The BodyLove Project with Jessi Haggerty

Latest Episodes:

Ep. 040: Valentina Olivadese on PTSD and Eating Disorder Recovery Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

This week I welcomed Valentina Olivadese, a truly holistic nutritionist onto the podcast. Valentina shares how her trauma history lead her to find solace in her eating disorder. After working towards recovery for years with professional help, she now shares her wisdom through her practice as a holistic nutritionist. While we spend most of our conversation digging into Valentina's personal story, we have some really powerful takeaways from this brave, vulnerable, and heartfelt conversation.

Sometimes you just want someone to notice.

If you know someone who you suspect is struggling with an eating disorder, it's important to notice and let them know that you are there to support them, or help them find someone who can support them. Simply saying something can help that person feel seen.

Keep asking for help.

So many people write off sexual assault as something that is normal. It's not. And while many survivors experience trauma that can present in many different ways, including disordered eating, if this is something you're struggling you might have to ask for help over and over again. It will be difficult, and challenging, but you can do it.

You are the only one who can give you permission.

You don't have to wait for someone to tell you it's okay to eat. When we try to control our bodies through dieting and restricting, we are essentially allowing ourselves to be controlled by diet culture. When we give ourselves permission to eat and take care of ourselves, we reclaim that control, and essentially practice body autonomy.

Show notes with shareable images
Jessi's Intuitive Eating Audio Guide
BLP Premium Podcast
Intuitive Eating Support Group
Valentina's Website
Fat Girl's Guide to Life by Wendy Shanker
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

Ep. 039: Dr. Stacey Rosenfeld: Is an Eating Disorder an Addiction? | The Intersection of EDs and Substance Use Disorders Sep 13, 2017

Show notes

http://www.jessihaggerty.com/blog/blp39

Ep. 038: Marci Evans on Food Addiction Sep 06, 2017

Show notes

Marci is a Food and Body Imager Healer™. She has dedicated her career to counseling, supervising, and teaching in the field of eating disorders. She is a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Supervisor, certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Certified ACSM personal trainer. In addition to her group private practice and three adjunct teaching positions, Marci launched an online eating disorders training for dietitians in 2015 and co-directs a specialized eating disorder internship at Simmons College. She volunteers for a number of national eating disorder organizations including the iaedp certification committee and is serving as an eating disorder resource professional for The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

This is the second episode in a three part series about the intersection of eating disorders and substance use disorders, and after the previous episode, I wanted to really dig into the topic of food addiction, what is is, and what it is not, with the one and only, Marci Evans. In this episode Marci and I talk about the research around food addiction, and also how you can move forward and improve your relationship to food, and your experience around food, if you are currently suffering from feelings of food addiction. What did you think of this conversation? Let me know in the comments below!

Resources

Ep. 037: Isabel Foxen Duke on her Co-occurring Substance Use and Eating Disorder Treatment Aug 30, 2017

Show notes

***TW*** The first part of this episode Isabel shares her struggle with a co-occurring eating disorder and substance use disorder, and we talk extensively about using illicit drugs for the express purpose of weight loss. I've done my best to edit as many triggering details as possible, but if you feel this might be triggering for you, listen to the intro, then fast forward to minute 20:15 to hear the remainder of our conversation - the rest of the episode will still make sense and is full of great insights.

Isabel Foxen Duke was featured on ep. 30 of the BodyLove Project podcast and this week she is BACK with a totally new, interesting, and important conversation. This episode will kick off the first of a three part series about the intersection of eating disorders and substance use disorders and in this episode, Isabel is sharing her personal experience with a co-occurring diagnosis.

Interestingly, she highlights that her recovery from her substance use made recovery from her eating disorder difficult and confusing as she quickly got shuttled from AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) to OA (Overeaters Anonymous) to help her control her "binge eating" and "food addiction". It wasn't until Isabel was out of treatment that she later discovered that her compulsive eating was a direct result of restriction and definitely not due to a food addiction. We dig deep to explain why so many of us have bought into the food addiction myth, and some simple ways to overcome feelings of food addiction.

Resources

Ep. 036: Maria Paredes on Miscarriage and Body Image Aug 23, 2017

Show notes

Dr. Maria Paredes is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Clinical Supervisor, Certified Eating Disorders Specialist & approved IAEDP supervisor, and owner of Three Birds Counseling & Clinical Supervision, PLLC in Greensboro, NC. She works with women and men who want to make peace with food and with their bodies, using Health at Every Size and Intuitive Eating approaches, grounded in Relational Cultural Therapy. She's passionate about helping individuals live fuller lives, free from negative thinking, fear of food, and body hate. She believes ALL bodies have worth and that ALL individuals deserve to enjoy food, move in ways that feel joyful, treat their bodies with kindness and gentleness, and experience authentic connection with themselves and others. Maria recognizes that this healing must occur within the individual therapeutic relationship as well as within the larger, cultural environment, and thus embraces the role of advocacy and activism.

This episode definitely gave me all the feels. Maria was so generous sharing her personal story experiencing two miscarriages, and how that experience influenced her relationship to her body both during and after her pregnancy. We talk a lot about how miscarriage and pregnancy and postpartum can be beyond physically traumatic, but also emotionally and mentally traumatic. Give the episode a listen to hear our full conversation.

Resources

Ep. 035: Crystal Karges on Pregnancy and Postpartum after ED Recovery Aug 16, 2017

Show notes

Crystal Karges is a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified lactation consultant who specializes in maternal and child health, family wellness, intuitive eating, and eating and feeding disorders. In this episode Crystal and I talk about the aspects of pregnancy and postpartum that really don't get enough airtime in our culture. Like how weight is just one of many - MANY - factors that contribute to your ability to conceive, have a healthy pregnancy, or have a healthy baby.

Throughout the conversation Crystal shares her own story with how constant weight and body centric conversations between doctors, friends, and yes, even complete strangers was extremely triggering as someone with a history of an eating disorder. She also stresses that you don't have to have a history of an eating disorder to find weight and body centric conversations triggering or traumatic. This narrative plays into the social pressures to "get your body back" after pregnancy and dieting becomes a coping mechanism for the stress and possible depression that can develop postpartum. Listen to our full conversation below to learn more about how you can advocate for yourself and how you can support the moms-to-be in your life.

Resources

Ep. 034: F*ck Your "Fitspo" with Sarah Vance Aug 09, 2017

Show notes

Sarah Vance is a Body Image Coach, creator of #FuckYourFitspo, and host of the Reclaiming You Podcast. She specializes in helping people all over the world let go of diet dogma, body hate, perfection, and all or nothing thinking so they can reconnect with their values, understand their worth, and live their damn lives unapologetically. She believes that we all have more important things to offer to this world than our appearance, health, or fitness level.

On top of helping others Reclaim Themselves she is vocal about the BS within the health and fitness industry and pulls from her knowledge as an ICU nurse and experience as a former bikini competitor, fitness model, and personal trainer. For more of her, visit her website sarahvance.com where you can grab her free eBook, listen to Reclaiming You, and check out her DIY beginners body image program Breaking Boundaries.

In this episode Sarah and I talk about how the fitness industry normalizes disordered eating and an overall disordered relationship with exercise and our bodies. Sarah explains how #Fitspo (Fitness Inspiration) is actually not inspiring at all, and it gives people the sense that they are inferior or "less than" if they are not able to meet the fitness industry's standard of "health" (where health usually equals thin). She offers up a few simple tips on how to engage in more weight and body neutral movement practices, and really learn how to take care of your body, without dieting or exercising it into submission.

Resources