Find Your Strong Podcast Christine Chessman (she/her/hers)

This episode is our first one as a duo and I'm SO excited to have Ela on board.

Ela (@elalawnutrition) has been on the podcast several times and she and I have worked together on numerous projects in the past.

As a non-diet nutritionist, and fellow IE counsellor,  she brings a unique perspective to the podcast and one that is very much needed.
Together we want to help our listeners feel heard.  To know they're not alone and to help them figure out how the f*ck they can eat and move in a way that serves them, as we navigate these menopause years together.

So in this episode, we get straight into the topic of weight gain and coping strategies when we feel uncomfortable in our own skin.

How do you feel when the sun shines and the summer wardrobe beckons?

Do you always feel that it's time to 'drop a few pounds' before you'll let your body be seen?

Do you feel panicked or uneasy when last summer's clothes feel a little snug? 
What does that say about you?  What is the story you tell yourself?

Would you feel the same if your clothes were a little loose?

We are so excited to bring you this episode and would love your feedback.

In this episode we refer to Body Image Coach & Educator Bri Campos, whose work with body grief has been transformative for us as non diet professionals.

  Click here if you'd like to connect with Bri, or find out more.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x

This week I grabbed my good friend Ela Law from @elalawnutrition to chat about the Your Fat Friend documentary, by Jeanie Finlay which followed Aubrey Gordon across 6 years, since she released an anonymous blog from an account called @yrfatfriend .

Aubrey has since written 2 New York Times Bestselling books (You Just Need to Lose Weight and What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat) and along with Michael Hobbes (adamantly NOT on instagram!) has created something truly special with the informative,  endearing and forever engaging Maintenance Phase podcast .

Ela and I chat about weight bias and how it permeates our society.    Neither Ela nor I have lived experience of being in a fat body and both of us were truly touched by being able to see the world even for a brief time through Aubrey's eyes.

At one point in the film, Aubrey alluded to the fact that she has been struggling with an eating disorder but really struggled to get the help and support she needed.  Eating disorders do not discriminate. They impact people of all body sizes,  of all ages,  ethnicities and genders.

We chat about repairing our relationship with food AND finally finding peace with our bodies when we live in a dieting culture and thinness is a value praised above all else.  It is the air that we breathe and the sea that we swim in.
Ela and I then segway into the world of Intuitive Eating.

I hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what you think. If you can PLEASE find an opportunity to watch Your Fat Friend It is a triumph and Aubrey and Jeanie IRL are simply a joy to be around and were both SO generous with their time.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x

Simone Samuels, B.A. (Hons.), J.D., B.C.L. is a consultant in equity, diversity and inclusion and a weight-neutral personal trainer/group fitness instructor.  A lawyer by training and a fitness professional, she has consulted for fitness organizations in Canada, US and the UK and has delivered courses on weight stigma, fatphobia, anti-racism, allyship and anti-oppression.

Simone is a tireless advocate for making the fitness and wider world a more inclusive place.

I was SO excited to chat with Simone and knew it would be a confronting and very important conversation. She was incredibly generous with her time and I know you will very much enjoy this meaty conversation.

We chatted about:


How white female Fitpros can actually be inclusive in the fitness space?The racist roots of the BMI and diet culture.  Simone recommends some must-read books for those serious about doing the work.According to the BMI the ROCK (Dwayne Johnson) is morbidly ob*se. It was never meant to be used at a population level.Overcoming fatphobia in fitness spaces.  How we can get informed.Finding real joy in movement in this hustle culture and untangling weight loss and exercise.We chat about Aqua Zumba and ask why aqua is always associated with an older demographic.
What a chat!  I was truly buzzing afterwards and cannot wait to get Simone back for part 2. 

Recommended Reading for Fitpros or anyone engaged in the fitness industry:

Sabrina Strings - Fearing the Black Body. The Racist Origins of Fatphobia
Da'Shaun L. Harrison - The Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Ibram X Kendi: Stamped From The Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America

If you'd like to know more about  Simone, find her on Instagram or have a look at her website, where she has lots of different options to work with her.

* Simone was the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion reviewer of the canfitpro Personal Training Specialist textbook, helping to create an inclusive curriculum for future personal trainers in Canada. She has won multiple awards and commendations in the fitness industry, the most notable one being named as a top three finalist in canfitpro’s Fitness Professional of the Year Award.


If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x

Today I am chatting with Jonny Landels, a former diet culture-obsessed fat loss coach turned Intuitive Eating coach and Health at Every Size Advocate.  He spent YEARS fighting his own body but a couple of years ago, managed to turn things around and now adopts a non-diet approach.

I was really interested to get a male perspective on the impact of diet culture and Jonny feels incredibly passionately about ending the stigma, when it comes to discussing disordered eating, body dysmorphia and body image issues amongst men.

We touched on the following topics during our chat:


We spoke about Jonny's transition from fat loss coach to weight neutral coach and how his clients reacted.We talked about cultivating a healthy relationship with movement when historically it's associated with dieting and self-punishmentHow to know when too much is too muchI am so excited to bring you this conversation and love Jonny's passion and conviction for his work.
If you're interested in working with Jonny, he mainly hangs out on Instagram OR you can see what he's got coming up through his website.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x

I invited Amanda Bullat onto the podcast this week to tell HER story.

 Amanda became interested in nutrition while training as a competitive distance runner in her early 20s but her passion for running and food became a double-edged sword, as she developed her own disordered relationship with food and exercise.
After many years of personal struggle and a real commitment to recovery,  she was able to reclaim her love of food and movement. *

In this episode, we focus on when is enough enough, when it comes to movement.  When we start un-dieting our relationship with movement, how do we actually start listening to our bodies,  and break free from the earn-and-burn cycle?

We discuss the following topics:


What does 'enough' exercise look like?How do we know if we are doing too much?Is it actually possible to enjoy movement all the time?Is it ok to workout even if we don't feel like it?How do we know if our body needs rest or if we just feel demotivated as we have a human brain?Is it ok to use movement for emotional regulation?  What happens if we get stuck in that pattern and then movement becomes a 'should' or a 'must'?If you have thought about your own relationship with movement recently, you will really benefit from this feisty discussion.  I loved it and can't wait to have Amanda back on for part 2!

Amanda and I both work together as part of the Midlife Feast Community run by Dr Jenn Salib Huber (@menopause.nutritionist).  This community is perfect for you if you are navigating those peri to post menopause years, are done with dieting and restricting and just need a little handholding.

If you would like to work with Amanda herself, she often hangs out on Instagram or  she can be contacted through her website here.
**Amanda specializes in supporting women through the perimenopause, and menopause transition and uses the frameworks of Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size®, and the therapeutic Be Body Positive Model® created by The Body Positive.


If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x

This week's guest is non-diet dietitian Krista Beck Muench.*

Krista came from a dieting background where she exercised to burn calories and shrink her body and where she was caught in an unrelenting cycle of exercise, tracking macros and restriction. It was only when a friend introduced her to Intuitive Eating that Krista realised that there might be another way.

Now she's on a mission to help women find acceptance in their today bodies and rebuild that sense of trust that is often disseminated by diet culture. 

This episode is one of my favourites as we jumped around a lot (popcorn brain!) but covered a great deal of issues that are very close to my heart.

We spoke about the freedom that comes with relinquishing control over your body and allowing it to settle at its happy weight, whatever that may be.


We discussed the following


How we start to 'undiet' our livesRejecting the diet mindsetHow we can make peace with our changing bodiesAccepting that our bodies' happy weight may be higher than we'd like it to beThe dangers of weight cyclingKrista like me🥰, can often be found shooting the breeze on Instagram and for ways to work with her or to access her free resources, visit her website here.


If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x