Perfectly Imperfect Linda Steinhardt and Rose Hyak

In this episode, we give our thoughts on the controversial question: is full recovery from an eating disorder possible? We discuss our opinions on what being recovered from an eating disorder means and some of the processes we believe that may happen along someone’s journey towards becoming recovered. Hint: we think full recovery from an eating disorder is 100% possible, but that recovery in and of itself isn’t a black or white definition. And, in full transparency, we actually recorded this episode a week ago, and found that our ideas evolved and changed over the course of our first recording. So, we scrapped it, fleshed out what we truly thought about this controversial topic, and are proud to share our thoughts with you, while acknowledging that they may continue to evolve as we have additional discussions, begin to work with clients ourselves, etc. We hope you enjoy the episode and share your own thoughts on this topic with us!

This week on the Perfectly Imperfect podcast, we talk with with Megan Seymour - AKA an amazing therapist AKA Linda’s very own sister!! We dive into a discussion about ambiguous loss and how it relates to our present day situation. We discuss the importance of being able to sit with some pain and why that’s so... well painful (duh), but necessary for both us and our potential clients. We also talk about coping strategies, both the helpful and unhelfpful, and how to have compassion for ourselves when our body instinctively uses one of our less helpful strategies. Lastly, Megan’s dog, Ruger, brings us back to our good ol' doggy bag segment days by sponsoring an amazing discussion that was started from a salad and Girl Scout cookies... Basically you won’t want to miss this episode!! So hit that play button NOW!!

Welcome back! In this episode, we discuss how our lives have changed during this stay-at-home time, and how we're doing with it! We're keeping it real, but lighthearted. We also discuss the idea that under this stressful time, it can be really common for thoughts/feelings to come up you wouldn't expect.. spoiler alert: it's normal under times of stress (ahem, looking at you pandemic), AND it can be a good time to dig deeper and work through them! Lastly, we each have some fun picking our top five ice cream flavors and breakfast foods, and debating whose lists are better. We hope you enjoy this escape from the uncertain times we are in, and are staying safe and finding the positives within it!

We have another very VERY special guest on today’s episode. Today we bring on a dear friend and fellow CPD classmate to discuss both her personal and professional experiences within dietetics. Annie will tell us what influenced her to seek out a career in dietetics, how her own struggles through recovery will impact the way she will practice as an eating disorder RD in the future, and how culture plays a significant role when it comes to mental health and ED awareness/care. As a Korean- American, Annie has experienced the pull from both of her cultures to have the “perfect” body size and attitude towards mental health and other behavioral conditions, but as we all know... we are all Perfectly Imperfect which makes us who we are.. and that in itself is perfect 😉

We hope you all enjoy! And thank you all for tuning in during this time.

Our first guest! We are so excited to have a fellow dietetic intern from our program on the show today. Shannon shares how she became interested in dietetics, and drops her knowledge on social justice issues through the lens of food. We discuss why many people view the Mediterranean Diet as the "healthiest way to eat" when in reality, many cultures eat similarly (hello Eurocentric bias!!! Not here for it!) Shannon then discusses the complicated question of "Who deserves healthful and quality food in America?" and why that question is more complicated than we might imagine it to be on the surface. Finally, we discuss the impact that cultural views and biases have on our perceptions of and actions toward different cultures' foods, particularly with an eye towards how we spend our money.

This was an amazing conversation and one that we think listeners will not only learn, but begin to consider and wonder about their own views on these topics. Maybe you will even get inspired to take action in some way!

Stay safe, and thanks for listening!!

Our first #socialdistanced podcast! Today, we discuss body image and what factors can potentially play a part in a creating a negative body image. Then, we point out some tools we believe could help to untangle those thoughts to create a better body image and to understand what sorts of events may spark them to come up again. Later in the podcast, we discuss the thing everything is talking about at the moment: Coronavirus. We take a bigger picture look at this uncertain time and validate that the feelings of anxiety are normal, but then dive into what we can do to stay calm, make use of this time, and stay socially connected in the midst of social distancing. Lastly, we touch on the sports world and the difficult cancellations that have come as a result of the Coronavirus. We hope you all are staying safe and find this conversation helpful! If you enjoy this podcast, send it to a friend so that they can enjoy it too while social distancing!