***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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
Tracy Brown is a Registered Dietitian who specializes in somatic practices for stress and anxiety. In this episode we talk about what happens when you have a history of trauma, which might prevent you from feeling embodied, and how that makes honoring your hunger and fullness increasingly more difficult. We also talk about how loving your body might seem like a lofty goal if you’re coming from a place of body hate and disgust. Tracy offers some really great advice on how to take the next step to simply just, “hating your body less”. We joked that I was planning to change the name of the podcast to “The Hate Your Body Less Project”!
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