Em and Mom Podcast

Episode 29 - Becoming Friends with your Body, featuring Kara Riggleman Em and Mom are so honored to have Kara Riggeman on the podcast as our special guest. We met Kara while serving together on an Eating Disorder Awareness panel at Taylor University. Kara is truly one of the most lovely people we have ever met. She is a wife and a mom to three children. She has a Masters Degree in Social Work and...

Episode 28 - WE’RE BACK!! It’s true. We are back, hopefully better than ever! :) Episode 28 is now available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Links in our bio. This episode provides a life update as it’s been a hot minute. We also discuss current struggles talking a bit about perfectionism and body image and a little of this and a little of that. It’s basically just a venerable and real conversation...

Episode 27 - Dance and Eating Disorders with Special Guest Kylie Roggie Since we have started sharing our story, so many people have shared their experiences with us but we’ve never found someone who had story so in line with Emily’s. We used this time together to discuss dance and how it can be many things - joyful, toxic, healthy, full of comparison, peaceful, and anxiety provoking. Both Emily a...

Episode 26 - Pictures Em has already discussed her distain for seeing herself in pictures. I bet we all have seen ourselves in photos and have not liked what we saw. However, most of us can have that initial “yuck” feeling and move on. For Em, and for potentially some others experiencing an eating disorder, it becomes an actual trigger. There have been times that Em restricted after seeing herself...

Episode 25 - Exercise struggles and healing. It’s been awhile and we actually recorded this episode weeks ago. It’s kind of like episode 25 wasn’t meant to be. First we spoke for 42 minutes and realized we didn’t hit record. And then we recorded again and someone came to our house to pick something up. So we had to stop recording and start back up again. So hopefully the third try (and now edited...

Episode 24 - Difficulties with Weight Gain. We did an episode awhile back on the positives of weight gain in eating disorder recovery and while there are so many positives it doesn’t mean it is not difficult. As a matter of fact, this is the one thing that is continually still a struggle for Em even four years into solid recovery. We discuss several things that make weight gain in recovery difficu...

Episode 23 - Eating Disorders and College Going away to college for the first time is a big deal but it’s also a lot to deal with - being away from home, a huge life transition, loneliness, figuring out a new level of independence. Add an eating disorder to the mix and it gets a little tricky. Em and Mom share their experiences and discuss what they did to prepare for the new life adventure, provi...

Episode 22 - Dad! Episode 22 is special as we had our 2nd guest join us on the podcast. Em and Mom have been talking about our experiences together for 21 episodes. We thought it was time to bring Dad in for a visit. We talk about his experiences around food as a kid, about his role as a Dad to someone with an eating disorder and how that experience has changed him. We even talk a bit about Josh a...

After having a very lonely day, Emily talks about her struggles being back at college for her last semester. This episode had a lot of emotions and a lot of vulnerability, but Em believes this episode can help more people feel less alone. We hope you know that it’s okay to struggle. Keep moving forward. You did not come this far to only come this far.

Episode 20 - Anxiety Em and Mom had made it to episode 20 and we want to sincerely thank you for all of your continued support. This episode was inspired by the Inside Out 2 movie. Have you seen it and met the new emotion anxiety? Emily has been dealing with anxiety since she was very little (as young as 2 we think). In this episode we talk about what anxiety looked like for her, what Mom wishes s...

Episode 19 - Current Struggles Em doesn’t have an issue speaking about her past with regards to her eating disorder. She can easily talk about when she was at rock bottom, about her time in residential treatment and about her relapse. But talking about the things she still struggles with today is extremely difficult for her. Difficult enough that she procrastinated recording this episode - a lot!...

Episode 18 - Hope “After feeling disconnected for so long, my mind and body are finally coming back to each other.” - Home body by Rupi Kaur Emily just had her senior art show which was themed after her eating disorder recovery and the mind and body connection. We discuss the show and the relevancy of her work to her recovery, but this episode is mostly about hope. It’s Ems personal story of being...

Episode 17 - The Difficulties of Eating in Public We got a direct message from a friend who asked for some advice about getting past difficulties eating in public. Eating in public can be difficult for all of us - whether we have experienced an eating disorder or not. Examples include: eating at a new restaurant, attending a work or school function, having to share a meal with people we don’t know...

Episode 16 - Intuitive and Mindful Eating Wow. It’s been exactly a month since our last podcast. We had a busy and eventful Eating Disorder Awareness week which delayed recording the podcast, but we’re back for episode 16. After over four years, Emily still struggles with hunger and fullness cues and while she is weight restored, has learned to do the opposite of what the voice tells her to do, an...

Episode 15 - Why calories on menus are harmful The Student Union at Emily’s college has been under renovation for the past few months. They re-opened recently and going there is now a triggering experience for Emily and others. We talk about why - the main reason being the new diet culture messaging at their new “Freshen” restaurant option - including posting calories, words like “clean” and diet...

Episode 14 - Why Weight Gain Has Been a Good Thing Emily has had a particularly difficult weekend. Recovery is not linear. Even when you’re in solid recovery. She’s been on the struggle bus for sure and has had some triggers and even some eating disorder behaviors that have resurfaced after a very long time. It’s honestly been a little scary for Mom. So what better way to try to get out of the val...

Episode 13 - Rant! On this New Years Day we are posting our episode on our thoughts on the trailer of the new Netflix documentary “You Are What You Eat”. Our podcast started because Emily called me one day and told me we were recording our first podcast based on her need to rant about her experience climbing a 14er (14,000 feet) in Colorado and how her eating disorder was present and strong the en...

Episode 12 - Reflecting after four years. In this episode Em and Mom talk about their very reflective week as four years ago, on December 13, 2019, Emily entered residential treatment for her eating disorder. Because Emily is on break from college, Em and Mom were able to record this one together in the same room. We feel this resulted in a lovely conversation where we were both able to be vulnera...

Episode 11 - “Just because someone carries it well doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy”. This episode is reflective of what it was like for Mom to go through the time when Emily was sick and in treatment. We discuss the stigma of mental health and how that made this experience extremely lonely and difficult. Mom is extremely vulnerable in this episode and discusses personal situations and instances where...

Em and Mom Episode 10 - We’ve reached our first significant milestone! We’ve officially hit double digits and have made it to episode 10. In this episode, we talk about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and why it is so difficult for someone in eating disorder recovery. We share our personal experiences maneuvering through recovery and triggers on the holiday that is focused solely on food. We als...

Em and Mom Podcast Episode 9 - Everyone has insecurities about the way they look. This episode is for all of us. Emily talks about her struggles with negative body image - starting for her at age six and continuing throughout her life. We touch on diet culture (we aren’t born hating our bodies!) and continue talking about how her negative body image impacts her today and also give listeners sugges...

Trigger Warning: This episode does mention numbers and weight. Welcome to Episode 8! In this episode Em and Mom welcome their first ever guest to the pod. It was an absolute honor and privilege to welcome Grace Toth to the episode. We appreciate her being completely vulnerable and open about her experience with binge eating disorder. We also discussed the eerie similarities and the glaring differe...

Welcome to Episode 7 of the Em and Mom Podcast. We asked you to submit questions to our @emandmompodcast Instagram via polls and direct message and you came through! As a result this is part two with answers to even more of your questions. Some of the questions listeners asked that we covered in part two were about how friends can support friends with an eating disorder, how dance has affected Emi...

Welcome to Episode 6 of the Em and Mom Podcast. We asked you to submit questions to our @emandmompodcast Instagram via polls and direct message and you came through! As a result this will be a part one with another question and answer episode still to come. Some of the questions listeners asked which we covered in part one were about what residential treatment was like from both of our perspective...

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Em and Mom podcast.  Because of Moms recent visit to the doctor last week where she was offered a diet pill because of her recent weight gain, we talk about our experiences with doctors offices over the past four years - good and bad. Doctors 100% saved Emily’s life. And some go out of their way to accommodate requests to not be weighed. But doctors offices have also be...