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Find Your Food Voice

It’s time to name the neglect from typical food advice. Welcome to the Find Your Food Voice podcast, hosted by Julie Duffy Dillon, a registered dietitian with 20 years of experience partnering with folks just like you on their food peace journey. What have we learned? Well, the cookie cutter approaches exclude too many people, and you don’t need to be fixed. It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s all of us. Only together we can start a movement and fix diet culture. And we will. Let’s begin now. Food behavior expert and host, Julie Duffy Dillon is rolling up her sleeves to get to the bottom of what is really healthy. This award-winning dietitian seen on TLC’s My Big Fat Fabulous Life has a secret: food is not your enemy and your body is tired of the constant attacks. She will partner with you exploring topics like: *emotional eating *intuitive eating *anti-diet *binge eating *orthorexia *body image *eating disorders *dieting *parenting and food *healthy eating *stress eating *food addiction *mindful eating *non diet approaches
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Now displaying: 2018
(137) Does set point mean I will always be fat? (with Stefani Reinold) 0
Nov 20, 2018

What does your body want to weigh? Have you heard of set point theory and wonder what it means for you and your body? Will it always look the way it does now? Or will it get smaller or larger? Listen to this latest episode of Love Food with special guest Stefani Reinold MD from the It's Not About the Food Podcast.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode's Dear Food letter:

Dear Food,
 
I began my intuitive eating journey recently with a non diet dietician who specializes in treating ED and PCOS. According to her you are not the enemy and once I get my PCOS under control and reject diet culture my body will return to my setpoint. I am oversimplifying but you get the point.
 
My problem is that for as long as I can remember I have always been fat so I don't know that I trust that knowledge. Could it be that there are people whose set points are in the "morbidly obese" range?
 
Well I guess I was a normal weight once until about age 5. At 5 I was the tallest girl in class. Taller than all the boys even and yes heavier. I wasn't overweight just much taller than all the rest but adults would comment when they went to pick me up I was too heavy. I was too tall at my 8th birthday for the ball pit my parents had paid so much to reserve for my birthday. I was so "big". They meant tall but I thought they meant fat.
 
I started gaining weight because my main abuser didn't like fat girls and found them unattractive. Back then you were my friend because you protected me from him and most men and cat calls. Now I see I built my own prison and am left wondering if some people don't have a healthy set point?
 
Sincerely,
 
Confused in Cleveland

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(136) Can I stay vegan and recover from Binge Eating? (with Jennifer Rollin) 0
Nov 13, 2018

You appreciate that not eating enough can trigger your binges. Does that include your vegetarianism or veganism too? This week's letter writer has connected the desire to eat with friends and later binge eating. Have you? Listen to the latest Love Food Podcast episode with special guest Jennifer Rollin where we discuss eating disorder recovery and veganism and vegetarianism.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode's Dear Food letter:

Dear Food,

My complicated relationship with you began when I was 13. I had become obsessed with body image and thought all my problems would be solved if I could just be smaller. So I began strict dieting, and was eating less than XYZ calories a day. On this journey my brain became obsessed with food much more than body image. I became anorexic. I wanted to be able to stop restricting but I didn’t know how. I was scared and worried I would lose control.

My recovery began when i started seeing a dietitian, who gave me the book “intuitive eating”. If it weren’t for that book, I don’t know where I would be today. I began to eat more normally and gradually gained the weight back, although my mind was still very fixated on food for another year. Once I finally started caring about more things in life than food (about 3 years later) I developed binge eating disorder.

Now for a little more than two years I have been struggling to make peace with my body and have spent many nights crying wondering if I will ever be able to eat normally again. I know that binge eating happens when there is a restriction, which makes me afraid that my veganism is getting in the way of me being able to have a healthy relationship with food.

I went vegan a few months into my strict dieting phase at 13, after watching a documentary promoting it, but that was mainly for ethical reasons as well as health. Now I know that I’m not doing it for my health or anything body related, but my veganism is a very important part of my belief system, and I don’t feel like I could/want to give it up. It’s been five years since my initial eating disorder, parallel with the amount of time I’ve been Vegan. It doesn’t really feel like I’m restricting myself, since I’m so used to doing it and there are plenty of vegan alternatives that I enjoy. However every now and then I’ll be in a situation where everyone else is eating meat/cheese and part of me just wishes to indulge for that moment. I worry that when those feelings are left ignored it triggers a binge.

Love,

At a crossroads

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(135) Bingeing was my biggest fear now its my constant reality (with Nicole Cruz) 0
Nov 6, 2018

Has your relationship with food been through the ringer? Listen as this letter writer describes her initial restricted relationship with food yet now bingeing is a daily part of her life. Have you experienced this too? While there is shame in this for many it is a predictable and vital part of nutritional rehabilitation on your Food Peace journey. It doesn't mean you are weak it means you are a successful human staying alive. Listen now for more and learn from guest Nicole Cruz.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode's Dear Food letter:

Dear Food,

The high school version of me would have been the last person on this Earth to ever believe that my relationship with you would end up causing me so much heartache and pain.

I was fine until college. Backtracking to childhood, I always loved you. I was a foodie, never overthought and wasn't obsessed with the idea of what I would eat next. Food was wonderful, especially "treats" or "junk-food" type items that I didn't get to eat often. I know there were times when my eyes were bigger than my stomach, but maybe this is a thing that many young kids also experience?

High school was normal. I was active playing a sport that I loved, busy with school, and spending time with family and friends. Senior year, I found myself with more freedom than ever. A lot of it was spent watching tv or cooking and eating with friends.

Then came college. After a particularly sad and confusing breakup with a boy and betrayal by a friend, my college friend group disintegrated. In retrospect, I think I may have retreated into TV and snacks, and there was no one to tell me to do differently. Then, during Thanksgiving break, I realized that I had been too free with you, food, and my "cute little body" was quickly becoming something I was ashamed of and disgusted by.

I'd never had anything but a small body and lived in a family of small people. I decided I would pay more attention to what and how much I was eating. I figured this would help get myself under control. And from the moment I became aware of your presence and your power in my life, things really have never been the same since.

Fast forward through five months of increasingly difficult and dreadful exercise regimens and an increasingly restricted intake of food, I left school early to move home and enter outpatient treatment.

My junior year, I finally transferred into XYZ College. I was ecstatic, but the restriction started almost right away. This time, though, my body was far more resistant to restriction, and it was increasingly difficult to not give in and binge. I returned home after only 3 months, and didn't return to school until the next summer.

Now, my 4th year of college is almost over. That means I've been binging for a year now. It's hard to believe that I ever was able to restrict at all, because binging is such an everyday part of my life now. Over these past years, I have had consistent therapy, and have also met with dietitians, but it seems like nothing is able to help me. In fact, the binging seems like it's getting worse and worse – in the past two months alone, I have gained X pounds.

I think I've lost hope in ever being normal with food or body image. I feel so abnormal and wrong. In recovery, binging was always my biggest fear, and now it's my constant reality. I have all the tools and resources I should need to help myself and change, but I'm still doing this.

How did we get this far?!

Love,

Secretly Broken

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(134) Why hasn't Intuitive Eating made me thin? 0
Oct 30, 2018

How long have you been at diet rock bottom? What's keeping you stuck? For many they have tried things like Intuitive Eating yet don't feel successful because they aren't thin. Can you relate? There is a way through this. Listen to this latest Love Food Podcast episode for more.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode's Dear Food letter:

Dear Food,

I have been trying to make things right with you for a while now. I've been exploring intuitive eating for the last year, and we've had some successful moments together. Remember when I wasn't able to keep ice cream in the house? Now I have multiple containers, which I eat when I'm in the mood and don't think about when I'm not. That's something I feel proud of.
 
I still make mistakes when it comes to our relationship - I know there are times I eat past fullness, and there are times I eat when I'm not hungry. I am trying to be as compassionate as I can with myself, but then l I see myself in a mirror.
 
I threw away my scale in October, and haven't been on one since. But it's pretty obvious I have gained weight. Mostt of my old clothes don't fit, and getting ready for work and social events is fraught with anxiety. I have bought things in new sizes,  but  I cannot shake the awful feelings that almost paralyze me when I see myself.
 
I was not somebody who needed to be weight restored. What I feared would happen, happened. I gained weight. I always thought that if I binged less and practiced intuitive eating that I would somehow magically become thin. That didn't happen for me. I know I can't go back to dieting, but I also can't seem to accept myself this way.
 
I know about body positivity, HAES, and fat acceptance, but I can't seem to get there. Forget about body love - I'd be happy with body neutrality. It seems impossible for me to love my body at this weight when I know look better thinner.
 
I don't know what to do about us, Food. I will not diet again, but I second guess my choices a lot. Even when I hear experts talk about intuitive eating, they always say things like, "Don't worry - you won't always want to eat Oreos or pizza" as if those foods truly are bad.
I  want to give myself freedom to eat whatever I want, but in exchange, I hate how I look.
 
Where do we go from here, Food?
 
Love,
Feeling like a failure

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(133) I am embarrassed I still struggle with food. 0
Oct 23, 2018

How long have you struggled with eating? Do you remember when it first got complicated? What if you have struggled your whole life after years of abuse, shame and fear? Is there a way to heal in our current diet focused and fatphobic world? Listen now for possible tools to promote your Food Peace journey.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode's Dear Food letter:

Dear Food,
Dear oh dear food, you have been the bane of my existence since I was born. I started
with diary allergies that took time to diagnose so from a newborn, my food relationship
has been difficult. That difficulty has morphed into many different things, anxiety
soothing with food, fear of food, restriction, bulimia, anorexia, binge eating and so on.
I’ve struggled to understand you.

When I was young, about six years old, my life changed a lot because of an abusive
homelife, then at seven, it turned to shear torture due to physical and sexual abuse. I
coped by stealing food (at home, other people’s houses, stores and so on), hiding and
eating it. I learned to eat until sick, then purge to make myself feel better so I could eat
some more. One very traumatizing event, I remember hiding multiple PB&Js behind the
trashcan in the cabinet for later and once the event was over, I hid where I thought I
belonged, behind the trash and ate them all, at seven years old… The trauma (really
torture) went on and on and I ate and ate, and I gained and gained. I was also tortured
in school for my weight and lack of social skills. Through all of this, I was caring for my
younger sister since no one taking care of either of us and was also caring for my
parents who could not care for themselves.

As I grew into a teenager my body started to change, but it was changing differently
from others. I didn’t know at the time that it was PCOS at the time, but it was. I was
growing hair on my face, I started shaving my face at about 12 or 13, my body shape
was different, and my weight was going up at what I was told an alarming rate. By 6 th
grade, I was “obese”. Once the torture stopped at home (not in my mind), I was 20, I
kept on eating, doctors kept telling me to lose weight, my mother kept telling me how
terrible I looked, and others would tell me “you would have such a pretty face and eyes,
if you’d just lose some weight…” I kept eating and purging. I had two stays in a mental
health facility and they tried to work on my relationship with food, but that was not the
major reason I was inpatient, there was a much more intense reason I was there. They
tried but I was not ready.

Eleven years ago, at 28, after trying to conceive for about a year, I was diagnosed with
PCOS. It took us three years to conceive the first time which ended as an early loss. I
had six more losses and then no other pregnancies. I ate through all the losses and was
told, had I not been so fat, I would not have gotten PCOS and would also be able to get and stay pregnant by a doctor. I ate some more until I didn’t. I started restricting about
six years ago and lost a very significant amount of weight. I was restricting so much I
would pass out due an inability to my keep my blood pressure high enough and could
not keep my body temperature stable to the point where I wore winter clothes in the
summer. I kept this going for two years then the binging started again. I was never able
to get my weight low enough to alert any doctors of an eating disorder, but I would
guess that is from the PCOS.

I have since been working with a wonderful therapist for seven years and an amazing
eating disorder and HAES registered dietician for almost two years. I still struggle to this
day with the thoughts that go along with an eating disorder. Dear, oh dear Food, will I
ever “get” you? Will I ever “understand” you? I know none of this is about you, but it is
just a way to cope and control one small part of my life when I was unable to control
anything but morphed to lack of control around you. I want a relationship with you Food,
but, it is oh so embarrassingly hard. I do have hope Food, that someday, there will be
calmness and no charge between you and I. Someday I can enjoy you…
Love,
Frustrated but Hopeful

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(132) What does anti-diet really mean? 0
Oct 20, 2018

What does it mean to be anti-diet? Or HAES? Can someone actually be healthy at every size? Why are HAES dietitians always talking politics?

Have you had these questions? Tired of feeling bad and uncomfortable about how you eat or practice as a dietitian promoting diets? This episode can clear the air for you. Listen on for more.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peace and Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Episode's Key Points:

  1. What unites us is greater than what divides us.
  2. Weight loss is…
  3. Lived experiences
  4. Can someone be healthy at every size?
  5. Weight-normative
  6. Weight-inclusive
  7. Does higher BMI cause poor health?
  8. VIII. Dieting data
  9. Weight maintenance: willpower or pathology?
  10. Weight-inclusive approaches
    1. Acceptance
    2. Permission
    3. Social justice
  11. Improving dietetics through diversity

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(131) Did my body size cause this? 0
Oct 16, 2018

Have you ever been made to feel like you are to blame for a medical condition like diabetes, PCOS, high blood pressure or gestational diabetes? More specifically, have you been told that your body size has caused you to experience a particular condition? If so, you are not alone. Listen along as Julie Dillon helps unpack the unfair stereotypes often associated with being in a higher weight body.

Episode's Key Points:

  • The label of "obesity" as a disease is problematic.
  • Being at a higher weight is unfairly associated with many stigmas and misconceptions. For example, anorexia nervosa at a higher weight is actually the most common way to experience it.
  • Weight is just one anthropometric measurement like blood pressure, temperature, etc. It doesn't mean it causes any condition/disease but rather could indicate that we need to dig deeper for a root issue.
  • No one is to blame for their body size nor is one's body size something to feel shame about. Simply being alive means we are valuable and worthy.
  • Intuitive eating can be utilized by everyone, no matter their body size or any conditions they may be experiencing.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(130) I can't get rid of the urge to binge eat (with Isabel Foxen Duke) 0
Oct 9, 2018

Do you feel like you've done everything to tackle your struggle with binge eating? Is there a constant battle in your head over cravings? Listen now to hear some solutions on how to overcome this food peace struggle.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my FREE roadmap: Your First 3 Steps Towards Food Peace with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. Join our Facebook group to get extra support!

Episode's Key Points:

  • The recovery process is NOT linear, and it takes TIME.
  • Isabel Foxen Duke joins to talk about dieting, bingeing, and more!
  • Physical restriction is NOT THE SAME as emotional and psychological restriction... even if you're eating "enough," bingeing can still occur if you feel mental restriction. Diet mentality is the bigger thing to break down when trying to break free from bingeing!
  • Cravings are neutral things!! We don't need to feel shame about them.
  • Emotional eating and binge eating are two different things! Emotional eating is when we eat something in order to make ourselves feel better. It's a coping mechanism to distract, comfort, soothe or avoid a feeling. Binge eating, on the other hand, is a reaction to the diet mentality. Isabel calls is reactionary eating! For example, when you tell yourself you can't have "x" food, all you want is "x" food, and then it results in a binge.
  • Food is never black and white!
  • Just because we think we're eating "enough," we actually may not be because we live in a restrictive, diet-culture world.
  • Diet mentality tells us that there's a right and wrong way to eat. Giving up dieting is giving up an attitude around food that categorizes certain food behaviors as safe and others as unsafe.
  • "The Don't Binge Eat Diet:" when you're desperately trying to avoid and overcome the urge to binge, which only perpetuates a binge. Think about a bow and arrow... the farther back you pull the bow and the more tension your build, the farther that bow will fly in the other direction when you inevitably let go!
  • There's NOTHING wrong with emotional eating!! The only reason why people fear emotional eating is because we fear getting fat.
  • Emotional eating turns into a binge when we decide that the action we're doing is not okay and feel shameful about it.
  • Quitting dieting doesn't just mean you've put down the calorie counts and the weight loss goals... it means we leave behind the "right" and "wrong" with food.
  • When we struggle with food, we have to ask, where is the restriction happening?? Where is the diet mentality hiding?
  • Not dieting is a physical AND emotional issue! 90% of recovering from dieting is about the diet mentality and diet attitudes, and only 10% of it is about the physical.
  • If you are clinging to ANY kind of wagon, you will inevitably fall off!
  • Permission to binge is step one!!
  • It's time to overcome emotional restriction.
  • You have permission to be where you are right now, and to meet your needs in however you need to.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

(129) I can't love my body because I hate it. 0
Oct 2, 2018

You know diets don't work. Do you gravitate toward the body positive message yet hung up on one thing...

You don't love your body because you want to lose weight. You find your body unacceptable.

There is a way through this. Listen now for insight.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

Key Points:

  • Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help. Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.
  • If you feel like a failure because you can't lose weight or keep it off, know you are not to blame. Diets have failed you.
  • Dieting predicts weight gain.
  • Dieting promotes the idea of body hate and conditional acceptance.
  • Does a deeper understanding of diet culture, its toxicity, and manipulation make you angry? Stay with it!
  • It's ok to not accept your body.
  • You are acceptable the way you are today. The end. Your body is acceptable no matter what.
  • Oprah Winfrey joined weight watchers and Julie's mind was blown to see diet culture and its reign make one of the most amazing women also feel not enough.
  • First step: work on RESPECTING your body.
  • Challenge the false truths.
  • Claim your space and find those who agree with body positivity.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD.

(128) I'm afraid of relapse while raising my kids. 0
Sep 25, 2018

Are you caught up in the mania that is motherhood? Do you find yourself feeling fatigued when it comes to making decisions regarding your kids' food choices? Does it feel as if your own relationship with food is being challenged? You're in the right place. Julie Duffy Dillon provides a heart-to-heart on this rewarding, but often exhausting stage.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Parenting often triggers many forms of stress.
  • Finding ways to complete tasks in more efficient ways can help relieve some of this anxiety.
  • If you have a history of an eating disorder or disordered eating, you may find these old behaviors and ways of coping return as you are dealing with the challenges of parenthood.
  • Eating for comfort and emotional eating are both very normal human ways of coping.
  • It is not the food choices that are concerning but rather the self-shaming thoughts and feelings we have around the choices we make. When these thoughts come up, call them out for what they are and provide self-compassion.
  • Connecting with a therapist provides a safe space to process your concerns.
  • Gather support from fellow mothers and intuitive eating mom experts.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(127) My dad criticized my mom's body. 0
Sep 18, 2018

Have you been on a diet for as long as you can remember? Do you find yourself feeling confused about food and your body because of mixed messages you received from your family? Are you looking to break free from an endless cycle of dieting and bingeing? Special guest Melissa Toler provides a compassionate voice alongside your Food Peace journey.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Special guest Melissa Toler, former wellness coach turned writer, speaker, and educator.
  • Our relationship with food and our bodies often is based off of our early childhood experiences.
  • Making peace with food and your body is an ongoing process. Rest assured, you are not doing it wrong.
  • Writing can be a therapeutic tool that allows you to hear your own voice over the external voices that we often hear regarding our bodies.
  • Filter your book collection to include fat positive and non-diet messages.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(126) I have no willpower. 0
Sep 11, 2018

Do you feel like you have no willpower when it comes to food? Does it seem like you will never get out of the cycle of dieting and bingeing? Are you even wondering if you may have a food addiction? Listen along as Julie Duffy Dillon provides insight on your next steps.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Nutrition Myth: Calories in, calories out is the key to weight loss.--->Fat phobia is actually at the root of this false message
  • Intuitive Eating will help bring about peace with food and your body through rebuilding connections with your body and allowing food to be consumed for both fuel and pleasure.
  • Taking steps to dismantle our fat phobic system and move towards body liberation is key to promoting health for us all.
  • Our worldview of bodies is broken, not our bodies.
  • Research shows that diets don't work for most people.
  • Saying someone is addicted to food is like saying they're addicted to oxygen, water, warmth, and sleep --->we need all of these to stay alive; "We can't be addicted to something we need to survive" --Amy Pershing
  • Connect with as many fat positive people as you are able in order to help move towards body autonomy and body liberation.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(125) I feel guilty when I eat (with Amanda Martinez Beck) 0
Sep 4, 2018

Do you ever feel guilt for eating certain foods? Do you fear judgement about what other people will think about your body or food choices? Do you ever catch yourself labeling food "good" or bad?" Are you finding it difficult to feel at home in your aging body? Listen along to this week's episode as Amanda Martinez Beck helps provide meaningful reflection.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Special guest: Amanda Martinez Beck, co-host of the Fat and Faithful podcast
  • Typically, we feel shame when we feel as though we have failed at meeting some type of expectations.
  • When processing body shame, it is often helpful to turn the conversation to, "What is the purpose of my body?" and being able to shift our understanding of its purpose from being a means to control life's uncertainties to being a bridge of connection to other people.
  • Quote to live by: "All bodies are good bodies"--because all types of bodies can form connections with others.
  • Our aging bodies tell our stories and reflect ours and our ancestors' journeys.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(124) My relationship with food is dark (with Corrie Van Horne and Melissa Preston) 0
Aug 28, 2018

Have you been trying to recover from your eating disorder yet constantly slipping back in? Been in and out of treatment? We hope you know you are not alone. Check out this week's featured Dear Food letter and listen to the wise and compassionate wisdom from Corrie Van Horne and Melissa Preston.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Special guests: Corrie Van Horne and Melissa Preston, both Licensed Professional Counselors (Corrie is a candidate) and Registered Dietitians, co-founders of Omni Counseling and Nutrition.
  • Many with eating disorders find themselves going in and out of various levels of treatment throughout their recovery journey.
  • Transitioning out of a higher level of care where there is fairly constant support can be challenging in many ways, particularly when it comes to "normalizing" one's relationship with food.
  • Oftentimes, our relationship with food and how we perceive it, mirrors other relationships and forms of oppression in our life.
  • Autonomy and self-compassion are both powerful tools in healing both our relationship with individuals and food.
  • Good self-reminder: Food is essential to life. It is okay (and necessary) to want to and need to eat.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(123) My past trauma keeps me bingeing (with Amy Pershing) 0
Aug 21, 2018

Have you been been making steps towards body acceptance, but find yourself stuck when it comes to letting go of certain eating behaviors? Perhaps, you are one of many of those with an eating disorder who has suffered from trauma? Listen to this week's episode with special guest Amy Pershing as she helps guide listeners along their recovery journey so that they can begin their healing process from trauma.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the Love, Food Podcast store. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

*Content Warning: discussion of sexual abuse

  • Special guest Amy Pershing, licensed clinical social worker and founder of the Body Wise binge eating disorder recovery program and the Hunger Wise program as well as author of Binge Eating Disorder-The Journey to Recovery and Beyond.
  • Many individuals who experience eating disorders have a history of trauma.
  • Our culture has not recovered from its own eating disorder. When we are capable of making some steps forward in our culture's recovery from its eating disorder (and acceptance of all bodies), we can begin creating space to process our individual trauma so that healing can happen.
  • Trauma, particularly sexual trauma, makes an individual feel as though their physical being is not okay.
  • We must begin challenging cultural narratives that perpetuate body hate/fat phobia, such as that an individual's size predicts their health (spoiler alert: NOT true), in order to allow this trauma work to be able to take place.
  • Additionally, filter your environment/social media: "If an image makes you feel bad, don't consume it." ~Amy Pershing
  • Healing from an eating disorder includes honoring what the eating disorder/food behaviors has done for an individual's survival as well as adding tools, in addition to food, to one's toolbox for coping.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(122 Season 2 Finale) I think about food all day long (with Heidi Schauster) 0
Jun 4, 2018

Have you struggled with a complicated relationship with food, and all its twists and turns, for way too long? Maybe your family taught you body hate and ways to diet instead of enjoying food and pleasurable movement. This week's letter writer has really tried to heal their relationship with food yet can't stop thinking about food, bingeing, obsessing, and hating on their body. Can things change? Can they show their young family a different way?? Listen now for Season 2 finale with special guest Heidi Schauster, author of Nourish.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the Love, Food Podcast store. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Special guest Heidi Schauster, registered dietitian and eating disorder specialist of A Nourishing Word
  • As human beings, we are designed to think about food--on average, about 200 times per day.
  • When thoughts about food interfere with your relationships and connecting to joy in your life, this is called food preoccupation.
  • A restrictive mindset (and/or actual food restriction) often goes hand-in-hand with food preoccupation, leading to particular foods becoming "charged" and transformed into binge foods.
  • Non-judgmental observation of the thoughts and feelings you have around your daily food choices and interactions with food is an important first step in neutralizing food and healing your relationship with these "charged" foods.
  • If possible, seek out a registered dietitian who specializes in disordered eating. Avoid dietitians that label foods "good" or "bad" or prescribe limitations of foods.
  • Healing from food preoccupation means leaning into your own internal cues and not relying on external methods for food choices.
  • Your body does not need to be fixed. Our culture is what is broken.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(121) I'm ashamed that I can't control my eating and drinking (with Victoria Welsby) 0
May 28, 2018

Have you experienced a chaotic relationship with food full of diets and shame? Do you struggle with an addiction to alcohol and wonder if abstinence looks the same with food and alcohol? Are you exploring intuitive eating concepts yet feel out of control? Listen to the latest Love Food podcast with special guest Victoria Welsby.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the Love, Food Podcast store. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Special guest Victoria Welsby from BamPowLife.
  • Dieting and making strides to lose weight and change your body in an effort to get the things you want in life (or to just simply be accepted) is the rule in our society rather than the exception
  • Research shows that those who embark on a dieting journey regain a significant amount of the weight lost within the first year and all or most of the weight back at year five. So what does this mean? Diets don't work.
  • Additionally, dieting frequently induces shame. Shame that isn't yours to carry as you don't fail at diets. Rather, the diets fail you and this shame burden belongs to our oppressive society.
  • Sometimes alcohol dependence coincides with one's eating concerns. However, it is important to separate these as while you can be addicted to alcohol, you cannot be addicted to food. You need food to live whereas your survival isn't dependent on alcohol. In addition, while you can have a "normal" physical and emotional relationship with food as you recover from disordered eating, you may not be able to have the same relationship with alcohol moving forward.
  • As you begin to heal, it is important to make space to honor how you've been coping and keeping yourself alive.
  • As you explore Intuitive Eating, it is common to feel like you are constantly battling your brain in the beginning. This is because your body has to learn to trust you again and know food is unconditionally accessible.
  • Be kind to yourself, be patient with yourself, and remove the shame as you begin your Intuitive Eating journey. It is challenging work and takes time.
  • Healing from internalized fat phobia is a huge part of this journey as well and means learning to feel at home in your body as it is now as there are no body size guarantees.
  • Fat bodies are "normal" bodies too. Connecting with those who live in fat bodies is an important step in healing your relationship with food and your body.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

(120) Can food cure me? 0
May 21, 2018

How many times have you read about someone curing their diabetes or PCOS with food? Feel frustrated you can't too?? Listen to latest Love Food Podcast episode for ways to move forward while healing your relationship with food and your body.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Enrollment is now open! You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love, Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Do you have a long history of dieting in your efforts to control or cure a medical condition or to just feel like you fit in within our society?
  • Many of the medical conditions we experience are blamed on ourselves. You are not to blame! Food is not to blame! These conditions are often genetically-based and incurable.
  • The "Shoulds" imposed on us by society lead to guilt, shame, and distrusting our innate wisdom that we all have for identifying our body's needs
  • Diet seduction/"Should Eat Fantasy Compliance" is commonly experienced upon embarking on a new diet as we feel like we are moving towards meeting societal body standards. However, this distracts us from the destructive nature of dieting.
  • Research shows that diets do not work long-term and they predict weight gain and exacerbate many of the markers of medical conditions. So, why do diets continue to be sought out? Fat Phobia, White Supremacy, and Misogyny. We want to feel accepted, safe, and at home in our own skin. This is completely understandable. However, we don't need to be fixed and our bodies don't need to be fixed. Rather, society needs to be fixed.
  • Connecting with fat activists is an important step in dismantling the "Should Eat Fantasy Compliance" and fat phobia.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

How do I change my eating without restricting? (Episode 119 with Vincci Tsui) 0
May 14, 2018

Have diabetes, high cholesterol, a food intolerance or PCOS and been told to cut something out of your regular eating? Have you finally rejected diet culture and found food peace, but are struggling with gentle nutrition? Are you concerned that changing your food choices due to health concerns might lead you back to restriction and deprivation? Listen now as special guest, Vincci Tsui, and I break down this part of the Food Peace™ journey.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Enrollment is open! Receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love, Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Nutrition is NOT an exact science!! It's a fluid concept, and very individual.
  • Vincci Tsui joins us to chat about gentle nutrition and intuitive eating!
  • Finding the balance between gentle nutrition and diet mentality can be so hard. Too much of the nutrition information out there is so tainted with diet culture!
  • What even is gentle nutrition? It's less about food rules, and more about what makes our bodies feel good. It's all about our INTENTION!
  • Nutrition is super individual! Your own experience with certain foods is way more important than what the current research says.
  • There are way too many books out there that claim to be non-diet, but still perpetuate diet culture and the thin ideal. It's so hard to escape it! So be careful with the anti-diet media that you consume, and decide for yourself which parts of these books and films are helpful, and which parts are harmful. Rely on your intuition to tell you which is which!
  • It's about what works for YOU! The research may give us some parameters, but we need to rely on our own body cues to figure out what actually works for us. It's literally about experimenting on ourselves.
  • You can incorporate foods that are typically considered "diet foods" without them being about dieting and weight loss. It's about making choices out of self-care! When the intention is different, it makes ALL the difference.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

Food controls my life. (Episode 118) 0
May 7, 2018


Do you feel like food has way too much power in your life and don't see a way out? 

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Enrollment is open! Receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love, Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • How do we know when food has too much power? It's when we're thinking about it ALL DAY LONG. At night, while you're eating a meal... all day.
  • We as humans are wired to survive, and if we're not getting access to enough food, our bodies are going to send food preoccupation into overdrive. But there are ways to think about food in a calmer way! And it isn't more restriction.
  • Remember, food preoccupation is you being a successful human. We don't want to demonize that!
  • Diet culture and body hatred perpetuate all of these food rules and body rules, but these rules are manmade... they don't actually help us, and they disconnect us from our internal wisdom.
  • Using food to soothe is a SKILL! It's not something to feel shameful about. But maybe this coping skill doesn't suit you anymore, and that's okay.
  • Unconditional permission to eat is KEY to reducing food preoccupation, and as long as you're giving yourself permission, you can explore what I call symbolic hunger.
  • Food also has too little power in our life... but what does this mean? It means that we aren't giving ourselves room within our relationship with food for anything but food as fuel. We also need food for pleasure, and we need to give ourselves true unconditional permission to eat.
  • You don't need to be fixed... the world does!
  • Food is the GREATEST connector. It unites us, and it connects us to ourselves.
  • Our relationship with food is a great window into our relationship with ourselves. When we make peace with food, we make peace with ourselves.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

I'm a food addict. I will never make peace with you. (Episode 117) 0
Apr 30, 2018

Have you ever described your relationship with food as an addiction? Do you think that Food Peace™ will never work for you because you're addicted to certain kinds of food? Listen now to get my take on this Food Peace™ challenge.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Enrollment is open! Receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love, Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Your feelings about being addicted to food are valid... BUT, it's important to investigate WHY we feel that way, and to dig deeper.
  • We live in a world where controlling our food and having a certain body size are thought to go hand-in-hand. We think that if we eat less, we're going to weigh less, and that people in larger bodies just don't have "discipline" when it comes to food. But this just isn't true!!
  • Internalized fatphobia and the desire to find acceptance in our thin-obsessed culture can drive us towards dieting, and the desire to restrict our food. It can also push us towards removing pleasure from our lives, whether it's about food, sex, or anything else!
  • If we were allowed to embrace pleasure, I think that the feeling of addiction around food would change.
  • If we aren't giving ourselves PERMISSION to have pleasure, we are going to subconsciously restrict and deprive ourselves of food.
  • This is not your fault! Our body pushes us to be preoccupied with food when we deprive ourselves of food. Restriction keeps the food-preoccupation going!!
  • Compassion and permission are key, not keeping ourselves "under control."
  • Name the moments when food has too much power!!
  • Our bodies and our brains just want us to stay alive, and the feeling of food addiction is actually how our bodies continue to try and stay alive.
  • Remember, your needs aren't a burden. You are NOT too needy! Redefine your expectations around meeting your needs.
  • Consider how thin privilege plays a role in feeling like we need to fix ourselves. Put the anger and the burden where it belongs! Not on us, but on the fatphobic society in which we live.
  • Strive for embodiment, pleasure, satisfaction, and compassion.
  • Patients with PCOS often experience even more intense feelings about being addicted to food, especially because most doctors encourage people with PCOS to cut out carbs. But carbs are not the enemy! By removing them from your diet, you just increase the need for them, and the feeling of being out of control around them.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

I've been at a higher weight and lower weight. I fear my body changing again. (Episode 116 with Sarah Thompson) 0
Apr 23, 2018

Are you healing your relationship with food and your body and are coming to the point of beginning to crave joyful movement and gentle nutrition, but are worried that delving into this part of the Food Peace™ journey will jeopardize your recovery? Are the people around you still stuck in diet culture, and you're finding your relationship with them increasingly difficult as you move closer to Food Peace™? Listen now as special guest, Sarah Thompson, and I give our take on these Food Peace™ challenges.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Enrollment opens TODAY! Receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Sarah Thompson joins us to break down this week's letter!
  • Internalized weight stigma and diet culture are challenging to let go of, but it's necessary to find peace with food and our bodies.
  • Fatphobia is SO entrenched in all of us, and it hurts everyone no matter our body size!
  • Everyone is indoctrinated into diet culture, especially those of us who have been socialized as women.
  • Family dynamics can play a big role in how we relate to food and our bodies, especially if as children we're made to act in a parental role.
  • Embracing food and body actions that stereotypically have ties to dieting and restriction can be scary, but we don't have to engage with joyful movement and gentle nutrition in a disordered way! They can be nourishing actions, and they don't have to belong to diet culture.
  • Body changes can be triggering, and weight loss may make us feel like we're betraying the fat-acceptance community. Body changes can also throw our body-acceptance process for a loop, making us have to start the process of embracing our new shape all over again. But body changes are inevitable!
  • Make sure that you're aware of your privilege, and acknowledge it! Make room for marginalized voices.
  • We get to enjoy salads and movement without promising ourselves weight loss and without falling down a disordered rabbit hole.
  • The more that we heal our relationship with food, the less we will feel that foods are "healthy" or "unhealthy."
  • There are people in larger bodies that have an active lifestyle! We DON'T have to be a small body to enjoy movement, and we don't have to pursue movement for the sake of weight loss. Movement belongs to everyone!
  • We're all continually doing our own work and finding our own path.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

I have to be careful with food. And, I am tired of it. (Ep 115) 0
Apr 16, 2018

Are you struggling to find a peaceful relationship with food? Do you just want to feel normal again around food? Do you feel like food is taking up too much of your brain space? Listen now to get tips on how to handle this part of the Food Peace™ journey.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period in April, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have at least one with size range options from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Food is an ultimate connector! It helps us to define our culture, family, and community.
  • Health at Every Size was started during the late 60s to discuss the mistreatment of people in larger bodies.
  • Mealtime should be pleasurable, but for some of us, it becomes a battlefield.
  • Obsession around food develops from deprivation around food! But this means food starts to develop TOO MUCH meaning, to the point that it interferes with our life.
  • Our relationship with food is often a mirror image to how we're relating to something or someone else in our life. It indicates an unmet need! We have everything within us to meet our needs, and so investigating what those needs are might be the key!
  • What would it be like to no longer fight the power that food has in your life? What if you gave food the power that it wants, and gave yourself permission to spend more time with food? Or to bring new foods home? To eat them and appreciate them? Instead of fighting food, what if you gave it the power that it's been yearning for? Connect with food in a way that gives you space to experiment!

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

My mom criticizes my body and food choices. (Episode 114) 0
Apr 9, 2018

What do we do when our foundation for Food Peace™ is rooted in negative self-talk and shame? How do we find make peace with our body when those around us are hyper-critical of our appearance? Listen now to get my tips on how to handle this part of the Food Peace™ journey.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period in April, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

Check out the whole Love Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have an option with sizes ranging from XS to 5X. All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Caregivers have a HUGE impact on our sense of self-worth and the development of positive self-talk. If our primary caregiver is a critical voice in our lives, we are unable to create our own internal compassionate voice.
  • If we have a caregiver with a personality disorder, it can be doubly hard to assert your right to your body. Personality disorders can be super rigid, and it's important to set boundaries around what is and isn't allowed. Tell this person that you won't talk about food and body with them anymore, period!
  • Specifically, having a primary caregiver with narcissistic personality disorder can really effect your ability to have a peaceful relationship with food and our body.
  • Our relationship with food MIRRORS our relationship with other aspects of our lives!
  • Experiencing a foundation of criticism related to our body will have a lasting impact on how we view our body.
  • The "shoulding" inner voice aims to shame us! It's important to react like a rebellious teenager to these shoulding voices.
  • When we deprive our bodies, they react by seeking out large amounts of highly palatable foods. This is the way our body tries to save us! It's important to reframe these experiences as something shameful, to something necessary for survival.
  • Compassionate curiosity is the foundation to Food Peace™. Seek out safe spaces to further enhance this journey, including online groups, therapists, and more.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

If I'm not focusing on weight am I making diabetes worse? (Ep 113 with Megrette Fletcher) 0
Apr 2, 2018

Does the non-diet approach make diabetes worse?? How does intuitive eating fit when a person has real health concerns are impacted by food choices? Listen now to get my Food Peace tips with Megrette Fletcher, diabetes AND mindful eating dietitian expert.

Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds.

This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace™. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period in April, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace™ with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how.

This episode is also brought to you by my new Fat-Positive Dietitian t-shirt and mug! All proceeds go to funding this labor of love to keep it as a free resource for you. Check out the whole Love Food Podcast store here. All T-Shirt designs have an option with sizes ranging from XS to 5X.

Product links may be affiliate. If you click and make a purchase, there's no extra cost to you.

The transcribed episode can be found here.

Episode's Key Points:

  • Black and white thinking is a cognitive distortion. Real like, and real health, isn't like that at all. Being a weight-inclusive, fat-positive, non-diet dietitian is NOT an approach that harms health.
  • Gastric bypass does NOT rid the world of fatphobia! The answer to this problem is a combo solution: to help people heal their relationship with food AND with their bodies. Part of this means healing the cultural fatphobia our world is currently struggling with.
  • Megrette Fletcher joins us to talk about medical nutrition therapy!
  • Moving away from a job that doesn't support our passions and values is an amazing step.
  • The culture surrounding diabetes is super saturated by diet culture, and so moving out of the diet-centric paradigm in diabetes work is hard! Before insulin was invented, restriction was the only way we knew how to manage the disease.
  • We need to pause and think, why are we so afraid of nourishing the body?
  • When we teach diabetes from a Health at Every Size perspective, we address every body as an individual.
  • We're ALL marinating in diet culture, and people who struggle with diabetes exist in a diet-culture pressure cooker. We don't cause diabetes as it's a genetic disease, but so much of diet culture blames the individual and individual food and exercise choices.
  • Compassion is KEY for diabetes care, as there really isn't a cure and it's not a disease anyone asks for. It's a genetic condition that's VERY complex.
  • The goal needs to be to nourish the body, period. Where our weight ends up doesn't matter!
  • No matter what your body size, you need to eat! We need more food than we think, and we're allowed to nourish our bodies.

Show Notes:

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.

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