Today's episode features the story of Sarah Taylor--The Appetite's behind-the-scenes magic-maker! Sarah talks with host Carter Umhau, MA, LMHCA, and explores the story of her own recovery from an eating disorder, sharing about her experiences in treatment and the deeper healing that happened after-the-fact. Considering that every recovery story is so different, Sarah gracefully shares the ways that her own struggles with her body eventually lead her into a life postured toward advocacy for all bodies and a deeper spiritual connection with herself.

Links and Resources:

Regular listener Tam O’Donnell joins us to respond to a previous episode, “How to Eat in a Food-Obsessed World.” Tam brings questions and wonderings around how to provide both structure and freedom for kids around food, and asks the crucial and vulnerable question of, “Can I really trust my body?” The Opal team, including Julie Church, RDN, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Carter Umhau, LMHCA, respond with nutrition science, words of wisdom, and questions that beget more questions.

Links and Resources:

Would you engage yourself differently if you assumed that all the emotions you experienced had something to teach you? Today, Opal: Food+Body Wisdom’s Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, and Carter Umhau, MA, LMHCA explore the process of “self-inquiry”--a key tool in Radically Open DBT. Self-inquiry is all about seeking growth rather than trying to fix one’s shortcomings. In this episode, Lexi will lean into the strength of her own vulnerability in order to model the process of self-inquiry in action!

Links and Resources:

The Appetite Episode #02: Introduction to RO DBT https://www.opalfoodandbody.com/blog/appetite-episode-02-introduction-radically-open-dbt/

Radically Open DBT NorthWest Team http://www.rodbtnorthwest.com/

http://www.radicallyopen.net/

It's common to hear messages in the sports world like "More is better!" "No pain, no gain!" or "Keep pushing!" Sports Psychologist Riley Nickols,PhD, Director of The Victory Program at McCallum Place, joins Opal Co-Founder Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS to explore the athletic identity and how widespread ways of thinking about performance as an athlete may also translate into other areas of an athlete's life and self-identity. Bazzi and Nickols explore how these postures are reflected in an athlete's relationship to food, and discuss the importance of expanding the categories of one's identity to promote more holistic well-being that still includes high performance in sport.

Links and Resources: Victory Program Website - www.mccallumplace.com/the-victory-program/

The Appetite Episode #08: Sport and Performance: Exploring the Athletic Temperament - www.opalfoodandbody.com/blog/sport-and-temperament/

The Appetite Episode #16: Who Am I? the Role of Identity in Food, Body Image, and Sport - www.opalfoodandbody.com/blog/the-appetite-identity/

Upcoming Webinar on Eating Disorders in Sport featuring Kara Bazzi - https://iaedp.site-ym.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1111326&group=

This episode is all about identity. Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founders, Lexi Giblin PhD, CEDS, and Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Host Carter Umhau, MA, LMHCA discuss topics of identity development and explore how struggles with disordered eating and body image can sometimes point to a crisis of identity. The Appetite crew shares both from their expertise as clinicians and from personal experience, and Kara brings specific attention to the experience of those that identify as athlete’s and what the loss of sport can mean for one’s sense of self.

Links:

Opal co-founders Lexi Giblin PhD, CEDS, Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD, CD, and Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, join together with host Carter Umhau, LMHCA to reflect and debrief after a transformative experience at the MUSE Conference--a yearly gathering of movers and shakers to kick off Women's History Month. The Founders explore their role as leaders within the eating disorder community and beyond and share with vulnerability and strength how MUSE spoke to each of them in this particular season of life. 

Links and Resources:

What is health and how do we get it? Today we challenge the idea that this question can be answered in a one-size-fits-all way. We explore today's obsession with health, challenging how much of a moral issue health has become, and how we might be able to start looking at it not as an absence of disease, but more holistically as an intersection of well-being in body, mind, and spirit. Links and Resources: Ansel Key's Starvation Study Summary: https://www.refinery29.com/minnesota-starvation-experiment Fast Food versus Supplements: http://www.audyn.org.uy/sitio/repo/arch/Cramer_Michael_Thesis.pdf Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift: https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9 The Weight-Inclusive versus Weight-Normative Approach to Health: Evaluating the Evidence for Prioritizing Well-Being over Weight Loss: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2014/983495/ Connect with us: www.OpalFoodandBody.com www.facebook.com/Opalfoodandbodywisdom/ www.twitter.com/opalfoodandbody