Dealing with Diet Culture, Restriction, Binge Eating, Self-Worth and More

Today I explore the challenges of healing your relationship with food, in the culture we live in. Diet culture is pervasive, toxic and sadly normalised. It drives you to focus predominantly on your body as a means of deriving worth. It leads to restriction, bingeing, other disordered eating behaviours and more. And it's incredibly challenging to win and feel wholeheartedly good about yourself, when pursuing this path. In this episode, I talk about how to stay in your own lane in recovery and to navigate the challenges you will face from the external world. I hope that you enjoy the episode.

Eating Disorder Recovery, The Costs of Restrictive Eating, Healing Over-Exercise and Health Coaching, with Joel Frost

Today I’m talking to Joel Frost, an eating disorder survivor and health coach, training to specialise in working with clients with eating disorders. Just over a year ago, Joel fully recovered from an eating disorder that he’d been living with for the previous six years. This all started when Joel left secondary school, when he was teased about his weight. Joel then went onto college and felt as though he didn’t fit in. Both of these factors understandably impacted his self-worth and confidence, and Joel felt he wanted to change his eating and body image to try and feel better.

Joel then turned to disordered eating behaviours including skipping meals, purging and over-exercise as a coping strategy. Initially, he didn’t recognise how damaging these behaviours were, but when Covid and the lockdowns hit, Joel’s disordered eating went to a new level. When he returned to university, it was clear that something was definitely wrong and at this point, he bravely reached out for help.

In the episode today, Joel talks about his eating disorder recovery, the impact of restrictive eating, healing an addictive relationships to exercise, getting coaching support and his journey into supporting others as a health coach. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.  

To find out more about Joel: - 

Instagram: @wellspace_healthcoaching    

Eating Disorder Recovery, Therapy, Managing Relapse and Healing with Dr. Caz Baumber

Today I'm talking to Caz Baumber, a doctor and eating disorder recovery coach based in Yorkshire. In her early teens, Caz developed anorexia, and spent her adolescence and early twenties in various stages of illness and recovery. It wasn’t until the COVID 19 lockdowns that Caz began to use her experiences to educate others about eating disorders via social media, as well as working through the residual difficulties she faced. 

Now fully recovered, Caz is working as a trainee psychiatrist in the NHS. She is also undergoing private accreditation as a wellness coach, in order to empower others to overcome their struggles with food, using a blended approach of psychotherapeutic strategies, traditional coaching, and established knowledge about the biology of eating disorders.

Outside of eating disorders, Caz is a devoted cat-mum, climber, hiker and punk rock enthusiast. In this episode today, Caz talks about her recovery journey, exploring the different stages, moving from early intervention with nutrition and family therapy, individual therapies and a relapse in 2020. She reflects on different psychological therapies that have helped her and talks in more detail about Cognitive Analytic Therapy, an intervention that propelled her forward in gaining greater psychological understanding and insight, so enabling change.

Caz also talks about social media and her role in educating and empowering others. She explores her move recently into coaching, following a very helpful, personal experience that helped shift some of the final lingering eating disorder behaviours.

This is an uplifting and inspiring episode to offer hope for a full recovery. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.  

To find out more about Caz: -

Coaching: - cazrecoverycoaching.com

Instagram @Caz.ually    

Nutrition Counselling, Meal Plans, Binge Eating and Healing Disordered Eating, with Shannon Western

Today, I’m talking to Shannon Western. Shannon is a nutritionist who specialises in nutrition counselling for disordered eating. She founded Ease Nutrition Therapy because she saw a huge need for compassionate, person-centred care to help people feel better around food. In this episode, Shannon talks about her approach in supporting clients in healing disordered eating. She is particularly passionate about shining a light on binge eating struggles, as this area is still often overlooked in the disordered eating community.

Shannon is massively encouraging of supporting her clients to enjoy food for health, satisfaction and pleasure. She shares her thoughts on meal plans, considering if you really need one and if so, who might benefit most. She also dives into self-care and how we can decompress and switch off from the busyness of life. Shannon also explains the importance of getting back in touch with childhood foods and genuine food loves. She talks about why she doesn't care what you eat and how she supports her clients in holistic healing. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.

To find out more about Ease Nutrition Therapy: -

Instagram @ease_nutritiontherapy

Website: https://www.easenutritiontherapy.com/

The Ease with Food Podcast https://www.easenutritiontherapy.com/the-ease-with-food-podcast

When You’re Still Binge Eating But You Don’t Know Why

In this episode, I’m going to talk about some of the subtleties that can keep binge eating going. You might have already made some substantial progress in addressing binge eating but you feel frustrated that you have moments of slipping back and wondering how on earth it happened! If you reasonate with what I’m saying, be proud of how far you have come. You’ve probably struggled with your relationship with food for a long time and it is going to take a bit of time to unravel it and stay firmly rooted on the healing path. It is very normal for recovery to be a bumpy ride with one step forward and two steps back. I hope you find this episode valuable and it can support you in shifting further along, in understanding your binge eating and moving further towards healing.   

16 Ways to Actually Love Yourself (When you Have No Idea Where to Begin)

This episode was first published in the summer of 2021 and has proved to be one of my most popular episodes! Apologies for a re-share - I hope that you enjoy it, either for a first listen or a great reminder of how to put self-love into practice. A new episode will be back next week.

Something a bit different for you this week. 16 Ways to Actually Love Yourself (When you Have No Idea Where to Begin)! I'm speaking as someone who has very much walked this path, finding self-worth after being in the very depths of the deepest well. The episode is inspired by an article by Laura Jane Williams who contributed 'The Art of Loving Yourself', to the Stylist book - 'Life Lessons from Remarkable Women'. I'd highly recommend it.  This is not only for females; the strategies are valuable lessons for all. It includes a whole range of inspiring tips that actually make self-love seem that little bit more accessible.

I hope that you enjoy the episode.       

Emotions, Not Feeling Good Enough and the Ego-Syntonic Nature of Eating Disorders

Today I talk more about the psychology of eating disorders and themes seen in the therapy room. I explore my observed differences between people who lean towards a restrictive eating disorder and those who swing between restriction and bingeing or overeating. I discuss the ego-syntonic nature of eating disorders and how this brings much ambivalence about change. I offer hope and encouragement for learning new coping strategies and having a healthy relationship with food, your body and yourself. Previous episodes about the psychology of eating disorders: -

Eating disorder recovery: when you're in 2 minds about change https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/eating-disorder-recovery-when-you-re-in-two-minds-about-change/

Understanding why you might be in patterns of control, neglect and self-sabotage around your eating

https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/understanding-why-you-may-be-in-patterns-of-control-neglect-and-self-sabotage-around-eating/

Understanding more about the psychology of eating disorders https://harrietfrew.podbean.com/e/understanding-more-about-the-psychology-of-eating-disorders/

Eating Disorder Recovery, What REALLY Helps and Finding Yourself with Ella Williams

Today I’m talking to Ella Williams who is a 27-year-old eating disorder survivor and Assistant Clinical Psychologist supporting young people who have experienced trauma and attachment difficulties. Ella has battled with anorexia, starvation and bulimia for 12 years but thankfully, she is now well along the recovery path. After becoming extremely ill at dance college, Ella bravely took a new path and dropped out of Dance and began studying Psychology in Sheffield.

In the podcast episode today, Ella talks about her healing journey and the ups and downs along this road. She talks about the key factors that have helped her in recovery and reflects on how much her eating disorder has taught her about herself, her need to conform and fit in and be accepted by society. She says that she realises that it was never about food but ran much deeper. Ella also shares about family support that has been particularly beneficial in her healing. I know that you’re going to find this conversation really insightful, and it will inspire hope for the possibility of change and eating disorder recovery.

To get in touch with Ella:-

Instagram @ella_willss

Sensitivity, Healing the Nervous System and the Deeper Meaning of Eating Disorders, with Tracy Brown

Today I’m talking to Tracy Brown, a somatic nutritional therapist, registered licensed dietitian and attuned eating coach. Tracy works in private practice in Florida, USA, providing in-person, phone and online counselling since 2006.  Tracy and her Team coach women, men, children and adolescents who are struggling with food obsessions and body discomfort to build healthy, joyful relationships with food and body image, so they can be free and empowered to fully live their lives. The Team specialise in the treatment of eating disorders and eating problems, as well as issues related to over-extending the body, including adrenal fatigue, hormone issues, PCOS and gut health.

In this episode, Tracy firstly talks about her healing journey and how in the beginning, it felt as though there was nothing extraordinarily wrong.  She had great grades, many friends and excelled at most things she did.  However, Tracy felt somewhat empty and wondering what the point of everything was.  She was aware of being highly sensitive and very attuned to the feelings of others.  She was told more times than she can remember that she needed to toughen up.     Tracy could never get away from feeling what other people were feeling.  So she dove into obsessions around being nice, and good; the perfect kid/student/athlete to distract her from the discrepancies of the world.

Tracy fell into an eating disorder, starting out with restrictive eating and later into other eating disorder behaviours. But after 8 years, she began to walk her healing journey. She stepped into Attuned Eating, Deciding to Like her Body and to commit to the journey of self-acceptance and becoming her full embodied self. Then she began to teach others to do the same.  

In addition to hearing about Tracy’s healing journey with the ups and downs along this recovery road, she is also going to talk about the work she does today with her clients, understanding the deeper meaning of eating disorders and how these can be symbolic communicators.  Because sometimes, food is the only way we have - to numb out, distract, calm or soothe from our inner pain.  

Tracy is also trauma informed and is passionate about building safety for her clients in their nervous systems via co-regulation, sensory work, secure attachment and somatic experiencing, amongst other practices - to provide a "landing pad" for recovery to stick. I hope that you enjoy the conversation.  

To find out more about Tracy and her Team: -   

www.tracybrownrd.com and www.embodieddietitian.com

Instagram: tracybrownrd

Articles / book links : com/as-seen-on

Since 2006, she has guided people one on one and in groups in healing from disordered eating and chronic dieting, many of which also have other stress-related conditions at www.tracybrownrd.com/get-started and  https://www.tracybrownrd.com/free-gifts (to stop bashing your body) She is the creator of 3 courses that provide trauma informed and body image counseling skills and supervision to health professionals as well at www.embodieddietitian.com

To get started with Attuned Eating, get your free guide at www.tracybrownrd.com/free-gifts

To set up a free clarity call now schedule at www.tracybrownrd.com/get-started

LGBTQ, Vegan Meal Plans and Female Leadership with Dr. Mascolo (Alsana Eating Disorder Recovery Treatment)

Today, I’m talking to Dr. Margherita Mascolo from the United States, who is the chief medical officer at Alsana, a nationwide centre that treats eating disorders. Alsana is an eating recovery community and treatment provider that helps adult clients of all genders achieve lasting eating disorder recovery and whole health. Alsana has in-person programmes in California, Alabama and Missouri and virtual programmes that serve clients across the USA.

Dr. Mascolo, leads the medical component of Alsana’s Adaptive Care Model®. She has over 10 years of hands-on experience and extensive knowledge in the treatment of eating disorders. She works closely with Alsana’s medical leadership on the development and implementation of their medical care.

Prior to joining Alsana, she served as the Medical Director at ACUTE Centre for Eating Disorders at Denver Health. Additionally, Dr Mascolo is board-certified in Internal Medicine, has published multiple peer-reviewed articles on the medical complications of eating disorders, travels nationally and internationally to talk about this research, and has earned her certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS) certification.

In this episode, I hear about the groundbreaking work Dr. Mascolo and her Team are doing. The Alsana treatment centre prides itself on individualised treatment, which sets it apart from regular eating disorder treatment centres. They have found that 40 per cent of Alsana clients identify as LGBTQ and they have adapted their care model to meet the needs of this community, acknowledging that these needs are often overlooked in many other treatment places. Alsana is also the first treatment centre to launch a vegan programme for clients and recognises some unique benefits of having a strong female leadership.

I hope that you enjoy the conversation.

To find out more about Dr. Mascolo and the Alsana Eating Disorder Recovery Treatment and Community: -

Website: https://www.alsana.com/

Instagram: @alsana_recovery