Podcasts about anti diet

Welcome to today's ICYMI, where we kick off the week with a quick game-changing tip from one of our guests that you might have missed.Flu season is upon us, so we're throwing it back to this helpful advice from Abbey Sharp on boosting your metabolism, and restoring your gut health after dysbiosis from antibiotics. Did you know 70% of our immune system is housed in our gut? We cover the surprising link between your gut microbiome and your immune system, mental health, skin, hormones, and more, and why fibre is the unsung hero of gut health and immunity.Abbey is a Registered Dietitian (RD), a cookbook author, a TV nutrition expert, a YouTuber, host of the podcast Bite Back, and the founder of Abbey's Kitchen. She dismantles diet culture with science and sass, and her core philosophy is that a pleasurable relationship with food, your body and your self is the fundamental secret to good health.Listen to our full episode with Abbey. Tune in every Monday for an expert dose of life advice in under 10 minutes.Follow Abbey:Abbey's KitchenAbbey's Podcast: Bite BackOn IG: @abbeyskitchen/ Sign up for our monthly adulting newsletter:teachmehowtoadult.ca/newsletter Follow us on the ‘gram:@teachmehowtoadultmedia@gillian.bernerFollow on TikTok: @teachmehowtoadultSubscribe on YouTube

Hiii! I'm back to yelling about things on the internet! Today we're discussing the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, size inclusivity, and internet trends that pop up around this time of year. I'm also sharing some behind the scenes deets on the Amazon Creator Summit, and why I'm still shopping Amazon in the year 2025. I also chat about my personal history with Noom, one of the most sinister diet brands out there, and their recent AD that got my fired up! For more on Noom's problematic history take a listen to these episodes: Sounds Like Diet Culture PodcastWhat The Actual Fork? Podcast

In 2013, after 16 years of hospital and community work, Registered Dietician and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, Jessica Setnick, closed her private practice to fulfill her mission of educating primary care professionals about eating disorders, dysfunctional eating behavior, and how to best promote recovery and prevention. In addition to speaking and authoring numerous publications, Jessica also mentors the next generation of eating disorder professionals through case consultation and supervision.In my conversation with Jessica, she discusses how shame and fear-based messages in the health care field often make people's eating issues worse, as well as the normalization and prevalence of disordered eating behaviors in American society. Jessica also addresses recent food trends like orthorexia and clean eating and when trying to eat healthily becomes unhealthy.In our conversation and in her work, such as in her Heal Your Inner Eater Workbook and workshop, Jessica helps all of us take a step back and evaluate what our food behaviors and beliefs are and if they bring us life.These topics and Jessica's work are important for all of us who have been exposed to the inundation of diet and wellness culture; may this conversation help you find greater wholeness in your relationship with food and your body. Link to handout on Orthorexia: Positive vs. Pathological NutritionBuy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

After 25 years in the fitness and health industry, I can confidently say — diets don't work. They create confusion, guilt, and a scarcity mindset that disconnects us from our body's natural wisdom. In this episode, I share why I'm anti-diet — not because I'm against health or structure — but because I'm against anything that keeps us trapped in shame, fear, and food obsession.You'll learn how diet culture conditions us to distrust our own bodies, how it fuels emotional eating and binge cycles, and how true transformation starts when we stop trying to fix ourselves and start reconnecting to what our body actually needs.Listen to the full episode now and start releasing the diet mindset for good.Topics Covered:Why diets fail in the long run — even when they “work” at firstHow the scarcity mindset created by dieting leads to binge eatingThe real reason you've lost touch with your hunger and fullness signalsHow to rebuild body trust and independence from food rulesWhy does your body count nutrients, not caloriesHow to become the person who naturally embodies health and freedomListen to more episodes at www.makepeacewithfood.com/podcast or subscribe to me on Spotify, Podcast, and YouTube so you never miss an episode!Join my Facebook Community here: www.myfoodfreedomlifestyle.comWork with me: www.sherryshaban.com/transformWant to go deeper? Visit www.makepeacewithfood.com to learn more!Share your biggest takeaway and tag me on social media: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn

You're listening to Burnt Toast! I'm Virginia Sole-Smith. Today, my conversation is with Lisa Sibbett, PhD. Lisa writes The Auntie Bulletin, a weekly newsletter about kinship, chosen family and community care. As a long time Auntie herself, Lisa often focuses on the experiences of people without children who are nevertheless, in her words, "cultivating childful lives." We've been talking a whole bunch about community on Burnt Toast lately, and Lisa reached out to have a conversation about the systems that get in the way of our community building efforts—specifically our culture's systemic isolation of the nuclear family. This is one of those conversations that isn't "classic Burnt Toast." But we're here to do fat liberation work—and so how we think about community matters here, because community is fundamental to any kind of advocacy work. Plus it brings us joy! And joy matters too. I super appreciate this conversation with Lisa, and I know you will too.Join our community! Today's episode is free! But don't forget, if you were a Substack subscriber, you have until October 28 to claim your free access to our paid content. Check your email for your special gift link! Episode 216 TranscriptLisaSo my newsletter is about building kinship and community care. I live in cohousing, and I've been an auntie for many years to lots of different kids. I've always been really involved in the lives of other people's children. And people who have lives like mine, we often don't really have even language for describing what our experience is like. It's sort of illegible to other people. Like, what's your role? Why are you here?And all of this has really blossomed into work that's definitely about loving and supporting families and other people's children, but I also write about elder care and building relationships with elders and building community and cohousing. And I have a chronic illness, so I sometimes write about balancing self-care and community care. VirginiaI have been an instant convert to your work, because a lot of what you write really challenges me in really useful ways. You have really made me reckon with how much I have been siloed in the structure of my life. It's funny because I actually grew up with a kind of accidental–it wasn't quite cohousing. We had two separate houses. But I was the child of a very amicable divorce, and my four parents co-parented pretty fluidly. So I grew up with adults who were not my biological parents playing really important roles in my life. And I have gotten to the point where I'm realizing I want a version of that for my kids. And that maybe that is just a better model. So it's fascinating to consider what that can look like when not everybody has those very specific circumstances. LisaIt's a dreamy setup, actually, to have amicably divorced parents and extra parents.VirginiaI'm super proud of all of my parents for making it work. My sister —who is my half sister from my dad's second marriage—has a baby now. And my mom made the first birthday cake for them. There are a lot of beautiful things about blended families. When they work, they're really amazing. And it always felt like we were doing something kind of weird, and other people didn't quite understand our family. So I also relate to that piece of it. Because when you say "cohousing community," I think a lot of folks don't really know what that term means. What does it look like, and how does it manifest in practice? What is daily life like in a cohousing community? LisaThere are different synonyms or near neighbor terms for cohousing. Another one is "intentional community." Back in the day, we might think about it as kind of a commune, although in the commune structure, people tended to actually pool their finances. I would say that cohousing is a much more kind of hybrid model between having your own space and being up in each other's spaces and sharing all of the resources. Join the Burnt Toast community! So I really think of cohousing as coming frpm where so many dreamy social policies come from: Scandinavia. In Denmark and I think other countries in Northern Europe there is a lot of intentional urban planning around building shared, communal living spaces where there are things like community kitchens and shared outdoor space for lots of different residences. So that's kind of the model that cohousing in the US tends to come from. And sometimes it's people living together in a house. Sometimes it's houses clustered together, or a shared apartment building. It can look a lot of different ways. The shared attribute is that you're attempting to live in a more communal way and sharing a lot of your familial resources. In my cohousing community, there are just three households. It's really, really small. We really lucked into it. My partner and I were displaced due to growth in our city, and needed to find a new place to live. And we had been talking with some friends for years about hoping to move into cohousing with them. But it's very hard to actually make happen. It takes a lot of luck, especially in urban environments, but I think probably anywhere in the United States, because our policies and infrastructure are really not set up for it. So we were thinking about doing cohousing with our friends. They were going to build a backyard cottage. We were thinking about moving into the backyard cottage, but it was feeling a little bit too crowded. And then my partner was like, "Well, you know, the house next door is for sale." So it was really fortuitous, because the housing market was blowing up. Houses were being sold really, really fast, but there were some specific conditions around this particular house that made it possible for us to buy it. So we ended up buying a house next door to our friends. And then they also have a basement apartment and a backyard cottage. So there are people living in the basement apartment, and then, actually, the backyard cottage is an Airbnb right now, but it could potentially be expanded. So we have three households. One household has kids, two households don't, and our backyard is completely merged. We eat meals together four nights a week or five nights a week. Typically, we take turns cooking for each other, and have these big communal meals, and which is just such a delight. And if your car breaks down, there's always a car to borrow. We share all our garden tools, and we have sheds that we share. There are a lot of collective resources, and availability for rides to the airport ,and that kind of thing. VirginiaThere are just so many practical applications! LisaIt's really delightful. Prior to moving into cohousing, we never hosted people at all. I was very averse to the idea of living in shared space. I was really worried about that. But because we have our own spaces and we have communal spaces, it sort of works for different people's energies. And I certainly have become much more flexible and comfortable with having lots of people around. I'm no longer afraid of cooking for 12 people, you know? So it just makes it a lot easier to have a life where you can go in and out of your introversion phases and your social phases.VirginiaI'm sure because you're around each other all the time, there's not the same sense of "putting on your outgoing personality." Like for introverts, when we socialize, there's a bit of a putting on that persona.LisaTotally. It's much more like family. We're kind of hanging around in our pajamas, and nobody's cleaning their houses. VirginiaYou have that comfort level, which is hard to replicate. It's hard even for people who are good friends, but haven't sort of intentionally said, "We want this in our relationship. "There are all those pressures that kick in to have your house look a certain way. This is something I've been writing about —how the hosting perfectionism expectations are really high. Messy House Hosting! LisaAbsolutely, yeah. And it's just such an impairment for us to have to live that way.VirginiaFor me, it took getting divorced to reckon with wanting to make some changes. I mean, in a lot of ways, it was just necessary. There were no longer two adults in my household. The moving parts of my life were just more. I suddenly realized I needed support. But it was so hard to get over those initial hurdles. Almost every other friend I've had who's gotten divorced since says the same thing. Like, wait, I'm going to ask people for a ride for my child? It's this huge stumbling block when, actually, that should have been how we're all parenting and living. But it really shows how much marriage really isolates us. Or, a lot of marriages really isolate us. Our beliefs about the nuclear family really isolate us and condition us to feel like we have to handle it all by ourselves. So I would love to hear your thoughts on where does that come from? Why do we internalize that so much? LisaVirginia, you've been cultivating this wonderful metaphor about the various things that are diets. VirginiaMy life's work is to tell everybody, "everything is a diet."LisaEverything's a diet! And I feel like it's such a powerful metaphor, and I think it really, really applies here. The nuclear family is such a diet. You have done, I think, the Lord's work over the last couple of years, helping us conceptualize that metaphor around what does it mean to say something is a diet? And the way that I'm thinking of the Virginia Sole-Smith Model of Diet Culture is that there's an oppressive and compulsory ideal that we're all supposed to live up to. If we're not living up to it, then we're doing it wrong, and we need to be working harder. And there's this rewarding of restriction, which, of course, then increases demands for consumer goods and forces us to buy things. Then, of course, it also doesn't actually work, right? And all of that is coming out of a culture of capitalism and individualism that wants us to solve our problems by buying stuff. VirginiaI mean, I say all the time, Amazon Prime was my co-parent.LisaI think the nuclear family is just part of that whole system of individualism and consumerism that we're supposed to be living in. It really benefits the free market for us all to be isolated in these little nuclear families, not pulling on shared resources, so we all have to buy our own resources and not being able to rely on community care, so we have to pay for all of the care that we get in life. And that is gross. That's bad. We don't like that. And you also have written, which I really appreciate, that it's a very logical survival strategy to adhere to these ideals, especially the farther away you are from the social ideal. If you're marginalized in any way, the more trying to adhere to these ideals gives us cover.To me, that all just maps onto the nuclear family without any gaps. Going back to your specific question about why is it so hard to not feel like in an imposition when you're asking for help: We're just deeply, deeply, deeply conditioned to be self reliant within the unit of the family and not ask for help. Both you and I have interviewed the wonderful Jessica Slice in the last few months, and she has really helped me.Jessica wrote Unfit Parent. She's a disabled mom, and she has really helped me think about how interdependence and asking for help is actually really stigmatized in our culture, and the kind of logical extension of that for disabled parents is that they get labeled unfit and their kids get taken away. But there's a whole spectrum there of asking for help as a weakness, as being a loser, as being really deeply wrong, and we should never do it. And we're just, like, deeply conditioned in that way. VirginiaSpeaking of community care: My 12-year-old was supposed to babysit for my friend's daughter this afternoon, she has like a standing Tuesday gig. And my younger child was going to go along with her, to hang out, because she's friends with the younger kiddo. I was going pick them up later. But then we heard this morning that this little friend has head lice. And that did make the community care fall apart! LisaOh no. It's time to isolate!  VirginiaWhile I want us all to be together....LisaThere can be too much togetherness. You don't want to shave your head.VirginiaThat said, though: It was a great example of community care, because that mom and I are texting with our other mom friends, talking about which lice lady you want to book to come deal with that, and figuring out who needs to get their head checked. So it was still a pooling of resources and support, just not quite the way we envisioned anyway. LisaIt always unfolds in different ways than we expect.VirginiaBut what you're saying about the deeply held belief that we have to do it all, that we're inconveniencing other people by having needs: That myth completely disguises the fact that actually, when you ask for help, you build your bonds with other people, right? It actually is a way of being more connected to people. People like to be asked for help, even if they can't do it all the time. They want to feel useful and valuable and and you can offer an exchange. This sounds so silly, but in the beginning I was very aware, like, if I asked someone for a ride or a play date, like, how soon could I reciprocate to make sure that I was holding up my end of the bargain? And you do slowly start to drift away from needing that. It's like, oh no, that's the capitalism again, right? That's making it all very transactional, but it's hard to let go of that mindset. LisaYeah, and it just takes practice. I mean, I think that your example is so nice that just over time, you've kind of loosened up around it. It's almost like exposure therapy in asking for help. It doesn't have to be this transactional transaction.VirginiaAnd I think you start to realize, the ways you can offer help that will work for you, because that's another thing, right? Like, we have to manage our own bandwidth. You wrote recently that sometimes people who aren't in the habit of doing this are afraid that now I'll have to say yes to everything, or this is going to be this total overhaul of my life. And  No. You can say no, because you know you say yes often enough. So talk about that a little bit.Community building for introverts!LisaAbsolutely. I come at this from a perspective of living with chronic illness and disability where I really need to ration my energy. I've only been diagnosed in the last few years, and prior to that I just thought that I was lazy and weak, and I had a lot of really negative stories about my lack of capacity, and I'm still unlearning those. But over the past few years, I've been really experimenting with just recognizing what I am capable of giving and also recognizing that resting is a necessary part of the process of being able to give. If I don't rest, I can't give. And so actually, I'm doing something responsible and good for my community when I rest. You know, whatever that resting looks like for me or for other people, and it can look a lot of different ways. Some people rest by climbing rocks. I am certainly not one of those people, but...VirginiaThat is not my idea of relaxation. LisaBut, whatever, it takes all kinds, right? And I think that the systems of community care are so much more sustainable the more that we are showing up as our authentic selves. VirginiaYou talked about how you schedule rest for yourself. I'd love to hear more about that. LisaThat was an idea that I got from a really, really, really good therapist, by far the best therapist I've ever had, who herself lives with chronic illness and chronic pain. She initially suggested to me that whenever I travel--I have a hard time with travel--that, like, if I travel for three days, I need to book three days of rest. If I travel for two weeks, I need to book two weeks of rest. That's a radical proposition to me, and one that I still am like, yeah, I don't know if I can quite make that happen. But it did inspire me to think about what would work for me. And the reality of my life for many, many years, is that on a cycle of one to two weeks, I have at least one day where I just collapse and am incapable of doing anything. I can't get out of bed. So this conversation with my therapist inspired me to go, you know, maybe I should just calendar a day of rest every week. Instead of having an uncontrolled crash, I can have a controlled crash, and then I'm making the decision ahead of time that I'm going to rest, rather than having to emergently rest when other people are relying on me for something, right? It just actually makes me more reliable to rest on a calendar.VirginiaAnd it honors that need. You're not pretending that's not going to happen or hoping you can skip by without it. You're like, no, this is a real need. This is going to enable me to do the other things I want to do. So let's just embrace that and make sure that's planned for. It's really, really smart.LisaWell, and you know, I'll say that not having kids makes it much easier, of course. But I hope that there are ways that parents can schedule in little pieces of rest, even, of course, it's probably not like an entire Saturday. But, the more that families lean into aunties and community care, the more that that space can be carved out. VirginiaSo let's talk about the auntie piece. Is it just something, like, because these friends live next door and they had kids, you found yourself playing that role? How do you cultivate being an auntie? LisaThat's a great question. For me it was kind of both always going to happen and a conscious choice. I grew up in a big family. I'm one of six kids. I spent a lot of time babysitting as a kid for both my siblings and all the kids in my town, and some of my siblings are a lot older than me, so I became an aunt in my teens, and so I've always had kids in my life. Really, I can't think of a time when I didn't have little ones around, which I think is a real benefit, not a lot of people have that kind of life. And I was raised by early childhood educators. My mom is a teacher. My grandma was a preschool teacher. My other grandma is a teacher. There are a lot of teachers in my family, and a lot of them worked with little kids, so there are a lot of resources available to me.But then I also did have to make some conscious choices. I think that one of the early things that happened for me was one of my best friends asked me to be her child's godmother, and that kid is now 17. I know, she's a teenager, oh my god. So that relationship in my 20s started to condition me to think: How do I really show up for a family? How do I really show up for a child that's not my own child? And then when we moved into cohousing, which was in 2019 right before the pandemic started. We knew that we would be involving ourselves more in the life of a family. More on Lisa's childful lifeAt that time, my partner and I were hoping to have kids, and I ended up losing a lot of pregnancies. We decided to not become parents, but so we were initially envisioning sort of raising our kids together, right? And then when my partner and I decided not to have kids, one of the things that we sort of decided to pivot toward is like, well, we're going to really invest in these kids who live in our community, which we already were, because the pandemic hit and we were a bubble. So many people know the story. All the adults are working full time. There's no childcare. There are little kids. So it was really all hands on deck during that time, and it really pushed our community into a structure of lots and lots of interdependence around childcare and I spent a lot of time with these kids when they were really little, and that really cemented some bonds and forced us to make some very conscious decisions about how we want to be involved in each other's lives. To the point that once you get very involved in the lives of kids, you can't exit. Like, even if you wanted to. And so that changes your whole life trajectory. Moving to Mexico is off the table for me and my partner until these kids are at least out of the house, and that's many years down the road, right? It would be harmful for us to separate from these kids at this point. So, there are conscious decisions and just sort of happenstance. And I think for anybody who's interested in becoming an auntie or recruiting an auntie: Every situation is kind of different. But the piece about making conscious decisions is really important and requires sometimes scary conversations where we have to put ourselves out there and be vulnerable and take risks to let our loved ones know that we would like to form these kind of relationships. VirginiaAs someone on the side with the kids, my fear would be that I'm asking this huge favor, and like, oh my gosh, what an imposition. Because kids are chaos and these friends have a lovely, child-free life--I love my children, standard disclaimer. LisaKids are total chaos.VirginiaKids are always in whatever vortex of feelings and needs that that particular age and stage requires and asking someone to show up for that is, it's big. It's big.LisaWell, I definitely can't speak for all childless people, definitely not. But there are a lot of aunties who read The Auntie Bulletin, several thousand people who read The Auntie Bulletin, and a lot of shared values there in our community. Something that I think is a common feature among people who are aunties, or who want to be aunties, is: We really recognize how much we benefit from being in relationship with families. There are a lot of people, myself included, who were not able to have children and really want to have a child-ful life. We would feel a loss if we didn't have kids in our lives. And so this was something that I was reckoning with during the pandemic, when my partner and I were providing really a lot of childcare for another family. People would ask me: Do you feel like you're getting taken advantage of? What are you getting in return? What I realized during that time was, I'm getting paid back tenfold, because I get to have these kids in my life for the rest of my life, but I don't have to do the hard stuff. And that's really important. Parenting, I don't have to tell you, is very hard. As a person with chronic illness and disability at this point, I'm very glad that I don't have kids, because I don't think actually that I have the stamina. It's not about capacity for love, it's just about straight up physical energy. And so I'm able to have the benefits as an auntie of being parent-adjacent, without the cost. So I'm the winner in that transaction. And I think a lot of aunties think that way.VirginiaWell, that's really encouraging to hear. And I think, too, what you're talking about is just having really good communication, so people can say what they can do and also have their boundaries honored when they have to set a limit. That's key to any good relationship, so it would apply here too. Subscribe to Burnt Toast! LisaYeah, totally.VirginiaThinking about other barriers that come up. I've been reading, and I know you're a fan too, of Katherine Goldstein, and she's been writing such interesting critiques right now of how youth sports culture really derails families' abilities to participate in community. That's a whole fairly explosive topic, because people are really attached to their sports. So, I'll save the specifics of that for some time I have Katherine on to discuss this. Are youth sports a diet? Yes, absolutely. And we are not a sports family, but when she wrote about it, I immediately recognized what she meant, because every fall I noticed that my kids' friends become much less available for play dates because it's soccer season. And it's like, waiting for when soccer practice will be over, so that so-and-so might come over. Suddenly, even as a non-sports family, I feel like I'm loosely revolving around these schedules. And to bring it back to your work: That is one aspect of parenting culture that is really feeding into this isolation problem and this lack of community problem. This way that we've decided parenting has to be so intensive and performative around sports makes people actually less available to their communities. So this is a long way of asking my question: Do you think what we're really talking about here is a problem with the institution of marriage or the institution of parenting, or is it a bit of both?LisaThat's so interesting. I do think that youth sports is, like, by far, the kind of biggest engine of this. But there also are families that are, like, deep, deep, deep into youth performing arts that would have the same kind of function.Virginia Dance is another big one. Competitions taking up every weekend.LisaOr youth orchestra, sometimes those can be incredibly consuming and also incredibly expensive. So going with the grain of the parents that are really hyper investing in their kids activities: They will find community in those places often, right? It's a sort of substitute community for the length of the season, or whatever. And then my question is: What's the culture within those spaces? Is it like, hyper competitive? Is it about getting to the national championship? Is there a sense of community? Is there a sense of supporting kids around resilience when things don't go the way that they want them to? The cultures within these spaces matter. And I think it just ties back to the way that the nuclear family is a diet. Because we are so deeply incentivized to be fearful in our culture and to treat our problems with money, goods, services, activities. And the fear, I think, for a lot of parents, is that their kids are going to not have a good and happy life. So then there's what Annette Lareau, an educational researcher, calls concerted cultivation, particularly among more bourgeois middle class families of trying to schedule kids to the hilt, to make sure that they get every opportunity in life, and they can therefore succeed through every hurdle, and never have any adversity. Or that the adversity that they have is character building adversity in some way. And so I think that the hyper-involvement in kids activities does come from fear that's motivated by capitalism. And is that an issue of parenting culture or marriage culture or capitalist culture or gender culture?VirginiaAll of it. Yes. I mean, one thing I think about, too, is how these activities create their own community. But it's a very homogenous community. The child-free folks aren't there, because it's only soccer families or dance families or whatever. And you're only going to get families who can afford to do the activity. So it's a self-selecting group. This is not to say I'm doing a great job cultivating a more diverse community for my kids. I live in a white majority town. This is hard for all of us. We're not saying you all have to quit your sports! But if that's your primary community, that is going to narrow things in a in a way that's worth reflecting on. To bring this a little more fully into the Burnt Toast space, where we talk about diet as metaphor, but also diets specifically: One question I am asked a lot from the aunties in the Burnt Toast community, is, "How do I show up for the kids in my life that are not my own, I don't get to make the parenting calls, but for whom I still want to model anti-diet values?" Maybe there's stuff the parents are doing with food that's sending a weird message, or dieting in the home, that kind of thing. LisaWell, my sense is for myself—and I try to preach this gospel at The Auntie Bulletin— is that there are a lot of these moments for non-parents who are really deeply invested in the lives of kids, where it's not our call. And it's just a tricky terrain for aunties or any kind of allo-parental adults who are involved in the lives of kids who aren't their own kids. I'm really fortunate that most of my friends are pretty on board with an anti-diet philosophy. The people who are close to me, where I'm really involved in feeding kids are on the same page. But it comes up in other ways, right? Where I might have a different perspective than the parents. My sense is really that aunties do need to follow parents' lead that it's actually quite important to honor parents' decision makings for their kids. And we can be sort of stealthy ninjas around how we disrupt cultural conditioning more broadly. So I'm not super close to their parents, but we've got some kids in our neighborhood who are buddies with the kids who are a big part of my life. And those neighborhood kids get a lot of diet conditioning at home. There's this little girl, she's in fourth grade, and she's always telling me about her mom's exercise and saying that she can't get fat and she can't eat that popsicle and things like that, which is really heartbreaking to witness. And it's exactly that kind of situation where it's like, I'm invested in this as a just a member of our society, but I also care about these kids, and it's just not my call, you know? So I can just say things like, "Well, I like my body. I feel good that I have a soft body and I'm going to have another brownie. It tastes really good." And just kind of speak from my own experience, where I'm not necessarily trying to argue with their parents, or trying to convince the kid of something different. I'm just modeling something different for them. And I think it's totally fine to say, "In my house, you're allowed to have another brownie if you want one!" VirginiaThat modeling is so powerful. Having one example in their life of someone doing it differently, can plant that seed and help them reframe, like, oh, okay, that's not the only way to think about this conversation. That's really useful.LisaAnd I think affirming difference whenever we have the opportunity to do so is important. When a kid comments on somebody's body size or shape, you can just always say, "Isn't it great how people are different? It's so wonderful. There's so much variety."VirginiaRelated to modeling and fostering anti-diet values: I think there is a way that this collective approach to living and being in community with each other runs quite counter to mainstream narratives around what is good behavior, what are social expectations, and which groups do we let take up space. I'm thinking about how the group of soccer moms is allowed to be a community that everyone has paid to participate in, while the Black neighborhood having a block party might have the cops called on them. So, talk a little bit about how you see collectivism as also an act of radicalism.LisaYeah, thank you for that question. It's such a good one. A soccer community that is literally pay to play, where there are increasing tiers of elitenes—that is coded as very respectable in our society. Whereas a block party in a neighborhood of color is coded as disrespectable, unrespectable, disreputable. The music is loud and the people are being inconsiderate and their bodies are hanging out. There is all of this stigma around collectivism. I find for myself it's very insidious and subtle, the ways that collectivism is stigmatized. I have a theoretical allegiance to collectivism, but it takes having to actually ask for help to notice our friction and our resistance to that. You were talking about that earlier in the follow up to your divorce. And I've had that experience, when I've needed to ask for help around my disability and chronic illness, and there's all of a sudden this feeling of like, oh, I shouldn't ask for help. Oh, there's something wrong with that. And I think that there actually is a dotted line there between our resistance to asking for help and that feeling like we're doing something bad and anti-Blackness, anti-brownness, anti-queerness. Community is so, so essential for queer folks who have had to find their own family, choose their own community for for for generations. There's this kind of whiff of disreputability around collectivism, and these narratives around these kids are running wild and bodies are hanging out and the music's too loud, and like, what's going on there? What are they eating? VirginiaThere are so many ways we police it all.LisaIt's all really, really policed. I think that's really well put. So I think it's important to reclaim collectivism and reframe collectivism as legitimate, valuable, important, meaningful. Collectivism is something that a lot of people who live in dominant white communities have actually had taken from us through the medium of compulsory individualism. We need to reclaim it, and we need to not stigmatize it in all the communities that are around us and our neighbors.VirginiaMaybe instead, we should be looking at other communities as examples to emulate.LisaAs resources, absolutely. The disability community as well. VirginiaI think that's really helpful, and I'm sure it gives folks a lot to think about, because it just continues to show up in so many small ways. Even as you were describing that I was thinking about the stress response that kicks in for me after I host a gathering, and my house is left in whatever state it's left in. And it's like, of course, the house is messy. You just had 12 people over, and there are seltzer cans laying around and throw pillows out of place. That's because you lived in your house. You used it. But there's this other part of my brain that's so conditioned to be like, well, the house has to be tidy. And now it looks like you're out of control. But it's that kind of thing, that inner policing we do, that is very much related to this larger societal policing that we participate in.LisaAbsolutely, yeah.VirginiaAny last tips for folks who are like, okay, I want to be doing more of this. Particularly folks who want to connect with child free folks, or for child free folks who are listening, who want to connect with more families with kids. Any little nudges, baby steps people can take towards building this?LisaMy big nudge is to practice courage, because it's scary to put yourself out there. You have to be vulnerable when you ask to build a relationship that's deeper with people. And I think it actually is analogous, in some ways, to forming romantic relationships. You have to take some risks to say what you want, and that's a scary thing to do, but there are lots and lots of people out there who want to be more involved in the lives of families. And there are lots and lots of families out there who need more support.VirginiaWhen you were talking about the pandemic, I was like, I would have killed for an auntie. LisaEvery family needs an auntie. Two adults I love, Rosie Spinks and Chloe Sladden who both have wonderful newsletters, have been writing about this lately, that even having two adults is just not enough to run a household in the structure of society that we live in. I think that that's right, even if you've got a man who's pulling his weight, to crack open a whole other can of worms.Why Fair Play didn't work for ChloeVirginiaWhich, yeah.LisaThey're rare, but it does happen, and even then, it's not enough. We actually need more adults to make communities run than we get with the way nuclear families are set up. So it's a really worthy thing to seek out aunties, and for aunties to seek out families, and it's just a little bit scary. And you also have to be persistent, because when we offer, parents will usually say no. Like they don't believe us. They think their kids are too wild and whatever. So parents have to persist and and families need to persist in being welcoming. VirginiaI would also add on the parent side, as much as I appreciated what you said before about aunties have to respect parents having the final call on stuff: It's also an exercise in us having to loosen up a little. Not everything is going to go exactly the way you want it to go. The bedtime might look differently, meals might happen differently, there might be more or less screens, and we have to be less attached to those metrics of parenting and touchstones of our parenting day, and realize that the benefits of our kids getting to be with other people, way outweighs whether or not they eat three cookies or whatever it is. LisaYeah, the more that we live in community, the more we all learn to be flexible.VirginiaWhich is really the work of my life, learning to be more flexible. Work on flexibility with us!

The weight loss world is changing—and fast. If you've been dieting for years and still feel stuck, this episode is going to open your eyes. The key difference between women who finally break free and those who stay stuck on the diet rollercoaster isn't what they eat, how they move, or even which tool they use to lose weight.  In this episode, I'm breaking down what it really takes to become the woman who loses the weight and keeps it off, plus why over 80% of people regain the weight they lose within five years (yep, Harvard research backs this up). What You'll Learn in This Episode The 3 strategies women are using to lose weight right now—and their hidden downsides. How the food industry profits from keeping you hooked on “Frankenfoods.” Why stress mastery is the future of weight loss—and how chronic stress blocks fat loss. The critical difference between body needs vs. brain cravings. How to shift your weight identity so you never have to diet again. Featured on the Show / Resources

In today's culture, women are pulled toward extremes with food—swinging between anti-diet messages and “clean” or “holy” eating expectations. But what if there's a different way? Empowered Eating offers a bridge between the extremes, inviting us into the nuanced, intentional middle. In this episode, Jess shares stories that bring this idea to life—from history-making women who defied cultural norms to modern-day examples of choosing health practices rooted in values, not pressure. Along the way, you'll hear how faith, freedom, and personal priorities can transform the way we think about food and body image. You'll walk away with: Inspiration from unlikely “bridge builders” who shifted culture. A fresh perspective on what Empowered Eating really means. Reflection questions to help you align health with your values. Practical ideas to choose food, movement, and mindset shifts that feel both life-giving and sustainable. If you've felt cultural whiplash—from diet culture to body positivity to the Ozempic era—this episode will give you hope, clarity, and a way forward. ✨ Press play and discover how to build your own bridge with Empowered Eating. ✨Learn more about booking with Jess on a FREE discovery call. 

Send us a text Casey is a passionate, well-meaning therapist who believes in weight-inclusive care but freezes when clients bring up medical concerns. They've learned about anti-diet principles through Instagram and podcasts, but lack the medical knowledge to counter doctors' weight-focused advice. When a client receives a devastating diabetes diagnosis with the usual "lose weight" lecture, Casey wants to help but secretly wonders if the doctor might be right. Add in family pressure about their own weight, hostile colleagues questioning their approach, and the constant fear of professional consequences - and you have a dedicated professional caught between their values and their limitations. In this episode, I explore why therapists like Casey deserve support, not judgment, and how we can bridge the gap between good intentions and confident, evidence-based practice in the fight for weight-inclusive healthcare. For anti-diet and healthcare professionals, it's time to stop second-guessing your weight-inclusive approach, and get the research, tools, and professional certification to confidently counter medical weight bias:✓ Complete 12-module professional certification program✓ Lifetime access to expanding evidence library✓ Professional Directory listing for client referralsGot a question for the next podcast? Let me know! Connect With Me WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: Get a free script when you sign up THE WEIGHTING ROOM: A community where authenticity thrives and every voice matters The CONSULTING ROOM: Get answers to all your medical questions via DM or Voice Note PLUS access to my entire library of paid resources CONSULTATION: For the ultimate transformation in your healthcare journe THE WEIGH FORWARD: For people who are being denied surgery because of their weight FREE GUIDES:Evidence-based, not diet nonsense Find me on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Send us a textSome healthcare professionals are nice. Some would go so far as to call themselves “body positive" or “HAES aligned”. But being pleasant doesn't make you safe for fat patients. There's a crucial difference between practitioners who are steadfastly kind while perpetuating harm, and those who actively work to counter medical weight bias. In this episode, I expose why often times anti-diet isn't enough, how well-meaning professionals can cause more damage than obvious bigots, and why fat people are trapped in an endless cycle of seeking help, getting weight loss advice, and avoiding care until they're desperate. I challenge anti-diet practitioners to move beyond good intentions and actually do the work to become weight-inclusive. Plus, I debunk the dangerous myths about anaesthesia safety that are used to deny fat people surgery.  Want to learn more about anaesthesia? Then check out my masterclass today!Got a question for the next podcast? Let me know! Connect With Me WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: Get a free script when you sign up THE WEIGHTING ROOM: A community where authenticity thrives and every voice matters The CONSULTING ROOM: Get answers to all your medical questions via DM or Voice Note PLUS access to my entire library of paid resources CONSULTATION: For the ultimate transformation in your healthcare journe THE WEIGH FORWARD: For people who are being denied surgery because of their weight FREE GUIDES:Evidence-based, not diet nonsense Find me on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

What if your weight never affected your confidence again? Think about it… even when we've made peace with our bodies, weight has a sneaky way of creeping back in—through Instagram scrolls, offhand comments, or that tireless voice in our head. And suddenly, you're pulled back into the weight loss obsession you swore you'd left behind. If you've ever felt stuck on the scale, guilty around food, or wondered how to stop yo-yo dieting, this one's for you. TIMESTAMPS 00:02 – Why Your Weight Loss Journey Keeps You Running Circles06:45 – The Biggest Loser & What Actually Works Against You in Weight Loss14:20 – How to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting & Boost Mindful Eating22:05 – Building a Healthy Lifestyle Without Numbers or Shame Motivation30:40 – Building Confidence the Non-Diet Way This episode isn't about your weight loss journey. And it isn't about ignoring health—it's about shifting how we see weight, and how much it gets in the way of building a healthy lifestyle. In this health podcast episode: ·       Why shame never works for weight loss motivation: and how to rethink the way you talk about your body ·       How to stop yo-yo dieting: by healing your relationship with food instead of cutting more calories or avoiding your favourite foods. ·       Health without numbers: what it feels like to live in a body you care for—without letting the scale control your confidence. Build a body image that empowers you, not punishes you. Imagine a life where your worth is never measured in pounds or kilos. It starts now… Listen here!

Recovery from disordered eating doesn't end the moment bingeing stops — that's often where an entirely new phase begins. In this episode, Stef and Sarah unpack the often-overlooked “middle ground” of recovery — the stage where the chaos of bingeing has quieted, but true peace with food still feels out of reach. Stef describes this phase as a kind of emotional limbo: the urgency is gone, but now there's loneliness, uncertainty, and a disorienting sense of now what?. Sarah shares how she moved from bingeing to occasional overeating, and how easy it was to slip into black-and-white thinking without recognizing the real progress she'd already made. Together, they explore: what this “no man's land” actually looks and feels like why it's normal to struggle more with self-image once the bingeing stops the importance of community, language, and support during this time how to build trust in yourself before everything feels fully healed why this middle stage isn't failure — it's where real integration happens If you're past the acute phase but still don't feel “recovered,” this conversation will help you name where you are, trust the process, and move forward with more clarity (and less self-judgment). Connect with Stefanie Michele, Binge Eating Coach & Somatic Therapist IT Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Substack - www.substack.com/@iamstefaniemichele Connect with Sarah Dosanjh, Author & Psychotherapist Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/the_binge_eating_therapist YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Diet culture has a sneaky way of showing up everywhere. From weightloss plans disguised as “lifestyle changes” to wellness trends promising to heal everything from your skin to your soul. In this encore episode, I'm joined by Christy Harrison, MPH, RD—author of The Wellness Trap and Anti-Diet—to unpack how diet culture infiltrates the wellness world and impacts women's health in ways that are anything but healthy.Christy explains how the multi-billion-dollar wellness industry often sells us pseudoscience, dubious diagnoses, and rigid food rules that can lead to disordered eating and body-image struggles. We talk about why so many people—especially women—get caught in this cycle, how eating disorders aren't always obvious, and why scientific literacy is one of the most powerful tools for protecting your health.You will learn... Why diet culture's obsession with weight loss harms physical and mental healthHow wellness trends exploit fear to sell ineffective or harmful solutionsThe connection between restrictive eating, binge eating, and long-term health issuesWhy women are extra susceptible to falling into diet culture and wellness trendsHow social media and our political climate contributes to wellness mis- and dis-informationRemember: Your worth isn't measured by your weight, your diet, or how “well” you follow health trends. Real wellness is about freedom and self-compassion.Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, is a registered dietitian nutritionist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and journalist who has been covering food, nutrition, and health for more than 20 years. She is the author of two books, The Wellness Trapand Anti-Diet, and host of the podcasts Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych. Christy's decades of work in journalism, nutrition, and intuitive eating have helped thousands break free from the false promises of diet culture and find a more compassionate, evidence-based approach to food and health. Whether you've struggled with dieting, fallen into the wellness trap, or simply want to support women's health in a more sustainable way, this conversation will help you see wellness culture in a whole new light.Get Christy's latest book: The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-BeingLearn more about Christy at christyharrison.com and follow her on Instagram @chr1styharrisonMentioned in This Episode: Fears About Food Additives, article by Christy Harrison Is Red Food Dye Dangerous?If you're enjoying this self-love podcast, share it with the women in your life to combat diet culture, promote body positivity, and spread self-love.

Send us a textSociety has conditioned us to believe that our weight reveals everything about our character, intelligence, willpower, and worth as human beings. From childhood, we're taught that fat bodies represent moral failure, laziness, and unworthiness of love or respect.In this raw and powerful episode, I dismantle the extensive list of harmful stereotypes we've internalized about ourselves and call out healthcare professionals who perpetuate discrimination. I explore how these beliefs shape our relationships, our sense of self-worth, and our right to exist fully in the world—and why it's time to reject these lies completely.Find out more about the weighting room and become part of a one-of-a-kind communityGot a question for the next podcast? Let me know! Connect With Me WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: Get a free script when you sign up THE WEIGHTING ROOM: A community where authenticity thrives and every voice matters The CONSULTING ROOM: Get answers to all your medical questions via DM or Voice Note PLUS access to my entire library of paid resources CONSULTATION: For the ultimate transformation in your healthcare journe THE WEIGH FORWARD: For people who are being denied surgery because of their weight FREE GUIDES:Evidence-based, not diet nonsense Find me on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

This episode is part of Body Relationship Month — our special July series revisiting some of our most-loved episodes to help you heal your relationship with your body and yourself. What most of us don't realize is that all we're really trying to do in life is get back to a state of wholeness — where our true, full life experience can actually begin. The real solution isn't endlessly pursuing external goals or chasing perfection. It's learning to let go of the baggage that keeps us from living as our whole selves, where our unlimited potential exists. In this solo episode, Tony shows you what's really standing between you and who you want to be, so you can stop wasting time on trivial pursuits and finally start living more fully and authentically. Ready to go deeper? Sign up for our free Body Relationship Month this July at builtdaily.com/body-relationship-month and get weekly trainings, tools, and support to start healing your relationship with your body for good. When you're ready, here are more ways we can help you… Read Tony's Book for Free The Ideal Body Formula: How to Ditch Diet Culture and Achieve the NEW Ideal Body is available 100% free. Click here to read it. Join Our Free Facebook Group Get strategies and support to heal your relationship with food and your body. Click here to join. Schedule Your Free Breakthrough Call A powerful 1-on-1 call designed to help you end food and body obsession for good. Book your call here.

The tricky part about diet culture is that it oftentimes masquerades as health and wellness. Given that, in today's episode, Leslie Schilling and I discuss and even debunk some of today's most prevalent wellness trends.Leslie Schilling is a registered dietitian, sports nutritionist, nutrition therapist, and the author of Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design. Leslie also served as a performance nutrition consultant for Cirque du Soleil®, is an expert contributor to U.S. News & World Report, and has been featured in media outlets like Health, Women's Health, Self, Pregnancy Magazine,Yoga Journal, The Huffington Post, and on HGTV.In our time together, Leslie discusses the oftentimes disordered nature of clean eating, including her thoughts on Whole 30. She also gives important insight on increased fears regarding sugar consumption, as well as artificial dyes. As you'll hear today, Leslie is an advocate for helping her clients, and people in general, find peace with food and their bodies. I hope that's exactly what this conversation moves you toward today.Buy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

This episode is part of Body Relationship Month — our special July series revisiting some of our most-loved episodes to help you heal your relationship with your body. One of the most common questions we hear is: Can I want to lose weight and still heal my relationship with food and my body? It's a nuanced and deeply personal question — one that many women in midlife wrestle with after years (or decades) of dieting, body shame, and conflicting messages about health. If you're trying to balance weight loss goals with a genuine desire for body acceptance and food freedom, this episode is for you. In this episode — “Can Weight Loss and Healing Your Relationships with Food and Body Coexist?” — you'll learn:

This episode is part of Body Relationship Month — our special July series revisiting some of the most-loved episodes to help you heal your relationship with your body. If you want more self-worth or confidence, you have to give it to yourself. Stop making it contingent on a smaller body. The more we tie our self-worth to our body, the more uncomfortable we feel in our own skin. Instead of using food and exercise to meet our needs and help us feel our best, we end up using them as tools to control our body and our value. Any unwanted number on the scale can trigger a collapse in self-worth. To solve this, you have to separate your body from your body image — and start working on the latter. In this episode — “How to Handle Being Uncomfortable in Your Own Skin” — you'll learn:

What takes up space in your mind when food no longer does?   In this live episode with the Life After Diets community, we explore what happens when food obsession fades.  Do we land in a new identity with different thoughts and interests? Or do we find new mental fixations waiting in the wings?   From identity shifts and social anxiety to ego, neurodivergence, and the need for stimulation, we dig into what it really means to reclaim your mental real estate. A candid, insightful conversation about what comes next in life after diets.   01:08 Personal Experiences with Obsession 02:43 Finding New Focus and Purpose 04:15 Balancing Life and Recovery 05:28 Exploring Identity Beyond Food 20:48 Dealing with Social Anxiety and Self-Perception 21:29 Common Replacements for Food Obsessions 24:00 Embracing Downtime and Self-Care 25:22 Intentional Living  26:19 Exploring Neurodiversity and Monotropism 27:57 Challenges with Transitions and Coping Mechanisms 30:23 Secondary Stimulation  39:02 Ego Self and Higher Consciousness   Join our support community. This community is for you if you want a safe space to work through your daily struggles with food and body image. Community membership includes livestream episode recordings (online), monthly Zoom support meetings, a private Facebook group and member-only Q&A episodes. For more information go to: https://www.patreon.com/lifeafterdiets Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast Email – hello@lifeafterdietspod.com Connect with Stefanie Michele, Binge Eating Coach & Somatic Therapist IT Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Connect with Sarah Dosanjh, Author & Psychotherapist Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/the_binge_eating_therapist YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

This episode is part of Body Relationship Month — our special July series where we're revisiting some of our most-loved episodes to help you heal your relationship with your body. Many of us struggle to overcome society's message that you need to look a certain way to be valued. Adopting these messages (willingly or not) often creates debilitating battles with how we see our bodies. This negative body relationship can permeate nearly every aspect of life and diminish our entire experience. We end up living day after day with someone (ourselves) we don't accept, love, or appreciate unconditionally. And well… that sucks. But there are steps you can take to embrace your imperfections, accept yourself as-is, and still pursue your health and fitness goals. The result? Peace, freedom, and finally escaping a lifetime sentence in your food and body prison. In this episode — “Embracing Imperfection: How to Love Your Body at Every Stage” — you'll learn:

If you're confused by nonstop nutrition trends and conflicting health advice online… join the club. In this eye-opening episode, I chat with the internet's favourite registered dietitian and nutrition expert, Abbey Sharp, to break down balanced nutrition tips, metabolism hacks, and what the latest science says about protein, fibre, gut health, and blood sugar balance.Abbey is a Registered Dietitian (RD), a cookbook author, a TV nutrition expert, a YouTuber, host of the podcast Bite Back, and the founder of Abbey's Kitchen. She dismantles diet culture with science and sass, and her core philosophy is that a pleasurable relationship with food, your body and your self is the fundamental secret to good health.Join us as we as we dive deep into evidence-based nutrition science and debunk BS diet trends.We're cutting through the food noise to answer your top questions:How much protein do you actually need to support satiety and muscle health?Why fibre is essential for gut health and how it helps manage cravingsThe surprising link between your gut microbiome and immune system, mental health, and moreHow your microbiome affects calorie absorptionDebunking viral metabolism-boosting hacks (what actually works?)Should you eat 3 big meals or snack throughout the day?Does meal timing affect weight loss, blood sugar, or energy levels?How sleep and hunger hormones like ghrelin, leptin and cortisol are connectedEasy, science-backed nutrition tips to support your health goalsThe power of retrogradation and cooling your carbsHow important is working out for hormones and weight management?Smart strategies to stabilize blood sugar and hormones through dietWhether you're looking to feel more energized, support your digestion, or manage your weight without restriction, this episode is packed with balanced, no-bullshit tips for feeling your best.Listen to our first episode with Abbey from season 1! Follow Abbey:Abbey's KitchenAbbey's Youtube ChannelAbbey's Podcast: Bite BackOn IG: @abbeyskitchen/ Sign up for our monthly adulting newsletter:teachmehowtoadult.ca/newsletter Follow us on the ‘gram:@teachmehowtoadultmedia@gillian.bernerFollow on TikTok: @teachmehowtoadultSubscribe on YouTube

Registered dietitians and diabetes educators Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez join us to discuss why weight loss isn't necessary for managing blood sugar, why the popular wellness-culture notion of diabetes “remission” or “reversal” can be harmful, how the popularity of Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs as diet drugs is affecting people who use them for diabetes, the continuous-glucose-monitor trend for monitoring blood sugar in people without diabetes, Jess's experience navigating prediabetes and other health conditions, and more. This episode previously aired on our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones are nationally recognized Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. With over a decade of clinical experience, they have helped thousands of individuals improve their relationship with food and achieve better health outcomes. Wendy and Jessica are the co-founders of Diabetes Digital, an innovative telehealth platform designed to empower individuals to manage and prevent diabetes through 1:1 virtual nutrition counseling. Through their previous work with Food Heaven, Wendy and Jess have made a lasting impact on nutrition and wellness, promoting healthier relationships with food and inclusive health education. The Food Heaven Podcast, boasting 5 million downloads, explores evidence-based nutrition, mental health, HAES, intuitive eating, and body respect. Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

What if the path to true health wasn't found in counting macros or cutting carbs—but in listening to your body, regulating your nervous system, and redefining your worth? Karena welcomes integrative nutritionist and mom of four, Cara Clark. From growing up in a chaotic home as one of eight kids to building a health empire rooted in faith and intuition, Cara opens up about performance-based love, disordered eating, menopause, and the transformational power of food. Her feel-good food philosophy, combined with her personal healing journey, is an invitation to slow down, nourish deeply, and redefine success on your own terms.The Big Question:How can women reclaim their health by tuning into their body, not society's expectations?From Midwest Chaos to California Calling (00:00:51)Cara grew up as the oldest girl of eight siblings, describing her childhood as “chaos is normal.”Her early environment shaped her mindset—performing well earned love and attention.She reflects on moving from Indiana to California and the culture shock that transformed her health journey.Faith and family were early anchors, but the need for external validation lingered into adulthood.Performance-Based Love & Its Mental Health Cost (00:12:00)Cara discusses how love in her childhood felt conditional—earned through achievements.Therapy helped her realize she wasn't broken in her marriage, but still healing from her upbringing.She opens up about marrying young, launching her business with her husband's support, and finding her calling through her clients.Her story of realizing “rejection is protection” redefined her view of failure and success.Eating Disorders, Faith, and the Feel-Good Food Philosophy (00:17:10)After four kids in five years, Cara traded bootcamps for a sustainable nutrition business.Her food philosophy: eat within one hour of waking, all three macros every meal, five colors per day.She's passionate about regulating the nervous system as the foundation of healing.Her latest book blends recipes with prayer, morning rituals, and intuitive nourishment.Menopause, Macros & Meal Timing: Rethinking Women's Nutrition (00:20:33)Cara busts myths about intermittent fasting and explains why it's often harmful for cycling women.She teaches why digestion is energy-intensive, and how eating earlier supports better sleep and hormone health.Her approach helps women transition through perimenopause and menopause without shame or confusion.“Protein doesn't spike insulin”—a key tip for managing cortisol and energy in midlife.Healing Through Cooking and Connection (00:27:45)Cara believes you have to earn dessert—not by restriction, but by honoring the process and ingredients.Cooking is a daily meditation and a form of connection for her family.Her favorite part of each day? Building meals around cravings with intention, not guilt.Recipes are more than food—they're rituals, reflections, and healing tools.This episode was Filmed at the Thompson Nashville. Thanks for the support from our partners, including: BetterHelp: Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/thebigsilence and enjoy a special discount on your first month.If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy,...

In this episode of Fitness & Sushi, I'm sharing a personal story about how a health flare-up exposed a hidden belief system that was quietly driving me into burnout—and how that same pattern might be playing out in your relationship with food, your body, and exercise. In “You Don't Have a Food Problem—You Have a Belief Problem,” you'll learn…

In this episode, anti-diet yoga & fitness coach Billie Smith and I chat about why queer inclusivity matters and share about our upcoming virtual live workshop Saturday, May 31. The workshop will also be recorded.   You can sign up here: https://www.movewithbillie.com/pages/workwithme/teacher-workshops   Other mentions in the episode:  Foundations to Fruition with Tristan Katz and Brook Monaghan HavAnna Cafe (where I was when Billie and I planned to collaborate)

Journalist Virginia Sole-Smith joins us to discuss how GLP-1 hype has changed the conversation about diet culture, the importance of body autonomy, how “bro” diet culture became public policy, how she handles haters, the “fed is best” approach to parenting, and lots more. Behind the paywall, she shares her experience of weighing herself for the first time in years, what it's been like to date for the first time in a larger body, how she's changed her relationship to cardio, and more. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. As a journalist, Virginia Sole-Smith has reported from kitchen tables, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid's tail. Virginia's latest book, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, is a New York Times bestseller that investigates how the "war on childhood obesity" has caused kids to absorb a daily onslaught of body shame from peers, school, diet culture, and families—and offers research-based strategies to help parents name and navigate the anti-fat bias that infiltrates our schools, doctor's offices and dinner tables. Virginia began her career in women's magazines, alternatively challenging beauty standards and gender norms, and upholding diet culture through her health, nutrition and fitness reporting. This work led to her first book, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America, in which Virginia explored how we can reconnect to our bodies in a culture that's constantly giving us so many mixed messages about both those things. Virginia's work appears in the New York Times Magazine, Scientific American, and many other publications. She writes the newsletter Burnt Toast, where she explores anti-fat bias, diet culture, parenting and health, and also hosts the Burnt Toast Podcast. Virginia lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her two kids, two cats, a dog, and way too many houseplants.  Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.comAnti-Diet Dietitian Leah Kern joins the pod to discuss her experience with all the ways that the “crunchy granola identity” can create a funnel into disordered eating, body image struggles, and overall suffering. She and Abbie share their experiences with anxiety, the intersection of spirituality and environmentalism, and how the personal responsibility narrative can become harmful with food choices.Listen to hear more on:- Leah's experience with disordered eating- Her path to becoming a dietitian- How she found healing through intuitive eating- Orthorexia and being "the healthy one"- How "clean eating" intersects with spirituality- The complex relationship between anxiety and eating disorders- Choosing medication for anxiety- When environmental awareness contributes to restrictive eating- Whether cannabis use can coexist with intuitive eating- The importance of social connection in a fulfilling life- The themes of authenticity and self-identity with food choices- How societal pressures and diet culture can distort one's sense of self- The emotional aspects of eatingAbout Leah: Leah Kern is an Anti-Diet Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who helps people make peace with food and body using the Health At Every Size (HAES) and Intuitive Eating frameworks. Upon graduating from UVM and earning her RDN, Leah built a thriving private practice, doing the exact work she feels she was put on this earth to do. Leah believes that the work involved with unraveling years of conditioning in diet culture and learning to come home to one's body is deeply spiritual work and she treats it as such. She currently lives in Northern California with her partner and their two kitties. Leah's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoulders-down/id1616910063Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe Apply for Abbie's Group Membership:Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group Social media:Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcastFind Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness Transcripts: If you're looking for transcripts, you can find those on Abbie's website, www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/podcast Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroyPodcast Editing by Brian WaltersThis podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Body positivity was never meant to be personal advice — it was a radical social justice movement designed to fight discrimination and injustice. So if you've tried to love your body and still feel stuck in shame, you're not broken — you're just reacting to a message that was never meant to fix you. In this episode, Deanna breaks down: The true origins of the body positivity movement How it got co-opted by brands and influencers Why “just love your body” can feel like toxic positivity What actually works: embodiment, neutrality, and letting go of appearance-based worth Why disconnecting your self-worth from your appearance changes everything …and how loving your body became the new perfectionism trap. Book a free breakthrough call: builtdaily.com/call/ More ways we can help: Download Tony's book "The Ideal Body Formula: How to Ditch Diet Culture and Achieve the NEW Ideal Body" for free, or order it in print/Kindle on Amazon Join Our Free Built Daily Facebook Group Get further strategies and inspiration to help you overcome your health and fitness battles. Click here to join.

In this episode of Ditch the Binge, Renae gets real about something we all feel but rarely talk about: the weirdness of getting older and realizing the things that used to work… just don't anymore.From outgrowing old identities (like being “the fit girl” or “the hustle queen”) to feeling burnout in career and creativity, Renae unpacks what it means to be in the messy middle of life. Whether you're questioning your job, feeling disconnected from your passions, or just tired of being the person who always “does the thing,” this episode is your permission slip to pause, reassess, and do something just because it sounds fun.....Connect with Renae on IG HERE.Visit her website HERE.

Healthism is everywhere—but most of us don't even know it has a name. In this powerful episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Dr. Michelle Tubman unpacks the hidden force that turns health into a moral responsibility and worth into a measurement of discipline. From the praise of weight loss at any cost to the judgment we place on food, movement, and rest, Michelle explores how healthism intersects with fatphobia, ableism, diet culture, and systemic injustice.You'll learn where healthism shows up in everyday life, why it's harmful, and what it looks like to push back—without giving up on yourself or your well-being. This is a must-listen for anyone ready to reclaim body autonomy, soften perfectionism, and redefine what care really means.In this episode, you'll hear about:What healthism is—how how it subtly shapes our beliefs about food, bodies, and self-worthHow it shows up in medical settings, social media, and daily conversationsWhy the pursuit of “health” can become harmful and shamingThe link between healthism and diet culture, fatphobia, ableism, and traumaWhat it looks like to care for yourself without subscribing to health as a moral mandateHow to reclaim body autonomy and offer yourself compassion instead of judgmentResources & LinksLearn more about Wayza HealthFollow Michelle on Instagram @wayzahealthListen to previous episodes of Thrive Beyond Size here

Happy Satiated Saturday! What if diet culture wasn't actually the "problem"? Focusing on diet culture can become a distraction. It keeps the conversation circling around the same point—being controlled around our food choices is the problem, and we need to regain our experience of choice with food. Yet, when all of our attention stays on food, we miss out on exploring the deeper layers of who we are, beyond what we eat. Staying locked in a battle with diet culture can distract us from stepping into our power. In this week's Satiated Podcast episode, I chat with my dear friend and colleague, Abbie Attwood, Anti-diet Nutritionist, about: Understanding health and nutrition messagingThe complexity of trusting ourselves and scienceChallenging the notion of control over healthDistractions from systemic issues in healthThe impact of socioeconomic factors on food choicesEnhancing your critical thinking skills in nutrition and mediaYou can also read the transcript to this week's episode ​here​: https://www.stephaniemara.com/blog/society-shapes-dieting-behaviors Doors to the Somatic Eating® Program are officially open!!!

This week, Renae shares what's really been going on behind the scenes — quitting caffeine, getting kicked off Instagram, pausing her business, and questioning everything she thought she wanted.Call it a mild midlife crisis, call it a pivot, call it whatever you want — either way, it's real, it's messy, and it's happening.If you've ever felt stuck in a season of "What the hell am I doing with my life?" — you're not alone. Renae's pulling back the curtain and inviting you into the messy middle...Come say HEY on IG HERE.Check out her website HERE.Order her book HERE.

Parent coach Oona Hanson joins us to discuss how going to a physical therapist for back pain led her down a wellness-culture rabbit hole, why dietary restrictions to “fight inflammation” just ended up harming her relationship with food and her body, how she got the dubious diagnosis of “adrenal fatigue,” and more. Behind the paywall, we get into how she helped her child heal from an eating disorder (and how that process changed the course of her career), how parents can help their kids navigate pressures from diet and wellness culture, why smart and science-minded people can still fall for wellness misinformation, her experience with perimenopause and wellness culture, and more. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Oona Hanson is a nationally recognized parent coach who supports families navigating diet culture and eating disorders. She is passionate about helping parents raise kids who have a healthy relationship with food and their body. A regular contributor to CNN, Oona has been featured widely, including on Good Morning America, The Washington Post, USA Today, US News & World Report, People, and Parents Magazine. Oona holds a Master's Degree in Educational Psychology and a Master's Degree in English. She writes the Parenting Without Diet Culture newsletter and will publish her first book in 2026 with Cambridge University Press. She is a mother of two and lives in Los Angeles. Find her at oonahanson.substack.com. Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

In this episode of Fitness & Sushi, we're uncovering the toxic mental patterns you didn't realize were symptoms of diet culture. If you've ever felt like your mindset is the problem—or worse, that you are the problem—this episode will show you the truth about why you feel stuck. In this episode – “Top 10 Signs You Have a Poor Relationship With Your Mind (a.k.a. The Diet Mindset)” – you'll learn…

In this episode of Behind the Bite, Dr. Cristina Castagnini is joined by Abbie Attwood, a weight-inclusive nutritionist and host of the Full Plate Podcast. Together, they explore the complexities of disordered eating, recovery, and the cultural forces that shape our relationships with food and body image. Abby shares her deeply personal journey through competitive running, chronic illness, and recovery from disordered eating, offering insights into how diet culture and societal norms perpetuate harmful behaviors.SHOW NOTES: Click hereFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behind_the_bite

In this episode of Fitness & Sushi, I'm sharing the 10 most overlooked signs that your relationship with food might be more toxic than you realize—and why it's not your fault. These symptoms are so normalized in diet culture that you've probably mistaken them for personality flaws. Let's shine a light on what's actually going on. In this episode – “Top 10 Signs You Have a Poor Relationship With Food (That Have Nothing to Do With Willpower)” – you'll learn…

Hello there, and welcome back to the podcast. In last week's episode, I used the phrase ‘food freedom' in the context of food being a mirror to show the relationship you have with yourself. But upon reflection, it doesn't make sense. Food freedom is a phrase that is used a lot in diet culture and weight loss circles. But what is food freedom? It sounds catchy, but it's an illusion. We don't actually need freedom from food because food is not the problem. Rules around food are the thing keeping us hostage. That's what I look into in this episode.     The guilt and shame we feel around food are because we have been taught that certain foods are bad or that there are food rules we must follow. We are taught to be afraid of carbs or sweets or emotional eating, and so we feel like we're held hostage by food. That's where the idea of food freedom comes from. But when we understand that food is not the problem and rules are, the idea of food freedom falls apart. Food is neutral. Hunger is normal. There is no perfect way to eat. We don't have to fear food. We're free to eat without guilt. Those are the five things I explore in this episode, breaking apart the idea that we need freedom from food.  __About Dr. Michelle Tubman:Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.__Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:Website: www.wayzahealth.comFollow me on Facebook and InstagramEmail Michelle: michelle@wayzahealth.com

Welcome, everyone. I'm excited to have you back here this week because I want to talk to you about something truly life-changing. I call it the mirror effect. It has to do with diet culture telling us to fix our eating and fix our bodies when really those are not the issues. There's nothing wrong with our bodies. I want to make the point that true freedom is releasing ourselves from the belief that we have to change our bodies to change our lives. If food isn't the problem, maybe the way we eat is actually a mirror for how we relate to ourselves. So join me as I explore that.     When diet culture drills into us the idea that we have to think about food in isolation, it makes food just food, just fuel, just calories in and calories out, we then believe that anything we do in regards to overeating or emotional eating or cravings is a problem to be solved. But what if we got curious instead and asked what our eating is reflecting back to us? If I focus just on the fact that I binge at night because I'm starving, I'll miss the point that I'm not structuring my days in a way that allows for self-care and meeting my needs. We need to start asking what we truly need right now, rather than vilifying food or eating. How do we do that? What steps do we take to begin to understand the mirror effect? How do we gain a deeper understanding of why we're eating? Those are the questions I ask and hopefully address for you in this episode.__About Dr. Michelle Tubman:Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.__Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:Website: www.wayzahealth.comFollow me on Facebook and InstagramEmail Michelle: michelle@wayzahealth.com

"Dress for your body type", "define your waist", and "only wear what is flattering". The anti-fat bias we talk about on this podcast all the time extends into how we dress ourselves and what we feel worthy of wearing. As our bodies change (as they will continue to do throughout our life), many of us are met with barriers to body acceptance. And our clothes are a massive part of that. But they can also be a pivotal part of our liberation. This week we're joined by Dacy Gillespie, a weight-inclusive anti-diet personal stylist. We untangle the mess of our closets, dismantle patriarchal ideas of fashion, and challenge our sense of what we "should" be wearing based on our body shape and size. What's on Dacy's plate right now (and importantly, what's not) Dacy's journey to personal styling and anti-diet work Why having a passion for clothing is not vain Fashion's role in body image and societal pressures Understanding clothing sizes and body measurements Size acceptance and our clothes How to shop for new clothing as your body changes Steps to take to identify your personal style separate diet and beauty culture Letting go of old clothes and emotional attachments How clothing sizes impact our body image  The life-changing magic of finding your authentic style Challenging the inner critic when shopping Barriers to accessing clothing in a larger body The limitations of “flattering” The fashion rules we need to ditch  How to deal with your closet About Dacy: As a weight inclusive, anti-diet personal stylist, Dacy Gillespie helps her clients reject fashion rules and ideal standards of beauty imposed by the patriarchy, white supremacism, and capitalism so that they can uncover their authentic style. Through their work building a functional wardrobe, Dacy's clients make a mindset shift from thinking they need to wear what's flattering to unapologetically taking up space in the world. After a lifetime of jobs in high-stress careers that didn't suit her highly-sensitive, introverted personality, Dacy started mindful closet in 2013 in an attempt to create a more emotionally sustainable lifestyle. Her work has been featured in Forbes and Real Simple and she is a frequent podcast guest. Dacy is married and has two boys, ages 5 and 9. Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate Group program: Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program, kicking off in June 2025: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching Group membership: Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership, which is an ongoing community for monthly sessions and daily support: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group Social media: Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness Transcripts: If you're looking for transcripts, you can find those on Abbie's website, www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/podcast Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy Podcast Editing by Brian Walters This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

This week on the pod, Sam talks with Dacy, an online personal stylist also known as Mindful Closet. Dacy shares how she found her passion for helping people embrace body acceptance through an anti-diet approach to styling. They explore the intersection of shopping and intuitive eating, discussing how clothing choices can support self-confidence and empowerment. Dacy offers practical tips on closet clean-outs, shopping strategies, and finding brands that cater to bodies of all shapes and sizes. This conversation is packed with valuable advice for anyone looking to build a wardrobe that truly feels good.Listen to more podcasts like this: https://wavepodcastnetwork.comControl Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code FORK at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodConnect with Dacy:Mindful Closet: mindfulcloset.comInstagram: @mindfulclosetDacy's Substack: dacygillespie.substack.comWhat The Actual Fork https://www.instagram.com/whattheactualforkpod/Sammy Previte https://www.instagram.com/find.food.freedom/Jenna Werner https://www.instagram.com/happystronghealthy.rd/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dietitian and diabetes educator Janice Dada joins us to discuss why there's so much stigma and blame on people with diabetes, the wellness-culture belief that people can “reverse diabetes” by restricting foods and taking a bunch of supplements, why people don't “give themselves diabetes” by eating too much sugar, the myth that people with diabetes can't eat sugar or carbs, her new book on intuitive eating for diabetes, and more. Behind the paywall, we get into the myths about diabetes and body size, the harms of trying to lose weight with diabetes, issues with the “prediabetes” label, the GLP-1 craze, and how to practice intuitive eating with diabetes. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. Paid subscribers can hear the extended interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Janice Dada is a weight-inclusive registered dietitian with a private practice in Newport Beach, CA. She is a certified intuitive eating counselor, certified diabetes care and education specialist (CDCES), and certified eating disorders specialist (CEDS). She is passionate about simplifying and destigmatizing the nutrition- and weight-based discourse around diabetes. Intuitive Eating for Diabetes: The No Shame, No Blame, Non-Diet Approach to Managing Your Blood Sugar is her first book. Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Sarah and Stef delve into the complex emotions around dieting and the struggles of non-diet living.   To kick things off, Sarah brings up the topic of feeling stuck between wanting to diet and feeling like you can't, even if you wanted to. This sets the stage for a thoughtful discussion about how dieting, and the decision to step away from it, evokes a range of emotions—from failure to empowerment.   Stef offers personal anecdotes and client stories, revealing how the dieting mindset is often ingrained in us from a young age, making it a tough cycle to break. She highlights the difference between making an active decision to stop dieting and feeling like you simply can't keep up with it anymore.   Throughout the episode, both Sarah and Stef share their own journeys and how they moved from a place of restrictive eating to embracing a non-diet lifestyle. Along the way, they touch on common pitfalls, like fantasizing about the benefits of dieting, only to be reminded of its psychological toll.   The duo also explores how important it is to find a middle ground. This is not about completely giving up or indulging without thought but about finding a balanced, mindful approach to eating that nurtures both body and soul.   One standout moment is when they discuss the concept of agency—and the sticky truth that empowerment can indeed come from weight control -- but it can also come from self-alliance.   Looking for a  course about how to fold in health considerations after recovery without a diet culture lens? "Refining Intuitive" (formerly the Gentle Nutrition Mindset) course starts on April 28.) Join our support community. This community is for you if you want a safe space to work through your daily struggles with food and body image. Community membership includes livestream episode recordings (online), monthly Zoom support meetings, a private Facebook group and member-only Q&A episodes. For more information go to: https://www.patreon.com/lifeafterdiets Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast Email – hello@lifeafterdietspod.com Connect with Stefanie Michele, Recovery Coach, Somatic Therapist IT Stef's Binge Recovery Course -- www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Connect with Sarah Dosanjh, Author & Psychotherapist Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/the_binge_eating_therapist YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon If you find this episode helpful, you can subscribe to the Life After Diets podcast, leave us a review, and share your thoughts with us on Instagram and YouTube (@lifeafterdietspodcast). Your feedback helps us create content that matters to you.

Send us a textIn this episode of The StrongHer Way, Alisha Carlson sits down with author Lori Brand to expose the hidden struggles of diet culture, body image, and the anti-diet movement. Together, they tackle the judgment and extremes on both sides, exploring how women can shift their focus from appearance to strength, health, and true empowerment. Lori shares insights from her book, Bodies to Die For, which dives into the deceptive nature of social media, the emotional cost of fitness culture, and the universal battle with self-worth. If you've ever felt caught between diet rules and anti-diet rebellion, this episode will help you break free and reclaim your body on your own terms.What You'll Learn in This Episode:

This episode delivers a nuanced discussion to help you differentiate between health concerns and health anxiety/disorder. Stef shares her personal journey of health with her development of orthorexia, sharing insights into how she navigated fear and eventaully learned to balance awareness with emotional regulation. The hosts both highlight the impact of diet culture and wellness culture on their perceptions of health and food, and how diverging from these influences helped them take care of their health without excessively attaching to food as the end-all-be-all of health outcomes. Sarah's Your Intuitive Eating Blueprint Course Join our support community. This community is for you if you want a safe space to work through your daily struggles with food and body image. Community membership includes livestream episode recordings (online), monthly Zoom support meetings, a private Facebook group and member-only Q&A episodes. For more information go to: https://www.patreon.com/lifeafterdiets Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast Email – hello@lifeafterdietspod.com Connect with Stefanie Michele, Recovery Coach, Somatic Therapist IT Stef's Binge Recovery Course -- www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse Looking for a  course about how to fold in health considerations after recovery without a diet culture lens? "Refining Intuitive" (formerly the Gentle Nutrition Mindset) course starts on April 28.) Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Connect with Sarah Dosanjh, Author & Psychotherapist Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/the_binge_eating_therapist YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon If you find this episode helpful, you can subscribe to the Life After Diets podcast, leave us a review, and share your thoughts with us on Instagram and YouTube (@lifeafterdietspodcast). Your feedback helps us create content that matters to you.

Send us a textIn this episode of The StrongHer Way, Alisha Carlson sits down with author Lori Brand to expose the hidden struggles of diet culture, body image, and the anti-diet movement. Together, they tackle the judgment and extremes on both sides, exploring how women can shift their focus from appearance to strength, health, and true empowerment. Lori shares insights from her book, Bodies to Die For, which dives into the deceptive nature of social media, the emotional cost of fitness culture, and the universal battle with self-worth. If you've ever felt caught between diet rules and anti-diet rebellion, this episode will help you break free and reclaim your body on your own terms.What You'll Learn in This Episode:

Rasa Troup, MS, RD, CSSD, LD, OLY is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian with over 20 years of experience. She also owns Rasa Nutrition where she helps clients create a healthy relationship with food. Rasa also competed in the Beijing Olympics and has served as a trusted voice regarding nutrition for various communities, including The Minnesota Vikings, The Minnesota Twins, The University of Minnesota Athletics, The Emily Program, and TRia Orthopedic, among others.In our time together, Rasa shares about her own struggles with nutrition as a competitive athlete and Olympian. She also highlights common lies in the field of nutrition, such as certain bodies having more value (based on their size and shape), as well as health having a ‘look.' Rasa also gives important insight regarding the recent rise in the use of GLP-1 medications, including potential dangers to be considered. Overall, Rasa demonstrates the importance of flexibility and non-perfection when it comes to nutrition and so helpfully reminds us that our bodies indeed do not need to be fixed.Informed Consent for GLP-1 medications document discussed in this episode:https://sizeinclusivemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MSSI-GLP1-Informed-Consent-10.pdfBuy Melissa L. Johnson's book, Soul-Deep Beauty: Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless, here. Learn more about Impossible Beauty and join the community here.

On this insightful episode of the Baby Steps Nutrition Podcast, Argavan chats withEvelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and co-creator ofIntuitive Eating, an evidence-based, compassionate self-care eating framework rooted in dignity and respect for all bodies. Since 1995, Evelyn has been at the forefront of helping people cultivate a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body. She's also the author of 10 books and has a thriving nutrition counseling practice in Newport Beach, California. Evelyn is passionate about public speaking and training health professionals on the process of Intuitive Eating. We discuss Evelyn's background in Intuitive Eating, the modern anti-diet movement, how diet culture on social media impacted our internal dialogue around hunger and body image and much more! Tune in now. Mentioned in this Episode: The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating- https://www.intuitiveeating.org/about-us/10-principles-of-intuitive-eating/ Project EAT ((Eating and Activity over Time)- https://www.sph.umn.edu/research/projects/project-eat/ The Minesotta Semistarvation Study- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcjdPE1nDQg Book: The Great Starvation Experiment: The Heroic Men Who Starved so That Millions Could Live- https://www.amazon.com/Great-Starvation-Experiment-Starved-Millions/dp/0743270304 New York Times Article: They Rejected Diet Culture 30 Years Ago. Then They Went Mainstream.- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/18/well/intuitive-eating.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes   For more on Evelyn Tribole, you can follow her on Instagram @evelyntribole and through her websites https://www.intuitiveeating.org/ and https://www.evelyntribole.com/. For more on Argavan Nilforoush, be sure to follow her on Instagram @babystepsnutrition, on Facebook: Baby Steps Nutrition page, on YouTube: Baby Steps Nutrition Podcast, on Twitter @argavanRDN, on LinkedIn @ArgavanNilforoush and through her website www.babystepsnutrition.com.  

In Episode 187, we dive headfirst into the popular yet contentious world of diet psychology with our review of “Never Binge Again” by Glenn Livingstone, PhD. This episode is for anyone interested in behavioral psychology, eating disorder recovery, or just looking for a candid conversation that challenges traditional expert opinion. Join Sarah and Stef as they dissect Livingstone's approach to defeating binge eating, which promotes calling our cravings “pig squeals” and embracing extreme black-and-white thinking.  Expect a lively discussion infused with personal anecdotes about coping with binge eating, heated debates about oversimplification in addiction recovery, and reflections on food abstinence. We also tackle the psychological effects of daily weighing and the challenges of regulating our complex relationship with food. If you're curious about alternative methods to mainstream diet culture or looking for expert opinions with a dash of humor, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in and get ready for a thoughtful, relatable, and eye-opening exploration of food psychology. Join our growing support community. This community is for you if you want a safe space to work through your daily struggles with food and body image. Community membership includes livestream episode recordings (online), monthly Zoom support meetings, a private Facebook group and member-only Q&A episodes. For more information go to: https://www.patreon.com/lifeafterdiets Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast Email – hello@lifeafterdietspod.com Connect with Stefanie Michele, Recovery Coach, Somatic Therapist IT Stef's Binge Recovery Course -- www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Connect with Sarah Dosanjh, Author & Psychotherapist Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com Instagram – www.instagram.com/the_binge_eating_therapist YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon If you find this episode helpful, you can subscribe to the Life After Diets podcast, leave us a review, and share your thoughts with us on Instagram and YouTube (@lifeafterdietspodcast). Your feedback helps us create content that matters to you.

Dietitian and author Jenna Hollenstein joins us to discuss her experience with alcoholism and recovery, the intersection of disordered eating and disordered drinking, the sobriety trend in wellness culture, Dry January, mindful drinking, “food addiction,” and more. (This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness.) Paid subscribers can hear the full interview, and the first half is available to all listeners. To upgrade to paid, go to rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Jenna Hollenstein, MS, RDN, CDN, is an anti-diet dietitian-nutritionist, certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, speaker, meditation teacher, and author of five books, including Eat to Love and Intuitive Eating for Life. She blends Intuitive Eating with mindfulness to help people transform food and body shame into joyful eating and movement. Jenna received a BS in nutrition from Penn State University and an MS in nutrition from Tufts University. She has trained in numerous integrative modalities, including polyvagal theory, somatic self-compassion, trauma-sensitive mindfulness, and embodied social justice.  Jenna has spoken at universities, retreat centers, and extensively online for both consumer and clinician audiences. Her work has been featured in the The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Yoga Journal, Health, Self, Lion's Roar, Mindful, Vogue, Elle, Glamour, and Women's World. Learn more about her work at jennahollenstein.com. Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!

Today on Good Bodies, Emily and Lauren are joined by Educator, Content Creator, and Social Media Strategist, Jay Salazar. When Jay underwent a sleeve gastrectomy, a procedure that removes part of the stomach, he thought his journey to weight loss had begun. In reality, a new chapter of body acceptance and anti-diet culture would begin and we are getting all the details. Don't miss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anti-diet personal stylist Dacy Gillespie joins us to discuss diet and wellness culture, her bad experience with functional medicine (and what attracted her to it in the first place), how she's dealing with her chronic symptoms now, and why she doesn't think clothes should be “flattering.” Behind the paywall, we get into how to shop for clothes after your body changes, how to start discovering your authentic personal style beyond diet culture's ideals, the advice that revolutionized Christy's approach to fashion, the parallels between intuitive eating and fashion, and more. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness. As a weight-inclusive, anti-diet personal stylist, Dacy Gillespie helps her clients reject fashion rules and ideal standards of beauty imposed by the patriarchy, white supremacism, and capitalism so that they can uncover their authentic style. Through their work building a functional wardrobe, Dacy's clients make a mindset shift from thinking they need to wear what's flattering to unapologetically taking up space in the world.  After a lifetime of jobs in high-stress careers that didn't suit her highly sensitive, introverted personality, Dacy started mindful closet in 2013 in an attempt to create a more emotionally sustainable lifestyle. Her work has been featured in Forbes, Real Simple, New York Magazine's The Strategist, and Lifehacker, and she is a frequent podcast guest. Dacy lives with her husband and two children in St. Louis, Missouri. Learn more about her work at mindfulcloset.com.  Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod.  If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!