On this week’s episode of Real Health Radio I’ll be discussing The Minnesota Starvation Experiment. This fascinating experiment has had a huge impact on me as practitioner so I want to share some insights about it with you. I explain the background of the experiment and why it happened, what took place as part of it, and what the results were. As I go through I also explain why I think this information is so useful, both for those who diet but also for those that suffer with eating disorders.

On this week’s episode of Real Health Radio I have the Zoe Nicholson as my guest. Zoe is the director and senior dietitian at Figureate Consulting, a busy full time practice operating from three locations in Melbourne, Australia. Zoe uses the Non-Diet Approach to teach people how to eating intuitively and help heal their relationship with food and their bodies in order to manage their health without dieting or focusing on weight loss. Zoe also has a special interest in food intolerance and is dedicated to helping people identify and manage food intolerance. Zoe is the co-founder of The Moderation Movement.

At the end of January I set myself a challenge. Every day, for a period of 12 weeks, I was going to eat a minimum of 3,200 calories per day. If was had room, I could eat more…and on some days I’d see just how high I could take it. (My highest day turned out to be just under 5,000 calories).

According to online calculators I need 2,800 calories per day to maintain my weight, so eating 3,200 as a minimum meant I would be taking in a lot of extra food. Oh, and just so you know, it wasn’t going to be all “health” food. I was going to eat everything. This included lots of frozen pizzas, ready meals, trips to McDonald’s, KFC and a lot of wine.

This week’s episode of Real Health Radio is all about this over eating experiment, how it affected my weight, my symptoms and what happened once it was over.  I then use this as a launch pad to talk about calories in and calories out, what are potential drivers for weight gain (or loss) and the relationship between weight and health.

On this week’s episode of Real Health Radio I have the Jamie Mendell as my guest. Jamie is a lifestyle coach, specializing in helping women master their lives by taking exceptional care of themselves. For 10 years, Jamie struggled with food, binge / emotional eating and her weight. After hitting her head against a wall for way too long, she finally transformed her relationship with food through intuitive eating and radical self-care. She continues to use her own life as a test kitchen for discovering what it means to live a happy, fulfilled life, and has coached thousands of women on their own journeys. She believes every woman deserves to feel at home within herself, mentally free, and deeply joyful.

Welcome to another instalment of Real Health Radio, today I’m chatting with Kaila Prins. Kaila is a drag queen trapped in a woman’s body—a body positive burlesque and pole dancer, and a performing woman performing “woman.” She is also a body positive wellness and recovery coach, feminist writer and speaker, and the host of the Finding Our Hunger podcast, using intersectional feminism, health at every size, and body positivity to help disordered eaters and exercisers stop “recovering” and start “discovering.” Learn more at performingwoman.com and listen to the podcast at findingourhunger.com.

On this week’s episode of Real Health Radio I am looking at setting up and running a successful practice. I share what I think has been most helpful for me and some of the pitfalls. I go through my story and journey from start to where I am today to provide context for some of the suggestions but to also give a real life example of what it’s like.

Welcome to another episode of Real Health Radio, this week I’m interviewing Jodie is the director of Healthy Balance Fitness a multi-award winning group fitness business based in Melbourne, Australia, and the co-founder of The Moderation Movement. Jodie is spreading the word that quitting foods you enjoy, and forcing yourself to do exercise you hate, is not the way to a healthier, happier life.  After 18 years experience, Jodie is on a mission to make the fitness industry less about aesthetics and more about true health outcomes.

On this week’s episode of Real Health Radio I explore the topic of what it means to be happy. I cover some of the misconceptions around “being happy” and how this idea can be better viewed. I then look at ways to cultivate more happiness or positive emotions (and experiences) in your life.

Welcome to another episode of Real Health Radio, this week I’m joined by Scott Kustes. Scott is a former Crossfit and Paleo evangelist who after many years realized the diet as was following wasn’t helping his health. He is the author of a series of books called Kill Your Diet and co-hosts his own podcast called Evil Sugar Radio. Gone are the days of focusing on extreme diets and restrictive regiments, now he prefers to focus on easy health advice, global health, food politics, and myths in the health industry.

This week’s episode of Real Health Radio is all about carbohydrates. Carbohydrates seem to have taken a real bashing for the past decade or so. While in the 80s and 90s fat was enemy number one, carbohydrates seemed to take over this mantle in the early 2000s with the proliferation of the Atkins diet. Since then further diets like paleo have largely flown the low carb flag. As part of the show I talk about what carbohydrates are used for in the body, what are the different dietary sources, and what are my preferences based on working with clients.