For those of you craving some audio support in your recovery journey, here are the podcast episodes to check out (RE: binge-eating, emotional eating, Intuitive Eating, etc.)

I’ve broken up my list of favorite episodes by category so you can pick and choose whatever sounds most relevant to you.

#1. Are you struggling to “let go” around food…even though you know dieting and binge eating go hand-in-hand? 

…then listen to this important podcast interview I did with Jessi Haggerty and/or this important episode I recorded with Laura Thomas. I share my personal diet-binge recovery story in these episodes…with dedicated focus on what I call my “ultimate surrender moment” when I finally became truly *ready* to let go of trying to control my food and weight at the cost of my sanity and peace of mind. These are the episodes I most frequently recommend for folks who are considering the Master Class or Private Coaching…and these are the episodes that I think give the *deepest* insight into the diet-binge recovery process.  You can listen to my Laura Thomas interview here and my Jessi Haggerty interview here.

#2. “What if I’m not dieting, but still binge-eating?” 

You can listen to me answer this all-too-common question on this podcast episode with Julie Duffy Dillon. This episode is short and sweet, and covers super important core concepts in my work—including,

the difference between “emotional eating” and “binge-eating,”
how diet-mentality destroys our best efforts at binge-eating recovery,
why judging ourselves for emotional eating is a common cause of binge-eating
and ultimately, why the “don’t-binge-eat diet” doesn’t work very well.  

It’s a great episode for new and long-term listeners alike. Here’s the link to check it out.

Also—not exactly new—but if you missed this epic interview I did with Jessi Haggerty a few weeks back, make sure to check it out. We cover my *personal* story recovering from restriction and binge-eating in depth (including major turning points and “aha” moments)—a critical interview for anyone who may have missed it. Here’s the link once more.

#3. As you may know, I think we all need to just calm the fuck down about emotional eating. 

I recently shared my story with Dietitians Unplugged, including why it’s essential that we calm down about emotional eating, what it meant for me to “hit bottom” in my relationship with food, and why it took so long to turn the ship around.

Notable quotes from this interview include things like: “eating food ‘just for fuel,’ is like having sex ‘just for reproduction’….it’s unrealistic and misses the point.” Check out this interview here.

I also discuss these topics in depth with Sarah Vance on the Reclaiming You Podcast .

Additionally, I get the most adamant I’ve ever gotten about the critical importance of de-villainizing emotional eating in this podcast episode with Christy Harrison. We talk about everything from how negative emotional eating narratives harm recovery to why spending your life trying to avoid illness may not be a life well spent. This episode definitely covers more advanced topics and uses some more advanced language, so if you’re new—I recommend listening to my earlier episodes with Christy first and then move on to this latest episode thereafter. You can find my first and second interviews with Christy here and here.

#4. Curious about my take on “food addiction?” 

Okay, so this one isn’t new…but one of my favorite interviews I gave this year was with the HOME Podcast about the stark differences between compulsive behaviors with food (and other biological necessities) compared with chemical addictions (like drugs or alcohol). Click here to check it out.

#5. What is “Fatphobia?” Why Size-Acceptance Activism? 

Katie Dalebout was one of the first people to ever interview me on a podcast 4+ years ago. This is a reunion episode for us where we talk about everything from the history of weight-bias, to dealing with food allergies in recovery, and much, much more. Katie’s also a Master Class Alum. Click here to check it out.

On a final note, I know this list is pretty exhaustive—so don’t feel any pressure to listen to every show. Pick one or two topics that resonate with you and enjoy those episodes at whatever pace makes sense for you.

If you’re brand new to these topics—you may also want to browse the following introductory blog posts, that explain core ideas:

1. How to Stop Binge-Eating
2. What is Intuitive Eating (IFD Style)

There are two primary types of satiation that non-dieters (aka “normal” eaters) typically aim for when they eat: 

Physical Satiation & Emotional Satiation. 

Physical Satiation is the result of having all of your biological needs met around food—especially, but not limited to, your caloric and macronutrient needs.

Of course, it should go without saying that our physical needs demand a substantially greater amount of food than what diet culture would have you believe is “normal.”

It’s not uncommon for magazines and blogs to share “healthy meal plans” that are roughly equivalent to what would be considered a starvation diet fifty years ago, or roughly half of what the average woman truly needs in a day…more on this here.

Our physical needs may also be greater than what our initial attempts at Intuitive Eating would have us believe is “normal” …especially if you’re not emotionally comfortable with a wide spectrum of fullness levels, as is the case with many dieters and diet-binge cyclers when they begin their recovery process. 

On that note, it’s worth mentioning that physical satiation and fullness are NOT the same things. 

Sometimes we need to get very full (even beyond the point of “comfort”) to meet our physical satiation needs. 

This can be the case at any point in our recovery (e.g. “I was sick and lost my appetite and now it’s come back with a vengeance”), however, it’s especially common for folks in early diet recovery who may be restoring a long-term energy deficit. 

You can read more about the difference between fullness and satiation on the blog here. 

Emotional Satiation, on the other hand—which is nearly as important as physical satiation in healing our relationship with food—is achieved through the pursuit of pleasure in a meal—the feeling that we’ve gotten something delicious, enjoyable, and emotionally nourishing. 

Relaxation around food—including the belief that what (and how much) we’re eating is safe, acceptable, and won’t be taken away in the future—is a key ingredient to achieving Emotional Satiation.

Of course, relaxation around food is easily disrupted by body image concerns, health-related anxieties, or diet-related trauma—

which is why full legalization of food (both physical and emotional legalization), as well as consistent body image work and anxiety management, are key ingredients to long-term diet-binge recovery.   

In case you missed it, I speak about the critically important role of anxiety management in this important podcast interview. You don’t want to miss it.  

Lastly, it’s worth noting that “perfect” satiation in either of these areas is not really a thing. 

Satiation is a relatively gray area to shoot for—not an exact line in the sand—however, if we’re chronically unsatisfied in either of these areas, we’re likely to struggle in our relationship with food. 

Something to chew on… 

Want more Diet-Binge Recovery insights from me? Check out my FREE video training series at stopfightingfood.com

+ sign up for my free guide: How To Not Eat Cake…really fast, standing up, when nobody’s looking.

If you’ve watched my video training series, you’ve likely heard me say:

Binge eating is a reaction to deprivation around food—either physical OR emotional.

Today I’d like to add to this definition:

Binge eating is a reaction to deprivation—either physical, emotional OR unintentional.

Let me explain…

A while back I was talking to a Master Class client who was struggling with binges at night.

She was very confused as she kept saying to me, “I’m not restricting anymore—I eat whatever I want—why is this still happening?”

Her immediate assumption was that she must be emotionally restricting in some way because she was 100% certain that she was not physically restricting her food for weight control anymore.

Unsure what was going on—I asked her to share more information about what she was eating on the days of these binges, and it became very clear that she was not getting enough food during the day, and especially not enough carbs.

She suffered from a gluten allergy, and was regularly skipping starch at her meals when a gluten-free alternative was not available…not because of diet-mentality, but because she was afraid it would make her sick.

Because she had a true weight-neutral desire not to feel sick after she ate, she did not consider it restrictive to ask for “no bun” with her burger or to get a salad for lunch instead of a sandwich.

That being said, she was not *replacing* the glutinous starch she wanted to avoid with a gluten-free alternative. As a result, she was regularly (accidentally) undernourished around carbohydrates, leading to binges later in the day…often on starchy foods or sweets (including glutinous foods).

This is a perfect example of what I call “Accidental” or “Unintentional” Restriction—that is, physical under-nourishment that happens without a weight-controlling motivation and/or without the person’s conscious intent.

This client thought she was making an empowered, Health-At-Every-Size choice to avoid gluten for the sake of her health (which is totally possible!), however, she was NOT making sure to replace those glutinous items with other starchy-carb options, which are *critical* to our health and satiation around food.

While gluten may be “optional” for those who have a medical reason to avoid it—carbs are NOT optional…unless you want to put your health at risk and feel chronically unsatisfied and crazy around food. Most people need ample opportunities for starch (and fat and protein) at most, if not all, of their meals.

(And if you have health concerns about carbs for medical or blood sugar reasons, read this.)

You’d be surprised how often I run into “accidental” or “unintentional” restriction when helping folks transition to Intuitive Eating.

Other common ways that people “accidentally” restrict are by…

• waiting too long to eat in the name of “waiting for hunger” (this often goes hand-in-hand with the hunger-and-fullness diet).
• Undershooting fullness/satiation for any number of reasons (e.g. because fullness is emotionally uncomfortable or because you think you *should* be stopping at a lesser, more “polite” level of fullness.)
• eating snacks instead of meals, because you’re not “in the mood” for a full meal. While there’s obviously nothing wrong with eating snacks—missing full meals, or regularly eating snacks in lieu of meals, can become problematic pretty quickly. This is the most common way I see people accidentally restrict when transitioning to Intuitive Eating—more on this here.
• not getting enough of the major macronutrients (fat, protein, carbs) at their meals because you’re avoiding a particular food for medical or ethical reasons (for instance, gluten-free folks missing carbs, vegetarian folks not getting enough protein/fat, etc.)
• not getting enough of all the major macronutrients (or simply not getting enough food during the day), because of busy schedules, convenience, etc.

This all to say, if you don’t think you’re restricting but you’re struggling with big “ups and downs” around food—check in with yourself about some of these common areas of Unintentional Restriction before making the assumption that you must be struggling with “emotional restriction” alone.

Want to learn more about the impacts of physical and emotional restriction on binge eating? Check out my video training series here. 

Also, to learn more about How To Stop Binge Eating for good, make sure to check out this crucially important blog post, which covers all the basics of this approach.