This week I’m speaking to Clara Nosek, AKA Your Dietitian BFF. Outpatient dietitian by day, nutrition influencer-disruptor by night. This episode is all about getting to know the ‘new’ you post baby and figuring out this new identity; and finding your main character energy. We touch on so many other topics along the way - pandemic babies, the yes/and of pregnancy, the weird shit our bodies do, the toxic independence mothers are expected to perform. Unsolicited advice, finding your mom gang, sanctimommy culture, the overlap between diet culture and the pressure to be a perfect parent, and how the pipeline of perfect ‘mom’ to food-fear-mongering is a slip and slide. It’s a good time. LFG.

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Here’s the transcript in full.

Clara Nosek  And then there's also like, once you give birth, you are not who you were before. Right? are not who you were when you were pregnant. And so now who are, you have no idea. And so there's that trying to wrestle with that new you while also taking care of this other person, while also dealing with the pressure of like, okay, now I want to be like the perfect mom. And then while also like, like dealing with who am I to my partner, who am I to myself who am I to my friends? And I think yeah, like that's, it's weird. There's no books on that. 

Laura Thomas  Hey, welcome to Can I Have Another Snack podcast, where I'm asking my guests who or what they are nourishing right now and who or what is nourishing them? I'm Laura Thomas, an anti diet Registered nutritionist and author of the Can I Have Another Snack newsletter? Okay, so if last week's episode with Christy was a tear jerker, then this week's episode will make you laugh your ass off. I'm joined by your dietician BFF herself, Clara Nosek. Clara is an outpatient dietitian by day and a nutrition influencer disrupter by night, even though I'm pretty sure she would hate me calling her that. Clara is the creator of big sister nutrition or she'll tell you how she sees it, but she definitely won't tell you what to do. We talked about so many things on this episode. Like there's almost nothing that we don't touch on. We're talking about pandemic babies, the yes and of pregnancy and the weird shit that our bodies do. The toxic independence mothers are expected to perform. We talked about unsolicited advice, finding your mom gang, sanctimommy culture and the overlap between diet culture and the pressure to be a perfect parent. And how the pipeline of perfect mum to food fear mongering is a slip and slide. But what I think this episode is really about is getting to know the new you post baby and figuring out this new identity and finding your main character energy. And this conversation wouldn't be complete without a deep cultural analysis of reality TV, and why Clara loves it so hard. So after we recorded this episode, Clara sent me a side note she wanted to add about this conversation. So I'm just going to read the whole email now. Clara said I just had a thought that perhaps could use more context RE: The perfect mom to food fear mongering anti science pipeline, and that yes, one critical thinking and slash understanding is needed but also two the nuance and context of white supremacy and the creation of distrust, and the roots in how white people have treated/experimented on communities of colour. So from a black indigenous POC lens, there is historical evidence to dust distrust mainstream slash white standards, and white people who benefit and perpetuate and believe in the distrust, but can't be bothered to explore why it's there in the first place, or the role of white supremacy plays in informing those thoughts are problematic. And just to add to Clara's note here, I was also thinking about how science gets weaponized against communities of colour and marginalised communities to gaslight, their lived experience and undermine cultural medicines, for example. So just wanted to give that context to our conversation. I also wanted to add that guests on kind of have another sack are paid for their time on their labour for being here. This is not the norm in the podcast world, I think I've been paid maybe once for doing a podcast in my life. And I've done a lot of podcasts. But it's work. And that's why I want to make sure that the guests that appear on Can I Have Another Snack get paid. And the only way that this is possible is through the support of the people listening. So that's you guys, by supporting this work by becoming a subscriber. So I wanted to say thank you if you've already subscribed, all of this was just to say that Clara has decided to donate her honorarium for being here to Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, who are working to bring relief and clean water to communities who need it most in Jackson, Mississippi. I'm also going to link to that fund so if you'd like to make your own contribution, then you can just click the link in the transcript for this episode. And while we are talking about subscriptions, I just wanted to let you know that you are listening to the long edit of this podcast episode. From October I'll be publishing a shorter edit here in your podcast player on a special long edit for paid subscribers of the Can I Have Another Snack newsletter. As a little bonus for supporting my work. Alongside weekly discussion threads, my dear Laura column, and loads of other fun perks, you can head to laurathomas.substack.com to subscribe, it's five pounds a month or 50 pounds for the year. And if that's inaccessible to you, for whatever reason, please email [email protected] for a comp subscription. I'm keeping all the content on Can I Have Another Snack free for the month of September and turning on the paid community features and paid subscriber only columns from October. If you value this work, you can help keep it sustainable by becoming a paid subscriber. And last thing, if you enjoyed this episode, I would really really appreciate it if you could support me by rating and reviewing it in your podcast player, and maybe even sharing it with a friend. It makes such a huge difference to a new podcast, I can't even tell you. So thank you for rating and reviewing. You can also find a full transcript of this episode over on substack. Again, that's laurathomas.substack.com. And I would really love it if you wanted to leave a comment over there to let us know what you thought of this conversation. And to keep the conversation going. All right team, here's Clara.

Laura Thomas  Alright, Clara, who or what are you nourishing right now?

Clara Nosek You know, I've had this thought a lot, recently, probably not framed in that way. But like, currently, this body I'm in now. When you're out of pregnancy, still sleep is questionable. At best. Also, this like role I...