Zoë Rom is a journalist, elite runner, and advocate for nuanced storytelling in sports media. Kylee Van Horn is a dietitian working directly with athletes. They join me to share their insights on how diet culture and running culture intersect. We explore nutrition myths, challenge unrealistic body ideals, and talk about what it means for athletes to foster a healthier, science-backed relationship with movement and food.

Tune in for more on:

* How diet culture shows up in running and endurance sports

* The role of media in reinforcing harmful body standards for athletes

* Why nutrition myths—especially around carbohydrates—are so persistent

* The particular brand of disordered eating in runners

* How the attention economy rewards extremes over nuance

* The pressure athletes face with appearance and body composition

* Why humor is such a powerful part of recovery and healing

* What it means to ask deeper questions about our beliefs around food, health, and performance

* The importance of representing diverse bodies in athletics

I hope you enjoy this one! It’s full of stories, science, and a little humor along the way—including why, yes, pizza really is the hero we all deserve.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Find Zoë and Kylee: https://www.yourdietsuckspodcast.com/

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Therapists Ashley Wilfore and Sarah Louer know what it's like to have dieting and body shame passed down to you like a family heirloom. We discuss what it means to experience intergenerational trauma, how disordered eating and body hatred get inherited and perpetuated through family values and behaviors, and what it's like to grow up surrounded by diet culture in your home. Ashley and Sarah and speak with honesty, compassion, and humor about their experiences letting go of the pursuit of thinness, and trying to raise their own children while being cycle-breakers.

Tune in to hear more about:

- What’s on their plates (hint: foods to eat when you're sick, and an ode to eggplant...)

- A clinical and personal definition of “intergenerational trauma”

- Being impacted by generational passing down of dieting and body shame

- How the idea that starving yourself is power has been believed by their family members who were otherwise independent-minded and strong 

- Specific moments and vivid memories from childhood that form beliefs today

- Overhearing the women they looked up to talking about their own bodies

- The moments they realized they couldn’t keep dieting and over-exercising 

- The intentional decisions they made as mothers when it comes to food and body talk

- How they handle their parents' anti-fat bias today

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness 

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

More About Ashley:

Ashley is a wife, a mom of two boys and a clinician. She has her master's in science in forensic psychology and is working on her second advanced degree in social work. She specializes in working with people with IDD and complex needs, but really enjoys talking and working with people who have experienced family trauma and supporting others to break out of social norms.

More About Sarah:

Sarah is a 54-year-old mother of four living in Vermont, working in New York. She's a licensed clinical social worker, an avid traveler, foodie, and a recovering disorder dieter. She's passionate about human rights for all, and a rectal cancer survivor. She loves Costa Rica, the ocean, and craft cocktails.

Abbie sits down with Meg Bowman, a nutritionist who works at the intersection of mental health, trauma, and nutrition, to explore how our lived experiences—especially chronic illness and trauma—shape our relationship with food and our bodies.

Meg shares her own story of being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, how it led her to a career change from PR to nutrition, and what she’s learned from working with clients who live with trauma, mental health conditions, and digestive issues. This is a conversation that unpacks the deeply human side of nourishment—why it’s not just about what we eat, but about how safe we feel while eating.

More of what you’ll hear:

* How trauma and chronic stress affect digestion and inflammation

* Why nervous system regulation is an essential (and underrated) part of nutrition

* The difference between physical and psychological restriction

* How self-blame and shame can trigger survival responses in the body (and make eating so hard!)

* The illusion of control that dieting and food rules can offer—and why it’s really about safety

* What “messages of safety” look like in real life (hint: regular, balanced meals count!)

* Why so many primary care visits are actually related to stress and trauma

* How to approach food when living with chronic illness without falling into restriction

Meg also shares her refreshing, realistic take on healing—one that doesn’t romanticize “perfect eating,” but instead honors the nervous system, lived experience, and the body’s need for both nourishment and compassion.

More about Meg and her book: https://www.megbowmannutrition.com/body-on-trauma-book

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Abbie is joined by Christyna Johnson, a registered dietitian whose work sits at the intersection of nourishment and social justice (a perfect fit for Full Plate, as you all know).

They unpack the way systems have weaponized hunger. And why that matters so much at a time where extreme thinness is being celebrated, hunger suppression is being normalized, and health is feeling more like a performance than ever.

Tune in for more on:

* Hunger as a tool of control—historically, politically, and culturally* Growing up with limited food variety, dieting, and respectability politics* Diet culture as a cult (yes, it’s fascinating)* Why appetite suppression is being framed as “health”* GLP-1 medications, food noise, and informed consent* Epigenetics, famine, dieting, and intergenerational impact* The difference between the performance of health and actual well-being* Pleasure, nourishment, and why enjoying food matters* Why younger generations give us real reasons to hope

This episode is honest, funny, gentle, and deeply unsettling in the best way. It invites us to ask bigger questions:

Who benefits when we’re disconnected from our bodies? And what becomes possible when nourishment takes up less brain space—so we can look up and care for one another?

Make sure you’re following Christyna on Instagram. And check out her book, 100 Food Affirmations, right here.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcastFind Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Abbie is joined by registered dietitian Anna Sweeney for a conversation that gently but firmly pushes back on the loudest nutrition narratives we’re seeing and hearing right now (carbs, sugar, protein hype, processed foods, “good fats” and everything in between). Together, they unpack the potential harms of the newly released dietary guidelines, the moral panic around convenience foods, and the way “real food” nutrition messaging lands on disabled folks, people with eating disorders, parents, and anyone just trying to get fed.

Tune in for more on:

Anna’s lived experience with disability and how that impacts eating

Why convenience foods are not something to fear

What is inside the new dietary guidelines (and what’s left out)

How “clickable nutrition advice” is fueling misinformation

The violence of demonizing accessible foods

Why “real food” is a misleading (and loaded) concept

Protein recommendations, cultural bias, and who gets left out

Should we be avoiding sugar?

Carbohydrates as essential (and why the fear-mongering won’t stop)

How nutrition messaging creates shame instead of support

The missing role of pleasure in conversations about health

Why individual responsibility is overemphasized—and systems are ignored

Social determinants of health and nutrition conversations

Learning to trust your body in a culture that profits from distrust

Anna Sweeney (she/her) is a chronically ill and disabled relational nutrition therapist and registered dietitian. She has dedicated her career to counseling, supervising, and consulting in the field of eating disorders. Anna is the owner of a group nutrition therapy practice dedicated to anti-oppressive, fat-positive eating disorder care. Anna has spoken nationally at numerous conferences and media outlets, is globally recognized as a resource in her field, and regularly communicates on social media as @dietitiananna.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Sharon Maxwell returns (she might hold the record!?) to talk about embracing pleasure with food and bringing fat joy into the new year. Oh and...why body liberation is not dead, they just want us to think it is.

Tune in for more on:

- Why pleasure matters in healing

- How Sharon is learning to savor food, perhaps for the first time

- Psychedelics in Sharon's recovery

- Finding “glimmers” of joy during hard seasons

- Fat joy in the new year

- How community support helps us resist diet culture

- Body liberation as an everyday practice

- Using play as an act of resistance

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Sharon Maxwell (she/they) is an educator, speaker and fat activist. With compassion as a guiding principle, Sharon is a leading force in dismantling systemic anti-fat bias. She dedicates her work to eradicating weight stigma on both a social level and within healthcare settings

Find Sharon on IG: @heysharonmaxwell

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but in need of community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Because it's the end of the year, I figured we needed this one: Yasmine Cheyenne helps us walk some of our most challenging paths: self-forgiveness, people-pleasing, unhealthy relationships, and comparison.

In this revisited episode, we explore:

How perfectionism leads to self-abandonment

Setting boundaries as protection from burnout

How early relational dynamics shape the way we show up in the world

Identifying red flags in relationships

Breaking free of what keeps us stuck in painful cycles

How we lose ourselves when we make choices out of fear

What is really happening when we compare ourselves to others

Using our past as information — not a life sentence

Yasmine Cheyenne is a self-healing educator, mental wellness advocate, author, and motivational speaker who helps people cultivate daily practices to build healthy, joyful lives. Yasmine’s app, The Sugar Jar Community®, provides meditations and healing workshops to support our mental wellness. She’s been featured on the Today show, InStyle, Forbes, and more. An Air Force veteran and native New Yorker, she now lives in Washington, DC with her family.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

If you’re heading into this season feeling overwhelmed, under-rested, or bracing yourself for the inevitable comments about food, bodies, health, or “being good”… you’re in good company. And you deserve support.

Below are the questions I’m answering this month’s community Q&A episode (thinking we should call these Q&As our monthly Full Plate Potluck??? Anyone?!🤣).

My thoughts on the first two questions are free for everyone, and the rest are behind the paywall. Join as a paid subscriber for access to this full Q&A, all other bonus content, and my undying love and gratitude for helping to keep the lights on around here.

Question 1: Prioritizing rest while others are prioritizing diet culture

Question 2: Clothing, Consumerism, and Body Image “Fixes”

Question 3: The Temptation to Restrict with Body Comparison (to our former selves and others)

Question 4: Other People’s Opinions and Choices with Food

Question 5: Comparison and Boundaries with Close Friends and Family

I hope you enjoy this episode, and please use the Substack comments to let me know what questions you have for our next Q&A!

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Perimenopause often starts quietly. Maybe your sleep gets weird, maybe your cycles change, maybe you just don’t feel like yourself. And when that happens, most of us do the obvious thing: we start looking for information. We want reassurance. We want a roadmap.

And that’s where the trap springs.

Because the loudest voices don’t talk to you like a human moving through a profound hormonal transition. No—they talk to you like a problem, a project, and a body in need of tightening, shrinking, purifying, or fixing.

Cole Kazdin returns (her second time on the pod!) to talk to me about this whole mess.

We get into so much in the episode, including:

• the sneaky ways diet culture slips into menopause advice

• the reactivation of old eating disorder behaviors

• orthorexia, “eating clean,” and restriction as coping mechanisms

• the research on midlife vulnerability to dieting

• longevity and nutrition misinformation

• reclaiming exercise from wellness culture

• how we can experience more joy, autonomy, and nourishment during this transition

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

About Cole:Cole Kazdin is a four-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer, and performer. She is the author of What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety and has contributed to The Moth Presents All These Wonders. Cole has written for outlets including VICE, TIME, The New York Times, and Cosmopolitan, and produced for Good Morning America, Nightline, and Netflix. A celebrated storyteller, she’s performed on The Moth Mainstage nationwide and NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour, and currently teaches writing at UCLA Extension. She lives in Los Angeles. 

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

 Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Eating disorders have long been treated through talk therapy, nutrition support, and medication, but what happens when these approaches aren’t enough? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Marissa Raymond-Flesch, a leading researcher exploring the potential of psychedelic therapies as a treatment for anorexia.

We dive into:

The science behind psychedelic therapy and its emerging applications in mental health.

Current research on psychedelics for anorexia and what the early findings suggest.

How psychedelic therapy could complement traditional approaches to eating disorder care.

The ethical and safety considerations surrounding this innovative treatment.

Questions researchers are still asking and the future possibilities in the field.

Whether you’re a clinician, researcher, or someone with lived experience, this episode offers a thoughtful, evidence-based look at a groundbreaking frontier in eating disorder treatment.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

More on Dr. Raymond-Flesch's clinical trial: https://eatingdisorders.ucsf.edu/spanya-study

More on Dr. Raymond-Flesch: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/marissa.raymond-flesch

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.