Recovery coach Alicia Melgoza explains how she developed an unhealthy relationship to exercise and eating at a difficult time in her childhood, and shares the self-compassion practices that helped her recover.

Alicia Melgoza, MSW, MA, founder and creator of Taking Healthy Back™, is a Health Nut + Fitness Junkie Recovery Coach. Through her private coaching practice, she helps both men and women break free from "clean" eating and exercise obsession (i.e. what she calls hell-thy) and put the ‘life’ back into their healthy lifestyles. Her teachings are grounded in research-based principles from multidisciplinary fields, including Health At Every Size, intuitive eating, mindfulness, and positive psychology.

Alicia is shaking things up with her mission to redefine healthy beyond flat abs, squats and veggies. She knows from personal experience that you can have the so-called 'perfect' body, exercise religiously and eat clean to a T and be very unhealthy. That's why she takes a radically unconventional approach to healthy living that isn't about having a tight ass but about living a tight-ass life! Her passion for this mission and work is driven by her conviction that we've all got much more important shit to do with our lives than obsess over calories and cellulite. Poverty, inequality and injustice are all pressing issues that'll never get solved if we're fixated on food and our physical appearance.

Alicia holds Masters degrees in Clinical Social Work and International Human Rights from the University of Denver. Her work has been featured on popular healthy living websites such as Mind Body Green and Get Healthy U. You can find Alicia on her website at aliciamelgoza.com where you can take a quiz to gauge if you're taking healthy to an unhealthy extreme. When you take the quiz, you'll be signed up to receive Alicia's free value-packed, actionable coaching emails to help you kick hell-thy in the ass and live a healthier, happier, more purpose-driven life!

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