The Appetite

What is a healthy attitude around food and eating habits?  This second of a four-part series on Ellyn Satter’s eating competency skills, continues to define healthy eating through the question of how to eat, rather than what to eat. Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talks with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC about the work of under...

Do you know how to eat in a healthy way? Most answers to the question of healthy eating actually have more to do with what foods you should be eating, rather than the HOW; Ellyn Satter digs into this, offering adults scaffolding for the how behind building a healthy relationship to food (both for one’s self and for those adults that are parents, modeling healthy eating for their kids). I...

How can we take care of the athlete as a whole person? Often considered a lesser concern, the mental health of the athlete is of key importance—both on and off the field. Jason Desrochers, head personal trainer, and Monica VanWinkle, MS, RD, sports dietitian—both at Seattle Pacific University athletic department and beyond—join Opal Co-Founder and Director of the Exercise + Sport team Kara Bazzi,...

How can yoga help in eating disorder recovery? Opal therapists and yogis Kendra Appe, LMHC, RYT and Lauren Donelson, RYT join The Appetite to answer this question. Creators of the “Do No Harm” workshop series at Opal, they also speak to how the Western culture around yoga can inadvertently encourage disordered eating and the exclusivity of bodies beyond the thin, white ideal. Kendra and Laure...

What does it mean to have a healthy diet? At Opal: Food + Body Wisdom, that means attunement, adequacy, and freedom with food. It also means letting memory play a part in our food choices! In this podcast, Opal Co-Founders Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD and Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Appetite host Carter Umhau, LMHC share the foods that hold the greatest memories for them (raspberries straight of...

How are eating disorders a social justice issue? Gloria Lucas, founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride, has a world of wisdom to share in explanation. She joins host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC to explore historical trauma and eating disorders. Gloria created Nalgona Positivity Pride--a Xicana-indigenous and body-positive organization—to offer support, education, and mental health resources for p...

How do you deal with change in life? Former competitive figure skater Chrissy Hughes (and therapist at Opal!) shares about her retirement from skating and what the process taught her about dealing with big life transitions. Chrissy—who joins host Carter Umhau, LMHC and Opal Co-Founder and head of the Exercise + Sport Program, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS—explores the psychological, social, and physical...

How can nature be a part of your self-care ritual? Lisa Hasselman of Forest Garden Farms on Vashon Island, WA joins Carter Umhau, LMHC to share her story of leaving her job as an attorney and starting a job as a flower farmer on Vashon Island, WA. Lisa’s story speaks to the risk it can be to defy expectations and live a more congruent life and how choosing farming has increased her mental health a...

Shilo George talks about the intersections of fatness, queerness, and indigeneity in her story of eating disorder recovery and advocacy. Shilo, a Southern Cheyenne-Arapaho and Scottish international speaker, trainer, and owner of Łush Kumtux Tumtum Consulting, shares her story with host Carter Umhau, LMHC and Opal Co-Founder Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD. Her advocacy work and story speak to the...

Jo Langford, MA joins The Appetite to talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about consent. This conversation—which focuses first on helping parents help their teens learn the language of sexual consent and the role of technology within it—contextualizes consent within the work of attunement, empowerment, and embodiment that’s so often pursued in the process of eating disorder recovery. Wheth...

How would you describe your style of exercise or workout? Opal: Food + Body Wisdom’s Co-Founders, Dr, Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about their own styles of movement, how they incorporate it into their lives and why (or why not!) they find themselves moved to move. In a mainstream culture where exercise is glor...

What does it look like to pursue movement or working out while recovering from a fraught or disordered relationship to your body? Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founder Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC sit down to talk about the “grey areas” of movement—where “healthy” behaviors are defined by the nuances and attitudes toward exercise, sport, or movement...

If you’ve had a pet at some point in your life, you may be aware of the inherently therapeutic presence of that animal in your life. But what happens when a pet spends most of their days in an eating disorder clinic? Zoe, Opal’s therapy dog, joins her owner (and Opal Co-Founder and Executive Director) Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS and host Carter Umhau, LMHC to showcase the amazing empathy and suppor...

Emotional eating is never just about the food. Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD and therapist and host Carter Umhau, LMHC discuss the differences between binge eating, compulsive eating, and emotional eating. Julie contextualizes overeating within the realm of normal eating and full permission with food, and Carter shares some of her own journey, honing in on t...

  Sugar. It’s loved, it’s feared, and apparently it’s in everything. In pop culture, this often leads to it being demonized. At Opal: Food + Body Wisdom, we’re debunking sugar myths, normalizing sugar, and talking about how sugar can be a part of any and everyone’s attuned eating style. Host Carter Umhau, LMHC sits down with Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRDS, CD...

After ditching the diets, have you ever wondered what “normal eating” actually looks like? The truth is that attuned eating looks differently from person to person. So on this episode, the Opal Co-Founders (Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RD, CEDRD-S, CD) talk with host Carter Umhau, LMHC about their own eating styles, debunking the myth that there is a “normal.”...

In what ways do you use indirect communication to make your thoughts, needs, or feelings known? Opal Co-Founders Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD, and host Carter Umhau, LMHC explore the nuances of direct and indirect communication through a Radically Open DBT lens. They each reflect on how socialization has impacted their communication style, and speak from their expertises aro...

Behind the scenes, Opal Co-Founders Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, have been hosting workshops for young girls to start them early on learning body wisdom and developing a healthier relationship to their body image. One of Kara’s daughters--and a participant in the workshop--joins us today to share her impression on the key tenets of the workshop, ranging from identity, to...

Filmmaker Elizabeth Ayiku joins host Carter Umhau, LMHC to talk about her upcoming feature film, Me Little Me. Elizabeth’s own struggles with an eating disorder and her difficulties pursuing recovery as a black woman in a flawed treatment world are both the inspiration for the film and at the center of this conversation. Listen in to learn about the filmmaking process and Elizabeth’s vision for ex...

“Self-care” is practically a buzzword these days as more people embrace the importance of creating space for self-restoration. But what does “self-care” look like beyond bubble baths and treating yourself? Sibel Golden, PhD--psychotherapist and eating disorder specialist in private practice and Executive Director of the Northwest Creative & Expressive Arts Therapy Institute--sits down to talk...

Are you good at doing absolutely nothing at all? In mainstream American culture, the values of productivity and accomplishment can be so front and center that the need for rest and play can take the backseat or—worse—be deemed useless. Opal Co-Founders Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD, CD sit down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC for a roundtable convers...

The ever-popular Whole30 and Paleo diets are often described as a “lifestyle change” or even a “return to the basics.” Though they’re packaged differently than the diets of yore (like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or Atkins, to name a few), the restrictive mentality and the long term ineffectiveness remains the same as any other diet. In this episode, Opal Dietitian Kelly Finan, MS, RDN talks with...

What does it look like to get un-stuck? Dr. Amy Burns, MD shares her expertise in Motivational Interviewing and explains how this person-centered approach to behavior change embraces the ambivalence so often thought to be in the way of growth. Opal Co-Founder Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS offers her own struggles with making a change in her life while Dr. Burns playfully interacts with her in an on-a...

Have you considered how a deepening connection to your body’s desire for food may impact your body’s sexual appetites as well? Longtime Opal therapist Tahney Jones, LMHC, CEDS joins Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and host Carter Umhau, LMHC in an exploratory conversation around the intersection of recovery from disordered eating and sex. (P.S. Though this conversation could feel applicable to al...

Can you really control your weight? Diet culture certainly says you can, but in this episode Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CD, CEDS sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to challenge this, highlighting the real cost of weight loss. Julie explains “set point theory” as a new way to understand our bodies’ protective responses to weight loss, introducing an element of mys...