The Full Plate Podcast with Abbie Attwood, MS – Details, episodes & analysis

We're chatting with my friend Jenna Werner (@happystronghealthy on IG), a registered dietitian and intuitive eating counselor, to explore the complexities of our relationship with movement—including her own history with compulsive exercise, the importance of ditching the “all-or-nothing” mentality, and what it means to find peace and attunement amidst the noise of fitness culture.

Topics discussed:

• Jenna’s history of disordered exercising

• How toxic fitness culture fuels over-exercising

• A specific incident she had with a trainer 

• The impact of “shedding for the wedding”

• Disordered exercise and our mental and emotional health

• How compulsive exercise harms physical health

• The all-or-nothing mentality

• How rigid fitness routines disrupt social connection and relationships 

• Red flags in your relationship with exercise

• Breaking the cycle of shame and punishment

• Developing diverse coping strategies

• Taking a break from exercise

• Sustainable fitness routines

• What it means to be intuitive with movement

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate

Group program:

Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching

Group membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Transcripts: If you’re looking for transcripts, you can find those on Abbie's website, www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/podcast

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

Hello, hello! This is a free preview of a bonus episode. You can hear the FULL episode right here when you subscribe and support the show on Patreon.

This week, we're going deep on emotional eating and whether "everything in moderation" is the healthiest approach to food.

Here are the questions from our Patrons:

Moderation:

Hi, Abbie. As someone who has been trying to heal from diet culture, I've heard a lot about the concept of moderation. Can you explain whether practicing moderation with food can actually be helpful or if it might still perpetuate some of the restrictive and harmful aspects of dieting? Really curious to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks so much for all you do. Jen

Emotional Eating:

Hey there, Abbie, I have identified as an emotional eater pretty much all of my life. I've obviously heard that emotional eating is a bad habit and something that I need to fix, something that's wrong with me, and something that requires more willpower. But lately I've been wondering if it's really that simple. I've been starting to see my emotional eating in a different light. But I'm obviously still struggling with the experience because of how long it's been demonized. Could you explain your views on emotional eating? Can you talk about whether or not it's harmful, and is it something that I need to address? And how does restricting food contribute to feeling like an emotional eater? I've started realizing the two might be connected. Thanks so much, Alex.

To listen to the FULL episode, make sure to join Patreon right here. This not only gets you access to bonus episodes, special newsletters, and Q&A... it also helps keep the lights on around here! So thank you, truly.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate

Group program:

Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching

Group membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Social media:

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Transcripts: If you’re looking for transcripts, you can find those on Abbie's website, www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/podcast

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

On a revisited conversation -- one that left a lasting impact on me -- the incredible Savala Nolan joins us to talk about belonging versus conforming, understanding the body as our home, and how to walk away from a lifetime of disordered eating.

Savala is warm, funny, kind, smart as hell, and she will blow your mind open when she explains really hard, complex, and nuanced topics. I felt so at home speaking with her, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

Our conversation covers…

• Growing up with many dualities of race, body size, and class
• Being put on a diet starting at age 4
• Rebelling and conforming
• Our mothers, their diets, and our dieting
• The bond of dieting
• Our body as our home
• Unlearning the language of diet culture
• Quitting diets not being a choice for some
• The body being inescapable
• The cake we all need to have, and eat too

About Savala: Savala Nolan is the author of the critically acclaimed Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race Gender and the Body.  Her writing has been featured in Vogue, The New York Times Book Review,  NPR, Time, Harper’s Magazine, and more. She holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where she lectures on identity and law and directs the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice.  Her second essay collection, Good Woman, is forthcoming from HarperCollins. Find Savala on IG: @notquitebeyonce

Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at Patreon.com/fullplate

You can find episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!) on Abbie's website: www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/podcast

Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast

Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Group Counseling:

Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply for Abbie's next 10-week group program: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching

Group Membership:

Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but want community and continued learning? Apply for Abbie's monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy

Podcast Editing by Brian Walters

This podcast is ad-free and support comes from our Patrons on Patreon: Patreon.com/fullplate

It’s a husband episode! Abbie and her husband Jeb are interviewed about how they have navigated, and continue to navigate, their relationship with Jeb being a recovering addict and Abbie having recovered from an eating disorder.

This episode is full of helpful thoughts and tips for anyone who is in a relationship or friendship where mental health is central to the partnership (so, all of us!). 

We discuss: 

• Jeb’s story with addiction and how he got sober

• How Abbie and Jeb met and what dating looked like

• How they support one another when they have very different personalities

• What they have learned from each other about mental health

• The similarities and differences between addiction and eating disorders

• Genetic factors and environmental factors for both

• How to approach a friend who is struggling

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon. 

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is  @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness 

We can experience a loss of appetite for a variety of reasons – illness, stress, anxiety, dieting and restriction, and so much more.

In this episode, Abbie walks us through why this is such a common experience in recovery from dieting and disordered eating, the reasons for a loss of appetite, how to identify subtle signs of hunger, and then practical tips for coping with food when you just don’t feel like eating.

Diane and Abbie also talk through their personal experiences with appetite and hunger, and discuss ideas for everyone and anyone who is struggling with this.

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon.

Find the show on Instagram @fullplate.podcast and as always, you can find Diane on Instagram @dianesanfilippo and Abbie @abbieattwoodwellness.

We have a special guest on this episode! Dr. Kera Nyemb-Diop joins us to talk about the way diet culture influences cultural food choices and how she approaches this with her work in nutrition. We also discuss the racist origins of diet and wellness culture, common myths she hears about the “health” of certain foods in the black community, and how we can all decolonize our plates. This is an awesome episode, and not one to be missed!

Follow along with Kera and learn more about her work:

Dr. Kera Nyemb-Diop (@black.nutritionist)

Work With The Black Nutritionist

Group Coaching with Dr. Kera 

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon.

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is  @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness 

This episode is all about movement. Diet culture has bound up fitness with food and our body image, and it’s so important to unravel that to find out what movement truly means for each of us.

Making peace with exercise means approaching it from a place of self-care – but how do we do that after decades of thinking about it through the diet culture lens of “earning” or “burning” of food? Abbie takes us through three things to consider when beginning to heal our relationship with movement. We hope this is a helpful starting point! We’ll have many more future episodes on this topic to dig in further.

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon.

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is  @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness 

In this episode, we’re answering a listener question (with recommendations in general for handling medical conditions):

"Do you have suggestions for handling a high blood pressure diagnosis? I recently started blood pressure medication but have been wary of my doctor’s “diet and exercise” suggestion for lowering it without meds. Would love your HAES perspective on this! Thanks to both of you!"

Studies of interest (TW for weight stigma):

1. A review of interventions that promote eating by internal cues

2. Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer

3. Health-At-Every-Size and Eating Behaviors: 1-Year Follow-Up Results of a Size Acceptance Intervention 

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon. 

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is  @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness 

In this episode, we’re answering two listener questions about general boundaries around diet culture talk and specific boundaries at the doctor’s office.

1) "Can you recommend strategies for handling constant diet culture talk at the office, social events, with family, etc.? l literally don’t know a single person who isn’t fully engulfed in this, and many very vocally so, and so if I gracefully excluded myself from every conversation, I’d never be able to talk to anyone."

2) "What about strategies for handling doctors weight loss advice and/or an absolute insistence that you get weighed, and handling the guilting and shaming if you manage to refuse?"

Resource from Ragen Chastain for navigating weight conversations at the doctor: https://danceswithfat.org/2013/04/01/what-to-say-at-the-doctors-office/ 

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon. 

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness 

In this episode, we’re answering some listener Q&As from our Patreon community. Topics include weight loss with intuitive eating, how fitness goals fit into anti-diet culture, and how to navigate cravings for foods that don’t make you feel physically good.

• Hi Abbie and Diane, I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been loving the podcast and recommend it to all my friends. ☺️ I have a question I’m hoping you can cover in a future episode:  I started along my intuitive eating journey at the end of 2020, and gained weight (which I’m neutral about), and I have found I’m losing weight now which I think is because my cravings have shifted and by adding in more potato and rice (thanks to the twin study I did on nutrition), I feel satisfied a lot and not craving sweets as often. I am afraid somehow I’m missing something and slipping back into dieting. Is this normal? Thank you!!
  
  
• How do you recommend navigating cravings for food that you know don’t make you feel well. Lately I have been craving more processed food, things like cereal and chips. I am allowing myself to indulge in them but I normally have some tummy pain afterward. Should I continue down this path or should I make any adjustments. I am new to this journey and have so appreciated your podcast. Thank you!!
  
  
• I would love to see a topic on fitness goals and diet culture.  I do have fitness goals at this time, mostly because I am curious to see what my body can do strength wise at my age, but I would love to hear your thoughts on how/if that fits into anti-diet culture. 

We are a listener-supported show (no ads!) so please support us on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate

Patreon is also where we publicly host transcripts for each episode, so if you’re looking for those, head over to our Patreon. 

Find the show and hosts on Instagram @fullplate.podcast Diane is  @dianesanfilippo and Abbie is @abbieattwoodwellness