The Full Plate Podcast with Abbie Attwood, MS Abbie Attwood

The incredible Savala Nolan joins us on this week’s episode of the Full Plate podcast to talk about belonging versus conforming, understanding the body as our home, and how to walk away from a lifetime of disordered eating.
I recorded this conversation while I was on my August hiatus from the pod, so I actually got the chance to listen back to the episode and it hit me even harder the second time around.
Savala is warm, funny, kind, smart as hell, and she will blow your mind open when she explains really hard, complex, and nuanced topics. I felt so at home speaking with her, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.
Our conversation covers…
Growing up with many dualities of race, body size, and class Being put on a diet starting at age 4 Rebelling and conforming Our mothers, their diets, and our dieting The bond of dieting Our body as our home Unlearning the language of diet culture Quitting diets not being a choice for some The body is inescapable The cake we all need to have, and eat too
Savala Nolan is the author of the critically acclaimed Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race Gender and the Body.  Her writing has been featured in Vogue, The New York Times Book Review,  NPR, Time, Harper’s Magazine, and more. She holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she lectures on identity and law and directs the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice.  Her second essay collection, Good Woman, is forthcoming from HarperCollins.  
Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate
 
Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you’re looking for those, head over to Patreon. 
 
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
 
Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
 
Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group 
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

In this week’s bonus episode of the Full Plate podcast, we're walking through the stages of grief and how they show up in the process of accepting our body.
The FULL episode is exclusive to our Patreon community. You'll be able to hear the question and the beginning of my answer in this sneak preview!
This episode is in response to a listener question that came through on Patreon. This listener is also asking about healing from hypothalamic amenorrhea (the loss of a menstrual cycle), and I think this part of the conversation adds another important layer as we explore how healing can look different for everyone.
 
We talk about...
How do we work through the physical and emotional discomfort of body grief? What are we REALLY grieving? How do we reorient ourselves towards a new way of living, free from diet culture and body shame? How do we prepare ourselves to face a world that may not treat us the same way as our body changes? What does body acceptance actually mean, and what about finding meaning in all of this?  
Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate
 
Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you’re looking for those, head over to Patreon. 
 
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
 
Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
 
Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group 
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

Calling all highly sensitive, anxious humans with lots of digestive symptoms...this one is for you. Correction: this episode is for everyone -- for anyone who has experienced trauma, emotional dysregulation, an overwhelmed nervous system, and / or mental health conditions (particularly those that both led to and resulted from restrictive eating habits). 
Stephanie Mara Fox joins us to chat about all of this an so much more. We get into somatics and body awareness, how to release tension and conjure calming thoughts, and how to use coregulation to promote feelings of calm and safety -- especially when dieting and disordered eating is what has made us feel safe in the past.
You'll hear more about...
What it means to feel safe or unsafe in our body How dieting and disordered eating can occur as a response to trauma How restriction itself can be the trauma How panic attacks and disordered eating are connected Using somatic therapy to cultivate safety in our body Investigating the emotions behind our relationship with food How to prevent an emotional spiral about your body What happens to our body image when our nervous system is constantly overwhelmed How to work through IBS and other digestive issues that might be related to anxiety and restriction  
Stephanie Mara Fox is a somatic nutrition counselor and a mentor. She supports women, coaches, and wellness professionals in feeling empowered and satiated in their relationship with their food, body, and business to cultivate more confidence and create the life they desire to be living. Learn more about Stephanie and her work on her website.
 
Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate
 
Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you’re looking for those, head over to Patreon. 
 
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
 
Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
 
Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group 
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

Welcome to SEASON 2! This episode is so good. And it deals with a lot of nuance, because we get into how our relationship with food and our body is shaped and influenced by our parents. I have Virginia Sole-Smith here and I couldn’t be more thrilled for you to listen to this episode.
 
We chat about…
Hard questions and conversations that led to Virginia's new book
“I don’t want my kid to have a messed up relationship with food, but I also don’t want them to be fat”
The Gilmore Girls effect
Holding compassion for our moms and their influence on our body image and relationship with food
Why mothers bearing the blame of eating disorders and fatness
How dads are left out of the conversation and ED research
The difference between how fat kids and thin kids are fed
Family dinner and diet culture (helpful or harmful?)
Having conversations with kids that don’t center on weight
…and so much more
 
About Virginia: She is the author of the NYT-bestselling FAT TALK: Parenting In The Age of Diet Culture and The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America. As a journalist, she has reported from kitchen tables and grocery stores, graduated from beauty school, and gone swimming in a mermaid’s tail. Virginia began her career in women’s magazines, alternatively challenging beauty standards and gender norms, and upholding diet culture through her health, nutrition and fitness reporting. Motherhood inspired a reckoning, and led to her first book, The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Scientific American and many other publications. Virginia now writes the popular anti-diet newsletter Burnt Toast and hosts the Burnt Toast Podcast.
 
 
Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate
 
Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you’re looking for those, head over to Patreon. 
 
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
 
Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
 
Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group 
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

This is the last episode of the season break, and oh my goodness, is this one of my all-time favorites. Shira Rosenbluth (@theshirarose) joins for a conversation that we all need to hear, and that the ED treatment world truly needs to put into action. You really don't want to miss this one. 
We talk about so much, including:
What’s going on for Shira in this moment of life with her recovery and her therapy practice Balancing structure and flexibility in meals during ED recovery The culminaiton of factors that led to Shira's eating disorder Weight stigma and diet culture in eating disorder treatment The trap of quasi-recovery The new AAP guidelines on higher weight children The problem with “atypical anorexia” Being a “good fattie” Health is not a moral imperative How we keep healing in this world For the month of August and through Labor Day, I'll be taking a bit of time reset, rest, and reflect on this season of the pod before kicking things off again in September. And in the meantime, we'll be revisiting a few episodes from last year. Whether you've heard them before or not, they're worth the listen!
Shira Rosenbluth, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker treating clients in New York and California. She specializes in the treatment of disordered eating, eating disorders, and body-image dissatisfaction using a weight-neutral approach. She’s also the author of a popular body positive blog and has been featured in The New York Times, Insider, The Cut, The Everygirl, InStyle, and Healthline. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @theshirarose. Find more about her therapy practice at ShiraRosenbluthLCSW.com.
 
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Full Plate is listener-supported (no ads!) so please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate
Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you’re looking for those, head over to Patreon.
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
Sign up for Abbie's newsletter: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/newsletter
Abbie’s website: www.abbieattwoodwellness.com
Group coaching application: www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
Monthly membership application: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group
 
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Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

Mailbag episode! This is part of a bonus episode that was released on Patreon many months back, and I thought it would be a good one to air during my August hiatus. It's full of fantastic listener questions, submitted by the brilliant Patreon community.
To support the show, have access to full bonus episodes, and submit your own questions for future episodes, join the Patreon community here: www.patreon.com/fullplate
Here are the questions covered:
1) “How can I spot ways I might be accidentally under-feeding myself? In an episode Abbie mentions past disordered eating behaviors even though she was not intentionally dieting. I think that has been my story for a long time, but I didn’t know it. So these conversations are really shedding light on it for me. Coming from a place of thin privilege, I’ve never gone on a diet. But I have made food modifications to try to manage celiac disease and other autoimmune issues. I have also had stressful seasons of life where I have found it hard to prioritize eating enough quantity of food and/or enough different foods to support my body, including now when taking care of a 3 yr old affects every aspect of how I live."
2) "How can I navigate legitimate dietary needs without it feeling restrictive, cumbersome, and steeped in diet culture? I've had this convo come up with others, so I know I'm not alone. It makes takeout and going out take a bit more energy to make sure they can accommodate."
3) "I’d love some tips on mindset shift to do the movements I know are good for me and tailored to me. I’m in physical therapy, and my prescribed exercises (plus slow mellow walks) help, but I don’t enjoy any of it. After the walk, muscles have loosened up a bit, but I never actually want to do it. Maybe it’s because I’m in chronic pain and it makes me not want to move, but who knows."
 
FOLLOW ALONG:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast  Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness Join Abbie's newsletter: www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/newsletter  
FOR MORE SUPPORT:
Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group   
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate