How is Your Story Showing Up in Your Life?: Michele Olender on PYP 464
Channel: Sick to Fit | Plant Yourself Podcast
Date: 2021-05-18

Michele Olender was afraid that her vegetarian daughter wasn't going to get enough nutrients, so she began studying the science of plant-based nutrition.

On her path, she discovered Rich Roll, Sid Garza-Hillman, me, and many others who not only assuaged her fears, but encouraged her to shift to a plant-based diet for all sorts of good reasons.

The transition wasn't smooth. At first, giving up animal products completely seemed to hard and complicated - wasn't life complicated enough?

For a while, Michele was a self-described "excuse-atarian," eating vegetarian except when she could convince herself that there was a good reason not to.

But as she helped her daughter navigate some of the challenges of eating differently than others, she began to realize that she had skills and interests in offering that support more broadly.

For example, one of the hurdles to her daughter's commitment to plant-based eating was the awkwardness of having to ask the wait staff in a restaurant to accommodate her diet. To this day, one of the things Michele helps her clients with is to learn how to advocate for themselves. As she notes, "It's not always easy."

We talked about the psychology of eating, and how it's possible to use veganism to fuel or hide a pattern of disordered eating. And how the kind of veganism we embrace is anything but restrictive.

Michele shared her philosophy and practice of coaching, which is quite different from mine, coming from a cognitive tradition. (She has studied with Brooke Castillo of Life Coach School, and is a certified Life Coach and Weight Coach. She also earned e-Cornell's Plant-based Nutrition Certification.)

Michele focuses on the limitations to our behaviors that we impose due to our "stories" - the narratives that we rely on to define us. What we can and can't do. What we should and shouldn't do. What other people will reward or punish us for doing. 

Often these stories are unexamined, and even completely unconscious, and were created when we were very young. Yet they can still run our lives and keep us stuck. Through her coaching, Michele helps clients unpack these stories, question them, and replace them with more empowering ones. 

Enjoy our conversation!