Find YOUR Strong: Recent Episodes
Christine Chessman
Empowering women to ditch diet culture, build strength and feel good in their own skin NOW. Eating disorders affect up to 9% of the world's population and are prevalent in training environments. A much higher percentage of women struggle with disordered eating and exercise behaviours. Let's change the conversation now. Rather than shrinking our bodies, let's take up space. Rather than tracking how little our bodies can weigh, let's see how much our bodies can lift. Let's be unapologetically ourselves.
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Bex Spiller is the founder of The Anti-Burnout Club and creator of the Right to Recover campaign — joins Ela to talk burnout, workplace culture, and why recovery should be a right, not a luxury.
We coveredBex's Burnout Story
Bex built a marketing agency from her bedroom at 21, then hit a wall physically and mentally while studying for an MBA in addition to long working hours. A GP eventually named what she'd been feeling: burnout — a word she'd never heard before. That crisis, plus losing her father to stress-related heart disease, led her to start a small blog in 2020 that grew into The Anti-Burnout Club, now used by tens of thousands.
We discussed where "Push Yourself" Beliefs Come From
Bex traces her own drive back to childhood — poverty, losing her mum young, and feeling she had to prove herself. We discussed how hustle culture, school attendance awards, and even old Protestant beliefs about idleness being sinful have taught us that rest equals laziness — when most "laziness" is really overwhelm or unaddressed struggle.
We explained why Individual Wellness Fixes Aren't Enough
Yoga and meditation apps, whilst certainly great resources, put the burden of recovery on the individual and ignore root causes (e.g. understaffing and poor management in organisations, overcommitment and complex life circumstance in private lives). Bex now focuses on organisations — training managers to have honest conversations about stress, rather than offering wellness perks as a substitute for real change.
Bex explained the Right to Recover Campaign
Employees take 9–11 official sick days a year on average, but "presenteeism" (working while unwell) costs roughly 44 lost productive days per person annually! Bex argues that giving people genuine time to recover is both more humane and better for business — and discusses how mistrust and guilt make it harder for people to ask for rest.
We talked about the physical toll of burnout
Chronic stress has real physiological effects — weakened immunity, stress-related heart disease, allostatic load. Bex reflects on a funeral where a woman's career barely came up compared to how she lived and loved. The takeaway: systemic change is needed, but individuals can start by knowing their own capacity, having honest conversations, and treating recovery as normal, not a failure.
About Bex Spiller
Bex Spiller is an award-winning burnout speaker, author and changemaker. She’s the founder of The Anti-Burnout Club and heads up the Right to Recover campaign, which aims to reduce the number of people working when unwell.
Connect with Bex: The Anti Burnout Club (free app available)
https://bexspeaks.com/
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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In this episode, we explore a simple but powerful idea: when we resist uncomfortable feelings, they tend to grow stronger, not weaker.
This pattern shows up everywhere: for example anxiety on a plane, dental fear, body image, ageing, and cravings.
Key threads we unpack:
- Resistance breeds shame. When we don't admit we're struggling — because we feel we shouldn't be — that gap between who we are and who we think we should be becomes a breeding ground for shame.
- Naming a fear diffuses it. How advocating for ourselves and how being seen rather than being dismissed or "fixed" can make all the difference.
- Eating disorder recovery parallels. How treating a difficult part of yourself as an enemy that needs defeating can backfire — versus understanding it as a protective part trying to help.
- Body image and the "messy middle." You don't have to love your body to accept it. Holding two truths at once — "I feel uncomfortable with this" and "I'm not going back to the diet train" — is 'healthier' than forced positivity.
- Cravings work the same way. Resisting a food craving by having a substitute often just prolongs the craving — sometimes having the thing you actually want is the kinder, more effective option.
- Permission to not be the "fun, positive" person all the time. Whether it's dreading a hot holiday, not wanting a birthday party, or feeling slower on a run than you were years ago — we both land on the idea that accepting discomfort (rather than fighting it or forcing yourself into positivity) is what actually creates ease.
The takeaway: acceptance doesn't mean loving everything about how you feel or look — it means making room for the truth of where you are, without judgment, so the feeling doesn't have to fight so hard to be heard.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this - is there something you resist, that just doesn't get easier or go away? Is there something in your life where acceptance would bring about ease and peace?
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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In this episode, we're joined by the wonderful Caroline Toshack for a thought provoking conversation about coming home to our bodies after an eating disorder or indeed years of chronic dieting.
Caroline shares how her career evolved from personal training, sports coaching and competitive endurance sport into Pilates, yoga and body-led therapeutic work. We talk about her experience of living with an eating disorder, the pressure and identity that can become wrapped up in athletic performance, and the shift that came when movement became less about punishment and more about connection.
We explore recovery, body image, neurodivergence, slowing down, and what it can look like to return to movement with curiosity rather than striving. This conversation is about permission: permission to change, permission to let go of old identities, move for joy, and choose the path that feels sustainable.
Key takeaways
- Movement can be a way of coming home to our bodies.
- Pilates and slower, more embodied forms of movement can help us tune into breath, sensation and self-trust.
- Athletic identity can be difficult to release when performance, achievement and self-worth have always been interconnected.
- We can return to sport and exercise in a healthier way by loosening/ softening our attachment to pace, goals and external validation.
- Neurodivergence can shape our relationship with movement and routine.
- Goals do not always need to be rigid; sometimes it is enough to have something to explore, rather than something to prove.
- Letting go of who you thought you had to be can make room for who you actually are
- Recovery isn’t about doing everything perfectly. It’s about building trust with yourself, one choice at a time.
- There is an important need for more informed conversations and training around movement and eating-disorder recovery.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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We've been thinking a lot lately about intuitive eating and whether it really is for everyone. There's so much confusion and misinformation out there, and we wanted to take a moment to cut through some of that.
At its heart, Intuitive eating isn't a diet, a religion, or a set of rigid rules to follow — it's a flexible framework designed to help you find freedom and peace around food.
The more we work with different clients, the more we believe that almost everyone can find an entry point into it, regardless of where they're starting from. Whether you're recovering from disordered eating, navigating a busy family life, working within a tight budget, or simply trying to untangle years of diet culture messaging — there is something here for you. These are our key takeaways from that conversation.
5 Key Takeaways
- Intuitive eating is a flexible framework, not a set of rules. A major source of confusion is people treating it as either a "hunger and fullness diet" or a free pass to eat whatever you want at all times. In reality, it's a guide with 10 different focus areas that can be adapted to your individual circumstances and needs.
- Some principles may not be accessible to everyone right now — and that's okay. People recovering from eating disorders, those who are neurodivergent, or those with limited food access may find certain aspects harder to engage with. The key is to work with the principles that are available to you and park the others for later.
- Structure and intuitive eating can coexist. You don't have to eat only when hunger strikes to be an intuitive eater. Having a loose meal schedule (especially helpful for ADHD brains that forget to eat) is entirely compatible — the intuitive part comes in making choices within that structure.
- Joyful movement follows the same logic. The movement principle isn't about doing minimal exercise or punishing yourself — it's about regularly asking yourself why you're moving and how you want to feel. This is accessible to everyone, regardless of ability or fitness level.
- Intuitive eating is not a weight loss tool. Your body has a natural set point range, and eating intuitively means allowing it to settle where it functions best — which may not align with cultural ideals. The goal is freedom around food and self-compassion, not a specific body size.
So, don't dismiss it or give up on it, rather, explore where your entry point to intuitive eating might be and start there!
Things we mentioned in the episode:
Sandra Aamodt Ted Talk on set point theory: Why Dieting Doesn't Work https://youtu.be/jn0Ygp7pMbA?si=Lm6yBsFplo1L1M2Q
Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch - Intuitive Eating book and worksbook https://www.intuitiveeating.org/our-books/
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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In a world determined to sell us anti-ageing solutions, what would it look like to trust our bodies instead? This conversation explores ageism, diet culture, menopause, embodiment, and the radical possibility of ageing without apology.
We just loved this conversation with Deb Benfield. Deb truly embodies her work and exudes an inner confidence and an ease with herself and her own body, that is at once disarming and encouraging.
Key Takeaways:
- Diet culture and ageism often collide in midlife, creating pressure to "fix" our bodies just as they're changing in normal ways.
- Embodiment offers an antidote to body image struggles: moving, dancing, and inhabiting our bodies helps us remember we're bodies to be lived in, not objectified.
- Trusting the body becomes even more important through perimenopause and menopause, when appetite, energy, and physical needs naturally fluctuate.
- The stories we tell ourselves about ageing matter. Research suggests that positive attitudes toward ageing can influence health, wellbeing, and longevity.
- Unlearning ageism starts with noticing the assumptions we make about youth, ageing, and what bodies "should" look like at different stages of life.
- Rather than chasing anti-ageing promises, we can focus on nurturing strength, connection, pleasure, and quality of life.
- Ageing unapologetically means embracing change while staying rooted in self-trust, self-compassion, and respect for the wisdom of our lived experience.
Here are some links if you'd like to find out more about Deb, or have a look at her offerings:
Deb Benfield Website
Substack
Buy Deb's book - Unapologetic Aging
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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If you're based in the UK, you'll know that at the time of recording it was SUPER hot here. Hotter weather can often bring up body image concerns, that may have kept themselves hidden under the layers of autumn, winter and spring.
Key Takeaways:
- Summer can bring body image struggles back to the surface — especially when we’re wearing less and comparing ourselves to unrealistic images online.
- Feeling uncomfortable in your body doesn’t mean you’re failing at body acceptance; it means you’re human.
- There’s a huge difference between living in your body and constantly viewing it as an object to be judged.
- Seasonal eating is normal — craving lighter foods in hot weather isn’t automatically “being good.”
- Diet culture can make even intuitive choices feel moralised or tied to weight loss.
- Movement, cold water, and getting outside can help reconnect us to our bodies instead of staying trapped in self-criticism.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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I recently turned 50 and Ela is hot on my tail, and as such we are thinking more and more about what it means to embrace our bodies as they inevitably change.*
We are swimming in a sea of diet culture which is compounded by anti-aging culture once we hit upwards of 35. How do we reconcile our fears about our bodies changing, when they are now visibly aging?
What are our options if we want to reject botox, fillers and cosmetic procedures. Are we destined to become invisible and lose our voice in society? What does it mean for us to reject anti-aging culture and what are the positives about hitting midlife and finally standing in our power!
Key Takeaways
- Midlife can make you question how much of your life has been shaped by worrying about your appearance.
- Strength training can change the focus from how your body looks, to what it can actually do.
- Amongst the gratitude, there’s grief in ageing, and that's ok.
- Many women were taught that being smaller, quieter, and less noticeable was somehow safer.
- Muscle, balance, and mobility matter a lot more in daily life than looking youthful.
- Getting older can bring a kind of relief from constantly thinking about how you look.
- A strong body as we age gives you options, independence, and confidence.
- Some of the hardest parts of ageing come from how women are treated, not ageing itself.
- Midlife can be the first time some women start asking themselves what they actually want.
- You don’t have to pretend ageing feels amazing in order to reject anti-ageing culture.
(We also have the wonderful Deb Benfield, author of Unapologetic Aging* on to chat in a couple of weeks time so this topic is very much on our minds.)
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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In this episode, we sat down with Elizabeth Davies (This Woman Lifts) to explore strength training, ageing, body image, and what it really means for women to feel strong. Together we unpack the lifelong pressure women face to stay small, youthful, and aesthetically “acceptable.
The conversation covers everything from postpartum recovery and the fear of “getting bulky” to social media, midlife fitness culture, bone health, and raising the next generation of girls with a healthier relationship to movement. Warm, honest, and evidence-informed, this episode challenges diet culture narratives and reframes fitness around function, capability, and long-term wellbeing.
If you’ve ever struggled with the idea that exercise should make your body smaller, this episode is for you.
Key Takeaways
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How a leaky bladder in an exercise class led Elizabeth to train as a PT and focus on functionality, mobility and strength rather than aesthetic goals
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How strength training can become a powerful act of reclaiming space, confidence and physical resilience.
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Why it's so important to encourage women of all ages to integrate progressive resistance training into their routine
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The key benefits of strength training beyond aesthetics.
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Reframing consistency and joyful movement (and what that could look like in YOUR busy life.)
Elizabeth has just published her first book called 'Training for your old lady body', which is a wonderful resource for anyone at any age who is interested in a way of training that moves beyond a 6-week-bikini-body-transformation, and invites us to "understand out bodies, make informed decisions and build a long-term, compassionate relationship with movement"
You can get in touch with Elizabeth via her website or socials (@thiswomanlifts)
We know you will love this conversation - we certainly did!
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
Why do you move?
Why do you exercise?
There are plenty of reasons, but when we ask people if they'd move in the same way, if movement didn't change how their bodies looked, we often hear a resounding NO.
You have full autonomy but.....
While we believe that everyone has full autonomy over their bodies, we also know how beneficial movement and exercise can be for us. We are very passionate about empowering people to feel stronger, fitter, more mobile, just better. And at our stage in life we fully admit that the prospect of fragility in older age makes us want to build muscles, bone mass and mobility now, so that we can stay active and healthy as we get older.
Different Access Points to Movement....
There are different access points for different people based on age, physical capacity, time, financial resource - and whilst training for our old lady bodies (more on that in our next episode!) feels very appropriate for us now, if you are a younger listener you might resonate more with wanting to feel stronger, or improving your mental health.
Adding In, Not Taking Away....
Exercise has soooo many benefits, and we want you to find something you enjoy. And whilst one thing is better than no thing, we invite you to feel the difference if you add something new in. For example, if you love Yoga that's great, but how would it feel if you added some cardio or strength training in? Or if you are into high energy workouts, how would it feel to add in some gentle walks in nature?
Can You Reframe Your Why?
How would it be to reframe your WHY and instead of focussing on exercising solely for weight loss (not effective), toning (just a marketing term), body transformation (short-lived and unsustainable), we moved with the aim of getting stronger, getting empowered, feeling better, being more mobile, having fun?
We'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please get in touch if you have any thoughts or questions!
Some links we'd love to share with you:
Elizabeth Davies, Training for My Old Lady Body : Elizabeth will be on the podcast next week!
Steph Gaudreau: Steph specialised in strength for Women 40+.
Tommy Brown, Celebrity Wellness Coach ♂️Goal‑Oriented Training for. Body • Mind • Spirit @fitness360plus
@christinehobson60: 70 year old Christine, redefines aging gracefully.
The Honest Channel : Journalist Clare Johnston, on Rebuilding Mum and Dad: My Parents' Strength Journey
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
What a joy to have Jenny Langley on the podcast.
Since her son recovered from anorexia 20 years ago, Jenny Langley has campaigned to raise awareness of eating disorders and the impact on the whole family, and to provide practical help and support to families affected by eating disorders.
Jenny co-authored the New Maudsley Skills-Based Training Manual and wrote of her family’s experiences in the book Boys Get Anorexia Too.
In this episode, we talked about recovery, empowering parents and carers as well as those struggling and here are some of our key takeaways.
What we learn in this episode:
- The gap between clinical care and real-life recovery is real
- Recovery isn’t linear—and that includes movement
- “Starting again” isn’t failure—it’s part of the process
- Exercise can easily become another way to reassert control if not approached carefully.
- A healthy reintroduction to movement might focus on:
- Curiosity over performance
- Flexibility over rigidity
- Internal cues over external metrics
- Carers carry more than just practical responsibility
- For carers listening:
- You’re often “on” all the time, even when things look stable
- Your wellbeing matters too.
- “All or nothing” thinking can sneak into exercise in recovery and how to navigate a safe return to movement.
Resources for Parents, Friends, Carers:
Caroline Toshack Counselling - Caroline has particular expertise in supporting people with a difficult or disordered relationship with food or their body. This includes eating disorders, exercise dependency and body image concerns.
The New Maudsley Approach - A resource for professionals and carers of those with eating disorders
Beat - UK Eating Disorder Charity - Beat provide carer groups, free resources, signposting and support
Attempt to Flee Famine: Adding an Evolutionary Perspective on Anorexia Nervosa
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
Are you tracking your weight/progress/calories/sleep/exercise/whatever-else-there-is-to-track?
We had a feisty conversation about it (always feisty!!), and feel that tracking can be helpful in some situations (e.g. when you are training for a certain goal, when you are recovering from an eating disorder, or when the person tracking is in a good place with food, exercise and their body).
BUT: tracking can distract us from trusting our body, listening to our intuition and reduce our ability to feel what we need/want. Having a device or a spreadsheet tell us how long we slept, or how fast we ran, or how many calories are in a chocolate croissant is information. BUT, the information may be:
- inaccurate
- irrelevant
- out of context
or make us feel
- obsessive
- anxious and
- like we've failed.
As intuitive eating and movement coaches we are here to support people in finding their way back to trusting themselves and their bodies, to start listening again to how and what we feel. If a sleep tracker tells you that you had a 'bad night', you may well start the day feeling bad (EVEN if the tracker is wrong, EVEN if you are actually feeling fine). If a calorie tracker app tells you how many calories are in a food, you may not eat it (EVEN if you really fancy it, EVEN if calories are an arbitrary and inaccurate number). If your fitness app tells you that your run was slower today than the last time you ran, you may feel like you are regressing (EVEN if there were very good reasons for running more slowly, EVEN though you did manage to go for a run rather than skip it).
On balance, tracking everything from food to weight to exercise is probably less beneficial than we think. It may give us a snapshot of information, but it can't provide a full picture of the context and nuance of the tracked item.
We'd love to hear about your experience with tracking things: do you do it? How does it make you feel? Have you found it helpful or triggering?
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
Part 2.
We could chat to these folks all day. Tasha* and Brandon are heart-centred coaches who work with recovering perfectionists (Hello!) people struggling with burnout as well as high achieving humans who are navigating complex life circumstances and have lost themselves along the way.
In this episode we touch on the following topics:
- The real definition of burnout and why it is always unique to the individual.
- What is the first step out of burnout and how do we prevent relapses
- Why Nervous System Regulation is key and how to anchor it onto daily activities
- What's the story with vision boards and do they actually work when it comes to realising our goals?
- How compassionate curiosity is a gamechanger when it comes to our capacity. What do we actually want and need.
Listen to the episode and please let us know what you think.
*Tasha has just announced here Boldly Becoming You Workshop which is for driven, ambitious business owners and other heart-centred humans with big financial and impact goals, who are done sacrificing their health, their family and their sanity to get there.
Details of the Boldly Becoming You Workshop
Check out their website for more information and how you can work with them.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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Ela and I were wondering about our topic for this week and a recent episode of Dragon's Den got us thinking about sugar, continuous glucose monitors and the absolute fear we have around "processed sugar".
On Dragon's den, the dragons were tasting a new type of oat energy ball and each of them tasted it, agreed how delicious it was and immediately said that because it tasted so good, that meant it must be bad for you. Steven and Deborah both declined to invest on the premise that the sugar content was too high.
So, we thought- let's talk about sugar and do some myth busting around sugar being part of a healthy diet, sugar cravings, keto diets, different types of sugar and why demonise ANY food is damaging to our health.
We also talked about habituation, which means facing our fear foods by giving ourselves full permission to eat that food, and what emotions that brings up for many of us.
Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
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Christine and I are angry - we re trying to work out why we are so easily led into obedience when it comes to body image and dieting. Watching people (in particular celebrities) shrink before our very eyes is NOT an invitation to do the same, rather, it should be a cause for concern - it shows that we are still way too focussed on appearances and unattainable 'beauty' standards.
This misdirected focus keeps us under control - we haven't got time to make the world a better place if we are trying so hard to be thinner, less wrinkly, hunt for the latest fashion apparel or follow a mind-boggling supplement regime.
Obediently following these 'trends' might make you feel like you 'fit in', but it takes you away from your authentic self, from taking up space in the world.
And thinking of people who struggle with disordered eating and eating disorders - how the hell can they recover in this narrative?
The rise of skinny-tok has overshadowed a lot of the fat acceptance and intuitive eating messages, but we are here to keep talking about it!
What can we do? Be aware of when things you see online make you feel uncomfortable or bad about yourself. Follow people who call out misinformation (here are some good ones to check out: @michaelulloapt
@drjoshuawolrich
@priya_tew
@prescription_strength_uk
@everything_endocrine ).
And get angry with us!
(and for some comedic relief, check out @kylacobblercomedy)
Much love
xx
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
In the UK this is Eating Disorders Awareness week, so we thought we should talk about it.
I have had too much lived experience with eating disorders as I'm sure many of you have had.
This week I have become enraged at eating disorders and what they have stripped from me and from my family's life. But one key thing to remember is that by talking about eating disorders and the rising impact they are having on our young people, we are creating awareness.
Sophie @edinformed and Hope Virgo at @dump_the_scales are tirelessly campaigning for better care for those affected as well as more training for fitness professionals. They need our support so please check them out and follow them if you can.
If you are struggling, you are NOT alone. Eating disorders do NOT discriminate nor are they a choice! Only 6% of people with an eating disorder are underweight. They are NOT always visible. The affect people of all races, genders and body sizes.
Let's have courage to talk about how we feel around food, movement and our bodies. This is NOT surface level chat. There are SUCH entrenched stereotypes and our mission today is to help people realise what eating disorders actually are.
Listen to the podcast if you have ever been affected, are caring for a loved one who has been affected OR are worried about someone.
It's good to talk.
Love to you all
Ela and Christine x
Here are some resources that may be helpful to you:
https://www.edinformed.org/ - Sophie is advocating for mandatory training for all fitness professionals
Instagram: @edinformed
https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/
Instagram: @beatedsupport
The Charlie Waller Trust - Offering fully funded eating disorder workshops for parents and carers
Instagram: @charliewalleruk
https://thenewmaudsleyapproach.co.uk/ - A resource for professionals and carers of people with eating disorders
https://firststepsed.co.uk/ Bringing hope and opportunities for all affected by eating difficulties and disorders - diagnosis or not.
Instagram: @firststepsed
Dump the Scales Campaign - Dump the Scales is a campaign is for anybody and everybody who cares about eating disorders and wants to change the way they are treated, as well as the stigmas, stereotypes and judgments often associated with them
Instagram: @dump_the_scales
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
We appreciate you
Send us Fan Mail
Ela and I are beyond excited to bring you this week's guest, the OG of Intuitive Eating herself, Evelyn.
This of course, was one of our most popular episodes to date and if you listen, you'll understand why.
Ela and I are both Intuitive Eating Counsellors and were lucky enough to train with Evelyn. She is force to be reckoned with!
If you are new here or have never heard of Intuitive Eating and don't know what the fuss is about, this is the episode for you.
I had the joy of interviewing Elyse Resch, the co-creator of Intuitive Eating a few months ago so go back and listen to this episode, which is a corker especially if you have teens who are struggling with body image.
Evelyn and Elyse's work has been such a big part of my own eating disorder recovery journey (Christine), and after finding peace around food and exercise, (always a work in progress) I am now bringing that knowledge and experience to my clients.❤️
Evelyn's energy is simply contagious, and she is SO passionate about helping those of us who have struggled with body image or disordered eating, to reject the diet mentality and to break free from the constraints of diet culture, which is keeping us small, quiet and obedient.
In this episode, Evelyn shows us that we can respect our bodies, find satisfaction in food AND joy in movement in midlife. Let us know your thoughts.
*Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN is the author of 10 books, including co-author of the best-selling Intuitive Eating.
The media often seeks Evelyn for her expertise, including a feature in the New York Times. She’s been on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today,. The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Vogue, Ten Percent Happier, and People magazine. Evelyn was the nutrition expert for Good Morning America, and a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for six years. Evelyn qualified for the Olympic Trials in the first ever women’s marathon in 1984. Although she no longer competes, she is a passionate surfer and proud member of Girls Who Don’t Surf Good.
To connect with Evelyn you can find her on Instagram @evelyntribole or visit her website.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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Another fiery episode today where we talk about the tell-tale signs of overexercise as well as some tips for getting back into movement, after a long period of absence.
Untangling weight loss and movement is one of the hardest parts of rebuilding our relationship with our bodies. For many of us, coming from a disordered eating background, it can be all too easy to replace restriction with overexercising. We're still maintaining that felt sense of 'control' over our bodies. We can cope with listening to our bodies' hunger cues, as long as we can also do the calorie-burning classes and manipulate our bodies through movement.
Our takeaways:
- After a long period of restriction/ disordered eating and punishing exercise, you may need to step away from organised exercise for a while.
- Coming back to movement gives you the opportunity, to get curious about what you'd actually LIKE to do and what feels good in your body.
- You don't have to subscribe to joyful movement. If you simply don't enjoy movement, you're not doing anything wrong and you are not alone.
- Start with 5 minutes and get it into your routine. Once embedded, add another short session each week until you're able to do more, without feeling triggered by old diet culture thoughts or beliefs. EVERY LITTLE TINY BIT OF MOVEMENT COUNTS
- Find a coach, who you relate to. A coach who listens to you and can write a program for you that will spark your interest and give your flexibility to adjust your workouts according to your energy levels and capacity.
Have a listen to this episode and let us know what you think.
The movement piece of rebuilding trust with our bodies is arguably the toughest, especially if you've always used it as a way to earn your food. You are not alone in this fight and our wish for you, is that someday you will find true strength and empowerment in movement.
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We were not holding back.. It’s fair to say that both of us are super grateful to all the trailblazers that put perimenopause and menopause on the list of topics that we can now all pretty openly discuss. We are both heading towards 50, and are both supporting clients who are going through hormonal changes in midlife.
Whilst we see that there is a place for tailored perimenopause and menopause support, we also feel that, yet again, vulnerability is exploited through monetisation – supplements, potions and lotions are being flogged alongside promises to get rid of the ‘meno-belly’ (we SO hate that word!!) and specific diet plans to regulate hormones (hint: it doesn't work like that)
In particular with regard to supplements, we should be a bit cautious: for many of them we don’t have scientific evidence of their effectiveness, and whilst marketing uses anecdotal benefits to make a sale, we should really know what effects (and side effects) these supplements might have longer term before believing the claims unquestioningly - i.e. making an informed decision based on actual scientific evidence might be a good idea!
We are not judging anyone who tries things out – but we want to invite you to make informed decisions and keep an open mind to the fact that when someone is selling you a solution that's too good to be true, it may not be all they promise it to be.
Our advice is not very sexy, because it isn’t menopause specific: move your body in a way that feels good to you, eat foods that feel good in your body. Look at who gives you the advice: are they trained in the field they say they are an expert in or are they using the classic influencer strategy of n=1 (meaning they base their advice on their own experience only)? Are they selling you something or are they sharing their advice based on scientific evidence?
We’d love to hear from you about your own experience with perimenopause and menopause and what worked/didn’t work for you, maybe you spent lots of money on stuff or you found things that didn’t cost you a penny that helped.
And share this episode with anyone you think might find it helpful!
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This is our first episode of 2026 and it is one that we both feel incredibly passionate about. We explore why fitness spaces can be high risk environments for eating disorders.
Sophie, founder of ED Informed, joins us to discuss how diet culture, harmful fitness messaging and a lack of staff training leave many people vulnerable and unsupported.
We start by discussing some common misconceptions about eating disorders (this will shock you) Did you know that only 6% of people with eating disorders are in the "underweight" category? We talk about the hidden signs trainers often miss and unknowingly exacerbate, and the fine line often between performance-focused training and disordered exercise behaviours.
Sophie shares her story and how ED Informed first came into being; the urgent need for mandatory ED-awareness training in fitness spaces, and practical steps fitness professionals can take right now. Most gym goers have experienced weight-centric or body-shaming rhetoric, and this is incredibly damaging for our long-term relationships to movement and their bodies.
If you'd like to learn more about ED informed and the work Sophie does, visit: https://www.edinformed.org/learn-more
To take part in the survey mentioned, click here:
Take the survey
To sign the petition to recognise Eating Disorders in UK Health Policy:
Sign the Petition
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Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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Happy holidays everyone! This is a re-release from our January 2025 episode about easing into the new year. If you are thinking you need to change your body in 2026, this may just help you reframe and re-evaluate your goals.
We had a great chat about how we can set goals in a sustainable way
We also talked about
- new year's resolutions and how we have full permission to opt out of making any
- how we can set more sustainable goals and not get sucked into quick-fix 'solutions'
- how weight is unhelpful as a focus in order to improve your wellbeing
- the importance of being kind to ourselves during diet season (and all year round, really!)
We hope you find the conversation useful for navigating the diet/weight-loss/'new year - new you' narrative and would love to hear from you if you have any comments, thoughts or want to work with either of us.
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Spicy one this week.
We both believe that individuals have agency and that commenting on an individual's body, whether it be out of 'concern' or otherwise, is just not helpful.
But can we call out a cultural shift towards extreme thinness? F*ck yes!
We feel that we have to. We have a duty of care as professionals working in the non-diet space. We work with clients from disordered eating backgrounds, many of whom are slowly rebuilding trust in their bodies but who are often hugely vulnerable.
We have teen girls, who are impressionable and who are drip-fed photos of extremely thin celebs and influencers, all of whom are worshipped and praised for it.
Of course, there are activists in the space campaigning for body diversity on screens, our right to take up space and to show up unapologetically as we are, but they are few and far between.
How do YOU feel? Do you feel affected by the celebrity weight loss trend which is all around and normalised in Hollywood?
We'd love you to listen and let us know your thoughts. We are opinionated for sure, but welcome counter opinions and conversation, so get in touch.
Lots of love and strength to you all and remember your body is NOT the problem.
xx
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Tasha and Brandon and their membership - the Village- have been a lifeline for me over the last few months, which personally have been incredibly difficult.
They work with recovering perfectionists, folks struggling with burnout and high-achieving humans who are navigating complex life circumstances (clcs) and have lost themselves along the way.
If you have ever felt exhausted and overwhelmed by the everyday, and crave some clarity and some space to pursue the goals you've pushed to one side, this is the conversation for you.
Although they don't work in the non-diet space per say, they work with humans who feel they always need to be doing more, being more, hustling more - a very relevant theme in this dieting culture, where "discipline", "restriction" and extreme thinness is celebrated above all else. *
In part 1 of our conversation, we touched on the following topics:
- What qualifies as a "complex life circumstance"? I thought I was just making excuses.
- How can we honour our capacity whilst still providing for and caring for others? How would it feel not to be NICE but instead to be kind?
- How to start pushing back? What are the initial steps?
- Nervous System Regulation - why is it so important to recovery from burnout or overwhelm?
We hope you enjoy this chat as much as we did.
https://www.rulesandrebellion.com/guide <-- this is where they can get their CLC score and the guide to walk them through the first few steps to start integrating CLC nervous system regulation.
To join their monthly membership hub - The Village - click here.
You can follow them on Instagram or visit their website for more details.
*Tasha and Brandon Skillin are trauma-informed coaches and creators of The Complex Life Circumstances approach to nervous system regulation. They help high-achieving humans — especially those navigating AuDHD, cPTSD, parenting logistics, chronic illness and unpredictable energy, build a life they deserve and a business they love without abandoning themselves.
Their work centres nervous system capacity over discipline, self-loyalty over hustle, and adaptability over perfection. Their coaching frameworks blend neuroscience, lived experience, and values-driven strategy to create change that actually fits real life, usually in a way that doesn’t fit the “standard rules.”
They believe your CLCs aren’t excuses, they’re the context for everything. And once you learn to work with them instead of against them, progress becomes not just possible again, but inevitable.
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What a joyful conversation with the one and only Nana Crawford, creator of Jigglefitt. She is a powerhouse and her energy is truly infectious and we hope you love this conversation as much as we did.
We talked to Nana about the following topics:
- Body Acceptance after having kids and seeing your body change out of recognition
- How to get to know your body again
- How dance can help bring you back to your body
- Why dancing is for everyone, and why it's ok if it doesn't land first time.
- The racist roots of diet culture, white supremacy culture and we can help promote more black owned businesses and elevate marginalised voices in the fitness space.
- Taking up space. How can we bring women (in particular) back to the movement itself, rather than seeing movement as a weight loss tool?
- Challenging yourself vs pushing yourself vs punishing yourself. Knowing when we actually just need rest.
This conversation certainly reignited the joy of movement in both of us, and we hope it can do the same for you.
Rather than judging our bodies so harshly from the outside, can we look inward and connect to how we FEEL?
Nana Crawford is a dancer, instructor, and community builder creating joyful jiggles across the UK with JiggleFiTT. Her mission is to make wellness accessible and inclusive for everybody. Each of Nana's classes is crafted to provide a unique and holistic workout experience that is both fun and transformative.
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Before I share the show notes below, a quick disclaimer: this episode is for information and education purposes only and does not focus on medical risk/ replace advice from a medical professional. If you are taking any weight loss drug or are considering taking one, please consult with a professional/ your healthcare provider.
Now - what a treat to have the lovely Aoife McMahon on the pod today!
Aoife is a specialist eating disorders, disordered eating and body image dietitian. She supports individuals in one-to-one sessions to rebuild a peaceful relationship with food and their body. In addition to that, she works alongside colleague Rhian Houghton to raise awareness and provide training to professionals regarding eating disorders in the context of GLP-1 medications. One of the greatest gifts Aoife has found through her work — and through healing her own relationship with food and her body — is being able to raise her family in a home where a peaceful relationship with food is simply the norm.
Aoife gave a fantastic overview of what GLP-1 medications are and what evidence for their long-term effectiveness we have (or rather, we don't have..). We discussed our mutual concern on how there is a lack of support for patients on these drugs, how healing people's relationship with food is often not part of the consultation process, and that informed consent is absolute key in ensuring that anyone who is considering them does so with all the necessary information available.
Aoife and her colleague Rhian have developed a fantastic resource for dietitians and other healthcare professionals - a webinar that addresses all of the above.
Let us know your thoughts on this topic!
If you'd like to find out more about Aoife's work or contact her, here are the details:
Website
Instagram @thatirishdietitian
Email: aoife@centreforliberatingnutrition.com
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Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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We had the pleasure of chatting with Dr Rachel Evans for this episode - and we absolutely loved her multi-faceted approach to eating disorder recovery. Rachel draws on her own lived experience with Bulimia, and uses lots of different therapeutic modalities in her client sessions so that each session is tailored exactly to the individual client.
Rachel kindly shared her own story with us, and we are sure it will resonate with many people, because it highlights that there often isn't a distinct moment in time when our relationship with food goes off the rails and an eating disorder develops, but that it can happen very gradual, and under the disguise of 'healthy eating' habits.
We talked about how we can get back out of those destructive and disordered habits, how recognising triggers is vital, and how hypnotherapy can be super helpful for some clients in understanding where the foundations to their eating disorder were laid.
If you want to learn more about Rachel's work, you can check out her website or find her on Instagram @rachel.evans.phd
Her podcast 'Just Eat Normally' has over 60 episodes of conversations about eating disorder recovery with some great guests!
BIO: Dr. Rachel Evans is a chartered psychologist, hypnotherapist and mum of 2. She combines her lived experience of bulimia recovery with professional expertise and training to support one-to-one clients who feel obsessed with food, hate their body, and use increasingly extreme methods to try and control it, from making themselves throw-up, to misusing laxatives or weight-loss drugs and compulsive exercise. At the heart of her practice is a compassionate, individualised, and trauma-informed, multi-disciplinary approach, focusing on the person rather than a label
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Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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We are re-releasing this to coincide with the APPG report from Dump The Scales, that was delivered to Number 10 yesterday, alongside a petition calling for an inquiry into all eating disorder deaths.
You can find the full report here
It's always humbling to speak to our amazing experts, and our conversation with Dr Kamila Irvine was no exception! Whilst she is a very senior researcher and serious advocate for weight-inclusivity, she is also incredibly good fun to chat to!
We talked about:
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How neurodivergence can impact our eating behaviours and contribute to disordered eating
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How eating disorder recovery might need a different approach in neurodivergent individuals
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How body sensations can impact our body image
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How disordered eating behaviours and intentional weight-loss have been normalised
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Kamila's amazing work with Molly Forbes at www.bodyhappyorg.com
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Kamila's Cake analogy, that she uses to illuminate the reasons why eating disorders may occur in some people and not others. Same ingredients, different quantities, different mixing skills = different cake!
Bio:
Dr Kamila Irvine is a Senior Lecturer in Body Image and Eating Disorders at the School of Psychology, Sport Science and Wellbeing at the University of Lincoln, where she teaches and researches all things body image in the context of eating disorders and beyond.
Her research work encompasses a number of multidimensional themes and interests, including intervention and prevention, LGBTQIA+, weight stigma and anti-fat bias, and perceptual body image.
Her main teaching responsibility is her module "Body image and eating disorders" for 3rd year Psychology students, and she is soon to start teaching 3rd year medical students too!
She also supervises research projects of dissertation and masters' students, as well as PhD students; and works closely with Body Happy Org and First Steps Eating Disorders charity.
Follow her or get in touch with her:
Dr. Kamila Irvine | Senior Lecturer in Body Image and Eating Disorders
BSc(Hons), MSc, PGCE PCET, PhD, FHEAProgramme Lead for BSc (Hons) Psychology with Mental Health(she/her)
SSB4204
School of Psychology, Sport Science & Wellbeing
College of Health and Science
Email: kirvine@lincoln.ac.uk
Instagram @drkamilairvine,
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To celebrate the release of Jenn's first book - Eat to Thrive, we are re-releasing this impactful conversation with Jenn, which remains our most popular episode to date!
What an episode. I realised about 20 minutes of chatting to Jenn that I wanted to work with her so immediately signed up to her Midlife Feast Community.
Dr Jenn Salib Huber is a Canadian registered dietitian, naturopathic doctor and fellow Intuitive Eating Coach.
She is on a mission to help women thrive in midlife by helping them navigate the physical and emotional changes that happen in menopause and perimenopause.
She is passionate about women finding food freedom and body confidence.
We chatted about the following topics which may interest you if you're approaching or in the throes of peri menopause:
Why do we gain weight in peri-menopause?
Is fasting a good way to tackle hot flushes and body changes?
How we can shift our mindset towards our ever changing bodies?
Is HRT as beneficial as we are being told in the media?
If HRT didn't work for us, what are our options?
Can we still have coffee? ( I mean that's a non negotiable for me;))
What about alcohol?
We discuss these topics and much much more and hope that our conversation helps even one person to know that they're not alone and that there is support out there.
You can find Jenn on Instagram or for more options to work with her click here.
Click here for a free download on Menopause nutrition for Un-dieters.
If you liked the podcast, please follow and leave us a review. It would mean the world to and would enable us to keep bringing you amazing guests such as Jenn each and every week.
THANK YOU for being here.
Support the show
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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This was a feisty conversation.
The conversation was inspired by an article from Mikala Jamison on Substack, entitled 'The Long Con of Pilates Culture.'
This is by no means a takedown of Pilates as a movement modality. I (Christine) am a Pilates teacher myself and swear by its considerable benefits, however, I would not be inclined to direct a client to Pilates if they wanted to increase muscle mass or bone density.
You can absolutely build strength in Pilates, and you can improve muscle endurance, joint stability, balance, core connection, and so much more (especially at the beginning of your Pilates journey), but there is no progressive overload. After a while, the 2kg dumbbells simply won't be enough of a stimulus to create the adaptations we're looking for, as 40+ women trying to counteract the loss of muscle mass and bone density decade upon decade.
"But Pilates creates long, lean muscles", I hear you cry. Does it though? Or is the 'long, lean muscle phenomenon is "fitness marketing fuckery at its finest."
Muscles are literally attached to bones. There is an origin and an insertion point. You can grow them but you can't make them longer and leaner. This is just a diet culture marketing ploy aimed at women.
More than anything through this conversation, we want to arm women with the truth. If you like Pilates, like how you feel doing Pilates, that is fantastic and as we said, it has incredible benefits, but simply does NOT equate to strength training.
In terms of Muscle mommies vs Pilates princesses, I reject this reductive terminology. I don't enjoy labels. You can do both. You have autonomy. We urge you through this podcast to reject the toxic fitness marketing, find a source you trust and most importantly, find what feels good for YOUR body.
Inclusive Pilates Accounts:
@fatbodypilates @plus.size.pilates @neutral.pilates @lityogalife
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Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine. If you'd like exclusive access to our supporter-only channel click here.
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Bethany Rutter is an author and online personal trainer. She is the author of four books for young people and two books for adults. Her next novel is Ask Me Anything, out November 2025.
It was a joy to speak with Bethany - so refreshing to hear how she has come to be chill with the body she is in and how she has come from hating PE at school to enjoying movement.
We talked about
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Bethany's own body and movement story
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spinning, sweating and finding joy in movement
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how something that is apparently good for your body can be very stressful for your mind
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her books and how important their message is for young people (and, actually, people of all ages!)
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the importance of language when we discuss bodies and food
We highly recommend you check out Bethany's socials and read her books - maybe with a young person in your life - and DO Pre-order her latest book out in November here
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Christine and I had a really honest conversation about body image disruptors and how we deal with them. Disclaimer: we don't have a 'one-size-fits-all' solution for you! But we are here to validate that they happen to almost everyone, that they suck, and that they can really knock you sideways.
It's so hard to avoid comparing yourself to others, to avoid absorbing images that portray 'the ideal body', and to accept your here-and-now body. We get it, we hear it, we hear you!
AND, whilst body image disruptors are a (sucky) part of life, we also want to share with you the tools and strategies that help us to not to get dragged into negative thought spirals when we encounter them.
We'd love to hear from you with strategies that worked for you - what snaps you out of the disrupted state? What tools work in what situation? What are your main triggers?
We hope this episode helps validate your experiences with negative body image, and that it gives you hope that they don't have to define you and how you feel about your body.
Look after yourselves, much love, E&C xx
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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If social media were to be believed, everyone is on a diet. No judgement here, believe me. We live in a dieting culture - it is the air we breathe and the sea we swim in.
But we are shrinking ourselves in more ways than one, at a time, where we need to take up space and stand up to the establishment, not cower under it.
Alok Venom: "I belong firmly and irrevocably to me. Once I began to realise that this body is mine, other people's appraisal of it became irrelevant."
Ela and I have both stopped pretending that this diet culture noise doesn't affect us. Yes, we care about how we look, but as Stefanie Michele mentioned on the podcast last week, we now refuse to give our appearance so much power.
How do we encourage our clients to do the same? Staying on the 'non-diet' train takes work, determination, and an ability to sit with some discomfort.
The non-sexy option? Maybe. But cultivating a good relationship with our bodies is invaluable. Listening to our body's cues and nourishing them, rather than punishing them, will help to build that body respect, trust, and eventually acceptance.
Take care of yourselves. It's tough out there. x
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Alyssa Ages* is a force to be reckoned with. Author, freelance journalist, crossfit athlete, marathon runner, strong woman competitor, and advocate for strength training and taking up space as a woman.
Alyssa talks to us about how strength training, in particular, helped her regain trust and confidence in what her body could do. She talks candidly about her struggles with infertility, how going back to the gym after a miscarriage helped her process some very difficult emotions.
We also discussed the following topics together:
- The benefits of strength training for women 40+ and why you don't HAVE to lift the heaviest of weights to feel the benefit
- Why training 1-1 with a coach is recommended if you're new to strength, if you have the means to do so.
- The barriers to strength training. How to reduce the risk of injury
- How to know when enough is enough, and your body just needs rest.
- How to be comfortable taking up space in your body, especially as you focus on 'building' strength rather than shrinking yourself.
If you're on the fence about strength training or just curious about lifting atlas stones or swinging oddly shaped heavy objects around, this is the episode for you.
Alyssa Ages is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Elle, The Globe & Mail, and others. She is the author of Secrets of Giants: A Journey to Uncover the True Meaning of Strength*. Alyssa lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters.
You can find her through her website or contact her on instagram.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Ela and I have been excited about this episode for quite some time.
Stefanie Michele* is a binge eating recovery coach as well as host of the very popular Life After Diets podcast with former guest Sarah Dosanjh.
She has recently completed her training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and now approaches her recovery coaching through this trauma-informed lens.
Through our conversation, we touched on the following topics:
- Why striving to be 'body positive' doesn't work for everyone.
- Are we applying our perfectionist gaze to body image work?
- How can we start 'feeling' more and 'thinking' less about our bodies and how we look.
- Why binge eating recovery is possible at any age.
- How being body neutral doesn't mean not caring about our bodies.
- The 2 bodies that live within us: the Objectified Body vs the Living Body
Please listen to the episode and enjoy. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Stefanie Michele is a coach, writer, somatic practitioner, and certified Intuitive Eating counselor. She draws on both her professional training and her own lived experience of recovery to help people heal from binge eating, restriction cycles, body image struggles, and the pull of diet culture. Stefanie co-hosts the Life After Diets* podcast and writes on Substack about the bigger cultural forces that shape how we relate to ourselves. Her work blends psychology, nervous system science, and real-world experience to guide people toward a more peaceful relationship with food and themselves.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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RE-RELEASE of one of my favourite ever interviews from March 2023. Only my 6th episode of the podcast before Ela joined me.❤️
Jill Angie is a trailblazer. She is changing the conversation for fat women over 40 and for anyone who thinks they're too old or too slow.
She is making huge waves in the running game and it was an absolute joy to share an hour with her.
I am currently training for a marathon, and Jill's podcasts have inspired me and have been my constant companion on my long solo training runs.
When Jill started running over 20 years ago, all she wanted to do was burn calories and lose weight but hated every minute of it. It felt punishing and she was always frustrated and disappointed. So in 2009, she decided to stop thinking about running as a means to an end and started using it as a tool to build up her strength and confidence.
She has built a running community around her and helps women become consistent exercisers and silence their inner bullies to find out what their bodies are truly capable of. *
We chatted easily about our running challenges, how to overcome the mental battles and be ok with not achieving a PB and not running the fastest race.
We talk about the definition of success when it comes to running and why we feel we have to push ourselves so hard.
Jill reminds us all that if you have a body and you run, you have a runner's body.
I hope this episode blows you away and helps you challenge your inner critic and stop shoulding all over yourself.
You can find Jill on Instagram or via her website.
*(Find out more about Jill's 'Up and Running' program here.)
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Skinny is back. With a vengeance.
We're furious. Listen, we are very much speaking from a position of privilege in terms of both being in straight-sized bodies, but approaching fitness and health through an anti-oppressive and inclusive lens, this is simply not good news.
Eating disorders and disordered eating are very much on the rise, as is body dissatisfaction, and the very sad truth is, is that there is no quick fix when it comes to our fitness,our bodies and indeed our confidence. Sure we can lose weight in the short term but what about sustainability. What about the impact of continual weight fluctuations on our health.
Confidence is not waiting for us at our goal weight.
There is nuance here. For some folks, the new GLP-1 drugs have been beneficial and more and more research is being done into their impact on binge eating disorders.
We discuss all of this and more in today's episode. It is a spicy one and we'd absolutely LOVE your comments or feedback.
We start the episode with the following quote from the wonderful Abbie Attwood:
"There's something unbearably cruel about living in a world where millions of people go hungry because they have no choice, while millions more go hungry because they've been told that they should."
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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In this episode, I sat down to chat with the incredible Dr Jenn Huber as a guest on the Midlife Feast podcast.
At 49, I received an ADHD diagnosis after years of masking. In this episode I share how perimenopause brought long-overlooked symptoms into focus.
Together, we unpack how midlife hormonal shifts can amplify ADHD traits and why rigid fitness plans rarely work for neurodivergent brains.
We also bust the motivation myth and share simple mindset shifts that make movement feel doable, even on low-energy days.
You'll learn:
- Why “consistency” isn’t the gold standard for movement (and what to focus on instead)
- How ADHD symptoms like overwhelm and emotional dysregulation show up in midlife
- What it means to move on your terms and why routine doesn’t have to mean rigid
- How strength training can start with 10 minutes a week
- Why self-compassion is essential for sustainable habits
Key Quotes:
"The diagnosis is not the answer... but it is a way of giving myself a little more self-compassion. And leading with that, rather than ‘Why can’t I do what everyone else is doing?’”
"It's not about being consistent. It's about being persistent. It’s about getting really good at starting again."
"Movement isn’t something we do to punish our bodies. It’s something that can help us feel better, think more clearly, and be kinder to the people around us."
"You don’t have to be lifting barbells next week. Start super small. Maybe add in 10 minutes once a week. It all counts."
Connect with Jenn on Instagram or join the Midlife Feast Community where you are supported to manage your menopause transition WITHOUT diet and food rules and where I (Christine) support the community with regular strength, pilates and mobility sessions.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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We recently had Sarah Dosanjh on the pod and as part of our prep had re-listened to several recent Life After Diets podcast. An episode about boundaries - setting and keeping - really spoke to us, so we decided to do a deep dive.
We are by no means experts and in this episode, we simply try to navigate recovery from perfectionism and learning to set appropriate personal relationship boundaries as well as boundaries around food and movement.
We get personal and open up about why we both struggle to set boundaries and why softening into boundaries can often be a good thing.
Have a listen and please let us know about your own experience with boundaries and the part they play in your relationship with food or your body.
- I mention the work of Rules and Rebellion, Burnout and Perfectionism Strategists. Tasha and Brandon offer support for folks who are struggling with or have struggled with burnout and offer lots of short and simple nervous system regulation techniques as well as lots of free content to engage with.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Michael Ulloa * is well known on social media for myth busting nutri- and fitness-bollocks - he gets posts every day from concerned followers that found yet another load of nonsense in their feed.
Moving from gym bro to myth busting was a gradual process for Michael, as was changing his own relationship to movement and nutrition.
We had such a good conversation and talked about how fitness doesn't have a look, how flexibility can lead to consistency and sustainable habits, how we have normalised unachievable body 'ideals' and how shifting your focus when it comes to exercise can make it joyful rather than punishing.
We also touched on steroid use in the fitness world and we recommend you listen to his podcast episode on this topic - here is the link!
*"Michael Ulloa is a respected online personal trainer and performance nutritionist. He is a speaker, writer, content creator and the host of the How to: Fitness podcast. He tackles common health and nutrition misinformation whilst promoting a more inclusive, accessible approach to health and fitness. Michael is passionate about helping people to improve their health without the pressure to conform to unrealistic body standards."
You can find Michael on Instagram @michaelulloapt and get in touch with him via his website
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Oh wow - we had Sarah Dosanjh on the pod!!! And how lovely is she?
Sarah is a qualified and BACP-accredited psychotherapist specialising in binge eating — not just through training, but lived experience too. After over a decade of struggling with binge eating and bulimia, it was deep inner work that finally transformed her relationship with food. That journey now informs how she supports others.
Since publishing I Can’t Stop Eating (an Amazon bestseller) in 2020, she's raised awareness through BBC Radio One, Sky’s Roundtable, BBC Breakfast, and delivering training for other professionals. Her YouTube videos exploring recovery and self understanding have been viewed over 3 million times.
It was a super interesting conversation with someone who has lived experience with an eating disorder and now supports others with her incredible knowledge, insight and authenticity.
We talked about Sarah's ED story, what helped her in her recovery, and how recognising impermanence of thoughts and being honest (even if that is super hard) can be incredibly powerful tools for recovery, as well as cats and whether to watch or listen to podcasts ;-) (with 'Find your Strong' you can do either or both!!)
We also touched on GLP-1s and how they can be a massive challenge for anyone with disordered eating or an eating disorder - for a more detailed discussion we highly recommend you listen to Sarah and Stefanie's 'Life after Diets' episode on GLP-1s
If you want to find out more about Sarah and her work, here are some links:
Her book 'I can't stop eating' (highly recommended for anyone struggling with overeating and bingeing)
Her website https://thebingeeatingtherapist.com/
Her podcasts (with co-host Stefanie Michele)
Life after Diets
Feelings and other inconveniences (brand new!!)
Her instagram @the_binge_eating_therapist
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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(That's not how we actually feel by the way!)
This is another solo/ duo episode where we shoot the sh*t and talk about all things body image, diet culture and embracing our 'here and now' bodies.
Christine's husband asked her to join him on his 'HELL' run this Saturday and it got us thinking about how so many of us see exercise as a form of punishment or self-flagellation. A penance for eating the doughnut or having the cake when we 'should have had more willpower' or just been 'good'.
If movement had ZERO impact on your body in terms of aesthetics, would you choose to move in the same way?
A question we ask ourselves frequently. In this episode we discuss whether you should always give it 100% or whether showing up is enough.
Untangling movement and weight loss is TOUGH but entirely possible. Let us know if you agree or reach out if you have any comments or questions after today's show.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Have you heard of mindful eating?
Maybe you struggle with the idea of eating a piece of chocolate 'mindfully' and perhaps it is even reminiscent of your dieting or disordered eating days, where you savoured each mouthful and ate as slowly as you could to try and convince yourself you were having 'enough' food.
But as Ela tells us, mindfulness, mindful eating and movement is about so much more than that. Listen to the episode and let us know your thoughts.
Through the episode, we also refer to Intuitive Eating. By comparison, Intuitive Eating is a self-care eating framework Intuitive Eating which integrates instinct, emotion, and rational thought and was created by two dietitians, Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in 1995. Intuitive Eating is a weight-inclusive, evidence-based model with over 200 studies to date.*
- This quote was taken from the Intuitive Eating website.
Click here for more info.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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It's that time of year again... As the sun comes out, we are expected to neatly deal with the transition from winter to summer clothes - and our bodies are even more scrutinised than usual and critically assessed as to their suitability to wear bikinis as well as our skin-exposing summer wardrobes.
We had a very personal conversation about straight-size privilege, the issue with bikinis, how transitioning from winter to summer can bring up all sorts of body image worries, how waiting for the 'perfect' body size will mean missing out on living and enjoying life, and much more (we ARE the queens of tangents..)
If any of the things we discussed resonated and you would like some support navigating them, please get in touch!
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Creating an inclusive and safe space for everyone to explore movement and work out can be challenging - Trey Joseph took on that challenge and through his own experience of living in a marginalised body as a transgender man and learning how to coach from a trauma informed lens he is DOING JUST THAT!
We had such a great conversation with Trey and chatted with him about
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how he came to his inclusive approach to fitness
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his new coaching programme
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what is needed for people to feel safe in the spaces they exercise in
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why we could all do with a bit of dancing
Trey is a strength and fitness coach, personal trainer, and behaviour change specialist who’s all-in on making exercise enjoyable, accessible, and inclusive.
As a queer, transgender man who transitioned later in life, he knows what it’s like to live in a marginalised body—and how intimidating working out can feel, especially when you're just starting or don’t feel at home in mainstream fitness spaces.
What Trey loves most about working out is how it supports his mental and emotional health, and he wholeheartedly believes that everyone deserves the freedom and resources to move their body in a way that’s right for them. That’s why his coaching style is client-centred, compassion-led, and designed to build confidence, and every workout he coaches is designed to feel safe, fun, and zero-pressure.
He’s one third of the Strength Crew coaching team (along with his wife Emma and dog Dexy), offers online fitness classes as well as 1:1 sessions, and you can chat to him on IG at @trey_strengthcrew
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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You may have heard the term 'trauma-informed' and been drawn to it, but maybe aren't entirely sure what it means. Maybe you struggle with group exercise as you just find the environment triggering or feel uncomfortable saying no to hands on assists. Maybe you'd like to try more in-person classes but just don't feel safe.
Maybe you're done with fitness instructors and their body shaming cues which always make you feel a little less than.
Maybe you feel entirely disconnected from your body and would like to be able to tune in and offer more kindness to yourself. If any of these statements ring true for you, you are in the right place.
Doris Müllner is a Berlin-based non-diet dietitian and trauma-informed yoga teacher dedicated to supporting people in reconnecting with their bodies—free from weight stigma. With a compassionate, weight-inclusive approach, she guides clients toward intuitive eating, self-trust, and sustainable well-being. Her work centres on body respect, mindfulness, and the belief that health is not determined by size. Through online yoga classes and 1:1 sessions, Doris creates safe spaces for healing and gentle movement, helping individuals move away from diet culture and toward a more liberated, embodied life.
Ela and I know that you will LOVE this conversation and find it as enlightening as we did. Have a listen and drop us a text if you enjoy the episode.
You can find Doris here:
https://dorismuellner.com
Körperakzeptanz-Podcast (Body Acceptance Podcast)
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/koerperakzeptanz
Online Yoga Studio
https://dorismuellner.com/online-yoga-studio/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/foodfreedomflow
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Ela was flying solo for this episode, speaking with the wonderful Milda Zolubaite, who is a Registered Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Disordered Eating Specialist. Having struggled with disordered eating and binge eating herself, Milda is passionate about helping people find a way to break the binge-restrict cycle.
In this episode we talked about
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Milda's story and how she found a way to heal her relationship with food and eating
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how binge eating is not about lack of willpower
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the role of restriction in binge eating
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how there is a complex interplay of emotional, environmental and psychological aspects that can influence our food choices and eating behaviours
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the amazing 'Break the Binge Cycle Summit' that Milda has organised (see info below)
Break the Binge Cycle Summit: a FREE four day event (28th April - 1st May 2025) to learn practical tools and strategies to help you stop binge eating and find peace with food - with presentations from 29 amazing experts and tons of resources
Click the link here to sign up (just a note from us: we would encourage you to get the upgrade pass so that you have ongoing access to the presentations, incredible bonus content from speakers at the summit, and more!)
Milda is an MSc Nutritional therapist and Disordered Eating Specialist and over the last 8 years she has supported hundreds of women and men in finding food and body peace. She's a firm believer that there is no "one size fits all" approach, hence she uses a mix of nutritional, psychological and behavioural interventions to help people reach peace and food freedom. She is also excited to host the Break the Binge Cycle summit at the end of April 2025
To find out more about Milda's work and to get in touch with her head over to her website, or follow her on socials:
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Now there's a question! Do you like yourself? Ela and I would say we're both working on it and that's ok. For me, leading with self-compassion has been the game changer.
So many of us engage in negative self talk and thankfully now we know about neural plasticity and the more we challenge these negative thoughts, the more resilience we build up against them.
As promised we want to share a couple of fabulous resources with you to get you on your path to liking yourself:
https://self-compassion.org/
Dan Harris's TED Talk - Stop Being A Jerk To Yourself
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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It's always humbling to speak to our amazing experts and our conversation with Dr Kamila Irvine was no exception! Whilst she is a very senior researcher and serious advocate for weight-inclusivity, she is also incredibly good fun to chat to and we could have gone on for much longer!
We talked about:
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how body image is susceptible to many influences
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what are precipitating, perpetuating, protective and pre-disposing factors when it comes to our body image and how we can mitigate them
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how neurodivergence can impact our eating behaviours and contribute to disordered eating
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how eating disorder recovery might need a different approach in neurodivergent individuals
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how body sensations can impact our body image
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how disordered eating behaviours and intentional weight-loss have been normalised
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her amazing work with www.bodyhappyorg.com
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her flour/cake analogy!!!!
Bio:
Dr Kamila Irvine is a Senior Lecturer in Body Image and Eating Disorders at the School of Psychology, Sport Science and Wellbeing at the University of Lincoln, where she teaches and researchers all things body image in the context of eating disorders and beyond.
Her research work encompasses a number of multidimensional themes and interests including intervention and prevention, LGBTQIA+, weight stigma and anti-fat bias, and perceptual body image.
Her main teaching responsibility is her module "Body image and eating disorders" for 3rd year Psychology students, and she is soon to start teaching 3rd year medical students too!
She also supervises research projects of dissertation and masters students, as well as PhD students; and works closely with Body Happy Org and First Steps Eating Disorders charity.
Follow her or get in touch with her:
Dr. Kamila Irvine | Senior Lecturer in Body Image and Eating Disorders
BSc(Hons), MSc, PGCE PCET, PhD, FHEAProgramme Lead for BSc (Hons) Psychology with Mental Health(she/her)
SSB4204
School of Psychology, Sport Science & Wellbeing
College of Health and Science
kirvine@lincoln.ac.uk
@drkamilairvine, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kamila-Irvine, x.com/drkirvine
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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As Christine so aptly put it: What a powerhouse! Our conversation with Damali Fraiser was vulnerable, open and incredibly interesting.
We talked about:
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how to navigate body changes as we age and as we adapt to hormonal changes and injury
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Damali's journey of recovering from her hysterectomy
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how to coach with a trauma informed and inclusive ethos
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the importance of dismantling hierarchies (in movement and in general!)
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why she found herself drawn to kettlebell training
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the benefits of strength training and that it doesn't have to look the same for everyone
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her incredible coaching course for fitness instructors (see more information below)
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what a snatch is!! (Ela was clueless but is now totally in the know - listen to find out!)
Some more information about Damali:
Meet Coach Damali, pronouns she/her. Damali is a compassionate Kettlebell Expert, author, speaker, fitness / nutrition coach and founder of Lift off Strength & Wellness. Damali is known for her unapologetic opposition to diet culture in the kettlebell community and as a passionate educator who will help you learn to train with kettlebells safely. Through her Inclusive Kettlebell Coach course and certification programs, you learn to teach kettlebells from an intersectional lens that's size-inclusive, trauma-informed, judgement-free and for every BODY (emphasis on the body because humanity has always had body diversity)
You can connect with Damali on her website http://liftoffstrength.ca , on Instagram @Damali.Fraiser, TikTok and on YouTube @liftoffstrength or through her retreats for Black Women and women of colour (WOC) in Kettlebells @kettlebellsinblack.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
Today we had the pleasure of welcoming Priya Tew* to the pod. If you are in recovery from an eating disorder, have ever experienced disordered eating or just struggle to know what you should be eating, this episode is for you.
Ela and I are confirmed anti-dieters but this chat reinforced for us the need for nuanced conversations. conversations that explore the messy middle.
We learned so much from Priya in this short episode and know you will too.
*Priya Tew is an award winning registered dietitian and leading expert in eating disorders and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). With nearly two decades of experience, she is passionate about helping people build a healthier relationship with food. Priya runs her own practice, Dietitian UK, and an eating disorder recovery community called the Recovery Tribe. She is also the author of two books (the DASH diet and the complete low FODMAP Diet plan), sharing her knowledge and expertise to support those struggling with food and gut health. Alongside her clinical work, Priya collaborates with food brands, contributes to the media, and balances life as a mum of six.
Visit Priya's website.
Follow Priya on Instagram
Check out Priya's Facebook account
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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This one was tough but I'm not one to shy away from hard topics of conversation. Ela and I spend our lives swimming upstream, and going against the grain in terms of our work with clients and the content we share with you.
This is a raw one. As soon as mum passed away, body image dissatisfaction peaked in me. Although it seemed so frivolous given everything we as a family had gone through, I understand now that it's my brain's way of coping. It's a familiar coping strategy; a place where I can put my attention as everything else is just too much.
We chatted about why these thoughts resurface and are often exacerbated when we go through hard times and we both really hope it resonates with some of you, who have gone through such tough times of late or are currently struggling. You are not alone.
Here are some resources that have been really helpful to me at this time of grief.
How to Move On After Grief - We Can Do Hard Things Podcast
The Movement Mentality - I'll Go First, with Missy Bunch
Unavoidable Body Grief with Bri Campos
How Thinking About Death Can Improve Your Life with Alua Arthur- Ten Percent Happier Pod
Resources for Support and Self-Care for Bereavement from MIND charity
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Ela was a guest on this fabulous podcast, hosted by Alex Pett. Alex kindly allowed us to share the episode with our listeners, as we think it might be relevant and interesting for you! Her details are below, check out her resilience coaching and the brilliant podcast!
Here is some information about the episode:
*So many women gain weight around their middle during menopause and perimenopause. Why does this happen and how can we deal with it differently?
This episode is part of a series of podcasts released between Christmas and NY called New Year, Even Better Supported you. Check out the episodes on adaptogens, ADHD as an entrepreneur, getting your book published and healthy joints after 35+ too.
Discover more of Ela and her podcast Find Your Strong.*
*Book an intro call for resilience coaching here.
Guest: Ela law, nutritionist and intuitive eating counsellor.
Host: Alex, resilience coach (Insta: @alexresiliencecoach) www.shore-coaching.com
Notes on Vulnerability on social media: @notesonvulnerability (Insta).
Resilience at 40+? Read this.
Try some resilience coaching for free with these 5 Resilience Coaching Questions that will Change your Life.*
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/paul-yudin/breaking-ideas
License code: 6NHMOGUA1OQR97OC
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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There is a lot of science behind the benefits of movement, but using that to create a bunch of rules on how we 'should' or 'shouldn't' exercise is ignoring the fact that everyone's goals are different, that people's needs and what's available to them are different, and that what we enjoy or dislike is very subjective. The science is helpful, but not the full picture!
There is no moral value in movement, and you don't owe it to anyone to move. AND: moving can be beneficial to your physical and mental wellbeing. It just doesn't serve us if we get fixated on someone else's idea of what that should look like. Flexibility and giving yourself permission to move, and to not move, is key to making it a sustainable aspect in your life. We don't have to strive for whatever the 'optimum' is supposed to be for strength or fitness, we don't have to do it perfectly.
If you want to listen to some of our guests talk about this topic, check out these episodes - Dr Lisa and Hannah had some incredibly valuable suggestions on how to move for wellbeing.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623166/episodes/16254033
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623166/episodes/15831507
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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We had the absolute pleasure to chat to the wonderful Debbie Lesko - the person behind the well-known and -loved platform 'Diets don't work' @diets_dont_work_haes1 (Facebook and Instagram)
Debbie Lesko is a 69 year old grandmother whose passion is to educate people of all ages, sizes, race, sexual identity of the dangers of diet culture and the societal ideals to keep everyone thin. She fights the mainstream ideals with her page – Diets Don’t Work on Facebook as well as on Instagram. She currently has about 21,000 followers who look forward to her newest posts. She has been on podcasts and taught at seminars as well as writes articles for magazines. As a survivor of anorexia and drug addiction she has the lived experience to share her ideas with the world. Her recovery from drugs and anorexia has been her driving force to share her recovery with others. “If I can inspire one person it will all be worth it.”
We talked to Debbie about her eating disorder recovery and how finding the non-diet space was a turning point in her journey. Running her amazing platform and sharing posts with her followers is part of her self-care and continued recovery process. She is incredibly passionate about raising eating disorder awareness, and is determined to make the world a kinder and more inclusive place for everyone.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Happy 2025 everyone!
To start the new year, we had a great chat about how we can set goals in a sustainable way
We also talked about
- new year's resolutions and how we have full permission to opt out of making any
- how we can set more sustainable goals and not get sucked into quick-fix 'solutions'
- how weight is unhelpful as a focus in order to improve your wellbeing
- the importance of being kind to ourselves during diet season (and all year round, really!)
We hope you find the conversation useful for navigating the diet/weight-loss/'new year - new you' narrative and would love to hear from you if you have any comments, thoughts or want to work with either of us.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Guest-less but certainly not clue-less - our Christmas episode is full of our thoughts about how we can set boundaries during the festive season, how to prioritise enjoyment and use mindfulness to make sure we stay present and focus on looking after ourselves with kindness.
Many people feel overwhelmed during this time of year, anxiety levels rise, we beat ourselves up for eating 'too much' and moving 'too little'. As a consequence we are vulnerable of falling into the 'new year - new diet' trap.
We talk about how we can stay tuned in to our bodies, how we can be kind to ourselves, how to respond to comments about our bodies or food choices and how to say f* you to diet culture come the new year.
Hoping this will be helpful for you to take the pressure off yourself and stay in the present, we both wish you a lovely festive season, whether you celebrate or not, wherever you are and whomever you are with.
We will be back in the new year with tons more episodes and amazing guests!
Take care of yourselves
Christine & Ela
xxx
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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Ela and I LOVED this conversation. It was a chance for us to debunk popular fitness culture myths and talk about why we don't all need to be lifting heavy shit, if it doesn't work for us and WHY even 5 minutes of movement counts.
Dr. Lisa brings something unique to this space, specialising in physical therapy and body image. Her own journey started only 6 years ago, having herself being submerged in diet culture and self flagellation until that point. Dr. Lisa talks to us about how she is navigating the road to body acceptance and is very candid about her struggles along the way.
*Dr. Lisa N. Folden is a North Carolina licensed physical therapist, NASM certified behavior change specialist and Anti-diet Health & Body Image Coach. She owns Healthy Phit Physical Therapy & Wellness Consultants in Charlotte, NC where she provides trauma-informed and weight-inclusive care to clients in diverse bodies and those in eating disorder recovery.
As a health at every size (HAES®️) ambassador and movement expert, Dr. Folden assists clients seeking healthier lifestyles. Her weight-neutral approach encourages intuitive eating, joyful movement, body acceptance and breaking up with toxic diet culture.
Dr. Lisa is a mom of three, published author and speaker whose goal is to see as many people as possible living their best lives without worrying about their weight!
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
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What a joy to have Molly Forbes on the pod!
Molly Forbes is an author, campaigner, and journalist. Her first book, Body Happy Kids (for adults), was published by Vermilion in 2021, followed by Every Body (for readers 9+) in 2024, which won Highly Commended in the Health & Wellbeing category of the Teach Primary Awards. That same year, Molly was named one of the winners of The Fair Education Alliance Innovation Awards, supporting the development of the Body Happy Schools programme. An experienced broadcaster and public speaker, Molly has appeared on BBC Breakfast, Woman’s Hour, This Morning, Radio 1’s Newsbeat, Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and Heart Breakfast, discussing children’s body image, mental health, and parenting. As the founder and Executive Director of Body Happy Org, she oversees operations and strategic direction. Molly is also an active workshop facilitator, delivering sessions in schools and corporate training for brands promoting positive body esteem.
In our conversation we talked about Molly’s passion for making body image more than just a topic in PSHE (Personal Social Health Education) lessons and how if body image gets neglected as a key ingredient to children’s well-being, the repercussions can be immense.
We hope you find the episode inspiring to find out more about Molly's work and that it helps you to call out weight stigma, body shaming and inappropriate teaching tools at your child's school (or at your place of work, in particular if you work with children and young people!)
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
Bri Campos is a tour de force. She believes wholeheartedly in creating language around body image and encourages non-diet and intuitive eating providers not to skirt the issue.
We chat about how integral building a relationship with our bodies can hugely impact how we feel about ourselves and how we show up for others.
Main Takeaways
Why sitting in the discomfort with our bodies can help us build a better relationship with our bodies.
The pursuit of health does NOT equal the pursuit of thinness
Why so many of us are still trying to CONTROL our bodies and at what cost?
Why body image work matters, especially when it comes to eating disorders work.
Why this is not just a superficial topic, but a social justice issue.
What a joy to be joined by Bri, who was so generous with her time and articulated these sensitive issues so beautifully. She is a true gem and to find out more about her OR to work with her in a body image capacity or as a provider:
Check out her website
OR
find her on Instagram.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
Wow, what a fantastic conversation with the fabulous Emily Williams - and our first to be released on YouTube (you can watch it here!)
Emily is the Director and Co-founder of Every Body Outdoors and loves the outdoors - at the moment mostly cycling and wild swimming, but also paddleboarding, canoeing, camping and exploring and anything else that looks like fun.
In her day job she works as a self-employed knitwear designer and technical editor (specialising in plus size grading of hand-knit patterns) and is a campaigner advocating for better active travel infrastructure in the highlands.
Emily shared with us how she has always loved outdoor activities and adventures and how she became an activist to lobby for size-inclusive clothing. She has been putting herself out there, representing how those in plus-size bodies can have the adventures that we usually only see straight-sized and thin folks go on.
Every Body Outdoors is building a community exclusively for people in larger bodies who want to explore outdoor activities. They review clothes and gear, and they run regional walks.
We also talked about the brilliant short film 'Capsized' that showed Emily and her friend Lisa on a canoe adventure in the Scottish Lochs. We chatted about their journey, how getting the right gear was so much more difficult and labour intensive for Emily than Lisa, and how the film is meant to show people that there is a place for every body outdoors.
Here are links to the trailer:
Watch the Trailer on Facebook
Watch the Trailer on Instagram
The film will be screened at Kendal Mountain Festival on the 22nd and 24th November 2024, and will go on tour afterwards - check out the dates and book your tickets!
Buy your tickets for the festival here.
Check Out the Tour
Follow Every Body Outdoors on social media
@every_body_outdoors
OR join their Facebook group (exclusively for plus size folk!):
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
Trigger warning: We talk about weight, calories, wegovy and eating disorders in this episode. Please take care of yourselves and show discretion if any little ones are nearby.
Another episode in our YOUR Bodies series where we talk to YOU about your experience with dieting, movement and your body. This week we are chatting to Kate.
Kate is 46 years old and lives in Brighton. She is mum to a 10 year old girl, who is her inspiration for repairing her body image and relationship with food after a lifetime of diet culture. She is currently navigating intuitive eating in the face of medical diagnoses, which would otherwise have led her back to dieting. (This is in large part thanks to the information and support available in the Body Image Fitness community.)
We loved our conversation with Kate and really valued her sharing her experience with intuitive eating, body acceptance and navigating medical issues whilst staying true to her non-diet journey – and we believe you will find it a super interesting and helpful episode!
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
This conversation with Bri Campos had a huge impact on me. It was confronting and resonated deeply. I am currently doing some business coaching with Bri and invited her to talk to me about rest and about the fact that MANY of us, feel like we have a great relationship with movement and our bodies but are perhaps stuck in that bargaining phase when it comes to body grief.
I struggle with rest.
I move for my mental health, to quieten my active ADHD brain. I move because I ALWAYS feel better when I do. But.....
In recent months, I have felt a strong pull towards rest. I have felt like I know exactly how to move and tune into my body when it comes to movement but actually there is a missing link. How do I fully repair my relationship with my body if I don't explore my relationship with REST.
We chat about the 7 different forms of rest which may be unknown to you.
There is social, emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, sensory and creative rest. Rest doesn't need to look the same for everyone. Bri shares how she prioritised her relationship with rest and continues to explore what works for her.
Bri references the book 'Do Nothing' by Celeste Headlee and Sacred Rest by Saundra Dalton- Smith.
Watch this space, as we welcome Bri back on the podcast in a few episodes' time to talk about body grief, experiencing life in a larger body and how sitting in the suck is actually the answer when it comes to body acceptance.
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
We are so grateful to Nicky for spending time with us and chatting about her body story, how she found balance in her life by exploring movement, and how her recent ADHD diagnosis helps her navigate her relationship to food and movement.
Nicky, 44, is from Exeter and lives with her husband Chris. She has suddenly found a love for movement in the last few years and will happily rant on about diet culture for ages – we are so here for that, Nicky!!
A member of Body Image Fitness, Nicky has been exploring intuitive movement and eating for a while now, and it has helped her advocate for herself better and understand that her weight doesn’t equate to her health. She is an avid reader and has been very proactive in learning more about diet culture, the non-diet approach to well-being and how neurodivergence fits into the picture. We are incredibly grateful that she shared her insights and lived experience with us in the podcast. We loved recording this episode and learnt a lot from Nicky sharing her story. We hope you will, too!
Here are a few links to resources we mentioned in our conversation:
Balance and ADHD
https://psychcentral.com/adhd/postural-sway-adhd
https://coachbit.com/the-parent-bit/balance-exercises-an-alternative-treatment-for-adhd
https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/postural-sway-adhd
https://bodyimagefitness.co.uk/
Nicky’s amazing yoga teacher Meg’s Insta handle
https://www.instagram.com/__yogawithmeg__?igsh=MWVxa3MxYjh2azMwZQ==
Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a text
I have been SO excited to bring you this episode as I know it will speak to so many of you. Hannah Husband (they/them) is a body liberation coach. Think of Hannah as a couples therapist for the relationship between you and your body. They help the two of you fall in love with movement all over again (or for the very first time.)
Hannah's unique take on movement truly spoke to me, as someone who longs to feel free in her body but struggles to let go, the idea that movement could be about nourishment, pleasure and exploration was so affirming.
This conversation will surprise you, challenge you but above all encourage you to get curious about what movement truly feels good in your body.
Are you simply fed up with hating your body? Are you stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle when it comes to exercise?
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating and Strength Coaching, so get in touch with Christine or with Ela.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a Text Message.
This one is a spicy, ranty one ALL about the language we use around food and our bodies.
We moralise the food we eat. We talk about feeling 'guilty' if we eat something 'bad'. Weight Watchers count certain foods as 'sins' and we identify ourselves as good if we've eaten in a certain way and 'bad' if we have dared to indulge in a food that might taste good or satisfy our taste buds.
What about bodies? I want to get "in shape". I'm so "out of shape". You look good, have you lost weight? (Yes I think we've all said and thought that one.)
How about "you're not fat, you're beautiful"?
What does that say about fat people in general? Why can't we be fat AND beautiful? Why is it that only 'thin' bodies are acceptable when it comes to societal beauty ideals?
One comment that was made to me in my teens really stuck with me: "Don't worry Christine, not everyone can have a perfect body". These words stick and they hurt and may have ramifications for many years.
How are we as women marketed to? Get toned! Do Pilates for those long lean muscles. Get strong but not beefy. Not too strong. Just strong enough. Take up space but not too much space. Just the right amount. Make sure you're not overdoing the cardio or lifting too heavy. Do Pilates, or hot yoga, make yourself smaller but stronger.
It's ENOUGH!
We'd LOVE to know what you think about this episode so PLEASE drop us a review, share the podcast and keep listening. We appreciate YOU!
Are you simply fed up with hating your body? Are you stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle when it comes to exercise?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about food or how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating and Strength Coaching, so get in touch with Christine or with Ela.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a Text Message.
This episode went places neither of us was expecting! Tune in to find out why.
This week we are chatting with Kanoa Greene, celebrated by Good Morning America and CNN! Kanoa is proof that athleticism and adventure come in ALL shapes and sizes.
She is an internationally renowned fitness trainer and outdoor adventurer, and
is redefining what plus-size bodies can do, how they are perceived,
and where they can go.
Kanoa is also the founder of NAKOA Adventure; creating brave spaces for plus-size
bodies to discover and explore the great outdoors and adventure
travel.
Kanoa challenges us to break down the barriers of disbelief and
celebrate bodies of all sizes without limits; demonstrating that you
don’t know what your body can do until you do it.
Kanoa is a trailblazer. She works with some of the world's most renowned fitness brands, helping them to be more inclusive in terms of the sizes they stock and their overall ethos.
We talk about brand identity, and how brands like Lululemon need to step up. We chat about real weight-inclusivity in fitness, our work with Kim Stacey at Body Image Fitness, plus-size fitness wear, doing the thing you think you cannot do and navigating a fitness industry that simply isn't set up for you.
This is one of the meatiest episodes of our season so far and we know you will love Kanoa as much as we did. Enjoy!
Are you simply fed up with hating your body? Are you stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle when it comes to exercise?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about food or how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating and Strength Coaching, so get in touch with Christine or with Ela.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a Text Message.
This episode was inspired by an instagram post, which spoke about the messy middle between diet culture and aesthetic goals and whether you could pursue fat loss specifically, and NOT promote diet culture at the same time.
This is certainly a nuanced issue. We live in a dieting culture which worships thinness above all else and where weight bias is prevalent. Of course, we are going to think about changing our bodies and conforming to the current cultural ideal. But at what cost....?
Why are we pursuing fat loss? Does that align with our values? What about letting our bodies take up space? What about body respect? What about attunement and our internal hunger and fullness cues? What about the fact the restriction is by far the biggest predictor of future weight gain?
What about the myriad of other benefits movement brings and how we want to FEEL in our bodies.
What about the racist roots of fatphobia?
What about the concept that we are MORE than a body?
Weight loss is not a behaviour so can we pursue health promoting behaviours, and let our bodies take care of the rest?
We dig deep this week and would LOVE to hear your thoughts.
Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about food or how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching, so get in touch with Christine or with Ela.
AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a Text Message.
Welcome to episode #2 of our 'YOUR Bodies' series, where we invite members of our community.
Today we have Liana Stevens, or @mysugarcoatedlife
Liana is a 45 year old mum of 2 from Nottingham, who started her journey towards neutrality and recovery from Binge Eating Disorder during the pandemic in 2020.
She realised that there has to be more to life than obsessing over the scales and trying to shrink her body with exercise in a bid to make herself happy.
We are so grateful to Liana, who speaks really candidly and opens up about her recent struggles underlining the fact that healing from an eating disorder is just not a linear process.
We hope you will love this episode as much as we loved recording it.
Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem.
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching, so get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Send us a Text Message.
Wow this one was juicy.
I have to say, Ela and I were both ON it for this episode😘
Ela had been finding in sessions that many of her clients were scared, not just of weight gain but of what digging deeper into their dieting history would involve.
Leaving the perceived 'safety' and 'control' around dieting or 'watching our weight' can make us feel uneasy.
Trusting our body and our intrinsic cues takes time. Bri Campos talks about body image healing being an 'excavation' rather than a 'journey' and there is certainly no destination.
Please enjoy the episode and let us know what you think.
Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem.
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching, so get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
This series is about YOU. YOUR body stories. YOUR relationship to food and movement, YOUR dieting and un-dieting history and how you feel in the body you're in.
Ela and I wanted to understand more about the issues you are dealing with when it comes to body acceptance, intuitive eating and listening to your body. How can we navigate a world where thinness is valued above all else and the fitness industry has become diet culture dressed in spandex!
First up is Abi, who is a very valued member of the Body Image Fitness community (check out 'Thin Privilege, Oprah and Wearing the Damn Shorts' for my chat with Kim Stacey, founder of Body Image Fitness- the Non-diet, shame free fitness platform for ALL bodies. )
Abi is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist for the NHS and is a very committed member of Body Image Fitness. She likes to 'hang loose and talk bollocks' with her husband, loves comedy and loves to dance and lifting heavy stuff.
Abi has reclaimed the term fat for herself, and despite struggling with body image and confidence in the past, she is now a strong social justice and fat liberation advocate.
Listen to HER story and as Bri Campos likes to say not her' journey' but her body image excavation.
Such a joy to chat with Abi and we'd love to know YOUR body story.
Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach?
Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about how your body looks.
You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem.
Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching spots coming up for a limited period only, so get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to us. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Ela and I are beyond excited to bring you this week's guest, the OG of Intuitive Eating herself, Evelyn.
If you are new here or have never heard of Intuitive Eating and don't know what the fuss is all about, this is the episode for you.
I had the joy of interviewing Elyse Resch, the co-creator of Intuitive Eating a few months ago so go back and listen to this episode, which is a corker especially if you have teens who are struggling with body image.
Evelyn and Elyse's work has been a big part of my eating disorder recovery journey, and after finding peace around food and exercise, (always a work in progress) I am now bringing that knowledge and experience to my clients.
Her energy is simply contagious and she is SO passionate about helping those of us who have struggled with body image or disordered eating, to reject the diet mentality and to break free from the constraints of diet culture, which is keeping us small and quiet.
In this episode, Evelyn shows us that we can respect our bodies, find satisfaction in food AND joy in movement.
*Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN is the author of 10 books, including co-author of the best-selling Intuitive Eating.As an international speaker, Evelyn enjoys training health professionals on how to help their clients cultivate a healthy relationship with food, mind, and body through the process of Intuitive Eating. To date there are over 2,400 Certified Intuitive Eating Counselors in 60 countries.
The media often seeks Evelyn for her expertise, including a feature in the New York Times. She’s been on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today,. The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Vogue, Ten Percent Happier, and People magazine. Evelyn was the nutrition expert for Good Morning America, and a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for six years. Evelyn qualified for the Olympic Trials in the first ever women’s marathon in 1984. Although she no longer competes, she is a passionate surfer and proud member of Girls Who Don’t Surf Good.
To connect with Evelyn you can find her on Instagram @evelyntribole or visit her website.
Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach? Maybe you just want to stop worrying quite so much about your body.
Your body is not the problem. Reach out if you would like some support. We both have slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching spots coming up for a limited period only ,so get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to us. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
Have you heard the term 'Hot Girl Summer'? Yes, thank you diet culture for once again making a season all about women's bodies and making us feel that they are somehow wrong and need to change.
Inspiration for this episode came from the wonderful Chrissy King. Please follow her on Instagram.
In response to the surge in popularity of "weight loss" drugs such as Ozempic, some influencers have taken it upon themselves to let us know that we DON'T need to partake in these drugs because if we just walk 15,000 -20,000 steps per day, we will achieve the same result - once again conflating exercise with weight loss.
We have several problems with this advice. Why should we be chasing thinness?
Can movement not just left alone? Can we not walk because it blows the cobwebs away, and we get a chance to connect to nature?
Can we not move because it's good for our physical and mental health and brings us joy?
Why does the end result of movement need to be shrinking our bodies when we know that exercise alone is not an effective weight loss tool.
Movement holds numerous benefits which have NOTHING to do with weight loss! And weight loss is not a behaviour. So if you want to FEEL better in your body this summer, focus on the things that make you feel good. Movement, that brings you joy. Food that nourishes your body and is satisfying. Foster friendships and feel the glow of the sun on your skin.
Your body is not the problem.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This week I am bringing you a podcast that I was a guest on, as it's topical, hard hitting and I think you'll get a lot out of it, especially if you're struggling with body acceptance as the weather gets warmer and diet culture gets noisier.
I'll let Kim take it away:
"In the first episode of the "Not a Before Body" podcast, host, Kim Stacey, engages in a compelling conversation with non-diet fitness professional Christine Chessman. They delve into the concept of thin privilege, exploring how societal biases favour thinner bodies and impact individuals in various aspects of life. The discussion also touches on Oprah's influence in the wellness industry and her complicated legacy regarding body image, we talk about weight loss drugs and the nuance behind them. In this episode, as always, we emphasise the importance of self-acceptance, encouraging listeners to embrace their bodies as they are and to wear the damn shorts (even if you are above a size 18!), let's continue to challenge the notion that only certain body types deserve to feel confident and comfortable in their skin."
Visit Body Image Fitness to find out more about becoming a member / joining the Disruptor Scheme.
Follow Kim on Instagram; @kim.bodyimage.fitness
And Christine Chessman; @hellofitnesschristine
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This episode is our first one as a duo and I'm SO excited to have Ela on board.
Ela (@elalawnutrition) has been on the podcast several times and she and I have worked together on numerous projects in the past.
As a non-diet nutritionist, and fellow IE counsellor, she brings a unique perspective to the podcast and one that is very much needed.
Together we want to help our listeners feel heard. To know they're not alone and to help them figure out how the fck they can eat and move in a way that serves* them, as we navigate these menopause years together.
So in this episode, we get straight into the topic of weight gain and coping strategies when we feel uncomfortable in our own skin.
How do you feel when the sun shines and the summer wardrobe beckons?
Do you always feel that it's time to 'drop a few pounds' before you'll let your body be seen?
Do you feel panicked or uneasy when last summer's clothes feel a little snug?
What does that say about you? What is the story you tell yourself?
Would you feel the same if your clothes were a little loose?
We are so excited to bring you this episode and would love your feedback.
In this episode we refer to Body Image Coach & Educator Bri Campos, whose work with body grief has been transformative for us as non diet professionals.
Click here if you'd like to connect with Bri, or find out more.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This week I grabbed my good friend Ela Law from @elalawnutrition to chat about the Your Fat Friend documentary, by Jeanie Finlay which followed Aubrey Gordon across 6 years, since she released an anonymous blog from an account called @yrfatfriend .
Aubrey has since written 2 New York Times Bestselling books (You Just Need to Lose Weight and What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat) and along with Michael Hobbes (adamantly NOT on instagram!) has created something truly special with the informative, endearing and forever engaging Maintenance Phase podcast .
Ela and I chat about weight bias and how it permeates our society. Neither Ela nor I have lived experience of being in a fat body and both of us were truly touched by being able to see the world even for a brief time through Aubrey's eyes.
At one point in the film, Aubrey alluded to the fact that she has been struggling with an eating disorder but really struggled to get the help and support she needed. Eating disorders do not discriminate. They impact people of all body sizes, of all ages, ethnicities and genders.
We chat about repairing our relationship with food AND finally finding peace with our bodies when we live in a dieting culture and thinness is a value praised above all else. It is the air that we breathe and the sea that we swim in.
Ela and I then segway into the world of Intuitive Eating.
I hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what you think. If you can PLEASE find an opportunity to watch Your Fat Friend It is a triumph and Aubrey and Jeanie IRL are simply a joy to be around and were both SO generous with their time.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Simone Samuels, B.A. (Hons.), J.D., B.C.L. is a consultant in equity, diversity and inclusion and a weight-neutral personal trainer/group fitness instructor. A lawyer by training and a fitness professional, she has consulted for fitness organizations in Canada, US and the UK and has delivered courses on weight stigma, fatphobia, anti-racism, allyship and anti-oppression.
Simone is a tireless advocate for making the fitness and wider world a more inclusive place.
I was SO excited to chat with Simone and knew it would be a confronting and very important conversation. She was incredibly generous with her time and I know you will very much enjoy this meaty conversation.
We chatted about:
- How white female Fitpros can actually be inclusive in the fitness space?
- The racist roots of the BMI and diet culture. Simone recommends some must-read books for those serious about doing the work.
- According to the BMI the ROCK (Dwayne Johnson) is morbidly ob*se. It was never meant to be used at a population level.
- Overcoming fatphobia in fitness spaces. How we can get informed.
- Finding real joy in movement in this hustle culture and untangling weight loss and exercise.
- We chat about Aqua Zumba and ask why aqua is always associated with an older demographic.
What a chat! I was truly buzzing afterwards and cannot wait to get Simone back for part 2.
Recommended Reading for Fitpros or anyone engaged in the fitness industry:
Sabrina Strings - Fearing the Black Body. The Racist Origins of Fatphobia
Da'Shaun L. Harrison - The Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Ibram X Kendi: Stamped From The Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America
If you'd like to know more about Simone, find her on Instagram or have a look at her website, where she has lots of different options to work with her.
- Simone was the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion reviewer of the canfitpro Personal Training Specialist textbook, helping to create an inclusive curriculum for future personal trainers in Canada. She has won multiple awards and commendations in the fitness industry, the most notable one being named as a top three finalist in canfitpro’s Fitness Professional of the Year Award.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Today I am chatting with Jonny Landels, a former diet culture-obsessed fat loss coach turned Intuitive Eating coach and Health at Every Size Advocate. He spent YEARS fighting his own body but a couple of years ago, managed to turn things around and now adopts a non-diet approach.
I was really interested to get a male perspective on the impact of diet culture and Jonny feels incredibly passionately about ending the stigma, when it comes to discussing disordered eating, body dysmorphia and body image issues amongst men.
We touched on the following topics during our chat:
- We spoke about Jonny's transition from fat loss coach to weight neutral coach and how his clients reacted.
- We talked about cultivating a healthy relationship with movement when historically it's associated with dieting and self-punishment
- How to know when too much is too much
I am so excited to bring you this conversation and love Jonny's passion and conviction for his work.
If you're interested in working with Jonny, he mainly hangs out on Instagram OR you can see what he's got coming up through his website.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
I invited Amanda Bullat onto the podcast this week to tell HER story.
Amanda became interested in nutrition while training as a competitive distance runner in her early 20s but her passion for running and food became a double-edged sword, as she developed her own disordered relationship with food and exercise.
After many years of personal struggle and a real commitment to recovery, she was able to reclaim her love of food and movement. *
In this episode, we focus on when is enough enough, when it comes to movement. When we start un-dieting our relationship with movement, how do we actually start listening to our bodies, and break free from the earn-and-burn cycle?
We discuss the following topics:
- What does 'enough' exercise look like?
- How do we know if we are doing too much?
- Is it actually possible to enjoy movement all the time?
- Is it ok to workout even if we don't feel like it?
- How do we know if our body needs rest or if we just feel demotivated as we have a human brain?
- Is it ok to use movement for emotional regulation? What happens if we get stuck in that pattern and then movement becomes a 'should' or a 'must'?
If you have thought about your own relationship with movement recently, you will really benefit from this feisty discussion. I loved it and can't wait to have Amanda back on for part 2!
Amanda and I both work together as part of the Midlife Feast Community run by Dr Jenn Salib Huber (@menopause.nutritionist). This community is perfect for you if you are navigating those peri to post menopause years, are done with dieting and restricting and just need a little handholding.
If you would like to work with Amanda herself, she often hangs out on Instagram or she can be contacted through her website here.
**Amanda specializes in supporting women through the perimenopause, and menopause transition and uses the frameworks of Intuitive Eating, Health At Every Size®, and the therapeutic Be Body Positive Model® created by The Body Positive.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This week's guest is non-diet dietitian Krista Beck Muench.*
Krista came from a dieting background where she exercised to burn calories and shrink her body and where she was caught in an unrelenting cycle of exercise, tracking macros and restriction. It was only when a friend introduced her to Intuitive Eating that Krista realised that there might be another way.
Now she's on a mission to help women find acceptance in their today bodies and rebuild that sense of trust that is often disseminated by diet culture.
This episode is one of my favourites as we jumped around a lot (popcorn brain!) but covered a great deal of issues that are very close to my heart.
We spoke about the freedom that comes with relinquishing control over your body and allowing it to settle at its happy weight, whatever that may be.
We discussed the following
- How we start to 'undiet' our lives
- Rejecting the diet mindset
- How we can make peace with our changing bodies
- Accepting that our bodies' happy weight may be higher than we'd like it to be
- The dangers of weight cycling
Krista like me🥰, can often be found shooting the breeze on Instagram and for ways to work with her or to access her free resources, visit her website here.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Elyse Resch, co-founder of Intuitive Eating and author of the Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens (amongst many other books and publications*) joins the podcast this week and I couldn't be more excited to bring you this episode.
Elyse is nationally known for her work in helping patients break free from diet culture through the Intuitive Eating process. Her philosophy embraces the goal of reconnecting with one’s internal wisdom about eating and developing body liberation, with the belief that all bodies deserve dignity and respect. *
We talked about:
-
What Intuitive Eating IS and is NOT
-
How our natural ability to eat intuitively gets disrupted
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Where do we start?
-
How we can galvanise folks into action and swim against the tide of diet culture
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What about movement? How does it fit in?
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How social media has impacted our body image and our desire for thinness and invites constant comparison with our peers
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How do we best support our teens in terms of Intuitive Eating?
You can find more about Elyse here or follow her on Instagram or Facebook.
- Elyse Resch, MS, RDN, CEDS-C, Fiaedp, FADA, FAND, is a nutrition therapist in private practice, with over forty years of experience, specializing in eating disorders, Intuitive Eating, and Health at Every Size. She is the co-author of Intuitive Eating, now in its 4th edition, the Intuitive Eating Workbook, and The Intuitive Eating Card Deck—50 Bite-Sized Ways to Make Peace with Food. Elyse is also the author of The Intuitive Eating Workbook for Teens and The Intuitive Eating Journal—Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food and a chapter contributor to The Handbook of Positive Body Image and Embodiment.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
A great episode with the incredible Kim Stacey today.
Kim has been an inspiration to me since I started changing the way I taught fitness to a body-neutral approach and is making waves in the industry.
We start by chatting a little bit about what brought Kim to fitness and why she feels she is right where she wants to be.
We talk about bodies. Our body stories. Accepting our changing bodies and how to lead with self-compassion rather than judgement.
We end the episode by talking about when 'challenging' yourself becomes 'punishing' and about not making joyful movement another thing we 'should' aspire to.
Have a listen, let me know what you think and if you'd like to work with Kim or check out her platform:
Visit the Body Image Fitness website OR
Follow her on instagram or facebook
The Body Image Fitness platform is for ALL bodies.
You do not have to have any fitness experience to join. It is a haes aligned weight inclusive community and a judgement free zone where you will always be welcome.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This conversation was different for me. It challenged me and was confronting.
Maybe I take movement too seriously and need to find that playful element once more.....
Jamie Carbaugh (aka fitragamuffin) is a non-diet Virtual Personal Trainer and Group Fitness Instructor. She guides folks to learn to enjoy regular movement by shifting their view of what traditional exercise ‘should’ look like.
Her message of ‘movement for more’ celebrates all the reasons to exercise beyond the scale. She currently resides in Germany and is a mother and a military spouse.
We chat about rediscovering our playful side and not just finding the joy but the silliness, the cameraderie and allowing movement to be what it is and not having to count.
What if our metrics were if we were feeling better, had more energy or were able to sleep better. What if just managing to enjoy movement after years of using exercise as punishment was classed as 'progression'?
Jamie asks the questions that challenge the current fitness culture rhetoric and her passion for folks finding play and fun is so infectious.
If you'd like to find out more about Jamie and her amazing Movement Channel, click here.
Or drop her a direct message or follow her on instagram or facebook.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
I'm flying solo this week and am talking about a subject VERY close to my heart.
I have struggled with anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember and I am not one to pretend 'everything is ok', rather I am sharing my own story in the hope that it will resonate with some of you and help you realise you are not alone.
Movement has been part of my mental health 'toolkit' for a long time but my relationship with it has shifted quite considerably.
I used to GO GO GO because I literally needed the distraction and was living in survival mode or fight or flight from morning to night. During the pandemic I trained as a Pilates teacher and slowed the feck down. WOW! That was not and is not easy for me to do but boy, was it a revelation.
So many folks are pushing themselves in the guise of 'movement is so good for my mental health' but when is too much, too much and why does excessive exercise start to take it's toll on our mental health.
Please let me know your thoughts and lots of love and strength to you all.
xxxx
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Courtney Gioia is the founder of Loyobo, a community for women who are sick of trying to be smaller. This ISN'T about weight loss for Courtney. This is about learning how to love your body and feel strong so you can take up space in your body AND in your life.
AMEN to that!
It was such a joy for me to chat with Courtney and throughout our conversation there were pinnacle points, where Courtney's words hit home and her lived experience shone through. We are not here, in the non-diet space, saying once you ditch the diet, life is easy. Far from it. Thin privilege is real and sometimes finding food freedom and learning to accept your body as it changes, is like swimming upstream. But as Dory says....just keep swimming.
To find out more about Courtney and how she works with clients, you can reach her on Instagram OR you can find all her latest offers here: https://www.loyobofit.com/
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
My guest this week was Mark Breedon. Mark is a weight neutral strength coach for women. Mark wants to remove the focus on weight loss and aesthetics, and instead encourage his clients to train to become stronger and live healthier, happier lives.
Mark wants you to focus on what you body can do as opposed to what it is supposed to look like.
Obviously Mark is preaching to the choir here and I knew before we got to chatting that we'd have a lot in common.
We chat about Mark's own experience of training for aesthetics and how things have changed since he shifted his focus and evolved his business.
We address the elephant in the room which is why Mark decides to exclusively train women, and we talk to the fact that the weight neutral space is still very female heavy.
What is the minimum effective dose when it comes to training?
Why do we need to lift heavier? Can we not just use the same weights for more reps?
We talk about why even though ALL strength training is beneficial, for adaptation to occur, we need to be periodically upping our weights at the gym or switching out our kettlebells at home.
We end by discussing cardio and why there is such an emphasis on cardio over strength for women 40 + - the Slimfast, Get in Shape Girl generation where 'a moment on the lips' and 'nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' where the memes of the day.
Perhaps that can go some way to explain our pre-occupation with shrinking our bodies and our reluctance to take up space, but maybe there's more to it........
If you are interested in working with Mark, he hangs out on Tiktok and Instagram or you can check out his website here.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Denise is one of my favourite people on Instagram, but we have yet to meet in real life!
I knew this would be a great conversation and it didn't disappoint, although with all the Irish lilting on both sides, captions may be needed;)
Denise is a Nutritional Therapist and Life Coach on a mission to help her clients discover food freedom and happiness in their mind and body, but is also in her own words, a bit of a messer and dreamer at heart.
She helps her clients navigate fears they may have around food and discover what truly makes them happy and content in their bodies.
Her lived experience makes her a source of nourishment for others in pain and she too, battled confidence issues and anxiety, finding her path to a more fulfilling life through connecting with her true self.
We touch on the following topics:
- Is it possible to find balance in terms of food and movement especially if we have come from a disordered eating background?
- How do we start to accept our bodies?
- How do we begin to reject the diet mentality when it comes to our food.
- Can movement always be joyful?
- Why do we as women struggle to rest and feel we always need to be doing 'more'.
Denise gives some really practical advice and we discuss the nuance when it comes to movement, consistency, and doing what we love.
You can hang out with Denise on Instagram and to work with her check out her latest offerings through her website.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
What an episode! Another week, another dream guest!
This week we have Damali Fraiser, Kettlebell Instructor, Nutrition Coach, and Author passionate about exploring fitness from an intersectional lens. *
Damali talks about the time after her debilitating ACL injury, which effectively ended her Muay Thai career, when "that unstable, big ball of metal, helped me one breath at a time, one step at a time to really bring back stability into my body.. "
Together we go deep and don't shy away from difficult conversations.
We talked about:
- Damali’s story and how she came to find the non-diet space and specifically the Kettlebell Community as she spoke about in the anthology: "Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex."
- The racist roots of diet culture and how we as coaches can help dismantle diet culture as opposed to becoming part of the problem.
- How it is so important to de-centre ourselves and be in community with people from diverse backgrounds.
- Damali’s real love of kettlebells and how they are such a versatile piece of kit that can be used anywhere and everywhere.
Through our conversation Damali recommended the following books as key reads for learning about the racist roots of diet culture:
'Deconstructing the Fitness Industrial Complex', Damali herself wrote chapter 11 on the body as a site of oppression and freedom.
'Fearing the Black Body,' by Sabina Strings, 'The Body Liberation Project' by Chrissy King and'So You Want to Talk about Race' by Ijeoma Oluo, amongst many others.
If you'd like to contact Damali or work with her....Start your journey with Kettlebell Basics or join her weekly email series Kettlebell Curious
You can connect with Damali on her website liftoffstrength.ca, on Instagram @Damali.Fraiser, TikTok and on YouTube @liftoffstrength
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This was a chance for me to chat to my good friend, business coach AND client Jude Turner.
Jude and I got on from first time we met, possibly because we were aware that perhaps we didn't quite fit the mould and found ourselves in the magical messy middle, without diagnoses but as neurodiverse women in business.
As we started moving together and I gave my usual cues, Jude's blank looks said it all. Jude wasn't aware of her body in space, how to articulate her spine, how to move the pelvis without moving the entire body. I was intrigued and so we got creative with our cues. 3 years later, Jude has grown SO much in strength and body awareness and has take to strength training like a duck to water.
In this episode we discuss:
The pressures on women to show up in a certain way. How we can start to really see ourselves 40+
How we can reject the diet mentality and ask ourselves how WE want to feel in our bodies.
*Why strength training and the structure therein might just be beneficial for the neurodiverse brain.
Jude works as a coach primarily for neurodiverse creatives over 40. Working with her transformed my business mindset and has helped me believe that I could build a successful business AND be authentic and kind.
Jude hangs out mainly on Instagram, but you can buy tickets for her latest Fierce Females event in Brighton & Hove here.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
A short solo episode today all about motivation and why it's often lacking when it comes to moving our bodies.
The crux of the conversation today is our critical self-talk.
How helpful is it for us to should all over ourselves when it comes to establishing a fitness/ strength training regime?
Can we lower the bar when it comes to working out? ( Here I reference Dr Jenn Salib Huber and her podcast: The Midlife Feast.)
But I hear you cry if I listen to my body, I'll never get up off the sofa! Part of being a human means we will encounter internal resistance to moving our bodies in a way our brains perceive as 'hard work' . That's ok. To be expected in fact.
How can we make movement a little cosier? How can we find ease?
Tune in and let me know you're thoughts!
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Nina Manolson is a body peace coach, who help her clients end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their bodies, as they are now.*
From the first second I started chatting with Nina, I was touched by her empathy and warmth. She was 100% present with me and was deeply invested in this conversation.
I first came across Nina many years ago on the Fit and Fearless podcast on BBC Radio1 with Tally Rye, Victoria Niamh Spence, and Zanna Van Dijk.
She read a poem on air called 'I feel fat' and she spoke about her therapist asking her,
"but if you didn't feel fat, what would you be feeling?"
Her words resonated deeply with me and since I started the podcast in January, I've been so excited to have her on as a guest.
We talk about the following topics:
- How do we be 'body current' and accept and find peace with the bodies we are in now?
- Embodiment. How body image healing can only start to happen from the inside out.
- How can we accept our bodies when the goalposts change through peri to post menopause?
- How do we start feeling more like ourselves when our bodies start to change.
- How getting curious about the body thoughts that arise can help us lead with self-compassion.
- How to NOT compare our bodies to those of others
Nina ends by reading a beautiful poem she wrote on the 'compare & despair' that we so often feel.
Am I Bigger Than Her?
Am I bigger than her?
I ask my husband
As a woman passes on the street
Am I bigger than her?
I ask myself, as I walk into the room
Measuring up all the women
Am I bigger than her?
I look at a picture of younger me
A “memory” on Facebook from years ago
Am I bigger than her?
I am asking:
Am I less attractive?
less powerful?
less likable?
less worthy than her?
Comparing myself to her size
And her size
And her size
If I’m bigger than her, then I’m less than her
If I’m smaller than her, then I’m more than her
And her size and her size and her size
My self worth going up and down with each comparison
Scoring points in a game against myself
There’s always someone bigger
And always someone smaller
There’s no winning this game
It’s just reducing women to their size
Aren’t we bigger than that?
~Nina Manolson
You can find Nina on Instagram or contact her through her website where all of Nina's Body Peace offerings are available.
For free resources, click here to access Nina's Body Peace Journal or here to access her free virtual masterclass and body poems.
*Nina’s Body-Peace work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching and poetry positively change the conversation that women are having with their body. She also writes Body-Poems as a way to encourage a shift in the way we talk to, and about our body.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
How is your relationship to food and your body?
Have you ever heard of Intuitive Eating?
Here's a clue - it's NOT anything to do with NOOM.
Intuitive eating is a simple idea about making peace with all types of food.
Unlike traditional diets that restrict/ban certain foods, intuitive eating encourages
listening to your body and eating what feels right for you.
In the words of, Evelyn Tribole (the co-founder of Intuitive Eating):
"Intuitive Eating is a self-care eating framework rooted in science and informed by clinical experience. " *
Along with the recent surge in popularity for Intuitive Eating, comes co-opting by diet culture, specifically well known diet brands like NOOM and WW talking about food freedom AND intentional weight loss, as if one were compatible with the other.
I invited my guest today Nutritionist, Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor and my good mate, Ela Law to give you clarity on all of the above. If you have struggled to find peace with your body or true acceptance, this episode is a great place to start and I truly hope it will be helpful for you.
Ela's passion is to support her clients in gaining life-long tools to develop a more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies and to enjoy life.
Ela includes mindfulness and meditation techniques in her sessions. In addition to her 1:1 counselling work she runs a popular intuitive eating course for Body Image Fitness with Kim Stacey - my first ever guest on the pod.
You can find her on socials @elalawnutrition and via her website www.elalawnutrition.co.uk and can join her FREE Facebook group here https://www.facebook.com/groups/permissiontoeatcommunity/
- IE is a #HAES-aligned, evidence-based model with a validated assessment scale with nearly 120 studies to date showing benefits."
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Are you just too busy? Do you often feel overwhelmed, anxious and that you're doing your best but it's still just not good enough?
This conversation is for YOU.
We talk about what it means to really rest.
How can we access rest when our days are so full on. This applies directly to movement.
When movement is one of our main coping strategies, how do we give our bodies permission to slow down?
How can we calm down in the moment?
Suzy offers us 5 simple go-tos to add to our existing toolkit that will take us from nervous system overdrive to a calmer state, where we can better process our emotions and be present when and where we need to be in our day.
This conversation rocked my world and I hope after listening to the episode, you can allow yourself to find some ease in your day.
Suzy is a mother of two, an author, Chartered Psychologist and Coach. She specialises in self-care, helping people manage their stress, emotions, and energetic bank balance.*
- Her first book ‘The Self-Care Revolution’ published by Aster came out in 2017, 'Stand Tall Like a Mountain: Mindfulness & Self-Care for Children and Parents' and 'The Little Book of Self-Care’ came out in 2019. ‘Self-Care for Tough Times’ and her first children’s book ‘This Book Will (Help) Make You Happy’ were published in 2021. Her first journal And Breathe, Sit to Get Fit and her new deck of cards, “The Little Box of Self-Care” came out in 2022.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
"There are no magic muscles." My favourite quote of the series so far!
This is a no holds barred chat about breaking free of exercise and diet dogma and the idea that perhaps, it's NOT all about the core. We delve deep and explore those grey areas existing between the 'non-diet' and other more traditional fitness spaces.
Nikki Naab-Levy is a strength and nutrition coach with over a decade of experience helping people build strength, move beyond injury, and develop an approach to eating that feels calm, secure and sustainable while aligning with their goals.
Her fitness wisdom has been featured in SELF magazine, Women's Health, and Girls Gone Strong.
When she’s not in the gym, you can find her listening to pop culture podcasts and drinking Coke Zero . ( Personally I'm a diet coke girl ;))
To connect with Nikki, visit her website NaabLevy.com or hop on her list for actionable nutrition tips, free workouts, and resources to build strength with less pain.
If you are feeling stuck in your movement routine, are sick of the calorie counting and would like to work on your relationship with food and movement, please get in touch.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
"We've been taught to tune out and override our bodies' signals for SO long, we don't know what the f*ck our body is saying."
This episode explores those grey areas. Those areas between anti-diet culture and fitness culture and asks the question, whether challenging ourselves and pushing for our fitness goals can still align with our values in this space.
How can we start listening to our bodies and still work out to feel good IN our bodies?
When we're exhausted, is it still ok to work out or how do we recognise the signs that we need rest?
Jenna Jozefowski helps women who like to do hard things be more chill in their approach to fitness. She is a certified personal trainer & kettlebell instructor, Trauma Informed Weightlifting coach, dance teacher, yoga teacher, and semi-retired professional dancer. After years of living and working in industries full of diet-culture, she got sick and tired of watching people (including herself) running themselves into the ground trying to uphold the narrow-minded image of what our culture sees as “healthy” and “fit”.
But instead of giving it all up, she decided that she'd rather change the game, call out the BS, extract the good, and help others use movement to build themselves up rather than tear themselves down.
You can connect with her on Instagram @itsjennaj , listen to her podcast Tough Cookie Talks wherever you listen to podcasts, and learn how to work with her at itsjennaj.com
If you are feeling stuck in terms of your movement routine and would like to see progress in terms of strength, power and resilience, rather than focussing on the weight on the scale, get in touch. I currently have a waitlist for my PT in My Pocket program and would love to work with you!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Wow, this week's guest blew me away.
Dr Charlotte Ord has featured extensively as a physical and mental health expert across television, radio and print media platforms and advocates a truly holistic approach to health and well-being that celebrates and respects body diversity.
Charlotte is a chartered Counselling Psychologist and has an extensive background in health, fitness, and issues around weight and eating. She works in private practice, both remotely and in person, and is passionate about promoting health at every size.
Click here if you'd like to find out more
We really got into it in this week's episode and chatted about:
Charlotte's experience as a trainer on the Biggest Loser. How this experience gave her a platform to discuss a different approach to fitness.
How Charlotte's career evolved from trainer to counselling psychologist.
Why exercise is NOT therapy and why trainers need to hold those boundaries with clients.
How weight stigma and discrimination doesn't just affect us on an individual level but is a social justice issue.
How parents can help their children navigate social media and not fall prey to diet culture and the toxicity that can exist in the fitness industry
How genetics and socio-economic environments are our prime determinants of health AND of body shape or size.
Phew! I think this is one of my meatiest episodes yet and I know you will take a lot from it.
Lots of love to you all
xxxx
If you are feeling stuck in terms of your movement routine and would like to see progress in terms of strength, power and resilience, rather than focussing on the weight on the scale, get in touch. I currently have 3 spaces left on my PT in My Pocket program and would love to work with you!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Serious fan girl week here.
Steph Gaudreau is my inspiration behind becoming a strength coach in the non diet space. She is passionate about women and young girls fuelling their bodies well, building strength and resilience, saying NO to shrinking their bodies and finally taking up space in the fitness industry,
Steph Gaudreau, CISSN, NASM-CPT (she/her/hers) is a sports nutritionist and lifting coach. She helps athletic women over 40 fuel themselves better, build muscle, get stronger, and perform better in and out of the gym.
In her best-selling book, The Core 4, she details a four pillar approach to getting stronger, embracing your body, and owning your power. Steph has a degree in biology – human physiology, is a Certified Sports Nutritionist, Certified Personal Trainer and Menopause Coaching Specialist.
Her podcast, Fuel Your Strength, started in 2015 and has 4+ million downloads. She’s an international speaker and has been featured in Outside, SELF, and ESPN Radio.
Phew!
This was a fabulous conversation and here are some of the main discussion points:
- We explore what it means to build strength and why we don't need to be scared at the gym.
- How heavy is heavy? Do we really need to go to the gym or is it enough to work out at home?
- What about joyful movement? Can building strength really be joyful? What if we don't want to lift weights?
- We talk about our why. How we want to feel when we move.
- We talk about how women 40+ need a greater stimulus to encourage muscle adaptation, especially as our hormone levels fluctuate.
- We talk about the aesthetic. Why it may be a good entry point for some folks, who might then come to appreciate the other benefits of their training more.
- If we are trying to get off the diet train, and move away from looks based movement, can we still take pride in the changes that strength training may bring?
- Is threads really worth our time;)
I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it.
There are many ways to work with Steph and she has an exciting new program in the offing so watch this space.
Steph usually hangs out on Instagram or you can contact her and find out about her current programs through her website.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
Today I am bringing you a conversation with the formidable Ban Hass, integrative psychotherapist and experienced fitness professional bridging the gap between physical well-being and mental health.
Ban believes in a ‘health first’ approach to fitness and prioritises well-being over aesthetic results and physical transformations.
Music to my ears.
I have been excited about this chat for some time considerable time now and it does not disappoint. I initially refer to Ban as 'unapologetic' but she quickly corrects me. She believes rather than not giving any sh*ts, she actually cares too much!
In this episode, we focus the conversation around "joyful movement" (and there is a little swearing, so if that isn't for you, just move onto the next episode. 🥰)
Can movement ever really be joyful? Does that simply equate to more social media toxic positivity or is a helpful way to take the focus AWAY from diet culture.
How do we navigate our path away from weight loss and towards movement that feels good in our bodies and benefits our physical and mental health?
We talk about intuitive movement, our intention behind moving our bodies and how we can find our WHY for movement?
We also talk about normalising normal bodies and why Ban chooses not to focus on the BODY.
It's a conversation that is candid, open, honest and often spicy.
If you struggle with your relationship to movement or have always seen it as a punishment rather than a privilege, this is an episode you don't want to miss.
You can find Ban hanging out on Instagram or drop her an email at ban.hass@hotmail.co.uk.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This week's guest is Kira Onysko. Kira and I bonded over our mutual love of Paul Rudd AND our work as trainers in the non diet space.
Kira is a size inclusive personal trainer based in Ontario, Canada. After developing her own food & body image struggles due to mainstream fitness culture, she now promotes a body-neutral approach to health & fitness and helps her clients to focus on how their workouts make them feel, rather than look. She's preaching to the choir.
We explored the idea that perhaps the new drive for women to look 'strong not skinny' is diet culture in a different jacket and is still so aesthetics driven.
How can we actually begin to repair our relationship with movement?
How can we find balance between listening to our bodies and seeing what our bodies are capable of?
How can we begin to separate exercise and weight loss? What's the first step?
Kira talks about her first experience whilst doing a BSC in exercise science hearing about Health at Every Size and whilst initially outraged, how she had been blindsided and came to understand that maybe the fitness industry can got things very wrong.
We hear how the need to look and perform a certain way infiltrated Kira's life from childhood and only recently has she been able to reclaim movement for herself and choose exactly what she WANTS to do and what truly lights her up.
And it isn't cardio.....;)
You can find Kira on Instagram, through her website or through her own podcast - The Wellness Pod. You can work with her 1 to 1 or through her online coaching program.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This week we start by talking about the impact of one of America's most harmful TV experiments - The Biggest Loser. Specifically the impact of Jillian Michaels, the most aggressive, bullish and outspoken trainer on the show, who made a name for herself by encouraging a generation to eat less and move more and by shaming fat people across the country.
Malarie Burgess is an exercise physiologist and has been teaching in the fitness industry for over 12 years. Malarie or the Jock scientist as you may know her across media platforms, has branded herself as the Anti-Jillian Michaels because to Malarie, Jillian represents what is toxic about the fitness industry as a whole.
Often the messaging we receive is harmful, not evidence based and is heavily focussed on weight loss rather than health outcomes.
Weight loss in and of itself is NOT a behaviour and simply doesn't not equal to health or does it have any moral value attached.
We chat about untangling movement and weight loss. Is it possible and how we start moving intuitively or actually trusting our bodies again.
It is possible to always move for joy?
This is an episode you will not want to miss and to find out more about Malarie, you can find her on Tiktok or Instagram where she offers lots of free movement resources for those navigating movement for the first time or finding their way back to it.
Thanks for listening and tune in next week!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a powerful stress-relieving technique that combines Chinese acupuncture with modern psychology to address the fear of rejecting diet culture and guide you towards a more intuitive relationship with exercise.
Healing your relationship with movement and tapping come together beautifully because they help you break down the fear, stress, and anxiety you may be feeling and clear out your emotions.
By learning how to better understand your emotions, you can take back the control that diet culture has stripped you of and start listening to what your body needs.
Have you ever tried tapping?
If not, you're in for a treat. Jason takes us through a 5 minute tapping sequence on our complex feelings and emotions around exercise and our bodies starting at minute 26.44 . It would be really helpful to note down what came up for you during that short tapping session and if you are interested to find out more.
You can find lots of Jason's resources on his Youtube channel or you can reach out to him on Instagram where he often hangs out.
Thanks for listening everyone.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
I was so excited about this episode and honestly it made me think about body image and how we think about bodies in a very different way.
As a Body Acceptance Coach, Kristina Bruce specialises in working with women who are tired of dieting and trying to “fix” their bodies, but struggle with the fears that come with the idea of “letting go”.
We chat about finding our confidence and self worth regardless of what our body looks like and how we tune in and accept our ever changing bodies in this dieting culture.
You won’t want to miss it.
As a Certified Change Coach she uses her training, as well education in health studies, sociology, yoga, meditation, and self-inquiry methodologies to help clients reconnect to their inner wisdom so they can live healthy and fulfilling lives in the bodies they have.
Click here for ways to work with Kristina.
Click here to access Kristina's free weekly mediation.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
A wee solo one for you this week, where I take you through MY toolkit.
Full disclosure, I'm not there yet. It's a work in progress but I'm getting there and bit by bit dismantling the diet and toxic fitness culture conditioning and giving myself permission to take up space.
I wanted to keep this episode short and sweet and so here are my main takeaways:
You don't have to love your body now. But just for today try and show it some kindness.
Check in with yourself for 60 seconds each morning as you wake up.
How do you WANT to feel when you move?
What is your WHY for movement apart from aesthetics and weight loss/ maintenance?
Movement doesn't always have to be joyful in the moment. If you feel amazing after a particular workout, to me that is moving for joy and listening to your body.
If we all worked out the same and ate the same, we'd all look entirely different.
You cannot fail intuitive movement. We are in this for life, not just for a 30 day challenge.
I reference Vic Wilson @vixenpole who truly helped me find the joy in movement and to get curious about how I felt in my body when I moved. Check her out, she is just wonderful and a very patient teacher.
If you'd like to work with me, I'd just love to help you on your way to finding the joy and feeling strong in your body. Click here for ways to work with me online or in person.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write me a short review. It would honestly mean the world to me. Love to you all, Christine x
This was an interview I did for Midlife Feast Podcast with Dr Jenn Salib Huber (@menopause.nutritionist)
I'll let Jenn take it away....
"If movement had zero impact on your body size, would you still choose to move? If the answer is no, then I encourage you to join me and Christine Chessman in this episode to learn why joyful movement is key to making movement sustainable in midlife and beyond.
If you’ve started an intuitive eating journey, it is not uncommon to feel the desire to break up with your usual workout routine too. But in this conversation, we dive into understanding the non-scale benefits of movement which include self-care, stress relief, strength-building, and perhaps most importantly, learning how to choose to love your body right now."
It's a great episode and if you enjoy it, let us know by leaving a little review. It would really mean the world to us.
To learn more about me and how you can work with me, check out my website at https://hellofitnesschristine.com, follow me on Instagram @hellofitnesschristine, or on Facebook at @@hellofitnesschristine.
Looking for a place to learn more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of Jenn's free resources and learn what she's got "on the menu" including her 1:1 and group programs. https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/links
Do you struggle with your pelvic floor?
Do you chose your activities based on the proximity to a toilet ?
Do you leak when you run, jump or lift heavy weights?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, this is the episode for you!
My guest this week is Kathryn Meadows, a movement and mindset coach who helps her clients get back to loving movement especially those held back by pelvic floor and core issues.
She firmly believes all women have the right to be able to choose what they want to do and have fun moving their bodies without worrying about how it'll function.
She wants above anything else for women to be able to say yes to anything in life.
We dive deep and chat about overactive vs underactive pelvic floor function. We also answer the following questions from my listeners:
What's the first step when it comes to restoring pelvic floor & core function?
What steps can I take now to improve pelvic floor health?
Is it possible to sneeze with ease after childbirth?
This is a corker of an episode and really illuminated for me the simple fact that we can reclaim our pelvic floor health by advocating for ourselves, doing the work and taking the time to focus on ourselves.
Follow Kathryn on Instagram or visit her website for details of her 6 week Connect Your Core online course as well as other ways to work with her.
Let me know what you think and if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a little review. I am passionate about helping women thrive in midlife and your feedback helps me do just that.
Love to you all
Christine xx
Warning: There is a discussion of disordered eating and exercise behaviors throughout this episode.
Today, I’m bringing you a conversation I had with Jill Angie a few weeks ago for her @notyouraveragerunner podcast.
Here's Jill's episode description:
Despite what we commonly see in advertising and social media, women of all sizes can get sucked into disordered eating and compulsive or obsessive exercising. From a young age, Christine struggled with disordered eating, which transitioned into compulsive or obsessive exercising, and she’s here to share how she broke free from and healed those behaviours.
Join us on this episode as Christine offers her experience of disordered eating and exercise behaviours, and what helped her approach her body with more love and kindness. She’s sharing her take on what women taking up space means, why it’s vital for us to do so, and her top tips for making strength training and running more accessible to you.
It is an episode you won't want to miss.
You can follow Jill on Instagram here
or
Click here for ways to work with Jill.
If you would like support o heal your relationship to food and movement, please contact me . I would absolutely love to help you on your journey to recovery
If you think that you may have an active Eating disorder or need support for yourself or a loved one and are based in the UK, Beat ( UK charity for eating disorders) - have helplines and chatroom support 365 days a year.
If you are in the US or Canada NEDA offer helpline support and have a database of treatment providers.
You are not alone.
This week I am having a fan girl moment and chatting to the amazing Sam Gwaz, MS, CSCS, CISSN - or @thesamplan across all social medias.
Sam is a nutrition coach, personal trainer, and most importantly self love and care advocate! Focusing on being (and teaching others) how to be their best, healthiest selves rather than simply the smallest.
Having been told to lose weight as a child by eating less and moving more, the joy was stripped from movement and exercise simply became part of the equation to keep herself small and skinny.
Until she decided that she was going to focus more on how she felt and was no longer going to play into the narrative that women need to be small and quiet.
Sam often hangs out on instagram and loves to chat in her DMs, feeling so strongly about helping others who are stuck with a punishing mindset around movement or who need guidance. You can find out more about the programs she offers here.
She is an absolute force and I am so proud of this conversation. Let me know what you think and if you enjoyed the podcast, leave me a review so I can keep making incredible content for YOU.
This week I am joined by the wonderful Katherine Kimber, founder of Nude Nutrition and registered dietitian and Intuitive Eating counsellor.
Katherine and her team are on a mission to strip back on nutrition nonsense and help women AND men find a happy, healthy, trusting and freeing relationship with food and their bodies.
In my community, questions around sugar cravings arise daily. With so much misinformation across social media and other media channels, I want to do a deep dive with Katherine on sugar, protein, intermittent fasting and what the heck to eat before and after a workout.
Is sugar addictive?
What are the benefits and drawbacks of intermittent fasting for women?
What should I eat before and after a workout?
Can Intuitive Eating help me lose weight?
Katherine and her team work 1 to 1 with clients, offer workshops, self paced and interactive courses and are aimed at those who feel stuck with food, those who experience eating disorders, disordered eating, and generally challenging relationships with food and their bodies.
Katherine hangs out mainly on instagram, sometimes on facebook and you can find out more about her work here.
Shannon Hennig is an absolute warrior.
Shannon identifies as a fat fitness coach and has multiple chronic health conditions, including heart failure and type II diabetes! (as well as surviving years of chronic dieting....)
She empowers her clients to believe in themselves, meet and beat their own expectations and to reacquaint themselves with movement and their bodies.
She tells her story and we delve into survival, the joys and benefits of strength training and functional fitness and how we can stop letting diet culture hold us back from truly living in this world.
We talk about recovery after a period of serious illness, the first steps back to strength and how to keep your head up when you are faced with adversity.
I loved this conversation and know you will too.
Shannon offers in person training (if you're anywhere near Calgary, Alberta) and online PT through her app. Find out more here.
Shannon also has a Happy Body, Happy Life facebook group but mainly hangs out on Instagram.
If you liked the podcast, please follow and leave me a review. It would mean the world to me and would enable me to keep bringing you amazing guests such as Shannon each and every week.
THANK YOU for being here.
What an episode. I realised about 20 minutes of chatting to Jenn that I wanted to work with her so immediately signed up to her Midlife Feast Community.
Dr Jenn Salib Huber is a Canadian registered dietitian, naturopathic doctor and fellow Intuitive Eating Coach.
She is on a mission to help women thrive in midlife by helping them navigate the physical and emotional changes that happen in menopause and perimenopause.
She is passionate about women finding food freedom and body confidence.
We chatted about the following topics which may interest you if you're approaching or in the throes of peri menopause:
Why do we gain weight in peri-menopause?
Is fasting a good way to tackle hot flushes and body changes?
How we can shift our mindset towards our ever changing bodies?
Is HRT as beneficial as we are being told in the media?
If HRT didn't work for us, what are our options?
Can we still have coffee? ( I mean that's a non negotiable for me;))
What about alcohol?
We discuss these topics and much much more and hope that our conversation helps even one person to know that they're not alone and that there is support out there.
You can find Jenn on Instagram or for more options to work with her click here.
Click here for a free download on Menopause nutrition for Un-dieters.
If you liked the podcast, please follow and leave me a review. It would mean the world to me and would enable me to keep bringing you amazing guests such as Jenn each and every week.
THANK YOU for being here.
Paddleboarder, filmmaker, writer, beach cleaner, joy encourager and midlife adventurer Jo Moseley joins us this week to chat about navigating grief and finding joy in movement.
After her mother died, and after experiencing a difficult perimenopause, Jo discovered the benefits of moving for her physical, emotional and mental health.
We talk about her WHY. What motivated her to do extraordinary things when she found herself in such a dark place. We chat about how movement can bring a sense of peace and headspace and how it is about SO much more than the weight on the scale.
Jo's short films Finding Joy and Found at Sea have both won awards.
Here is Found at Sea:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H7O7lawmMi8
Here is the trailer for Brave Enough - A Journey Home to Joy, which we reference often in our chat.
https://vimeo.com/502656424?ref=em-share
You can find out more via her website or follow Jo on Instagram or Facebook
If you enjoyed this podcast, please follow me and leave a review so I can keep making 'Find Your Strong' episodes and bringing you tips and techniques for navigating movement through peri-menopause and beyond.
Love to you all and thanks for listening. x
Jill Angie is a trailblazer. She is changing the conversation for fat women over 40 and for anyone who thinks they're too old or too slow.
She is making huge waves in the running game and it was an absolute joy to share an hour with her.
I am currently training for a marathon and Jill's own podcasts have inspired me and have been my constant companion on my long solo training runs.
When Jill started running over 20 years ago, all she wanted to do was burn calories and lose weight but she hated every minute of it. It felt punishing and she was always frustrated and disappointed. So in 2009 she decided to stop thinking about running as a means to an end and started using it as a tool to build up her strength and confidence.
She has built a running community around her and helps women become consistent exercisers and silence their inner bullies and find out what their bodies are truly capable of. *
We chatted easily about our running challenges, how to overcome the mental battles and be ok with not achieving a PB and not running the fastest race.
We talk about the definition of success when it comes to running and why we feel we have to push ourselves so hard.
Jill reminds us all that if you have a body and you run, you have a runner's body.
I hope this episode blows you away and helps you challenge your inner critic and stop shoulding all over yourself.
You can find Jill on Instagram or via her website.
*(Find out more about Jill's 'Run Your Best Life' program here.)
In an effort to be the best at what we do, we end up exhausted, demotivated, and burned out.
Madi is a stress ownership coach and is wildly passionate about helping you understand the physiology of your stress and how your mindset can help you feel less of it.
Rather than managing our stress, can we own it? Can we understand it as part of us, as a way our bodies have evolved to protect us?
How can we find moments in our everyday to be still, to be in nature, to find ease, peace and not spend our lives living for the weekend or our next trip away.
I worked with Madi myself for 8 weeks and this episode served as the perfect refresher!
If you struggle with the juggle and often reach a point of overwhelm with everything that you HAVE to do, this episode is an absolute must!
You can work with Madi one to one, or through her group workshops
Find her on Instagram
on her Podcast or via her website.
Your support means the world to me and will enable me to keep making these episodes and helping women take up space and focus less on the calorie burn and more on feeling strong and confident in their own skin.
So please subscribe and review and I'll catch you next time.
What an episode.
Katherine is an anti-diet culture dietitian and Founder and CEO of Brave Space Nutrition. Her areas of focus are perfectionists, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, perimenopause and menopause, eating disorders, disordered eating, body image and women's health! WOW!
She is also a TikTok and Youtube sensation and wholeheartedly believes NOOM is a diet. (Sorry, not sorry NOOM).
We chat about navigating our bodies changing as we age, especially after an eating disorder. We chat about ways to heal our body image and the importance of self-compassion when it comes to how we feel about our bodies and how we eat and move. Should we also embrace our rage? Should we get angry about being made to feel less than or that our bodies need fixing?
(Katherine references the book 'Rage Becomes Her' by Soraya Chemaly.
Available to buy here.)
Katherine speaks to the origin of diet culture, with its roots in rascism, misogyny, ableism and with its prevalence in today's society.
Can we really make a difference or are we just destined to be swimming upstream for the rest of our lives?
Tune in. It's a fantastic episode.
You can contact Katherine via:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bravespacenutrition/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KatherineMetzelaar
Website: https://www.bravespacenutrition.com/
Today I'm interviewing one of my favs, Becky Scott. *
She is the Creator and Instructor at @missfitsworkout, an award winning dance based exercise for those who don't feel at home in the gym.
She offers classes that are intentionally different from the mainstream and is breaking stereotypes left, right and centre and promoting joy in movement.
She is also studying for her masters in Exercise Psychology so that she can contribute to the research which is currently sparse around weight bias and being "fit while fat" and is a director at @FPAWS - Fitness Professionals Against Weight Stigma. Phew!
Becky says“I'm fat, I'm anti diet culture and pro fat acceptance. I feel very strongly that it's time the fitness industry separated itself from the diet industry in order to better serve us all.
We talk about weight stigma in the fitness industry, the true meaning of a healthy relationship with food and exercise, intuitive eating, movement and more.
We try and talk about Becky's "journey" without using the word "journey"; and get into the sometimes sticky topics of thin privilege when it comes to fit pros in the non-diet space.
Becky has been making waves for quite some time and I'm so excited to follow her as she continues to gain momentum and take up more space in this often toxic fitness space.
You can find out more about Becky's classes here.
Or find her on Instagram or Facebook.
(*Becky and I both teach classes on Kim Stacey's Body Image Fitness platform so check it out if you'd like to know more.)
Thank you for listening. Your support means the world and if this episode spoke to you please follow and share and leave me a review if you're got the time. (I appreciated you!) xxxxxx
This week I am joined by Personal Trainer, Tik Tok Sensation, Strength Foundations Course Creator and all round amazing human Laura Ghiacy.
We chatted (for what seemed like 5 minutes) about evolving through toxic fitness culture, adopting a non-diet approach and addressing our own fatphobia and thin privilege as trainers.
Laura is very generous with her time, really wants to make a difference and has done a lot of work on building resilience, ditching diet culture and addressing long held beliefs about being small and what that meant to and for her.
She is an inspiration and this episode is a game changer.
ENJOY.
Find Laura on TikTok: @lauraghiacy
Follow Laura on Instagram: @laura_ghiacy
Follow me @hellofitnesschristine and if you are interested in training with me, my new signature 1-1 program PT in My Pocket has just launched and only a few spaces are left. So if you're interested, find out more here: https://www.hellofitnessbrighton.com/pt-in-my-pocket
......and see you next time.
We're back with a bang.
I invited the wonderful Kim Stacey back today to discuss her inclusive platform Body Image Fitness, which she created as a safe space for people to move as and when they want to, without shame and with a community around them.
I am lucky enough to teach a couple of classes a week for this platform and they are really the highlight of my week.
Kim herself struggled with disordered eating and obsessive exercise behaviours and worried she'd never be taken seriously as a fitness professional.
She is so passionate about helping find that joy in movement. Feel Empowered. Feel part of a community. Gain fitness and strength AND confidence.
I am truly her biggest fan and one day I will try a burlesque class and push myself out of my repressed comfort zone.
Kim's platform: https://body-image-fitness.co.uk/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kim.bodyimage.fitness/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kim.bodyimage.fitness
Episode #11 is here!
Alix Hubble is a fitness and wellness coach, a podcaster, an entrepreneur, a holistic core restore practitioner, a massage therapist and a mum of 2! Phew!
She is passionate about bringing back the spark and joy to her clients and encouraging them to find what works for them, whilst still enjoying what they love.
Her podcast 'The Busy Woman's Guide to Fitness' has already built up a strong following and resonates with so many of us who struggle to find the time to prioritise time for ourselves, let alone our workouts.
Alix's approach to fitness is one that I can get fully behind. She works with women who are heading into peri to post menopause and acknowledges the benefits of slowing down and tuning in, rather than the intense high impact cardio we all too often hammer ourselves with in our 20s and 30s. This is not to say HIIT or cardio does not have a place in fitness as we head towards peri to post menopause, but we talk about how adding strength training or a more somatic practice can be incredibly beneficial for our joints as well as our overall physical and mental health.
Please listen to this episode, let me know if it resonates and check out everything Alix has to offer below.
Thanks for being here. Please leave a comment or share if you like the podcast but if it's not for you, no worries.
Links
Podcast: The Busy Woman's Guide to Fitness
Website: ChickFit
Instagram Handle: @alixchickfit
How is your relationship with food?
Do you often worry about what you're going to eat or beat yourself up for "falling off the wagon" and not having the willpower to control yourself?
This episode may well resonate with you.
Katherine Kimber, @nudenutritionrd , non-diet dietician agreed to join me for a chat and we did a deep dive into diets, nutrition, intuitive eating and how to normalise and deal with bad body image days.
Katherine is the founder of Nude Nutrition and wants to free women from the diet train by offering a unique approach to finding food happiness. She wants to help women ditch the rules, trust their bodies and make peace with food. She has also created an online non-diet community with free membership options, which provides a safe space for anyone thinking about taking the first step towards ditching the diets.
If you have questions about the role nutrition plays and why ditching the diet may actually be the "healthy" choice for your body, listen to the episode and let us know your thoughts.
Links:
Nude Nutrition - Katherine's website
Intuitive Eating Official Website
What is the difference between Dietician and Nutritionist?
Non-Diet Nutrition & Fitness resources
'The Men Who Made Us Thin' Documentary
Thanks for listening. Please follow and share if you enjoyed the podcast.
If not, no worries.
A little bonus episode for you in that tricky early to mid January period of the new year.
Grab a coffee, get comfy and let's get into it.
I work in the non-diet space and advocate body neutrality, acceptance and body trust over restriction, detoxes and crazy fitness challenges.
Diet culture, however, is the sea we swim in and the air that we breathe.
So because of beliefs held by so many of us, pertaining to health, wellness and worth, often since we were children, NOT conforming to these ideals can feel like we are giving up on ourselves. That we don't care. That we're "letting ourselves go". That we're not "living our best life."
If we don't want to get 'results', if we don't prioritise 'shrinking' our bodies or punishing our bodies for what we ate, where do that leave us.
Are we letting ourselves off the hook?
How would that look? Could that actually mean that we could get to a place of trust with our bodies. That we could tune in and listen. That we could ask ourselves what we actually need rather than what we think we SHOULD need.
When I stopped punishing myself and using exercise purely for the calorie burn, I felt free. I started to enjoy movement and try different things that felt good in my body.
If you'd like to find out more, please follow me on Instagram or visit my website for more resources and tools to get you through this tricky time of year.
Love to you all
Xxx
Bonus episode for you today on turning down the volume on the 'New Year, New You' chatter.
If you are already feeling the pressure to shrink yourself in the New Year or embark on a fitness challenge that "promises fast results", join me in conversation with body image coach Claudine Nightingill-Rane @seascapeblue and Non-Diet Nutritionist Ela Law @elalawnutrition.
There is nothing inherently wrong with making New Year's Resolutions and I simply believe it is really valuable at this time of year to talk about why some of these quick fix fad diets, "clean eating" programs, detoxes or full on fitness drives may not be the best thing for your bodies, your physical OR your mental health.
You have autonomy and how you approach New Year is entirely up to you but I feel this is a very valuable conversation and may just offer a new perspective.
Happy New Year to all of my lovely listeners. See you on the other side;)
Thank you SO much for supporting this podcast. Please download, follow and share if you can. It would mean the world to me. xxxx
This was such a great conversation. I do not inhabit a larger body and as such feel a real need to place others who have the lived experience, in the forefront of this discussion.
Becky has been a fitness instructor delivering dance based workouts for over 2 years but navigating the fitness industry as a plussize instructor has not been easy. I have followed Becky @missfitsworkout for a couple of years now after she caught my attention on one of Tally Rye's posts about movement for everybody.
She has inspired me hugely. She breaks the stereotype and isn't afraid to go against the grain. She does not simply accept that body shaming and weight stigma in the fitness industry exists but rather is on a mission to challenge it on a larger scale with her work with @againstweightstigma and @thisgirlcan and specifically with the women she teaches. (Oh and did I mention until recently she also had a full-time job?! And a family? And a dog?!)
We talk about normalising normal bodies. Specifically the corner of Instagram often taken up with straight sized women openly displaying their "flaws" such as cellulite and belly rolls, fighting the diet culture rhetoric that bodies should look a certain way. This is an interesting one for me. We chat about the fact that although there is a place for this, what does this mean for women in larger bodies?
Becky explains that there is a huge difference between having body hang ups which we can ALL have and the body oppression and endless stigma that comes from living in a larger body.
This is a conversation you will NOT want to miss. Please follow, download and follow Becky for more information or to join her online dance workouts!
Thank you SO much for listening.
LINKS
Follow Becky on Instagram : @missfitsworkout
Check out her website : https://www.instagram.com/missfitsworkout/
If you are a fitness professional who would like to learn more about ending weight stigma in the fitness industry check out @againstweightstigma on Instagram.
For more information on Intuitive Movement, follow Tally Rye @tallyrye and check out her podcast @trainhappypodcast.
Find out more about THIS GIRL CAN classes here: @thisgirlcanuk.
Episode 8 coming soon.........
Welcome to Episode #6.
Kim caught my attention during the pandemic, when she did a shout out to the fitness professionals who were changing the game in the industry and included me!
I started to look into the work she was doing and was immediately hooked.
Kim was first and foremost a body image coach but always loved moving her body.
The defining moment for Kim and the moment that perhaps fuelled her passion to train as a PT, was being dismissed by her own trainer, who at the time told her that no-one would ever take her seriously as a trainer unless she lost weight!
The fat phobia and toxic messaging in many fitness settings has become normalised along with disordered eating and exercise behaviours. We are often congratulated on calorie deficits and shrinking our bodies, rather than how we move our bodies and build those healthy habits that will nourish our bodies and fuel our workouts.
Kim is on a mission to change that. She is not afraid to put herself out there and be unapologetically who she is. She will ruffle some feathers along the way but isn't afraid to challenge the old school "get results fast" aesthetics based rhetoric.
She wants to break the stereotype that fitness has a look and to get women moving their bodies again to benefit their mental and physical health.
She wants women to feel good in their skin now. Exactly as they are.
Kim is launching her own New Year Celebrate ME subscription on the 3rd January 2022.
Check out her website for more details: https://bodyimage.fitness/
Or follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kim.bodyimage.fitness/
Episode #5 is my hardest hitting episode yet.
I have so much love and respect for this lady and it was a real joy to have her on the podcast for her first episode. (She will be back!)
Leonie epitomises strength for me. She empowers other women to lift weights and feel good in their own skin and continually sets herself crazy challenges, raising awareness and much needed funds for various charities close to her heart as well as motivating her to keep learning and growing as a new PT.
She has a heart of gold, loves a giggle and is a little obsessed with pink. (Aren't we all!)
I have watched Leonie steadily grow her band of followers on Instagram and build up her own business to a point where her client list is FULL in her first year of training.
Leonie like me has battled the scale and has not always felt comfortable in her own skin. As her love for strength training grew, she swapped calorie deficits for "bulking" and watched her body adapt and change. She like me, is passionate about breaking the stereotype, being unapologetically herself and showing up exactly as she is. That is HER superpower.
And that's why we love her.
You can follow her on Instagram @pinktrainerspt or check out her website.