Live. Love. Eat.

In this episode I have the enormous honor of speaking with Karly Randolph Pitman, a woman who's compassion, love, power, and wisdom is nearly palpable in just a skype conversation.  Possibly the podcast that resonates the most with my own story, as well as with what I believe are the most powerful methods and insights for overcoming disordered eating. In this episode, Karly and I discuss her history with bingeing and restricting, why everyone overeats at night, how marriage can't fix your brain, and how the question why can ruin your (and nearly ruined my own) life.

Episode eight of Live. Love. Eat. has now been posted!  In it I had the enormous honor of speaking with George Bryant, an enormously kick ass soul and dear friend of mine, who also happens to be super famous and to run the website Civilized Caveman Cooking Creations, as well as the new e-Cookbook, Caveman Feast. In this episode, George and I discuss his history with eating disorders, the damaging effects of weight regulation in the military, what it means to be a man with body image issues, the lessons a recent car accident taught George, and why he no longer cares about looking hot.

This week I had the enormous honor of speaking with PfW community member Becky Bateson.  Becky is now at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, after overcoming the battle she began with anorexia at the tender age of 13. In this episode, Becky and I discuss the nine different outpatient treatment centers she has attended, the power horses have to heal, how lonesomeness can make a child anorexic, and how eating disorders can be overcome with the powers of social love and happy activities. Rebecca (Becky) Bateson is the daughter of two Lutheran minsters. She grew up in the Ohio countryside and later moved to Ohio Valley where she ended up attending Bethany College in the "Wild & Wonderful" hills of West Virginia and graduated in 2008 with her Bachelors in Commincation. She had a wonderful experience in college -- but struggled to get there. She battled with anorexia from age 13 but is happy to say she has been in healthy happy recovery for almost 8 years. Becky currently lives in Columbus Ohio where she works as a fantastic customer service rep for a great company.  Outside of work -- she enjoys being outdoors as much as possible, cooking, cycling, dancing, writing, playing the juke box, funny cat pictures, traveling and recently was able to take her first trip to Europe last Spring. With an interest in nutrition, health, and life long well being she enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition this spring. She is training to be a health coach and wants to encourage and help those people who struggle with disordered eating, body image, emotional eating, or just need to a jump start with healthy habits. She can be reached at reb.bateson@gmail.com or her webstite www.eatvibrant.com with any questions or just to say hello.

Dean's story is one of real inspiration and real results.  After 19 years of vegetarianism and struggling with his weight, Dean finally realized that his true roadblock to healthful success was his mentality.  Dean set out to be the expert on his own life and body, and to really own and to love himself, and this empowered, delightful, helpful man has been the result. In this episode we discuss the difficulty of making changes, tips for taking control of your diet and your life, why everyone and their grandmother should journal daily, and the reason Dean has bid a permanent farewell to beans. Dean Dwyer is the founder of Make Shift Happen that has a singular mission; to transform individual transformation so that everyone can shine.

 The powerful and wise mother behind  the website Paleo Parents and the book Eat Like a Dinosaur: Recipes and Guidebook for Gluten Free Kids (with her husband Matt), Stacy, was my guest.   Stacy Toth is a working mother, the only female in a family of 3 young boys. She co-wrote Eat Like a Dinosaur, a Recipe and Guidebook for Gluten-Free Kids with her husband and stay-at-home-dad, Matt, is the co-host of The Paleo View Podcast and blogs at PaleoParents.com. As a recovered bulimic, former vegetarian of 7 years and survivor of gall bladder removal and 3 cesareans - her passions and blog posts range from the emotional aspects of losing 135lbs to delicious kid-friendly recipes.  You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, iTunes and Pinterest, too. In this episode, we talk about what it feels like to be discriminated against as an obese person, how weight loss is psychologically challenging even after the weight has come off, Stacy's experience recovering from bulemia as a teenager, raising physiologically and psychologically healthy children, the impact of weight loss on love and intimacy, and why you might ever want to put photos of yourself in your underwear up on the internet (answer: empathy, courage, and inspiration.)

Jimmy Moore is a popular blogger, writer, and health advocate who publishes several podcast episodes each week and who writes a blog at his website, livinlavidalowcarb.com.  He came to a career of health advocacy from a life of obesity, weighing in at about 400 pounds.  In 2004, however, after finally making peace with some emotional demons, and finding a diet (Atkins!) that worked for him, he was able to lose 150 pounds in just one year.  A year later he began blogging and writing books about his experiences, and in the meantime he has become a truly beloved and prolific figure among many online health communities.  Jimmy has come onto the Live Love Eat podcast in order to share in a more philosophical and personal aspect of his work.  Jimmy's weight has fluctuated throughout the course of his advocacy career, and he has always been a public figure, so he has had to learn how to navigate those two worlds.  On this podcast, we delve into these issues.  To read more about Jimmy, his work, low-carb dieting, and the paleo diet, see his website at Livin La Vida Low Carb.

Having officially stayed in one place for almost a decade and a half (after many frequent relocations throughout her childhood and adolescence), Teal Hutton can say that she is truly at home in the beautiful Mid-Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. While Teal's daytime secret identity is that of senior producer for a small but feisty web development shop, her real superhero powers include independent study (of whatever strikes her fancy), self-taught journalism, print and web design, knitting, falling in love, and an as-yet-unmatched knack for memorizing song lyrics. She is equal parts accidental home chef, amateur seamstress, aspiring homesteader, student of integrative nutrition, and most importantly single mama to a quick-witted and insatiable 4-year-old boy. Consequently, in her 33rd year, she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. Teal's experience of her son's birth in 2007 — as a tremendous failure and her body's first major betrayal — colored her relationship to her body and to food for the coming years, and triggered a cascade of health challenges and emotional pitfalls. Shortly after, Teal was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and secondary amenorrhea, and she's spent the years since learning the difference between trust and control, and the direct connection between self-love and physical health. Teal can be reached at teal.hutton@gmail.com.

Juliet is currently residing in her the town of Blacksburg, VA where she went to college and has spent the last two years living there as a Research Technician for a medical diagnostics company.  This fall, she will be moving back to her home state of NJ to begin her PhD in Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University, as well as to be closer to family. Juliet's story began at the end of college, in March 2010, when her desire to lose some fat turned into an all out obsession with detail, negative self talk, and ammennorhea of unidentifiable cause (which later turned out to be non-classically presented PCOS). Eventually, she competed in 2 natural female bodybuilding competitions, bringing her obsession, binge eating, and self loathing to a new level.  In October 2011, Juliet realized her behavior was not normal and set out on a path of self discovery. Though these last 8 months have not gone without many a bump in the road, through paleo eating, forgiveness, and the desire to love the life she lives, she is finally moving on the right track. Juliet has passions for lifting heavy pieces of iron in the gym, reading fantasy books, drinking black coffee, and eating. She loves to make new friends, hear new stories, and experience life in as many ways as possible. If you’d like to contact her with questions, or even just to talk about how awesome self serve frozen yogurt is, you can email her at Joob@heyjoob.com or reach out at her blog at http://www.heyjoob.com.

This week's guest is Alexandra Covucci.  Alexandra, who also goes by Lex, has spent the last few years on an exploration of one of the strangest, most confusing and most beautiful places she’s ever traveled: herself.  She got there by way of growing up in Concord, MA, attending the University of New Hampshire, roaming around Europe and South America, and living and working in Santiago, Chile for over a year. She now resides in Cambridge, MA, where the cafés are as plentiful as the live-music, and every different kind of person roams the streets. She has been working in Sales at Education First  for almost two years, but her true passion lies in health and well-being.  In addition to working, Lex is currently studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition where she is learning a plethora of information regarding living, loving and eating. Her main focus is to eventually work with women who struggle with disordered eating and body-image, as she herself has for many years. On a more personal level, she enjoys all things active (especially biking), loves to cook, laugh, study the little nuances of people, and collect old typewriters. Her future plans include more living, more loving, more eating, and more exploring of this strange and confusing land known as herself. She also hopes to launch into Health Coaching full time in the near future in order to connect to more beautiful and amazing women around the world.  For any questions, further conversation, or just to say hello, she can be reached at lexcovucci@gmail.com.

Today's interview is with Manda Leisten, of Sioux Falls, SD. Amanda Leisten (Manda) was born and raised in Colorado but has recently embraced Sioux Falls, South Dakota as her current home. She makes a living through American Sign Language Interpreting which is just one of her many passions. She loves spending time with family and friends, enjoys a good book, feels at peace when writing, and sings almost constantly. Much to Stefani's chagrin she also is quite fond of the color pink. Loving life and living to love is what she is most driven by and she is currently working toward the serenity of self-love. Manda, also, is a compulsive overeater and a member of Overeaters Anonymous a 12-step program geared toward helping disordered eaters find serenity through self-growth and acceptance. She is engaged to be married to Ben who, too, is a disordered eater. They enjoy cooking healthful foods together and helping each other continue to love and discover new things about themselves. Their future plans currently contain nothing but bliss and happiness because Manda is working diligently on not planning too many things; just enjoying life as it comes. Manda's most recent ambition is to help the women of the world help and love themselves as they are, which is why she is a part of this kick-ass revolution.