day. Both count. When you're exhausted, rest is your best. When you're depleted, nourishing yourself is your best. You're not failing when your best looks different — you're being human. Your best includes rest and grace Doing your best means rest. You'll be productive, yes — but you'll also be good to yourself and to others. The disorder's version of "your best" is grind, punish, earn, never stop. That's not your best, sis — that's self-abandonment in a productivity costume. Real best-doing means taking action because you want to be healthy — not chasing a reward, not running from fear. It means nourishing instead of avoiding, honoring instead of punishing. And when you do your best from love instead of fear, something incredible happens: you learn to accept yourself. No judgment. No guilt. Because you know you showed up as fully as you could — and that is enough. Your best gets better Here's the hope: your best isn't static. As you build better habits — as the first three agreements take root — your best gets better. The woman doing her best today, scared and shaky and imperfect, is building the woman whose best a year from now is steadier, freer, stronger. You're not behind. You're in practice. You're growing. Every time you do your best, you're not just getting through the day — you're becoming her. From love, not obligation If you take action because you have to — dreading it, out of pure obligation — you're better off not taking it at all. So much of what the disorder drives is have to: have to work out, have to eat clean, have to earn it. That's not doing your best — that's obeying a cage. Your best flows from want to: I want to be healthy, I want to be free, I want to be here for my life. And you can't do your best while living in the past or the future — not while replaying yesterday or panicking about tomorrow. Your best only exists right here, right now, in this choice. That's the only place freedom lives. All four agreements, together Look at what we've built: Be impeccable with your word — stop letting the disorder write your inner voice; speak truth over yourself. Don't take anything personally — what others do is about them; your worth was never on the table; come out of isolation. Don't make assumptions — stop believing the disorder's stories and the rules you never questioned; ask for the truth. Always do your best — take action from love, not fear; let your best be enough, and watch it turn the other three into who you are. Four promises to yourself — and every one takes power back from the disorder and hands it to her, the recovered you. This is her best self This show is called Her Best Self for a reason. Not her perfect self — that woman doesn't exist, and chasing her is what kept you sick. Her best self. The woman who shows up, does her best, rests when she needs to, nourishes instead of punishes, speaks truth, and grows a little freer every day. Being your best is just being you. Not the shrunken you, not the performing you, not the perfect you the disorder promised would finally be enough. The real you — nourished, honored, present, growing. That woman is your best self, and she's been in there the whole time. Doing your best is simply how you let her out. Your best is enough, sis. You are enough. You always were. A few lines from the episode "Chasing perfect keeps the eating disorder alive — because perfect can never be reached, so you can never rest." "Your best won't always look the same. When you're exhausted, rest is your best." "If you take action because you have to, you're better off not taking it at all." "Being your best is just being you." "Not her perfect self — that woman doesn't exist. Her best self." "Your best is enough. You are enough. You always were." Your work this week (and beyond) Do your best. Today's best — whatever it looks like today. And when the voice screams that it's not enough, that it's not perfect, you remind her: "My best is enough. And I'm becoming her best self, one day at a time." The series is complete — here's your next step That's all four agreements, sis. Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. One brave, imperfect, growing, magnificent you. If you want someone walking beside you as you practice these and step into your best self, that's the whole heart of what I do: Connect with Lindsey: 🌟 Website: www.herbestself.co 🌟 Instagram: @thelindseynichol 🌟 Free FB Community: www.herbestselfsociety.com 🌟Client Application: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms Love this episode? Here's how you can support the show: 💕 Share it with a woman who might need to hear this message 💕 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts - it helps other women find the show 💕 Screenshot and tag @thelindseynichol if any of these steps help you this week! Remember, beautiful: Your worth is not measured by how perfectly you do recovery. Healing isn't linear, progress over perfection always, and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Her Best Self with Lindsey Nichol is a podcast for women in eating disorder recovery who are ready to break free from perfectionism, people-pleasing, and diet culture to live authentically and wholeheartedly. *While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.