The Appetite Opal: Food+Body Wisdom

Has your life become all about setting and achieving goals? When you encounter problems in life, is your solution to do more, work harder, and put another goal in place only to turn around and repeat this cycle when the next problem presents itself? Listen to this episode of The Appetite where Opal Co-Founders, Lexi Giblin, PhD and Kara Bazzi, LMFT discuss how this compulsive striving approach to life can work for you AND against you. With a particular eye on disordered eating and movement, they ask questions to help you discern if your values or the achievement hustle is driving your life. With society's value on high productivity, this conversation offers a welcome reprieve from hustle culture and suggests that practicing the art of non-productivity is exactly what is most needed. 
 
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
@opalfoodandbody
@Opal.Movement
 
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios

Listen in as Opal’s Director of the Exercise + Sport program, Kara Bazzi, and Opal’s Movement Coach, Caitlin Jacobsen have a conversation about “Good for a Girl”, a newly released book written by former professional runner, coach and author, Lauren Fleshman. "Good for A Girl" is a memoir (and part manifesto) which follows Lauren's distance running career to the upper echelons of elite levels of sport performance. Although the elite distance running world is exclusionary, and centers the white, thin, able bodied, cis-male experience, Lauren's story highlights something that is relatable to a wider audience: how society's toxic cultural messaging about who "belongs" is a driving factor for developing disordered eating and eating disorders. Kara and Caitlin draw from their identities as distance runners as well as clinicians working in the eating disorder treatment field, as they highlight important themes from the book. They also use this as an opportunity to encourage and inform listeners about eating disorder treatment, which was a topic not discussed in the book. This episode offers hope that specialized treatment does exist for the athlete! 
**Check out our other Shifting Toxic Sport Culture episode here.  
Links:
Lauren Fleshman + Link to her book "Good for a Girl"
Wildwood Running
Mind Body Endurance
Athlete Edge EDCare
Book:  Girls Running
 
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
@The.Appetite.Podcast
@Opal.Movement
 
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios

We are launching a new Self-Inquiry Series, within The Appetite podcast, where we will take the style of Opal’s Self-Inquiry Group to the podcast airways.  We are looking for folks interested in doing private journal self-inquiry work followed by receiving questions from the podcast group - just like in Opal’s Self-Inquiry Group (but recorded). Participants can call in to the show or join us at the studio in Seattle.  The Appetite will take measures to protect your identity, including using an alias, altering the sound of your voice, and editing out any identifying information disclosed post production. To be eligible, participants must actively be in individual therapy in order to have a place to process what may arise from the self-inquiry.  To apply, email us at theappetite@opalfoodandbody.com or  click here to go straight to the application form.
If you want to hear former episodes where self-inquiry was done, check out:
Episode #81: Rethinking Resolutions:  Self-Inquiry as Self-Improvement
Episode #94:  Getting Emotional:  Using Self-Inquiry During the Coronavirus Pandemic
 
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
@The.Appetite.Podcast
@Opal.Movement
 
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Cultural Center
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/

"My story is a running journey, but at its heart, it's a story for anyone who has experienced the harm and powerlessness that comes from not fitting into society's expectations, anyone who has ever existed in the margins. It is a story of finding and creating your place and space." Listen into this episode of The Appetite where Alison Désir- runner, activist, disruptor- reflects and expands on parts of her powerful, newly released book, Running While Black. Kara Bazzi, LMFT, Director of Opal's Exercise+Sport Program, talks with Alison about belonging, creating and developing a culture of inclusion in sport, and the historical context that is often missing from the origin stories of the American distance running boom. If this is the first time you are introduced to Alison or you are already connected with her work, this episode will not disappoint! 
Connect with Alison:
Alison's website
Buy Alison's book: Running While Black
Watch Alison's TV show: Out and Back

Alison's previous interview on The Appetite 
 
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
@The.Appetite.Podcast
@Opal.Movement
 
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/
Sound engineering by Ayesha Ubayatilaka at Jack Straw Studios

Connie Sobczak of The Body Positive gives us this wise nugget: "Aging is something we get to do, if we are lucky." Julie Church, Opal's Co-Founder and Nutrition Director, discusses with Connie the many considerations that arise as we age, covering the topics of appearance, body image, health, and self-care.  Listen here for invitations to gratitude, non-judgement, and consciousness that can start at any stage of life and help ease one into the gift of aging.  Connie shares openly about how she personally navigates aging with her eating disorder recovery and personal commitment to embodiment.
 
Links from show:  
Maya Angelou interviews About the 70s  and About the 80s
The 5 Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Fully Living

Connect with Connie:  
www.thebodypositive.org
ConnieSobczak.com
Connie's book:  Embody: Learning to Love Your Unique Body (and quiet that critical voice!) 
Connie's artistic booklet, Bodies of Nature/Nature of Bodies 

Medium.com essay, Experience Over Appearance. 

TEDx talk link: Embracing Your Critical Voice: The Gateway to Self-Love

 
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/

Are you a "perfectionist" who is exhausted and tired of hustling for your worth? Or perhaps you have entered perfectionism recovery but remain in a long term battle with compulsive perfectionistic striving? Either way, this podcast is just the ticket for you! Take a listen to Lexi Giblin, PhD, Maggie Ritnour, LMHC, LCAT, ATR-BC, RYT, CEDS and Noni Vaughn-Pollard, NDTR, MHC-LP chat about the difference between perfectionism and excellence, the importance of celebrating achievements, and shame as the birthplace of perfectionism. Lexi, Maggie and Noni look through a radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) lens to shed light on the topic. Along the way, you will get the inside scoop on the origin story of the Opal mascot: The Owl.
To find Noni and Maggie, go to: Roots Art Therapy at
https://www.rootsarttherapy.nyc/
@afroandappetite
@rootsarttherapy
Connect with Opal: 
www.opalfoodandbody.com
Thank you to our team...
Editing by David Bazzi
Music by Aaron Davidson: https://soundcloud.com/diet75/