Content note: This episode includes discussions around intentional weight loss and diet culture, and contains swearing.

This is the first in a new podcast series called The Body Stories with my beloved friend and fellow coach, Ali Shapiro. Over the next year, Ali and I will have an occasional and ongoing conversation about the nuanced relationship with our bodies.

Ali is a deeply experienced coach whose work sits at the intersection of food, psychology, and behaviour change. Ali holds multiple certifications in integrated nutrition, and her master’s degree is in human behaviour. She has over a decade of work with clients and founded the ‘Truce with Food’ coaching methodology. This work is Ali’s love language!

To give you some context for this episode: I first went to Weight Watchers aged 11, thus began my on-off ‘its complicated’ situationship with the worst of bad boyfriends: diet culture. It’s been hard won, but these days, I have an appreciative and compassionate relationship with my body, and I feel so free of diet mentality.

I also have a complex heart condition, and losing body fat will reduce the burden on my heart. At age 51, I want to lose weight in order to build a strong body that my 81-year-old self will be so proud of. As I embark on this process of intentional weight loss, a lot of old stuff has come up. So far, this process has contained a lot of surprising realisations, story rewrites, and tentative healing.

In this first episode, we set the scene for this ongoing conversation. We talk about:

* Diet culture as “thin at all costs”

* Feeling peace within our bodies

* What does it mean to trust your appetite?

* How I’ve changed my eating habits

* Why restriction is different from deprivation

* Doing the “good thing” vs actually feeling good

* Finding satisfaction in our day-to-day

* Letting go of the Weight Watchers “walk of shame”

This podcast series was sparked by our private chats where Ali’s support has been rich with insight. Our conversations felt so nourishing I invited Ali to make this a public chat.

These are tender conversations, and at times, I will be in the coaching client seat. Our hope is that listening in will spark your own exploration of your body story.

Mentioned in this Episode:

* Connect with Ali here.

* Ali’s upcoming program: Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now?

* That Sugar Film

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