Full But Not Finished

Stefanie Michele
  • 5.0 (41)
  • Mental Health
  • Updated Weekly

Full But Not Finished is for anyone who's tried to "just stop eating when you're full" and realized it's never that simple. Hosted by Somatic and Intuitive Eating counselor and coach Stefanie Michele, this podcast dives into the ongoing work of recovery -- where fullness doesn't always mean satisfaction, and where food, body image, and nervous system work is never finished. Each episode unpacks the psychology, nervous system patterns, and cultural conditioning that shape eating behaviors, showing why willpower alone doesn't work and what real regulation looks like. If you've lived the binge–restrict cycle, felt trapped in body image spirals, or wondered why "normal eating" feels out of reach, this is where we make sense of it — not with rules, but with integration, somatic tools, and a more human way forward.

  1. 2d ago

    50. I Feel Ugly, Irritable, and Impulsive With Food: The Capacity Connection

    If you've been feeling more impulsive with food, more critical of your body, or unusually impatient with everyone and everything, you may be dealing with a capacity problem. After unexpectedly stepping away from Instagram for a couple of weeks, I noticed some surprising changes: more patience with my kids, more attunement with food, less impulsivity, and more...lightness. It made me look more closely at how stress, stimulation, and constant demands can take up space in the nervous system without our awareness. In this episode, I explore nervous system capacity and the window of tolerance, and how reduced emotional bandwidth can show up through food impulsivity, body image distress, and everyday reactivity. I also look at why recognizing that something is affecting you doesn't necessarily mean you're ready to change it. Sometimes food and body image feel harder because they're happening inside a system that already has very little room left. MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Somatic Experiencing Practitioner & Binge Recovery Coach Website: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Contact: stefanie@iamstefaniemichele.com

  2. Sep 30

    49. When Fullness Feels Unsafe: Sexual Trauma and Binge Restrict Cycles with Becca Robinson

    Therapist and binge eating recovery coach Becca Robinson joins me to talk about the ways sexual trauma changed her relationship with food, her body, and herself. For Becca, bingeing, purging, and restriction became much more intense after her assault. Fullness could feel physically overwhelming and bring her back into sensations she wanted to escape, while restriction created a sense of distance from her body and a feeling of agency she was struggling to find elsewhere. We also talk about how trauma shaped the way she saw her body, including the shift toward seeing herself as a sexual object, and why behaviors that looked confusing or self-destructive made more sense once she understood what they were doing for her. Becca shares how trauma education, therapy, and somatic work eventually changed both her eating disorder recovery and her relationship with her body, and what it has meant to move from feeling disconnected from her body to experiencing it as her own. Content note: This episode discusses sexual assault, binge eating, purging, restriction, and trauma responses. There are no graphic descriptions of sexual violence. Becca is an integrative, relational therapist who uses her lived experience, therapeutic knowledge and experience in the field of eating disorders to help people find food freedom and body acceptance so they can give a more authentic life. Becca is also the host of the Food and Body podcast where she has conversations with guests about breaking free from food rules, the binge-restrict cycle and make peace with their bodies.   Website - www.beccrobinsonchinntherapy.com (coming soon)  Email - becca@beccarobinsonchinntherapy.com  Instagram - becomingwithbecca_therapist Podcast instagram - thefoodandbody_podcast Email - thefoodanbodypodcast@gmail.com   MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Website: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Contact: stefanie@iamstefaniemichele.com

  3. Sep 16

    48. Can Hypnotherapy Help You Stop Binge Eating?

    If you've ever thought, I know why I binge. I know what triggers it. I know what I'm supposed to do instead. So why am I still doing it? I wanted to talk with clinical hypnotherapist Emelia Armstrong-Crews about this. Can hypnosis be useful when talking and insight have only gotten you so far? We ended up having a much bigger conversation about how people change. Emelia talks about what it means to stop trusting your own instincts, which felt especially relevant to eating disorders, and how hypnosis may help someone have a different experience without needing it to make logical sense. I share some of my own experience with this too, including how hard it used to be for me to relax enough to feel anything during embodiment work, and how different that is now. So can hypnosis help with binge eating? What becomes possible when we stop assuming that understanding the problem is the same thing as changing it? CONNECT WITH EMELIA ARMSTRONG-CREWS Clinical Hypnotherapist Institute of Applied Psychology Australia Website: https://hypnotherapywithemelia.com Email: emelia@hypnotherapywithemelia.com MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Somatic Experiencing Practitioner & Binge Recovery Coach Website: https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele Contact: stefanie@iamstefaniemichele.com

  4. Sep 9

    47. Eckhart Tolle on Body Image: Do We Pay Too Much Attention to How We Look?

    Eckhart Tolle says a dog doesn't have body image issues because a dog doesn't have an image of itself. My first reaction was basically: okay, but we're not dogs. We know what we look like. Other people see us. Our bodies exist in a world that assigns meaning to appearance. We can't just opt out of all of that. But there is something useful in what he's saying. How much of our body image distress is intensified by the amount of attention we give our image? In this episode I talk about mirrors, photos, technology, aging, body checking. There is a difference between avoidance and choosing not to always look at yourself, and why moving your attention away from your body can actually feel unsafe. I also share how I use non-attention when I get pulled into that tunnel myself, and a simple practice for getting better at moving attention between threat and the rest of your life. MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Stefanie Michele is a certified coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who helps people understand the deeper psychological, emotional, and nervous-system patterns shaping their relationships with food, body image, and themselves. Instagram : @iamstefaniemichele Substack : @iamstefaniemichele 1:1 Coaching with Stefanie (apply for January 2027) Full But Not Finished on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@iamstefaniemichele

  5. Sep 2

    46. Why Diet Talk Makes You Want to Eat More: The Rebel Response

    A listener wrote in about something I know a lot of people experience in recovery: hearing someone talk about cutting sugar, seeing a weight-loss commercial, or coming across an article demonizing certain foods, and then feeling almost compelled to do the opposite. Not because you suddenly want the food more, exactly. Because something in you is saying, absolutely not. You will not take this away from me again. That rebel response makes sense, especially if restriction has hurt you before. But it can also become its own kind of trap if someone else talking about their diet ends up changing what you eat. This week on Full But Not Finished, I'm talking about how to stay with yourself in those moments, without complying with the message and without having to prove anything to yourself (or the universe at large). MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Stefanie Michele is a certified coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who helps people understand the deeper psychological, emotional, and nervous-system patterns shaping their relationships with food, body image, and themselves. Instagram : @iamstefaniemichele Substack : @iamstefaniemichele 1:1 Coaching with Stefanie (apply for January 2027) Full But Not Finished on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@iamstefaniemichele

  6. Aug 27

    45. Binge Recovery, "Healthy Eating," and a Kidney Cancer Diagnosis: Suanne's story

    In this episode, I'm joined by Suanne to talk about a recovery story that began in a fairly textbook way: regular meals, consistency, and learning to stop bingeing. But stopping the binges didn't automatically resolve everything underneath them. Food choices could still be shaped by ideas about weight, volume, and what counted as "healthy." Years later, a kidney cancer diagnosis complicated those ideas even further, forcing Suanne to reconsider some of the rules she had relied on and what taking care of herself actually meant. We talk about the difference between behavioral recovery and a freer relationship with food, how health concerns can intersect with restriction, and what recovery can continue to ask of us long after the most obvious symptoms are gone. Learn more about Suanne: @suannebd on Instagram MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Stefanie Michele is a certified coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who helps people understand the deeper psychological, emotional, and nervous-system patterns shaping their relationships with food, body image, and themselves. 1:1 Coaching with Stefanie https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/coaching Full But Not Finished on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@iamstefaniemichele Website https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele

  7. Aug 20

    44. The Cookie Paradox: Mental Restriction in Reverse

    Still having food noise even though you've stopped dieting? Mental restriction can keep binge eating and overeating going long after you've stopped counting calories or labeling foods "good" and "bad." In this episode, I share a client story that explains mental restriction a little differently than we usually talk about it. She wasn't afraid of cookies, worried about calories, or judging herself for wanting dessert. But underneath was still an expectation that, if she were fully recovered, she should eventually stop needing cookies emotionally. We talk about this subtle form of mental restriction that can remain after dieting and how even recovery or intuitive eating ideals can accidentally become another standard to live up to. If you've ever thought, I'm not restricting anymore, so why can't I stop overeating? this episode may help explain what might still happening. MORE FROM STEFANIE MICHELE Stefanie Michele is a certified coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who helps people understand the deeper psychological, emotional, and nervous-system patterns shaping their relationships with food, body image, and themselves. 1:1 Coaching with Stefanie https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/coaching Full But Not Finished on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@iamstefaniemichele Website https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele

  8. Aug 12

    43. Why Travel Days and Transitions Can Trigger Binge Urges

    Why does a travel day, a Sunday night, or the first day back after being away sometimes make you want to graze, overeat, or binge? Transitions can do strange things to our relationship with food, especially in the hours when one routine has ended and the next one hasn't quite begun. More free content in weekly emails Instagram too

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5
out of 5
41 Ratings

About

Full But Not Finished is for anyone who's tried to "just stop eating when you're full" and realized it's never that simple. Hosted by Somatic and Intuitive Eating counselor and coach Stefanie Michele, this podcast dives into the ongoing work of recovery -- where fullness doesn't always mean satisfaction, and where food, body image, and nervous system work is never finished. Each episode unpacks the psychology, nervous system patterns, and cultural conditioning that shape eating behaviors, showing why willpower alone doesn't work and what real regulation looks like. If you've lived the binge–restrict cycle, felt trapped in body image spirals, or wondered why "normal eating" feels out of reach, this is where we make sense of it — not with rules, but with integration, somatic tools, and a more human way forward.

Information

  • Creator
    Stefanie Michele
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    50
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Full But Not Finished

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