The Gratefully Nourished Podcast with Alyssa Pike, RD

We have another episode about exercise! Today I'm asking personal trainer Kasey Shuler how to shift our view of exercise to be life-giving instead of draining. Kasey helps us redefine exercise, shares tangible tips for improving our fitness by grace and helps us discern which type of exercise is best on any given day. We also discuss her experience with food and exercise and how she found intuitive eating.

More about Kasey:

Today's episode is a fun one because I have my friend Amanda joining me! Amanda and I became friends in 2020 - we live close to each other, go to the same church, and have weekly girl dinners with our friends :-)

I'm so excited for you to hear this episode because we share BOTH of our positive pregnancy, labor & birth experiences as well as what we learned during the first year of motherhood. I had my son three weeks before Amanda had her daughter so we really did experience this massive life change alongside each other.

We talk about:

• Our pregnancies, labor & birth experiences
• Positive hospital birth experiences
• Navigating the newborn phase & baby sleep
• Giving up control
• The self-sacrificial nature of being a mom
• Postpartum anxiety
• The importance of community
• What we would do differently/same
• What was most surprising
• & What others say they learned in the first year of motherhood

I hope you find this episode honest, realistic & encouraging. Becoming a mom is such a major experience & you need community to support you when it feels overwhelming. You're not alone & you're doing a great job, mama!

Today's episode is all about our relationship with exercise! I am so excited to share my conversation with Amy Connell with you. We cover questions like: How can we improve our relationship with food, exercise and our body? How do we balance the desire to care for ourselves/our health without turning it into an idol? What does a healthy relationship with exercise look like? ...and so much more!

More about Amy:

Amy Connell is a weight-neutral certified personal trainer and nutrition coach. She helps women feel and function well in simple and grace-filled ways so they can fulfill their purpose. Amy serves faith-based women and teens through her books and podcasts. She and her husband have a college-aged son and one who is a senior in high school, and they regularly talk about how much money they will save on groceries when both boys are out of the house.

Kylie and I are continuing our podcast series on the book Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. In this episode, we dive into the chapters on conversation and bedtime. We hope you enjoy.

COME SAY HI!

Kylie's blog: immaeatthat.com

Alyssa's blog: gratefullynourished.co

Have you ever wondered what the Bible has to say about food and our bodies? If so, this episode is for you! On today's episode of the Gratefully Nourished podcast, registered dietitian Alyssa Pike is interviewing theologian and writer Amy Gannett who provides a powerful (and maybe jarring!) theology of food and the body and shares her experience overcoming her own struggle with food and body image.

If you find yourself worried that your body has disqualified you from the love of God or consumed by thoughts about food, you'll be encouraged by this conversation.

More about Amy:

If you've ever wanted to understand the basics of eating disorders, this episode will help you do just that. In today's episode, Jessica shares how she got into the eating disorder field, we discuss the spectrum of eating behaviors -- ranging from positive to neutral to destructive to threatening, the three needs for recovery and common misconceptions about eating disorders. Jessica delivered several key insights that I know I'm going to be thinking about for a long time.

I'm so grateful I got to sit down and talk with Jessica -- I share this on the podcast but her resource "Eating Disorders Bootcamp" is one of the main resources I devoured when I first started working in this area.

More About Jessica:

Jessica Setnick is the best kind of dietitian – she knows her stuff and is relatable and irreverent about it. She envisions a world where no on is ashamed to talk about their eating issues and everyone who wants help can get it. Everything she’s done in her career has focused in some way on eating disorder care and widening the circle of people who understand how to help, including health professionals, parents and friends.

Kylie and I are continuing our podcast series on the book Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. In this episode, we dive into the chapters on work and play. We hope you enjoy.

COME SAY HI!

Kylie's blog: immaeatthat.com

Alyssa's blog: gratefullynourished.co

Getting a cancer diagnosis or going through treatment is a life-altering experience, and Tuesday Hoelscher specializes in helping cancer patients and survivors navigate food during such an uncertain and stressful time. It was such a joy to sit down and talk with Tuesday about how to reduce one's risk for cancer while still keeping the bigger picture in mind: that we all have a unique set of risk factors and food is just one of them so we can do what we can without putting too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect.

Plus, it's nice to know that there are only two foods and/or beverages associated with an increased risk of cancer. We discuss those, how to handle them and more on this episode, so you don't want to miss it!

We also discuss new mom life a little bit and Tuesday encourages RDs to go for it with their business and shares a great final reminder about the nuance of health and nutrition :-)

Enjoy this episode, leave a review and share with a friend :-)

About Tuesday:

Tuesday is a registered dietitian nutritionist who helps people with cancer thrive during treatment, reduce recurrence risk, and eat with less stress and fear so that they can get their energy back and feel like themselves again.

CONNECT ON INSTA:

I'm so excited for you to listen to this conversation with Lauren! There are so many myths and misperceptions about dairy and beef farming, and Lauren is passionate about telling the story of farmers, and I think her perspective is so needed. We talk about how she grew up on a farm, how she became a registered dietitian, what she wishes people knew about farming and the types of farming so you can feel confident making the right decision for you and your family.

Enjoy this episode, leave a review and share with a friend :-)

Resources:

Habits of the Household Book Series: Chapters 5 and 6 -- Family Devotions and Marriage

We did it....we got our husbands to join us for this episode! We're excited for you to hear their perspectives on these chapters. We really cover a lot -- family devotions and marriage, yes, but also more about how we met our husbands, how our marriage has changed over the years, the challenges of marriage, parenting roles, how much we spend on groceries and so much more.

One highlight from this episode and this entire series that Ive been thinking about a lot lately is..... something is better than nothing. Maybe you don't have time to listen to the whole series or you feel overwhelmed by all the ideas....same. Start where you are, listen to a snippet, and try to take one tangible prayer or task or touchpoint for your life or family. I'm rooting for you!

COME SAY HI!

Kylie's blog: immaeatthat.com

Alyssa's blog: gratefullynourished.co

Emily Hahn, MPH, RDN, CED-S joins me on today's episode! We talk about how she got into the eating disorder field, the multiple hats she wears and practical tips for navigating a girls night out or date when you've been struggling with disordered eating. We talk about the first thing Emily does when trying to help people move from dieting and restriction to peace and freedom with food and what pregnancy and motherhood looked/looks like for Emily.

Emily is a WELL of compassion and helpful information -- two things at the core of Gratefully Nourished's mission. It was a joy to talk with her!

Enjoy this episode, leave a review and share with a friend :-)

Emily's bio:

Emily Hahn is an eating disorder, non-diet dietitian in Houston, Texas. She owns and operates a group practice of dietitians called We All Eat Nutrition Therapy. We All Eat is a HAES-aligned practice that specializes in Intuitive Eating and eating disorder recovery. Emily is a Certified Eating Disorders Specialist Supervisor through the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals, and is currently serving as President on the board of the Houston Eating Disorders Specialists. Emily is contracted with the Houston Ballet Academy where she provides nutrition education, individual consultations, and sits on multidisciplinary panels.

Kylie and I are reading and discussing the book Habits of the Household: Practicing the Story of God in Everyday Family Rhythms. In episode two of the series, we cover chapters three and four: Discipline and Screen time.

We talk about how discipline never happens at a convenient moment and the idea of discipline as discipleship, plus a few tangible habits to practice in your household. For screen time, we discuss curation, the idea of instruments versus devices and how it's not about abstinence but about finding the right guardrails that's most important.

We hope you enjoy!

COME SAY HI!

Kylie's blog: immaeatthat.com

Alyssa's blog: gratefullynourished.co

Welcome back to the Gratefully Nourished podcast! I hope you enjoy this new season's focus on finding meaning in the midst of chaos plus the integration of all things motherhood, faith, life, and simplicity in addition to nutrition and health. Like I say in the intro, for a long time I struggled to make Gratefully Nourished all about nutrition. At this point, I know that's because health is more than just what we eat and I am more than just a registered dietitian. Join us as we talk about honoring our health without obsession and all the pieces of life in between. I'm so happy you're here!

Rate, leave comments and tell me all the things :-)

-Alyssa

Kylie's blog: immaeatthat.com

Alyssa's blog: gratefullynourished.co

We're rounding out this season with an episode all about eating disorder care. I'm delighted to introduce (or reacquaint) you to Emily Murray, RD, LDN, CEDS, who shares a little bit about her eating disorder experience and how she got into working with individuals suffering from eating disorders and struggling to find peace with food. We talk about how we each took non-traditional paths in the field of dietetics, discuss some differences between disordered eating and eating disorder care, how to know when it's time for a higher level of care and more! 

More about Emily Murray, RD, LDN, CEDS:

Emily is  a certified eating disorders specialist through the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (iaedp). In her private practice just outside of Nashville, TN, Emily primarily works with individuals who suffer from eating disorders with co-occuring mental health concerns, including but not limited to: emotional avoidance and dysregulation, co-occuring anxiety, OCD, & mood disorders, as well as trauma, addiction, and issues of self-esteem and self worth.Emily is often helping her clients sift through “food & feelings” and invites the deep, emotional work that is required to heal from disordered eating and eating disorders.

Connect with Alyssa Pike, RD

Have you ever wanted to bring the message of food freedom to your local church community? Body BLoved has created a wonderful resource for you! In this episode, we talk about so many good things, including the importance of getting curious about where we learned our current beliefs around food and body image, the value in starting small and respecting our own limitations as well as encouragement for how to bring the food freedom message to your local church community.

More about Nicole Mesita, RD:

Nicole Mesita works in private practice as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and is the co-founder of "Body Bloved" a resource for Christian women who want to discover healing relationships with food, fitness, and body image through the unconditional love of God. She is a Mom of two girls and serves alongside her beloved husband in their local church. Through her education and diverse career experiences, God prompted her to help people of all shapes and sizes discover health and peace with their body through the unconditional love of Jesus. Nicole most enjoys spending time around a table and eating delicious food with the people she loves.

Brittany Braswell, MS, RDN joins me for this episode, and I'm so excited to share it with you! We dive into how Brittany got into this work and why she chose to integrate a Christ-centered approach to eating disorder and disordered eating recovery into her practice. We discuss the importance of keeping nutrition in its rightful place -- a helpful tool to improve our health -- without shame or obsession, identity, overcoming limiting beliefs and more. 

One of my favorite parts of this episode was when Brittany said, "one of the most difficult parts of recovery is choosing to take unpredictable action." So good!

More about Brittany:

Brittany is a Registered Dietitian specialized in the treatment of eating disorders and body image.  She owns a Christ-centered coaching practice for Christian women ready to break free from the bondage of food guilt and body shame. Brittany is on a mission to help women ditch chronic food and body obsession using a Christ-centered approach to help them overcome the lies of diet culture and rediscover their God-given identity.

Kassandra Baker joins me for this episode, and it's a goooood one! We dive into Kassandra's personal experience with eating disorders and how life is different now that she is recovered. We also discuss navigating weight changes throughout the healing process and why identity is so central to living free from food and body image struggles. Kassandra also shares a powerful testimony of her experience of the Gospel and invites us to have our own experience.

Kassandra's definition of the Beauty Idol:

• Worship of the current cultural definition of beauty above God.
• Going to unhealthy lengths to fit the beauty standard.
• Choosing not to do something (trip, job, exercise, etc.) because of how you look.
• Finding your identity in how you look rather than who you are in Christ.
• Thinking less of someone who doesn’t meet the cultural beauty standards.

I recently shared that my husband and I are pregnant with our first child, a baby boy due in December 2022! So Kylie and I are talking all things pregnancy, including what our experiences have been like, what's been hard, body image and more.

For those who have been following along with our Sacred Rhythms Book Club Podcast, you'll be extra excited for today's podcast guest! Kylie Mitchell, MPH, RD and I are talking with Megan Stewart who is the founder and Spiritual Director of Camp46! We're talking about soul care, how to slow down, how to find space to be with God and why all of this is so foreign to most of us.

More about Megan:

Hi, I'm Meg and I am the founder and spiritual director of Camp 46! I believe God is always with you. He is intentional, intimate, and in union with specifically you! Yet, this world is filled with tasks, noise, and so much hurry that it can be difficult to connect with Him. Camp 46 is a space to step back from the noise, and get away with God through spiritual direction, retreats, and soul care sessions. Come find me at our basecamp – Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” My hope here is that you would begin to be still, and know that you are seen, known, and loved by Jesus. 

On this episode I'm interviewing Erin Todd, one of the cofounders of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women Podcast and you don't want to miss it! Erin's insight and experience with the Lord transforming her heart is so powerful. We talk about her experience of letting go of dieting and the pursuit of perfection for a better way -- a way where she's not striving but instead resting in her identity and security in Christ. We talk a lot about how this is a hard process and it takes time. Recovery is not linear and we hope that comes through in our conversation.

More about Erin:

Erin Todd is a wife, dog mom, attorney-by-day and writer-by-night living in St. Petersburg, Florida with her husband Robbie and french bulldog Rufus. As a redhead who battled insecurity and body image issues for over 30 years, she now claims the concept of being both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously. Her blog “Ginger In Progress” was born from a spiritual awakening where Jesus set her free from diet prison. Now she is on a mission to empower and equip women to Follow Jesus Not Diets. She is co-host of the Intuitive Eating for Christian Women podcast which teaches listeners how the principles of intuitive eating align with scripture so they can improve their relationship with food, their body and God and cast out dieting for good!

Have you ever wondered how to bridge the gap between disordered eating recovery and hormone health? In this episode, we're talking about just that! Listen in for a life-giving conversation about how to take care of ourselves and our hormones and how we can shift from trying to be the smallest version of ourselves to really appreciating our bodies and honoring our health without restriction or rigidity.

More about Isabel:

Isabel is a Registered Dietitian and owner of Woman Wise Nutrition. She helps women who struggle with hormone dysfunctions like PCOS and Amenorrhea to learn how to stop fighting food and start nourishing their bodies with confidence and clarity. Isabel strives to empower women with a deeper understanding of their health so that they can ultimately live their life of purpose.

Have you ever wanted to hear someone's story of moving from disordered eating to food freedom and peace? Well today's the day! I'm interviewing Julia Townsend, Registered Yoga Teacher and Mindfulness Coach who happens to be a past client of mine. She shares all about how she used to be trapped by obsessive food and exercise thoughts and behaviors (which is super normal in our culture and nothing to be ashamed of!) and how she's moved to a place of well-being and rest, caring for the body she knows was made good.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Julia's relationship with food, body image and exercise has transformed in the last year
• The hardest part of recovery
• What she would say to someone who is currently struggling with food, body image and compulsive exercise
• How healing her relationship with food allowed her to pursue a new dream (her yoga business!)
• How God was integral to her healing process
• and so much more!

More about Julia:

Julia Townsend is a 500-hour registered yoga teacher, mindfulness coach, and mom to three amazing little boys. From a young age, she has been following Christ and incorporates yoga and mindfulness as spiritual practices in her personal faith. Her passion is to help other women embrace joy in their lives and know that they are wonderfully made. Her experiences recovering from disordered eating gave Julia a passion to share with others that God made our bodies good, despite what diet culture tells us. In her spare time, Julia loves to read, write poems, run, practice yoga, and most importantly, spend time with her husband, boys, and pets.

Connect with Julia:

Side note - this is probably my favorite episode so far in this series!

One of my real life friends is joining me for today's podcast episode! We talk about Amber's journey of developing a healthy view of and relationship with food, the importance of paying attention to our language around food, why we need to eat enough (!!!) and how Amber challenged her own unhelpful beliefs and behaviors around food.

More about Amber:

Amber Middleton is a 4th Grade Teacher who enjoys learning and striving to be the healthiest version of herself. Amber enjoys encouraging and supporting her friends! She strives to actively be more like Jesus each day; learning to love to others the way Jesus would. In her free time you can find Amber cooking a new recipe and hanging out with all 30 of her closest friends! 

Disclaimer: Please be advised part of this podcast is not suitable for young ears. 

In this episode I'm talking to Leslie Schilling, MA, RDN, CSCS, CEDS-S about all things diet culture in the sacred and safe places. We discuss fasting, lent and why it's important to separate the secular (diet culture) from the sacred (our relationship with God). We also discuss why our body size does not determine our worthiness, grace and so much more. 

One important note: our aim is not to condemn the church but to help people understand that it's quite normal for the church to be influenced by the world (in this case, diet culture) when it comes to body size, nutrition and our food choices. I hope you find this episode encouraging and helpful.

More about Leslie:

Leslie Schilling, MA, RDN, CSCS, CEDS-S, owns a Las Vegas-based private practice specializing in nutrition counseling for families, people with disordered eating concerns, professional athletes, and performers. Leslie has served as a performance nutrition consultant for Cirque du Soleil® and the NBA and an expert contributor to U.S. News & World Report. With her warm, compassionate, and entertaining personality, Leslie has been featured in media outlets like Health, Women's Health, Self, Pregnancy Magazine, The Yoga Journal, Bicycling, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, and HGTV. As a registered dietitian certified as an eating disorder specialist and supervisor, Leslie spends much of her time supporting professionals across the nation through supervision. When she's not spending time hiking or playing board games with her family, you can find her sharing non-diet messages on social media and speaking platforms. Leslie is passionate about educating ministry, military, health, medical, and fitness professionals about the harms of typical dieting behaviors. You may know Leslie best as the creator of the Born To Eat® approach and co-author of the award-winning book, Born To Eat.

In this episode, we're talking about the basics of a healthy relationship with food. Important disclaimers: it's very hard to have a healthy relationship with food in our culture, so please give yourself grace. This podcast episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose any kind of eating disorder. If you are struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food, I HIGHLY suggest you talk to someone about it. If you don't have anyone to talk to about it -- talk to me. You can submit an audio message through anchor if you don't have my contact information (though I feel like I'm fairly easy to reach). 

(And yes, I can hear the mouse clicks too....they will be removed in future episodes!) 

I've gotten a few requests to outline what the bible says about food and our bodies vs the world. Here is the first episode (more to come!). Specifically I talk through holiness, Mark 7 (Jesus declares all foods are clean), 1 Samuel 16:7 (the Lord looks at the heart) and highlight the one thing that I think God cares most about.

Links:

Welcome to the intro episode for the Gratefully Nourished® Podcast! In this episode, I'm talking about what Gratefully Nourished might mean for you. Plus, I'm sharing how I came up with the name "Gratefully Nourished" -- and how it finally made sense to me a few years later.

Things I mentioned in this episode: