Life. Unrestricted.

Latest Episodes:

LU 045: Carolyn Costin – What recovery means & why undiagnosed eating issues can be the worst. May 31, 2017

Show notes

Download Episode! Hey there, lovely radicals... podcast ahead! In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I am talking to Carolyn Costin from Malibu, California. Carolyn is a world-renowned clinician, author and speaker acclaimed for her expertise, passion and accomplishments in the field of eating disorders. She is a certified Eating Disorder Specialist and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. After having recovered from anorexia in her early 20s, Carolyn became a psychotherapist, and it was her successful treatment of those with eating disorders that led her to bring her philosophy to the public through her speaking and her books. In 1996, Carolyn created "Monte Nido", the first licensed, residential eating disorder treatment facility in a home setting that has since spurred into 14 facilities nationwide offering a continuum of care. Carolyn's career is dedicated to lecturing, training, teaching and supervising clinicians, dietitians and physicians. Having left "Monde Nido" last year, she remains active in the eating disorder field and she is involved in several professional organizations including the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals as a board trustee and the Academy of Eating Disorders as a fellow. Her advocacy work continues in many arenas including organizations such as Project Heal, Eating Disorder Hope and the Eating Disorder Coalition. At the start of this year, 2017, Carolyn has opened "The Carolyn Costin Institute", which offers Eating Disorder Coach Training, a mentor program, continuing education for clinicians as well as other specialized training. Carolyn talks about: – How long the carefree, joyful feeling of "being in a body" as a child lasted for her – How our habits of comparison and our ideas of "status" are detrimental to body image – What the "Fiji-study" is all about, and what TV/advertisement can do to women – What body-bullying does to kids – What triggered her eating disorder – Why she doesn't support the idea that eating issues are "a genetic thing" – How people with anxiety can calm their anxious thoughts – Why it is so important to become aware of the fact that we are NOT our thoughts, but we can observe them, and let them pass without grabbing on to their message – Why spiritual bypassing is not solving anything, yet so many people try to do just that; avoid difficult emotions by trying to meditate them away instead of facing them in a calm state – What there is still to be fixed in our cultural way of relating to weight and bodies – Why eating disorder treatments that still have a weight-centric approach often backfire and make a full, lasting recovery impossible – Why it is so important for all of us to just detach from the number on the scale – Why it is critically important that everyone working with people with disordered eating resolve their own body- and weight issues first – How she trains therapists and coaches to become good eating disorder therapists – What it actually is that makes a good eating disorder therapist/coach/mentor/dietitian – How she defines „recovery" – Why people with undiagnosed eating issues can often be the ones that are the sickest – The danger of today's obsession with "clean" eating, detoxes, the idea of having to earn or burn food, and all the food advice out there – Why she thinks people still go on diets even if it is a well-established facts that diets don't work – The horrible consequences of fat-shaming people – How the weight-loss industry (together with the advertisement "geniuses") manage to suck so many people in, again and again – The risk factors of developing an eating disorder – Why eating disorders still often don't get addressed at schools, even though the numbers are rampant – Why she made it her mission to train recovered people to become eating disorder coaches – Why a feeling of secure attachment is critical to overcome any issues we might have developed to protect ourselves or to cope with difficult feelings... ... And so much more! If you are interested in Carolyn Costin's work, check out her website: http://www.carolyn-costin.com Here's the link to Carolyn's books: https://www.amazon.com/Carolyn-Costin/e/B001HCYYJ8 Podcasting is expensive. So if you enjoy and love my podcast, please consider supporting it by becoming a "Patreon"! It would greatly help me to keep those episodes coming to you. Thanks! https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join

LU 044: Elena Rossini – The woman who helps changing the world with her movie "The Illusionists". May 24, 2017

Show notes

Hey there, lovely radicals: Podcast ahead! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Elena Rossini from Como, Italy and Paris, France. Elena is a filmmaker, photographer, social entrepreneur and public speaker. Her latest film is called "The Illusionists", a feature-length documentary about the marketing of unattainable beauty ideals around the world. Filming locations included the United States, the UK, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Lebanon, India and Japan. The film has been featured in countless news outlets, and I hope it will be talked about for a long time. Elena has been taking "The Illusionists" on tour, showing it at the biggest companies in Silicon Valley (Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter...) and at dozens of renowned universities in the United States and Europe. Apart from being a filmmaker, Elena is also the founder and editor-in-chief of "No Country for Young Women", a website whose aim is to provide positive role models for young girls. The site features over 100 interviews of women representing five continents, seven decades, and over two dozen professions – from NASA engineers, illustrators, architects, to filmmakers and entrepreneurs. In 2014 Rossini co-founded "Gender Gap Grader", a platform empowering companies and organizations with innovative tools to measure the gender gap. Today, you'll hear Elena talk about: – Why she thinks that right now is the best time to be an activist – Why she is concerned about kids and body image in the age of social media and ruthless advertising – Why she lived in so many places and what country she feels most rooted in – What upsets her most about how women are being portrayed and presented in the media and in advertisement – Why we often buy into (and literally buy) the message of products we don't really need – How much time we end up wasting just "to look in order" – What we really put on our bodies and skins every day – that basically only hurts us – just to look and smell like we think we should – What she found young girls to be most affected by in terms of their body image – The danger behind online-personalities that present their disordered behavior in a way that makes people who watch their workout-/diet-/make-up videos think that they have to achieve the same look – What sparked the idea in her to make a movie about how we are, as women, being presented with illusions, and how we then start to perform an illusion to the outside world – What she found out about the growing epidemic of body dissatisfaction in women and men – Why it took her eight years to complete "The Illusionists" – How she gets treated as a relatively young, female filmmaker – How she responded to the people who wanted to make her believe that she wasn't "able enough" to make this movie herself – Why she selected the countries that she did – What shocking discoveries she made – Why she strongly believes in activism and how she saw that it really DOES change things – What kind of reaction she got from advertising companies when she screened the film – Why the current way eating disorders are represented in documentaries can contribute to the continuation of the problem, and why it keeps many women/men from actually seeking help – What she intents to do in the future to help women change those self-defeating behaviors – What her project "The Realists" will be about – Why we should spend more time OFFline than online... ... And so much more! Check out Elena's work: www.elenarossini.com www.theillusionists.org The books she mentioned in our conversation: „Fat is a Feminist Issue" by Susie Orbach, you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Feminist-Issue-ORBACH-SUSIE/dp/1784753092/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490895011&sr=1-1&keywords=fat+is+a+feminist+issue Here are books about the dangerous power of advertising, by Jean Kilbourne, Mary Pipher, and others: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=jean+kilbourne „Amusing ourselves to death" by Neil Postman, you can find it here: https://www.amazon.de/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/014303653X Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 043: Dr. Stacey Rosenfeld – Today's body-obsessed culture promotes disordered eating. May 17, 2017

Show notes

Download Episode! This week on the the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, we all have a chance to meet Dr. Stacey Rosenfeld from Coral Gables, Florida. Stacey is a clinical psychologist specializing in eating disorders and body image concerns. She also works with substance misuse, anxiety and mood disorders, infertility, and relationship difficulties. A certified group psychotherapist and certified eating disorder specialist, Dr. Rosenfeld has worked at various treatment centers and universities and now directs the "Gatewell Therapy Center" in Miami, Florida. Dr. Stacey Rosenfeld is the author of "Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight", based on her award-winning blog of the same name. She is committing to helping people develop healthier relationships with food and their bodies. She is a member of the National Eating Disorder Association, the International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals, and the Academy for Eating Disorders, she lectures around the country, and she has appeared on numerous media outlets, including the Today Show and ABC News. In this talk, Stacey shares with us: – When her first judgment about her body entered her mind – What she found out in all of her years of clinical work with regards to women and eating issues – What the terrible consequences can be of the myopic depiction of eating disorders in the media – Why people so often deny having a troublesome relationship to food, weight and exercise – What she has to say to those people who are "waiting" for the symptoms to go away as they age – What defines disordered eating, eating disorders and a compulsive relationship to exercise – The different ways in which she sees the display of disordered eating – How she uses motivational interviewing with her patients – Why it is that eating issues often go unaddressed in therapy, and the cost of that – What it is that connects eating issues with alcohol and/or substance misuse – What is wrong with the increasingly thoughtless prescription of (speed-like) drug for ADHD – Why bodies break down when they are pushed to the limit, be it with exercise/drugs/etc. – What a person with an addiction is trying to get away from – How everything can be used to self-medicate, but sadly, some of those behaviors even get applause (work/exercise/perfectionism/restriction), no matter how hellish the person might feel inside – Why we don't really want to be accepted for a facade-like life, but our real selves, warts and all – What happens when women start asking themselves what they could be doing with all the mental and physical energy wasted on "managing their appearance" (diets/exercise/surgeries, etc.) – What she means when she says "women are zoomed in way too much" – Why the concept of exercise and the concept of food should be divorced to avoid unhealthy coping mechanisms and obsessive behaviors – Why the fitness classes she teaches are different than the usual ones – How we can let go of exercising compulsively and reframe "success" – How to become a more critical consumer of media instead of getting sucked in by its toxic messages about bodies – Why language (towards ourselves and other people) is so important – Which of her findings should really shake us all awake to how much this general "fear of fat" is holding us back – How to recognize if a professional who specializes in eating disorders still has their own issues and biases... ... And so much more! Check out Dr. Stacey Rosenfeld's website: www.gatewelltherapycenter.com Here's the link to her book "Does Every Woman Have An Eating Disorder?": https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Disorder-Challenging-Nations-Fixation/dp/0989851834 Please consider supporting the podcast by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 042: Josée Sovinsky – The cost of denial in relation to disordered eating/compulsive exercise. May 10, 2017

Show notes

Download Episode! Lovely radicals, let me make your ears happy: Podcast ahead! In today's episode of the "Life Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Josée Sovinsky from Toronto, Canada. Josée is a Registered Dietitian with French Canadian roots, who, after facing and dealing with her own struggles with disordered eating during her degree, developed a passion to help those affected by eating disorders and mental illness. She now specializes in eating disorders, intuitive eating, community nutrition and seniors' health. She holds an Honors Bachelor in Nutrition Sciences from the University of Ottawa, and she has educated herself on topics such as body-acceptance, Health at Every Size and feminism, all topics that guide her work as a non-diet, weight-inclusive, body positive and dietitian whose dreams are similar to mine: We both want to see a world free from mental health stigma, body shaming, dieting and disordered eating, where people of all sizes deserve nourishment, wellbeing and happiness. You'll hear Josée talk about: – How she felt in her body as a little girl – Why she didn't develop bad body image until later in life – How lucky she was to have her parents be her biggest cheerleaders – Why she felt different than other kids when she was a teenager – How studying nutrition can easily trigger disordered eating for people who feel insecure – Why she became convinced that changing her body was the way to acceptance and happiness – How exercise turned into a problem for her – Why it is so dangerous to marry the concepts of weight and exercise – Why nothing she did ever felt "good enough" – Why, for a very long time, she didn't actually realize how disordered she had become with eating and exercise – How she never told anyone that she was struggling, so no one was suspicious – Why it is especially dangerous for nutrition students to have their struggles go undetected for way too long – What her deepest fears were when she considered opening up about her struggles – What her own denial looked like – What it was that made her realize that what she went through was a serious thing – Where she first came across body positivity and the non-diet-approach – What's wrong with official guidelines regarding diabetes and weight – Why she thinks no one who adopted the Health at Every Size (HAES) model ever turned back – Why it is so important to recognize that neither fame, money, looks or any other source of potential outside approval will ever be enough to fill a void that exists in our soul (no matter what advertisement, movies or media might make us believe!) – Why it is so easy to fall into the trap of comparing our insides to other people's "performance of happy" – What the steps to true healing can look like (and what the key ingredients are) – Why she decided to truly take a break from exercise, and why this could be key for all of us who struggle with divorcing the concepts of weight and exercise – Why accepting size-diversity is the key to healing our relationship to food and weight – How she introduces the concept of Health At Every Size to women who haven't heard of it before – Why facing our fears is key (even if remaining in a disordered place might feel "easier") – How to become aware of the different ways our inner Gremlin pushes us into behaviors that don't serve us and our recovery – Why opening up about our struggles contributes to healing on a much larger scale... ... And so much more! Check out Josée and her work here: www.joseesovinskynutrition.com Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 041: Zoe McNulty – Body confidence is an inside job completely unrelated to your body size. May 03, 2017

Show notes

Download Episode! Hey there, lovely radicals: Podcast time! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Zoe McNulty from London, UK. Zoe had always dreamed of being a backing dancer on Top Of The Pops, but due to her being larger than a dancer "SHOULD" be, she avoided the commercial dance scene and the negative body image that she would – as she says – undoubtedly have developed. However, with the pressures of a thin-obsessed society, she still struggled with her body through much of her adult life, until she realized how much time she had wasted worrying about what others might think of her. These days, Zoe refers to herself as a champion of curves, and is honored to be an official Body Image Movement Global Ambassador, just like myself. Zoe works as a Top Dance Fitness Presenter, Group Exercise Teacher and Body Positivity Activist and calls herself "Headmistress of School of Strut". She specializes in helping women feel good about their figures, regardless of shape or size, through fund and feisty dance concepts. Today, you'll hear Zoe talk about: – How she grew up to feel self-conscious about her body and her weight – What kind of body image role-model her mother was – How her dream of becoming a dancer got destroyed by arbitrary beauty-ideals – Why it is crucial to recognize that many women actually get the most "compliments" when they are actually sick, compulsive and highly disordered eaters – How she experienced her own changes in body size – What is wrong with the gym-culture and the fitness-ideas of today – How the current "go hard or go home"-paradigm is harmful for girls and women – How women and girls are led to disconnect from their own sensuality and femininity – Why those super-toned body ideals mean "becoming sick" for most women and girls – How health has absolutely nothing to do with those ideals – At what point she hit rock bottom and decided "no more of this dieting crap" – Why it is so important to realize that – no matter what size or shape we are – we will never be for everybody – When she realized that it was not her size or weight that made her attractive – What helped her in growing her internal confidence about who she was, including her size – What the idea is behind "Strutology" and "School of Strut" – Why "strutting" is more about a state of mind than anything else – How we can become self-confident and feel sexy without contributing to the objectification of women – What kind of feedback she gets from women who have been to her classes – What she means when she says "harness the power of the wobble" – What her advice is for ALL women... ... And so much more! Check out Zoe's work here: www.zoemcnulty.com www.schoolofstrut.com You can watch her "Raunch" video here: www.zoemcnulty.com/raunchgiveaway Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 040: Kelsey Miller – The author of "Big Girl" talks about overcoming dieting and getting a life. Apr 26, 2017

Show notes

Download Episode! Hey there, distinguished radicals - it's podcast time! In this week's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, you'll hear me talk to Kelsey Miller from Brooklyn, New York. Kelsey graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's degree in Film & Television. She began her career in the film production industry before transitioning to full-time writing. Soon after joining the staff of the online magazine Refinery29, she created The Anti-Diet Project, one of the website's most popular franchises. She is currently a Senior Features Writer and of course she is the author of the wonderful memoir "Big Girl". Kelsey shares her story with us, and you'll hear: – How old she was when she became convinced that there was something "wrong" with her body – How her mother related to her body and weight – How early she started restricting food and trying to become skinnier – How easy kids pick up even indirect comments about food and weight and internalize them – How her dream of becoming an actor was being put under the condition that she loses weight, and how that kicked off years of her trying to starve herself into some arbitrary ideal – Why, for so many people, the first diet-success (the high of getting compliments and being applauded for the effort) becomes the carrot they end up chasing for decades – Why people innocently end up sacrificing their self-esteem, their values, the full experience of life and their peace of mind – How she ended up with a black or white, on/off mindset regarding food and exercise – Why re-learning to relate to movement without obsessing/counting/tracking is equally important as developing a normal relationship to food – Why it often takes hearing or reading about someone else's struggles to wake us up out of our own trance – Why dieting and over-exercising are often ways of distracting ourselves from self-exploration – When and how she finally realized what her being stuck in dieting actually cost her – What happened when she decided to let go of this body-loathing way of escaping her own life – How, at first, she was at a complete loss of how to proceed, since all she knew was dieting – How she realized that "Intuitive Eating" would be her life-saver – Why "true permission to eat" turned out to be the key to healing – How re-learning to trust our body's signal is an ongoing process – What the issues were that came up after she stopped escaping from them by her dieting behaviors – Why denial plays a huge part in someone's obsession with weight, food and exercise – How her hard work on her deeper issues really paid out for her – How her relationship developed through her process with giving up her weight-obsession – Why accepting love when you don't love YOURSELF first is extremely difficult and uncomfortable – Why becoming vulnerable and honest towards a partner is so crucial in a relationship – Why it is so important to start challenging our own internal thoughts and beliefs – Why representation of "real" bodies matters so much and what she does to make this more of a reality – When to address someone else's bias and when to let the ball drop – How family and friends reacted when her book came out – What she has to say to you if you are on the fence of writing about your journey... ...And so much more! Check out Kelsey's website: www.kelseymiller.com Here's the link to Refinery29: www.refinery29.com Here's the link to her memoir "Big Girl": https://www.amazon.com/Big-Girl-Gave-Dieting-Life/dp/1455532630/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492549935&sr=1-1&keywords=big+girl Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 039: Robyn L. Goldberg – Intuition and real knowledge are fundamental for confident eating. Apr 19, 2017

Show notes

In today's episode, we all have a chance to meet Robyn L. Goldberg from Los Angeles. Robyn is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Eating Disorder Specialist. Over the last nineteen years, Robyn has developed her own private practice in Beverly Hills, where she specializes in disordered eating, eating disorders, HAES (Health at Every Size), medical conditions, preventative nutrition and pregnancy nutrition. Robyn serves as a Nutrition Consultant for the Celiac Disease Foundation and she currently is the eating disorder specialist at "The Control Center" and has several body image/eating disorder groups at "Sober Livings" in Los Angeles. Robyn also teaches the nutrition classes for the Motion Picture Wellness Program. She is a contributing author that has been quoted in countless publications, and she has made appearances on national TV shows as a nationally known speaker in the eating disorder community promoting positive body image, weight stigma and size diversity. In this talk, Robyn shares with us: – Why she felt awkward and self-conscious as a kid – How she felt around her mother – What's wrong with the sizing of clothes – Why BMI is simply a statistical average and definitely not made for individual determination of health – Why the medical model fails so many patients when BMI is used as an indicator for health – What kind of questions doctors should be asking instead – How she addressed this issue with doctors – How money plays into the fact that patients are not getting properly examined – Why doctors are often so heavily biased against weight-acceptance – How people with higher weight can be anorexic and not get help – How much treatment and therapy would be ideal for a stable recovery – Why recovery can only happen at your own pace – The problem with weight-bias in the medical profession – Where she sees slow shifts in the medical field away from focusing too much on weight – What she addresses in her presentations – Why overexercising can be a form of an eating disorder in and of itself – How recovery from dieting and from a full-blown eating disorder can be like riding waves – How do deal with, for example, exercise-relapses, where an individual gets tempted to engage in compulsive exercise routines (so-called "challenges") again – How to deal with relapses related to eating – Why carbs are necessary for our bodies and why we need to de-villainize them once and for all – How stress is the worst we can do for our health; and that includes stressing over food and exercise – Why we should all watch the short Youtube-video called "Poodle Science" (find link below) – Why we should all honor our uniqueness and our individual bodies...

... And so much more!

Check out Robyn's work on her website: www.askaboutfood.com

Here's the link to the awesome "Poodle Science", made by the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H89QQfXtc-k

Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation on "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted

********* Don't forget!*********

Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 038: Ragen Chastain – Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are NOT size-dependent. Apr 12, 2017

Show notes

Hey there, lovely radicals... Podcast ahead! This week on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Ragen Chastain from Los Angeles. Most of you know Ragen as the author of the fantastic blog "Dances With Fat", but she also wrote a book called "Fat: The Owner's Manual" and she is the editor of the multi-volume anthology "The Politics of Size - Perspectives from the Fat Acceptance Movement". Her blog "Dances With Fat" is followed by thousands of people from every continent around the world; men and women who are as fed up with weight-stigma as herself. Ragen describes herself as a professional speaker, writer, and real live fat person. She has spoken everywhere from friend's living rooms to Google Headquarters to Cal Tech and Dartmouth. She will not stop until we live in a world where the full diversity of body sizes is respected, and fat people are able to live in fat bodies without shame, stigma, bullying, and harassment. Today, you'll hear Ragen talk about: – How she remembers herself as a kid – What protected her of excessive bullying in school – What triggered her to start restricting and overexercising – Where that landed her... – What bias lies underneath the fact that so many eating disorders go undetected and untreated – How she experienced the competing dancing world as a very talented dancer in a bigger body – What made her realize that she needed to become an activist if she were to become a fat dancer – What started her to want to personally look into the science around weight and diets – What she found out, when she applied all of the skills she had acquired when she studied research methods and statistical analysis (scientific literacy) – How doctors often prescribe to fat people what they would diagnose as an eating disorder in a thin person – A few very real examples of terrible advice she got from actual doctors (weight-bias in the medical field) – How she experienced the effect of being stuck in diet-land – How to read science and tell the difference between causation and correlation – The fallacy of the "good fatty/bad fatty"-dichotomy – Why none of your health decision make you more or less worthy or morally valuable – Why size diversity is completely normal, yet our society want us to believe otherwise (and buy into their weight-loss programs and products) – Why "healthy" and "thin" are not synonymous – What her mantra is to survive in this culture that bombards us with weight-loss messages – What she did to stop hating her body – How our childhoods play a role in recovery... ... And so much more! Check out Ragen's famous blog: https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/blog/ Here's the link to her book: https://www.amazon.com/Fat-Owners-Manual-Ragen-Chastain/dp/0985667400 Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 037: Beth Rosen – Life is for living, and food is for eating; here's how she does it. Apr 05, 2017

Show notes

Lovely radicals, podcast joy ahead...! This week, on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, we all have a chance to meet Beth Rosen. Beth is a Registered Dietitian in private practice in Southbury (Connecticut, USA) and virtually everywhere else. She subscribes to a non-diet philosophy to wellness and is a Health At Every Size® practitioner. Beth has an undergraduate degree in Dietetics, and a Master's degree from Columbia University in New York City in Nutrition Education. She has been a Registered Dietitian for over 20 years. Currently, she works with chronic dieters who are struggling with the vicious cycle of dieting to ditch all diets, learn to eat fearlessly through self-regulation and Intuitive Eating principles, and respect and care for their bodies. As someone who knows how it is to live with serious food intolerances, she loves sharing recipes and food ideas for joyful eating. Being a mother, she also writes about parenting, sustainable living, gardening and crafting. In this talk, Beth shares with us: – How she was taught to feel about her body – How her mother's (and grandmother's) relationship to food and weight got passed on to her – How dieting became the "normal thing to do" for her – How her brothers were affected by her mother's obsession with thinness – How she learned that girls "bonded" through body-hatred and diet-talk – How diets mess with our body's signals in a harmful way – What kind of people she met in her studies to become a Registered Dietitian – That – disturbingly! – even people with full-blown eating disorders were allowed to take these courses – Why what is being taught at nutrition school is always to be taken with a grain of salt – Why she made herself a disservice by following the advice she learned at nutrition school – Why all foods – fun-foods included! – are important – How the "stocking"-method words to get over the fear of certain foods – How she remembers the moment she herself snapped out of her diet-obsession – How her "way out" looked like when she decided to leave diet-culture behind – What traps she fell into when she started intuitive eating – What keeps us from actually letting dieting go, even if we know that it's imprisoning us – How to create new, better inner self-talk – What it takes to make a new habit – like positive self-talk/not dieting – stick – Why it is so important to separate the negative voice from ourselves and personalize it – Why dealing with body image issues before motherhood is so crucially important – How she made sure that she passes on a positive or at least neutral body image... ... And so much more! Check out Beth's website: www.goodnessgraciousliving.com Please consider supporting the podcast with a donation by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders! We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

LU 036: Judith Matz – How the diet-/binge cycle works and what it takes to break free from it. Mar 29, 2017

Show notes

Lovely radicals, it's show time again! This week, it's my honor to welcome Judith Matz to the podcast. Judith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 25 years of experience as a therapist who helps people make peace with food, their bodies, and themselves. As someone who knows the struggle of feeling out of control around food, she now specializes in the treatment of Binge Eating Disorder and compulsive eating. Judith is the director of the "Chicago Center for Overcoming Overeating", an organization dedicated to ending the preoccupation with food and weight through educational programs and workshops. She also loves public speaking and frequently presents at local and national conferences and meetings. Judith also is the co-author of two acclaimed books for adults called: "Beyond a Shadow of a Diet" and "The Diet Survivors Handbook" as well as a book on body image for kids called "Amanda's Big Dream". Her work has appeared in countless media outlets, and today, here she is! Judith tells us: – How she remembers being in a body in her pre-teen years – How her family related to food and body – Why her body image plummeted in high school – How she learned that girls "bonded" through body-hatred and diet-talk – What she experienced in the years she was restricting in order to "fix her body" – What made her realize that it was restriction that messed with her once-normal relationship with food – How the false promise of diets keeps people trapped in the same cycle – What we are avoiding by making everything about our body's size and its weight – How to approach the journey towards self-acceptance and body acceptance – Why this healing work is so worth it – How she helps the many, many health professionals, nutritionists and personal trainers who are struggling themselves and unwillingly pass on their biases – How the diet-binge cycle works and why it takes courage to break free from it and actually empower ourselves – How you can tell if someone is dieting (no matter what they might call it to make it sound like they are not) – Why there is often so much resistance when we tell them that diets are harmful – How to find out what to do instead of dieting – What she teaches parents about how to address body, food and weight – What the research on the bodies of identical twins says in relation to diets – Why you simply can not tell a person's health by looking at their body – How to re-learn eating after a lifetime of dieting and restricting – How to switch to a kinder way of talking to ourselves... – Why self-compassion and patience are pivotal in healing our body image and how we relate to food and weight... ... And so much more! Check out Judith's website: www.judithmatz.com Please consider supporting the podcast by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders. We're right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/

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