Life. Unrestricted.

Latest Episodes:

LU *Bonus Episode 1*: Guided meditation – Quiet the monkey mind in a body positive way (25 min.). Oct 20, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! Hello there, lovely radicals... Time to unwind! Here's my first bonus episode of "Life. Unrestricted." for you: A guided meditation of 25 minutes. Take this time for yourself and allow yourself to find some peace in the midst of the craziness of daily life. Your body and mind will thank you for it. Enjoy this guided meditation to tame our monkey mind, and to drop into a state of awake presence and full awareness of THIS moment—all we ever have. If you experience your mind wandering off into thoughts and worries, expectations or judgments, just remember that this is normal and it happens to everybody. Just notice that "thinking" is happening, acknowledge the thoughts, and let them go. Over and over again. As if they were clouds passing by. Don't attach any meaning to them, don't hold on to them, just return to the present moment, and focus on the sensation of your breath as it enters your nose and fills your chest, your lungs and your belly. It's all about noticing and returning back to the present moment, without judging yourself. That is what mindfulness and meditation basically is. Now Let us slow down for 25 minutes, as we experience ... the NOW. The aliveness of your body, the state of non-doing... and the wonderfulness of just "being". This is my first guided meditation, so I hope I manage to bring some stillness into your life as we travel through the body together. More is to come; as soon as I can make the time, I will play with it and try different lengths and different styles. With love, M. ****** 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 Podcasting is expensive, more so than I thought. 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. Thank you so much! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Please: 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=stpr

LU 015: Zoe Nicholson – Teaching us how to do "moderation" in moderation. Oct 17, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! Lovely having you here, my fellow traveller! It's Podcast time, which means: It's a great moment to just open our ears and listen to a wonderful woman who has so much to say about what "moderation" really means. In today's episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." Podcast, I have the pleasure to talk to Zoe Nicholson from Melbourne, Australia. Zoe is an accredited practicing dietitian and the owner and director of the highly successful Melbourne based private practice called "figureate"- spelled out like figure and ate, as in "I ate cheesecake". Zoe conducts nutrition seminars and workshops for workplaces and corporations and she has, together with multi-award winning fitness professional Jodie Arnot, established the now well known "Moderation Movement" in Australia. Here's Zoe! She will tell us: – How she grew up without constant diet-talk, weight-obsessing or body-shaming – Why it is so important what kind of role-models we are for our children – When she found out that, basically, the rest of the world had gone slightly mad around so called health, weight and fitness – How most people ended up feeling so much shame and guilt around food and their own bodies – How the constant barrage of images of so-called "goal-bodies" and the millions of weight-loss messages we see every week has twisted our idea of health – How to be real: We are not MEANT to – nor can we be successful at (without losing our minds!) – reaching an unattainable beauty ideal – How much precious time in a person's life can literally be wasted on this toxic idea – What she means when she speaks of the "Non-Diet"-approach to nutrition and health – Why she still can't believe that in todays day and age, we need to stand up for something that ought to be normal: a sustainable, balanced approach to health that doesn't shrink our life – What "The Moderation Movement" is and what its goals are – What "moderation" means to her – How she helps people get comfortable with the idea of "moderation" – How we can manage our health without ever dieting or fixating on our weight, and why, ironically the sheer act of "not fixating on weight" might be the first step to real health – Why a person's size never tells us anything about their health and the dangers of equating "thin" to "healthy"... ... And so much more! If you are interested in working with Zoe or finding out more about what she does, check out her website: www.figureate.com.au Check out "The Moderation Movement" on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moderationmovement/?fref=ts ********* Don't forget!********* 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 Also, 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/ Please: 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=stpr

LU 014: Tracy Brown – Stepping towards a joyful relationship with food and body size Oct 11, 2016

Show notes

In this episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, you're going to hear Tracy Brown from Naples, Florida. She is a nutrition therapist, registered licensed dietitian and somatic attuned eating coach who has offered counseling in private practice since 2006. She specializes in treatment of eating disorders and eating problems for both adults and children and she also routinely teaches intuitive eating workshops and disordered eating related talks in the North Central Florida area, including Santa Fe College and Flager College, St. Augustine, Florida. Today, and only on the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, she's will tell us all of this: – How being highly sensitive as a kid led her to numb her feelings with an obsession to be the perfect kid – How her obsession quickly turned into meal-skipping, dieting, and taking advice from fitness-magazines at face value – Why it took years of purging, binging, restricting and suffering before she realized that happiness wasn't to be found by chasing after the skinny ideal – When it was that she decided to learn to accept her body and look into attuned (intuitive) eating – What it took for her to heal her relationship to food, body and exercise – Why therapy and body image work helped her not to worry about food and her body anymore – How she provides practical guidance and interventions for people suffering from eating disorders, food fears and underlying emotions – How society has a false image of how eating disorders look like and how the reality of eating disorders look like – How we can learn to eat based on permission – Why, when she works nutritionally with her clients, she only does so to make sure that they eat enough and have all they need – Why the concept of "good" and "bad" foods is obsolete to maintain a body's natural weight – Why she believes that dieting, binging, purging and all eating disorders are symbolic communicators delivering a message from our soul – What she does when she does "symbolic decoding" – Why, when we are tempted to say "I feel fat", it never – ever – is about the size of our body, and what we can ask ourselves instead – What her three most favorite words are – Why she thinks that everyone who is willing to heal the relationship to their body/food and weight is a badass...

... And so much more!

Check out Tracy Brown's website and find out about her coaching business at: www.tracybrownrd.com

********* 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/

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

LU 013: Chris Cole – A man makes peace with his body, mind, spirit and food. Oct 03, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! In this episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Chris Cole from Boulder, Colorado. Chris is a life coach and works with clients in recovery from any number of addictions, mood or behavioral issues. He has been through quite a journey himself. In fact, it was such a rollercoaster ride that he wrote a book about it: It's called "The Body Of Chris – a Memoir of Obsession, Addiction and Madness". Chris is a highly compassionate, positive force that helps people find their truth and their unique healing by offering an experienced perspective, a radical wellness orientation and an encouraging relationship that is crucial to sustainable growth. Listen in and hear Chris' amazing story: – What factors contributed to him feeling ashamed of his body in childhood – Why early restriction only exacerbated his difficult relationship to food – How being bullied and fat-shamed as a boy made him obsessed with losing weight – How he learned to binge eat and the real danger of the concept of "cheat meals" – How a personal trainer introduced him to diet-pills – Why he didn't realize the harm of them and quickly got hooked – Why these "speedy" diet-pills turned out to be a gateway drug for him – How his obsession with becoming thinner escalated into a whole range of problems – When and how it became obvious for him and those around him that he was really sick – What kind of harmful behaviors and habits contributed to his manic episode in college – How manic episodes of psychosis typically present themselves and what it felt like for him – How his deep body shame manifested in this peak moment of crisis – Why his book is called "The Body of Chris" – Why he is very passionate when talking about "The tragedy of the BMI" – How he now sees that his alcohol/drug addictions are connected to his history of body shame and disordered eating as well as to his bipolar disorder – Why he felt he had to numb out his sensitive nature – What made him have liposuction at 17 and why that didn't help him feel better about himself – Why his body shame was the last and biggest hurdle on his road to full recovery – Why he thinks recovery from any sort of destructive behavior is only the first step to dealing with the deeper problem that we tried to numb out from – How vulnerability with his then-future-wife helped him take the necessary steps – Why intuitive eating was so hard for him to learn – How he deals with the messages that our weight-obsessed culture, TV and movies throw at us – How meditation taught him to deal with his thoughts – Why his current profile picture on Facebook represents what recovery looks like to him – What having a body means to him these days and how he appreciates it, flaws and all... ... And so much more! Check out Chris Cole and his coaching over at: www.colecoaching.com Here's the link to Chris' wonderful book "The Body Of Chris": https://www.amazon.com/Body-Chris-Obsession-Addiction-Madness/dp/1941758142/ ********* 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/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

LU 012: Glenys Oyston – Dare to not diet – losing the obsession with food Sep 27, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! Hello, lovely radicals! Time for another podcast ride; hold on tight! In this episode of the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, we are getting to know Glenys Oyston. Glenys is a Registered Dietitian who does NOT believe in dieting; she has seen behind the diet-culture BS and has become a Health At Every Size dietitian. Like many of her fellow RD's that follow the Health At Every Size (HAES, for short) principles, she knows that it's much more helpful to improve our relationship to our bodies and food than focusing on weight-loss. She has been a diet-victim for decades, just like many of us, and she has experienced just how much attention and congratulations we get when weight is lost. Therefore she knows exactly why so many people dread to gain weight. But instead of keeping on living in the pre-hell of either lusting after food or restricting it, she got taught a better way. She got educated about HAES, Health At Every Size, and as she says, it has transformed her life and the way she thinks about weight, diet and body image. Needless to say, she never dieted again and she is doing fabulous. She has helped countless humans ditch diet-mentality and find true self-acceptance and a healthy body image. She also writes the amazing blog called "Dare To Not Diet" and she is a fellow podcast lady. Together with Aaron Flores, she hosts the highly recommendable podcast "Dietitians Unplugged". Glenys tells us how she came to be a Health At Every Size (HAES) dietitian, and how the process of stepping out of the dogmatic diet-culture chains has helped her—finally, in her forties—to develop a relaxed and uncomplicated, peaceful relationship with food and her body. She shares her story with us and you'll hear: – Why she never learned to eat balanced meals as a kid – How her mother's diet-mentality kept her from eating with her daughter – How she ended up comforting herself with cookies and cake – Why she ended up repeating what her mother did: go on strict, restrictive diets – How dieting kept her mental and physical bandwidth trapped and made her obsess about food – How an incredibly lucky coincidence saved her from another 20+ years of yoyo-dieting – How studying the Health At Every Size (HAES) principles helped her free herself from eternal dieting – How she gave up on the "thin person-game" and learned to accept her body in its natural, happy shape – Why she thinks it's no coincidence that diet-culture started skyrocketing after women got the right to – What is lost on the world when the majority of the female population is dieting/focusing so much energy on weight-loss – How diets are just as addictive as any other coping mechanism – Why it's never really about the weight or our body, even when we think it is – What we have to work on before we can successfully ditch diets and embody ourselves – How she and her HAES-colleagues help their clients to un-diet and re-allow their previously restricted foods into their diet – Why the whole process of un-dieting requires a lot of trust, courage and strength – What her deepest wish is – What she would like to be remembered for... ...And so much more! Check out her awesome blog at: www.daretonotdiet.wordpress.com Glenys on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/public/Glenys-Oyston https://www.facebook.com/DareToNotDiet ********* 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/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

LU 003: Nicola Rinaldi – No period. Now what? Health issues from overexercise and too little food. Sep 24, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! Friends! Welcome to the third episode of the Life. Unrestricted. Podcast! In this episode, I talk to Nicola Rinaldi from Boston (USA) about her journey from losing her period – due to too much exercise and not enough food – to recovery, and in her case a beautiful family with three boys. The talks about how her love of exercise became unhealthy and how things really turned nasty when she also started dieting in order to lose "those ten pounds". She came to regret that: She stopped menstruating and subsequently almost slipped into a full blown eating disorder. Fortunately, she was able to allow herself to get better: Her dreams of having a family of her own meant that she had to take care of herself. She exercised less, ate more and finally got her period back and started a family. She is passionate about helping women to see why their cycle is so important for their mood, their sleep, their bones and their overall health whether or not they want children of their own. She helped hundreds of women recover their periods and has only recently published her book "No period. Now What?", a comprehensive guide to recovery for women who have lost their period. Nicola shares her insights on: – What "Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea" (HA) is, what causes it and what the ramifications of it are – How, when she lost her period more than 10 years ago, she had to do her own research to find out what was really happening – How the Minnesota Starvation Experiment Study helped her regain her senses and start to recover – How women are often misinformed when it comes to weight and pregnancy – How it happens that we often think that we are doing the "healthy thing" when, in reality, we are damaging our health – What "healthy exercise" is – How we are often totally misguided when it comes to exercise and food – How to recover a healthy menstrual cycle and keep up a non-diet lifestyle after birth – How we can change our mindset from "fear of weight gain" to "becoming healthy and happy" again – How we can snap out of our negative self-talk – How we can start to change the conversation about the current, unnatural beauty ideal that we see – How partners and husbands are often suffering when their girlfriends or wives get stuck in such a state of weight-obsession and exercise compulsion – How they react to a woman regaining her full health and radiance, and how much they appreciate their natural bodies and relaxedness – How she raises her three boys to become non-judgmental towards size and shape... ... And so much more!

Check out Nicola Rinaldi and her new book "No period. Now what?" over at: www.noperiodnowwhat.com Or you can also visit her old blog right here: www.noperiodbaby.com

********* 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/

Big love, Meret.

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

Please: 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=stpr

LU 011: Virgie Tovar – "Lose hate not weight"; a critical examination of diet culture Sep 16, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! Hey, lovely radicals... Ear-treat ahead! In this episode of the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, Virgie Tovar and I chat about how she became the unapologetic badass she is today. As you might guess, she wasn't always as confident as she is nowadays, and she had to learn a lot about life, herself, sexuality, feminism and diet-culture to finally be able to liberate herself from the oppressive, fat-phobic cultural paradigm that keeps women desperately trying to fit in, often in the form of dieting and obsessing over their weight. She experienced first hand, what it means to be fat-shamed, stigmatized and devalued and she is now fiercely on a mission to educate people about the ugly truths behind the merciless profit-seeking mechanisms of the diet-industry, media-literacy, the effects of weight-stigma on mental and physical health and the ways of changing the current narrative. Virgie shares her story with us and you'll hear: – How early it got into her head that women should "lose weight" – What measures she was willing to take in order to change her body – How fat-phobia and weight-stigma can cause women to engage in risky sexual behavior – How fat-stigma intersects with other cultural injustices like racism, homophobia, sexism, classism or ableism – How she ended up with an extraordinary lifestyle and sexual adventures when she was only a teenager – What it was that made her feel desired and more comfortable in her body – How feminism helped her to reclaim her own power – What the exact moment was that she finally broke up with diet-culture for good – Why feminism is seen as something "OH, NO, THANKS!" for many people, especially women – What her journey towards self-acceptance looked (and looks) like – What causes her to experience bad body days – Why fat-phobia causes ongoing trauma for people – How bigger-bodied people can protect themselves and take care of their own mental health first – How we can help changing the current diet-culture-poisoned paradigm one woman at a time – How we can engage in political activism so that it can be a form of self-care – What her nationwide lectures are all about, and what her main messages are – What her online course "Babecamp" offers to women who are ready to ditch their diet-culture-brainwashed mentality – What her deepest wish is – What she would like to be remembered for... ...And so much more! Check out her website with all of her work (including her latest book project and details about "Babecamp") at: www.virgietovar.com and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/virgietovar Here's the link to her groundbreaking anthology "Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion": http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Heavy-Fierce-Girls-Fashion/dp/1580054382 ********* 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: www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

LU 010: Summer Innanen – Smash the scale and start living your life unapologetically Aug 31, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! In this episode of the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, you are going to meet one of my favorite ladies in the world of body positivity and body image: It's Summer Innanen from Vancouver, whose podcast has literally changed my life. In my opinion, every woman can use a good dose of Summer in her life! She works as a Body Image Coach who has her own past with diets, restriction, body insecurity and exercise addiction, and she now helps women to stop living behind the number on their scales, to ditch the diet demons for good and to develop real inner confidence. Today, and only on the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, she's letting us know some things about herself that she hasn't shared anywhere else before. So listen in and learn: – How being body-shamed, bullied and being surrounded by diet-talk and an ever-dieting mother contributed to her slipping into a very obsessive mindset – What she was trying to achieve by "becoming thinner" and why so many of us fall into this trap – Why she never realized she had a problem until very late in the "game" – What terrible advice she was given by various doctors before she found someone who was educated enough to know about the harmful effects of overexercising and restriction on the female body – How she stopped lying to herself – How she managed to break her exercise addiction and gave her body time to heal – How long it took her to get the "thin-obsession" out of her head – Why discovering Intuitive Eating and Health At Every Size (HAES) played such an important role in her recovery – What she learned about the underlying issues that keep women in the diet- and weight-obsession trap – Why anger and resentment are blocks to becoming an authentically kind and compassionate person – What women are REALLY trying to fix when they are trying to fix their bodies – What body positivity means to her – Why body image is much more than how we think about our thighs and stomachs – How learning about the mechanisms of diet-culture and the huge fitness- and weight-loss-industries can help us snap awake – Why developing an inner rebel helps on our journey towards accepting our bodies – How to find a tribe of likeminded rebels is key to the healing process – How she works with her clients and how she challenges them to step out of their comfort zones – Where she expects the most resistance in her coaching work – Why emotional eating is part of the process when healing body image, diet-obsession and exercise addiction – How having a healthy body image doesn't mean it's all sunshine and rainbows – Where her inner Gremlin shows up for her these days – Why she would never go back to that small life she previously had as a career dieter – How all of us can discover that freedom and solid self-worth beyond the scales and our jeans size... ... And so much more! Check out Summer's website and find out about her coaching business at: www.summerinnanen.com www.rockyourbodynow.com Details for the 2017 retreat are here: www.reclaimretreat.com ********* 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/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

LU 009: Linda Bacon – What Health At Every Size (HAES) really means and the effects of weight-stigma Aug 21, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! In this episode of the "Life Unrestricted" podcast, I get to talk to Dr. Linda Bacon from Berkeley, California, USA. It's a lucky day for all of us, because we get to listen to her highly insightful knowledge and opinion about our relationship to food, bodies and health. Dr. Linda Bacon is a health professor and researcher on the inside track of weight-regulation science, she holds graduate degrees in physiology, psychology and exercise metabolism with a specialty in nutrition. She has conducted federally funded studies on diet and health and is well-published in top scientific journals, and has written two books, first, her highly acclaimed bestseller "Health At Every Size – The Surprising Truth About Your Weight" and recently "Body Respect – What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out Or Just Fail To Understand About Weight". She is currently a health professor at City College of San Francisco and an Associate Nutritionist at the University of California Davis. She is sharing her story with us and will tell us: – Why she invested decades diving into science – How it is possible, that the clear understanding about health (and how little weight really plays into it) has for decades been kept from the public – Why the truth about diets not working and weight not being an important determinator of health is being held back – Who is really behind the decision to make "obesity" classify as a disease – Why there is such tremendous resistance to the idea of size-acceptance – Who and what is behind the "obesity"-crisis, fat-fear and weight-stigma – Why our capitalist society needs us to believe there is something "wrong" with us – Why putting the sole focus on weight-loss will not improve health markers, and what does – Why so many women and men aren't even recognizing the damaging effects of the myths they believe in – Why diet and exercise are only small contributors to a person's actual health – How social status, agency, genes, mental and psychological stress and unfair treatment are so much more important in determining someone's health – How, during her Phd, she was confronted with the fact that the actual (!) truth wasn't appreciated by decision-makers – Why so many doctors are innocently prescribing weight-loss despite the fact that this most often doesn't address the issue at hand – What the pillars of Health At Every Size (HAES) really are and what the most common myths about it are – Why Health At Every Size (HAES) is for people of all sizes, and why it gets so much push-back – Why we need a lot of critical thinking to see behind the lies that keep so many people trapped, unhealthy, and frustrated – Why weight- and fat-discrimination are highly detrimental to a person's health and will never lead to long-lasting, healthy weight-management – Why it is wise to look at so-called "scientific proof" with a critical eye – Why people who accept and appreciate their bodies will take better care of it – Why much of the problems we blame on fat have, in fact, nothing to do with fat – Why both thin people as well as people in larger bodies risk medical misdiagnosis due to the BMI index – Why she is optimistic that the medical profession will, ever so slowly, change their views – What her mission in life is... ... And so much more! Check out Dr. Linda Bacon, her work around Health At Every Size (HAES) and her coaching over at: www.lindabacon.org All the relevant infos and the Health At Every Size (HAES) community are here: www.haescommunity.com www.healthateverysizeblog.org www.sizediversityandhealth.org Here's the links to her books: – "Health At Every Size – The Surprising Truth About Your Weight" https://www.amazon.com/Health-At-Every-Size-Surprising/dp/1935618253 – "Body Respect – What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out Or Just Fail To Understand About Weight" https://www.amazon.com/Body-Respect-Conventional-Health-Understand/dp/1940363195/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1471714036&sr=1-1&keywords=body+respect+linda+bacon ********* 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/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

LU 008: Vania Phitidis – Feeling peaceful around food and your body (+ some instant therapy) Aug 15, 2016

Show notes

Download Episode! My friend, how nice to see you are tuning back in! In this episode of the "Life. Unrestricted." podcast, I get to talk to Vania Phitidis from Sussex, Great Britain. Vania is an Intuitive Eating Counsellor, an MB-EAT teacher, MB-EAT being the acronym for Mindfulness-Based Eating Awareness Training) as well as a Self Esteem Mentor. She has a master in Education for Sustainability from London South Bank and a Bachelor degree in Psychology and Art history from VITS. In order to resolve her own body image issues and eating disorders she found that she had to let go of 5 things. 1 – unrealistic expectations of herself, 2 dieting, 3 restricting particular foods, 4 trying to get and stay skinny and 5 attempting to be perfect. Sounds easy, but was a lifelong process that she will tell us about. What she is focused on nowadays is being her most powerful self and helping others to enhance the quality of their own life and make better use of it than eternally dieting. For me, it's vulnerability time today... In this episode, Vania Phitidis doesn't just show us how we can let go of our food and weight fears and approach health from a sane and loving perspective. But she uses me as an example... and questions my inner gremlin voice. Find out how that turns out! So, listen in and hear Vania tell us her story: – How early it got into her head that women should „lose weight" – How quick children are to copy what they see their mothers do – What made her develop bulimia and how bad that got for her – Why giving up bulimia didn't change anything on a mental level – Why she subsequently got stuck in dieting and being constantly worried about her weight – Why it is that diets (or "lifestyle changes" where weight-loss is the goal!) DO NOT work – Why we often do the worst thing for our body when we train too often and too hard. – What it takes to overcome the eternally distracting quest for thinness – How she overcame her internalized fear of weight gain – How we can choose what we expose ourselves to – How she learned that everyone, including herself, is inherently worthy – Why women who stay obsessed by weight-loss and dieting are severely limiting their potential – How she learned to calm her mind and catch the thoughts that kept her stuck – How we can learn to question our beliefs and our thinking – Why it is important to question what we believe is „true", simply because we "always believed it" – Why mindfulness is key on the path to self-acceptance and body-acceptance – How mindfulness can help us become aware of our feelings and our spontaneous reactions – Why she doesn't advise anyone to shout back at the inner critic, and what to do instead – Why she believes that Intuitive Eating is the only way to leave the days of "feeling crazy around food" behind – Why the switch from dieting to Intuitive Eating takes a leap of faith and can be very challenging – Why real progress in the direction of healing is not possible unless we work on our body image and our deep-rooted fat-phobia – How she deals with people who engage in diet-talk, body-shaming and eternal weight-loss-talk bonding. – What her mission in life is... ...And so much more! Check out Vania Phitidis and her coaching over at: www.peacefuleating.co.uk Also find her group on Facebook "It's not about the weight" The book that opened her eyes on the oppressive nature of diet-culture: Naomi Wolf: "The Beauty Myth" ********* 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/ 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 Please: 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=stpr

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