Free Spirit Academy Podcast: Recent Episodes
Rande Moss
Free Spirit Academy is about you being fully yourself. My name is Rande Moss and with my background in Eating Psychology Coaching, Breathwork, and Somatic Experiencing, I offer conversations about food, body image, trauma, and freedom. This is about honoring our own bodies and our purest self-expression. Welcome to the podcast.
For years, I thought the urges to binge eat were THE problem...the thing standing between me and finally being okay. But what I eventually learned is that those urges were never the enemy. They were messengers.
In this episode, I share what happened when I stopped trying to make my binge urges go away, and started listening to them instead.
You'll hear me talk about:
- Why compulsive urges are communication, not failure
- The nervous system roots of binge and numbing patterns
- How curiosity and self-compassion can begin to shift everything
- The first step to finding freedom that isn’t built on control
If you’ve ever wondered why you keep doing the thing you don’t want to do - this episode is for you.
🌿 Mentioned in this episode: → My upcoming mini course, What’s Under the Urge - coming soon to Free Spirit Academy
Join the mailing list to hear when it's announced.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
In this episode, I’m exploring what happens in our bodies when we feel misunderstood - that familiar urgency to explain ourselves, prove our intentions, or make sure we're still seen as “good” or “respectable.”
Through the lens of somatic awareness and my experience in burlesque, I talk about:
- How old wounds of being unseen or misunderstood can resurface in adulthood
- The ways those wounds can spill out as overexplaining, people-pleasing, or numbing
- Why “being gotten” once felt like safety, and the importance of learning to build that safety on the inside.
- What it means to stay connected to our bodies, even when others don't understand us.
This episode is an invitation - to both you and me - to create enough safety in our inner world that being misunderstood doesn’t have to pull us away from ourselves.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
You won't get very far in this episode without realizing the click-baitiness of the title. The truth is, there was a time I wanted to keep all of my body shame and use it for fuel to "fix" my body and chaotic relationship to food. It never worked, and in this episode I'll talk about what did.
Links:
Work with Me
Reimagining The Body course (use the coupon code REIMAGINE2023 at checkout for 50% off in the month of November)
If you've spent any time in the somatic healing world, you're likely familiar with the concept of the body saying "no". I'll also often say that the body has a language that it speaks - sensation. emotion. pleasure and pain. Reactions and responses that say "no" and reactions and responses that say "yes".
And it takes a lot of time and practice to understand that language.
In today's episode I'll speak about feeling for the body's "yes" and the body's "no", and how it applies in several situations.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
What I wish I would have known when I was struggling and reading books about "mindful eating":
-
Slowing down isn't a tool to make you eat less. It's a tool to notice what's happening.
-
No amount of mindful eating is going to make eating less than you actually need serve you.
-
Mindful eating doesn't have to be precious. You can eat in front of your favorite show. You don't have to be deeply meditative about it...it's really just in the case of compulsive or binge eating that removing distractions can be a useful tool.
-
If you're absolutely desperate to change your body, attempts at mindful eating are probably still just going to be attempts at control.
-
Mindful eating isn't just about the "mind". It's an embodied experience. It's not about an idea of how much you SHOULD eat, it's about getting to know your actual body.
-
"Embodying a binge" really does mean "embodying a binge". What does a binge urge feel like in your body? What changes as you start to eat? What does the food actually taste like? What's it like to have this food take up space in your body? If shame comes up, what does THAT feel like? What's it like to breathe into it rather than let it spin stories in your head? What happens in your body if you don't immediately distract yourself after a binge? If you don't plan to starve yourself the next day? Can you get to know those feelings?
Binge eating taught me so much. Rather, EMBODYING the experience that I'd been fighting with for 15+ years taught me so much.
As it became safe to embody the entire experience of a binge, it started loosening it's hold.
It also became safe to change things from the inside of that experience.
I learned I could stop shaming myself and "starting over" when the binge was over.
I learned I was actually capable of stopping somewhere in the middle rather than being all-or-nothing.
Eventually I learned that a binge urge (the survival energy driving me to eat) wouldn't kill me if I didn't follow through. Or if I did so in a less checked-out way.
Basically I learned that I was lovable and safe, even in a pattern that felt like the worst thing about me.
And creating that kind of safety opened up room for other hidden parts of me to come to the surface. Embodying the binge was just the beginning.
P.S. I have a couple of spots for private clients and all clients get lifetime access to Free Spirit Academy courses (including Binge Freedom) DM me with questions, book a 15-minute call, or fill out the application through the link below ❤️
Work with Me
Healing doesn't happen in a hurr. The hurry to be healed, integrated, enlightened, free, arrived...it's not as neat and tidy as a lot of self-help books or before-and-after photos might suggest.
It's more like, the harder we try to fix things, the harder our nervous systems work to keep us where things are familiar. Whereas, if we can slow down with ourselves, right in the behavior or with the part of us we hate or struggle with most, we can get to know it. There are often so many unknown steps in a healing process that we couldn't possibly plan them all out, let alone by a certain date. And often, the version of us that exists right here is the one most needing our acceptance and attention.
In this episode, I talk about the desperation and hurry I felt to "fix" my binge and emotional eating. I'll also share about the parts of myself I'd have missed meeting if the "hurry" had worked.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Healing doesn't happen in a hurr. The hurry to be healed, integrated, enlightened, free, arrived...it's not as neat and tidy as a lot of self-help books or before-and-after photos might suggest.
It's more like, the harder we try to fix things, the harder our nervous systems work to keep us where things are familiar. Whereas, if we can slow down with ourselves, right in the behavior or with the part of us we hate or struggle with most, we can get to know it. There are often so many unknown steps in a healing process that we couldn't possibly plan them all out, let alone by a certain date. And often, the version of us that exists right here is the one most needing our acceptance and attention.
In this episode, I talk about the desperation and hurry I felt to "fix" my binge and emotional eating. I'll also share about the parts of myself I'd have missed meeting if the "hurry" had worked.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
THE TOP 10 MISTAKES I’VE MADE ON MY HEALING JOURNEY:
Honestly, I cringe a bit using the words "healing" OR "journey" because the internet is so oversaturated with wellness or spiritual teachers. I'm not interested in making "healing" my whole personality, but simultaneously I have always had this deep interest in why things hurt. What any kind of pain, emotional, mental, or physical, is saying. and coming from a background of religious and family trauma, being queer and undiagnosed neurodivergent, and all of the ways those pains spiraled out - into years of an eating disorder, self-harm, depression, anxiety, dissociation, and chronic health symptoms...I became fixated at some point on what it would take to feel free.
So whether I like the term or not, I found myself on a "healing journey" that I would say began when I got fired from my door to door missionary job and started removing myself from my church and toxic family patterns. I was in the thick of struggling with food and my body and had sooooo much accumulated trauma that it was just my "normal"...but taking those steps felt incredible. In fact, something I wish I could have told myself at various points is that there's no "heaven". There's no one point where all the things on all the levels are healed and you live happily ever after. Simultaneously, you don't have to WAIT until all the things on all the levels are healed to feel better.
Life, my body, my general state of being being better than they ever have been. As I thought back, I got to thinking about all the missteps and misunderstandings up until this point and I want to share them with you.
Links:
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
This podcast is for you if you're feeling unsettled and unsafe right now.
It's for you if being alone, or home all the time, or having your world turned inside-out makes you want to crawl out of your skin.
It's for you if you're like a client of mine who told me this morning that she doesn't want to be stuck in her house with all that food.
This episode is the first class from my 30-Day program Coming Home to Your Body. In the month of August you can use the coupon code COMINGHOME50 to get 50% off the course.
We'll be talking about:
...why you can be "perfect" with your healthy lifestyle and still feel unwell.
...how to build resilience in challenging times.
...the struggle to be 'present', 'mindful', or 'in the flow' no matter how much you meditate or use spiritual and self-care practices.
...the desire to take care of your health while struggling with self-sabotage, compulsive behaviors, and repeating cycles and patterns like overeating but you don't know why.
...when you've talked about your issues and traumas in therapy and feel like you've processed your childhood, but still struggle with anxiety, depression, a constant feeling of frustration or other painful emotions that don't seem to match the present circumstances.
...you've tried to 'just relax' or maybe you KNOW some of the nervous system lingo and you take deep breaths to 'deactivate your parasympathetic nervous system'...and you still just feel like a mess.
...and how to ACTUALLY learn to FEEL, rather than thinking about our feelings, reacting to our feelings, or numbing our feelings.
I hope this episode feels useful and supportive right now ❤️
Links:
Coming Home to Your Body (code COMINGHOME50 for 50% off)
Work with Rande
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
The 15 minute audio you're about to hear is the introduction to my 30-day course Coming Home to Your Body. This is a course that all of my clients get when we start working together but it's also available on it's own or part of the Free Spirit Academy membership. This is easily my favorite course, addressing how the effects of trauma and stress can leave us feeling disconnected and trapped in our bodies. Learning about the autonomic nervous system, as tedious as it seemed on the surface, was huge in my own journey and I try to approach it in a way that's fun, hopeful, practical, relatable, and alongside simple but impactful tools that really make a difference over time. If this audio grabs your attention, there are links in the bio for more on this course.
Links:
Coming Home to Your Body 30-Day Course
Free Spirit Academy Membership
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Work with Rande
Coming from a challenging childhood, dissociation became my "normal". As I left religion and pursued healing, the dissociation that was once completely disconnected from my body...went internal. Today we're looking at how attempts at embodiment and the pursuit of health can get sticky.
Links:
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Work with Rande
I love a project. I love working towards something. I think that's pretty human. But for a long time my body was my project. I grew up in a holistic, seventh day adventist, vegetarian home. we used homeopathy and natural remedies and drank carrot juice and ate homemade bread. To this day I LOVE the taste of barley green powder because I have early memories of drinking it as something that would support my health. I wanted to know about all the supplements in the kitchen cupboard and what they would do for me. I wanted to be strong so I ate spinach straight out of the can. There was an early connection with the fact that what you eat has an impact on how you feel.
Simultaneously alongside all this, my relationship with food was kinda weird...
(Listen to this episode for more)
So many folks I see, and this was me too, attach goodness and morality to their health. If something is wrong, they feel wrong. They will spin into stories about how they're creating their own disease or this is going to turn into something far worse. Can you make some space for the fact that not all of the contributing factors were in your hands? Your genetics, adverse childhood experiences, your environment and day to day stressors that accumulate.
There are areas where we have choice and can learn to be empowered...and there are factors we don't have control over. There are elements, like childhood trauma, that weren't our fault but that as adults we have quite a large degree of choice in how we address the effects. Having a sense of humor, when possible, can bring some lightness to what can be a serious and heavy healing process. Life is very short. Literally no amount of it needs to be spent beating yourself up anymore. That time would be better spent taking care of that part of you that so automatically goes into shame. Then, just coming back to what you best know works for you. again and again and again.
Links:
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Work with Rande
Today I'm talking about the ways that shame lived in my body and fed into the cycle of binge eating and disembodied practices with food. I'll also talk about making my body safe enough to finally feel the shamed parts of me so that they could be understood and come to a more whole and free place.
Links:
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Work with Rande
For a huge chunk of my life, trauma had left me flat, numb, and unable to feel what was going on in my body.
In today's episode I talk about the seemingly "normal" experiences that can lead to an overwhelmed nervous system, the symptoms or carrying stored survival energy, impulses, and emotions with us over a long period of time, and the symptoms that can occur as a result.
Links:
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Work with Rande
After a bit of a hiatus, today I'm bringing back the podcast talking about what happened when trusty health practices were "taken" from me.
In this solo episode you'll hear about:
- The health challenges that turned my wold upside down.
-
The practices that had to change and what happened to me physically, mentally, and emotionally.
-
The surprises that came out of being forced to change the way I cared for myself.
-
How this has affected my life and work
Links:
Health Saga episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/143037/11103472
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/free_spirit_academy/
Work with Rande: https://randemossclients.my.canva.site/rmwellness-mainpage
Today I'm speaking with Holistic Health and Root Cause Practitioner Sarah Hook. Sarah and I have been connected online since our early wellness blogging days when we were certain we had it all figured out. Some years ago Sarah was bit by a tick and developed severe Lyme disease, causing her to question what she knew about wellness.
We talk about what it's like to need food restrictions after healing from an eating disorder as well as the ways in which we can get in our own way with our attempts at healing.
I hope you enjoy and feel supported by this episode.
Links:
Sarah and The Healing Place on Instagram
Rande Moss Wellness
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
The Feeling Files Podcast
For the last year, I haven't been consistently present with my online work...and today you'll hear why. A cascade of events left me in a pretty low-functioning state until recently. Currently I'm a couple months out from a couple of minor surgeries and am feeling clearer and sturdier than I have in some time!
I don't believe we need trauma to grow...but I've learned a lot. Things I would have likely learned anyways, but squished into a short and painful time frame. I'm grateful for the growth and grateful for the healing.
Lastly, I'm thisclose to finishing my Somatic Experiencing Practitioner training and you'll be seeing my focus veer more and more in the direction of trauma, trauma integration, nervous system regulation, and embodiment. This feels very much in alignment with what Free Spirit Academy's always been about!
Thanks so much for being here and thanks for listening.
Links:
Rande Moss Wellness
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
The Feeling Files Podcast
Free Spirit Academy's new and expanded intuitive eating program is being uploaded this month (February 2022)!
FSA members get ALL courses for $25 a month (no minimum commitment) OR you can purchase the downloadable version of Liberated here.
More options for working together:
Eating Psychology Coaching
Somatic Experiencing Sessions
Private Breathwork Classes
In this solo episode, I'm talking about the idea of 'letting yourself go' and how that differs from the 'letting go of control' that needs to happen in order to make peace with food or integrate trauma.
There's also a very special deal on the Free Spirit Academy program Binge Freedom, links below!
Links:
Binge Freedom (use coupon code DECEMBER50 for 50% off in the month of December 2021)
Work with Me
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
Is it possible to take on a healing diet or a supportive protocol with a history of disordered eating?
Is there a way to have a healthy, alive relationship with food that's also intentional?
Is restriction 100% bad news in all cases?
Today I'm sharing my personal experiences with chronic illness, having a background of disordered eating from a young age. I'm excited to share this with you and hope it brings you more peace and freedom in your relationship with food and your body!
Links:
Rande's Website
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
I want to start by saying that this episode is going to be worth a listen whether you're a person with ADHD or not!
Sophie Tully is a Biomedical and Clinical Nutrition Scientist and Health Coach and she specialises in creating highly personalised health plans, tailored to unique goals, lifestyle and biology.
She uses a range of evidence-based, safe and effective tools and techniques, including nutrigenomics, biomarker testing, coaching and detailed case history analysis Sophie goes above and beyond to unpack health concerns and work on the root cause.
In this episode we talk about the link between neurodiversity, sensitivity, and chronic illness...
...what it was like to be diagnosed as adults.
...the role self-love plays in any diagnosis or journey.
...the modalities Sophie uses to support health challenges at their root and the role that medication plays.
...and lots more. It's a great chat, I'm very excited to share Sophie and her valuable skillset with you!
Links:
Sophie's Website
Sophie's Instagram
Natural Approaches to ADHD Course
Rande's Website
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
In this episode, I'm sharing my OTHER 2021 diagnosis: ADHD. You'll hear me say right at the top that this has been such a good thing and a game-changer on my self-love path. All of the cliches and assumptions were what kept me from suspecting sooner and I hope to dispel some myths and offer a fresh perspective.
I am currently unmedicated although I don't think that's the right choice for everyone. In part two (coming in a couple of weeks!) I'll be having a conversation with Sophie Tully of ADHD, Naturally, who will offer even more insights.
Links:
Rande Moss Wellness
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
Today's episode is a sample of the Free Spirit Academy program, Body Love.
I talk about why addressing a painful body image is integral to healing a disordered relationship with food, or taking on a healing protocol.
Our bodies are home as well as incredible messengers - and by making peace with the body we have, we're much more easily able to hear it's messages.
Links:
Free Spirit Academy Membership
Body Love Course
Private Mentorship
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
On today's episode I'm talking a bit about the autoimmune diagnoses I got earlier this year. This is a shorty ep but includes:
...why it took me so long to see medical professionals and get tested.
...the wide range of feelings post-diagnosis.
...the pre-self-love I had to do before I had any answers.
...the promises I made myself once I had something concrete to work with.
...my thoughts on medication, etc.
...the complex journey that is illness and a disordered eating history.
Links:
Rande Moss Wellness
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
Hello friends, today I'm talking to my friend Lena, an eating disorder recovery coach who also understands firsthand months of juice fasting, pure raw food diets, and even using diet to heal illness - complicated by her many years of disordered eating that didn't stop once she got into raw foods. Over the course of this conversation we make some simple connections about how and why her eating disorder developed but there could certainly be many more factors one could look at.
-
We'll discuss being raised in a religion that tells you if you're sick - there's something wrong with you or you're not praying hard enough.
-
The time Lena quit law school to move across the world and focus on detox work.
- the moment when she started realizing she was more interested in perfection than actual health - and more.
Links:
Lena's website.
Lena's Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy courses
After well over a year, the Free Spirit Academy Podcast is BACK!
I begin this episode with a health update of my own - and talk about the balance between maintaining a peaceful relationship with food and my body, while also supporting my body's very specific needs.
That will lead us into a conversation with colon hydrotherapist and trauma-informed coach, Teresa Piela. Teresa is exceedingly familiar with chronic illness herself, and also knows well what it's like to do everything 'right' on a healing protocol and not feel any better. We talk about the importance of not only nourishing food but addressing nervous system trauma, painful beliefs, and tendencies towards perfectionism and orthorexia.
I'm so thrilled to be back with you in this capacity - there is so much more to come!
LINKS:
Living Roots Wellness
Living Roots Wellness Instagram
Teresa on Twitter
Teresa on YouTube
Free Spirit Academy
Free Spirit Academy Instagram
Free Spirit Academy Courses
Here's what you can expect from today's episode:
...how the anxiety of our current circumstances is TRIGGERING any anxiety already living within us.
...the question of whether or not we'll ever be going back to 'normal'.
...we'll talk about the pressure to always be growing, creating, being productive, and going to our max.
...the idea that the universe is saying one thing to all humans right now.
...working with the feeling that there's constantly not enough time.
...finding safety in uncertainty.
...the feeling that we wish someone would just fix this, the government etc. and the need for self-responsibility and self-parenting.
...astrology as a tool to make sense of what we're feeling.
...the idea that if something feels good to us, it will be easy to do and why it's not always.
I hope you're staying safe and well and that you enjoy this episode with Marlena Torres.Marlena's WebsiteMarlena's InstagramFree Spirit AcademyFree Spirit Academy Courses
This podcast is for you if you're feeling unsettled and unsafe right now.
It's for you if being alone, or home all the time, or having your world turned inside-out makes you want to crawl out of your skin.
It's for you if you're like a client of mine who told me this morning that she doesn't want to be stuck in her house with all that food.
I'm introducing my newest course called Coming Home to Your Body, but this podcast also stands alone.
We'll be talking about:
...why you can be "perfect" with your cleansing practices or healthy lifestyle and still feel unwell.
...how to build resilience in challenging times.
...the struggle to be 'present', 'mindful', or 'in the flow' no matter how much you meditate or use spiritual and self-care practices.
...the desire to take care of your health while struggling with self-sabotage, compulsive behaviors, and repeating cycles and patterns like overeating but you don't know why.
...when you've talked about your issues and traumas in therapy and feel like you've processed your childhood, but still struggle with anxiety, depression, a constant feeling of frustration or other painful emotions that don't seem to match the present circumstances.
...you've tried to 'just relax' or maybe you KNOW some of the nervous system lingo and you take deep breaths to 'deactivate your parasympathetic nervous system'...and you still just feel like a mess.
...and how to ACTUALLY learn to FEEL, rather than thinking about our feelings, reacting to our feelings, or numbing our feelings.
I hope this episode feels useful and supportive right now ❤️
Links:Free Spirit Academy Membership (Use coupon code COMINGHOME at checkout to take the price from $25/mo to $10/mo!)
Private Mentorship
Free Spirit Academy on Instagram
HEALING ANCESTRAL TRAUMA WITH INHERITED TRAUMA RESOLUTION COACH, LISA NAGEL
In today's episode, you'll hear us talk about...
...The symptoms of inherited trauma: anxiety, secondary ptsd, depression, feeling like we can't get where we want to go, feeling trapped in repeating cycles, etc.
...Lisa's story of looking around at her family and seeing the shared patterns and emergency responses that were on autopilot and the revelation that we don't just have personal trauma but also inherited trauma.
*...some of the science behind why and how trauma is passed down from generation to generation.
...the importance of creating space in our lives and how space can be really loud, especially at first, and that that's okay.
...the lineage of anger that hasn't been safe to express and how understanding that lineage can help us feel safe to own our anger now.
...and building capacity to not just feel anger and uncomfortable emotions, but also joy.*
I hope you enjoy this episode with Lisa Nagel.
LINKS:
Lisa's website.
Free resources.
Wild Sensitive Souls Instagram.
Rande's website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Instagram.
EXPLORING HUMAN POTENTIAL - GIL JACOBS UNEDITED!
Hi friends. Before some of you get TOO excited (because I'm with you in that group of niche weirdos that thinks an interview with Gil Jacobs on the internet the single most exciting ever) I DID release this interview in the first year of the podcast.
However, I was in a place at the time where I was very much catering to clients and an audience with a traditional intuitive eating view. And that view tends to look like like: eat whatever you want, whenever you want, and 'listen to your body' but if you put any sort of structure to your eating, you must be orthorexic, a part of diet culture, or have an eating disorder.
So I was dancing between these worlds where my personal foray into intuitive eating had just helped me connect my intuition with the principles of intelligent cleansing that I'd used for so long - but I was a bit apprehensive to talk about it. I KNEW how strong the reaction would be so as a result, there were sections in this recording where Gil talks about dietary specifics and I cut them out and THIS is the unedited version.
For the uninitiated, Gil Jacobs is a master colon hydrotherapist with more useful wisdom on the human body and potential than just about anyone else I've encountered. He is truly one of the people I'm most grateful for in the world and I'm thrilled to re-share my conversation with him.
Free Spirit Academy
Rande Moss Wellness
For all of the seeking we do...
...medical mediums.
...spiritual gurus.
...plant medicines.
We often miss the most powerful medicine: the information our own bodies hold.
2019 was like a massive plant medicine journey for me...sans plant medicine (so y'know, I'm going based on what I've heard).
My body took me on the ride of my life - and while it wasn't easy, it was the most liberating year I've ever experienced.
This was a year that confirmed for me something I've long felt suspicious of...that our bodies are trustworthy. That Life is trustworthy.
We just need to learn the language they speak.
In this episode I give you a magical snippet of an incredibly intense year.
And I hope it leaves you with more trust in your own magic.
Links:
Rande Moss Wellness
E-mail me directly: randegrace@gmail.com
Free Spirit Academy Courses
Star Sisters book
Friends!! After a bit of a hiatus, the Free Spirit Academy Podcast is back and it feels SO good. I'll update you a bit in the intro to this episode, but here's a bit of what to expect today:
I met Jen at my Level 1 Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training and my first thought was 'thank GOD, a real human'. While I met so many lovely humans, Jen didn't feel like she was trying to prove anything or sound a certain way, she was there for the practice and was simultaneously running her own studio and it was just very refreshing.
In this episode you'll hear us talk about...
...Jens' practice of 25 years, how she got into it for the yoga butt and the healing and spirituality snuck up on her.
...online yoga teacher culture and the choice to present the full spectrum of what it means to be a human.
...growing up in a childhood where everything is 'fine' no matter what's happening or what anyone is feeling and how that impacts us.
...how we can use yoga as a practice that actually makes a difference in the quality of our life, rather than helping us escape from our life.
...how kundalini yoga helps us actually process trauma that's stored in the body.
...thoughts on 'cancel culture', and what we see as problems in the wellness and spirituality communities.
...the history of patriarchy and abuse in the yoga lineage and Jen's personal story of abuse by a well-known yoga teacher.
*And while this might sound intense, there's also a lot of laughter and a little musing on Paris Hilton too ;)
Enjoy the episode!
Links:*Twist Yoga EdmondsJen's Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
I met today's guest in my very first kundalini yoga teacher training and we've continued taking trainings from Guru Singh in Seattle for the last couple of years - and I wanted to have her on as a teacher but also as an example of someone who moved through serious addiction to drugs and alcohol and on the other side - is more real and more uniquely herself than she'd ever been before.
In this conversation we talked about addictions, coping tools and distractions and how they work until they don't. And when it becomes obvious that these things aren't working the way they used to, it means we're ready to start seeing what's underneath those behaviors.
Kalei herself is 15 years sober and she'll tell us her story about what it took to create a life that didn't need drugs and alcohol, how kundalini yoga came into the picture, and what she's doing now as a teacher and a creative, growing human being!
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Kalei Myers, the Urban Yogi.
Links:
The Urban Yogi on Facebook
The Urban Yogi on Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
THE DREAM UNDER THE DREAM BODY.
This solo episode is going to be a taster of my most recent program in the Free Spirit Academy membership site. My new 40-day program Liberated is my take on what many call intuitive eating. If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time you'll know that I talk a LOT about eating intuitively, finding freedom around food, and freedom in our bodies...AND I've just never been satisfied with the general way I've seen intuitive eating going which, to me, isn't actually all that intuitive. Listen in to hear the first audio class of this 40-day program for FREE, as well as a bonus exercise from the course.
To purchase the downloadable course: https://freespiritacademy.teachable.com/p/liberated/
Free Spirit Academy Membership (which includes this program): https://freespiritacademy.teachable.com/p/free-spirit-academy
WHAT IT MEANS TO "BE LOVE" WITH REIKI PRACTITIONER, COLON HYDROTHERAPIST, AND OWNER OF LOVE BEING, ALEC STEURY.
A few of the things you'll hear us talk about are...
- What it's like to start to shift from a solely logical, linear way of thinking and being to developing intuition and self trust.
- Putting our attention and letting our journey be lead by what feels interesting and inspiring to us.
- The health issues or ways of being human that we think of as "normal" that don't necessarily have to be.
- How gently, slowly, and intelligently cleansing the body has the potential to affect us emotionally and mentally.
- The potential for transformation in someone by just being with them where they're at.
- Diet dogma vs listening to the body.
- Shifting from "no pain no gain" to a much gentler "no discomfort no gain".
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Alec Steury.
Links:
Love Being
Love Being Facebook
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
DETACHING SELF-WORTH FROM YOUR FOOD CHOICES WITH EMOTIONAL EATING COACH, GEORGINA GORRINGE.
In this week's conversation, you'll hear us talk about:
...how the opposite of emotional eating isn't "normal" eating and how that may not necessarily be what we're looking for.
...the journey from mindless eating to more conscious eating with nutrition knowledge, to an EMBODIED practice of listening to what works.
...when we see foods as "good" or "bad" and they leave US feeling like WE are "good" or "bad" people or having a "good" or "bad" day.
...learning nutrition knowledge is fabulous AS LONG AS we're connecting with our own bodies and how we feel.
...the foundation that's NEEDED before we can dive into the heart of emotional eating.
...tools for feeling fulfilled when not emotionally eating leaves you feeling empty.
...finding what actually FEELS GOOD rather than just things that would make you lose weight.
...how to remove your self-worth from your body size.
Links mentioned:
UDOU Habit Hack
Georgina's Instagram
Georgina's Facebook
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A FREE SPIRIT?
Today it's a solo episode where I talk about what it does and doesn't mean to be a "free spirit" and to cultivate more freedom in your life and body.
Links mentioned:
Kundalini warmup
Feeling Breath Practice
Work with me
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
FEELING AT HOME IN YOUR BODY WHEREVER YOU ARE WITH CLINICAL NUTRITIONIST AND PRIVATE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, CHRISTINA PISTONE.
Here are some of the gems you can look forward to in this conversation.
...we talk about the dangerous assumption that thinness equals health.
...how sometimes working LESS hard is what's needed to support your health and well being.
...realizing you might be thinking about food more than engaging with LIFE and how to use that as a cue to re-connect with yourself.
...feeling like once we've gotten the "perfect" body or diet plan we'll be fulfilled - and how very untrue that is.
...how scary it can be to move from a controlled diet plan to more of a gentle structure that lets us get in touch with our intuition - but how worthwhile it is.
...and what Christina does to cultivate a sense of home in her body wherever she goes in her many travels.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Christina Pistone.
Links mentioned:Christina's Instagram
Christina's YouTube Channel
Christina on Facebook
Around the World In Healthy Ways Blog
Gil Jacobs episode
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
Before Free Spirit Academy was Free Spirit Academy I was trying to figure out how to transition from food blogging as a hobby to Eating Psychology Coaching as a career. And I'm pretty certain that if I hadn't worked with a coach I would have struggled a LOT longer than I did to create what I wanted to create. Coaching and mentorship is SO important in certain phases and I wanted to bring Ally on because she's not only a business coach - she has a background in ayurveda, and using sensual feminine embodiment practices to connect to our bodies so that our bodies can be GUIDES for us as we navigate our life and of course business if we have one.
Here are some of the things you can look forward to in this conversation:
...Ally and I talk about our unconventional takes on the "body positive" perspective and what we feel are some of the missing pieces.
...learning to love our bodies from the inside-out rather than starting on the outside and trying to force it.
...how to address the shame that can come up when we're learning to care for our bodies and explore pleasure.
...what to do when you don't know what feels good in your body or what foods would feel good to eat.
...tools for connecting with your body.
...creating a sense of safety around making mistakes.
...emotions not being bad or negative, just messengers that are sometimes painful.
...and we explore the way our emotions naturally fluctuate and how each part of our female cycle has a different kind of medicine.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Ally Canales.
Links mentioned:
Ally's Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Work with me
MOTHERHOOD AS A SPIRITUAL PATH.
In today's conversation, we'll talk about motherhood as a spiritual path but even if you're not a parent or even planning on being a parent (and if that's you, I'm right there with you) there's so much great stuff in here for you.
Here are a few of the things you're in for:
...Leslie talks about how carrying extra weight may have a divine reason and how we can feel into the body to see if it's at it's natural resting place - rather than using a number on a scale to make us crazy.
...We'll share stories on the clients who think they're coming to us for meal plans or quick tips - and how much deeper a wellness journey can go.
...The importance of assuming that the body is always RIGHT in whatever it does - and using that as a guide rather than beating ourselves up when things aren't going the way we think they should or we'd like them to.
...Why we crave intensely sweet, fatty, or salty things when we're stressed and the most powerful question to ask ourselves when we're in that situation.
...We'll talk about forms of nourishment that go way beyond only food.
...And we talk about what Leslie does best - helping women prepare for pregnancy, the myths about pre-conception, ways to take care of yourself with mindful eating and nutrition prior to getting pregnant.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Leslie Woodward.
Links:
Leslie's website
Leslie's Facebook
Leslie's Instagram
Leslie's Pinterest
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
8 Steps to Balance your Hormones + Boost your Fertility
BODY LOVE: FROM RULES TO RELATIONSHIP WITH EXPERIENTIAL EATING EXPERT, BETH SUMMERS.
In today's conversation we talked about when health becomes a value - and how that can be a beautiful thing in relationship and a destructive thing if it's disembodied.
Beth will tell us the story of how experiential eating became such a prominent part of her work.
We chat about the importance of the way we eat not defining who we are as people - and we dive into this from the perspective of kundalini yogis and seeing a lot of the same sort of thing - following the rules to be a good yogi rather than letting the practice wake you up to your own individuality.
And we talk about what to do when you have a ton of nutritional knowledge and you don't want to scrap that but you ALSO want to start learning to listen to your body.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Beth Summers.
Links:Beth's website
Beth's book
Beth's Instagram
Beth's YouTube Channel
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Welcome to episode 41 of the Free Spirit Academy Podcast with Artist and Intuitive, Lindsay King.
Sometimes people's worlds are so unfathomable to me that it feels like magic. Lindsay is a beautiful intuitive human being and artist. In her words, she "paints the relationship between the subconscious and what is seen.
In this conversation, we talk about...
...our shared history and Lindsay's experience of feeling like a fraud in religion.
...the importance of aligning with who you really are and using your voice - even if it means your not everybody's cup of tea.
...the body as an intelligent tool - this might have been my favorite part of the conversation because I'm always interested in how people describe their experience of listening to the body.
...Lindsay's take on the word "power" and how feeling grounded in her own power has lead her to the desire for more collaboration.
...and we'll talk about her fascinating work doing soul essence paintings.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Lindsay King.
Links mentioned:
Lindsay's website
Lindsay's Instagram
Prints by Lindsay King
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
Welcome to episode 40 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Holistic Health Coach and Wellness Lifestyle Consultant Meredith Wadsworth.
I discovered Meredith's work while I was going down a rabbit hole with exercise. You'll hear more about this as we dive in but one slice of what Meredith does is fitness training for the method we'll talk about. But that really is just one piece. Her company The HYE Life (Honor Yourself Everyday) represents so much of what I love: a balance between intuition and intention, looking beyond the surface of food and body struggles, and truly holistic wellness that doesn't include punishing exercise or restrictive dieting. There are no cookie cutter approaches here.
In this conversation we talked about...
...how her first career in fashion stopped lighting her up and what she did to turn her life in a direction that DID.
...we connect on having clients who think they are coming to talk to us about food and how it turns in to everything else.
...what messages food/body pain may be trying to offer us.
...the difference between introversion and enjoying alone time and ACTUALLY liking ourselves.
...how even though food and body isn't everything it IS important and what role it plays.
...how we can limit our perception of food as potential weight gain or how it will harm us rather than focusing on nourishment.
...and how working out is not to be fit for workouts but to be fit for how we want to live our lives.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Meredith Wadsworth.
Links:
The HYE Life Instagram
The HYE Life website
The HYE Method coaching
The HYE Life Podcast
Free StressLess Daily Checklist
Free Spirit Academy website
Free Spirit Academy courses
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group
For more background on Mel, check out episode 27, Your Inner Binge Eater is on Your Side where we dove deep on Mel's history and how to address a struggle with binge eating.
Today we dive into something I once shrugged off and that's inner child work. This idea that so much of what I struggled with was rooted in childhood. And the reason I shrugged it off was because I looked at my childhood and while it had it's issues, it seemed kinda normal. At least compared to some of the horrific things many people endure in childhood. But as you'll hear Mel say in our conversation - just because a childhood was normal, doesn't mean it was healthy.
We talk about how intuitive eating is the ability to tune into the body's wisdom - but how if we're disconnected from our emotions, noticing something as seemingly simple as hunger and fullness cues can be close to impossible.
We talk about the way we disconnect from parts of ourselves as children and how if we don't RE-connect with those parts as adults - we'll see symptoms like binge eating, emotional eating, or restrictive dieting among many possibilities.
We'll talk about the the needs we're attempting to get met with compulsive behavior and how things like creativity and authenticity and love ARE needs, not just luxuries.
And we address how unexpressed emotions get stuck in the body and how if emotional eating is causing you pain - that's a SIGN that you're ready to hear what it has to say.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Melissa Riccardi.
Links:
Melissa's Instagram.
Melissa's Private Facebook Group Beyond the Binge.
Melissa's Facebook Page.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
HOLISTIC WELLNESS AFTER HEALING AN EATING DISORDER WITH MEGAN GILMORE, THE DETOXINISTA.
At the top of this episode, Megan and I talk about the varying reactions people have when they hear "detoxinista".
They either get really excited that this might be a specific guide to a rigid detox protocol.
OR they turn they other way because they hear "detox" and it turns them off.
However, Megan's approach is neither strict nor scary.
In fact, when my clients are feeling steady with the emotional side of their relationship with food and are looking to gently upgrade the way they eat simply to FEEL better - The Detoxinista blog is often where I send them for simple, delicious, whole food recipes.
In this conversation you'll hear us talk about...
...Megan's history and how she got into detox and wellness.
...her years struggling with binge eating disorder and how she found healing and clarity.
...how pregnancy shifted her perspective on food and her body and changed the course of her relationship with both.
...the part of healing binge eating we BOTH ignored at first.
...and the fun projects she's working on today.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Megan Gilmore.
LINKS:
Detoxinista website.
Detoxinista Facebook.
Detoxinista Pinterest.
Detoxinista YouTube.
GETTING UNSTUCK AND FINDING NEW PERSPECTIVES WITH KUNDALINI YOGA TEACHER, KATIE SEDGWICK.
So today we're talking to my friend Katie who we originally spoke with in episode 24 entitled The Eat to Feel Good Diet. She told us her story about cultivating self-love and the accidental weight loss that followed. We got a lot of great feedback and actually started this episode with a question from a listener that was brought on by that episode.
Today you'll hear us dive into:
...What to do when feeling like a fraud when it comes to learning to love our bodies.
...How body love is actually what's most natural to us.
...How kundalini yoga can help us see things from many perspectives instead of feeling stuck.
...Katie's thousand-day commitment to a particular kundalini meditation.
...and at one point she turns the tables on ME and asks me about my experience at my most recent kundalini level 2 teacher training on vitality and stress.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Katie Sedgwick.
ASTROLOGY AS A TOOL FOR HEALING WITH NUTRITIONIST AND ASTROLOGER, MARLENA TORRES.
In this second episode with Marlena, you'll hear us talk about...
...Marlena's raw food romance gone wrong and how if she had understood what was going on for her astrologically, she might have had a different experience.
...Our connection as mutual Taurus's and how we spent a lot of time feeling like we didn't have a sense of value if we didn't feel beautiful - and the disappointment of putting so much effort into a healthy lifestyle and feeling like something was wrong with us because our bodies weren't what we thought they should be.
...What's going on in my chart right now, which will hopefully give you a good glimpse of what it's like to get a reading!
...And we talk about a lot of the drama around astrology, fear around mercury retrograde and full moons with the overall conclusions that the planets aren't forcing you to do anything or controlling your life, but we will look at what sort of influence they DO have.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Marlena.
LINKS:
Marlena's website.
Marlena's private Facebook group.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
YOUR BODY ON YOUR SIDE (PART 2) WITH ALIYAH WASHINGTON.
Hello friends, just a heads up if you didn't catch last week's episode, this is part two and I definitely suggest listening to part one first. We'll be diving in right where we left off and these are some of the topics we go into:
...The power of admitting when what we are believing might not be true, and how not having all the answers doesn't equal being in pain all the time.
...The difference between surrender and apathy.
...Imagining your ideal body (not to manifest it somehow magically) but to experience a feeling of worthiness with which to move forward from.
...The difference between listening to your body from a place of pain and fear vs a place of worthiness.
...A fresh perspective on what disease is.
...A fresh perspective on the state of humanity right now.
...A very refreshing perspective on cleanses and detox diets.
...And how binge eating isn't actually self-sabotage.
I hope you enjoy the rest of this episode with Aliyah Washington.
Links:
Perception Trainers Website.
Perception Trainers YouTube Channel.
Aliyah Mystery School.
Your Body is On Your Side Course.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
YOUR BODY IS ON YOUR SIDE WITH ALIYAH WASHINGTON.
If you've been listening since early on this year, you'll have heard Aliyah on episode 2, sharing her journey through anorexia and today we go much, much deeper. I actually split this episode into two parts as it got long but I didn't want to cut any of it.
As I've merged topics like eating disorder recovery with potentially extreme lifestyles and practices like colon cleansing and juicing, I've worried that folks could take things to an extreme and I've tried to be very careful about how I've approached these subjects. One of the biggest things we talked about in this conversation was how disordered eating often begins in a simple desire to just FEEL BETTER when we're in so much pain and discomfort. And because we're in so much pain and discomfort, many of us tend to reach for the most extreme version of the most extreme thing whether it's long fasts or technically perfect diets but without context or transition or embodiment. And I see this happening in the world of exploring spirituality where there are so many trying to "crush our egos" or "overcome our shadows" or we're jumping into long meditation retreats or taking ayahuasca over and over again - and again, I think that some of this stuff is a natural reaction to wanting to be out of the pain that we're in. But truly, it's gentle steps - and becoming curious about and understanding of our ego or our shadow or our painful habits - that will really begin to shift our experience sustainably and allow us to grow rather than chasing our tails and constantly starting over.
When I approached the idea of this interview I wanted to call it something like "how to be spiritual or how to cleanse without being crazy" - and I ultimately decided that as catchy as it was it was a little harsh - and I ended up calling it "your body is on your side" because Aliyah and I created a program with that same name. We created it with the idea that freedom is so much more than just being free to eat whatever you want or being a certain size or being comfortable at whatever that size is. We introduce the idea that your body is actually your best guide in navigating this human life and that there is so much beyond the surface of food and weight pain. This is a course you can take anytime at your own pace and I'll leave the link below as well as links to Aliyah's other offerings!
You'll hear us talk about...
...Holistically addressing mental, phyical, and spiritual health IN THE LONG RUN.
...Aliyah's history with anorexia that began with being a very sick child and wanting to feel better.
...How you think you should feel on any particular diet or healing regimen vs. what you're seeing in reality.
...How we can begin making everything in our world right including our emotions, our symptoms, and any way our body reacts.
...What's going on when we feel we're eating perfectly and not getting better or losing weight.
And so much more, I hope you enjoy part 1 of this conversation with Aliyah Washington.
Links:
Perception Trainers Website.
Perception Trainers YouTube Channel.
Aliyah Mystery School.
Your Body is On Your Side Course.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVING YOURSELF TO WELLNESS WITH IRIDOLOGIST AND THE HOST OF THE RAW FOOD FOOT SOLDIER PODCAST, CHRIS HALL.
A few months back, Chris and I had a talk on his podcast and it had been lingering on the edge of my mind that I wanted to bring him over so when I saw on his Instagram stories that he was about to do a social media detox, I was intrigued and used it as an opportunity to extend an invitation. So here he is and I have to say, this episode contains one of my favorite things that has EVER happened in an interview, it brought me to tears, so hang out for the ENTIRE conversation to catch the ending.
IN that episode, you'll hear us talk about:
:::What it's like to start a podcast and put yourself out there to get your dream guests.
:::His personal journey to sobriety and then a raw foods based approach to wellness.
:::The benefits of TRANSITION rather than extremes when it comes to wellness.
:::Learning to take care of ourselves in a way that's big picture, which isn't always what feels good in the moment.
:::and finally, his experience with stepping away from social media.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Chris Hall.
Links:
The Raw Food Foot Soldier Podcast
The Raw Food Foot Soldier on Instagram
Puradyme products
The Raw Food Foot Soldier PayPal link
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
FOOD, FREEDOM, AND FEEDING FAMILY WITH WRITER AND PLANT-BASED RECIPE CREATOR, ASH FOSTER.
In this episode we talked about...
:::How we can try and get a sense of adventure and freedom and excitement through following a particular diet.
:::How perfectionism can be addicting.
:::Ash addressed how she dealt with extreme depression after the birth of her first child.
:::How to handle being made fun of by family for food choices.
:::How she balances firmness and flexibility as she feeds her family a whole foods, plant based diet.
:::And following freedom and joy in food choices and in ALL choices as much as we're capable.
Links:
Ash Foster's Website.
Ash Foster's Instagram.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
VEGANISM, RE-WILDING, & BIOHACKING, OH MY! VITALITY THROUGH EASE AND CONSISTENCY WITH MICHAEL PERRINE.
Mike Perrine is more than just one of the many colon hydrotherapists I've spoken with on this podcast, he's also a detox and health counselor (in the most real, least fluffy sense of that title), founder of Vitality New York City which offers gravity colon hydrotherapy, cryotherapy, and nutrition coaching, and host of one of my favorite podcasts, EveryDay detox.
In this episode, Mike beautifully lays out what constitutes a healthy food. There's a TON of confusion and information out there, ESPECIALLY when it comes to the word "detox" and his clear teaching style is so needed.
Other topics that came up were... ...Thoughts on re-wilding and biohacking. ...Veganism - whether or not it's actually natural. ...Self-responsibility. ...Body confidence in world (and I just mean the health and cleansing world) that can be so hyperfocused on a particualr esthetic. ...And pursuing health with a sense of ease and excitement rather than force and pushing.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Links:
Vitality NYC Everyday Detox Podcast Everyday Detox Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
BE MORE YOU, GIVE LESS F*CKS WITH SPIRITUAL LIFE AND BRAND COACH, JESS BLANCHE.
Something that I often see is that all good coaching is kinda the same. Whether we start out talking about binge eating or business, it's all going to come down to self-understanding, self-acceptance, self-love, and self-expression. And obviously we all have different histories and there will be different tools but it all often ends up being life coaching in a way. For example, last podcast when we talked to Tracy Brown, we talked about how taking off diet labels and really learning to listen to the body often makes us quite unique or, some might say, just weird. Like, it doesn't tend to lead you to eating like everyone else, if you're really exploring and listening, you'll often be the odd duck in the room - and you're totally alright with it because you're totally on your own path. Jess and I talked about that in this conversation in terms of rebellion. There is definitely an accepted way of "being a rebel" and plenty of people who want to claim the label and look that certain way. THEN there's just the fact that truly being yourself is going to be inherently rebellious because none of us are going to fit perfectly into any mold, category, or label.
I love Jess for so many reasons, and I think we mutually cringed our way through terms like "playing big" and "being authentic" because they're so overused and misunderstood but having followed and learned from Jess for the last couple of years, she really breathes new life into them.
I love that she's a fellow but former yoga teacher, and infuses her teachings with her training in life coaching among many, many other fascinating experiences that we'll talk about.
Among the topics we discussed:
...what it means to listen to intuition and what happens when your intuition doesn't lead you where you think it will.
...trying to be accepted by other people because we don't accept ourselves.
...fresh takes on phrases like being authentic, being a rebel, playing big, and all sorts of other good life-coachy things.
I hope you love this conversation with Jess Blanche.
Links:
Jess's website
Jess's Instagram
Twitter: @thetruthigniter
Jess's Facebook Group
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
CREATING A SENSE OF SAFETY IN OUR BODIES WITH TRACY BROWN, RD
Hello friends, welcome back! This is part two of season 1, episode 25 featuring Tracy that had so many cliffhangers I had to bring her back. I definitely suggest you go back and listen to that episode first to get filled in on Tracy's eating disorder and education background as well as to get caught up on all the amazing information she shared there.
And today we wanted to dive into a bit of what it takes to create an experience of feeling safe in our bodies. So many of the things we do, whether it's constantly trying to stay on a rigid diet or overeating, binge eating, or compulsive eating - are super hard to address when we're in a constant state of stress and not feeling settled and safe in our bodies. And what's interesting too is that WE might think we feel FINE- we just feel like we like food too much. But as you'll hear us discuss, in cases like this, we often don't know what it's like to feel safe and good and AT HOME in our bodies.
You won't hear this but part way through our interview Tracy had to pause and let me know she was actually in her car in the middle of a rainstorm and needed to get home and call me back. And I remember being so impressed at how centered and clear she had been that whole time (because I had no idea she was in the middle of a stressful situation) and how low-drama and simple it was to resolve. It really spoke to the work she's done in her own personal world.
In this conversation you'll hear us talk about a Facebook group that we're admins in and if you're curious, it's the Intuitive Eating Support Group. We pulled a couple of questions from the folks over there into our conversation and I'll link that group if what we talk about today speaks to you.
And if you're interested in more of my work, my private Facebook group is called Free Spirit Academy and I'm always in there answering personal questions, often through video, on topics like emotional eating, body image, self-love and pretty much anything you hear here on the podcast.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Tracy Brown:
LINKS:
Tracy Brown Website.
Free clarity call with Tracy.
Free Attuned Eating guide.
Stop Bashing Your Body Free Gift and Audio.
Non-Diet Counseling Skills.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
RE-DEFINING "NORMAL" IN THE WELLNESS WORLD WITH COLON HYDROTHERAPIST, SUKI ZOE.
Yes it's true, we have the first of several colon hydrotherapists on the podcast today and this one is coming to us all the way from London! Now I think it's pretty safe to say that nobody grows up thinking that this is the job they'll have for a living. Of all the colonic pros I've talked to, it came as a surprise to them - but Suki's story was most surprising and I'll let her tell you about it herself.
In this conversation we bond over the fact that neither of us ever thought colon cleansing was anything but super cool and can kinda forget it might seem like a taboo subject to some..or many.
We talked about how bodies will respond differently on the colonic table depending on where the moon is at in it's cycle.
Our definition of a "hack" that isn't a bandaid or a shortcut. Holistic hacks.
We talked about both of our perspectives on intuitive eating and she had some really beautiful insights here.
I highly encourage you to check out Suki's blog The Colon Whisperer as she's a total nerd on all things holistic wellness and if you don't have time to do the research on something - she's probably done it for you.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Links:
The Colon Whisperer Website
The Colon Whisperer Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
YOUR INNER BINGE EATER IS ON YOUR SIDE WITH EATING PSYCHOLOGY AND BINGE EATING COACH, MELISSA RICCARDI.
It's been amazing to me since I graduated from the Institute for the Psychology of Eating what a huge variety of teachers and coaches I meet. Some who are amazing and some who's approaches I don't care for at all and each with their own focus whether it be on weight loss or intuitive eating or emotional eating but today's guest is someone who feels like a true sister in this eating psychology coach community - our perspectives are so similar but of course she has plenty to share that I don't and I'm thrilled to share her no-nonsense but super warm and loving approach to binge eating disorder with you here.
If you've listened to a few episodes, you'll know that I always tie things up with the question "what is your definition of a free spirit" and while I love Melissa's answer, we got to messaging about it later and she added this. She said me "A free spirit to me symbolizes going back to our child selves. Children are explorers, curious observers, wonderers. They have no judgements, they see everything through fresh eyes and are amazed by everything and anything. They are completely uninhibited, unafraid to speak their minds and are unphased by what other people are doing or saying about them. This is what it means to me to be a free spirit. Revisiting the place within us, the person we were as children before the world told us how to be."
In today's episode we talk about...
...What happens when you stop bulimic behaviors but are just left with binge eating.
...Why it doesn't help to count days "binge free" or keep starting to try startinv over.
...Why just HALTING the binge eating isn't the primary goal.
...Why we don't have a death wish out on our inner critics and what approach we take instead.
...How to balance analyzing and journaling on the healing journey with learning to just sit and feel feelings.
...Why intuitive eating is, as Melissa says, an "adult's game".
...And very practically, how to begin addressing overeating, compulsive eating, or binge eating.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Melissa Riccardi.
Links:
Melissa's Instagram.
Melissa's Private Facebook Group Beyond the Binge.
Melissa's Facebook Page.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
THE NEW SELF-LOVE WITH SPEAKER AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT COACH, KYLA SOKOLL-WARD.
Hello everyone, this officially marks the start of season 2 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast!
Today I'm talking to my friend Kyla who also made an appearance in episode 14 and when I originally recorded that interview for YouTube at least a couple of years ago now - Kyla was also coaching in the world of eating psychology and intuitive eating and we spent our conversation talking about her own journey with food and the most important things to look at when addressing binge eating and emotional eating.
Early on this year though I began noticing her message shifting and it wasn't just the words coming out of her mouth, it was like this power and energy behind her voice that seemed to have come out of no where! Suddenly she was doing all this cool public speaking stuff and was just lit up in a way that I'd never seen her before so I knew I'd have to have her back to talk about that transformation.
Another fun fact is that Kyla used to be a client of mine (and she mentions that in this conversation) and today was such an incredible example of the fact that we all have something to teach each other. I was basically asked her to coach me (a world-class introvert) on how to be less socially awkward and her response completely shifted my perspective.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with the inspiring Kyla Sokoll-Ward.
LINKS:
Kyla's Website.
Kyla's Instagram.
Kyla's Facebook.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
COMING HOME TO YOUR BODY WITH REGISTERED DIETICIAN AND SOMATIC NUTRITION THERAPIST TRACY BROWN.
Some people just seem to be born for what they're doing and I feel that way about Tracy. She's been guiding people in healing from disordered eating and dieting for the last 12 years and it wasn't because she had a lifelong dream of doing this - it was because she couldn't find solutions for her own disordered eating struggles until she was at enough of a rock bottom that she sort of discovered them herself. We'll talk about that story right up front and of course she's had an incredible amount of training and skill-building since her initial discoveries but I found her journey so interesting because of that. She and I both agreed that talking to a therapist did us little if any good and it wasn't until we really got into an embodied EXPERIENCE that we really started to see shifts. What I find even more remarkable about Tracy's journey is that she embraced a non-diet, body positive approach before the phrases "intuitive eating" or "body positive" were really a thing.
You'll also hear us talk about...
...Ideas about "normal eating" and why becoming an intuitive eater might make you anything but normal.
...The idea that intuitive eating will lead to "perfect" eating and why that isn't true.
...How to decode thoughts like "I feel fat" and what they might REALLY mean.
...How to listen to the language of the body.
...and the differences between INTUITIVE eating and ATTUNED eating.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Tracy Brown.
LINKS:
Tracy Brown Website.
Free clarity call with Tracy.
Free Attuned Eating guide.
Stop Bashing Your Body Free Gift and Audio.
Non-Diet Counseling Skills.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
THE EAT TO FEEL GOOD "DIET" WITH KUNDALINI YOGA TEACHER, KATIE SEDGWICK.
Katie and I became friends during my recent kundalini yoga teacher training and it was such a lovely connection and beyond that, on the final day of training she began to tell me a story that caught me so off guard that I made her stop and hold it for the podcast. So I'm gonna make you wait too and I trust that if you're a returning listener, you'll love this conversation.
Before diving I'll mention, you'll hear a book mentioned and that's a short e-book I wrote a couple of years ago called The Eat to Feel Good "Diet". I put it together as my version of intuitive eating as I was seeing a lot of pitfalls and had my own perspective I wanted to share. If you want to get this little book for FREE, you can sign up for newsletter updates right here.
Now let's dive in, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Katie Sedgewick.
LINKS:
Global Masterpeace: Women Co-Creating An Alternative Future
Global Masterpeace Facebook Event Page
Global Masterpeace Tickets
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
EMBRACING SHAMELESS JOY.
Welcome to Episode 23 of The Free Spirit Academy Podcast with writer, filmmaker, and choreographer Jocelyn Edelstein.
In this conversation with writer, filmmaker, and choreographer Jocelyn Edelstein, we talk about...
...how to listen to the body and relax into the trial-and-error process of understanding intuition and alignment. ...how embodiment manifests differently in different cultures and the different wounds cultures carry and are healing. ...and about the creation of Jocelyn's documentary Believe the Beat that follows a group of young dancers in Brazil and how she grew throughout the many year journey of traveling between countries to create it.
And hold out for the end where I ask her to read a poem that brought me to tears the first SEVERAL times I read it.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jocelyn.
Links Mentioned:
Jocelyn's Blog.
The Urban Body Project.
Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
CULTIVATING YOUR OWN LIVING MYTH
This is one of these these rock-bottom, heroes journey tales that's just extraordinary. Barely into his twenties, Tom (also known as Nature) lost a sibling, his serious relationship ended, and he went on a quest to find out what more Life had to offer. From being homeless to becoming a self-ordained monk to ending up so sick he was bedridden and so much in between, we talk about the intense search for meaning.
One of the biggest themes that I loved in this talk was about honoring yourself and honoring life by trusting both. Always just taking YOUR personal next right step. I talk a lot on this podcast about extreme diets and cleanses and finding our way back to our own personal equilibrium, wherever that may be - and we took that idea and blew it up in this conversation. We talked about how what might look extreme to most people could be just your natural next step. And on the other side - it's so often celebrated when we "go big!" or "overhaul our lifestyle" or "have a lot of willpower"...and this isn't that either. It's about an inside-out approach rather than an outside in approach.
Now let's move into our conversation where we're talking essentially about my favorite topic - freedom. Or what we're calling today - cultivating your own living myth. Links mentioned:
Nature_Myth on Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
CHOOSING FOOD VALUES OVER FOOD RULES WITH ADINA PEARSON RD.
What I love about Adina's work is that she presents intuitive eating with such a beautiful perspective. There's food freedom but there's ALSO supportive structure and there's a huge honoring of our individuality and the various areas that might need extra care as we're embarking on letting go of strict rules and really learning to trust ourselves.
In this episode we talk about orthorexia, why ideas about moderation might not serve us, thin privilege, food addiction, emotional eating, binge eating, self-care, and cultivating a safe structure at home for children to explore freedom, fluctuations and preferences.
We talk about veganism gone wrong and veganism when it's a natural intuitive lifestyle. We talk about intuitive eating as freedom and intuitive eating when it gets turned into another set of diet rules to rebel from. Ultimately we're talking about self-connection and self-trust.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Links mentioned:
Adina's website
Adina's Instagram
Adina's Facebook
Marika Tomkins Episode 2
Ellyn Satter Institute
10 Principles of Intuitive Eating
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
RELEASING SHAME AND TALKING SH*T...LITERALLY.
Welcome to episode 20 with colon hydrotherapist and founder of Doody Free Girl, Jen Gonzalez. So right up front you'll hear me tell Jen that I've had more colon hydrotherapists on this podcast than anything else and we had a good laugh about it because if Jen is great at anything besides the obvious, it's bringing humor to a world that can be taken so seriously. And on the one hand, yeah, this health stuff is serious business. It's transformative and I could easily become an evangelist about it if that wasn't so obviously obnoxious. So serious on the one hand but we don't need to take OURSELVES so seriously within it. Whatever practices we have whether it's yoga or juicing or journaling or whatever are only meant to SUPPORT our life, not BE our life. We don't journal for the sake of being good journalers, we journal to get to know ourselves and grow and have a sweeter time being alive. :::So in this conversation we actually dive more into the nitty gritty of colon hydrotherapy. The safest most effective method, the why's and how's and all of that. :::We talk about how colonics can easily fit into a disordered eating lifestyle and how to recognize if you're using them in a supportive way or not. :::We'll talk about what it's like to jump from one food extreme to another as in - from a pure raw vegan diet with a large side of anxiety and obsession, to a screw-it-all, I'm just gonna EAT and see what happens approach. And how neither extreme connects you with yourself but both can be necessary phases to move through. :::What toxicity actually IS when we use the word "detox". :::And we talk about how listening to your body and intuitive eating can be challenging, in a body that's got imbalanced bacteria and unprocessed emotions. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jen. Links mentioned:
DoodyFreeGirl Website DoodyFreeGirl Instagram Natalia Rose Interview Gil Jacobs Interview
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR FREEDOM.
Welcome to episode 19 with vegan YouTube personality, Megan Elizabeth! I stumbled across Megan's YouTube channel years ago when I was in the midst of exploring EVERY diet option known to man, trying to find IT. Like, the single solution to all my problems (which I was certain were all about my body). I'd become obsessed with the 80/10/10 diet which was all raw and vegan and just extreme enough to catch my eye. It felt like the binge eaters dream diet - eating as much fruit as I could fit into my body and not much else. In reality, I became increasingly numb because I was eating every chance I got.
And looking back, it totally makes sense. I'd gone from starving myself to this seeming permission to have ALL the food and I was on complete autopilot. It was actually from there that I decided to do that first 3 month juice fast that I talked about a couple episodes back.
So this was just one of many diet variations I tried on over the years but it's such a strong memory and today's guest was actually a big part of it. Megan had this super cool, super sane, approach. She was a rule-breaker and questioned a lot of the craziness that was happening and as a total bonus, she had such an amazing collection of recipes.
In this episode we go far beyond diet into religion, living unconventional lifestyles, questioning everything we once thought to be true, and the questions we'd benefit from asking in regards to social media.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Megan Elizabeth.
Links mentioned:
Megan Elizabeth on YouTube.
Megan's video on spirituality.
Megan's website.
Upcoming retreats.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
SURRENDER TO THE LOVE THAT YOU ARE.
Episode 18 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Lobo Del Sol (AKA Golden Sun Wolf) is here!
This will be unlike anything you've heard here before. Lobo and I met in a kundalini yoga teacher training this last year. There was this sort of electric moment when I first saw him and you'll hear about that in our conversation - but this is actually the first time we've ever spoken.
I knew I had to bring Lobo on when I first started listening to his Facebook lives and heard everything he had to say, pointing back to self-love. He has such a depth of wisdom and experience that I feel like I was tripping all over myself in attempt to sound somewhat intelligent but thankfully, he seemed to read my mind and everything I hoped he would share, beautifully and elegantly ended up on the recording.
Be ready - we're diving into religion and past lives and, just to keep things somewhat normal around here, even juicing. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
LINKS:
2Source22 Facebook Page. Lobo on Instagram. Lobo on Facebook. Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
MY 90-DAY JUICE FAST: WHY EXTREMES AREN'T THE ANSWER.
Welcome to this short, solo episode where I'm talking about my experience with long juice fasting, diet extremes, and finding peace with food and body. Here's the truth: Even if we feel extremely far from where we want to be, an extreme measure may not be the answer. In fact, it can end up keeping us running in circles. In this episode I talk about a gentler way, but don't let that deter you. In the same way that "self-acceptance doesn't equal stagnancy" (a quote from the episode), gentle does not equal lazy. Gentle equals consistency, listening, and honoring where you're at on your journey.
Links for more:
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
FOOD, FEMININITY, AND FREEDOM FROM LABELS WITH RENAE TEEL.
Welcome to episode 16 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Fertility, Pregnancy, and Postpartum Nutritionist, Renae Teel.
I first met Renae 7 or 8 years ago when I was a Flight Attendant and I was temporarily working in Arizona where she lived. We had become connected through our little detox community and, as you'll hear me tell her, I was such a nut case but hiding it well. I was trying desperately to eat one meal a day and do a ton of juice fasting and not eat any sugar and I'd have at least weekly breakdowns in my hotel room after a binge on the airplane. and I'd journal, and go on and on about my emotional eating problem, and plan a fresh new start for the next day. And in and amongst this, Renae and I met up near a Whole Foods for tea and I remember being so impacted by how SANE she was. She had this glowy, natural ease and, as you'll hear in our conversation today - that ease was well earned by years of learning to trust herself.
I've watched her evolve from a detox counselor and foodie to this incredibly heartfelt nutritionist for women surrounding pregnancy.
We talk about:
...Renae losing her mom to cancer as a teenager and how it left her with a fear of becoming a mom,
...How she had to ease up on her diet rigidity when she got pregnant and realized how much nourishing she needed,
...How not listening to her body left her feeling incredibly depleted,
...The different parts of her identity she discovered with the births of each of her 3 children,
...How we can find community and identity within a certain diet and how that can keep us stuck,
...What it actually means to be lead by our heart,
...and my favorite- the natural cycles we go through as women and why we don't need to be ON all the time.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Renae Teel.
Links Mentioned: Renae's Facebook Renae's Instagram Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
BALANCING INTUITIVE EATING WITH VIBRANT HEALTH.
Welcome to episode 14 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Ashae Sundara, formerly known as Carly Morgan Gross.
Ashae is somebody I've followed for many years in the online space but I knew her in the beginning as Carly Gross. In my earliest days of coaching, I actually reached out to her for advice because I was seeing a lot of women stuck in the intuitive eating space and I KNEW there was a way to feel totally free around food and incredibly vibrant and well - without being a crazy person. And from what I could see, Carly (I'll refer to her as such when I'm speaking from that time) was doing just that with her clients.
Her take on food freedom and body love mirrored my own and in the last year, I've seen her grow her message to one of embodying our highest selves and using sexuality and intimacy as a tool for awakening. With every evolution of her work, I've seen her become more and more HERSELF which is, at it's heart, what this podcast is all about. In the show notes I'll link a gorgeous video about the name change from Carly to Ashae, as well as all the information on where you can find her now but in the meantime here's what you're in for today:
We'll talk about...
Giving our power away to books and teachers and finding our way back to body and intuition.
When the "eat whatever you want" model works with intuitive eating, and when it doesn't.
What happens when we've given ourselves full permission to EAT without the diet rules, but we feel stuck in cycles of eating in ways that don't feel good.
And the true meaning of self care.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Links Mentioned: Ashae's Website Ashae's Instagram Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
THE SECRET TO ENDING ALL BINGES.
Welcome to the 14th episode with Self-Empowerment Coach, Kyla Sokoll-Ward. I'm releasing this couple-of-years-old interview from my YouTube channel as my wife and I are in France for the next couple of weeks (yay!) It's funny listening back to this 'cause I can really hear how much more embodied and relaxed I am even a year and a half later. I have to try not to cringe 'cause my voice sounds so pinched and shallow to me - like I was hardly taking a deep breath but alas - I think these early conversations are valuable so here we are. Today we're talking to my friend Kyla Sokoll Ward, who I've also watched blossom so beautifully in the last couple of years from brand new intuitive eating coach to fierce self-love teacher who's Instagram stories have become so captivating because you can just SEE how lit up she is. In this conversation, we dove into the world of orthorexia. What happens when a beautiful intention becomes obsessive. What happens when we find our identity in a diet label rather than following intuition, body wisdom, and our own evolution. We talk about how the phrase "I'm not doing this to be skinny, I'm doing this to be healthy" can allow us to continue pushing something that isn't working. We talk about how we can create a sense of purpose around creating the so-called perfect body but Why the hunt for the perfect body isn't actually what we're looking for. And we break down her blog post called "The Secret to Ending All Binges" and she offers some incredibly practical, useful advice for anyone struggling with food obsession and binge eating. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Kyla Links mentioned: Kyla's Website Kyla on Instagram The Secret to End All Binges Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
SWAPPING PERFECTIONISM FOR DIRTY ALCHEMY.
Welcome to episode 13 of the Free Spirit Academy with Soul Reintegration Guide and Co-founder of Living Earth Systems Sam Schiebold.
Today we're talking to an incredible sustainable living expert which might not sound on topic but wait 'til you hear this conversation. Sam's business, Dirty Alchemy, is a guide to not only living more lightly on the earth but living more lightly in your heart. Now I KNOW that sounds cheesy but Sam;s writing isn't. There is to fluff, no vision boards, no positive affirmations, and no perfectionism. Her guidance on self love is SO far beyond bubble baths and overindulging in things that don't ultimately even FEEL good - it's the real deal kind of self-love that loves our awkwardness and our anger, and our overeating, and whatever else is showing up in our experience.
We talk about extremes. While I often share experiences of extreme dieting in hopes of one day finding the perfect body and living happily ever after - Sam shares her experience falling in love with sustainability and the zero-waste movement and permaculture, only to burn herself out in striving for perfectionism.
We talk about identity. While I once found a safe sort of identity as "the healthy one" and treated whatever diet I was a part of like I once treated religion - Sam talks about the identity she clung to as an environmentally-friendly vegan and how it was only in embracing ALL parts of herself - not just the parts that she liked or that fell into a certain category, that she really felt free and was able to create a sustainable LIFESTYLE and begin teaching others to do the same.
So if you, like us, have any tendency towards perfectionism. If you see yourself as "all or nothing" or you're either "on the wagon or off the wagon" - never really seeming to get anywhere, you'll really appreciate today's episode.
Links mentioned: Dirty Alchemy Website Sam on Instagram Free Spirit Academy website. Free Spirit Academy courses. Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
THE #1 KEY TO HEALING BINGE EATING.
Welcome to episode 12!
Today is special and a little different in that you're gonna hear me yammer on by myself today without a guest.
If you're listening to this as it's put out, I'm launching my 40-day program Binge Freedom in Free Spirit Academy.
This is a program for anyone struggling with overeating, compulsive eating, and of course, binge eating.
What you'll hear today is essentially the first section of that program - AND it stands alone.
As in, if you've been fighting with food and you're able to implement what you hear today, you'll see a huge shift in your relationship with food and your body.
And if you're curious and want to hear more? Head over to the Free Spirit Academy course page and become a member while Binge Freedom is live!
PERMISSION GRANTED TO BE WHO YOU ARE.
Welcome to episode 10 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Human Design expert Jenna Zoe.
Okay, so what is Human Design? In Jenna's words, it's " the contract your soul makes with the Universe about who you came to be, and what you came to do." - it's contains elements from astrology, the chakras, the I Ching, the Kaballah -
And if that sounds fancy, it's actually very practical and useful. It takes the complication OUT of self-care and any idea of personal growth meaning we need to fix or change who we are. It simplifies decision making as we learn how our own bodies speak to us. More than anything it's about letting ourselves BE who we are and letting others be who THEY are.
This is definitely not a personality typing situation, and while there are 5 types with many many nuances among them, they are really about how you engage with Life. And as we're engaging with life, of course, we're engaging with food and there are different ways that each of us are going to be most supported in listening to our bodies rather than being slaves to diets.
At it's heart, it's about ease and freedom and the way Jenna presents it is unlike any other teacher I've seen.
Today we talk about:
Jenna's surprise discovery of human design during a visit with a shaman.
How before Human Design, spirituality and self-care just felt like a to-do list.
What the 5 types in human design ARE and how knowing ours can massively simplify and support our lives.
How living as anything BUT yourself actually drains your energy.
Why clarity works better than positive affirmations.
Why "what I eat in a day" videos don't really serve us.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jenna Zoe.
Links mentioned:
Jenna Zoe's Website.
Jenna Zoe on Instagram.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
DIET BEYOND WEIGHT LOSS.
Episode 9 is here with bestselling author and Clinical Nutritionist, Natalia Rose.
While it's true that you'll find most of Natalia's books on the diet shelf, they are truly more than just weight loss books. After finding her first book over 10 years ago, my perspective on food, body, and LIFE was forever shifted.
TODAY WE TALK ABOUT:
How Natalia's life radically changed when she began cleansing her body - and how that made her see that everything she'd "ever learned about food and the body was untrue".
The point before this where she was so miserable she was considering suicide.
The ridicule she faced in her personal life when she quit living in a traditional way.
How she works with women wanting to cleanse their bodies but struggle with a history of disordered eating.
How detox is truly about authenticity and getting to be totally yourself.
How bulimia can be connected with a lack of boundaries and the ability to communicate.
How the body speaks in the language of pleasure and pain and how to follow that.
Links mentioned:
The Natalia Rose Institute.
Natalia Rose Institute on Instagram.
A Life of Power program.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM.
Welcome to Episode 8 with Eating Psychology Coach Kathleen Donhardt.
Kathleens work AND personal experience is around weight issues connected with the trauma of sexual abuse, domestic violence, and suicide.
Her mission is to hold space for women to discuss the "elephant in the room" to help them break free of shame and guilt that is not theirs to carry. Her business, The Light Elephant Coach, is a platform for speaking publicly about sexual abouse, and not only that - how we can heal, love who we are and find gratitude for what these experiences can teach those who have had them. She's passionate about going to the topics society says we can't talk about.
Kathleen spent years in a life of self-loathing, sabotage, yo yo dieting, continual weight gain, and abusive relationships.
As a single mother feeling abandoned by the world, she had a choice. She could remain seeing herself as a victim to life or find a way to heal and create a life she actually wanted to live. That latter choice lead her to where she is today.
Today we talk about:
The trauma she suffered at the hands of a close family member as a child and the way her body reacted to that trauma.
How she used exercise to punish herself.
How she came to understand that her body was holding weight as protection.
The life changing moment when she realized her body wasn't against her but was actually on her side.
How she simultaneously gave herself permission to see that it WASN'T HER FAULT AND...took complete responsibility for her life.
How quitting diets AND exercise saved her life.
HOW she learned to actually listen to her body.
And how self-love truly is a practice.
Links mentioned:
The Light Elephant Coach Website
The Light Elephant Coach on Facebook
The Psychology of Eating Podcast - Trauma and Weight Gain: The Hidden Connection.
The Psychology of Eating Podcast - Trauma and Weight Gain: The Hidden Connection Part 2.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
BEING A "FOOD WEIRDO" AND LIVING ON PURPOSE.
Welcome to the 7th episode of the Free Spirit Academy Podcast with Holistic Detox Counselor and Colon Hydrotherapist Michael Perrine. If you'll recall a couple of episodes back, I spoke with another colonic guru - Gil Jacobs. And you're probably thinking...what is with this girl and poop? And that would be a valid question ;) All I'll say is that when something changes your life - you share it. That's been true for me with kundalini yoga, intuitive eating, self-love, and cleansing my body in what might seem like an unconventional way. That said, the way I approached healing a lifetime of binge eating was also unconventional. Rather than willpower and control (which mind you, I DID try for years) I found freedom in surrender of rules, slowing down, and self-exploration. Rather continuing to promise myself that I'd never binge eat again, I started sitting down with those binges and really exploring who I was in those moments. And it changed everything - so don't be afraid of unconventional or seemingly unnatural. What's natural is WELL. Wellness is natural. Have you heard that little story about the guy who was banging his head against the wall and went to the doctor for a headache and the doctor told him to stop banging his head against the wall? Well actually, now that I think about it, a lot of doctors would probably have given him a prescription but the SANE response would be to look at the cause. We become more free when we don't have a massive blockage in the way of our expression. That blockage could be beliefs about ourselves that aren't true or traumas we suffered. The body is also more free when it's natural state isn't blocked. And that's the heart of what we'll talk about today. Back to Mike. Today we'll talk about: His first colonic with Gil Jacobs (of podcast #5) in 2002. How we went from drinking and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes every day and being 50 pounds heavier to the incredibly level of wellness he lives with today. The book he read one day when he stayed home to recover from drinking - that ended up changing his life. Why colon cleansing in and of itself isn't that useful and how it can even (like all things) be turned into a tool for disorder. The magic of cryotherapy. Embracing what's unnatural in response to unnatural living. Rebellion that serves you vs. rebellion that hurts you. The concept of "eating clean" and what it actually means. - not a moral thing where we're like "oh I was so good today" or "I was so bad today - gotta get back on track" - this is so far beyond that. And to give you a taste of what you're about to go into, one of my favorite quotes from Mike in this conversation: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away 'cause it makes you shit." I hope you enjoy this conversation with Michael Perrine. Links: Mike's transformation Vitality website Everyday Detox Podcast Everyday Detox YouTube
DIETING AND DEADLIFTS ARE NOT THE MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT YOU.
Welcome to the 6th episode of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with Eating Psychology Expert and Body Image Mentor Lu Uhruch.
This interview took place a couple of years back on my YouTube channel but it's too good not to bring to the podcast. Before I officially met Lu, I stalked her on Instagram. I could not get enough of her bold, clear, body-loving, shame-softening, words of wisdom.
She is one of the most unusual women I've ever met in that she actually grew up without painful body image issues! I think I mentioned a few episodes back that there was a time in my life where I just ASSUMED that all female people wanted to lose weight. I didn't think much about the male people apparently but my shock in hearing a friend say that she wasn't trying to lose weight really shook up my paradigm.
So Lu is one of these unicorns. Her story is also fascinating because she developed disordered eating, self abuse, and body dysmorphia as an adult and today you'll hear that story.
What I relate with Lu's journey most on is this idea that the body could be doing something other than it SHOULD be doing. Both of us, when we were hypnotized by having the perfect diet and the perfect body were completely baffled when our bodies responded negatively. And instead of looking at the body's response as a MESSAGE, we made ourSELVES and our BODIES wrong. Instead of looking at our dietary approach as needing questioning, we questioned ourselves.
In my case, in all of my years of trying to obsessively cleanse and detox and lose weight - I berated my body for being HUNGRY, and not losing weight, and not having energy. I was looking at my BODY as wrong rather than LISTENING and backing off on my agressive approach.
I had such romantic ideas about what a free spirit looked like. I thought I should only need to eat bird-like quantities and float through my day feeling like perpetual magic. And while I still hold space for my body to experience all the magic available - I've learned to be with her NOW and to not make her wrong.
So back to Lu.
Today we'll talk about:
What it's like to develop an eating disorder later in life.
How she reached for control with FOOD when her LIFE felt out of control.
The health issues she developed when she stopped listening to her body and started forcing it.
The letter she wrote to her scale before smashing it.
The difference between trying to make a relationship with the SCALE work vs. the relationship with YOURself.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Lu Uhrich.
LuEats website.
LuEats Instagram.
Untamed Podcast
"Dear Scale" blog post
Linda Bacon website
Harriet Brown website
Virgie Tovar website
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
EXPLORING HUMAN POTENTIAL WITH COLON HYDROTHERAPIST, GIL JACOBS.
"The whole purpose of this cleansing stuff is to become the best possible people we can be" - Gil Jacobs
Welcome to the 5th episode of the Free Spirit Academy podcast with cleansing expert and colon hydrotherapist, Gil Jacobs.
This conversation is special. Coming from a background of disordered eating and extreme dieting, and presenting a message that's very much about getting OFF the diets and trusting our bodies - I wasn't sure how to offer this talk with Gil.
And? He was in the top 5 people I knew I wanted to share.
If you listened to the first episode, you heard me talk about years of disordered dieting, leading into raw foods and juice fasting and how I took it to such an obsessive extreme that the only way to find myself among the self-help chaos was to quit.
And quit I did. I swapped the juice fasting and perfection hunting for a quest to settle into my skin and learn to like myself as I was...without the hope of weight loss as my primary dream goal.
Once I wasn't trying to fix myself? I could actually get to know myself. I KNEW I could love myself at a higher weight, eating absolutely whatever I wanted...but over the course of months, I began feeling less and less like myself. I developed joint pain, skin problems, my depression and migraines came back, and I don't think I realized how much of a fog I was in until I slowly began to find my way out.
Gil Jacobs, the amazing man you're going to hear from today, was basically my teachers teacher. The woman who's books absolutely turned my world upside down, Natalia Rose, studied under Gil Jacobs and I consider him to be the highest authority in the wellness world.
The truth is, intuition leads us to more than just food. It leads us to teachers, and books, and paths. And I could not be more grateful for this one.
A little background for you. Many years ago Gil tried to take his own life. He failed but spent YEARS deathly ill.
His willingness to live combined with what seems like an otherworldly sense for truth lead him to the body detoxification principles he shares today and in his 60's, he's one of the most vibrant, clear people I've ever encountered.
Links mentioned:
Gil Jacobs on BonBeri
Gil Jacobs Food Rules Talking Shit About Colonics - An Everyday Detox Interview
Gil Jacobs on Well and Good
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
HOW TO ACTUALLY LOVE YOUR BODY.
Welcome to episode 4 of the Free Spirit Academy podcast, How to Actually Love Your Body.
This episode is gonna be a little different in that I'm not interviewing anyone, rather I'm gonna be talking about my perspective on self-acceptance and body love. The common experience I see is that we believe we need to DO something to be self loving or to love our bodies. Like, we have this deep sense that life in a body you love is a beautiful thing and we're right...but then we think we need to make a change or lose the weight in order to feel that beauty. I disagree. Can we have preferences for the way our body looks? Sure. But if we're pushing, forcing, molding, restricting, and dissaproving of our body ON THE WAY to a body we assume we'll love, it won't be sustainable. Because even if we do manage to willpower our way through a weight loss program, there will be a constant underlying fear that we'll end up back in that awful self-loathing place if we don't keep the weight off.
Today's episode is for you if you have been on diet after diet, spent a huge chunk of your energy trying to "fix" yourself, constantly compare yourself and your body with other women, hide in your clothes, and perhaps feel that everything will be "alright" once you lose the weight. Or perhaps you're part of the intuitive eating and body positive communities. Perhaps you've given up dieting and tried desperately to accept your body and it just. isn't. happening. You look in the mirror and try to love the cellulite but all you get is tears. Perhaps you feel like you SHOULD love your body if you're a good feminist or truly body positive. Maybe you've told yourself over and over that your body is amazing because it WALKS and GIVES BIRTH and ON AND ON...but you just don't feel it. NOT loving your body is just one more thing you feel like you're doing wrong.
Let me assure you, you're doing nothing wrong. There are no wrongs steps on the journey to body freedom, just steps that feel good and ones that don't. Steps that get us closer to being who we truly are and steps that shift us further from that experience.
Links mentioned:
Body Love full course.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
BREAKING UP WITH BODY DRAMA FOR SELF-ACCEPTANCE AND EXPRESSION.
In this conversation with Marika, we'll be diving into her journey from hiking the pacific crest trail to motherhood to quitting her job for the entreprenurial life as a health coach, Buti yoga teacher and many other adventures along the way.
We'll talk about...
...freedom within boundaries and questioning belief systems about family and the way we believe we're "supposed" to live.
...why comparison is a massive waste of time.
...how she expresses body positivity, feminism, a love of wellness, pleasure, and exploring her body's limits.
...how and why she fell in love and began teaching BUTI yoga How she broke up with her body drama
Links mentioned:
Marika's Instagram
Marika Tomkins, Authenticity and BUTI Yoga Facebook page
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
YOU CAN'T HATE YOUR WAY TO A BODY YOU LOVE.
In this second episode of the Free Spirit Academy podcast I'll be talking to Life coach, author, and face of the Perception Trainers channel on YouTube Ali Washington.
Before we dive into this conversation, I want to give a heads up that this interview took place over a year ago on my YouTube channel. It was SO fantastic however that I did my best to bring it to the podcast, even though the sound quality won't be as high as some of the more recent interviews.
This conversation is special because not only is Ali one of the wisest humans I've ever met and her approach to life and spirituality is absolutely no fluff and no bullshit - her experience with disordered eating landed on the opposite end of my experience: anorexia.
We talk about...
...Ali's history of diet-hopping and perfectionism.
...The belief that once she was skinny, she'd finally be happy.
...How she balanced healing an eating disorder while also having health issues.
...And her tendency towards extremes. In her words, she spent a long period of time either "contemplating the meaning of it all or counting her calories"
...We talked about gaining weight after anorexia and dealing with an anorexic mind without the anorexic body - but still persisting.
...What happened when she got her dream life and still wasn't happy.
...And what happened when she began REFUSING to say anything bad about her body.
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Ali Washington.
Links mentioned:
Ali's website.
Ali's YouTube channel
Ali's Instagram
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
BREAKING THE SPELL OF WHO WE THINK WE "SHOULD" BE.
"The idea of perfection in a body is a lie. It’s a lie that’s been sold to us since we were little, through magazines and television shows. We fell under the spell. We never had a chance. The spell is made more potent the more perceptive you are as a kid, noticing the hypocrisy and feeling the meaninglessness behind so many of the norms of this world, feeling the meaningless that comes with living in a culture that values production and profits more than it values life. So, how do we move through it? By not dreaming anymore." - Marlena Torres
In this inaugural episode of Free Spirit Academy, I introduce myself and my dear friend, nutritionist and astrologer Marlena Torres.
Marlena and I talk about learning to care for and feed the body with intention but WITHOUT being a crazy person about it...
...how astrology took Marlena from obsessive dieting to listening to her body.
...how just RELAXING is far more supportive when learning to listen to the body vs. obsessing over every little symptom or detail.
...and how knowing about your full birth chart is a purely positive thing - you won't find out that there's anything wrong with you, you'll only learn how to work WITH what's natural to you.
Books and websites mentioned:
The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose
Diets, Women, Neptune, & The Full Moon in Taurus by Marlena Torres
Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth
Marlena's website.
Marlena's private Facebook group.
Free Spirit Academy website.
Free Spirit Academy courses.
Free Spirit Academy Facebook group.
