Plus, I typically reserve that type of coverage for my email newsletter because if I wrote about everything I wanted to cover here on the blog, I would basically be putting out 25 posts a day. Impossible. But if there is a person or source of information I feel like you guys should really know about, then I will cast aside my regular topics and shout about it from the rooftops. Today is one of those days.

Today I’m going to tell you about the fab MADDY MOON. You may recognize her from when she was our TBV Babe of the Week back in April, or from when I appeared on her podcast the first time, or from when we were on ABC News together, or from her own super inspirational Instagram account, website or podcast!

She has interviewed some of my absolute favorites in the wellness and intuitive eating spaces including my girls Andie Mitchell, Alex Jamieson & Isabel Foxen Duke — to name a few!

And before I go on and on and on (because I fully intend on doing that), I want to link you straight to our brand new podcast episode together, all about Breaking Vegan, our orthorexia journeys, how they parallel (spoiler alert: so many ways!!!), our relationship toward food now, and why we both are simply too extreme to label our diets ever again… Even though we are both tempted to far too often!

Behind the scenes…

Beyond the podcast episode, I want to tell you a little bit about why Maddy is amazing. She and I have yet to even meet in person, but from the very beginning she has been nothing but extremely supportive of my journey. Not only does she show support publicly, which is AWESOME, especially with her recent review on my Amazon book page that stands up to the many hundreds of mean comments I have gotten from angry people who have not read my book; but she also shows support to me privately. She asks if I am doing okay, she reminds me that she always has my back, she sends sweet texts, and has offered many times for me to give her a call whenever I am having a rough time.

She is what I call a TRUE BLUE friend, and if there is one thing in this universe that I like to collect… It’s those types of unconditional, deeply rooted friendships.

Not to mention, my schedule has been wacky this season and I had to reschedule with Maddy twice and sort of left her hanging on the Internet waiting for me to get on to record with her… And she could not have been more gracious and understanding. So, um, can there be more people in the world as kind and good-hearted as her?

I want you to listen to the podcast so I am not going to keep rambling on, but I will leave you with this beautiful section from one of Maddy’s recent blog posts, because it resonated with me SO MUCH. I think it will resonate with any of you who have been in a restrictive or orthorexic cycle like she and I both have:

An excerpt from Maddy’s post: What I Learned From My Recent Binge

One of the reasons why I was so hesitant to recover from orthorexia a few years ago was because, plain and simple, I was good at it.

I was good at restricting. I was good at making myself small. I was excellent at telling people how to diet and lose weight.

When I went out to eat with friends more times than not people would say to me, “Don’t judge me but I’m going to order a burger!”

^ The whole post in itself is extremely well-written, but that part more than anything hit really close to home for me. I too was very good at restricting my food intake. I loved my food rules. I thrived off of the rules. My friends apologized to me for eating non-vegan food around me… And while I never wanted anyone else to feel uncomfortable for what they chose to eat, I was “that girl.” The health-obsessed, plant-based, healthy blogging, super fit, juice cleansing friend. That was me.

On that note, I’ll let you listen to our podcast. Kick back, enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and dive on in, because it’s 56 minutes of great conversation.

BTW, join me in using my latest hashtag #BackInBalance to get some hype going for living the balanced life around the holidays. Fun stuff to come with the hashtag as the season goes on… So get excited and join in!