My Healing Era

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between dieting and disordered eating? What happens when you don't eat enough? What determines how "fast" or "slow" your metabolism is? In this episode Savana sits down with Anika Roy - eating disorder survivor who's currently finishing her Master's in Nutrition, and they do a deep dive together on where diets fall short despite the rate of dieting being the highest it's ever been. 

This episode covers everything from signs that your dieting may have tipped over into disordered eating, the dangers of restricting food too much, the variables that impact your metabolism and body size, to a critique on common diets such as 75 hard, the Keto diet, and Intermittent fasting.

Want to follow Anika on instagram? Check her out here @beating.disordered.eating

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Women are struggling with burn out and the feeling of living in survival mode more so now than ever. In this podcast episode, women's therapist Savana dives into the 6 trends she's seeing that are keeping women caught in the cycle of burn out.

You won't want to miss this episode, because it's much deeper than just working too much and not getting enough sleep. Savana uncovers the subconscious and nervous system reasons why women are constantly running on E and unfortunately, most of the reasons are normalized in today's society. 

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Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

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Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

You've heard about weight loss surgeries and Ozempic, but is it really the magic cure for permanent weight loss? In this episode Savana sits down with a former weight loss surgery dietitian, Kirsten Ackerman, who tells us everything we need to know about weight loss surgeries and the ozempic era.

R.D. Kirsten Ackerman brings forward an interesting perspective as a former weight loss surgery dietitian who did a complete 180, and is now anti diet and working as an Intuitive Eating Dietitian. She tells us exactly why weight loss surgeries and ozempic may not be the "cure all" for those in bigger bodies like we've been promised, and we talk all things food noise (AKA the reason why you have food noise) 

In this episode we cover: 

• what a weight loss surgery procedure looks like and the biological reason they're not always effective long-term 
• the potential effects of weight loss surgery on mental health 
• risks and side effects of weight loss surgery that are often glossed over 
• how ozempic actually works 
• what it actually means when you experience food noise 
• the truth about metabolism and weight loss plateaus when taking ozempic or post weight loss surgery 

Connect with Kirsten on instagram @theintuitive_rd

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

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Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

September is PCOS Awareness month, so what better time for Savana to share her PCOS journey in depth with listeners! In this solo podcast episode Savana takes you through her PCOS journey from the start to the present day. 

Savana's PCOS journey is a still a work in progress, but she takes you back to the beginning to discuss the first PCOS symptoms she had, how she discovered she had PCOS despite having never heard of it before, and the endocrinologist appointment that left her in tears. Savana also talks about allllllll the trial and error of the many diets that are recommended for PCOS and how this still led to her developing Reactive Hypoglycaemia, as well as what PCOS has taught her about herself and life. 

Are you a fellow Cyster? Let's chat in the DM's and let me know which part of this story resonated with you!

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

To hang with me daily, follow me at @womens.therapist on the gram!

Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Is society's obsession with eating healthy, checking food labels, avoiding processed foods and stressing over ingredients actually healthy? Or could it be making us sicker? Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor (and social worker!) Natasha Snapper joins Savana for a fascinating episode where they discuss when healthy eating becomes orthorexia and the impacts of the healthy eating craze on mental health, physical health and the nervous system. 

You won’t want to miss this episode, because Savana and Natasha discuss the research findings on the health outcomes of countries who have less dieting behaviour than those in North America (your mind will be blown!), where the research falls short on health outcomes and processed food intake, and the other factors that contribute to health that literally no one is talking about. 

This episode covers: 

• What is Orthorexia? And what’s the difference between making healthful food choices? 
• My journey through cutting out foods in the beginning of my PCOS journey and what it did to my mental health
• Why America’s health outcomes and life expectancy are worse than other countries despite having the highest rate of dieting 
• What happens to your nervous system when you label foods as “bad” or stress over food labels 
• Fascinating studies about the stress and illness connection and how this relates to your relationship with food, and the flaws with studies on nutrition
• The one mindset shift you can make today to talk yourself out of your next spiral when you're stressing over the foods you eat
• The variables that aren’t considered when talking about health (it’s not just about the food!) 
• Why we may not have to fear processed foods as much as we think... we tell you exactly what the research on processed foods is missing!
• The reason why we fixate on food when we’re worried about health 
• The shocking statistic around children developing eating disorders vs diabetes 

Want to connect with Natasha? Check her out on instagram @nourishwithnatasha

Research discussed in episode:

Rozin, P. (1993). Food and cuisine: Education, risk and pleasure. Journal of Gastronomy, 7, 111-120.

Rozin, P. (1999). Food is fundamental, fun, frightening, and far-reaching. Social Research, 66, 9-30.  

Rozin, P., Fischler, C., Imada, S., Sarubin, A., & Wrzesniewski, A. (1999). Attitudes to food and the role of food in life: Comparisons of Flemish Belgium, France, Japan and the United States. Appetite, 33, 163-180.  foodattfranceapp99

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

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Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Savana turns 30 this week! This is a special birthday episode where Savana talks about the 30 most important and insightful things she's learnt this far in life, and as a therapist (who also goes to therapy). 

Tune in to hear what Savana has learnt about our patterns as humans, the nervous system in action, the most important superpowers of life to master, some of the most inspirational insights that has helped her clients, and so much more! 

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

To hang with me daily, follow me at @womens.therapist on the gram!

Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Why do I have thoughts about dieting on a bad body image day? Why am I so scared about gaining weight? Or so stressed when I miss a workout? In this episode, Savana reveals the reason why you do these things... and guaranteed, you haven't heard it before! 

This episode covers: 

• what it actually means when you have the urge to diet and restrict on a bad body image day 
• why you keep going back to dieting even though you know it doesn't work in the long run
• the physiological reason why you're so scared to gain weight and why this keeps you locked in the dieting cycle 
• why dieting actually exasperates distressing body image  
• the reason you spiral over the calories in myfitnesspal, missing a workout, or the number on the scale 

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

To hang with me daily, follow me at @womens.therapist on the gram!

Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Do you have ADHD and feel like your eating patterns and relationship with food feel chaotic? There’s a reason why! In this episode I sit down with an anti-diet Nutritionist, Ellen Biemiller, and we discuss all things ADHD and having a healthy relationship with food that doesn’t include diet culture. 
Here’s everything that we cover: 

• which ADHD symptoms can contribute to a stressful and chaotic relationship with food 
• the differences in the way an ADHD brain functions which can make eating feel more difficult 
• eating as a sensory experience and what this means for those who are neurodivergent 
• the ADHD and dieting shame cycle 
• why the binge-restrict cycle may be more common in those who have ADHD 
• my own experience through ADHD and how this has effected my relationship with food 
• why Intuitive Eating is a great tool for those with ADHD 
• what to focus on if you have ADHD and would like to feel less chaos in your relationship with food 

Connect with Ellen on instagram @yourantidietbff
ADHD and eating behaviour blog post 
Or visit Ellen's website! 

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

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Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Have you heard of the nervous system responses fight, flight or freeze, but don't really know exactly what that means for you and your nervous system? Every nervous system response has an origin story, and even things that have happened to us years and years ago impact how we respond to stress today.

In this podcast episode, Savana uses her own nervous system as an example of how it keeps track of all our experiences. In other words, this is a real life, real time example of how the body keeps the score. This episode covers: 

• what fight, flight and freeze responses look like
• the recent incident that helped Savana connect the dots from her past to current nervous system responses 
• how the feelings we have in our body have an origin story
• how our past nervous system responses effect or current day behaviour and stress response 
• the misunderstandings of the "freeze" nervous system response 
• steps to build awareness around your own nervous system responses 

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

To hang with me daily, follow me at @womens.therapist on the gram!

Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!

Are you actually binge eating? Or are you just overeating? Listen to Savana sit down with a fellow therapist, Daniela Durazo, who specializes in Binge Eating. In this episode we talk about what exactly Binge Eating Disorder is and looks like, and what the differences are between binge eating, overeating, and emotional eating. 

This episode covers: 

• why binge eating is more than just eating your favourite foods until you feel physically full 
• what binge eating and dieting have in common 
• which eating disorders are shamed while other eating disorders are encouraged 
• the diet cycle and how it perpetuates binge eating 
• how to spot the difference between binge eating, emotional eating, and overeating

Want to show some love or have a topic you want me to cover? Send me a message here!

Did you enjoy this episode? Make sure to share it to your instagram stories and tag me @womens.therapist

To hang with me daily, follow me at @womens.therapist on the gram!

Are you located in Alberta or British Columbia and looking for a therapist? Check me out on psychology today!