We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Newman and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Sarah, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
After my own journey of healing from disordered eating and poor body image, I felt called to start my coaching business because I realized how I wasn’t alone in my struggles. Every day, women are being negatively impacted by dieting pursuits, unachievable beauty ideals, and extreme body obsession behaviors in hopes to achieve some elusive ‘perfect’ body. Most women I know feel like they must shrink or change their bodies before they can feel worthy and have the lives they want, which leaves them feeling ashamed and like a failure because, ultimately, body size or beauty doesn’t lead to that outcome. It’s a disempowering cycle that steals our time, energy, money, and happiness. I started my business to help women reclaim their freedom and feel vibrant, healthy, joyful, and fulfilled right now, in their current bodies – because not only do women inherently deserve this, but it’s also only from this empowered place that women can create positive change in their lives and in the world!
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I take a non-diet and Health At Every Size approach in my work with clients, which is a weight-neutral approach to health that inherently believes that ALL bodies are good and equally important, valuable, sacred, and deserving of respect and kindness – including larger bodies. This worldview is counter to mainstream Diet Culture and stigmatizing media messaging that serve us shame-based marketing, making us feel terrible about ourselves and believing that we are a problem to fix unless we live in a thin body. Intentional weight loss just doesn’t work (up to 95% of diets not only fail, but are a long-term predictor of weight GAIN and cause harm to our mental and emotional health), so we really need to embrace a new paradigm that promotes inclusive wellness and health behaviors. I’m proud to be one of voices that’s helping to create this cultural shift!
Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The official Intuitive Eating Organization – https://intuitiveeating.org/
Website: www.thebodyreclaimed.com
Instagram: @thebodyreclaimed
Facebook: @thebodyreclaimed
Other: Readers can join my free Facebook group here: thebodyreclaimed.com/facebook
Image Credits
Heidi Geldhauser