Love Your Bod Pod

In this episode, I talk about the recovery process and how it happens in phases. Too many people try to rush the process or skip steps which ultimately slows them down and leaves them stuck. I share about my unique road to recovery and how, now, 13 years after making the powerful decision to work on recovery, I see things differently. Hindsight is 20/20, ya know? I also share what the process has looked like for various clients of mine, as many of their steps varied from mine. I hope you learn so much about yourself and what you need to keep moving forward from this episode.

Today's podcast guest is Genevieve Prushinski, and HEAS-aligned, anti-diet Dietitian working at Balance Eating Disorder Treatment Center in NYC - one of the nation's best treatment centers. She answers questions from you that you submitted on Instagram!

Topics we cover:

- her personal experience with an ED and recovery process

- grieving the thin dream

- how it's not all about the food

- using ED behaviors to communicate emotions

- how to support a loved one struggling with an ED

- the difference between anorexia, bulimia, ARFID, EDNOS, atypical anorexia

- why recovery is worth it

Freaking out? Can't stop obsessing over something? Just had one of those days? This breathwork pattern is for you. My clients absolutely love this to help create a state of inner peace and calm the body down while giving the mind something else to focus on. I hope you love it. Let me know if you do.

Today we are with Rachel Hills, and our conversation gets raw, real, and deep. And it's loooooong and juicy! We talk about all the things, including her religious upbringing and the overlaps with diet culture, her personal struggle with body image and food, motherhood, miscarriages, health struggles. We dive into shame and how underneath it is a belief that you can change, how your personality is not your trauma responses and why we romanticize our EDs and thinness. AND SO MUCH MORE. It's an awesome conversation that I hope you love as much as I do.

Her Bio:  I’m a wife, mother of 3 teenagers, hairstylist of 21 years and a trauma informed breathwork facilitator. My absolute favorite thing in the world is to lead women to their own healing, through breath, teaching and simple practices so they can live their most authentic, amazing lives! I also really love exclamation marks! 

Find Rachel:

Welcome to season 4 of Love Your Bod Pod. Today I share where I've been, what I've learned and what you can expect from this season of the LYBP. 

Thank you so much for listening and being here!  

Feeling better in your body is not determined by your weight - I explain why and how in this episode and give you 10 practical tips ad action items you can start implementing RIGHT NOW to feel better. 

Find Cara and learn about FBS The Retreat

Inner Child work plays a powerful role in healing your relationship with food and your body because many of our earliest experiences of Diet Culture, body shame, trauma or feelings of not being enough/loveable, etc. happened in childhood. Those experiences impact how we relate to food and our body. 

Use this meditation to connect to your inner child and offer her/him/them some unconditional love and attention. 

Find Cara

In this episode, we talk with Rachel Bass, an NYC-based Anti-Diet personal trainer about exercise and movement! If you want to learn how to have an intuitive joyful relationship with movement and want to learn to separate weight loss from it so you're freer to move in ways that feel good, this episode is for you. 

Find Rachel:

@NoLongerDieting on both Instagram and Tiktok

Find Cara

This week, we talk with former FBS - The Academy + Retreat student, Natalie about her 15 year-long struggle with food and her body image, and her journey to healing & her happiest life ever! 

Topics We Cover:

• Extreme restriction & over-exercising
• Binge eating & eating in secret
• The pressure her parents put on her to lose weight
• The many areas of her life impacted negatively by disordered eating
• Her vision and fantasy of being her thinnest on her wedding day
• Finding hope and doing the work to heal 
• How she found compassion for and accepted herself
• How Food Body Soul changed her life (& how it will change yours, too!)
• The power of being in a group program with others 
• What it was like to attend Food Body Soul - The Retreat
• And so much more

It's a raw, candid, and deep episode I know you will love! 

If you identify as an emotional eater, or someone who eats their feelings, you might not be sure how to actually feel your feelings, this breathwork practice will show you how to feel & process your emotions. I do not see emotional eating as a problem, rather I see it as a check-engine light, inviting you to look under the hood so you can learn more about ourself and your needs. This practice is a perfect way to do just that! 

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Today, I want to talk to those of you that really want peace and freedom with food and know that you need healing, but you are still hanging on pretty tightly to the desire to lose weight. This is for you.

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Today we are joined by Mary's Cup of Tea! Not only do we explore her eating disorder and recovery journey, dropping in helpful tips along the way, but we also go deep into the power of in-person retreats & investing in yourself and Mary opens up about her woo-woo, spiritual side as well. Get ready to learn her Self-Love Formula, her journey to empowerment, and why she now sees fitness culture as a cult.

Find Mary:

Today, we interview Maren Hunt, a Certified Intuitive Eating Coach about her personal recovery journey from a 20-year struggle with her relationship with food, her body, and herself and how she now helps others do the same as a coach. She shares several practical tips and strategies for overcoming fear, breaking food rules, body image healing, and ending the restrict-binge cycle.  

Dieting disconnects us from our bodies. If you struggle to listen to your body, know when you're hungry, full, in need of rest or movement, or if you've been at war with your body and are ready to get on the same team, this practice is for you. 

0-4:33mins: Intro and explanation of the breath practice 

4:35mins: Breathwork Practice

Do not do this while driving.  

Today, we interview Goodwin Hope, a health coach, and breathwork facilitator. If you are someone who feels like you constantly eat your feelings this one is for you! We talk about emotions, feelings, somatic work, confidence, and healing through the body.

Find Goodwin:

Restriction leads to binge eating. But I often hear people say "I'm not dieting, I no longer restrict but I am still binge eating!" If you've ever said that or felt like that, then it's likely that you are still struggling with one or more of the 6 types but you might be unaware of it. Check out this podcast if you're struggling with binge eating and would like to heal. 

Find Cara

Today we have an interview with Maddie Miles. We talk all things hormones, periods, cravings, birth control, seed cycling, cycle syncing, and shitty advice from diet culture that messes us up! Plus why we think we need men's birth control instead of placing all the responsibility on women. 

Find Maddie:

Hard things are inescapable. But some hard things lead to suffering, depression, anxiety, and a life you don't love. Other hard things lead to liberation, expansion, evolution, and a life you love. So which version of hard will you choose? In this episode, we explore choosing the hard thing that leads to freedom and a breakthrough on the other side. 

Find Cara

This episode is all about unbecoming who we thought we had to be to succeed and be loved and becoming exactly who we are!   

Today, we have an episode with Self Love Coach and creator of The Breath Channel, Stevie Wright. And it is full of vulnerability, authenticity, and a little sparkle! Stevie is so shiny and bright and someone I truly love and respect. In addition to talking about Stevie and her journey, I share some of the deep work I have been doing with Stevie as my coach.

Topics we cover:

- How Stevie was traumatized from being on American Idol

- Feeling like you need to perform or achieve to be loveable and how to heal that wound

- How our stories, limiting beliefs, and perspectives get formed in childhood and impact our present and future life

- What is inner child work and why it's so helpful and healing

- What is breathwork and why is it such a powerful tool for getting into the body and healing at a nervous system and cellular level

And so much more! 

This episode is a short breathwork session to help you with letting go of anything you have been hanging on to.

As you may have seen over this past year, I have been working on my breathwork facilitator training certification so I can offer this powerful healing modality within my coaching practice. I hope this short practice is helpful for you!

Do not listen or practice to this while driving!

TRIGGER WARNING: Sensitive eating disorder behaviors are discussed in this episode.

In today's episode, I interview NHS doctor Joshua Wolrich and it is a fire-filled episode. Come listen with curiosity and open mind!

Topics we cover:

- Joshua's story of first being a weight-loss journey account on IG to fighting weight-stigma

- The role food and nutrition play in health

- Why he doesn't think food medicine and why that notion is harmful 

- The role weight plays in health and why he no longer advises weight loss to patients

- His thoughts on Keto, Carnivore, Intermittent Fasting, and more

- Why weight stigma is such a problem and needs to end in healthcare

- Gut health and how to take care of it

- How to talk to your doctor if they are stigmatizing you for your weight 

And more!

In this episode, I interview Whitney Catalano, An Anti-Diet Dietician turned Success and Alignment Strategist. 

Topics We Cover:

• How her disordered eating & desire to be thin influenced her to study Dietetics in college
• HAES, Diet Culture & Fat Activism 
• The emotional work involved in food freedom and body image healing
• Hovering above rock bottom, why it's so hard to change 
• How to know when it's time to pivot and change in any area of life
• The connection between empaths, highly sensitive people + food & body issues
• Boundaries

and so much more!

Find Whitney

In this episode, I share the road map to Food Freedom. 

If you have ever thought that you have to "lose the weight" before you can go do what you want to do and be who you want to be, THIS EPISODE IS FOR YOU! Amanda LaCount is a plus-size, body-positive professional dancer, and living breathing proof that your body size does not have to hold you back from pursuing your dreams! This is the Pep-Talk you need this summer! <3

Find Amanda

TRIGGER WARNING: mention of sexual abuse

In today's episode, we talk with Emma Lauer, a therapist at Find Your Shine Therapy (@findyourshinetherapy on Instagram). She is a HAES-informed eating disorder therapist who also specializes in trauma and anxiety. We talk about the impact of trauma, how to know if we've experienced it (many of us don't realize we have), and what we can do to heal so it stops interfering with our life. 

Other Topics we Cover

• The Eating Disorder Voice (Parts work) & how to heal
• Uncomfortable feelings and how to increase your ability to feel them
• Importance of Diet Culture education in recovery
• Why a HAES approach is needed for sustainable healing
• First steps in healing trauma
• EMDR
• Body Image healing

And so much more! 

In this episode, we interview the incredible Victoria Welsby, also known as Fierce Fatty. She is a body confidence expert and fat positive powerhouse. If you are struggling to feel good about yourself because of your body, this episode is a MUST LISTEN! It's so good. 

Topics we cover:

- Body shame, food scarcity, and dieting as a kid

- Dating 

- The promise and lies of diets

- How to heal your body image and feel confident in your skin 

- Reclaiming the word "Fat"

- Fat Positivity

- How to be a Thin Ally to Fat Acceptance 

And so much more! 

Trigger Warning: talks of numbers/weight, and suicide

Today, we have an incredibly inspiring episode with Martinus Evans, also known as 300 Pounds and Running! He is a marathon runner, a run coach, and a soon-to-be author. But like many, he struggled with body shame and being bullied as a kid, and put forth so much effort to make his body smaller, including going on to get multiple college degrees in this area of health and fitness. Now he is all about "Fat Flyness" and living an active lifestyle, achieving incredible physical feats like running marathons without the pressure of focus being on weight loss. 

Topics we cover:

- How and why he started running - you HAVE TO hear this story! 

- Living an active life regardless of your weight

- His experience being treated unfairly for being a slow runner and what he is doing to change the environment of races for "the back of the pack"

- His relationship with his body, self-esteem, and weight now vs before

- THERAPY THERAPY THERAPY!    

- How to accomplish big goals 

and so much more! 

Find Martinus

Today, we have an awesome conversation with Shana Spence, MS, RDN, CDN, and Anti-Diet Dietician that I love to follow on Instagram, she is @TheNutritionTea. 

We cover a wide variety of topics including:

• What she didn't learn in school
• What society emphasizes for health and what is ACTUALLY needed for health
• The buzzword-ness of "Superfoods" that don't actually have superpowers
• Racism in Health Care
• How weight stigma is both a social justice issue and a public health issue
• Health advise for the general population
• Body positivity and celebrity culture
• economical/convenient options like canned, frozen, or packaged food

And so much more!

Find Shana:

In today's episode, I interview Catie Lynch, a social worker, therapist, and body-image coach. This episode is filled with so many chicken nuggets of wisdom on body image healing, dieting, self-reflection, and intentions! Plus if you're a mom or have little children in your life, Catie shares how to help raise your kids with body-neutrality and intuitive eating. It's a fabulous episode! 

Find Catie:

In today's episode, we interview an eating disorder advocate for men, William Hornby. He has been creating insightful, informative, and often very endearing and funny content on TikTok and IG Reels that has been building awareness for men who are struggling with Eating Disorders. After not being able to find much support online for himself, through his recovery journey he has become who he wished he had when he was struggling the most! 

Topics we cover:

• men and eating disorders
• asking for help and not downplaying what you are struggling with
• the gay community and sexuality
• finding worth in your appearance
• the pressure to look a certain way in performance industries like dancing, singing and acting
• how diet culture and eating disorder culture overlap
• the influence of misogyny, capitalism, and racism  
• discrimination in recovery and health care treatment 

AND SO MUCH MORE! 

If you are caught up in "Black and White" thinking, believing that food is either good or bad, this episode is for you. I share very practical tips to get you out of the "All or Nothing", perfectionist way of thinking. 

Want More:

In today's episode, we interview trauma professional and coach, Iris McAlpin. She is a NARM Practitioner and specializes in self-sabotage and eating disorders. Grab a pen and notebook for this one, it's jammed packed with very practical tips and strategies that you can implement into your life right now if you are struggling with negative self-talk, self-judgment, a lack of self-compassion, feeling like you are not productive enough, self-sabotage, feeling not good enough and more. 

Topics we cover:

• What is trauma (capital T and lower-case T)
• Why we have negative self-talk and how to start to transform it
• How to cultivate self-compassion
• Why we self-sabotage and how to stop
• How to trade judgment for curiosity
• Why we tell ourselves we're not good enough - hint: it's a way to protect ourselves
• Why there is no such thing as a negative emotion 
• How to think about "negative" emotions differently and in a more helpful way
• How to separate emotions from behaviors and why this matters

And so much more! 

In this solo cast, I share 5 unique things that will help you find food & body peace. When we think of healing our relationship with food we often think of Intuitive Eating, which is an incredibly powerful and healing framework, that I love and use now with my clients. AND when I was in recovery from my eating disorder I had never heard of Intuitive Eating, so it was unfortunately not a framework I was able to utilize to heal. However, today, I share 5 things from my own experience that will hopefully be just as impactful and helpful for you in yours. These 5 things are also tools that I now use with my clients that help them find long-term sustainable food & body peace that also impact other areas of their life, too. It's pretty cool!

Want more?

Today we interview Lindsey Hall, an award-winning eating disorder recovery speaker, and writer.  

Topics we cover:

- alcohol, addiction, and eating disorders (Drunkorexia)

- the eating disorder cycle 

- romanticizing our eating disorders

- "Bigorexia": men, fitness, gym culture and eating disorders 

- one foot in and one foot out in recovery

- why we DO NOT grow out of our eating disorders

and so much more! It's a fantastic episode.

Find Lindsey

In today's episode, we interview Erika Austhof, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona College of Public Health. She has spent the last year advocating for weight-neutrality in COVID-19 research and ending weight-stigma in public health. She is also a past client of mine and we talk about her history with disordered eating and body shame and how she was able to make peace with both food & body. 

Topics we cover:

- Weight bias in research and how to advocate for change

- weight stigma and COVID-19 (myths about BMI and health outcomes)

- What actually determines health (hint: it's way more than just what you eat and how much you exercise)

- Overcoming internalized fatphobia and hating your body

- How to leave behind Diet Culture and choose yourself!

- The power of community and sisterhood

And so much more!

Find Erika: @epierika on Instagram and Twitter

There are a lot of misconceptions about Intuitive Eating - that it means you will never eat healthy again and only ever want cookies, that it is anti-health, that it's just about eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full, that it's for weight loss or weight control, and more. Today I break down the 7 biggest misconceptions about Intuitive Eating to reveal what it's really about: rebuilding trust with your body and reconnecting back to your inner wisdom so you feel free & at peace around food. 

Welcome to Season 3 of the #LYBP

Today we have author, Virgie Tovar, and death midwife, Angela Alberto to talk about the joyful & devastating work of leaving diet culture. 

Topics we cover:

• What is Death Work and how does it connects to Anti-Diet Work
• The doors we close (death) and open (rebirth) when we do Anti-Diet Work.
• The feelings we experience when leaving behind diet culture and how to take navigate them in the healing process
• The two types of grief and what you must know about them to take care of yourself when you feel each
• Gender Performance and Gender Conformity
• Disability and wanting to be desired by men and other people

AND SO MUCH MORE! It's a juicy episode. 

Welcome to Season 3 of the Love Your Bod Pod - #LYBP! This is a trailer to give you an idea of what you can look forward to this season of the pod. So much is in store. 

I also share details for an awesome giveaway - listen to learn how to enter and what you will win! 

In this episode, I interview prominent researcher, Dr. A. Janet Tomiyama, from UCLA. If you ever tried to diet or lose weight but have struggled to keep it off, this episode will explain why.  She specializes in weight stigma, weight science, dieting, stress, eating, and the so-called "obesity epidemic". 

Topics we cover:

• Weight science: why it's so hard to lose weight and keep it off
• What contributes to weight gain
• How stigma explains the correlation between higher BMI and adverse health outcomes
• The impacts of stress and stress eating
• How to improve health without dieting
• What to do about weight stigma

Find Janet:

In this episode, I share 11 practical tools, strategies, and items you can implement and put into practice right now to help you feel better in your body. 

Share this episode with the people in your life who would also benefit from hearing these practical pieces of advice. 

Find Cara

In this episode, I interview Julie Parker, a life coach and mental health clinician who specialized in eating disorders. Growing up, she struggled with her relationship to food and her body, and always found her self turning to food for comfort, and while food does provide comfort eventually she realized that it was not the solution to her problems. With this awareness, she started down the road to recovery, to dealing with her problems head-on, instead of avoiding them through food. Along the way, she utilized self-compassion, spirituality, and connecting to her purpose to find freedom and liberation. 

Topics we cover:

• Using food for comfort and how to expand your emotional coping tool-kit
• The importance of self-compassion in recovery and life
• How to find your purpose and legacy
• How spirituality helps us remember we are more than a body
• Fearing our power as women 
• How Radical Honesty will change your life

Find Julie:

In this solocast, I get real with you about the recovery process. What it's like, what you can expect, and loving reminders about the messy middle. 

Recovery is a process of working through and being with whatever it is we try to "diet-away" or avoid through our disordered behaviors. 

The freedom, happiness, peace, and confidence that you are seeking is in the work you are avoiding. 

Find Cara:

In this episode, I interview Joey Cifelli, my cousin. He is a competitive athlete, having competed for the USA National Team in diving and a member of the LGBTQ community. For years he struggled with his body image and relationship with food and sought control in those areas to control people's perception of him before he owned his sexuality and came out as gay.  We talk about his journey and he shares very candidly what it was like for him over the years finding worth in external validation, whether it was diving, "eating clean" or Instagram likes. Something that he says is very common in the gay community he is a part of.  If you struggle with orthorexia, diet-binge cycling, self-worth, identity, or fitting in, you will relate to his story!

Topics we cover:

• Disordered eating, orthorexia & diet-binge cycle
• fatphobia & thin privilege 
• competitive sports and trying to be healthy or "fuel" your body correctly 
• self-love and acceptance vs external validation
• Insta-Gay Culture and the pressure to look a certain way 

Find Joey:

Today on the podcast I interview Emily Feikls! We talk about her struggles with anorexia, orthorexia, and exercise addiction. After losing her mom at age 10, she turned to her eating disorder to cope. It became her life-raft helping here navigate the uneasy waters of life. It also changed how she viewed herself, her health, her life, and ultimately the world leading her to trust her gut and forge her own path instead of continuing to people-please and do what others/society told her to do. She has a chronic illness and also shares how she managed both recovery while still taking care of her health. 

Topics we cover:

-Questioning your thoughts in recovery

-People-pleasing vs listen to yourself & intuition

- Orthorexia and "pursing health"

-Healing your relationship with exercise

-Eating Disorders as coping mechanisms

-The process of recovery- slow and steady 

Find Emily:

In this episode, I interview Dr. Anita Johnston, author of one of my all-time favorite eating disorder recovery books, Eating in The Light of The Moon. We talk extensively about how our relationship with food can give us clues as to what we each need in order to heal. As an Eating Psychology Expert, she walks us through the difference between physical & emotional hunger and what we need to do to address all of our needs. Using metaphors and storytelling, Dr. Johnston brings a new perspective to the podcast. We also explore the Masculine & Feminine energies (not to be confused with gender) in our culture and why that is a huge contributing factor for the rampant nature of Diet Culture. 

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In this episode, I chat with Dr. Yami about fatphobia in the medical field and education system, the role nutrition and movement play in health and disease prevention as well as how to raise children as confident eaters connected to their intuition. As a mom of two and a pediatrician, she has incredible insight for parents who want their kids to maintain intuitive eating as the grow up. She shares the most common mistakes parents make that influence diet culture, disordered eating, and body shame in their kids, often without meaning to or realizing it. She also shares with us the foundational principles that you can start implementing right away in your own home to improve the overall health, well-being, and relationship to food & body for you and your kids. And as a Health At Every Size advocate she explains why so many doctors are fatphobic. 

Learn more about Dr. Yami: