Victoria Kleinsman (00:01.642)
Here we go. Well, Georgia, welcome to the podcast again.

Georgia Gidney (00:07.118)
Thank you for having me again.

Victoria Kleinsman (00:09.17)
So, I’ve got my notes up here, where are they? Wrong, I’m on my wrong thing, here we go. So you’ve been on before, you come back again, what’s the main reason for that? And then we’re gonna go into the juice of the episode.

Georgia Gidney (00:23.277)
So main reason for me wanting to come back again is, so last time, I’m sure you remember, but I was in very, very good place right at the very beginning of my own recovery. So looking back, I think I was in the best place that I’ve ever been in at that time. And after that, had, I’m not gonna call it a relapse, but just sort of a step back, essentially, I lost my momentum, just took my foot off.

the recovery pedal and things, it just got complacent, I think is a good word for it. So where nothing dramatic really happened, but I started falling into old routines and behaviors that were very similar to eating disorder routines and behaviors and became less and less in touch with my own body and signals and less responsive to that. So…

Victoria Kleinsman (01:17.407)
Mmm.

Georgia Gidney (01:19.564)
I think because I did all the work that I did and I was in a good place, it was quite a quick turnaround. I realised the slope that I was going through, or going down, and was able to reboot myself and get back on the recovery track quite quickly. And now I’m in a place where I’m in an even better place.

And I can look back and see that my definition of like full recovery has changed. What I thought full recovery was is actually very different. And I think the importance of finding something to do with your life after you’ve recovered from the eating disorder is very important because I think that’s what happened to me is I spent years and years focused on having an eating disorder and then

a good amount of time focused on recovery and then I was bored and didn’t fill my life up with anything else, which then just left room for eating disorder because that’s all I knew. So the eating disorder to slip back into my life. So yeah, that’s that’s where I’m at now.

Victoria Kleinsman (02:29.942)
Yeah, and we’re definitely going to dive into that because I think that’s crucial in recovery and in life in general because if we have no purpose, no direction, it’s so easy to then get stuck back in our coping mechanisms, that fill up time, that fill up brain space, that feel safe and familiar, all of them just sitting in the void of like, oh, I don’t really like my life actually. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who I am really. But just to clarify the difference between when you came on before, when you kind of thought you were recovered,

Georgia Gidney (02:38.901)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (03:01.002)
And like you say, you did so much work out, so wouldn’t have had you on the podcast, obviously, and you were in a really good place. But now the difference between where you are now from where you were then, what’s the difference between both those positions?

Georgia Gidney (03:01.269)
Mm-hmm.

Georgia Gidney (03:16.126)
So I do think a lot of it is time for the brain to fully rewire. So I think I, in terms of my thoughts, my feelings, my beliefs, not much has changed. It’s more just I have had more time, my brain has had more time for the new neural network to like solidify. So it’s like there is less eating disorder pathways in my brain, even though there was less when I was on sort of the last time I was on.

But it’s just more time being recovered and filling life up with other things. It shrinks the eating disorder pathways. That’s how I see it anyway. And you build new pathways. I think when I came on last time, I was just right at the beginning of building new pathways. And then I essentially just became complacent and didn’t continue building new pathways and just let the old eating disorder pathways fester and keep developing or just stay where they were.

Whereas now, I basically, I feel like I came to terms with the fact that recovery from an eating disorder doesn’t fix life. doesn’t, like life is, there’s no other way to say it, bit shit sometimes. It’s a bit boring, it’s a bit dull. And unless you put time, effort, energy into filling up life, and unless I am striving for more for myself,

Victoria Kleinsman (04:26.39)
Thank

Georgia Gidney (04:46.091)
constantly. The work never ends. Just because I recover from an eating disorder doesn’t mean that I’m done. So I think that’s why I’m at Nowhere, is I’ve kind of accepted that I want more for myself and that the eating disorder is not what I want. And then to get what I want, I’ve got to put more work in. not like eating disorder recovery was hard work, but then that hard work has to continue and you have to grow and continue to.

I think it comes from a place of self-respect as well. think a lot of it was I didn’t see myself as a person worthy of time, effort, energy, because I maybe didn’t respect myself fully when I came on the podcast last time. I think I was very much in the idealist realm of body acceptance, food, freedom.

self-love, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful and it is but it’s like that was the honeymoon phase of recovery and then reality hits and you’re like actually there’s still work to do there’s still yeah.

Victoria Kleinsman (05:52.762)
yeah, I think that’s key because I would agree with that. And then you can see that life, you’ve got better, you feel better, you’ve not got an eating disorder anymore. The neuro pathways are easy accessible because you hadn’t fully rewired them until now and ongoingly, then you will. But then, like you say, you met with your life and then you’re wanting new things. And I think you may have heard me speak about this either to you or the group or somewhere else, but I’m very…

cautious of what language I use. So when someone’s in early recovery, I use the word recovery a lot of the time, but as they’re kind of moving through and getting towards the end of recovery, I swap that language of in recovery to like freedom or evolving or something different because otherwise we can kind of stick with that. We have the identity of the eating disorder, then we have the identity of being in recovery from the eating disorder.

Georgia Gidney (06:31.242)
Exactly.

Victoria Kleinsman (06:48.608)
And there’s something that comes after that because if you’re always in recovery, you’re always that, you’re never completely free. So would you say when you were in early recovery, kind of thinking you recovered, kind of recovered, but then everything you’ve just shared, and then you managed to kind of slip back into kind of old behaviours, but you turned it around quite quickly. Do you think part of that was because you were kind of identifying as being in recovery, other than like being on your freedom journey more so?

Georgia Gidney (07:05.481)
Thank

Thank you.

Georgia Gidney (07:17.095)
Yes, think definitely and I think because I mean for me personally I had an eating disorder for 10 years and it does become your identity so then it’s, it does take a lot of work to discover who you are, what you want to do with your life and that is effort and after you’ve just put a lot of work into a full eating disorder recovery you’re kind of tired of putting work in and you

And I think I just wanted to break. just wanted things to feel easy. But then like you said, with the reality is life isn’t easy and you do have to put a shift in to make it work. And I think definitely the identity piece of being having an eating disorder then being in recovery for such a long time, because I was in recovery for a long time, to now I consider myself to being

Victoria Kleinsman (07:46.614)
Mm.

Georgia Gidney (08:12.465)
recovered from the eating disorder and it’s kind of put away, it’s in my past, but that doesn’t mean that I am fully healed or fully developed. And I think that’s, it’s just something that, I mean, it might just be for me personally, but I’ve got a very curious mind. I love learning, always have done. So I think it’s just that case of being on a growth journey.

Victoria Kleinsman (08:39.19)
Hmm.

Georgia Gidney (08:39.443)
So growth from the eating disorder, physical growth, but then also like continually, is that a word? Continuously.

Victoria Kleinsman (08:46.07)
You can just make it a word, you decide. Continuously, I think.

Georgia Gidney (08:49.225)
There you go. Yeah, just growing basically and wanting to expand my life and that self-development journey, there’s no full stop to it. It’ll be a self-development journey until I die and then who knows what happens after that, it maybe continues. So yeah, that’s how I feel now. It’s more of just a continuous growth journey rather than in recovery, recovered, then what?

Victoria Kleinsman (09:15.912)
Yeah, that’s exactly it. I talk all the time, as you know me very well about. Always evolving, always growing, being very clear that I’m fully healed from Eaton Disorder, from body image stuff, and I’m always evolving now as a mom, as a human, as a coach. When someone says they’re done and they’ve got nothing else to learn or to grow in, then that’s a red flag. You’ll never stop learning and growing. Doesn’t mean we have to always go at it like balls to the walls all the time. We can…

Georgia Gidney (09:25.766)
time.

Georgia Gidney (09:36.679)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (09:41.566)
It’s important we stop and embody what we’ve learned and we reflect and we see what version of us is next, ready for us to step into. But it is a never ending journey of ascension, if you like. However, I think it’s worth stating and I see maybe you’d agree with this, the eating disorder recovery, that’s really hard. This kind of journey, like after you’ve recovered from the eating disorder and you’re getting to know who you are and kind of set more boundaries and all that kind of good stuff.

It can still be challenging, but it’s in a different way. It feels more joyful, more exciting, more like, I wonder what’s on the other side of this trigger right now, other than being like, my god, I’m in overwhelm, this eating disorder recovery is so fucking hard, I’m gonna get there, but it’s so hard.

Georgia Gidney (10:22.504)
I do definitely agree. I also think that it’s so after recovery from an eating disorder you’re left with this emptiness, this void of what am I going to do now? And that is, that can also be terrifying in itself. I think that’s why I was at for a long time. I was too scared to do anything else or like go for just

like set myself goals and go for it because I was scared of failing and I was scared of…

It’s vulnerability. you’ve the eating disorder, such is protective. If you’ve got an eating disorder in your head all the time, you’ve not got the time, the energy to think about anything else. You physically may be too weak, too tired to try and do anything else. So when you’ve recovered from the eating disorder and you don’t have that safety blanket anymore, which means that you now have the freedom to go out into the big world. And when you’ve been like trapped in the comfort of an eating disorder for a long time, the big wide world.

can be very scary. So I think then, like you just said, you have to make the choice and change your perception of how you see that big wide world and…

take risks and like I have learned through the past sort of year or so that I can fail at things and things and it’s fine. Like I’ve got myself. I don’t need anyone else. don’t, I want other people in my life but I don’t need them and I can try and do something and if it fails then I’ve got myself and at least I don’t have an eating disorder anymore that’s like putting me down for it as well. Like I can

Georgia Gidney (12:07.803)
gather my learnings from any mistakes that I’ve made and just, obviously it does, you you have to like accept it and think, you’ve got to feel, you can’t just sort of ignore how it makes you feel. Things can upset you, things can make you angry and it’s learning how to process those emotions and process how you feel about any failures, any mistakes, any setbacks and then gathering the learnings and moving on. And I think that’s…

going to be like a cycle that I think everybody will repeat through life. Like they go for something, they maybe get halfway there, maybe they don’t get there at all, then they feel a bit rubbish for a bit and then they go back and they try again, try something different. So it is fun, it’s interesting, it can be scary, but it’s about how you see it. If you see it as scary, then you’re always gonna see it as scary. Or you can, I mean, fear and anxiety.

Victoria Kleinsman (12:54.442)
Yeah, that’s really great.

Georgia Gidney (13:05.71)
The same as excitement, right? I think there’s neurological there. So you can also see it as, well, I’ve got the opportunity to go and try these things and it could be fun, it could be exciting.

Victoria Kleinsman (13:15.786)
That’s exactly it, the power. In fact, I was walking by myself this morning and I was just writing down some affirmations that came to me. And one of them was something like a reminder to myself, because again, I’m on this ever-growing ascension journey to find my best self, whoever she is. I’m getting there each time and then the Bourne Point moves and et cetera. It’s like to remind myself that my perception literally creates my reality.

So if I do not like the reality I’m living in, I have the power to change my reality by changing my perception. And it sounds too simple really. And it’s very simple, it’s just not easy, because we have a lot of stories that we tell ourselves and a lot of fear. But the simple truth is if you want to change your reality, change the way you look at things. Like I started when in recovery, like…

Georgia Gidney (14:01.177)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (14:08.51)
I’ve gained weight and it’s the worst thing ever and I look horrible and no one’s gonna love me and all the fears. But then I started to look at I’ve gained weight and what else have I gained in a positive sense as well as weight. for you then, you’ve been talking about, you thought you recovered and you kind of did but you were left with this void so it was then easier to go back to what you knew. What changed for you from that place to then living what you’re living now, like going after what you want, continuing to grow, continuing to evolve?

Georgia Gidney (14:17.518)
Thanks.

Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (14:39.35)
So when I thought I was in recovery and then just didn’t do anything, this is why I’m not calling it a relapse because there’s never been, since I’ve done the work on myself, my body, like weight gain, food freedom, I’ve never had a desire since then to change my body, control my body, lose weight, restrict my food. It’s never been intentional.

which I think is why maybe it’s so risky to just live in that void space because I didn’t, there was never any intention, but just because it’s what I knew, habits just came back in. And then the honest truth is I was bored. I was so bored of just doing the same stuff over and over again and thinking like, right, I’ve…

started these behaviors again now, these habits, they don’t serve me. I know they don’t serve me. I don’t want to control anything physically. Why am I doing this? And the answer was because I don’t know what else to do. don’t know. I don’t know what else to do with my life. All I know is eating disorder behaviors.

The only reason I’m doing it is because I don’t know what else to do. I know they don’t serve me. I know that when I had an eating disorder, I was miserable. And now I’m healthier and I’m happier day to day. And I am very grateful and fortunate of what I have. goodness me, I was bored just doing the same thing all the time. So that’s kind of like the flip that switched. It was like, right, I am a person just like anybody else.

And I need to show myself some respect and go after the life I keep dreaming of. And if I keep doing the same stuff every day, I’m never gonna get there. So I think that’s what it was. It was more of a just a case of like, please don’t like make me do this again. I’m so bored of this eating disorder, malarkey. I just, do want more for myself. And it’s kind of have to give yourself a kick up the bum and just like.

Georgia Gidney (17:02.284)
realise that it’s, yes it’s going to be hard and yes you’re going to have to put effort into it but unless you want to just do the same stuff again, repeat the same cycle again, then you have to change something. And that’s where I was at.

Victoria Kleinsman (17:12.158)
Yeah, and it’s having the courage. You said something key there, like you had like this dream life or at least a life that you wanted to live. You had a vision or a thought or you had something that you could walk towards. It takes courage to start working towards and building and creating that life you want. And that’s why it’s such a key aspect, especially when you’re in mid recovery towards the end of recovery, to start going after the life you want now.

Georgia Gidney (17:16.526)
Mm-hmm.

Georgia Gidney (17:24.196)
and I’m gonna go

Victoria Kleinsman (17:39.078)
even in mid recovery, even in the body you have now that you perhaps don’t like speaking for our listeners perhaps, because there’s so much more to life than eating disorder control and also recovery as well. There’s more to life than recovery.

Georgia Gidney (17:49.004)
Yes.

Georgia Gidney (17:53.589)
Yes, definitely. Recovery does teach you that so, I mean, and I’m sure a lot of people have been there, most people, the biggest fear of recovery is weight gain. so you spend, before the eating disorder, you might think, I’ll be happy when I reach X, Y, Z weight. Then you develop the eating disorder, you realize that you’re not happy. So then in recovery, think, weight gain is really, really scary. The worst thing that could happen. But also when I’ve recovered,

Victoria Kleinsman (18:09.846)
Mm-hmm.

Georgia Gidney (18:23.618)
I will be happy when, even if I don’t like my body or have body image issues or I live in a bigger body, you think that recovery will solve all life’s problems. And then when you’ve recovered, when you’ve gained the weight, you think, right, I’ve done the thing that I was most terrified to do and it’s not great, but it’s also not the worst. Like it’s fine. Like I have times now where…

I don’t struggle with body image issues. It’s not something that I particularly relate with. I have some days where I think, don’t really like that bit, but I just, I move on with it. I’m fortunate to not struggle too much with body image. But yeah, so recovery does teach you that your worst fear, you can overcome it. So then it gives you this sense of bravery for the rest of your life that you can think back, right, I…

was able to eat XYZ food that I was terrified of and now it’s just in the cupboard and I have it most days and it’s fine. So then you can go forward in life thinking, for example, now I would like to start my own recovery coaching business or a podcast and I’m scared of failing. But then I, when I realize, okay, you’re scared of failing. So what? Like you’ve overcome so much already. You’ve overcome your biggest fears. So surely nothing can

compare to the like, the fear that I used to have of eating Nutella does not compare to the fear I have of failing if I start a recovery podcast. So if I’ve overcome the Nutella fear, then I sure can get a podcast going and if I fail, I fail, it’s fine.

Victoria Kleinsman (20:05.546)
Yeah, mean, recovery shows you what’s already been within you, but it shows you what you’ve got. And so I think I’ve said the same before, recovery was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. So now I’m almost like, life, bring it the fuck on then, because I’ve proven to myself with experience that I’ve overcome my biggest fears, the biggest fetch prime.

Georgia Gidney (20:12.034)
Yeah

Victoria Kleinsman (20:31.37)
petrifying fears of weight gain and losing control and all the things that encompass that. I’ve overcome that. So there’s nothing else that I know. It’s not like I’m not going to be afraid of anything, but I know that I can get over it somehow because of the evidence of having recovered. So recovery is like a gold mine, foundation to help you go after anything you want in life, like starting a business like I did, having my own podcast, et cetera. But you have to show yourself.

Georgia Gidney (20:43.922)
Thank

Georgia Gidney (20:54.38)
Thank

Georgia Gidney (21:00.268)
Exactly.

Victoria Kleinsman (21:01.088)
that you can do it because you can.

Georgia Gidney (21:04.168)
Exactly. And I think they all fall under the same umbrella of… And it’s something that… So this anger… Let me just get my thoughts in order. So I think they all fall under the same umbrella of fear of growth. And then fear of growth in the eating disorder is fear of physical growth and weight gain. And then after the eating disorder, it’s fear of growing, sort of taking up space in the world. Because you…

Victoria Kleinsman (21:25.643)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (21:34.164)
you may feel this is how I personally felt like I wasn’t worthy enough, deserving enough of taking up space in the world. And then I realized, so we often speak about how diet culture is a way to suppress females, keep them small. If a woman is hungry and obsessed about her body, she doesn’t have the time, energy to put into becoming a…

Victoria Kleinsman (21:53.545)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (22:03.651)
investor, a CEO, a millionaire, anything. And then so that thought…

sort of drove me to think, no, I am worthy, I can take up space. And me being afraid of growing in more of a self-development way is the same oppression that people use in diet culture to keep women physically small. It’s the same thing. that made me just angry. Like, I don’t want to kept a small, powerless woman.

Victoria Kleinsman (22:30.902)
you

Georgia Gidney (22:46.932)
want more for myself and it takes a lot of work and I think that’s still something that I have to work on now but I do respect myself, I do give myself value and I want to show myself that I can dedicate effort and time and put work into myself to grow because I deserve it. So I think it’s same mindset.

Victoria Kleinsman (23:09.206)
So it sounds like you

Victoria Kleinsman (23:14.086)
It is, it sounds like what happened is, and this is common, it’s a great way to grow, this is what I did, it sounds like what you did too, is instead of channeling the anger inwards towards yourself, you channel the anger outwards for you to grow and to expand. So one of my quotes when I was struggling with body image and wanting to restrict, not really doing it properly, but kind of not fully recovered, being like, God, maybe if I just tweet this and tweet that, I’ll be thinner. I had a quote on my mirror that said,

Georgia Gidney (23:25.547)
Yes.

Victoria Kleinsman (23:43.646)
I am no longer willing to contribute to my own oppression. And that just had so much power in the words. It was almost like, fuck the, like, if I’m no longer willing to contribute to my own oppression, I’m no longer willing to contribute to anyone’s oppression. So for me to be my, my power and be my true, authentic, unsuppressed self that includes my body, my unsuppressed female body, whatever she wants to be,

Georgia Gidney (23:49.141)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (24:06.502)
Thank

Victoria Kleinsman (24:10.454)
that helped that anger towards the world or the systems or whatever it would be that kept us so small for so long that helped me to channel it outwards, it gave it an outlet and then it helped me to create my business and all the things so we can use the energy to serve us other than internalizing it and suppressing ourselves actually.

Georgia Gidney (24:13.696)
Thanks.

Exactly, and you said like your unsuppressed female body, so living in food freedom and like movement freedom is amazing, but also living in that mental freedom, that your unsuppressed female mind, your brain. I mean people, if someone struggles with an eating disorder now, and I definitely was in that place where I would honestly 100 % of the time all I could think about was food and

Victoria Kleinsman (24:57.524)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (24:58.556)
my body and how mentally hungry I was and all of that. When that goes, it’s incredible how powerful your mind is and it’s you realize how much mental energy the eating disorder thoughts, the food thoughts were draining your mind. Like I was so tired all the time, not physically, but just mentally. And now when you’ve got time and space free from any like eating disorder thoughts.

Put your brain to some good use and it is powerful. It’s such a… think we’re incredible as human beings and as women especially. I mean, absolutely incredible really what we do and devastating that so many women are kept small because we’re just being oppressed. And like you said, it’s just, you’ve got to make room for yourself. Elbows out.

Victoria Kleinsman (25:32.79)
Mm.

Georgia Gidney (25:57.107)
fight for yourself because you are worthy of it, you’re worthy of putting the effort and time into yourself.

Victoria Kleinsman (26:03.398)
Yeah, amen to that. I mean, I want to say no one else will fight for you. That’s not true because there’s a movement out, know, me and you are fighting for the women who you’re going to work with, who I’m working with, but ultimately no one can decide to take up space apart from yourself. And it’s just that decision and then acting as if, even if you don’t feel it yet, to be like, what if I was worthy of taking up space? What if I was worthy of going after the life I’ve…

Georgia Gidney (26:27.935)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (26:30.206)
always wanted. What if I fail? What have I got to lose? It’s been more.

Georgia Gidney (26:34.432)
Exactly. I think then also it does help me, for example, and you’re a great example of this, if you hadn’t recovered from your eating disorder, then all the people that you’ve helped recover from their eating disorders wouldn’t have recovered from the eating disorder. So you’ve got to fill up your own life. And then once your life is full, and I see it as a bucket, so I’ll fill up my bucket of life with everything that I need to thrive.

And then when it’s full, it’ll overflow and the energy can then go to help other people fill up their buckets. And these, our like strong buckets just keep filling up and overflowing. there’s, and in eating disorder, you’re constantly in that mindset of less, less, less, less, less. Whereas now I’m in a mindset of abundance. want more for my life. I want…

Victoria Kleinsman (27:24.981)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (27:32.379)
more, even just more like food in general. It’s like I’m always after, I go to restaurant now I’m like what’s the most that I can have because I want to be full. If I don’t eat it all that’s fine but I just want my life to be full of everything, of energy. Everything is energy and relates it straight back to sort of eating disorder recovery. Food is our energy so.

Victoria Kleinsman (27:50.452)
Mm.

Georgia Gidney (28:00.42)
start recovery from eating disorder, fill your energy levels up nutritionally and then let your like power just grow and expand and fill up your bucket and then let it overflow and I think it’s such a yeah it’s just a beautiful concept and also incredibly powerful and I think that’s where our freedom really matters. Recovery from eating disorder just so that you can eat food whenever you want is great and that’s fine.

there’s so much more to it than just being able to eat whatever you want.

Victoria Kleinsman (28:33.986)
so much more. And no one will ever grasp that until they’re in it and doing it because then comes, like you’ve mentioned before, the fear of recovering, the fear of, what if I recover and then what, my life’s still shit or I still don’t like my husband or I still don’t like the job? Well, yeah, but you will get all those characteristics. You’ll have proof of you have everything inside of you when you’ve recovered to then go after the life you want because I believe without a shadow of a doubt if…

Georgia Gidney (28:58.566)
Exactly.

Victoria Kleinsman (29:01.462)
Every individual who has a vision of wanting or desiring something, we have everything we need within us to create and live that desire in reality. No arguments, like people will say, oh, what if you wanted to be a basketball player, Victoria, you’re like five foot two. Yeah, but I don’t want to be a basketball player. So I’m not saying anything’s possible for anybody all of the time. What I am saying is…

Georgia Gidney (29:20.453)
Yes.

Victoria Kleinsman (29:25.746)
If anybody has a desire, a desire from their soul that they want to do something, it is 100 % possible for that person to do it, guaranteed.

Georgia Gidney (29:34.861)
Yeah, I agree with that and I think it’s… You speak a lot about, and I used it a lot in my own recovery, imagine the highest version of you, what would she do, what would they choose? And I agree with that concept but I also think that there is no perfect, that doesn’t exist, like the perfect finalised version of me.

Victoria Kleinsman (29:45.94)
Yes.

Georgia Gidney (30:00.253)
something that I will never attain so it’s you have to keep it as a concept as an idea to use as motivation to use to help you choose what you want from life but I’ve come to accept that I will never be perfect I will never have all my ducks in order is that a saying I will never have everything together perfectly and it’s kind of sad in a way to think that you’ll never have it all or that I will never have it all

But also it’s exciting because it means that there is no end point. So you can just keep going and going and going. And I think…

Victoria Kleinsman (30:37.216)
Yeah, and the joke is, sorry to interrupt, go on, Georgia. The joke is, from our ego’s perspective and from our goals and purpose perspectives, we’ll never have everything we want, but we’re fine with that when we’re on the right journey. We’re like just striving in this beautiful, accepting, grounding way without chasing. But the joke is we already have everything we need.

Georgia Gidney (30:41.979)
No, no, no, go ahead.

Georgia Gidney (31:00.647)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (31:02.824)
right within us in this moment. Like we have everything we’ve been looking for already now. Yes, not material stuff that can come with our goals and things like that, the things that we want to choose and have a preference of. if we really stop and get quiet, and I want to go into feelings and sitting in the heart and stuff in a minute, if you get quiet with ourselves and we ask what we really want, we’re always chasing feelings. don’t want the thing, let’s say someone wants to go on holiday.

Georgia Gidney (31:09.117)
Hmm.

Georgia Gidney (31:20.889)
Thank

Victoria Kleinsman (31:31.286)
Why do they want to go on holiday? What feeling are they seeking to experience within themselves? The holiday environment will probably give that to them, but we’re seeking a feeling and emotion, not a thing. So we already have the capability and the capacity to be the source of what we seek in terms of what we’re actually really looking for. So let’s go into, because you’ve wrote your notes and you want to talk about feeling and moving on, which is huge because a lot of people restrict because they’re so afraid.

Georgia Gidney (31:31.569)
Thank you.

Georgia Gidney (31:43.581)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (32:01.438)
of emotions. So what was your experience with that when you were in the eating disorder in comparison to where you’re at now?

Georgia Gidney (32:03.991)
So I’m just taking it like a deep sigh because it’s quite a deep concept of realizing when I had the eating disorder I was afraid of

of everything, including feeling emotions. And then if ever I did feel anything, it was so dramatic because it was brand new to me. think when you suppress feelings a lot, whenever you do allow yourself to feel something or whenever you, maybe not even allow, but whenever it kind of explodes within you, then it does go off like a bomb. Whereas now I do feel much more regulated. Like I will feel

Victoria Kleinsman (32:46.678)
Mm.

Georgia Gidney (32:54.596)
more often there’s less like big highs and massive crashes. And I think that’s because I’ve learned and I think it’ll be individual to each person but I’ve learned how what works for me and how I can feel emotions and then learn to move on from it. And it’s again it is still difficult because

For example, sometimes feeling sad, feeling angry, especially for women, think. Anger is a massive one, like frustration. I felt a massive sense of shame and embarrassment around if I felt angry. And I wouldn’t know what to do with it, which then would probably mean that I would take it out on myself, like punish myself in a way, whether that was with food or doing more work or not allowing myself to…

Victoria Kleinsman (33:30.038)
Hmm.

Georgia Gidney (33:49.308)
wear nice socks, like it could be anything. So it’s about being okay with being human and having human emotions and realizing that we’re not robots and that things are going to affect us like every minute of every day and then also having a difference between being reacting and then

What’s the saying, of your reactions, pardon?

Victoria Kleinsman (34:21.738)
responding.

responding versus reacting.

Georgia Gidney (34:28.63)
Yes, exactly. Yeah, so there is a difference between that and you have not control because control isn’t the right word, but you can basically just if you feel something, then you’re allowed to feel it to sit in it, which makes it easier to move on from it. Whereas if you try and control and whether that is, for example, deciding one in the morning, something made me angry so that I’m going to be angry for the rest of the day.

that’s still trying to control something. Whereas if you just feel angry in the moment and then sort of accept that you felt angry, you found a release for your emotion, you felt it, now you can move on, it makes life a lot easier and a lot more content and you’re a lot more open to different emotions, to different feelings, which of course, again, brings back the vulnerability aspect that it means you are more vulnerable to being hurt.

Victoria Kleinsman (35:14.838)
Mm.

Georgia Gidney (35:31.387)
But again, it comes back to if you’ve got your own back, you know that you can be hurt and then you can look after yourself in whatever works for that person individually, whatever works for me. I’ve got my own back, I can be hurt and then I can pick myself up and move on. Yeah, so it’s a long journey. I don’t think it’s ever something that, I mean, I’m not sure, but I don’t think anyone will ever 100 % know how to accept every single feeling and emotion.

Victoria Kleinsman (35:47.956)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (36:01.039)
But you can definitely get better at it and it definitely does make life easier.

Victoria Kleinsman (36:05.558)
Oh, it does. it’s not having a story attached to what the emotion is. That’s why we keep ourselves stuck. Like, because someone can lose a mother, for example, to death, to the spirit world, and someone can still be grieving rawly in 10 years time, and someone can be grieving for a year. And it doesn’t mean you love the person any less. It’s what’s going on in your mind, what stories you’re telling yourself about, the loss.

Georgia Gidney (36:10.678)
Yes.

Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (36:26.5)
Thanks.

Victoria Kleinsman (36:35.638)
although it all depends on where our attention is and the stories we’re telling ourselves. So we do have the capacity to, I’m not gonna use the word control either, to manipulate maybe or to have an effect on our emotions, but the first thing we need to do is feel them. Be like, ouch, that hurts if it’s a painful emotion or if it’s this anger or this rage, it’s be like, my God, I’m.

Georgia Gidney (36:52.346)
Yes.

Georgia Gidney (36:56.524)
Yes.

Victoria Kleinsman (37:04.276)
I’m feeling this rage right now. I can feel it in my jaw, in my throat, in my body. And it helped me to say it out loud, like this is what I’m experiencing right now. And sometimes that was enough to just allow it space to feel it. And then it just kind of went by itself. It’s when we’re trying to push it down, like trying to swallow it you can feel it down. You’re like, no, no, no, I can’t cry or I can’t get angry or it’s not acceptable to be angry. It’s allowing ourselves to be in our messy, magnificent.

Georgia Gidney (37:12.772)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Georgia Gidney (37:25.013)
Mm-hmm.

Victoria Kleinsman (37:32.328)
emotions and not making a story about it, feeling the emotion, learning from it if there’s something to learn from it, maybe there’s not, and then just getting on with your day.

Georgia Gidney (37:41.899)
Yeah, exactly. And I think it applies to both sort of what society we see as more negative emotions, for example, it’s like anger, sadness, but it also applies to like what society thinks is like happy, like good emotions because like I get really happy about anything. I like something feels good when I’m wearing it, I’ll express that if I have a sip of coffee in it.

really good coffee, I’m like, oh, that’s the best coffee I’ve ever tasted. It’s beautiful. And I’ll be happy about it. And I think it’s just allowing yourself to feel what that person needs to feel. And I’m not saying everybody, maybe not everyone feels as deeply as I feel about things and that’s fine, but it’s just within your like feeling capacity, just allow it, allow yourself to feel whatever you need to feel.

Experimenting, I think, is really important. Find what works for you, what doesn’t. For example, I had someone advise me to scream into a pillow when I got angry. That didn’t do anything for me. It might work for some people, but it doesn’t work for me. But just trying, like trying screaming into a pillow, that was quite scary and quite, again, it could be quite embarrassing to see somebody do that. So it’s just about having the courage to…

to feel and to learn. Yeah, like we are not our feelings and we do have the capacity to move on from them. yeah, it’s again, another just empowering process and it does just take being open and being vulnerable to learn how to do that.

Victoria Kleinsman (39:26.644)
Yeah, and I believe that any feeling that wants to arise within us, we have the capacity to feel it, otherwise it wouldn’t rise within us. Again, it goes back to like we have everything we need within ourselves, so it’s going back to that trust, and that’s why we can be recovered, and then we can be like, my God, these like two layers more of grief around the co-dependency with my mother or what my old body gave me that are coming up now, and it’s like, why they coming up now?

Georgia Gidney (39:36.557)
now.

Georgia Gidney (39:55.926)
Yes.

Victoria Kleinsman (39:56.638)
Now you’re ready to face the emotion, to feel it and to heal it. You weren’t ready back then, which is why it didn’t come up. So it’s trusting the body and trusting that your nervous system will only bring something there that you can actually handle. But the problem is because we’re afraid of everything, we tell ourselves stories that, my God, I can’t handle that, I can’t handle that, it’s too much. But to trust and surrender to the feeling that you’re being given.

Georgia Gidney (39:59.928)
Yes.

Georgia Gidney (40:06.887)
Thank you.

Georgia Gidney (40:15.318)
Yes.

Victoria Kleinsman (40:24.936)
you will be able to handle it else it wouldn’t be given to you by your body or your nervous system.

Georgia Gidney (40:30.905)
Definitely. I mean, I said this earlier, but I don’t particularly struggle with body image. However, that doesn’t mean that I never have feelings about my body. And they do come in waves and very unexpectedly. I think sometimes it can catch you a little bit by surprise, but if you can accept that things will come when they’re ready to be healed, then it’s much… You’re not fighting.

and it’s less exhausting and you can just accept that you’ll have a feeling it’ll come over you, you’ll process it, it might not be easy and then you’ll be able to move through it rather than finding a way around the feelings. They’re unavoidable and I do believe that there’s a great book, The Body Keeps Us Going, I do think that if we…

Our feelings, our emotions, whatever needs to be healed, will find a way to manifest itself physically if it’s worked through or dealt with in the moment. So I think that’s another reason why it’s just so important just for our nervous systems to really just allow ourselves to work through things rather than avoiding things, because it’ll only just, it’ll just make things worse in the long term.

Victoria Kleinsman (41:48.862)
Yeah, it never goes away, it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just there waiting to be felt. It won’t go anywhere. So the only thing we can do is sit with it and feel it, which in my experience is actually a lot easier than pushing the feeling away because you’re afraid of it. That’s harder. Thinking about the feeling and suppressing it physically is a lot harder and more fearful than just being like, I’m just going let this emotion wash over me. And then you feel it and you might have a really good cry.

Georgia Gidney (41:55.713)
Yeah.

Victoria Kleinsman (42:18.504)
Or for me, when I’m angry, it helps me to write with swear words, just write and then I’m like, that’s better, I’ve got it all out. And then, it’s all good. So it’s better than suppressing it because it’s actually easier to let it be felt. So let’s move on to, let me see if I can say this correctly, Hypothalamic Amenorrhea and Maria, almost.

Georgia Gidney (42:19.499)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (42:25.729)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (42:30.839)
Thank

Georgia Gidney (42:35.518)
Yeah, definitely.

Georgia Gidney (42:43.569)
Yes. Yeah. We could call it H.A. H.A.

Victoria Kleinsman (42:47.69)
HA, let’s go with that. Because you’ve been learning a lot about that and you’re really passionate about that, you? So let’s dive in now about your coaching practice and share everything you’re doing right now and dive into HA a little bit.

Georgia Gidney (42:57.397)
Yeah.

So I still have a hyperphlamic eminorrhea, which I… So I know for a lot of people, they would say you’re not recovered from the eating disorder until you have your period back, and I don’t think that’s true. I think you can mentally… I think they do go together. So a person can mentally be living in freedom with food, with body, and then…

the physical effects of the eating disorder still like have long more long-term consequences and then the opposite also like someone can gain weight and still be living with an eating disorder in the head so they’re they’re not mutually like exclusive the one doesn’t depend on the other you know you have to kind of work on both um so at the moment i am still dealing with the long-term effects of the eating disorder physically and i think a lot of it is

because of how malnourished I was, I… Yeah, just the abuse that I put my body through. So, to recover from that, I have decided to do a course with the HA Society, which is an amazing society that specialises in that, where I am learning so much about everything to do with periods, with hormones, with our nervous system, with…

nutrition and nourishment and just how important it is for us women to have a period, healthy menstrual cycle, even if you don’t want children. And so that’s where I’m at now and I’m putting a lot of effort and energy into not only learning about that to do the certification but also to heal my own hormones and menstrual cycle reproductive system. And it’s

Georgia Gidney (44:58.45)
absolutely fascinating. I’ve not finished a certification yet so I won’t go too much into detail about that but I’m happy to speak about like my own personal effect with it. Where I yeah I’ve just got a much deeper understanding of what my body needs to be nourished and what my body needs to actually fully recover from the long-term effects of the eating disorder. Sorry, my dog’s barking.

Victoria Kleinsman (45:26.262)
a lot of food, a lot of rest. And also it’s not just

Georgia Gidney (45:31.228)
A of food, a lot of rest, different kinds of foods. Yeah, it’s everything. It’s our nervous system. It’s taking my brain, which again would take my body out of that fight and flight mode. It’s lowering cortisol. It’s working on anxiety. It’s working. For example, I was vegan for a long, long time, which I think, I can’t speak for everyone, but for me personally, I think that’s wrecked my hormones.

which is again something I have to work through now when we learning how to nourish myself so that I can be healthy but for the long term health. And what’s an amazing thing that I’ve learned is there’s no restriction in health. cannot be healthy and be restricting. And it’s again, like I am a healthy body weight now and I…

know that to gain my period back, I’m probably going to have to gain more weight. And I’m absolutely fine with that. And I’m like working towards that. there’s no fear. There’s no… Yeah, there’s just no fear. just want to do it. I’m working towards that because I want my body to feel healed and full and free and to have a healthy menstrual cycle. And it’s… Yeah, it’s exciting. It’s really exciting to just…

Victoria Kleinsman (46:49.942)
you

Georgia Gidney (46:54.133)
not have any fear around that and just want good for myself. Like I want to respect my body and my brain and give myself what I need to thrive. And it’s just a case of, again, it comes back to filling up that bucket. I just want to keep filling it up so that I can be the best version of myself. So yeah, it’s exciting.

Victoria Kleinsman (47:15.168)
That’s all. Yeah, and I believe nature always knows best and we are nature. So if we think of why we have a menstrual cycle as women, it’s to get pregnant. We don’t have to get pregnant, but that’s the nature of the menstrual cycle. So if we think of like, okay, so nature’s talking now, we have a menstrual cycle to get pregnant. If we were to get pregnant, would we be in a safe environment to grow and to birth a baby, which is where the stress.

hormones come in, the cortisol, the nervous system regulation. So someone can be fully weight restored and fully free in their mind. But if they’re stressed all of the time and their body doesn’t feel that it’s safe environment to bring up a baby, you won’t have the menstrual cycle. Also, let’s say you’re at healthy weight now, but maybe if your body’s like, oh, if we did get pregnant, we’d need an extra bit of weight just because of the history we’ve had with the, you know, the famine that your body thinks you’ve been in. Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (47:49.332)
No.

Georgia Gidney (47:53.044)
Yes.

Georgia Gidney (48:07.815)
Exactly, it’s protective. Yeah.

Victoria Kleinsman (48:10.996)
It’s protecting, so it’s just trusting the body and surrendering to that and just doing everything you need to do. But you’ll get shown that, your body will communicate with you, hey, perhaps we can just slow down a bit more, perhaps we can rest a bit more, let’s have more fun.

Georgia Gidney (48:17.525)
Exactly.

Georgia Gidney (48:22.367)
Yeah.

Yeah, it’s beautiful to be in the place through recovery from like specifically recovery from eating disorder. You do learn how to listen and respond to your body like according to its needs. And it’s just nice to be able to continue to challenge that and work on that now. And it’s, I do think a lot of it is about teaching your nervous system, entire nervous system, brain, body included to feel safe and regulated.

Victoria Kleinsman (48:28.168)
it.

Georgia Gidney (48:56.946)
So it’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s challenging and it’s just empowering because it’s going to allow me to grow even more, which is exciting.

Victoria Kleinsman (49:06.87)
Yes, and share, you’re taking on one-to-one clients now, right? And what’s your ideal client? How can people work with you?

Georgia Gidney (49:14.353)
Yes. So I have already started a couple of coaching clients last year and that was so, so good. so essentially just DM me on Instagram or send me an email and I would have a like an initial meeting with the person to find what works for them. I think it’s really important to meet the person where they’re at. I

went all in for my real recovery, but I don’t think that that’s for everybody. If they want to do that, I’m happy to coach person through that. If they don’t, then again, I’ll meet the person where they’re at. But essentially, I think it’s about being… It’s everything, just like you are. You’re a cheerleader, of tough love coach, and also just a good support system. Like I want to be a person’s sister going through.

the hardest thing that they will ever go through. I’m there through it all. I think what helped me the most was having one-to-one like WhatsApp support, messaging support consistently. So that’s something that I will offer. I would work together like with the person, make a plan to achieve their goals and not let them give up. And it…

Sometimes I’ve like with previous clients that I’ve had in the past, I think it’s come across as being quite brutal, but I am willing to re we can reset, can adjust goals, but we are not giving up until you are in a place of freedom. kind encouragement is how I like to frame it.

And then also I’ve just got, so I’ve done multiple certifications. I’ve got a counseling skill certification, a understanding nutrition and health certification, this ongoing hypothalamic amenorrhea certification that I’ve not finished yet, but I’m working on it. So I have a lot of knowledge from that. And also just using my own personal experience of, you know, being a child that used food to cope to having a life ruin and eating disorder.

Georgia Gidney (51:28.787)
to being recovered and living in full food freedom and in peace with food and body. So I’m going to use all those skills to get another person, to encourage another person to step into their own power and strength, I think is my aim.

Victoria Kleinsman (51:47.254)
Yes, oh, I’m so excited for you. So obviously pop all your details below so people can reach out to you. And any updates you have like with websites and things like that, can obviously, I’ll share them with my community so they can keep up to date with your growth and expansion as a coach and as a woman. Well, thanks, George. Is there anything else that I’ve not asked you that you want to share for the last couple of minutes?

Georgia Gidney (51:50.889)
thank you.

Georgia Gidney (51:55.474)
Yeah.

Georgia Gidney (52:06.803)
Thank you, yes.

Georgia Gidney (52:15.859)
No, I think we’ve covered everything. I could go on and on and on about everything we’ve spoken about, which is why I’m gonna get my own podcast going. And again, just accept that I am scared. I am scared of failing, but going for it. So that is something, I’m not sure what timeframe, how long it’ll take to set up, but it’s something that I’m gonna start doing this week. So I’m not sure how long that will be. So just keep your eyes peeled for that.

And I am just happy to receive any questions, whether people decide to work with me as a coach or not, as in like a paid role or not, like just send me questions on Instagram because I love supporting people. I’m an absolute open book. will talk about, probably talk about myself too much and like the details and share, overshare. But I think it can be helpful. So just send me messages if.

you need support and I’m happy to speak to people.

Victoria Kleinsman (53:17.718)
Thank you, Georgia. Thank you for your time. Thank you for coming on again and for this honest conversation and inspiring conversation as well. Thank you.

Georgia Gidney (53:25.938)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It’s a privilege as always. Thank you.

Victoria Kleinsman (53:31.414)
We will see you next time. Much love to you all. Bye bye.