Small Steps

After over a year of living a very different way, things around us are changing again, mostly for the better. And, as more folks get vaccinated and things open back up, returning to whatever our new lives are could feel scary or anxiety-inducing. This episode invites you to check in with how you want to re-enter the post-vaccine life in a way that’s supportive and aligned for you and what you want and need.

Small Steps in the Show:

• Decide what you’re comfortable with
• Decide how you want to show up in your life moving forward
• State your boundaries to yourself and others
• Allow what is happening or being felt to be what it is (even if that’s hard, uncomfortable or awkward)
• Consider thanking your body for keeping you safe during these times 
• Consider getting support from people you love and trust, including mental health professionals
• Stay aware of the messages about bodies and food and go with what aligns with you
• Keep checking in with you, what you need and how you’re doing
• Be okay with adjusting and changing things as you get more acclimated and comfortable with things
• Give yourself lots of kindness and compassion for yourself as you navigate how you want to show up and how you want to be moving forward

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Buy my Enamel Pins

Stay in touch with my Newsletter

Small Steps #101: Finding and Going at Your Own Pace 

Small Steps #97: Seeing and Letting Go of What You’re Carrying

Sonya Renee Taylor

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Being a mixed race can bring with it a wide range of experiences, cultures and microaggressions, all that can start at a young age. As mixed race people grow up, looking back and processing and working through the experiences when we were children can be incredibly healing and formative to our identities. Farzana Nayani talks about why it’s important to look at this and how mixed race people can start to give some love and attention to our inner mixed kid.

About Farzana Nayani

Farzana Nayani (she/her) is a recognized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion specialist, coach, and speaker for over 20 years. She has contributed curriculum and program design for the Smithsonian and the East-West Center and has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, Parents, NPR, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. Farzana is Filipina and Pakistani and is the parent of two multiracial sons and has written the book, Raising Multiracial Children: Tools for Nurturing Identity in a Racialized World. She founded the multiracial community on Instagram called @multiracialmatters.

Small Steps in the Show: 

• Take moments to pause and reflect on who you really want to be, how you want to show up and what is comfortable for you.
• Notice how your identity changes, when it changes and why it changes.
• Allow for your identity to shift and change without guilt or shame.
• Remember that other people in your life are on their own journey and understandings around identity.
• Have patience and grace in yourself or with other folks in your life.
• Find opportunities for young people in your life to embrace many parts of their identities.
• Find multiracial communities locally and online to get support.
• Check out Farzana’s book for other resources to find other mixed communities and people.

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Raising Multiracial Children: Tools for Nurturing Identity in a Racialized World, Farzana Nayani

Maria P.P. Root’s Bill of Rights for People of Mixed Heritage

Being All of Me, Farzana Nayani

Multiracial Americans of Southern California

Farzana’s Website

Work with Farzana

Follow Farzana on Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter

Multiracial Matters Website

Follow Multiracial Matters on Instagram

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Edited by Bex Carlos

Moving towards living your own definition of health and wellness can be a lot easier to do when you’re going at your own pace. So often, our societies push us to move faster and faster to keep up with the never ending newness in this interconnected world, and that may not actually work for everyone. This episode talks about how you can find, go at, and honor the pace that works best for you.

Small Steps in the Show:

• Reflect on what your preferred pace is for most things
• Notice the pace you do things and check if that’s the pace you actually want to go at
• Consider letting yourself go at your preferred pace
• Let yourself hold the pace you want to go, even if old stories or other people maybe pushing you to do something else
• Consider setting loving boundaries with yourself and others around your pace 
• Consider adjusting what’s going on your life and plate to adjust for the pace that you want and need in your life right now
• If you get stuck in overwhelm, ask yourself what’s the next small step you can take and take it.
• Have a lot of kindness and compassion with yourself as you find, move towards and continue to go at your own pace.

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Buy my Enamel Pins

Small Steps #7: Boundaries and Asking for What You Need

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100 | Disordered Eating Recovery as a Person of Color with Kimmie Singh

Working through disordered eating and eating disorders can be a lot to navigate and potentially adding navigating racial microaggressions can be even more overwhelming. There are many layers and nuances to working through your relationship with food as a person of color that may be missing from the majority of the conversation. In this episode, I talk with Kimmie Singh about those layers and nuances of this and how folks of color can find connection with their food and bodies.

About Kimmie Singh

Kimmie Singh is a fat Registered Dietitian based in New York City. She is an associate at LK Nutrition, a private practice that supports clients with eating disorders to heal their relationships with food and body. Kimmie supports her clients with a fat-positive approach and has a passion for helping folks with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), eating disorders, disordered eating, and weight stigma.

Small Steps in the Show: 

• Notice what messages you’re hearing about food
• Stay curious about how to look for you
• Sit with the discomfort of recovery and finding the messiness
• Find ways that work for you to sit in the discomfort (movement, music, support from loved ones, finding joy in small and big ways)
• Remember you’re not alone in feeling strange in connecting with your body/disordered eating recovery/doing this work

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Health at Every Size

Intuitive Eating

Jessica Wilson, MS RD

Kimmie Singh’s Website

Work with Kimmie

Follow Kimmie on Instagram 

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Edited by Bex Carlos

Diet culture can cast a wide and sticky net in someone’s life and push them to live a word hyperfocused on getting thin at whatever cost. This episode dives deep into how “good” and “bad” foods and the food lists diet culture thrives on are harmful, especially for people of color who have rich food cultures. 

Small Steps in the Show:

• Know that the detangling takes time, awareness and actively choosing something else
• Remind yourself that food doesn’t have to be good or bad, it can be a lot of things
• Think on and define how you want to feel and act around food
• Consider getting support from me or a nutrition professional who specializes in disordered eating support depending on your relationship to food and diet culture
• Think on what foods you want to start adding back into your eating that you may have removed or restricted before (barring any allergies or physical reactions)
• Reconsider foods you may have written off as unhealthy 
• Consider being around food that’s culturally important to you, whether that’s being in a grocery store, bakery, getting or making that food. 
• Remember the memories you have around those foods and why they are important to you
• Try eating them, whether it’s just a little bit or a whole meal, and stay as present as you can
• Get support from people you trust in your life, especially those that can understand more of the food-related diet culture things you may be unlearning
• Remember you are always worthy, no matter what foods you do or don’t eat.
• Give yourself a lot of kindness and compassion as you detangle from diet culture

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Sign up for the newsletter

Buy my Enamel Pins

Small Steps #17: What is Diet Culture

Small Steps #21: The Power of Words around Food and Food Lists

Small Steps #84 with Amanda Martinez Beck

Small Steps #75: Deciding What to Believe around Health Studies, Media and Reports

Small Steps #78 with Krista Linares

Work with me to untangle your Diet Culture things

Work with a POC Eating Disorder Practitioner 

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Sex positivity has become something that’s gotten a lot more attention in the past few years, but what does it mean, especially for folks of color? I invited sex positive Asian auntie Jayda Shuavarnnasri on the show to talk about this with me and unpack the things we all didn’t learn about sexuality, our bodies and how our sensuality is our birthright.

Note: Sexual violence and trauma is mentioned in this show, but not in detail.

About Jayda Shuavarnnasri

Jayda Shuavarnnasri is a queer Southeast Asian sexual wellness educator. Also known as Sex Positive Asian Auntie, she works to liberate folks from sexual shame by creating space for authentic conversations about sexuality, relationships, identity and healing. The topics that excite her most are sexual exploration, identity, transformative justice, and non-conventional relationships. She is also the co-producer of Don't Say Sorry podcast, which centers the experience of Southeast Asian women navigating relationships, mental health and sexuality.

Small Steps in the Show: 

• Be present with your food and engage your five senses before tasting and during eating
• Find a community of people that you can talk about sensuality and sexuality with in an affirming way
• Look for sex education resources that are presented in a neutral and affirming way.

Mentioned in the Show:

Take the Small Steps Podcast Listener Survey

Jayda’s course on the Relationship Escalator

Dr. Tracie Q. Gilbert

T.S.O.B. with Dr. G Podcast

Pleasure Activism

adrienne marie brown

Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski

Listen to the Don’t Say Sorry Podcast

Jayda’s Website

Work with Jayda

Follow Jayda on Instagram 

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Interested in working with Aimee? Find out information here.

Edited by Bex Carlos

Whether we realize it or not, we’re all carrying ideas, beliefs, and ways we live our lives based on our identities, experiences, how we were raised, and more. While some of these things can be helpful or fine, others can be out of alignment with who we truly are and take up too much mental and emotional energy. As the past year has led to a lot of folks reflecting on what hasn’t been working in society, let’s get curious on what we’re carrying and what we can let go of in order to live a more aligned life.

Small Steps in the Show:

• Set aside time to journal or voice memo out how you want to be/who you are and are carrying (consider timing this if that’s helpful for you)
• Compare the two and see what the differences are
• See if there are any blocks and things that don’t resonate
• Get curious about where those things come from
• See how you recognize that they may have served you at one time and do a ritual that resonates with you to let them go
• Think on tangible ways you want to be and show in the world and make those visible
• Get support from people you love, mental health professionals or nutrition professionals
• Have a lot of kindness and compassion as you peel back the layers and continue to let go of the things you carry

Mentioned in the Show:

Sign up for the newsletter

Sonya Renee Taylor

The Body is Not an Apology

The Body is Not an Apology Book, 2nd edition

Small Steps #17 What is Diet Culture

Values Exercise

Work with me to unpack diet culture and food things you’re carrying

Inclusive Therapists Directory

Small Steps #88 with Melody Li (Inclusive Therapists Founder)

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The Small Steps Podcast is back! Listen in to see what’s changing in the podcast, my nutrition business and where you can hear the most up to date information about the changes ahead.

Mentioned in the Show:

Small Steps #87

Sign up for the newsletter

Buy the Health Care is a Human Right Pin

Buy the Always Worthy Pin

Buy the Mixed Kid Magic Pin

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We all have moments where we feel it’s time for a change. Whether you can fully see things are out of alignment for you based on your values or you just know that something’s not working anymore. It can be scary (and totally normal!) to figure out where to go next, especially when it’s moving away from things you’ve done or believed for years. In this episode, I talk with Shohreh Davoodi about her evolution in her life, career and views on health and how she redefined her life as she evolved and shifted.

About Shohreh Davoodi

Shohreh Davoodi is a certified intuitive eating counselor and personal trainer who helps people ditch diet culture and improve their relationships with food, exercise, and their bodies through online coaching and consulting. She is also the host of the Redefining Health & Wellness podcast where she explores the limiting messages we receive about health and the harm those messages can cause. As a mixed-race, queer, and neurodiverse individual, Shohreh is passionate about creating and supporting inclusive spaces in the health and wellness industry.

Small Steps in the Show: 

• Focus on your language and make shifts as needed
• See what mantras are in your head. What could you say instead?
• Think about what you actually want to be doing or like to do
• Think about what you’re doing because you think you should do and you don’t like to do it, consider letting the shoulds go
• Look at where those things come from
• Shifting focus to behaviors over outcomes
• Focus on one thing at a time consistently in a way that works for you
• Moving away from all or nothing thinking
• But what if the best case scenario happened?
• Look at all of the possibilities around a situation (good, bad and in between)
• What would be the worst case scenario? Would you be okay if that happened?

Mentioned in the Show:

Buy my Enamel Pin

Health at Every Size (HAES)

Food Psych Podcast

Dr. Kate Browne

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Small Steps #49: The Art of Noticing: Your Language

Redefining Health & Wellness Podcast #39 with Amanda LaCount

Listen to the Redefining Health & Wellness Podcast

Shohreh’s Website

Follow Shohreh on Instagram and Facebook

Get the full show notes here!

Follow Aimee on Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest

Sign up for the Wellness Wednesdays Newsletter

Interested in working with Aimee? Find out information here.

Edited by Eilise Bonebright

Learning about social justice and understanding the systems of oppression that affect us is extremely important. And it’s just as important to take action on what you’ve learned or in light of what you’ve learned to bring about changing the systems to create something new. This episode covers how to figure out where to share what you’re learning and how to take action on what you’re learning. This is part five of five in a social-justice focused series. 

Important Note: This series is not a substitute for any informal or formal social justice education. See the Mentioned in the Show section of episode 90 to see the people I’ve worked with and learned most of my social justice knowledge from.

Small Steps in the Show: 

• Define your spheres of influence
• Define your skill sets
• If you work for a company, consider checking in with your HR department/manager about company policies, procedures, stance, education related to social justice
• If you’re a freelancer, entrepreneur/small business owner, see how you can incorporate social justice into your work
• Start working on your listening and asking skills
• Extend yourself kindness and compassion as you do this

Mentioned in the Show:

Small Steps #32 with Dr. Tee Williams

Small Steps #33 “Doing the Work” Part 2

Small Steps #90 Ways to “Do the Work”: Setting Up

Small Steps #91 Ways to “Do the Work.”: Gathering Information

Small Steps #92: Ways to “Do the Work”: Media and Money Audits

Small Steps #93: Ways to “Do the Work”: Your Own Care

Dr. Tee Williams

Spheres of Influence Visual Example

Employee Resource Group (ERG)s, article 1 and article 2

Andrea Ranae

Motivational Interviewing

Active Listening

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Interested in working with Aimee? Find out information here.