Life After Diets

No conversation about dieting and restricting is complete without talking about the inner rebel! Is binge eating rebellious? Is restriction rebellious? How is our inner rebel at work when it comes to our relationship with food?

• Stef grew up as a people pleaser, but deconstructed that when her binge eating became out of control.
• Sarah's most important factor in keeping peace with food: feeling like she has choice.
• We think of the "rebel" as a bad, naughty thing; but the rebel acts in the name our our very human need for autonomy.
• Our baseline understanding of our own autonomy may develop in early childhood. Stef shares how she sees this manifesting with her children.
• What about the conflict between safety and freedom? Is is possible to have both? How do we maintain a balance when we need to feel safe and grounded, but also need to feel free and unrestricted? Is that the metaphor for "control" with food (restriction) and "freedom" with food (binge eating)?
• Boundaries as an exploration of safety on both sides of the pendulum. We can't understand our own boundaries until we've understood what "too far" feels like.
• The rebel as a representative for our unmet needs.
• Rebellion in body image. Stef feeling lack of autonomy in body size (rebelling against biology) and in fashion (rebelling against thin privilege).
• Sarah LIED (gasp!) as a teenager
• How we talk to and about our inner rebel matters. The rebel may need validation.
• Diet culture, capitalism, patriarchy, etc is an appropriate place to rebel.

The Body Image Workshop - Stef is hosting a live workshop to learn practical tools and techniques to develop body neutrality. Eight weekly workshops beginning July 5th; presentation of tools followed by group open-forum Q&A for support. Enroll now: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/bodyimageworkshop2023

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Most of us develop disordered relationships with food because that food serves a purpose; it becomes a coping tool. So when we no longer have it as a way of comforting ourselves, what happens? How do we deal with that vulnerability and the huge gap it leaves in our emotional support system?

• What does the disordered eating help solve?
• Stef finds restriction the bigger gap; for Sarah, it's the binges.
• How do we make our own cocoons if it's not with food?
• Stef's somatic practice for overwhelm
• Depression energy coming up without the ED
• How yoga helped Sarah go "micro" and anchor into something smaller than existential loneliness and lows
• The role of safety in being able to let go of ED behaviors (because we know they work)
• The Burnout Cycle (per authors Nagoski)
• How does Sarah not panic?
• Fear of death (how did we get to that part of this conversation??)

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Body Image Webinar + Workbook: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/get-started/p/bodyimage

Suffering around food comes from having too much internal conflict around it. How do we reduce the amount of conflict so that we are better able to make calm decisions about food, or better able to find peace even when we don't make "good" decisions? This episode looks at:

• What inner conflict about food physically feels like
• Not restricting" as a reduction of conflict
• Stef's experience of negotiation in recovery
• How body image work helps reduce conflict with food
• Allowing before accepting before choosing
• Sarah's reaction to the delayed NYC subway train
• Step One: Shift the shame
• Make a decision instead of letting the decision happen to you

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Body Image Webinar + Workbook: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/get-started/p/bodyimage

This podcast speaks a lot about the binge restrict cycle, but what about less extreme eating habits like grazing? What do we do with the distress of more subtle behaviors like eating throughout the day without boundaries? Is this "bad"? Is it helpful? We'll discuss:

• The definition of grazing
• The difference between grazing and a "slow binge"
• The satiation point of a meal vs a binge
• Emotional eating vs grazing: can they be one and the same?
• What is powerful enough to interrupt this cycle?
• The impact of habits
• Working from home

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Body Image Webinar + Workbook: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/get-started/p/bodyimage

This episode was livestreamed to our LAD community to answer the question: should I keep my trigger foods in my house? Stef and Sarah share some personal experiences of foods pre and post-recovery, and listeners ask questions pertaining to the conflict around this experience.

• Granolaaaaaaaa
• Muscle memory of a binge: when we eat certain foods in a certain place, does the body automatically move into binge mode?
• Stealing Easter candy from kids baskets
• Nudge Theory
• Do you bring home the leftover dessert or do you throw it away?
• What's the difference between a nudge and mental restriction?
• The concept of "permission"
• What if my state of mind always changes from calm and regulated to stressed and dysregulated?

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Body Image Webinar + Workbook: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/get-started/p/bodyimage

In this episode, Sarah and Stef go behind the scenes of their lived experience of being in recovery from eating disorders and body image issues. What does "recovery" really look like for the hosts?

• Expectations of a "recovered life"
• Sarah's experience with the cupcake shop that doesn't actually sell cupcakes, and sitting in bed with fast food
• Stef: to eat or not to eat the rest of the Cadbury eggs?
• Stef's "Marble in the middle" concept
• What is Body image recovery?
• Sarah's "two states" concept
• The role of time and familiarity with how recovery feels
• Do Sarah and Stef ever second guess their recovery?

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Body Image Webinar + Workbook: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/get-started/p/bodyimage

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

What role does rejection play in your relationship with food and your body?

JOIN US IN NYC ON MAY 6TH

• Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
• Social media as rejection-in-training
• Byron Katie: when people reject you, it's because you don't fit in with the way they want the world to be.
• When staying in the mind (instead of the emotions) is actually helpful
• Surviving rejection on purpose (in the context of dating)
• Binge eating as evidence of the right to be rejected; as long as we're "a mess," rejection isn't a surprise.
• The body as an armor against rejection; the theory of its value
• What inspires Sarah to reject vs connect?
• Is the inability to "be with" oneself the same as self-rejection?
• The link between rejection and vulnerability

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

JOIN US IN NYC ON MAY 6TH

Sarah packed her bags to head to NYC -- and this episode was recorded just a few days after she arrived. The conversation focuses on the disorientation and overwhelm we can feel during times of transition, captured in real time. How did Sarah interact with food and body image as she left her home and ventured into a new chapter?

• Sarah's just arrived in NYC for seven weeks!
• Rerouting the original plan for this weeks' topic because Sarah is in the middle of an identity/existential crisis and we want to talk about it!
• Food choices during the transition time; like it "doesn't count" or "it doesn't matter"
• Feeling alone in a new city without your "people"
• The sensitivity of being in a new place and picking up on all the details and potentially threatening experiences
• Expectations and "shoulds" in new situations
• How does food interact with this feeling?
• Can we find pleasure with food when we're feeling this sense of disconnection?
• Body image and clothes

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

A topic we haven't broached on this podcast to date: SEX.

How do we navigate intimacy when we're dealing with body image issues?

This episode is juicy -- you don't want to miss it. We'll cover:

• A taboo topic to begin with – no wonder we have shame!
• The typical female avatar; why would we assume anyone would like our body just as it is??
• What Leah learned in Jamaica
• The issue of TRUST when it comes to what our partner thinks of us
• What if my partner is not interested in me since I've gained weight?
• New relationship energy
• A common narrative in sex lives of parents
• Socialization of females to fix things and make things better for everyone
• Confidence and weight; chicken or egg?
• How disconnected we have become from our bodies and how we feel
• Communication, scripts, asking directly for feedback
• The Three Minute Game (link: www.leahcarey.com/threeminutes)
• Testosterone and estrogen

To learn more about Leah, please visit @goodgirlstalk on Facebook and Instagram, and the "Good Girls Talk About Sex" podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

Do you feel like your problem is just that you love food too much? Is it possible for true foodies to ever feel neutral around food -- and is feeling neutral around food the key to recovery? In this episode we discuss:

• Stef & Sarah: do we identify with loving food?
• Stef appetite for The Crown (and other nightly TV)
• Dopamine as a "pleasure" and "seeking" neurotransmitter
• Is it that you really love the food or are you afraid of how you'll feel without it?
• Stef's hearty appetite
• Can you feel satisfied with food if you feel guilty about it?
• Taste hunger
• "Palette rounding" and variety
• Is it better to be neutral about food?
• What if you can't habituate to a food?
• Why does Stef talk so fast, anyway?

Join the LAD Membership

Connect with the show!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lifeafterdietspodcast/

Email – [email protected]

Website – www.lifeafterdietspodcast.com

Connect with Sarah Dosanjh

Website – www.thebingeeatingtherapist.com

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBingeEatingTherapist

Sarah's book I Can't Stop Eating is available on Amazon

Connect with Stefanie Michele

Website – www.iamstefaniemichele.com

Binge Eating Recovery Course: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse

JOIN US IN NYC MAY 6TH: Tame Your Inner Critic Workshop