[DR. CRISTINA CASTAGNINI] Behind The Bite podcast is part of a network of podcasts that are good for the world. Check out podcasts like the Full of Shift podcast, After the First Marriage podcast and Eating Recovery Academy over at practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to Behind The Bite podcast. This podcast is about the real-life struggles women face with food, body image and weight. We're here to help you inspire and create better healthier lives. Welcome. Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to the show Confidence. I just want to put that one word out there. For anyone struggling with disordered eating, eating disorders, or your body image, I can only imagine that your confidence is lacking severely. It's probably something you can't even imagine having your illness is telling you awful things, like you're not good enough, that other people are better than you, that people are judging you. I bet you have thoughts in your mind that are really mean and really, really critical. When all of that's going on, it's really no wonder that you lack confidence in yourself. I say this word because we have a very inspirational guest on the show today who is a confidence and body image expert. She's also an advanced EFT practitioner and master energy healer. Giulia Haliker has created a signature eight-step system by combining powerful modalities that changed her life. She has coached thousands of women worldwide to experience the same results and her mission is to show you what's possible when you heal toxic patterns and beliefs with your body and food finally in the battle and leap into major life altering confidence. Alright, well, Giulia, welcome to the show. [GIULIA HALIKER] Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here today. [DR. CRISTINA] Well, I am excited to have you on. I know you have a lot to share. So curious the listeners always they don't know much about you, so I'm just wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about your history and how you got to where you are today. [GIULIA] Yes, I would love to. I always say, how much time do we have because the story can be quite long. Yes, so just very briefly today, I am a body image and confidence expert and advanced certified EFT practitioner, master Reiki energy healer, so I got a lot of things under my belt, but there was a long journey to get here in being able to support the beautiful humans that I have the pleasure of serving today. Yes, I guess, I'll try to make it as brief as possible, but I grew up my whole life really struggling with my body image. My mom, I grew up in a household where my mom really struggled with hers as well, and I know that she struggled with disordered eating as an adolescent so I do feel that I came by that quite naturally and from a very young age, I remember even like eight years old, really always having this story that there was something wrong with my body and comparing myself to other girls in school. That never really left me. It felt like anything that was going wrong in my life, it felt easiest to blame my body and to think that if only my body looked different, I would be more well liked or have the boyfriend I wanted and things like that. I was a real overachiever in school and I got into dance, competitive dance. That was also a natural environment where I really saw a lot of comparison to other girls and it was that classic story where certain girls with certain body types were always prioritized in those spaces. So it just added to that dynamic for me where I really learned to believe wholeheartedly that my body was one of the reasons why I wasn't happy. That led me into developing a natural disordered relationship with food and luckily it didn't go that far. I was able to recover from struggling with anorexia without having to be hospitalized. I saw doctors and received support, but it was mostly myself that sort of learned, okay, this path of feeling like controlling food and changing my body and shrinking it isn't actually leading me to this tale of happiness that I really thought was going to happen from this. So I had this beautiful awakening as I entered university that that showed me, hey, this isn't actually what you think it's going to give you. So I had some reprieve from that over my years in university but I quickly realized as I entered into becoming a fitness instructor in my early, earlier, mid-twenties, that I hadn't actually truly healed that mindset and that once again, I was in an environment where there was a lot of comparison to other body types and feeling, again inadequate. So I became really sick. I actually found myself over exercising by nature of the culture of being a fitness instructor. I felt like we didn't have a lot of education around how to properly nourish your body if you're exercising this much and being expected to exercise that much. I noticed that this toxic mindset just started to make me really sick and eventually, I started experiencing episodes of binging because my body had been used to chronically undereating with so much exercise and I couldn't understand why and eventually, basically led me into burnout and experiencing what some people would call adrenal fatigue. I know that that term's not widely accepted everywhere, but it was essentially what I experienced was adrenal fatigue. It was at that point where I was experiencing so many of those terrible symptoms from adrenal fatigue that I really realized I need to do the deeper work to heal this because it's truly ruining my life. These agonizing thoughts about my body, these pressures around food, these stories around how I'm supposed to look. It was so all consuming that I knew that I can't keep this up. It had been too many instances in my life where it had gotten so bad that I was so deeply troubled that I really didn't know how to live a few times. So, yes, it was at that point that I received the gifts with that deep struggle of realizing I need to find a way out and because I had already done so much conventional therapy, I had been in talk therapy for probably 15, 20 years to support me with my family history and other things and I felt like, okay, I've done that. I don't feel like that's really led me really far in this relationship with my body and food and there's got to be some other ways. So I've came across emotional freedom techniques, otherwise known as tapping. As soon as I delved into that and started working with a practitioner, I was truly, I was blown away by how effective this modality was. It was unlike anything I'd ever tried before. So I continued on that path of working with a practitioner and because of the intense miracles that I had received from using that in my relationship with food and my body, I knew I have to be able to offer this to others. This gift that I received is something that I feel so passionate about supporting others with. The other modalities that I experimented with, like reiki and energy healing and spirituality became these beautiful complimentary tools that really enriched my life and were extremely complimentary on the journey of healing my relationship with my body and food. So I decided that this is how I was going to serve the world and that this was what I knew I was here to do. That's the, I guess, somewhat long and short answer to your question. [DR. CRISTINA] Well, I'm sure people listening know, as you were talking relate to a lot of the path that you described that you went on too. It sounds like you had a lot of moments and times in there where maybe you felt like, okay, I got this, I'm doing better, I'm "healed," or this isn't affecting me so much and then whatever happens, like you said, you got into the fitness industry and things came back up with the vengeance. But I'm really curious a lot of people really don't get to that point where they realize like, you did, oh, what I'm doing and trying to shrink my body and find this perfect ideal like size is not going to bring me the happiness that I think it's going to, like how did you get to that realization, because I think that's really hard for a lot of people. [GIULIA] It is. I should mention, earlier on in my life, I went to the lengths of getting prostate surgery. So I got breast implants because I was so deeply insecure about my body and specifically that area that I thought, oh, here's an example of what you see happening around us. You just change a certain part of your body and oh, now I'm supposed to be super confident and that what I learned from that experience, which I realized was also a gift for me, is that that never actually gave me any form of confidence. In fact, it actually created more struggles with body dysmorphia. So I felt like I learned all along the way in my life, all these instances of, hey, you think that when you did this, it was going to lead you to the happiness you wanted and the confidence. But that never came from fixing the outside and the more I controlled food, the more I tried to manipulate my body, it led me further and further away from that sense of peace and that sense of acceptance that I was always looking for. Because we learn, it's so cliche to say, but it comes from the inside and I didn't really get that until I had hit so many moments of what I call rock-bottom to have this awakening to go, I can't do this anymore. What am I going to do? My whole life, just trying, every couple of years it's like something else I'm trying to do to fix my body or go on a different diet. Like it was ruining me. So I was gifted with that awakening to say, okay, we've done this enough times, it's time to try something new [DR. CRISTINA] Thank you for sharing that, because I think that's just, it's the nail in the head and I unfortunately see that with lots of people. They get fixated on if I just fix this one thing or if I just look different or if it's just this and like you said, at one point in time for you it was this body part, but it shifts and changes, oh, it's the weight, it's this, it's that. It's constantly like floating into one different area or another and it's never enough. You're constantly chasing something but never really getting to the, oh wait's something else. That's not going to change what's really causing the unhappiness or the anxiety or the depression or whatever it is. [GIULIA] Yes, absolutely. We really see that with the evolution of beauty standards and just how ridiculous it is that we see that even with procedures in plastic surgery now. The BBLs aren't as hot anymore because the Kardashians have had them removed. It's just, it becomes so comical that it's like, how can we possibly keep up with everything that we're being taught is accepted. Like we're going to kill ourselves trying to morph into these aliens that fit everything that society wants us to be. So at a certain point, I mean, that's what happened for me at least. I had this wake-up call where I started to feel very angry and rebellious and saying like, you are not going to make me feel like I need to change who I am anymore. I'm not going to let you influence my life in that way because I see what happens when I've been down that road before. So I'm no longer going to categorize myself as a person who's going to chronically suffer with my body image and I have to take the steps to recorrect. [DR. CRISTINA] I love that you got angry because I think a lot of people get scared of anger, but I'm of the mind, and I don't know what you think of this, but anger is a really strong, powerful emotion that you can funnel it and use it to do a lot of good with. It doesn't have to be this negative emotion that people can be scared of. It sounds like for you funneled it into doing something really positive and amazing for yourself. [GIULIA] Yes, I agree. Anger is a very healthy emotion. Obviously in many circumstances we wouldn't want to live with anger our whole lives or resentment, but it is a much higher vibration in motion than sadness or shame or hopelessness. So as you're on that healing trajectory in your relationship with your body and food, and if you can get from the place of being in that shame and hopelessness that has so little energy and our nervous system to rising up to anger, that's a huge indication of where you're at in your healing journey. Then you have so much more energy available to you to actually take empowered action. I think so many people are just overburdened in that shame that they're unable to even take one step forward. They can't see any form of hope because they're so, their nervous system is just sitting in that freeze and it's really unfortunate. So I definitely celebrate the anger and really do support my clients also to get to the place where there's movement up that vibrational chart of emotion. [DR. CRISTINA] Speaking of all of that, so for yourself you said you had years and years of talk therapy, which is what I provide too. I also believe there's things that sometimes don't and do work for people or there's a mix of things that can help people get on their trajectory and path to healing, which is why I'm so excited to have you on to talk about what things worked for you that wasn't just the traditional path of therap. Certainly EFT is something we use in therapy as well. So for you to have that experience and really go, wow, this is something different and it helps, can you describe maybe what that felt like for you when you first were experiencing some shift and change? [GIULIA] Yes, absolutely. I should say first that talk therapy in the more traditional methods I believe saved my life. If I hadn't found those early on, I don't know where I would be today. I think for me, it got to the point where, I am also a person who really likes trying new things. I think I was so stuck that I was open to seeing new doors to heal this same old issue so when EFT came across my nose, I saw this modality, what is this? People are tapping on their face, like it seemed a bit interesting to me, but I was open to it. So to answer your question, when I experienced this modality really have profound shifts in my energy and emotional experience, so going from a place of being riddled with so much shame about my body and judgment that I couldn't even leave the house to being able to go through a session and transform that energy of shame and judgment into a place of more acceptance, all of a sudden I've mobilized so much more energy in my nervous system where now I can actually leave the house and start taking incremental positive steps towards having a different belief system. But previous to experiencing that modality, I felt like those negative beliefs and those cycles that I had about my body and food were just eating me alive. So this modality really specializes in transforming the intensity and the power behind these negative thoughts that we have around food, our body, and allowing us to take energy away from them to the point where we actually experience really a cognitive shift. The things that we once believed about our body that were super negative, we can now look at and go, hey it's so funny, I don't actually believe that anymore. It's proven in our brain and how this modality works. Like it truly rewires those patterns and it prunes off those neural pathways that were once fed with so much energy behind all that negativity. I experienced that on such a beautiful level that I was just like, I have to be able to provide this support to others. I have, I don't even think a lot of the world even knows about EFT at the time that I was getting involved. It was still very new age. So I'm glad that it's getting so much exposure now. [DR. CRISTINA] At the time, where were you at? Were you still in the fitness industry or where were things at for you at that point? [GIULIA] Yes, so I had been working for Lululemon for eight and a half years, and I was working at the head office and I knew that I wanted to pursue a career more so in coaching. I didn't know that it was specific to body image, but I had this deep desire in me to support others in that way. So I made the choice to leave the company and as a cushioning, I was carried on my career in teaching fitness, but I took it on more full-time. I had been doing it more part-time. That was the crescendo of what led me into that despair where I actually found EFT. So it was when I was teaching fitness full-time and I experienced that burnout and I'd seen so many doctors, specialists, like you name it, to support me with this adrenal fatigue. No matter what supplements I took, natural or otherwise, no matter what healing I did, acupuncture, the list goes on, I wasn't seeing any profound shifts and someone just suggested EFT and I said, I'll try it because I've tried everything and nothing seems to work. Then it was, once I found that modality and was consistent with it, that I saw the changes that I've never seen in my entire life with all the experience I've had in trying to heal this. [DR. CRISTINA] You and I were talking a little bit before we got on here, and I know you have since created this eight-step program and it incorporates that as well. I'm wondering like have this evolution and wondering if you could speak to us a little bit more about what you've created and how you now help people. [GIULIA] I've created this eight step program. This program is so much more than EFT. It really combines a lot of things together, so spirituality, EFT as a modality, energy healing, and it's also built on the foundation of a trauma-informed approach. So I've learned so much about the nervous system and healing our nervous system and regulating the nervous system and how imperative it is that we learn how to care for our nervous system in order to see the results that we want in our relationship with our body. So a big part of what I do in this work is empowering people to learn the tools to regulate their nervous system so they can understand when I'm in a state of shame around my body, why do I need to use this specific tool versus this one to see the results that I want? So many people don't have the understanding that when we're in those really deep states of shame, for example, in hopelessness around our body image, that is really common. The tools that we're offered often require so much energy that we just push that person further into overwhelm and shame to the point where they're completely immobilized. So a lot of this is in the healing world with your body image and food, which can be mirrored to any other area of your life. If we're talking about our nervous system is about learning how to regulate your nervous system. So that's a huge part of what I do with pairing the tools of EFT and other modalities to experience that real holistic mindset shift around your relationship with your body and food and healing it from the inside out. There's no focus on macronutrients or dieting or like, I don't talk about any of that. It's all about how we're healing the inside to be able to have the loving, accepting relationship that you want with your body and food in short. [DR. CRISTINA] Okay. Well, I think that's I'm glad you said that and differentiated out, like it's not a focus on food. Because I think so many people think, oh body of image eating disorders, it's about the food. You're shaking your head [GIULIA] I'm like, no, it's not about the food. Yes, it's not about the food at all. I truly don't believe that any form of a nutrition plan, no matter how "healthy" that could be is going to fundamentally heal your relationship with food because if you still have those beliefs that carbohydrates are bad or what if I eat this, am I going to gain weight? You can have a really healthy nutrition plan, but if those beliefs are still running through your mind and creating all that energy, you're not going to be able to eat that food and see the changes that you want to see. You're not going to feel more accepting about your body. You have to fix the root because that's keeping you stuck in that loop. So those outside changes, I believe are just a really small band-aid on something that we actually need to fix at a much deeper level. [DR. CRISTINA] Right. I often find like just people say, oh I'm following my meal plan. My physical body is "healthier." I'm doing it so now I'm done, like treatment's finished. I think that's such a great point you're making is, that's a fantastic place to be if your body is physically stronger, healthier, and you're able to follow up a nutrition plan or meal plan. But to your point, the internal dialogue and what's really hurting now that needs some work. That's where I think you're able to actually do that work because your brain is nourished and you're able to think clearly and focus and be present. I don't know what you think about that. [GIULIA] Totally. It's such a complimentary approach. I don't think we can do one without the other. I don't think you can heal your belief systems around food and those toxic patterns that you're stuck with and then eat food that's really unhealthy for you and expect to feel good in your body. So I think there's a pairing there that's very complimentary, but I don't think that we can, like I said, go to food or just say, I'm going to lose weight and all of a sudden rid myself of the toxic beliefs I have around food because those are stored at a fundamental subconscious level. Just like you described with me and highlighted, I had some gaps from feeling triggered by that, but a new situation arose, those beliefs came out again, there was a trigger and then I went back to those old ways. And I think people kid themselves into thinking how strong these beliefs are and how much impact they have in ruling your quality of life. [DR. CRISTINA] Curious, how long have you been helping people with your program? [GIULIA] Five years, coming up on five years. [DR. CRISTINA] Typically, what do you see in terms of like the type of person who comes to you? Are they more struggling with like body image? Are they really struggling with like the deep seated eating disorder thoughts? What are you typically working with? [GIULIA] Typically the people that come to me are women who are struggling with a lot of times with their weight. So they come, a lot of times these women don't know specifically, oh, the key is I have to shift my beliefs. Like they're not there yet. Oftentimes, they come to me because they're struggling with their weight, they've tried to have a change in their relationship with food, they find themselves struggling with restriction and binging. They're wanting to have freedom from that restrictive mentality around food. They want to have more freedom and peace around it and they would love to move away from having these consistent chronic negative thoughts of never enoughness in their body image. They're very clear that this path that they're on can't continue because it's really impacting their quality of life. It's taking them away from being present, living life experiences, going on vacations, being with a romantic partner or being intimate, things like that. So I'll support them to really heal those issues, like I said, at a fundamental level and do the work on the internal side of things and empower their nervous system so that those toxic thought patterns are no longer ruling their lives and they have freedom from that and therefore their behaviors and their quality of life is completely different. Because if you're no longer believing toxic things about your body, you're no longer fearing food groups, you're no longer restricting, all of a sudden life looks a lot different. Those are the people that I really tend to attract in terms of the work I do. I do have clients that still struggle on some level with restriction and what I would call more disordered eating but if someone comes to me saying that they are, they know that they're deeply struggling with an eating disorder, then I would refer them to a specialist who works with that alongside probably working with me as well to make sure they have a team supporting them. [DR. CRISTINA] You brought up a few things that probably people are going, oh yes, wait, I'm struggling in some of those areas you just brought up. So how do you see that playing out, because I have my thoughts about things, but do you think it's all of what I'm about to say, or just components of it, so if somebody's struggling with being able to go on vacation or having romantic relationships or other areas of their life, do you think it's more because of the way they are with their rules and rigidities with food or do you think it's more of the internal dialogue with how they feel about themselves? [GIULIA] Both. I would say if you get to the core root of that, so if you ask someone, well, why is it that you don't feel like you're in a romantic relationship and with a partner that you really want? Their answer might be on the surface, well, because I'm 15 pounds overweight, and I go, okay, well what, what for you is really important to losing that weight? Like, why couldn't you have that partnership now? At the core of that, the belief is around deservingness and worthiness. So there's an attachment to believing that my body needs to look a certain way to deserve a partner that wants to be with me. A lot of the work that I do is around helping people come back to their self-worth, which is, as we know, independent of the way our physical body appears. But because of all the conditioning we've been, and all the brainwashing we we've received, people get so attached in believing this false belief that I have to look a certain way, I have to weigh a certain amount to manifest the partner and the loving relationship of my dreams. So I believe there's, all of what you said is involved, and again, it comes down to those fundamental beliefs systems that are leading that individual. [DR. CRISTINA] But I mean, people hold themselves back so much. It's like I can't live my life until I, like you just said, until I look a certain way or I weigh X number of pounds or lose X number of pounds and it's just not true. Sometimes I say that to people, they look at me like I have 10 heads, like, no, this is true. What are you talking about? [GIULIA] Yes, yes, yes. It's so interesting, I mean, I was one of those people and like I said, I was holding myself back and even at my "thinnest" and in my "fittest" body with visible abs, I was still stuck in that belief that this here today is still not good enough, I'm still not worthy of attracting that partner. Ironically, through doing this work and healing those belief systems, I was at my, in my heaviest weight and body and I felt the most confident in my life. I look at photos of myself at that time and I just think like, wow, how amazing is that you can actually have freedom from that belief that we're taught that you're supposed to look a certain way in order to get what you want in life. So many people live their entire lives thinking it's never going to be possible for them to experience that type of freedom and acceptance. [DR. CRISTINA] To your point, you would think, oh, somebody looks like close enough or close to, or even at the social ideal that you're supposed to, of course they're going to have this amazing life and be super happy. But I often find that it's so opposite because their whole life is focused on exercise and what they're eating and following the rules and they're at home by themselves and they're not outliving a life. They're not social at all. They can't be social because they have to follow the rules and they're not allowing themselves to enjoy anything and it's very sad and isolating. [GIULIA] Yes, exactly. You said it. [DR. CRISTINA] It's just all consuming. It's great to hear that you're out there living your life and you're helping people get out there and live their lives and really be rid of all of the negativity and negative self-talk and feel confident in themselves regardless of what they actually look like or what they weigh or their size of their clothes because what really matters is what's inside. [GIULIA] That's right. We're constantly fluctuating as human beings. So if we're so set on I have to look this way in order to have this life, my goodness, of course you're going to be imprisoned by that because every day we change and we eat different things and our bodies fluctuate and we have hormonal cycles and some people decide to have children and get pregnant. It's like there's so much that influences how our body shows up and as long as we're holding onto those belief systems and letting them run our lives, we're prisoners of them. So it's really about taking our power back and really standing up for the truth of who we are and our worth and having the right tools so that you are empowered in those moments that are inevitable where you're going to get triggered again, because we're human beings and we're not robots, that you have a set of tools that you can lean on to go, okay, here's a trigger that would've once totally swept me away, and maybe I wouldn't have left the house for a week, but now maybe it's just a little blip in my day and it took five minutes and I'm still coming back to my truth and I'm not going to let that trigger side sweep me again. [DR. CRISTINA] Awesome. All right. Well I'm so glad that we connected and I got you on here and I was really excited to have you come and talk and share everything you're doing. I'm sure, maybe listeners are going, yes, how do I work with Giulia? So how can they find you and work with you? [GIULIA] Yes, absolutely. What a beautiful question, and it's been such an honor to be here with you, so thank you so much and thank you to all the listeners who are listening in. You can head to my, couple ways, you can go to my Instagram, which is at Brazen Soul Rebellion, which yes, I'm happy to connect with you through DM or you can say hello. I have a YouTube channel as well. That one's my full name, Giulia Haliker, youtube.com/giuliahaliker. You can try out a lot of these tools I talk about for free. Then you can also head to my website, which is brazensoulrebellion.com. [DR. CRISTINA] I love that handle. I think it's great. [GIULIA] Thank you. [DR. CRISTINA] If you did not get all that information down. Do not worry. It's all in the show notes and also on my website, so we'll be able to connect with Giulia. That's all there. Giulia, thank you so much. Any last final words before we end? [GIULIA] Oh, thank you so much, Cristina. It's been such an honor and to everyone listening, I hope that inspired you today to give yourself permission to get angry, to take your life back because you deserve it and yes, it's waiting for you. So don't let another day go by letting these struggles ruin your life. You deserve so much more and we're here to support you. [DR. CRISTINA] I love that you said that. Like I always say it, I will say it till I'm blue in the face in this podcast, for any of you who do not have hope that you can overcome these struggles, Giulia and I are both here and we've both done that. So yes, you can. Keep up your hope and take a step to making sure your life is different. You don't have to keep struggling.. Well said, Giulia. Thank you. [GIULIA] Exactly. Thank you so much. [DR. CRISTINA] This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.