Meet Amy Clover | Anti-diet culture health and movement coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Clover and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Authenticity and embracing the fact that I will ruffle feathers. Diet culture permeates the health and wellness world so being an anti-diet culture health and movement coach invites some comments and pushback! I’ve realized over the years that the more ME I am, the more relatable I am. Trying to be the “perfect” coach or social media icon just doesn’t translate into someone who can help the people I want to help. People want help from someone who’s real and owns their opinions and that’s what I strive to be.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I do health coaching work outside of diet culture work now because I know what it was like to be steeped in it. I started my business as a personal trainer at an elite gym in Los Angeles. I was hardcore dieting and secretly struggling with an eating disorder, but I kept getting attention and jobs from the way my body looked, so I kept going.

It took me years to realize how much harm I was doing to my body and how unsustainable and dangerous it was to continue restricting and punishing my body into a shape others wanted me to fit into. Through getting help and devoting myself to recovery, I started learning about diet culture, Intuitive Eating and Health At Every Size, and it opened up my entire world. I became determined to stop harming people by promoting restriction and weight loss, and flipped my entire messaging of my business on its head. It was rough and tumble for a while, but now it’s what I live and breathe. My business has always been based on me and who I presented to the world; now that person I present is fully me.

Through recovery, I learned a lot about my business. I used to push so hard to get validation from others about the work I was doing. It didn’t matter if I liked it; what mattered was what others thought. There will always be an element of that in anyone’s work (it’s a human trait), but living to please was draining my soul out of my business and myself. When I got up the courage to start talking about what was real for me and the controversial sides of things, I did lose a lot of subscribers and followers, but I gained avid ones in return. The audience and clientele I’m cultivating are MY people. They inspire me and fulfill me in a way that the old work I used to do never did. Through honoring my truth and giving up the need to be like the other wellness influencers around me, I uncovered a wealth of purpose and vibrancy I hadn’t felt in a long time.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We’d start with breakfast and coffee at Communal Coffee in North Park, then head to James Coffee for follow-up coffees (because jet lag) before we headed to Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach for some time on the sand. For lunch, we’d head over to GoodOnYa Organic Eatery in Encinitas, then grab a donut for the road at Broad Street Dough Company. The next stop would be some shopping at One Paseo in Del Mar where you can find distinctly San Diego shops such as Pigment and Shop Good. For dinner, we’d hit up Parakeet Cafe right there, then head home for some wine on the patio.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I’m a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor because becoming an Intuitive Eater helped me heal from my eating disorder. Now, I teach others how to implement it into their lives so they can feel this food freedom, too.

Website: https://StrongInsideOut.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stronginsideout/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StrongInsideOut

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@stronginsideout

Image Credits
Julie DeAndrade