Life. Unrestricted.

Download Episode! Hey there, lovely radicals: Podcast time! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Zoe McNulty from London, UK. Zoe had always dreamed of being a backing dancer on Top Of The Pops, but due to her being larger than a dancer "SHOULD" be, she avoided the commercial dance scene and the negative body image that she would – as she says – undoubtedly have developed. However, with the pressures of a thin-obsessed society, she still struggled with her body through much of her adult life, until she realized how much time she had wasted worrying about what others might think of her. These days, Zoe refers to herself as a champion of curves, and is honored to be an official Body Image Movement Global Ambassador, just like myself. Zoe works as a Top Dance Fitness Presenter, Group Exercise Teacher and Body Positivity Activist and calls herself "Headmistress of School of Strut". She specializes in helping women feel good about their figures, regardless of shape or size, through fund and feisty dance concepts. Today, you'll hear Zoe talk about: – How she grew up to feel self-conscious about her body and her weight – What kind of body image role-model her mother was – How her dream of becoming a dancer got destroyed by arbitrary beauty-ideals – Why it is crucial to recognize that many women actually get the most "compliments" when they are actually sick, compulsive and highly disordered eaters – How she experienced her own changes in body size – What is wrong with the gym-culture and the fitness-ideas of today – How the current "go hard or go home"-paradigm is harmful for girls and women – How women and girls are led to disconnect from their own sensuality and femininity – Why those super-toned body ideals mean "becoming sick" for most women and girls – How health has absolutely nothing to do with those ideals – At what point she hit rock bottom and decided "no more of this dieting crap" – Why it is so important to realize that – no matter what size or shape we are – we will never be for everybody – When she realized that it was not her size or weight that made her attractive – What helped her in growing her internal confidence about who she was, including her size – What the idea is behind "Strutology" and "School of Strut" – Why "strutting" is more about a state of mind than anything else – How we can become self-confident and feel sexy without contributing to the objectification of women – What kind of feedback she gets from women who have been to her classes – What she means when she says "harness the power of the wobble" – What her advice is for ALL women... ... And so much more! Check out Zoe's work here: www.zoemcnulty.com www.schoolofstrut.com You can watch her "Raunch" video here: www.zoemcnulty.com/raunchgiveaway Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Download Episode! Hey there, distinguished radicals - it's podcast time! In this week's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, you'll hear me talk to Kelsey Miller from Brooklyn, New York. Kelsey graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's degree in Film & Television. She began her career in the film production industry before transitioning to full-time writing. Soon after joining the staff of the online magazine Refinery29, she created The Anti-Diet Project, one of the website's most popular franchises. She is currently a Senior Features Writer and of course she is the author of the wonderful memoir "Big Girl". Kelsey shares her story with us, and you'll hear: – How old she was when she became convinced that there was something "wrong" with her body – How her mother related to her body and weight – How early she started restricting food and trying to become skinnier – How easy kids pick up even indirect comments about food and weight and internalize them – How her dream of becoming an actor was being put under the condition that she loses weight, and how that kicked off years of her trying to starve herself into some arbitrary ideal – Why, for so many people, the first diet-success (the high of getting compliments and being applauded for the effort) becomes the carrot they end up chasing for decades – Why people innocently end up sacrificing their self-esteem, their values, the full experience of life and their peace of mind – How she ended up with a black or white, on/off mindset regarding food and exercise – Why re-learning to relate to movement without obsessing/counting/tracking is equally important as developing a normal relationship to food – Why it often takes hearing or reading about someone else's struggles to wake us up out of our own trance – Why dieting and over-exercising are often ways of distracting ourselves from self-exploration – When and how she finally realized what her being stuck in dieting actually cost her – What happened when she decided to let go of this body-loathing way of escaping her own life – How, at first, she was at a complete loss of how to proceed, since all she knew was dieting – How she realized that "Intuitive Eating" would be her life-saver – Why "true permission to eat" turned out to be the key to healing – How re-learning to trust our body's signal is an ongoing process – What the issues were that came up after she stopped escaping from them by her dieting behaviors – Why denial plays a huge part in someone's obsession with weight, food and exercise – How her hard work on her deeper issues really paid out for her – How her relationship developed through her process with giving up her weight-obsession – Why accepting love when you don't love YOURSELF first is extremely difficult and uncomfortable – Why becoming vulnerable and honest towards a partner is so crucial in a relationship – Why it is so important to start challenging our own internal thoughts and beliefs – Why representation of "real" bodies matters so much and what she does to make this more of a reality – When to address someone else's bias and when to let the ball drop – How family and friends reacted when her book came out – What she has to say to you if you are on the fence of writing about your journey... ...And so much more! Check out Kelsey's website: www.kelseymiller.com Here's the link to Refinery29: www.refinery29.com Here's the link to her memoir "Big Girl": https://www.amazon.com/Big-Girl-Gave-Dieting-Life/dp/1455532630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492549935&sr=1-1&keywords=big+girl Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

In today's episode, we all have a chance to meet Robyn L. Goldberg from Los Angeles. Robyn is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Eating Disorder Specialist. Over the last nineteen years, Robyn has developed her own private practice in Beverly Hills, where she specializes in disordered eating, eating disorders, HAES (Health at Every Size), medical conditions, preventative nutrition and pregnancy nutrition. Robyn serves as a Nutrition Consultant for the Celiac Disease Foundation and she currently is the eating disorder specialist at "The Control Center" and has several body image/eating disorder groups at "Sober Livings" in Los Angeles. Robyn also teaches the nutrition classes for the Motion Picture Wellness Program. She is a contributing author that has been quoted in countless publications, and she has made appearances on national TV shows as a nationally known speaker in the eating disorder community promoting positive body image, weight stigma and size diversity. In this talk, Robyn shares with us: – Why she felt awkward and self-conscious as a kid – How she felt around her mother – What's wrong with the sizing of clothes – Why BMI is simply a statistical average and definitely not made for individual determination of health – Why the medical model fails so many patients when BMI is used as an indicator for health – What kind of questions doctors should be asking instead – How she addressed this issue with doctors – How money plays into the fact that patients are not getting properly examined – Why doctors are often so heavily biased against weight-acceptance – How people with higher weight can be anorexic and not get help – How much treatment and therapy would be ideal for a stable recovery – Why recovery can only happen at your own pace – The problem with weight-bias in the medical profession – Where she sees slow shifts in the medical field away from focusing too much on weight – What she addresses in her presentations – Why overexercising can be a form of an eating disorder in and of itself – How recovery from dieting and from a full-blown eating disorder can be like riding waves – How do deal with, for example, exercise-relapses, where an individual gets tempted to engage in compulsive exercise routines (so-called "challenges") again – How to deal with relapses related to eating – Why carbs are necessary for our bodies and why we need to de-villainize them once and for all – How stress is the worst we can do for our health; and that includes stressing over food and exercise – Why we should all watch the short Youtube-video called "Poodle Science" (find link below) – Why we should all honor our uniqueness and our individual bodies...

... And so much more!

Check out Robyn's work on her website: www.askaboutfood.com

Here's the link to the awesome "Poodle Science", made by the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H89QQfXtc-k

Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted

 

********* Don't forget!*********

Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

 

Hey there, lovely radicals... Podcast ahead! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Ragen Chastain from Los Angeles. Most of you know Ragen as the author of the fantastic blog "Dances With Fat", but she also wrote a book called "Fat: The Owner's Manual" and she is the editor of the multi-volume anthology "The Politics of Size - Perspectives from the Fat Acceptance Movement". Her blog "Dances With Fat" is followed by thousands of people from every continent around the world; men and women who are as fed up with weight-stigma as herself. Ragen describes herself as a professional speaker, writer, and real live fat person. She has spoken everywhere from friend's living rooms to Google Headquarters to Cal Tech and Dartmouth. She will not stop until we live in a world where the full diversity of body sizes is respected, and fat people are able to live in fat bodies without shame, stigma, bullying, and harassment. Today, you'll hear Ragen talk about: – How she remembers herself as a kid – What protected her of excessive bullying in school – What triggered her to start restricting and overexercising – Where that landed her... – What bias lies underneath the fact that so many eating disorders go undetected and untreated – How she experienced the competing dancing world as a very talented dancer in a bigger body – What made her realize that she needed to become an activist if she were to become a fat dancer – What started her to want to personally look into the science around weight and diets – What she found out, when she applied all of the skills she had acquired when she studied research methods and statistical analysis (scientific literacy) – How doctors often prescribe to fat people what they would diagnose as an eating disorder in a thin person – A few very real examples of terrible advice she got from actual doctors (weight-bias in the medical field) – How she experienced the effect of being stuck in diet-land – How to read science and tell the difference between causation and correlation – The fallacy of the "good fatty/bad fatty"-dichotomy – Why none of your health decision make you more or less worthy or morally valuable – Why size diversity is completely normal, yet our society want us to believe otherwise (and buy into their weight-loss programs and products) – Why "healthy" and "thin" are not synonymous – What her mantra is to survive in this culture that bombards us with weight-loss messages – What she did to stop hating her body – How our childhoods play a role in recovery... ... And so much more! Check out Ragen's famous blog: https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/blog/ Here's the link to her book: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Owners-Manual-Ragen-Chastain/dp/0985667400 Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Lovely radicals, podcast joy ahead...! This week, on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, we all have a chance to meet Beth Rosen. Beth is a Registered Dietitian in private practice in Southbury (Connecticut, USA) and virtually everywhere else. She subscribes to a non-diet philosophy to wellness and is a Health At Every Size® practitioner. Beth has an undergraduate degree in Dietetics, and a Master's degree from Columbia University in New York City in Nutrition Education. She has been a Registered Dietitian for over 20 years. Currently, she works with chronic dieters who are struggling with the vicious cycle of dieting to ditch all diets, learn to eat fearlessly through self-regulation and Intuitive Eating principles, and respect and care for their bodies. As someone who knows how it is to live with serious food intolerances, she loves sharing recipes and food ideas for joyful eating. Being a mother, she also writes about parenting, sustainable living, gardening and crafting. In this talk, Beth shares with us: – How she was taught to feel about her body – How her mother's (and grandmother's) relationship to food and weight got passed on to her – How dieting became the "normal thing to do" for her – How her brothers were affected by her mother's obsession with thinness – How she learned that girls "bonded" through body-hatred and diet-talk – How diets mess with our body's signals in a harmful way – What kind of people she met in her studies to become a Registered Dietitian – That – disturbingly! – even people with full-blown eating disorders were allowed to take these courses – Why what is being taught at nutrition school is always to be taken with a grain of salt – Why she made herself a disservice by following the advice she learned at nutrition school – Why all foods – fun-foods included! – are important – How the "stocking"-method words to get over the fear of certain foods – How she remembers the moment she herself snapped out of her diet-obsession – How her "way out" looked like when she decided to leave diet-culture behind – What traps she fell into when she started intuitive eating – What keeps us from actually letting dieting go, even if we know that it's imprisoning us – How to create new, better inner self-talk – What it takes to make a new habit – like positive self-talk/not dieting – stick – Why it is so important to separate the negative voice from ourselves and personalize it – Why dealing with body image issues before motherhood is so crucially important – How she made sure that she passes on a positive or at least neutral body image... ... And so much more! Check out Beth's website: www.goodnessgraciousliving.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Hey there, lovely radicals! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, you'll hear me a chat with a fellow official "Body Image Movement Global Ambassador": Dan Lewin from the Sunshine Coast in Australia! Dan is 35 years old and has recently graduated with a Bachelor of Nutrition & Dietetics (Honors) and he has started working for a group of specialized dietitians dedicated to working with clients who are battling eating disorders, disordered eating and weight and body concerns in general. In all of his work, he uses the principles of Health at Every Size (HAES) and the non-diet approach. He is very passionate about working with community and raising awareness around body image issues, for women as well as men. As a professional photographer, he uses imagery as a tool to bring attention to male and female body image concerns. Today, you'll hear Dan talk about: – How he remembers his relationship to food and body as a young boy – Where he got the message that his body was too big – What the role of his family was in the development of his body image – What experience kicked off his first engagement in dieting and trying to "look normal" – How he became a slave to restricting and counting, even while traveling overseas – Why he took things to the extreme after meeting his wife, especially with exercise – How his behaviors influenced his relationship – How, when he got the most compliments, his mental and physical health suffered the worst – What made him let go of his perfectionistic tendencies – Who and what made him see that he didn't want to spread the diet-word and make others as miserable as he was – What helped him to let go of his old belief that his worth was tied to his looks – What he replaced self-hate and self-criticism with – Why he describes the journey towards body acceptance as an ongoing, fluid process – How defining his personal values helped him move through the initial phase of letting go of dieting – Why uncomfortable feelings and difficult emotions are part of the way to liberation, not a sign that it's not working – Why we need to face our fears and actually go collect the evidence (that nothing bad will happen if we gain some weight or lose tone) to see that it was only our mind holding us prisoner for so long – Why the study of dietetics and nutrition often only reinforces body-negativity and fails to address the epidemic of disordered eating and the increase of eating disorders – How he discovered "The Body Image Movement" that was created by Taryn Brumfitt, the creator of the documentary "Embrace" – Why he would love to see more men watching this movie – How he tries to encourage and inspire other men to talk about their struggles – Why he thinks body image can never be a static thing – Why he believes it is critical to teach the younger generation about media- and marketing literacy – How he intends to fight against the disgraceful "headless fatty" phenomenon in media imagery... ... And so much more! Check out Dan's work here: www.innerselfrevealed.com.au www.fmb.com.au His favorite quote: "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best to make you everybody BUT yourself means to fight the hardest battle that any human being could fight." – E. E. Cummings Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Download Episode! Hey, lovely radicals... it's podcast time! In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I'm talking to Anne Poirier. Anne is the new program director at Green Mountain At Fox Run in Ludlow, Vermont. Green Mountain is a non-diet mind and body wellness center that offers retreats for women who want to start the journey back from years of dieting, body shame, weight-obsession and food fears. They re-learn to enjoy food again, and re-learn to move in a way that brings joy, and has nothing to do with food, calories or punishment. Anne was a fitness trainer for 30 years, battling her own body-shame-demons, and she came to the realization that the fitness industry is - sadly! - making many people less healthy, instead of more. She saw, time and time again, that the same people she had been helping to lose weight through diet and exercise, were coming back to her, after they had gained the weight back, feeling frustrated, depressed and convinced that they had failed. At the same time - unbeknownst to her clients - this same cycle was happening to her as well. Even though she did everything to look like the usual fitness professional, even though she tried modeling a "good way of eating", and "exercising harder" than others, she finally came to see that this was no way of living, as it really leaves everyone trapped in a vicious, painful cycle, and that it is time to think about sustainability and enjoyment again. Listen to Anne tell us: – How her mother related to food – How early she internalized the idea that her body was something to be fixed – How quickly this idea led her to anorexia – Why she resisted to be treated – How her anorexia eventually morphed into exercise bulimia – How her eating disorder made influenced her decision to go into exercise science in college – How she managed to hide her eating disorder in her athleticism for years – How she - for years - tried to find her identity behind labels like "fit", "strong" or "skinny" – Why her two pregnancies were the only time she remembers feeling free around food – How the disorder popped right back up after she gave birth – How her profession kept feeding her eating disorder, and why she wasn't even really aware of it – How exercise is a legit addiction like any other – What kind of issues and pain we are numbing out from by exercising compulsively – What the biggest hurdle is for many people when they are tackling their exercise obsession – How we can reframe how we think about our bodies towards a more realistic, grateful body image – How painful it is to realize that she lived like that until she was almost 50 years old, too afraid to let go – Why it was that only when her body started to break down that she started waking up – How a forced break from exercise turned out to be the first step towards real healing – How suddenly she discovered a life beyond fitness and training and weight-suppressing – How she dealt with her changing weight – Why "Drums Alive" turned out to be a real game-changer for her in terms of exercise – Why it's never wise to compare our insides to other people's outsides – Why some people have to hit rock bottom before they start to see that they don't really want to live life presenting a facade that isn't even them – How she now sees clearly how she was desperately trying to "be someone special" all her life and how she lost herself in that for a long time – How she describes her life from, say, five years ago, compared to her life now – What her focus is in her work as program director at Green Mountain At Fox Run... ... And so much more! Check out the wonderful Green Mountain website: www.greenmountainatfoxrun.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join  

Hello, sweet radicals! In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Hilary Kinavey from Portland, Oregon. Hilary is a licensed professional counselor who specializes in disordered eating, trauma, anxiety, depression and addictions. She works in partnership with clients to develop a deeper understanding of their personal challenges, inner wisdom and their personal story. As a counselor, she places an emphasis on developing insight, mindfulness, and empathy for oneself. In 2005, she and Dana Sturtevant started facilitating groups to help women let go of food and weight obsession, and – sharing the same ideas – they then merged their practices to create a revolutionary approach to re-establish the "Body Trust" that we all had when we were born. They founded "Be Nourished", a partnership that is based on the passion to help people lose the weight of body shame and to create the change they seek from a deeper place. They offer programs, workshops, retreats, and e-courses to help cultivate body trust, as well as counseling, yoga and naturopathic care to complement long-term body acceptance and the benefits of being physically and psychologically nourished. In addition to counseling, coaching, and facilitating, Hilary is a popular speaker on topics such as Health At Every Size, Intuitive Eating and Body Respect in health care communities, and she is a regular contributor to the Huffington post. You'll hear Hilary talk about: – How her mother's dieting made her focus on her own body – How she came to believe that her body was not ok – What she learned about what it meant to be "a successful woman" – Why so many people still aren't aware of how harmful diets can be – What most of us are trying to achieve when we start weight-obsessing – Why her parents' feminism helped her a lot, even though dieting wasn't being questioned yet back then – How she learned about social justice issues from her parents – Why people's struggles with food and weight are often not addressed in counseling – Why, sadly, women are lead from focusing on their own heart's desires towards being stuck focusing solely on their desirability – What it was that made the pieces fall together for her on her journey to self-acceptance – What her first reaction was after she figured out what it is that keeps women from living their fullest expression and following their true desires – What 5 steps we can all take to get rid of body-loathing – How Intuitive Eating connected her with her own body – Why Intuitive Eating and enjoying food freely leads to a feeling of empowerment – How her whole life changed when she started trusting herself, her body and food – How she breaks through the diet-mentality barriers of her clients – What this body image work is really about, at the core – How she helps her clients get over their resistance to feel emotions – What her (and Dana Sturtevant's) work at "Be Nourished" is all about – How body respect is the first and easiest step towards body trust – How to learn what diet-culture has robbed of us, and how that can help us grow – Why it's not about "not ever having a bad body day" again – How "Be Nourished" helps health care providers get rid of weight-bias... ... And so much more! Check out Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant's work with "Be Nourished" here: www.benourished.org Here's the link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/benourishedpdx/?fref=ts Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Lovely radicals! Welcome back. This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, it's my pleasure to bring to you a fellow size-acceptance fighter: Diane Summers from Everett, Washington. Diane is a nationally registered and state certified dietitian with extensive experience treating eating disorders at all levels of care. Diane has been involved in the awareness, prevention and treatment of eating disorders for more than 10 years, and has treated hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages and across the entire spectrum of eating disorders and eating issues. She is recognized as a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian through the international Association of Eating Disorder Professionals for her expertise in treating eating disorders and training other professionals in the treatment of eating disorders. She is also a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. Diane has presented at local and national conferences, schools, universities, clinics, and church groups. Today, you'll hear Diane talk about: – How her parents feed her as a child and why she is extremely grateful for that – What her emotional difficulties looked like as an "army kid" – The ways in which her body image suffered in her adolescence – Why she felt like "the odd one out" as a nutritionist – What it was that made her question the diet-y ideas she got taught in nutrition school – The reason why she got interested in working with eating disorders – Why eating disorder treatments so often fail – Why we are often unaware of our internal "size-ism" and how to bring that into awareness – What it would take to make treatment success stories improve tremendously – What she teaches her clients about weight-discrimination – How we can smartly respond to body-shaming/food-shaming comments – Why we should all abstain from making ANY comments on bodies, whether good or bad – Why not just "the very thin", but also a person in a bigger body might show signs of anorexia – How a session with her could look like – What it is that is way more telling if someone has disordered eating or an eating disorder than the actual weight – What makes the diet-mentality so hard to break free from – What people with disordered eating and eating disorders have in common – Why the role of parents is crucially important in the development of a child's body image – How it is never really about food or weight, once the layers of the struggles are being worked through – Why what the media presents us in terms of post-menopausal women is a legitimate set-up for body-wars – Why weight-gain after menopause is the best life-protection for you... ... And so much more! Check out Diane's website: www.hopenutritiontherapy.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

Download Episode! Lovely radicals, it's podcast time! In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Julie Duffy Dillon from Greensboro, North Carolina. Julie is a food behavior expert who helps people enjoy eating again. Award winning with her progressive approach, Julie was featured in TLC's documentary "My Big Fat Fabulous Life". She also has an active blog, writes the weekly "Food Peace Newsletter", but she also hosts a podcast, called "Love Food", where she addresses people's struggles by way of a love letter from food. Julie has a Bachelor in Nutrition from Ohio University, and a Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling from the University of North Carolina. As a Registered and Licensed Dietitian, she founded BirdHouse Nutrition Therapy, a group practice passionate about helping individuals and families recover from eating disorders. As a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist, she also supervises other dietitians who are on the path to become eating disorder specialists as well. Listen to Julie talk about: – What kind of messages she got about weight and body – Why she got into nutrition and counseling – What she learned about the treatment of people who are considered "overweight" – How she realized that, as a nutritionists, they didn't give those people the right treatment – What's wrong with the education of future nutritionists – Why it is often those who are themselves disordered choose to study nutrition or personal training – What she found out when she dug into weight-science and research studies – What she found out about diets, restriction, weight-obsession and the harm of it all and the risk of developing an eating disorder – What the Minnesota Starvation Study was about and what happens when we diet/restrict/overexercise – Why binge-eating and overeating are rooted in restriction, be it physical and/or mental – How our mental health is closely related to how well-fed we are – How, after periods of restriction, binge-eating is completely normal and our body's way to save us – How she discovered Health at Every Size and started to question her approach and her beliefs – How feminism and the knowledge about social justice issues helped her in developing a deeper understanding of people's body issues – Why body image must be addressed on the way of diet- or eating disorder recovery, in order to make sure that people don't get stuck in disordered eating and a full recovery is possible – What she means by "hidden faces" of eating disorders, and why they are the vast majority of eating disorders – Why anorexics often don't look like the clichéd "skeletal-looking" person – How she found out how hurtful our society's fear of fat really is – What we must be cautious about when choosing a dietitian or nutritionist – How she found out how exaggerated the connection between weight and health really is – Why it can be very helpful to feel healthy anger when we find out how we have been deceived – Why those evasive 3 percent of people for whom dieting "supposedly works" are those who are sacrificing everything just to keep that weight off, and why even those people come to sanity (and their natural weight) eventually – How weight-suppression keeps us from living our lives fully and freely – How we can learn to consume media's messages with a more critical, schooled eye – Why developing a healthy anger towards the diet- and beauty industries will help us grow strong enough to channel it into advocacy... ... And so much more! Check out Julie's websites: www.juliedillonrd.com and www.birdhousenutrition.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/