Thrive Beyond Size

Content Warning: conversation on eating disorders and disordered eating: mentions of anorexia nervosa, bulimia, weight bias, and suicidal ideation

Hello friends. Today’s topic is a big one and a sensitive one as well; today we’re talking about eating disorders. It’s a different type of conversation, though, because we’re not going to talk about what they are and how to diagnose them, instead, we’re going to talk about why they’re so prevalent in our society and why they’re underdiagnosed as well as myths perpetrated by the diet culture. I’m not tackling this subject alone, either. I’ve invited Dr. Cristina Castagnini, a licensed psychologist who focuses on helping women with food and body image struggles, to have this conversation with me. Cristina hosts the podcast ‘Behind the Bite’ where eating disorders are talked about from a personal and professional perspective. This conversation is very necessary and Cristina is wonderful to have it with.

Both Cristina and I have had our own journeys with body image and disordered eating, so we talk about that right from the start. Cristina came to her body image work a bit by accident. She wanted to focus on other issues when she encountered a patient she immediately identified as struggling with an eating disorder instead of solely the depression she came in with. Cristina realized, just like with her own treatment, that there still was no satisfactory answer of where could patients go to get real help for disordered eating. We talk about the links between diet culture and eating disorders and how diet culture has influenced medical and health care as well. Talk of losing weight almost always goes hand in hand with any health discussion when you live in a bigger body. Cristina’s work and podcast aim to break those myths around weight, dieting, and health,  as well as address societal pressures. We also tackle the hard realities of weight loss injectables like Ozempic which are designed for diabetes treatment but are being openly offered as weight loss tools. This is a big topic and a deep conversation that I thank Cristina for having with me. It will absolutely open your eyes and help challenge some of your own biases.

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About Cristina Castagnini, PhD:

Cristina Castagnini, PhD, CEDS, is a licensed psychologist who focuses solely on helping women overcome their struggles with food and body image and to achieve a balanced life. She feels fortunate that she is now able to do just that as the Founder and Clinical Director of her own practice, and host of her weekly podcast, Behind the Bite, where she discusses the struggles of eating disorders and body image issues from both the personal and professional perspectives.

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Learn more about Cristina Castagnini, PhD:

• Website & Podcast: BehindTheBitePodcast.com
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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
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We talk a fair bit about chronic pain on this podcast, friends, and some things have become abundantly clear. First, that chronic pain is not taken seriously if you live in a bigger body. Second, while movement is important, the fitness industry and diet culture rob movement of joy. In the place where chronic pain and diet culture meet, where do people who live with pain in bigger bodies go if they want actual advice that isn’t simply “lose weight”? I’ve invited Dana Karen, or DK, Ciccone to join me for a conversation about this topic. DK is a certified Pilates instructor and is trained in pain reprocessing therapy through the Pain Psychology Center. She also wrote the book “You’re Meant to Move: A Guide to Conquering Chronic Pain, Increasing Stress Resilience, and Reclaiming an Active Life” so this discussion is right in her wheelhouse.

DK shares her personal journey from childhood struggles with food through yo-yo dieting along with chronic pain in adulthood. She knows from experience that clients need to shed the disappointment and grief in their bodies before they can make progress with chronic pain. We talk about the problem with going to the doctor over pain and being told to lose weight as an answer. It’s devastating and diet culture contributes to the issue of chronic pain in bigger bodies. DK encourages movement with her clients, through Pilates, and operates a strictly weight-neutral environment and size-inclusive space. She’s part of the Body Positive Fitness Alliance to promote that and I agree so much with her beliefs that diet culture, along with medical culture, dismisses chronic pain. It’s a very open and revealing conversation, an important one, and I know you’ll all appreciate it as much as I do.

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About DK Ciccone:

Dana Karen (“DK”) Ciccone is a certified Pilates instructor who helps people in pain improve strength, mobility, and well-being in a weight-neutral environment. She’s also trained in pain reprocessing therapy through the Pain Psychology Center. Having begun her own journey with chronic back pain as a young teen, she has been exploring ways to help herself and others regain joy of movement for decades. After twenty years in the health sector, DK left a corporate career to follow her passion, later launching Movement Remedies, a chronic pain–focused Pilates studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Her first book, You’re Meant to Move: A Guide to Conquering Chronic Pain, Increasing Stress Resilience, and Reclaiming an Active Life, was released December 2023.

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Resources discussed in this episode:

• “You’re Meant to Move: A Guide to Conquering Chronic Pain, Increasing Stress Resilience, and Reclaiming an Active Life” by Dana Karen Ciccone  
• Pass to try a free class

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Learn more about Dana Karen (DK) Ciccone:

• Website: MovementRemedies.org
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• LinkedIn
• YouTube

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Welcome, friends! This is an exciting episode because I get to introduce you to one of the coaches who works inside Wayza Health, a brilliant expert in habits and taking action. Her name is Christina Claytor and while I love talking in the abstract about theory, Christina will blow your mind with her ability to dig into the details and actually get things done. Christina is the founder of Mindful Health Revolution where she helps clients break up with overwhelming diets and workout plans and guides them into confidently acting on having health on their own terms. You’ll love what she has to share!

I asked Christina to tell you all about her journey into becoming a coach because I like inspirational stories and hers is wonderful. Her career is about coaching people to operationalize their dreams but how did she get there? It’s a powerful journey. Christina shares how she enjoys coaching parents with young kids because her secret hope is to create a generation of children who don’t need health coaches because diet culture has been addressed. We also talk about how she approaches client aspirations, how she takes the overarching goal and identifies actionable steps for getting there, how to think about what you’re for yourself in new ways, and the importance of groundwork for letting go of negative associations and failure mindset in order to progress. Christina walks me through some of my struggles with incorporating more movement into my life and you’ll see just how amazing she is at inspiring action. 

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About Christina Claytor:

Christina Claytor is the founder of The Mindful Health Revolution where she helps clients break up with overwhelming diets and workout plans so they can stop feeling like a failure and start confidently taking action to have health on their own terms.

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Learn more about Christina Claytor:

• Website: TheMindfulHealthRevolution.com
• Instagram
• Facebook

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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What does it mean to thrive? You all join me to Thrive Beyond Size on this podcast but we don’t explore the “thrive” part often enough. Today we’re going to do that, my friends. We’re going to explore what it means to flourish and live a life by design instead of default. I’m not doing this exploration alone, either. I’ve invited the wonderful Dr. Wendy O’Connor, a Stanford-trained positive psychologist and success coach for female entrepreneurs, to join me so we can all share her knowledge. Doctor Wendy has helped thousands of women live a life they’re obsessed with and now it’s our turn to find out how we can do that too!

Doctor Wendy explains positive psychology as the science of happiness and she’s excited that we now do have research to show us what it means to live a flourishing, happy life. We talk about how to start making a change for ourselves by asking where we desire change. Doctor Wendy discusses the steps that come after asking that, the questions we can ask that help us define the change we want. We talk about giving ourselves permission to imagine better experiences, what radical responsibility means and why we need to embrace it, and how we change by understanding that internal growth is about internal work. It’s a wonderful conversation and there’s so much I learned. Doctor Wendy is not talking about toxic positivity but active choices to look at the whole picture and decide to move forward. I can’t wait for you all to hear this episode. 

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About Dr. Wendy O’Connor:

Dr. Wendy is a Stanford-trained positive psychologist and success coach for female entrepreneurs. She helps women design their most meaningful, intentional, and fulfilling lives and businesses. Utilizing her strengths, values, and evidenced-based success method, Dr. Wendy has helped thousands of women worldwide live a life and business they're obsessed with.

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Learn more about Dr. Wendy O’Connor:

• Website: DrWendyOConnor.com
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• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
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I bring you another beautiful interview today, friends. While working on my business I’ve become more present in my relationship with food, becoming in tune with what I really need. Changing our relationship with food is key to understanding our right to nourish our bodies. It’s on this whole line of thought that I invited Maura Rodgers to talk with me today. Maura is a registered dietician, integrative health coach, and an avid foodie and she coaches and empowers people to embrace mindful and intuitive eating techniques. Maura is such a beautiful person and our conversation covers not just healthy eating but truly celebrating food and becoming the most vibrant version of ourselves. 

Maura shares that she grew up in a culture where food was appreciated and celebrated and was something that her family was very intentional about enjoying. She grew up with a wonderful relationship to food and her body but she realized that too many people do not have that relationship at all. That’s what propelled her into a nutrition career, though not along the lines of dieting, but focusing on nourishing bodies instead. Maura and I talk about the shame that comes with a lot of food relationships, the guilt ingrained in diet culture, and why it’s okay to celebrate food. Maura addresses the need for self-compassion and letting go of fear around food while assessing what our bodies really want. Maura’s approach is rooted in health and celebration of bodies and eating, and she exudes kindness and a real understanding of how to make changes that lean towards nourishment gradually and with care. I know you’ll love hearing what she has to say.

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About Maura Rodgers:

As a Registered Dietitian, Integrative Health Coach and avid foodie, Maura has had the privilege of spending the last decade coaching and empowering individuals to achieve healthier, more vibrant lives through a whole-body, root-cause approach that embraces mindful and intuitive eating techniques.

Since day one, her mission has been to help as many people as possible create the health they dream of. Maura most recently worked as Facebook’s onsite Nutritionist in Menlo Park, CA where she earned a 95% patient satisfaction from her clients during her two years there; not because she was trying to, but because she genuinely wanted to do anything she could to help them achieve what they set out for. Additionally, she’s been lucky enough to provide corporate wellness services to companies like Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, Salesforce, Wayfair, Dwell Magazine, and Lululemon.

As a mom of two babies under two, Maura also knows exactly what it feels like to balance a busy lifestyle, working to reconnect with her body, while still wanting to nourish her body and mind with ease. She genuinely believes food can be celebrated and eaten mindfully while also helping you become the most vibrant version of yourself.

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Learn more about Maura Rodgers:

• Website: WellnessWithMaura.com
• Instagram

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Welcome back to the podcast. Today I don’t have a guest to introduce you to because I want to take some time to talk about a docuseries recently released on Netflix. The series in question is called “You Are What You Eat”. I was hesitant to watch it because I had preconceived notions about what it would be about before going in. But I couldn’t rightly talk to you about it without watching it. So I did. And while there were some parts of the documentary I appreciated, I came away feeling that it was mainly propaganda for vegan food. So I’m going to talk about “You Are What You Eat” and also give some tips on how to assess documentaries in the future.  

The docuseries was based on a twin study published in November 2023. In the study, they took twenty-one sets of twins and put one twin on a vegan diet and the other on an omnivore diet. The show looks at how the study was conducted and presents all the information and results gathered from it. I found things lacking in the setup of the study itself and I talk about those questions. There are statistics presented that were different when I looked them up myself. Ultimately my impression was that the series leaned towards a fear-mongering approach to make us feel bad about what we’re eating and, additionally, was pushing a vegan agenda. Now there are truths contained in the series, yes, but overall I felt it contained a lot of harmful fallacies. So I want to share how to approach documentaries like this in the future. What should you look for to determine the bias of the documentary, the equality, and the validity of the viewpoint presented? There’s simple research you can do so you can take information with a grain of salt and see propaganda for what it is. Join me for my thoughts and email me yours after you’ve listened.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Hello, friends! I have another beautiful interview for you today. It’s so encouraging to talk to other women who are interested in ditching diet culture and healing relationships with food. Joanne Edinberg, my guest today, is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach and the founder of Body Wisdom Nutrition. Joanne and I actually both trained at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating which gives us a unique perspective on issues surrounding food and body and weight. Joanne’s interest in health and wellness led her through many other health-related careers but ultimately her passion focused on coaching women to develop a healthy relationship with food and their bodies. 

Something Joanne and I discuss is how diet culture has been so ingrained in us that even the simple act of going for a walk becomes a challenge to exercise and lose weight. We begin to lose touch with what is actually a very natural thing: going outside just because it feels good to be there and to move our bodies. Joanne stresses that self-compassion is a key component of being able to heal our relationships with exercise and food; and that believing we are worthy of rest and time in nature and enjoying the nourishment of food is vital. We talk about self-awareness, being aware of our bodies and what they need instead of just pushing through a certain number of steps and eating only a certain number of calories. There is so much wisdom and knowledge that Joanne has to share and this conversation is very open, honest, and healing. There are definitely ways we can start to change how we view food and our bodies, and Joanne shares the mindset we need to embrace to start healing. 

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About Joanne Edinberg:
Joanne Edinberg is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach and the founder of Body Wisdom Nutrition. She is on a mission to help women end the quest for the perfect diet and the perfect body, so they can spend their time and energy doing what truly nourishes them. She helps health-conscious women shift from feeling stressed to feeling free with food, weight and body image. She provides one-on-one coaching, both in-person and online, through her 12-week program “Transform Your Relationship with Food and Body,” to support women in developing a healthy relationship with food and body, helping them shift from the cycle of eat-guilt-and-shame to curiosity-compassion-and-joy. She uses a positive approach in working on issues such as weight, body image and emotional eating, guiding clients to find the internal wisdom to transform eating challenges into powerful opportunities for personal growth. 

Joanne has previously worked as a social worker and has training and experience as a yoga instructor and labor support doula. She has a B.S. in Psychology from Tufts University, a Master’s degree in Social Work from Boston University, and a Certification in Eating Psychology Coaching from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. She lives in Seattle, WA.

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Learn more about Joanne Edinberg:

• Website: JoanneEdinberg.com
• Instagram
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Content Warning: This episode contains in-depth conversations about eating disorders, internal shame regarding body size, and body image

Today I’m having an open and honest conversation with Anne Poirier about body image and our relationships with food. Anne is a nationally recognized Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, author of “The Body Joyful”, a Certified Self-Talk Trainer, eating disorder specialist, and life coach. She is the leader of the body joyful movement and does a lot of body image and body neutrality work. She shares her own lived experiences with disordered eating with me in this discussion and we talk a lot about diet culture. We get vulnerable in this episode and we also address why we don’t talk about this subject enough. This is a necessary conversation, even if it’s difficult, and I’m so glad Anne is having it with me.

Anne shares her history with anorexia nervosa and binge eating and how the body messages in her head followed her through hospitalization and into a career in the fitness realm. The pressure from society to look a certain way, to embrace what I call “the thin ideal”, has always been powerful but especially in today’s world of 24/7 social media bombardment about how to look and eat. Anne and I talk about learning to question what we choose to believe about bodies, food, and eating. We need to identify the loathing self-talk in our heads and listen to our own bodies instead of those outside voices. Our conversation really dives into how we see ourselves, how that’s tied to how we see food, how we eat or don’t eat, and the shame we’ve carried around for so long. It’s a deeply personal and important episode and I can’t wait for you all to hear what Anne has to say.

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About Anne Poirier:
Anne Poirier CSCS, is a nationally recognized Body Image Expert, author of The Body Joyful, and Not a Fat Annie and leader of the Body Joyful Revolution.  As a pioneer and leading voice for the body neutrality movement, she has been featured and cited in major media outlets around the world including Shape, Women’s Health, New York Times, Washington Post, Livestrong, Huff Post, ABC, Fox, CBS and NPR.  

As a long-time eating disorder survivor, non-diet coach and certified self-talk trainer Anne serves on the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) Lived Experience Task Force. In a 35+ year fitness and coaching career and now as a certified Intuitive Eating Councilor, Eating Disorder Specialist and Life Coach, Anne helps women free themselves from diet culture and society’s thin ideal using her Body Joyful Solution.  

Anne can be reached at [email protected]
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Resources discussed in this episode:

• “The Body Joyful” by Anne Poirier
• “Not a Fat Annie” by Anne Poirier
• “When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies” by Jane R. Hirschman and Carol H. Hunter

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Learn more about Anne Poirier:

• Website: ShapingPerspectives.com
• X/Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Linkedin

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Friends, remember when I had my husband, Rob Issa, on the podcast a few weeks ago? We talked about navigating our different health goals within our relationship, among other things, and that episode was so well received. I knew I had to have Rob back for another discussion, a part two. So Rob is my guest today and we’re talking about when partners no longer find their spouse attractive after years of marriage or partnership. Specifically when one partner blames weight or weight gain for the change in attraction. It’s so easy, as a woman, to just say “men are assholes” but Rob’s here to talk it out because I suspect it’s more nuanced than that. 

This is a complex issue and very triggering, admittedly. Struggling with body image lends itself to not feeling attractive which might put off the partner. Or the partner being disinterested may exacerbate body image issues and lead to feelings of lesser attraction. Or one partner may be feeling something else altogether, a deeper issue, something that should be addressed but is difficult, and it becomes just easier to blame weight as the reason for lack of attraction. Rob and I talk about it all. We talk about men and trophy brides, women’s body image issues, men’s body image issues, inability to be vulnerable, using weight as a deflection tool, sincerely losing attraction and not knowing how to express it. We tackle all the rough and thorny issues. What we ultimately learn is that communication is necessary and not done nearly enough. We need to learn, as partners, as spouses, as intimate pairs, to talk about our bodies and our thoughts about each other’s bodies. As you’ll hear, it’s not easy to do. And yet undoubtedly the key is always going to be shedding light on the hidden issue below what’s said on the surface. Join us as we wade into the subject of blaming diminishing attraction on weight.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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Friends, today I’m talking about a topic I’ve been referencing a lot recently. If you listen regularly you’ll know I’m currently in pre-menopause so I often talk about what’s going on with my periods. So many menstruating people have irregular, super heavy, or very painful periods and it’s always bothered me that we’ve been told this is normal and don’t understand what we can do to get us to a place of normal periods. Which is why I’m so excited to introduce you all to Dr. Erin Ellis! Dr. Ellis is a naturopathic doctor who helps with hormone balancing, fixing periods, and regaining energy. She’s so compassionate to talk to because I feel listened to, which we often don’t feel when we talk about our periods.

Dr. Ellis touts the beauty of naturopathic medicine as being able to really get to the heart of the menstrual issue. Her job is to dig and find out why things are irregular or painful and then to fix it. One of the things Erin and I agree on is understanding that we’re allowed, as women, to advocate for ourselves and learn to insist on lab work and better investigation. Dr. Ellis explains the importance of hormones, managing stress, nutrition, exercise, quality of sleep, the types of environmental chemicals we’re using on our bodies and how every one of these things will affect menstrual cycles. This is why periods are often called the fifth vital sign because they really do tell us if other things are not working right or need looking into. Dr. Ellis has practical tips on getting the types of examinations we need, how we can help ourselves through nutrition and sleep, and explaining what’s happening so we can gauge what’s normal and what isn’t. This conversation will be a game-changer for so many of us!

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About Dr. Erin Ellis:
Dr. Ellis is a Naturopathic Doctor who helps women balance hormones, fix crappy periods and regain the energy they once had to be their happiest, healthiest selves.  In 2010 Dr. Ellis was diagnosed with a rare form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which was the turning point in her life and prompted her to pursue her dreams of becoming a Naturopathic Doctor.

Having had a cancer diagnosis at such a young age, Dr. Ellis’s mission is to empower those to take control of their health.  Life is too short to feel sub-optimal and given the right tools, your body has the innate ability to heal itself.

When she’s not empowering others to become their best versions, Dr. Ellis enjoys spending time helping her community, spending time with her dog, having game nights with family and friends and making new memories with her Fireman.
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Resources discussed in this episode:

• Think Dirty® Shop Clean app

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Learn more about Dr. Erin Ellis:

• Website: DrErinEllis.com
• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Tiktok

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram

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