The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. Today Jenn is joined by intuitive eating coach Kiki Athanas. After struggling with unhealthy eating habits and orthorexia, Kiki was determined to heal her relationship with food. She learned about the head, heart, and gut connection, which led her to remove food restrictions altogether. She now teaches others how to get present with their eating, understand their hunger, and uncover what else in their life is out of balance, causing them to turn to food. She offers insightful information and tools you can start using immediately. Tune in to learn some great tips for calming your nervous system so you can appropriately choose and digest your food.IN THIS EPISODE:●   [4:54] Kiki walks us through how she started in the wellness world. ●   [9:31] What is Core Identity, and what does it have to do with our food?●   [13:35] What is coherence for your head, heart, and gut? ●   [16:50] How does this fit into the logic brain? ●   [21:19] How can we synchronize the head, heart, and gut?●   [28:57] Where does the resistance to connect to ourselves come from?●   [32:10] How Kiki helps people who might be overwhelmed with her advice. ●   [35:54] How can people ensure they don’t take these new habits too far and go into an unhealthy space?KEY TAKEAWAYS:●   We use our thoughts and our actions to fix us; food is to care for the physical body when hungry. It's not meant to be the medicine for everything.  ●   Food is a pause, a break in life. Everything else is movement in life. Creating a sense of safety in your body; being present with your meal can lead to great weight management and health success. ●   Change isn’t a process; it's a decision. You do have time to be present with your food; you just have to choose to make the time. Make the time to exist so you can eventually thrive.QUOTES: “We’re using food or the restriction of food as a buffer to move through life. As a way to soften the discomfort or to avoid what's going on with life. Because when we are at balance, are not under or over-fed, we can truly feel our core identity. And if that is scary and uncomfortable, then we’re using food as a way to buffer through it.” - Kiki Athanas “Eating is in the moment; eating has nothing to do with what you ate before or what you are going to eat after. The only way to eat properly is to connect with the feeling in your stomach and your whole body right now, and so we need to start incorporating that present awareness in the now beyond just our meal times, but also in the day-to-day.” - Kiki Athanas “With all of the pieces, the breathing, the catching the thoughts, the catching the hunger and satiety, we’re inherently separating the time for food from everything else.” - Jenn Trepeck “Ultimately showing up worthy. It's never about perfection; it's always about connection. A mantra I use with my clients is I don't have to be perfect; I just have to be me. It's really about owning your wants and not feeling back about wanting what you want. Whether it be with food, work or relationships, anything!” - Kiki AthanasRESOURCES:Become A Member of Salad with a Side of FriesJenn’s Free Menu PlanA Salad With a Side of FriesA Salad With a Side of Fries InstagramGUEST RESOURCES:Kiki's WebsiteKiki's Facebook GroupKiki's InstagramGUEST BIO:Kiki helps smart women conquer emotional eating and practice healthy, balanced eating with consistency and ease - even in the face of life’s challenges.She created The Gut Brain Integration method to help women take control of their cravings and hunger, so eating no longer feels like an internal battle & they are finally able to shed any excess fat they were holding onto.In fact, she’s worked with hundreds of women to free themselves from non-stop thinking about food and turned them into naturally balanced women who are confident about their bodies!