Start Here ~> Writer, Interrupted

A Writer Resurfaced After Healing Her Relationship with Food, Body, and Self

I’m so happy that you are here! I’d like to tell you the story about how I came to write Nourishing Words. I’ll invite you to pour yourself a cup of tea (or whatever beverage you like) and make yourself comfortable.

I grew up the oldest of seven siblings with a lot to say. When I was four, my clever, overworked mom bought me my first blank diary. I couldn’t write yet, but I began dictating to her until I could. Prescription eyeglasses at age five added to my budding nerdiness.

In fourth grade, I discovered poetry. With Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss as my influencers, I was pulled out of classes and into a program where I was encouraged to write poems so I wouldn’t be bored and disruptive. (Today, I’d likely be called “neuro-spicy” and “highly-sensitive” instead of “gifted” or “fidgety.”)

I read voraciously and wrote about everything. Unfortunately, as an older teen, I became embarrassed by my young journaling and destroyed all those diaries. (My adult self is sad about this.)

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

My second love was dancing, and I started formal training at the age of six. Between homework and daily ballet classes, I developed into a very disciplined and busy teen. The balance of reading, writing, and dancing kept me fairly content for an odd bird.

During my first year of high school, my Catholic school English teacher gave me the first (and only) C of my academic career. He was sexually inappropriate, teased me in front of the class, and told me my writing was terrible.

I was crushed but moved on (as I’d learned to do many years before when I was bullied for wearing glasses at such a young age), and I put all my intellectual energy into science classes instead. After all, those teachers were kinder.

That Literary Arts teacher significantly altered my self-confidence as a writer and contributed to the development of a serious eating disorder by my senior year of high school. This event had a massive impact on my studies, relationships, and later career pursuits as a nutrition professional.

Photo by Imani Bahati on Unsplash

It wasn’t until I returned to post-graduate writing classes—as a young mother in my thirties—that I finally regained some confidence. A Health Writing instructor told me, “You could teach this class,” and I started writing an advice column about twin mothering, which I was immersed in at the time. This graduate professor believed in my ability to translate science and psychology for a broader readership. I slowly started to find my authentic writer self again.

In a new online blog, Nourishing Words, I admitted that I’d studied nutrition and psychology in college because I was doing the last part of my own healing from an eating disorder. Some members of my professional community cautioned me about disclosing this. I trusted my gut instead about the disclosure, as I wasn’t writing about the details of my disorder, so as not to encourage comparisons. I also wasn’t volunteering information about my recovery in sessions with clients, so as not to take away from the focus on their work.

Several clients in my nutrition therapy practice said that reading about my challenges was hopeful and validated their sense that “I got it.” These days, we understand that lived experience can support credibility and healing, but the eating disorders field was still quite shy about self-disclosure in the early 2010s. I decided to share parts of my story so that others might feel encouraged during the complex and often circuitous healing process. So many of us have a complicated relationship with food and our bodies.

While I love doing direct counseling work, I discovered through my blog that I could reach a broader audience with writing. Readers told me, “You should write a book.” Eventually, I did. Clients often asked, “Can you recommend a general nutrition book?” I literally couldn’t since so many books about nutrition contain content that would be triggering, shaming, or unhelpful for those who have struggled with disordered eating. My first book, Nourish: How to Heal Your Relationship with Food, Body, and Self, was my attempt to create a food and nutrition book that my colleagues and I could recommend.

Readers then wrote to me, saying they wished they’d had this information when they were younger or that their parents had these perspectives. My second book, Nurture: How to Raise Kids Who Love Food, Their Bodies, and Themselves, emerged from requests to create a similar gentle, compassionate, yet authoritative book about food, nutrition, and body discussion for parents and caregivers.

Throughout both of my books, I tell numerous clients’ stories. More important than the actual content of these stories is that doing healing work related to the body helps free people up to live more full and balanced lives with a sense of who they are as whole people—and to feel more clear about their purpose on the planet. This outcome, over and over, is the special sauce of eating disorder recovery work and embodiment that I have found to be true.

I wish I had trusted myself and my writing abilities over that high school English teacher many decades ago. I didn’t have the confidence back then to say he was both a pervert and wrong. I’m sure my daughters, now in college, would not have stood for what I experienced. I hope they will move to the beat of their own drums sooner than I did. (They seem to be, and I’m delighted.) That said, I honor the journey I was called to have, and I’m grateful for my healing, which now allows me to circle back and write about it—even decades later—and help others do the same.

I’m honored if you’ve made it to the end of my little story. I’d like to introduce my current self to you, now that you’ve read a bit about my origins.

I’m Heidi Schauster, a nutrition and eating disorders specialist who helps people affected by trauma heal food and body concerns. I encourage young adults to approach wellness differently, so they are more concerned with the whole self than just the selfie. I also believe all bodies deserve care, love, and to take up as much space as they do.

Here in my newsletter, Nourishing Words, I write from thirty years of experience as a clinician near Boston, Massachusetts, USA. I endeavor to communicate in a trauma-informed way as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). I also bring to my writing lived experience as a person who has an eating disorder history, a proud and bumbling parent of two incredible young adults, and a lifelong dancer embracing a 50+-year-old body.

I also don’t think we talk enough about letting go of the children we raise and what it’s like to fill the “empty” nest, so I started a monthly Friday Chat for anyone who wants a place to share about this subject. I’m also offering this Chat space for “Creative Clinicians” who are trying to balance the demands of helping work and artistic or creative pursuits. Information about how to join my Chats is located here.

I have written two multi-award-winning books, and have been featured as an expert in the Huffington Post, Oprah Daily, Prevention, and Women's Health Magazine, among others.

You can read the Introduction of my book, Nurture: How to Raise Kids Who Love Food, Their Bodies, and Themselves, on this page here.

Other fan-favorite posts include one I wrote about what self-care is and is not and about the social media project I did with my daughter discussing college diet trends.

A few of my favorite recent podcast conversations are listed here:

• Behind the Bite Podcast: Raising Kids Without the Stress or Struggles over Food

• Food Psych Podcast: From Picky Eating to Peace with Food: Feeding Kids with Heidi Schauster

• The Eating Disorders Therapist Podcast: Supporting Children and Teens in Navigating a Healthy Relationship with Food and Body

I will be over-the-moon excited if you subscribe to my newsletter, which is still called Nourishing Words, now hosted by Substack. You will support the writing of my next book, a guide for teens and young adults. You will also become part of a community of people who care about healing relationships with food, body, and self. Most of my writing is free, but there are some benefits to being a paid subscriber for only $4.17 per month, which is less than most lattes.

As a paid subscriber, you’ll have access to special “meatier” articles and the entire archives, the “Empty” Nest and “Creative Clinicians” Chat, and the feeling of good ju-ju that comes from supporting my work as a writer and change-maker, as well as the production of my books. Founding Members (at $100 for the year) additionally receive signed copies of my first two multi-award-winning books, a locked-in yearly rate as I develop my offerings on Substack, and a pile of gratitude for supporting my work.

I hope you will enjoy being part of a community that supports healing and helps you thrive and feel nourished on a whole-self level. The world needs your unique gifts more than ever.

Warmly and with love in this shared life journey,

Heidi

Heidi Schauster, MS, RD, CEDS-C, SEP

(she/her/hers)

Website: https://www.anourishingword.com

Books: https://www.anourishingword.com/the-book

Social:

https://www.instagram.com/heidischauster

https://www.youtube.com/@NourishingWords_HeidiSchauster