Body Kindness

A diagnosis of IBS can be a real pain in the a**! Seriously, IBS impacts 25-45 million people in the U.S. alone. The treatments for IBS aren't really that great. The low FODMAP protocol may not even work in about half the people who try them. Worse, if you dare consult "Dr. Google" you'll find there is conflicting and extreme advice out there that can really throw you off mentally. Today's guest,...

Intuitive Eating is out with a 4th edition and the co-authors Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch are on the show to discuss what you can expect in the newest edition and we answer listener questions about struggles with intuitive eating. We discussed:  The new alignment of Intuitive Eating with "anti-diet" approach. Changes to the specific principles (spoiler alert: they changed one principle to honor...

Most "picky eating" in kids and adults is just that -- pickiness. But others can deal with social emotional issues and malnourishment (at any size). Joining me to discuss "supertasters" and challenges with picky eating, Rebecca Thomas, RDN. She is a dietitian and Body Kindness helping pro mentee of mine. She's a pro at ARFID, disordered eating, and eating disorders. Tune in to get a HAES-informed...

In Part 2 of White Supremacy in Yoga series, we discuss the harms and the fixes, including what you can do as a yoga teacher, teacher trainer, student, or person who cares about anti-racism work. This includes reading books, having conversations, and taking meaningful actions.  Here's just a taste of what we discuss:  Cultural appropriation of ayurveda.  Diet culture and racism in yoga.  How bad t...

Join me in conversation with Dr. Sabrina Strings, author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. She also is a certified yoga teacher and advocate for inclusivity in yoga. We discuss our experiences  with yoga and hope for systemic change. She shares a personal story on racism and body part fetishizing (Michelle Obama arms) she encountered in yoga classes when she was really s...

This episode was first aired June 2019. Sabrina Strings, PhD is the author of the book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia . In the first part of this interview, we discuss how she was able to connect racism with fat phobia, control of women's bodies historically and through today's diet culture, and how medicine's use of the BMI metric is problematic and harmful. Dr. Strings...

Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race is a great starting point for listening, learning and taking meaningful action.  I also recommend White Fragility by Beverly DiAngelo to any white person who wants to do better at creating change.    So You Want to Talk About Race (Seal Press) she breaks down the barriers and explains, in simple terms and with lively examples, key concepts of privilege,...

Bernie Salazar guests with an update on how he is changing the conversation with his primary care doctors. He's better at boundaries and aiming to keep the focus on medical needs, but the doctors still clearly struggle to understand what it means to provide weight inclusive medical care. He shares his labs with me again because he still wants my "input" (read: validation) that he is justified in h...

May is mental health awareness month and I'm focused on shows that can help you create a better life and support your well-being.  This [COVID-19] Mother's Day, women are still providing $10.8 trillion dollars a year of invisible, unpaid labor.  My guest this week Eve Rodsky says it's unsustainable and she used her Harvard degree in organizational management to develop a structure for families to...

My three guests today speak from the heart about their experiences during COVID-19 as patient advocate (Lara Loverro) and healthcare workers (Shannon Hughes and Katy Gaston). We discuss the meaning of compassion "to suffer together" and how the personal and collective traumas we're experiencing challenge us to reframe our value, how and why we practice Body Kindness for resilience and personal gro...

Has your fertility or medical care been delayed or disrupted due to COVID-19? My guest today is Nicola Salmon , author of Fat and Fertile. We discuss how her work as a fat positive fertility coach has changed dramatically in the face of COVID-19. You'll learn how she is helping people through and it just may help you grieve the losses you're feeling at this time, fertility or not. Plus she shares...

My guest is Lara Loverro , a health coach, certified intuitive eating counselor, and she's a professional mentee of mine. Importantly, Lara is a resident of New York and her mother is COVID-19 positive (over two weeks on a ventilator). Her teen son is struggling with anxiety related to the trauma. Lara shares how she and her family are coping and her recommendations for coping with anxiety.  About...

Practicing Body Kindness during COVID-19 is all about resilience skills as we navigate this collective trauma. While some people are finding "humor" in memes or chats about social distancing-related weight gain or the supposed "quarantine 15," these messages are fatphobic and harmful to people struggling with mental health and body image. Nicola Haggett our ideas for setting boundaries, creating s...

These times are truly unprecedented. For the past month I have been allowing myself to be human, showing up for my family, my clients (many hospital workers, displaced students, and parents turned home schoolers, many with disordered eating and anxiety exacerbated by the social distancing required).   I have been asking Body Kindness book readers and podcast listeners about ways (if anything) I ca...

Let's talk about eating disorders that are born from culture and hidden in plain sight. My guest to share her personal story is Gloria Oladipo , a 20-year-old Black woman who developed an eating disorder in elementary school that went undiagnosed for over a decade. A student at Cornell University, Gloria also works as a freelance writer and has been published in Teen Vogue, Healthline, Wear Your V...

I'm joined by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti editors of a new anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. We discuss why we need a book about believing women's experiences are as credible and reliable as men. Believing women starts with believing ourselves and caring for our personal well-being. Samantha Irby contributes an essay about her chronic illness which you can read...

A significant part of the body kindness practice is held in our relationships, especially parents and caregivers to children. As adults we understand there were ways in which our childhood needs were not met and with a deep desire to to better, we don't want to mess it up. But we inevitably do and it's OK. Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, New York Times Bestselling author of several books including her late...

Author Peggy Orenstein is back on the show with her instant New York Times Bestseller, Boys and Sex . Tune in to hear insights from her conversations with over 100 boys from high school to college across the U.S. We discuss why parents aren't talking to their boys about sex and intimacy even though they really want the space to explore, to be vulnerable, and to figure it out, not just absorb the c...

Movement gives us access to the best of ourselves and it has nothing to do with weight or abilities regardless of what the "fitness culture" says, it's science! Stanford Professor Kelly McGonigal PhD and author of The Joy of Movement is my guest and she has insight to help you reclaim movement. --- About Kelly Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University who special...

As more people become aware of words like "body positivity" and "anti-diet" it opens the door for confusion — what does it actually mean and is it really good for health? What makes something a "diet? Christy Harrison's book Anti-Diet lays out the historical context of dieting and weight stigma, seeking to explain why not dieting at all is actually better for your health. We discuss why healthcare...

Bernie and I are back with another special episode of Learn and Grow where we answer questions from people who are reading and listening to Body Kindness. In this episode, Bernie Salazar and I respond to three listener questions. Sara says she feels detached from her body as a result of trauma from pregnancy and birth. She wonders where to start with Body Kindness. Melissa, a high school teacher,...

Bernie and I are back with another special episode of Learn and Grow where we answer questions from people who are reading and listening to Body Kindness. In this episode, Bernie Salazar and I respond to two listener questions. Paula says she hates to exercise and though she wants to get moving, she feels "stuck" because her most enjoyable activities are performed in a chair or cozy sofa. We help...

What if instead of trying to change negative thoughts, judgments, and feelings that come up when practicing Body Kindness, you learned to change how you relate to those thoughts and feelings instead? That's exactly what we're discussing in this week's podcast with Steven C. Hayes, the creator of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and author of A Liberated Mind . You'll learn all about ACT and...

Bernie and I tackle a listener question on intermittent fasting - is it a diet in disguise and why is it so dang popular? Hoda and Jenna began an IF challenge on TODAY show recently.  Tune in to hear Bernie break his silence about what drove him to step out of the public and "hide" after The Biggest Loser (spoiler: it's related to fasting). Plus readers shared their negative experiences with tryin...

As we enter November, Bernie and I have gratitude on our minds. It's been 3 years since Bernie and I reconnected, and he began practicing Body Kindness. In this special episode, we reflect on the positive changes in his life and self compassion practice over time. We asked listeners to take a pause and share with us "what are you grateful for, big or small". We also share our original conversation...