Today, I’m talking to Kristi Koeter. Kristi is a former journalist and personal trainer, marketer, and now author, based in the Austin, Texas, area.
Two of Kristi’s three children have had anorexia nervosa, and both completed Partial Hospitalisation Programs in the U.S. Her oldest daughter, now 19, has been stable in her recovery for several years, whilst her youngest, 14 years old, is still early in her recovery.
When Kristi’s youngest daughter’s weight started dropping rapidly after she came out of treatment, Kristi knew that she needed to take more proactive action. She also ended up having to take a really hard look at herself; her own eating and body image issues. Using the Maudsley Method, and her daughter’s care team, this has really supported her daughter in transitioning in her recovery.
In Kristi’s just-released, co-authored book called Show Your Work: Successful Women Share the Bumpy Roads to Their Biggest Wins, she discusses the realization that in order to help her youngest daughter recover from her eating disorder, she had to address her own years of disordered eating and overexercise. She is also writing Almost Sated on Substack, where she is chronicling her transition to intuitive eating and healthy movement. She knows that it’s possible for parents to help their children even if they are struggling with their own eating issues, but she has felt passionate about working on herself to support this whole process.
When Kristi’s not writing, she is mountain biking, hiking, or spending time with my kids and new husband.
So Kristi and her daughters are on an incredible journey. Kristi herself has had to do some extraordinarily difficult and challenging work in facing her own demons in this process, which she is doing wholeheartedly. I absolutely commend Kristi for her vulnerability and openness in talking about all of this.
In the episode today, Kristi talks about: -
