About Elle Mace Elle Mace is a qualified coach, Eating Disorders Practitioner, corporate wellbeing consultant, speaker and author specialising in the relationship between food, body and self. Her work combines professional practice, positive psychology and lived experience following around 17 years of struggling with her own relationship with food and body. https://www.ellemace.com/ About Food Freedom Food Freedom: How to find peace from food anxiety, and reclaim your body confidence explores disordered eating, diet culture, body image, self-worth and the deeper psychology behind our relationship with food. Drawing on Elle’s professional work and personal experience, the book combines insight with practical exercises designed to support greater self-compassion, trust and freedom. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477106/food-freedom-by-mace-elle/9781785046414 Episode Summary: In this conversation, Elle explores how diet culture, comparison, restriction and the desire to fit in can gradually make our world smaller.We discuss why struggles with food are rarely just about food, touching on safety, control, shame, people-pleasing, boundaries and self-worth. Elle also shares her perspective on GLP-1 weight-loss medications, the messages children absorb around food and body image, and what genuine food freedom can begin to feel like. Ultimately, this is a conversation about creating more space to live, think, choose and become more fully yourself. Disclaimer: This episode includes discussion of eating disorders, disordered eating, body image, dieting and weight-loss medication. It is for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical or therapeutic advice. If anything raised in this episode affects you, please contact Elle directly via https://www.ellemace.com/ or seek appropriate support from a qualified healthcare or mental-health professional. Those with ears, let them hear. Always love, Ryan CONNECT WITH ELLE MACE Website: https://www.ellemace.com/ Food Freedom: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477106/food-freedom-by-mace-elle/9781785046414 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamellemace/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamellemace LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/elle-mace-76558a32 More to Life Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/more-to-life/id1664885118 CONNECT WITH ALWAYS BETTER THAN YESTERDAY Website: https://abty.co.uk/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbetterthanyesterdayuk/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abty/ Join our mailing list: https://abty.co.uk/contact Explore ABTY coaching: https://abty.co.uk/coaching Questions and reflections: podcast@abty.co.uk Chapters: 00:00 – Welcome, Elle Mace 01:25 – 17 Years of Food & Body Struggles 03:33 – Growing Up Inside Diet Culture 06:28 – When Food Anxiety Shrinks Your World 09:25 – The Positive Intention Behind Behaviour 11:28 – Breakup, Bulimia & the Turning Point 12:58 – Recovery Changed Her Whole Life 14:43 – When Control Stops Working 18:13 – Elle's Work With Food, Body & Self 19:10 – Guilt, Shame & Body Messages 21:16 – Fathers, Daughters & Feeling Worthy 24:15 – Get Curious About Your Programming 26:04 – The Scale of Disordered Eating 27:09 – GLP-1s & Modern Weight-Loss Culture 30:05 – What the System Is Missing 31:41 – What Are We Teaching Children? 34:14 – What Food Freedom Actually Feels Like 36:32 – Inside the Food Freedom Book 40:46 – Turning Pain Into Purpose 41:38 – Helping People Feel Seen 44:07 – Elle's Heartprint 46:25 – How Men Can Better Support Women 49:00 – Connect With Elle 50:31 – There Is More to Life Description: Elle Mace joins Ryan Hartley to explore Food Freedom, food anxiety, body image, disordered eating and diet culture. Drawing on 17 years of lived experience and her work in food psychology, Elle explains why healing is about more than food, how self-worth and flexibility change recovery, and what it can feel like to finally have more space to live.
