Sarah Menlove - Body Image and Intuitive Eating Coach

Sarah Menlove

Sarah Menlove is a Body Image and Intuitive Eating Coach helping women in their transition out of competitive sport and those who are recovering from hypothalamic amenorrhea to develop a healthy relationship with food and their bodies so they can live their best lives.

Sarah is passionate about seeing women step fully into their truth and share their gifts with the world while living with freedom and abundance. The cycle of body shame, self judgement and guilt that is reinforced by diet culture and weight and size based ideals keeps women playing small, controlling, restricting, comparing and criticizing. The way to heal this is through making peace with food, radical self acceptance, self compassion and cultivating self love. From this place comes choice, opening to limitless possibility, trusting of ones body, re-connection to our higher selves and an openness to receive. Through healing our relationship with our own bodies we change the story for future generations.

Sarah’s work is centered around the principles of intuitive eating and health at every size, in combination with the transformational coaching method (TCM) to create new neural pathways in the brain that support more positive beliefs about food, bodies and oneself.

Sarah’s journey into health coaching began when she sustained a stress fracture and was forced away from her main passion at the time of competitive triathlon. She hadn’t had a regular period in a number of years and had a very restrictive, ‘health’ focused diet. She realized during this time of transition how much her worth, value and identity was attached to her abilities as an athlete and her body looking a certain way. Through her own journey out of competitive sport and the associated struggles with body image and regaining her menstrual cycle, she began her own healing process.

I’m so excited for you to connect with Sarah, check out her work, and follow along as she continues to share  tools and insights that support others in developing a more loving and joyful relationship with food, movement and their body

I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself, what you do, and what you're working on.

Hi, my name is Sarah Menlove. I’m a country girl from rural New Zealand. I am a transformational coach, workshop presenter and energy worker. As a coach I help women overcome restrictive eating, over exercise and body dissatisfaction. I combine principles of intuitive eating, health at every size, mindfulness, self-compassion and energy healing to support women to find freedom in their bodies, claim back their worth from their image and release the cycle of guilt, shame and punishment, so they can live their most bold, authentic, epic lives.  

How did you get started?

I got started in coaching when I was recovering from a stress fracture and had stepped away from my passion at the time, triathlon. I was at a loss of what to do and stumbled across a health coaching course that took my interest, this lead me down my own path of body image healing and delving deeper into different healing modalities in my own life. I have been following the nudges ever since.

What inspired the work that you're doing?

The work I am doing with women now was inspired by this time in my life where I was so lost within myself, struggling with body image and attempting to regain my period after years of punishing my body. As a personal trainer and triathlete at that time, my body had literally broken down and I was forced to re-evaluate what it meant to be healthy in a world and profession that glorifies physical health and equates that to being lean and eating “clean”. This led me to develop a very disordered relationship with food and my body and lose my period for over 4 years. I know the pain of seeing your body change (gain weight) when you have attached your whole identity and sense of self worth to being a certain size and fitness level. I also know the freedom and joy that lies on the other side of overcoming control, restriction, and body shame. I believe that all women deserve to feel this way!

What is your biggest passion? Do you feel like you're living your passion and purpose?

My biggest passion is seeing and supporting others to come back to their truth and live from a place of love rather than fear. I am living this and am so grateful for the path and challenges life has presented to bring me to the place I am in now. I know this will continue to evolve as I do and I have dreams to reach more and more people.

What is your joy blueprint? What lights you up, brings you joy, and makes you feel the most alive?

It lights me up to see others stepping into their truth and shining their light. It lights me up to celebrate my client’s successes with them and see them overcome obstacles that they never thought they would. I feel like I am continually adding to the things that bring me joy, I used to seek joy outside of myself and more and more I am connecting to the joy that lives within me and finding practices that allow this joy to move through me. Currently that looks like dancing, whether that be an ecstatic dance class, dancing on the beach, or at a festival with friends. Hugs and time spent with people I love, sharing a meal, watching a sunrise, or going exploring. 

I feel most alive when I am fully present in my body, losing myself in a moment, traveling the world, or visiting a new local nature spot, jumping into an icy body of water, watching the sun come up from the top of the mountain. Anything that reminds me of the beauty and magic of this world.

How do you live intentionally? Are there tools/resources/practices that you rely on to help you stay mindful and grounded?

My current practices include having a morning routine that sets my day up with intention and positive energy. This looks like a short yoga flow, meditation, setting my intention for the day, feeling into gratitude/the heart and asking for divine guidance for my day ahead. I also walk barefoot on the earth almost everyday which I find really helps me ground and connect. If I feel like I need it, I do some conscious breaths connecting to the earth and the heavens. I have other little energy practices I pull out when it feels right, such as clearing with palo santos, reiki, shower mediation and journaling. For me it’s been about gathering lots of different tools and allowing myself the freedom to connect with the ones that feel most aligned at the time. I would have to say conscious breathing is the quickest and easiest way to come back to myself and become mindful and grounded if I am feeling “out of sorts”. 

I am human haha so I don’t always live intentionally, or sometimes find myself out of alignment. I’m continuing to practice self-compassion and letting go of the judgement around not having it all figured out!

What would your younger self think about what you're doing now?

My younger self would probably think I was a “crazy hippie” haha but she would also be super proud of me. I think as my journey has evolved I have become more and more like my younger childlike self, free from the conditions that society paces on us about how we “should” look and be and all of the self-judgement that goes along with that. Just 5 years ago I would never have imagined I would be doing what I’m doing now, let alone feeling so at peace within my body.

Do you have a go-to mantra or affirmation?

This changes for me, right now “I am divinely guided”.

What is your biggest dream?

My biggest dream is to help thousands of people around the world come home to themselves and connect with their inner light. I believe when we reclaim our worth from our bodies, we open up the space to reconnect with who we truly are and what we have to offer the world, the more of us that are able to do this, the better the world will be. I envision a world where we are all living in alignment with our highest truth, rather than the conditionings and limitations that others have placed on us. Personally, I also dream of love, of creating an epic community, of travel, of abundance and of course a life filled with JOY.

To learn more Sarah and her work visit her website http://sarahmenlovehealthcoaching.com/ and on Instagram @sarahmenlove.health and you can find her private Facebook community here

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