The constant pursuit of shrinking your body can have major costs on your life. Instead of listening to what external validation tells you, you can listen to what your body needs and start validating yourself from the inside out. Key Takeaways If You Are Ready To Take A New Approach To Diet and Exercise, You Should: Shift your goals from aesthetic based to ability based Reject the notion that you have to limit your dietary intake to what external sources tell you Learn to listen to what your body is telling you The Impact of Searching for External Validation Deanna Harder has been involved in the fitness industry in some way or another since the age of 16. She used sports such as figure skating and bodybuilding to stay lean and stay compliant because of her previous disordered eating. It wasn't until she got a speeding ticket on the way home because she was so eager to get home and finally eat a handful of almonds that her compliance to the sport had taken over her whole life. Now, she works with women to help them shift their mindset, validate themselves, and quit the all-or-nothing mentality. How Is Your Mentality Serving You? Aesthetic-based sports and physique-based competitions played into Deanna’s desire to get smaller and perform harder. She didn't realize that she was starving her body of the nutrients it needed and using validation from others to justify her all-or-nothing mentality.  It wasn't until the age of 40 that she sought help for her exercise compulsion and eating disorders, which is why she is so passionate about helping other women make the change that she did and live better for it. Learn to Trust Yourself Again When coming from a place of restriction and diet culture, it can be scary to navigate the middle, learn about moderate eating, and eat for satisfaction. While it will take some internal work to remember how to trust yourself when it comes to food and exercise, Deanna knows deep down that those intuitive powers reside in all of us. The more you learn to trust yourself, listen internally and stay mindful, the easier it gets to listen to what your body is saying to you. It is fascinating what you can discover about yourself when you tap into what you have ignored for so long, but Deanna is confident that if you can make that jump into the unknown, you will forever be happy that you did. Are you ready to start taking the steps and shift your goals from aesthetic-based to do-based? Share what you resonated most with Deanna’s story with me in the comments on the episode page. In This Episode How aesthetic sports culture lead Deanna to the work she is doing today (8:18) The moment Deanna realized that her mindset and beliefs were not healthy (17:22) Why the attention someone receives ‘before’ or ‘after’ plays into diet culture (21:35) Challenges that are faced when changing your perspective on physique based goals (25:46) What is the #greatdietdisruption and how you can become involved (32:54) Tips if you want to shift away from an aesthetic based goal to a do-based goal (36:13) Quotes “Those who didn't have such a great experience have a completely different story. So not all of it is bad, but for me in particular, it was not a smart idea to use that sport as a goal because I already had suffered from body image and eating disorders previously before I entered my first competition.” (9:41) “There were so many times that I really should have stopped, but I didn't. The obsessiveness was more powerful than anything I could have controlled at that time.” (19:48) “It was only when I went to eating disorder counseling and stopped competing that I started validating myself. And it was a game-changer.” (23:52) “My poor body was going through hell, and I didn't listen until I had had enough. And I think until you have had enough, you can't help anybody, until they are ready, and I was finally ready.” (31:08) “The ultimate form of control is trust. And the control isn't working anymore. So if it is not working