“I Am The Tender Of My ROOTED Self.”

This week on WORDS MATTER, Deanna Ley, The Catalytic Coach, opens a new series inspired by her book ROOTED: Your 30-Day Journey Toward Whole Self-Health. At the heart of this episode is the quote that anchors the entire ROOTED journey:

“I am the Tender of my ROOTED Self.”

Deanna shares how years spent chasing external answers through diet culture led her back to a deeper truth: healing does not come from force, control, or perfection. It comes from learning how to tend to yourself with intention, honesty, and care. Through the ROOTED tree metaphor, she reframes wellness as a whole-self experience that honors mind, body, and soul together.

What Listeners Will Learn:
• Why Whole-Self Health cannot be built by focusing on the body alone
• What it means to become the Tender rather than the fixer of your wellness
• How diet culture disconnects you from your inner wisdom
• Why trusting yourself matters more than following someone else’s plan
• How tending to yourself is a daily practice, not a one-time decision

Memorable Quotes:
• “I am the Tender of my ROOTED Self”.
 • “I wasn’t broken. The system is broken.”
 • “A Tender doesn’t abandon what they’re caring for when things get hard.”
 • “What works for someone else matters less than what works for you.”
 • “Remember that one hard day erases zero growth you’ve already done.”

This episode invites you to stop outsourcing your knowing and start tending to yourself with care. It’s the beginning of a series that returns you to what you already carry within you.

Your WORDS MATTER, because YOU MATTER.

ChooseROOTED.com

❤️❤️❤️

Transcript

Well, hello, hello, hello! Happy New Year! Welcome back to another episode of WORDS MATTER.

I'm so grateful that you're here today. And if today feels a little bit different, it's because we're starting something that I've been so excited to share with you. Over the next several weeks, we're going to be diving deep into quotes from my new book, ROOTED: Your 30-Day Journey Toward Whole-Self Health.

Now, before we go any further, I want you to know something really, really important. This series – it's for you – no matter where you are on a wellness journey.

Maybe you're struggling with food and your body image right now. Maybe you've already done the work and you feel confident and healed. Or maybe you're somewhere in between. Wherever you are, there will be something here for you.

Because what we're going to do – what we're going to explore together – has zero to do with losing weight or fitting into a certain size.

It's all going to be about loving yourself enough to know that you deserve all the amazingness that this one life you've been gifted has to offer. It's about living as your truest, healthiest, most ROOTED Self – mind, body, and soul.

Now let me show you this book real quick. Nine months of my life. I'm holding it up right now. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see that. And I want to read you what's on the back cover, because it captures the heart of some of the things that we're going to be talking about.

What if you could stop chasing diets and start choosing yourself?
What if your own wisdom could become your greatest guide?
What if peace, freedom, and joy weren't someday, but today?
What if you could build a life ROOTED in what matters most to you?

For too long, we've all been sold a version of "healthy" that makes it seem like the be-all-end-all answer for every single one of us is to "just diet and exercise."

It's become about deprivation and restriction built on rules that leave you feeling like you're never enough.

ROOTED: Your 30-Day Journey Toward Whole-Self Health offers something different.

Healing.

This guided experience helps you break free from toxic diet mentality and rebuild your relationship with food, your body, and yourself from the ground up.

Over 30 days, you'll explore the three branches and the 12 limbs of Whole-Self Health – mind, body, and soul – clearing the toxic weeds of shame, guilt, and SHOULDs, while planting something real and lasting in their place.

Using the proven ROOTED System, you'll create a Purposeful Eating Plan that reflects who you are, not who diet culture says you need to be. You'll learn to build trust with yourself, tend to what's important, and return to your path whenever life pulls you away.

It'll be worth it, because you are worth it.

Choose ROOTED.
Choose Healing.
Choose YOU.

Now of course if you want to know more about this beautiful guidebook, and the companion journal, and the Interactive Course Experience that I have developed, you can find all of that on my website or go to ChooseROOTED.com.

But this entire book – all 30 days of the content, the practices, and the shifts – it really can come down to one quote. Eight words. Eight words that have the power to completely transform how you see yourself and how you approach your wellness.

“I am the Tender of my ROOTED Self.”

I want to tell you where all of this came from.

Because it didn't start from some perfect moment of clarity. It started in the mess. It started in the seasons of my life where I was trying so hard to do everything right – following all the diet programs, checking all the boxes, pushing myself consistently to be a certain size and weight – and still feeling completely disconnected from myself.

Like something fundamental was missing.

I spent years trapped in the diet culture, friends. Decades. Years and years of believing that my body was a problem that needed to be fixed. That my worth was somehow tied to what I weighed or the size jeans that I could fit into. Or whether I could follow someone else's rules without messing up.

And every single time I couldn't stick with it – which was every single time – I made it about me. About my willpower. About my discipline. About whether I was worthy at all.

Toxic.

But eventually – thankfully – I learned something that changed the entire trajectory of my life.

I wasn't broken.
The system is broken.

See, diet culture was never designed to help me heal. It was designed to keep me small and dependent and always searching for the next fix outside of myself.

The moment I stopped looking out there and started looking in here – inside of myself – my whole world shifted.

I started asking completely different questions.

Instead of what should I eat? I asked, what does my body actually need right now?

Instead of asking, how do I lose weight faster? I asked, how do I build trust with myself?

Instead of asking, what's the next diet? I said, what if I become the person who tends to my own wellness with gentleness instead of force?

And those questions, especially that last one, led me straight to this beautiful tree metaphor that's become the foundation of everything ROOTED has been built upon.

Because when you really think about a tree, it doesn't grow through force or pressure or punishment. A tree tends to its roots. It draws what it needs out of the soil. It reaches towards the sun. It weathers storms without abandoning itself.

And over time – with devotion and nourishment and patience – it becomes exactly what it was always meant to be.

ROOTED.

Now that's what Whole-Self Health looks like. It's tending to your mind, your body, and your soul as interconnected parts of one whole worthy self.

Diet culture only cares about your body. It manipulates your mind to keep you compliant. It has zero room for your soul. And that's why it's not sustainable.

It doesn't work long-term because you can't heal one part of yourself while completely ignoring the rest.

But when you tend to all three – when you approach your wellness as a whole person – you stop forcing and start flowing. You stop shrinking and start growing.

You stop looking outside of yourself for permission and begin trusting the wisdom that's been inside of you all along.

And that wisdom? I call that your PEACE GAUGE. Your internal compass. It's the part of you that knows – that really knows – what's right for you in any given moment.

What serves your body.
What honors your mind.
What soothes your soul.
What fits the season that you're walking through right now.

And learning to trust that?
That's what it means to become the Tender of your ROOTED Self.

Let me break down those eight words for you, because each part matters.

I AM.

Those two words – WOO! – they're a declaration. You're not saying I want to be or I hope to be someday. You're saying I AM. Right now. In this moment.

You are claiming your identity. You're stepping into ownership. You're anchoring yourself in the present moment and saying, THIS IS ME. This is who I'm choosing to be.

When you say I AM, you're speaking something out into existence. You're activating what's real. Because you're the one in charge. You hold the power.

Now THE TENDER?
These words… I love them so much.

Because a Tender isn't a fixer. It isn't a controller. It doesn't force or demand or expect perfection. A Tender shows up with gentleness and strength at the same time.

A Tender notices what's happening without judgment, listens to what's needed, and responds with care.

Think about someone tending a garden. They pull the weeds that choke out growth. They water the roots. They prune what needs to go and protect what needs to stay. They create the conditions for health to flourish.

But they understand that they can't force the blooming.

They show up day after day and trust the process.

Now that's what you're learning to do with yourself.

Notice what supports your growth and what undermines it. Pull the toxic thoughts that choke out your peace. Nourish your body with kindness instead of punishment. Protect your soul from the noise that drowns out your own inner wisdom.

And here's the most powerful part, friends.

A Tender doesn't abandon what they're caring for when things get hard. When the progress feels slow or when the work feels heavy, a Tender stays.

Now OF MY ROOTED SELF – this is where it all comes together.

Your ROOTED Self is the most authentic YOU. It's who you are underneath all the SHOULDs and the rules and the expectations that society or diet culture has piled on top of you.

Your ROOTED Self knows what you need. It trusts your body's signals. It respects your mind's capacity. It listens to your soul's whispers.

When you're ROOTED, you're grounded in what's real. You're connected to your deepest values. You're stable enough to weather the storms of life without getting torn out of the ground. You're drawing nourishment from what actually sustains you instead of what temporarily distracts you.

And that word MY – that matters deeply.

Because this is YOUR journey. It's YOUR body. It's YOUR wellness. It's YOUR life.

What works for someone else matters less than what works for you. What someone else says you SHOULD do matters less – way less – than what your PEACE GAUGE is telling you.

You get to decide.

So when you put it all together – “I am the Tender of my ROOTED Self” – you're declaring ownership, accepting responsibility, and stepping into your role as the person who shows up for yourself with gentleness.

With strength.
With steadiness.
With kindness.

You're saying, I matter enough to tend to. My wellness deserves my attention. My healing deserves my effort. My whole-self deserves to be cared for.

And friends, that shift?

It changes everything.

When you become the Tender of your ROOTED Self, you stop waiting for permission. You stop looking for the perfect plan. You stop believing the answer exists somewhere outside of you.

Over the coming weeks on this podcast, we're going to dive deeper into the quotes and the concepts and the practices from ROOTED. Each episode will unpack a different piece of this amazing journey. Each quote will give you something to hold on to.

Because healing takes time.
Growth takes patience.
And becoming the Tender of your ROOTED Self?

It's a practice.
A habit.
A daily choice.

And some days it'll feel easy. You'll make aligned choices that are congruent with who you are without even thinking about it. You'll trust yourself deeply.

While other days might feel really hard. You'll question the whole process. You'll want to go back to what's familiar, even when you know it no longer serves you.

Now on those days, please come back to this quote. Remember that one hard day erases zero growth you've already done. Tending isn't about perfection.

It's about presence.

That's how roots grow deep. Through regular caring attention. Through respecting what you need. And through believing in what you already know.

So as we begin this ROOTED series together, I want to ask you something.

You may want different.
You may actually need different.

But are you willing?

Are you willing to CHOOSE DIFFERENT?

And most importantly, are you willing to DO DIFFERENT?

You have permission right now to start this work. You just need to say yes.

Say yes to yourself.
Yes to this journey.
And yes to the reality that you are capable of tending to your own wellness in a way that celebrates all of who you are.

I am the Tender of my ROOTED Self.

Say it out loud. Write it down. Let it settle into your body and your mind and your soul, because this can be your reality.

It can be your power.
It can be the beginning of what comes next.

I'm so grateful to walk this path with you. I'm so grateful that you're here and you're showing up and you're believing that something different is possible today. Right now.

YOU are the Tender of your ROOTED Self.
YOU are Possible.

Friends, the words we see and read, the words we hear, and the words we say to ourselves and about ourselves – about what we're doing and how we're doing it – they all matter.

Your WORDS MATTER, because YOU MATTER.

Have a great day.