#mentalhealth

Why It's Harmful to Equate Thinness with Health

Paige Smathers

May 20, 2019

Why It's Harmful to Equate Thinness with Health

If I could wave my magic wand and change one thing about how people thought about health it would be this. You cannot look at a person and know whether or not they're in good health. You know nothing about their eating patterns, exercise, stress or anything other health-related behavior by the way they appear. There are so many reasons why it's toxic to equate thinness with health. I'll go through some of the most salient reasons here in this post. I recognize that the way ou

Paige Smathers

Jan 28, 2019

It Doesn't Really Matter What You Eat

It doesn't really matter what you eat. Does that sound crazy? It probably does, and it probably sounds even stranger coming from a registered dietitian. I care about healthy eating. I care about providing nourishing foods to my family and myself. I care about working with others to make improvements with their nutrition. This is a huge part of my life so of course it's important to me! But, you can have too much of a good thing. You can die from drinking too much water, and y

124: Performative Health vs. Embodied Wellbeing

Paige Smathers

Jul 18, 2018

124: Performative Health vs. Embodied Wellbeing

This podcast episode dives deep into some of the most critical and core concepts within the realm of health and healing. I spoke with Dr. Lilia Graue, who is both a physician as well as a psychotherapist, to dive into the distinctions between performative health versus embodied wellbeing. Lilia Graue, MD, LMFT, is an eating disorders specialist and clinical supervisor; mindfulness, compassion and mindful eating instructor; and Certified Body Trust® Provider. With 18 years of

121: What it's Like to Feel you Don't Fit In with the Non-Diet Message

Paige Smathers

Jun 27, 2018

121: What it's Like to Feel you Don't Fit In with the Non-Diet Message

Have you ever felt like you don't fit in with the non-diet message? Have you ever scratched your head about a post you saw on social media from someone who represents the intuitive eating approach, Health at Every Size, or anything else along those lines? Have you ever wondered if there's a place for you in the non-diet movement? The short answer is yes. But, listen to the entire discussion, because we explore a very real feeling of not fitting in going on in the non-diet wor

119: Getting Comfortable with Feeling Uncomfortable

Paige Smathers

Jun 13, 2018

119: Getting Comfortable with Feeling Uncomfortable

Dr. Judi-Lee Webb is a licensed psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist who practices in Atlanta, Georgia. She talks in this episode about the importance of representation in the field of eating disorders and talks about how she is passionate about breaking down and ending the stigma related to mental health conditions. She also explains some of the interesting trends she's seeing in her area about who is seeking help from a therapist today, versus who was seeki

Paige Smathers

Jun 6, 2018

118: Exploring Hormonal Health

Hormonal health is a trendy topic right now. But, how can we navigate figuring out what's fact versus fiction when it comes to hormones? I invited the fabulous Robyn Nohling, FNP, RD, MSN who is both a registered dietitian and board certified family nurse practitioner who specializes in women's health along with eating disorders and disordered eating to tack the topic of hormones with me on the podcast. We talk about her philosophical and treatment approach evolution througho

Paige Smathers

Apr 17, 2018

111: Breaking Down Weight Science

Fiona Willer, AdvAPD is a dietitian and academic who has devoted her career to empower health professionals to adopt weight neutral practice by providing support and training in how and why to do so. In short, she wants to destroy the perception and practice of 'dietitian as food police.' She does this though online and in-person training and is in the final stretch of completing her PhD. She is such an asset to the dietetics field! In this podcast episode, Fiona and Paige di

96: How the Challenges of Motherhood can be a Catalyst for Growth & Healing

Paige Smathers

Jan 3, 2018

96: How the Challenges of Motherhood can be a Catalyst for Growth & Healing

The shifts in identity, roles, responsibilities and every other aspect of life during motherhood can really throw a person for a loop. Lindsay Stenovec, MS, RD, CEDRD has created a supportive and body positive community for moms and moms-to-be to discuss the challenges and joys of motherhood. Today on the podcast, Lindsay and I discuss her own journey to motherhood and valuable lessons she learned about her relationship with food and her body as well as her mental health as s

91: Incorporating Intuitive Eating with a Chronic Illness

Paige Smathers

Nov 30, 2017

91: Incorporating Intuitive Eating with a Chronic Illness

Tori Smedley is a registered-dietitian-to-be and a University of Utah student pursuing a degree in nutrition. In this podcast, she shares her personal story with navigating health concerns and a chronic illness while finding intuitive eating and body positivity. She shares her own eating story of the intersection between a chronic health condition and eating disorder recovery. You'll love her story and will benefit from her personal wisdom around the ideas of how to incorpora

79: How Racism and Historical Trauma Manifest Themselves in Struggles with Food and Body Image

Paige Smathers

Sep 6, 2017

79: How Racism and Historical Trauma Manifest Themselves in Struggles with Food and Body Image

Gloria Lucas is a champion for eating disorder awareness and body positivity and the owner and founder of Nalgona Positivity Pride (NPP). NPP is not your regular body positive project. NPP is a Xicana-Brown*-Indigenous project that focuses on intersectional body positivity, eating disorders awareness, and cultural affirmation. NPP was started in 2014 by Gloria in Southern California with the goal of relating historical trauma, social oppression, and eating disorders. NPP beli

70: A Discussion Around the Controversy of the Netflix Film 'To The Bone'

Paige Smathers

Jun 28, 2017

70: A Discussion Around the Controversy of the Netflix Film 'To The Bone'

Netflix is releasing a film chronicling a woman who is suffering from anorexia nervosa. While the documentary clearly has good intentions, it's stirring up a great deal of controversy within the eating disorder recovery community. I spoke with Jennifer Rollin, MSW, LCSW-C about her concerns about the documentary and broaden the conversation about how we, as a community of people who are about these issues, might do better in the future. Jennifer is an incredible writer, thera

66: Triggers—Sensitivity without Censoring

Paige Smathers

May 24, 2017

66: Triggers—Sensitivity without Censoring

We live in a world saturated with information. More than ever, podcasts, blogs and social media have exposed each of us to more information about how other people live and what other people's struggles. Culturally, it seems there is a trend toward more awareness about how our words and behaviors affect other people. Many posts on social media will contain trigger warnings as an effort to help warn people about potentially triggering content in the post or episode. All of thes

45: A Personal Story of How a Perceived Gluten Sensitivity Masked an Eating Disorder

Paige Smathers

Sep 6, 2016

45: A Personal Story of How a Perceived Gluten Sensitivity Masked an Eating Disorder

Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and journalist who specializes in HAES and intuitive eating. She does such amazing work in her professional life with her podcast, her social media, her private practice, her online course and more. But, I wanted to talk to her about her own personal journey with food and learn about her path to recovery from an eating disorder. Christy talks about she assumed she had a gluten sensitivity and how this assumption led to

Top 6 Myths of Intuitive Eating Debunked

Paige Smathers

Aug 17, 2016

Top 6 Myths of Intuitive Eating Debunked

If you’ve ever experienced the yo-yo effect diets have emotionally and physically, you might have looked into an idea called intuitive eating. There’s a book, a website, trainings for health professionals, and many online communities all revolving around this approach to nutrition and health. At the core of this philosophy is making peace with food by ditching dieting and honoring your body’s innate ability to regulate hunger and fullness. Intuitive eating can change lives —

41: Health at Every Size & the Fat Acceptance Movement

Paige Smathers

Aug 1, 2016

41: Health at Every Size & the Fat Acceptance Movement

A growing trans-disciplinary movement called Health at Every Size (HAES) shifts the focus from weight management to health promotion. The primary intent of HAES is to support improved health behaviors for people of all sizes without using weight as a mediator; weight loss may or may not be a side effect. Have you heard chatter about the Health At Every Size movement and/or the Fat Acceptance Movement? There are so many misconceptions and myths surrounding these ideas and Nico

37: Ways to Work Through Problematic Self-Talk

Paige Smathers

Jul 2, 2016

37: Ways to Work Through Problematic Self-Talk

Episode 8 in the Body Image Series on NMP is all about how to develop positive self-talk. So often, one negative thought leads to a cascade of choices and thoughts that lead us to a place of despair, discouragement and shame. Christy Maloney, RDN, LDN, CPT is a registered dietitian who works with people who are in recovery from an eating disorder and has tons of experience helping people work through negative self-talk. In this episode, 5 filters mental filters are discussed