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 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. Her passion for this mission and work is driven by her conviction that we've all got much more important stuff 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. Find Alicia on her website at aliciamelgoza.com.

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