In this episode, Lisa sits down with Ann, a 71-year-old artist, dancer, and healer, who opens up about her lifelong journey with food, body image, and emotional healing. Ann takes us through the ups and downs of living in a body that often felt like both a battleground and a refuge. Through movement, dance, and the support of the OOTC community, she has found profound transformation—especially through her time in the Out of the Cave program.

Topics Include:

• Food and Family Dynamics

• Adolescence and Body Shame   

• Movement as Healing

• Community and Support

[:35] Lisa encourages listeners to register for the Reclaiming Peace With Food Retreat at the Omega Institute from September 7-12, 2025 and to sign up for the final group coaching cohort starting in September.

[4:45] Ann introduces herself as a 71-year-old artist from Seattle. Her professional life has centered on performing and healing arts, including movement, dance, theater, and massage therapy. She expresses a deep curiosity about the human experience and the mind-body connection. Lisa and Ann discuss her childhood memories of food. Ann shares her earliest memory wasn’t about food but being 3 years old hiding in a cupboard with brown sugar. Ann remembers being a picky eater with little interest in food.  

[9:29] Ann describes dinner times as tense due to her father’s presence. Ann talks about eating alone because of the tension at the table. Ann describes her struggles with body image, as she started linking her self-worth to her physical appearance during her teenage years. Lisa and Ann discuss how high school brought challenges with weight gain and body image, intensified by the school newspaper promoting an ‘ideal’ female figure. 

[20:35] Ann shares how her career as an aerobics instructor in her mid-20s prompted an understanding of food as fuel for performance. She describes how this period of high physical activity and improved nutrition led to enhanced mental clarity, an end to a long-term depression, and a return to college. Lisa and Ann talk about how the death of her father and subsequent diagnosis of her mother with cancer further compounded a period of profound grief and depression, resulting in significant weight gain from emotional eating and decreased physical activity. 

[31:29] Ann talks about how after her mother’s passing, she rediscovered dance through a mind-body practice called Nia. Ann became a Nia instructor for 13 years. Ann discovered that when she engaged in the movement she loved, her eating habits would improve.

[41:50] Lisa and Ann discuss how in the summer of 2023, she was on a very restrictive diet, which made her angry at herself for ‘falling for it again’ and giving her power away to an external system, despite intuitively knowing that such methods are not a long-term solution. Ann shares with Lisa how finding her 14-week program provided an essential container for healing. Lisa and Ann emphasize the power of the group setting, where listening to others’ stories and feeling accepted creates a safe, powerful and transformative environment. 

[51:53] Lisa and Ann discuss how the program offers a unique, safe space to share vulnerabilities about food and body image. Ann shares that consistently experiencing safety and acceptance in a group is presented as the fundamental mechanism for transformation.

*The views of podcast guests do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of Lisa Schlosberg or Out of the Cave, LLC.

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Reclaiming Peace With Food Retreat at the Omega Institute - September 7-12, 2025