It's All Made Up, Anyway

This is for a very specific audience: neurodivergent healers who want to help people and want to work for themselves but feel like you have to PUSH and prove that you can be successful

If you get frustrated trying to showcase your skills and value in resumes and cover letters, it's time to start building your personal brand on LinkedIn. I wish I was kidding but I'm being SO SERIOUS. Don't miss this episode

Courtney Johnson is a social media strategy consultant, content creator, and entrepreneur focusing on people-first social media content.

In this Episode, it's a little different than usual because it's an interview that I did with Whitney Eckis for her podcast, Under the Influence Podcast!

We talk about:

• My story of starting my first business and pivoting in 2020
• Why entrepreneurship is the biggest personal development journey you'll ever go on
• Why people overcomplicate getting started and how to simplify so you can get out of your own way
• Why energy is so important in business, even for people who are more logical and don't necessarily believe that energy matters
• How mindset work completely changed my business
• What it means to be aligned in your business
• How to navigate money scarcity when there's a genuine fear of not being able to pay bills

Learn more about Whitney Eckis:

You can learn more about Scott and Shaté here:

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In today’s episode, we’re talking to Shannon McLay, a financial planner who left a "traditional" financial services firm 7 years ago to start her own company, The Financial Gym because she felt traditional financial services firms did not have the tools or resources for this generation.

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This is the full story of filing for bankruptcy last year and talking about how I got into debt, the factors that I think contributed to my getting into debt, and the process for facing my finances and deciding to file. In the end, I also address the misconceptions and criticisms I've received since publicly discussing bankruptcy. 

Today’s episode talks about:

• What happens to me during an executive dysfunction shutdown
• My protocol for navigating days when my brain just isn't working
• Why it's important to honor your body more consistently

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This is an emotional episode where I talk about my journey of learning how to take care of myself and finally getting to a place I always wondered whether it would even be possible for me to get to.

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I’m too lazy to write out a whole little paragraph about the episode, so just read the title!

Topics Covered:

• How to start giving yourself permission to slow down if you’re burnt out
• Why it’s so hard to slow down when you’re burnt out
• Why we lose motivation and have a hard time re-initiating our goals after healing from burnout
• What to do to navigate this and get your motivation back

Links to Resources:

In today's episode, I'm talking about...

• How the beliefs that dominate our culture can really limit us
• Why it is so difficult to question the beliefs we were raised with
• Why the belief we can control how people see us is a myth
• Why language is really important in explaining ourselves and our experiences, and why “can’t” can limit you more than is necessary
• What alignment really means
• Why misalignment manifests in the physical body
• How to start questioning your beliefs so you can create a life you’re excited to look back on

Links to Resources:

Welcome to the new podcast, It's All Made Up, Anyway! 

In today's episode, I'm talking about:

• Building my first business, including all of the coaches I've invested in over the years
• Why mindset ended up being the key to my initial success
• Dealing with imposter syndrome in my first business and getting stuck in a cycle of overworking
• Burning out in my first business and not understanding why when I thought I loved it
• Complicated feelings about loving some parts of my business while feeling drained by others
• Discovering I’m a multi-passionate person and need to have a business that reflects that
• Quitting a book deal and having a spiritual awakening
• Reflections on burning my business down, what I would do differently, and what I learned from the whole experience
• Dealing with my own self-sabotage throughout the pivoting process like avoiding committing to one thing and avoiding boredom
• Finally committing and settling in my new business, which led to me being ready to re-launch the podcast
• Dealing with hate and criticism from family during the pivoting process, which ultimately affirmed I was making the right decision

Links to Resources:

Throughout your life, trauma can rear its ugly head in many different ways. How we cope with life’s traumas also comes in its own unique ways. Many people get caught between trying to conform and rebelling against conformity. That constant struggle to figure out who you really are can wear on the soul which can lead to its own coping and so on and so forth. Unless you find a way to break out of that struggle and trust yourself, then you’ll always be in that same place! Stop trying to fit in; you have the answers. It’s the season finale so stay tuned and listen for some great advice before Whitney takes a break to write her book!

Whitney shares:

• Various types of trauma that can lead to an eating disorder
• How people use dieting as a tool to numb
• Knowing that you are meant for a unique path
• Unknowingly feeding your shadow companion
• Facing the connection between your relationships with food and life
• Properly filling the void that the diet culture left
• The lose-lose situation according to the shadow companion
• Stepping into a new level of self-acceptance
• Importance of allowing yourself to have fun
• Combining your intuition with your knowledge
• Give yourself permission to not know what’s going on
• The trap that we put ourselves into
• Why we need to sit in the discomfort of not knowing

Links to Resources:

Doing nice stuff for others brings inner satisfaction that can make us feel fulfilled with our lives, but some people overdo it in order to please others out of a feeling of necessity. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you are people-pleasing or you just like being nice to someone. Often times, this can come about in relation to dieting and can be an act of self-protection. If you do find that you are a people-pleaser, then you may be compensating for something that you don’t really need to! The negative effects of this habit can show itself in many different parts of your life and start to affect your relationships with others and more importantly with yourself. Today, Whitney is going to tell you all about people-pleasing, what it looks like, and what to do if it is affecting you. People-pleasers need to hear this!

Whitney shares:

• Different ways that people-pleasing shows up in life
• Knowing the difference between being nice and people-pleasing
• Gauging the levels of anxiety in your body
• Sources of people-pleasing that stem from different points in life
• Knowing what the shame response actually represents
• Ways that unnecessary people-pleasing can hurt us and others
• Creating space for new people to walk into your life
• 10 detailed steps to take to stop your people-pleasing habits
• Establishing clear boundaries with consequences
• What to expect when going through the long process of change
• Going through the pendulum swing phase
• The messiest part of this entire process
• Continuing to have an honest dialogue with yourself

Links to Resources:

In today’s dietetic field, there is a painful lack of diversity amongst professionals. Whitney’s guest today, Dalia Kinsey, is a firm believer in the power of diversity and strongly encourages dialogue about cultural competence and inclusion in the dietetics profession. Dalia is a weight neutral Registered Dietitian and School Nutrition Specialist on a mission to make nutrition simple, accessible, and fun. She prides herself on using her new podcast School Nutrition Dietitian as a platform to strengthen K-12 nutrition through inclusion and a variety of perspectives. Openly discussing the intersection of weight and nutrition is the best way to change the profession.

Whitney shares:

• Dealing with the emotional and health effects of others’ microaggressions
• Facing microaggressions when becoming a dietitian
• Problems with defining anyone by a physical characteristic
• Being aware of the influence of someone’s environment
• Looking at people as individuals and not part of a stereotype
• Creating a false dichotomy when it comes to racism
• Feeling overly-welcomed from a predominantly white group
• How race and gender can affect someone’s medical diagnosis
• Why everyone is racist in one way or another
• Letting other people’s racism be there problem so you can work on yourself
• Correctly responding to knowing that you did something wrong
   

Links to Resources:

Dissociating with emotions stems from many different sources throughout a person’s life, and it shows itself in many different ways, such as addiction and eating disorders. Whitney’s guest today, Erin Geraghty, has dealt with disconnection and numbing out from life, turning to drugs and excessive dieting at a young age. Now, Erin is a yoga therapist, recovery coach, and yoga studio owner. She’s the author of the book, “Thriving After Addiction” and the host of a podcast by the same name. Her goal is to help people reconnect with themselves after addiction and eating disorders, just like she helped herself!

Whitney shares:

• Erin’s life now and how she got to where she is
• Growing up in a household that is focused around dieting and over-working
• Why addictions, EDs, and burnout all tend to go together
• Learning how to slow down and be with yourself when eating and drinking
• Teaching people how to process emotions beyond telling your story
• Comprehending different aspects of life when it is fear-driven
• Practical steps people can take to slow down and reconnect with themselves
• Reasons that it is so hard for people to let go of their coping mechanisms
• Navigating relationships with family or friends that are struggling with addiction

Links to Resources:

There are so many misconceptions as to what binge eating really is, and because of that, many people do not know how to battle this eating disorder. Whitney’s guest today, Dr. Jake Linardon,  specializes in binge eating and body dissatisfaction. He is a Research Fellow and Psychology Lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed scientific research articles on eating disorders. Since completing his Ph.D. in 2017, he has continued to stay passionate in his research into more effective treatment approaches for eating disorders. Hopefully, this podcast can help clear up any questions that you may have in regard to binge eating!

Whitney shares:

• Dr. Jake’s story and how he got into his line of work
• Addressing the underlying problems behind binge eating
• Distinguishing between binge eating and overeating
• Misconceptions relating to eating disorders amongst different genders
• Diving into the mindset and shame that comes with binge eating
• Why dieting causes some to develop eating disorders, but not all
• Binge eating being used as a trauma response or defense mechanism
• Taking the proper next step after a slip-up
• What research says about various strategies to counter binge eating
• Understanding the limitations of research vs. real world
• Targeting the factors that are fueling your binge eating
• The 4 different types of restrictions in eating disorders

Links to Resources:

What are the two best parts of the holiday season? If your answer is the food and the people, then you are in luck. It’s always great to see family and friends, especially if you don’t get to see them on a regular basis, and there is just so much good food. However, with all this food and people that you don’t see very often, diet talk and food stress are inevitable. Changes in your body are much more noticeable to others that go long periods of time without seeing you; don’t let that ruin the season. Today, Whitney shares 5 steps to survive the holidays without all that food guilt in the presence of those people and massive meals. Don’t spend your holidays under fire. Enjoy every bit of them!

Whitney shares:

• Diving into Club TYB and what it can do for you
• Identifying your sources of anxiety and overwhelm
• Different sources of anxiety that stem from the holidays
• Figuring out what you can and cannot control
• Using the holidays as a learning opportunity
• Predicting the most ideal situation with the things you can control
• Preparing in advance and what that actually looks like
• Continuing to go about your life as normal before and after the meal
• Navigating guilt or shame in the moment, afterward
• How to get out of your own head

Finding freedom in your relationship with food is the key to becoming confident with your body. Whitney’s guest today, Vincci Tsui, is on a mission to help people live life on their own terms by stepping away from diet culture. Vincci is a former bariatric dietitian turned Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, yoga teacher, and Health At Every Size® advocate. She is the author of The Mindful Eating Workbook: Simple Practices for Nurturing a Positive Relationship with Food. Health At Every Size is not a statement on who is healthy or unhealthy, more simply, no matter what size you are you can pursue health!

Whitney shares:

• Club TYB and coaching service updates
• Vincci’s bariatric career and how she got there
• Being a Health At Every Size advocate while also working in surgery clinics
• Taking the leap into full Health At Every Size
• Staying open to learning and being wrong
• Giving advice to someone who is having doubts
• Touching on the topic of “Informed Consent”
• The biggest misconception around Health At Every Size
• Explaining the difference between mindful eating and intuitive eating
• Describing intuition and when to listen to it

Links to Resources:

There is a common misconception when it comes to having a negative body image that only women struggle with these insecurities. Aaron Flores is here today to tell you why that is very far from the truth. Aaron is a registered dietitian nutritionist based out of Los Angeles, California with over 10 years of experience working with eating disorders in a variety of settings. In his work, Aaron helps men and women learn how to make peace with food and develop body-positive behaviors. Along with his work with eating disorders, he also is a co-host of the podcast, Dietitians Unplugged. 

Whitney shares:

• Aaron’s food struggle journey that led him to where he is now
• Making the shift from traditional nutrition approach
• Becoming a Body Trust provider and what that means
• Including social justice in the healing conversation
• How anyone who does not identify as a woman is excluded from the conversation
• Socializing ourselves on how to have uncomfortable conversations
• Experiencing group-leader fear about creating a safe space for others
• Struggling with feeling like a failure when diets are not successful

Links to Resources:

During pregnancy, women’s bodies will go through the most dramatic changes in their lives. What the world doesn’t see is the powerful mental and emotional hardships that women go through during this time. Today, Whitney’s guest, Shreen El Masry, is talking about body image during and after pregnancy as well as healing infertility after having an eating disorder. Shreen is the owner of Be You Be Free, a body-positive health and wellbeing community for women. Having struggled with disordered eating and body issues her whole life, Shreen discovered intuitive eating, health at every size, and became educated in all areas of health and wellbeing to recover. Having a positive body image can help women break free from diet culture and spend their time on the things that matter to them the most. Live life the way you are meant to!

Whitney shares:

• Shreen’s journey through body image problems and her eating disorder
• Supporting women who are pregnant or post-partum with their body image
• Refusing to be weighed during pregnancy
• Dealing with the post-partum pressure to lose weight
• Promoting a body-positive and healthy lifestyle for your children
• Recovering from an infertility condition caused by an eating disorder
• Underestimating the impact of undereating and stress on health
• Dealing with the backlash from professionals in the health field
• Different ways to prioritize stress reduction during recovery
• Working on positive body image with Shreen’s 12-step program Nourish Me
• Coming to terms with your cravings during pregnancy and post-partum

Links to Resources:

If you can change the way that you think about something then you can change the way that you feel about it. Today, Whitney is talking to Kara Loewetheil about how to take back control of your thoughts. Kara is a Master Certified Coach with a B.A. from Yale and J.D. from Harvard Law, as well as the host of the iTunes top-rated self-help podcast Unf*ck Your Brain. In the last three years after pivoting from a legal career, she has grown her life coaching business from 0 to 7 figures. At the end of the day, your thoughts control your emotions. You can consciously decide to engage with your thoughts instead of being at the mercy of those thoughts. Change the way you think and create your own life!

Whitney shares:

• Defining thought work and how people think
• Kara’s path to coaching and working with thought work
• Psychological teaching history of mankind
• Journeying through the relationship between size and happiness
• Where self-confidence comes from and how it works
• Reasons that people find their negative emotions so horrible
• Are your thoughts valid or invalid? Or neither?
• Changing the way you feel about trauma by changing the way you think about it
• Learning to think about negative thoughts or disfunction in a different way
• Taking apart personality tests
• Where intuition, instinct, and lizard brain play into your self-thoughts and emotions
• Beliefs and feelings in regard to photos of yourself

Links to Resources:

Recently, Weight Watchers has released their Kurbo app, which is geared towards dieting for children. This, of course, has plenty of concerned citizens expressing discontent with the problematic messages that this app is sending to the next generation. In the studio today, Whitney is talking to Lindsey Hall, who is here to talk about those problems and her own journey through recovery. Lindsey is an award winning eating disorder/addiction speaker and writer, focusing on the topics of recovery and eating disorders. Having struggled with the eating disorder cycle for many years, Lindsey has actively been in her coined "flexible recovery" since 2014, and is the author behind "I Haven't Shaved in Six Weeks," a blog written to humanize the stigmas of eating disorders and treatment. Parents, learn how to talk to your kids without shaming them!

Whitney shares:

• Information about the launch of her new group coaching
• How writing about her experiences contributed to Lindsey’s healing
• Tendencies related to embarrassment when starting recovery
• Lindsey’s journey through her eating disorder and recovery
• Knowing when you are “sick enough” to reach out for help
• Biological responses that cause binge eating disorders
• Binge eating as a punishment response to shame
• Showing empathy for people and companies that are trying to do the right thing
• Companies targeting more affluent families over low-income families
• Kurbo app review and problems with the program
• Pushing restrictive ideas onto kids during their developmental years
• Setting an example for your kids as an adult that looked up to your own parents
• Taking yourself out of a system that demonizes a group of people based on size

Links to Resources:

Experiencing trauma is an unfortunate aspect of life and can leave you feeling damaged with no healing in sight. Today, Whitney is talking to someone who has experienced major trauma and found a way to heal her relationship with her body. Ailey Jolie is the author of My Body, My Story, and assists individuals who have experienced trauma in their process of coming home to their body through somatic and mindfulness-based psychotherapies. This is the same approach that helped her reconnect with her body after being sexually exploited. Ailey knows that the best thing that you can do after experiencing a major trauma is to take what you can from it so that you can help others who may be dealing with the same things. Use your bad experiences to change the world for the better!

Whitney shares:

• Update on Whitney’s burnout, health, and group-coaching program
• My Body, My Story on a high level
• Synthesizing powerful feelings and experiences into writing
• Reasons that trauma cannot be compared
• Staying aware of your body in a world where we are not taught embodiment
• Standing beside other victims to give them a voice
• Where playing it small meets Ailey’s therapy practice
• Reconnecting with yourself while being able to numb yourself when needed
• Feeling different when you are around people that you admire
• Why chasing perfection is detrimental to recovery
• What running away from your problems can look like
• Attempting to rewrite other people’s stories
• Everything that comes with dating an addict while you yourself needs help
• Meeting your self-needs in more helpful ways
• Slowing down when you feel the urge to go fast

Links to Resources:

Do you often get the feeling like there’s no gas left in the tank? There’s a good chance that you are experiencing emotional burnout or just burnout in general. If you are, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people in and out of the workforce experience burnout on a daily basis and the problem is that too many of those people ignore it. Emotional burnout can affect your mindset and your ability to focus. Whitney has run into some burnout of her own lately and is here to tell you about what is going on with her and how she plans to handle the emotional burnout that she is going through. If you are dealing with your own emotional burnout then stay tuned because you may be able to take something away from Whitney’s experiences!

Whitney shares:

• Types of people that Whitney can help with coaching services
• How emotional burnout shows up for Whitney
• Different sources of emotional burnout
• Chaos in life translating to trauma in the body
• What emotional burnout can look like from a medical standpoint
• Suggested emotional and medical methods for dealing with emotional burnout
• Reasons that burnout is so much more than just food
• Learning how to rest without guilt in order to avoid burnout
• Defining emotional burnout and how to recognize it
• Incomplete emotional cycles and how they store in the body
• Why dealing with the stressor is not the same as dealing with the stress
• When you may need to invest in professional help
• Your health depends on your emotional healing

Links to Resources:

Navigating relationships with your partner, friends, and family can be difficult for anyone. It can become even more difficult when those people diet regularly while you have a rough relationship with what you eat. It’s a rocky combination. Instead of avoiding these people, and subsequently, your life, you need to learn how to talk to these people. Going through the recovery process alone can be a terrifying path, but having strong relationships with people that you can open yourself up to can help make it a smoother ride. To keep these healthy relationships, it is important to set boundaries with these people. Stay tuned to hear Whitney’s advice on just how to do that. 

Whitney shares:

• Letting people in on your recovery when you feel ready
• Easiest ways to tell someone about your mental health problems
• Internalizing negative self-talk from the outside
• Staying on the same team as yourself
• Practicing patience with others around what they say
• The two kinds of people you are going to deal with
• Following up your words with actions
• It’s not your job to do these things
• Finding ways to support others without convincing them that they are wrong
• Making it known that help is available
• Dealing with significant others that are dieting
• Signs that someone is struggling with their own body image
• What to do when you inevitably mess up

Links to Resources:

Being vulnerable is the ultimate sign of trust. There is nothing more vulnerable than openly discussing your eating disorder or disability on a podcast, and that’s exactly what Anna Sweeney is here to discuss. Anna is a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Supervisor, and owner of Whole Life Nutrition, a nutrition therapy practice dedicated to the treatment of eating disorders. She is able to help those struggling with eating disorders and disabilities from a place of experience, having been diagnosed with MS when she was 12. She works by combining her knowledge of nutritional science, experience in the treatment of eating disorders, and heartfelt, thoughtful care. Stay tuned to hear about Anna’s story and how we can bridge the gap between the able-bodied and disabled worlds!
 

Whitney shares:

• Updates, updates, updates
• Anna’s story
• Experiencing invisibility for the first time through disability
• Learning and sharing through life experience
• Being grateful for everything that disability can give you
• Looking for something other than empathy when you have a disability
• Making the transition from shit-talking your body to accepting your disability
• How disabilities can prevent you from getting help with your eating disorder
• Bridging the gap between the able-bodied and disabled world
• Supporting professionals with disabilities
• Recognizing how much we need each other as humans
• How needing more assistance impacts your relationships

Links to Resources:

Go lose weight. Fat is bad. Do these sound familiar? The problem with becoming healthy is that the definition of healthy is completely different from person to person. In the studio today is Dr. Joshua Wolrich, who has recently become an anti-diet and health at every size advocate on social media. Over the past few years he has become acutely aware of the problematic nature of both losing weight and also encouraging it. He now focuses on improving one's relationship with food through addressing #nutribollocks and reminding us that there is so much more to health than our weight on the scales. There are times when weight loss can be beneficial to health, but how do we decide what goes in that crossover gray area? It’s a conversation that needs to be had! 

Whitney shares:

• Problems with too much information and control on your journey
• Making the change away from the problematic view of weight loss
• Having the unconditional permission to eat all foods with natural moderation
• Where weight loss and health cross over
• Reasons that fad diets shouldn’t be compared
• Lack of informed consent when dieting
• Knowing the balance of risk and reward when making any decisions
• The myths surrounding celery juice and where they come from
• 2 things that medical professionals hate
• Everything wrong with believing pseudoscience
• Socioeconomic aspects of different diets
• Benefits and setbacks of bringing your own research to your doctor

Links to Resources:

Are you noticing that your love-hate relationship with exercise has been more hate than love? We have all been sitting at home thinking that it’s time to go exercise but the gym is just not in the books for today, so you exercise at home. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you don’t consider this exercise. Why? This is what is called the diet-culture voice. That diet-culture voice in your head tells you to feel bad about something that you should absolutely not feel bad about. Whitney is sharing with you 5 tips to develop a healthy relationship with exercise. Take the power back from your inner bully!

Whitney shares:

• What inspired today’s talk about exercise
• Short-term mindset vs. long-term mindset
• Importance of developing a healthy relationship with exercise
• Be willing to take a break from exercise
• Working on the guilt of taking a break
• Finding a place to heal other than the place that you got sick
• Take it one day at a time and try new things
• Questioning what you count as movement
• The power of the brain over how your body reacts
• Resisting the obligation voice
• Recognizing the different voices inside

Links to Resources:

In today’s episode, Whitney is talking to Talia Koren, the person behind Workweek Lunch, a membership site on how to meal prep and eliminate food waste. Talia is here to shed some light on how meal prepping and intuitive eating are not exclusively for the diet culture. Her mission is to help busy people all over the world master easy, affordable and time-saving cooking so that they can spend less time doing dishes and more time living their best lives.

By using these methods, you can learn to separate the concept of health from the stresses of weight loss. There are so many perks to these practices because they can be helpful at any point in your food journey. Don’t pick fights with your foods! Come to terms with what you are eating and use these methods to help you along your journey!

Whitney shares:

• Changes that are coming to Whitney’s coaching
• Update on Whitney’s life
• Talia’s story
• Rejecting the idea of expected beauty standard
• Meal planning at different points of your food journey
• Differentiating between dieting and intuitive eating
• Separating health and weight loss specifically
• Feeling more relaxed about food because of anticipatory eating
• Challenges you face when starting to meal plan
• Misconceptions about meal prepping
• Dealing with food planning while taking medications
• Talia’s favorite meal prep meals right now
• Workweek Lunch program and everything involved

Links to Resources:

Today, Whitney is talking about the struggle of emotional eating and why it isn’t bad. This topic tends to have a negative stigma around it but in reality emotional eating happens in response to positive and negative emotions and it can come when you are hungry or not hungry. There are a plethora of reasons why people eat when they are emotional, whether it be chemical, emotional, or physical. The problems arise when this is the only way that you know how to cope with your emotions and problems in your life, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Stay tuned to hear why emotional eating does not have to be a bad thing!

Whitney shares:

• Everything that’s going on with Whitney right now
• What is emotional eating?
• Reasons that emotional eating develops
• People that are most likely to develop emotional eating habits
• Here’s why emotional eating is not a bad thing
• When emotional eating becomes a problem
• The dangers of suppressing your emotions for long periods of time
• Finding a way to cope that actually helps with the problem
• The worst thing you can do in response to emotional eating
• Taking steps to improve without judging yourself
• Allowing yourself to react emotionally in whatever way you need to

Links to Resources:

In today’s episode, Whitney has the pleasure of interviewing therapist, coach, and founder of Caravel Coaching, Lee Chaix McDonough. Lee’s goal is to partner with healers, helpers, and creative entrepreneurs who want to grow successful businesses and lead fulfilling lives. Lee is here to talk about ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and how it has changed her life and the lives of her clients. ACT was developed as a therapeutic process, but it can be so much more than that and help you tap into your full potential. Check out Lee’s book, Act On Your Business, to hear some incredible insight on ACT and see how it may help change your life and business for the better! 

Whitney shares:

• How Lee made her way to writing her book
• What changes Lee saw in her life through ACT
• Importance of seeing yourself as whole or enough
• Personal struggles with body image and relationship with food
• Separating your unwanted thoughts from your identity
• Understanding why the mind creates self-hate
• The 3 M’s and what they really mean
• What you can do when you know what your core values are
• Mindset effects on how we view the world around us
• Having awareness in the present moment
• Validation for every internal experience that you have
• Lee’s healing process when discovering ACT
• Making yourself smaller out of fear
• There’s nothing inherently wrong or bad about you
• Defining intuition and how to know when you are acting from an intuitive place

Links to Resources:

On today’s very short episode, Whitney is giving an update on herself during this mid-season break. There is a lot going on in her life in the near future and she is here to tell you all about it!

Whitney shares:

• Whitney’s ongoing apartment hunt
• The 5 Day Trust Your Body Challenge
• Free binge meditation and email sequence
• Taking on new coaching clients in the near future
• Reasons Whitney is taking a mid-season break
• Being authentic to yourself by doing your own thing 

Links to Resources:

SIGN UP FOR THE 5 DAY #TRUSTYOURBODYCHALLENGE HERE: bit.ly/tybchallenge

In the studio today, Whitney is talking to an IBS, FODMAPs, Boston-based dietician, Kate Scarlata. Part of respecting your body is paying heed to any conditions that you may have and focus on health at every size instead of just being anti-diet. There are a plethora of medical professionals who will prescribe restrictive diets to manage gastrointestinal disorders when it should be looked at from a holistic viewpoint. Many people struggle with IBS and gastrointestinal problems, so hopefully this episode can help clarify different aspects of these problems and help avoid any misunderstandings. Remember, food is never the only answer!

Whitney shares:

• Huge misconceptions about the “health at every size” concept
• Kate’s story
• Is the FODMAP diet appropriate for everyone with IBS?
• Kate’s message to dieticians in regard to their bias
• Recommendations for those who have food eating disorder history and gut symptoms
• Why you should avoid putting all of your eggs in the eating basket
• When restrictive eating crosses over into food fears
• Taking out the symptom foods without falling into disordered eating
• Avoiding messages that focus on weight loss and food fears
• Successfully reintroducing foods through the FODMAP diet
• Different routes that end with restrictive eating habits
• Using elimination diets responsibly
• How confusion is spread by Whole30
• The gray area when it comes to respecting your body
• Thoughts on squatty potties and possible benefits
• Why so little money goes towards IBS research

Links to Resources:

In the studio today, Whitney is talking about 5 ways to start loving yourself, even when you just don’t. Plenty of people struggle with loving themselves because they get caught in their own frustrations. It’s very easy to get lost in hating different characteristics about yourself but you are not the only one! Loving yourself is the first step to anything or anyone really. Most people are way too hard on themselves for reasons that aren’t very important. If you want to have success in your relationships, day-to-day, and life in general, take it easy on yourself and pay attention to this advice!

Whitney shares:

• Becoming more self-assured to attract the right people into your life
• What’s going on with Whitney’s life right now
• Thoughts create your feelings
• Dealing with all the different voices in our heads
• Be open to the idea that loving yourself is possible
• Why everything hurts more when you don’t love yourself
• Imagining what it would feel like to love yourself
• Getting rid of anything and anyone that sparks self-hate
• Stop doing things that don’t make you happy
• Differences between loving your body, loving yourself and respecting yourself
• Create a list of things that you love about yourself
• Make a nightly ritual of compassion and forgiveness

Links to Resources:

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

Welcome to the fourteenth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully. 

In this episode Whitney clears up five of the most common questions and myths surrounding intuitive eating and food freedom.  From using intuitive eating for weight loss to the right and wrong ways to do intuitive eating, Whitney provides clarity to the issues that come up most.

Whitney shares:

• An update on her Patreon
• The differences in being an introvert and isolating yourself from the world
• Can intuitive eating can be used for weight loss?
• The dangers of straddling the fence with dieting
• Does anti-diet mean anti-nutrition?
• Prioritizing comfort with food over nutrition
• Is there a right and wrong way to do intuitive eating?
• Does intuitive eating successfully mean you will never think of dieting again?
• Will having unconditional permission to eat mean you will binge for the rest of your life?
• A recent breakthrough in her dating life 

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully. 

This episode is all about acceptance and commitment therapy, or ACT. Whitney speaks with Margit Berman, author of A Clinician’s Guide to Acceptance-Based Approaches for Weight Concerns.  Whitney is constantly referencing this book while working on Health at Every Size, and to help debunk the myths about weight science.  

In this episode Whitney and Margit speak about:

• What exactly is ACT?
• Learning to focus on what you care about while also accepting that it’s human nature to suffer sometimes
• Margit’s story behind getting involved in ACT and writing this book
• Margit’s journey to size acceptance and body positivity
• Focusing your anger in the right places, not towards your own body
• The BMI scale and the 1998 change to the BMI system
• How BMI is not an identifier of anyone’s health
• The mortality rate amongst the different BMI categories
• How Margit would change the BMI scale
• A few fun facts or misconceptions about sex and gender
• Interrogating your sexuality and asking about what you really want

Margit I. Berman has a Ph.D. in counseling and social psychology from the University of Minnesota. She is currently assistant professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and associate professor of clinical psychology at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University. She was a recipient of the 2015 Hitchcock Foundation Scholars Career Development award for her research and development of the Accept Yourself! intervention for women with obesity and depression. She is a feminist, cognitive-behavioral therapist who trains clinicians in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and self-acceptance based interventions throughout the U.S. Her client self-help workbook and clinician manual for Accept Yourself! are available from Routledge Press.

Welcome to the twelfth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

Whitney has a lot going on this week to prepare for Coachella!  For this week’s episode she does a quick Q&A speed round with 10 questions that she received through her Instagram.  From intuitive eating tips and binge eating to bodybuilding and veganism, Whitney covers a wide range of topics.

In this episode you’ll hear about:

• How do you stop yourself from binging?
• How “to do” intuitive eating without over eating?
• What are the steps to overcoming the fear of certain foods?
• How to accept that you are gaining weight while intuitively eating
• What positive things are you gaining alongside the weight while on the intuitive eating journey?
• Exactly how f*cked up society’s diet culture is
• What does Whitney think about veganism?
• How do you deal with public events when in the refeeding phase?
• How to handle a partner who thinks your joint diet journey was a success due to the scale, even though it messed you up mentally and physically?
• Learning to overcome the idea of being “too big” for your male partner?
• Thoughts on competitive bodybuilding?
• Being restricted medically from eating 2-3 hours before bed
• How to work on intuitive eating while depressed and without access to therapy
• Tips for not falling back into diet culture when people around you are dieting
• Learning to make your values a priority

Learn to take anything life throws at you and turn it into a way to get closer to yourself. Every challenge in life is an opportunity to learn!

Welcome to the eleventh episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter. Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

For the appetizer, Whitney covers the different types of restriction and why you might feel like you can never stop eating.  Listen to learn about what you might be doing that can lead to overeating and binge eating. Today’s Main Dish is all about what to do if you’re feeling insecure and self-conscious because ‘shorts weather’ is coming up. Whitney gives a few tips for dealing with your emotions in a healthy way.

In this episode Whitney speaks about:

• Shifting from emotional reactions to emotional responses
• The different adjustable clothing options that might be a good fit for you
• The ethics of clothing brands
• Communicating your boundaries with your friends & family in a respectful way
• How your body protects you from repeat dieting
• Why your body might not trust you
• How long it can take your body to feel like it can rely on consistent food
• Recognizing when you talk negatively to yourself about food
• The damage caused by judging yourself for your own emotions
• Allowing yourself to progress at your own pace

Have you learned to be comfortable with your discomfort?

Welcome to the tenth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast! Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

In this week’s episode Whitney speaks with Julie Duffy Dillon, a registered dietitian, eating disorder specialist, and PCOS specialist who partners with people on their journey to food peace.  Julie shares her story of going from a weight management dietitian to finding health at every size and embracing body respect and body positivity.

Whitney and Julie discuss:

• How did Julie become involved with PCOS?
• What exactly is PCOS?
• The fluidity of loving your body, and how body respect is a great first step towards it
• Why is there so little research done about PCOS?
• That you shouldn’t have to torture your body to get the health care you need
• What Julie recommends you can do to help yourself if you have PCOS
• How misleading the long term research is around PCOS
• What are Julie’s experiences with dieting and how has come to understand and tune into her intuition

When you’re ready to start your journey towards intuitive eating and body acceptance, there is a way for you to find peace with food, have less chaos and promote health at the same time.  

Learn more from the resources below: 

Julie Duffy Dillon is a Registered Dietitian, Eating Disorder Specialist, and Food Behavior Expert partnering with people on their Food Peace journey. She is trained as a mental health counselor and supervises dietitians and other health professionals to use weight inclusive and attuned eating strategies. She owns central North Carolina's group nutrition private practice and premier source of eating disorder treatment and prevention, BirdHouse Nutrition Therapy. Julie also produces and hosts the weekly podcast, Love Food and has an online course to help those affected by PCOS. Learn more at JulieDillonRD.com. 

Welcome to the ninth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast! Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

Although Whitney mentioned last episode that this would be about binge eating, she wants to talk about something that has been on her mind lately, the feeling of being overwhelmed and stuck.   She speaks about a wide range of topics including an emotional letter that a friend gave her, 6 reasons you might be feeling stuck, and the value she got out of an article on polyamorous relationships.

Whitney speaks in more detail about:

• The value of talking about your chaotic relationships with food
• The parallels between food/diets and performing
• Being scared of being judged for the things you judge yourself of
• How the real work happens when you unpack your beliefs and stories
• Working on your relationship with yourself and the domino effect that can have
• Everyone has a different perspective on the world, and on you
• Six reasons you might be feeling stuck in your life
• Describes what a healthy polyamorous relationship looks like

Welcome to the eighth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

In this episode Whitney speaks with the one and only Lena the Plug. Lena is a YouTuber, social media influencer, sex worker, cam girl, and 2018 Porn Hub Celebrity of the Year. With over 1.4M followers on YouTube and 1.8M on Instagram, Lena wants to be the kind of celebrity she needed when she grew up - one who doesn't promote diet culture.

In this interview, she commits herself to ditching dieting for good and talks about why it took her so long to fully dive into Intuitive Eating. We talk about the pressure she feels as an online sex worker to keep shrinking her body, and why it's so important for her to finally quit the diet/binge cycle. She not only sends an important message to her fans about the reality of dieting, but she also uses this opportunity to give herself advice that she wish she had gotten when she was younger.

During the intro Whitney speaks about

• How she has officially gone full time with her business!
• Her own journey to the next level of coaching
• How she doesn’t want to talk about food or nutrition any more
• The things she DOES want to talk about

During the interview Whitney and Lena discuss:

• The spectrum of body image issues
• The evolution of online sex work
• Building strength against the things people say online
• Thinking in the long term with diets
• Reassessing your motivations around food
• Engaging with girls on social media who comment on her photos
• Having the moment of clarity that you need help
• How has Lena’s relationship with intimacy corelate with food?
• The issues surrounding younger girls in the industry
• How Lena wants to be the person she needed when she was younger

Welcome to the seventh episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

In this episode Whitney goes on a rant about stepping into your power and getting rid of negative thoughts, speaks with a body positive YouTube creator called Mermaid Queen Jude, and touches on an important topic in dating- honesty.

Check out this episode to hear Whitney’s take on:

• How little control over body size we have
• Learning to stop judging people based on their body size
• The important things you should focus on instead of dieting
• Doing the things that you enjoy during your one chance at life
• Jude’s history and relationship with food
• Cultivating a community that wants to learn
• The things Jude found helpful along the way
• Recognizing if your body positivity is TOTALLY inclusive
• Differentiation between body positivity and body liberation
• Jude’s perspective on self care
• The importance of being honest with your partners
• Being open, honest and authentic to yourself with all people

Jude Valentin is a content creator skilled in the disciplines of theatre, photography, and video production. She spends her time on the internet screeching about body positivity and developing communities through art.

Follow Jude:

In this episode Whitney speaks with Caroline Dooner about her book, the F*ck it Diet, where she writes and teaches chronic dieters how to heal their relationship with food and weight.    They discuss all about how Caroline healed her relationship with food, why she wrote the book, and how this book was exactly what she needed while on her journey with food.

Whitney and Caroline speak about:

• How the topic of intuitive eating is very evidence based, that many people are learning about together
• Caroline’s past with dieting and diet culture
• How the Fuck it Diet became a reality
• The timing of Caroline’s dieting and her mom’s diagnosis of Cancer
• The parallels between control issues and dieting
• The pros & cons of intuitive eating
• The level of misery that it sometimes takes to realize what is important
• How to learn what your body is saying in real time, and make adjustments
• Learning to eat and trust that your hunger is going to be the best for your health
• Why Caroline never wants to talk about food again
• What does selfcare look like to Caroline?
• What role has vulnerability played in Caroline’s life?

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast! Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter. Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, an anti-diet, health at every size registered dietitian who offers online coaching to help you stop dieting, make peace with your body, and take the power back from your inner bully.

In today’s episode, Whitney talks about one of her tweets that went viral and provides some information about the thread inspired by the tweet.  Whitney also acknowledges and responds to the criticism and discussion that the tweet brought on. 

This episode covers:

• The fact that anti-diet isn’t the same as being against medical nutrition therapy
• The importance of practicing diets from an evidence-based place
• Anecdotes are not research
• The risks and side effects of dieting
• How information provided by the media is different than the scientific research
• Dieting in the pursuit of weight loss does not lead to a better quality of life
• Talk about weight stigma and fatphobia and how it is perpetuated in the medical system
• What weight stigma is
• What the “O word” means and how it came to be classified as a disease
• Anti-fat bias found in the medical industry
• Empowering you to show your doctor the research around recommending weight loss as a cure-all
• The common issues that can be found in dieting research today
• Why and how dieting failure is unhealthy

This episode is all about creating fitness goals without surrounding yourself with diet culture.  Whitney interviews the amazing Chrissy King about the intersection of feminism, race, fitness, and how power lifting saved her life.  Stay until the end to hear Whitney’s take on navigating nutrition info on the internet, and how to know what’s right for you.

Chrissy King is a writer, speaker, strength coach, and self-proclaimed truth teller with a passion for intersectional feminism and creating a diverse and inclusive wellness industry.  She has been featured in SELF, BuzzFeed, Muscle and Fitness, and Livestrong, among others.

She empowers women to stop shrinking, start taking up space, and use their energy to create their specific magic in the world. When she’s not serving her clients by empowering them to create stress-free and sustainable lifestyles and feel confident and empowered in their skin, she spends her time lifting all the weights, reading, traveling, and hanging with friends and family.

Listen as Whitney and Chrissy talk about:

• Learning to identify your boundaries
• Making sure your goals are aligned with what YOU want
• How to strengthen your ability to put your mental and emotional health first
• Learning to engage in a fitness community and have fitness goals without falling into diet culture.
• Chrissy explains what power lifting is, and how it transformed her
• Sharing stories about fitness spaces that felt comfortable, and uncomfortable
• How to learn from your mistakes when speaking about these topics
• Finding a trainer that doesn’t push diet culture
• Fitness should be more about living a life that feels good
• Diversity and inclusion 101 class – What inspired it and what is coming in the future
• How does Chrissy describe intuition?

Do you feel empowered to listen to what your body is saying?  Are you struggling with diet culture after starting your fitness goals?  Check out this episode to hear Whitney and Chrissy’s thoughts.

Welcome to the third episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast! Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, a registered dietitian who offers online coaching for intuitive eating, binge eating recovery, body image healing, and radical self-care.

In this episode Whitney talks about how to deal with people who judge you for your eating habits, what it really means to trust your body more than your diet, 5 ways you can start trusting your body today, and why loving yourself and celebrating your body is essential for sexual health. 

Listen as Whitney covers topics about:

• Importance of setting boundaries with friends and families
• What it means to trust your body
• We are all born as intuitive eaters
• How the diet industry is structured to keep you hooked for life
• Tips to help you trust your body

What steps do you take to trust your body more every day?

Welcome to the second episode of the Trust Your Body Project Podcast!  Trust Your Body Project is a podcast and social media movement started on Instagram designed to help you heal, eat, and create space for the things that truly matter.  Meet your host, Whitney Catalano, a registered dietitian who offers online coaching for intuitive eating, binge eating recovery, body image healing, and radical self-care.

In this episode, Whitney is joined by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN, CEDRD-S, the co-creator of intuitive eating.  Listen as they discuss what intuitive eating is, how it has been changed by different online communities, and how to trust your body.

Whitney and Evelyn speak about:

• Evelyn’s past and how she discovered intuitive eating
• How weight stigma is causing  unnecessary suffering
• Connections between eating and self-care
• Building trust between you and your body
• Celebrating little wins
• What it means to prioritize yourself
• Violations of intuitive eating being used with weight loss
• Learning to live your life intuitively
• What self-care means
• How do you define intuitive eating?

RESOURCES: