On this week's 'sode I'm talking to Dr. Charlotte Cooper, psychotherapist and author of fat activism; she is punk, witchy, queer, and fat, and one of the coolest people I've ever met. This is potentially one of my favourite episodes ever. We talk about the euphimising and watering down of fat phobia by the medical establishment. We talk about how the 'War on Obesity' and organisations like the WHO are responsible for creating the problem of fat phobia in the first place and how they are now trying to clean their own mess and STILL GETTING IT WRONG. We talk about why using person first language in relation to obesity is still problematic. We talk about maintaining power structures through constructing fat bodies as problems that need solving and so much more. It's a really rich conversation. I highly recommend you read Charlotte's book and follow her work.
Show Notes
{Charlotte's Website}
{Charlotte on Twitter}
{Cat Pousé podcast}
{Fat Activism}
{Fat & Proud}
{A walk around Fat Activist London}
{Nothing About Us Without Us: Fat People and Research Justice by Dr Charlotte Cooper}
{Obesity Time Bomb}
{Sabrina Falco Massage}
{Amanda LaCount}
{LADA}
Happy New year team! Today I'm talking to the incredible Marci Evans about body image, self-acceptance, and food 'addiction'. Marci is a certified EDRD, a body image healer, and intuitive eating counsellor. Our conversation is a great antidote to all the diet culture BS you're seeing everywhere right now. We talk about why it's so challenging to develop positive body image, what real body positivity actually means and thin privilege. We also look more closely at self-acceptance and self-compassion and why developing practices around these concepts can help you heal your body image. Finally we go deep on the science around the idea of food 'addiction' and discuss what the evidence really means; plus some ideas on how to help build a healthier relationship with foods you feel you might be addicted to.
In the final episode of 2017, we're talking to the sensational Fiona Sutherland, non-diet dietitian & yoga teacher, about how to navigate the holidays around food, body image, and diet chat. We discuss everything from how to cope with food guilt & anxiety, to how to stop food FOMO, breaking the binge/restrict cycle, and how to deal with diet chat and the food police. This is probably my favourite episode of the whole year; Fiona is a total babe, so warm and compassionate but doesn't take any crap. Exactly our kind of people. I really think you're going to love this episode.
SHOW SPONSOR
This episode is Sponsored by the London Centre for Intuitive Eating - This Christmas give the gift of a healthy relationship to food with a gift certificate to my Food Fight programme. 10% of each course sold will be donated to Help Refugees.
Show Notes
This Black Friday we're celebrating the little guys; the indie makers, creators, designers and small shops in our That's My Jam Christmas Gift Guide Special. Emily Beeson, the blogger and creative soul at Young Gold Teeth shares her favourite independents where you can find that really special gift for that hard-to-buy-for person in your life. Whether they're the nester/homebody type, the foodie, or you just need a secret santa gift that doesn't suck, we got you. Emily also shares where to find Christmas crackers that don't suck, pretty Christmas cards, and experiential gifts that aren't your average trashy Groupon. We also talk about Emily's extensive knowledge of celebrity animals (and why you need them in your Insta feed). PLUS, she smack talks Drake ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ P.S. neither Emily or I are judgey about shopping on the high street (Amazon is my lifeline), we just wanted to big up some of the little guys who don't get enough air time.
Show Sponsor
This episode is Sponsored by the London Centre for Intuitive Eating - This Christmas give the gift of a healthy relationship to food with a gift certificate to my Food Fight programme. 10% of each course sold will be donated to Help Refugees.
SHOW NOTES
{Emily on Instagram | Twitter}
{Young Gold Teeth}
{Emily for The Papergang Blog}
GIFTS FOR THE HOME
{Luks Linen - throws, blankets, Turkish towels and linens I’m loving}
{Copper & Solder - handmade concrete and copper accessories}
{Smug - for plants and pots}
{The Future Kept - (We talked about them last year but if I had to pick one, TFK would be my favourite shop. They have a whole gift category for the home filled with handmade ceramics and candles that are really beautiful and all have a story to tell.)}
BEAUTY GIFTS
{Bybi by Clean Beauty Co - for skincare}
{Sister and Co - for body treats}
{LA EVA - for bath and shower gifts}
DO STUFF GIFTS
{Outdoors workshops with Axe and Paddle (not for everyone but a great team of inspiring people)}
{Range of creative workshops at The Forge, Bristol}
{Silver ring making workshops with The Workbench}
{Range of lovely workshops at &Hobbs, Surrey}
FOOD + WELLNESS GIFTS
{Caro x Chocolate Society bars}
{Honest Brew Craft Beers} - (also Salthouse Bottles, my local beer shop)
{The Goodness Project hampers}
GIFTS FOR BIG READERS
{Papersmiths for beautiful books (Do Book Co and coffee table books especially)}
{Magculture for magazines (my favourites are 91, Hole & Corner, Huck and Frankie & Cherry Bombe)}
{School of Life for deep thinking and life lessons}
SHOP OFFLINE: INDIE STORES TO VISIT
{Homage Shop, Brighton}
{Midgely Green, Clevedon}
{Maud’s House, North Yorkshire}
{Future + Found, London}
CHRISTMAS CHEER GIFTS
{Ohh Deer for Secret Santa gifts}
{The Hambledon for crackers and cards}
{West Elm - juniper fox tree decoration (doesn’t say on the British West Elm site but proceeds go to ASPCA) there are four decorations based on Insta-famous animals}
{Thornback & Peel screen-printed Christmas collection}
Celebrity Animals You Should Follow
{Juniper Fox}
{Smoothie the cat}
{Pumpkin the Raccoon}
{Dogs Being Basic}
Are you ready to shut down some beauty myths? Because consultant dermatologist Dr. Anjali Mahto is here to SHUT 👏 THEM 👏 DOWN 👏 - do you really need eye cream? What about double -cleansing? And do oil based serums actually help with acne? Anjali distills down what we really need in our bathroom cabinets, and what's just junk. Plus we talk about the unrealistic beauty standards placed on women and how dermatologists need to step up and take responsibility when they suspect body dysmorphia. Plus why we need to celebrate the wisdom and experience of older women instead of trying to erase them from consciousness. So much great stuff in this episode, LEAN IN.
Show Sponsor
Switch up your lunch game with our great new sponsor, MealPal - get out of the lunchtime funk, discover new places, and save money. BOOM.
Show Notes - full notes at laurathomasphd.co.uk
{Anjali on Instagram | Twitter}
{Anjali on Huffington Post}
{Preorder Anjali's Book}
{Anjali's Clinics: Skin 55 | Cadogan Clinic}
{Dr Pimple Popper}
{CTPA}
Anjali's Skincare Recommendations:
Sun Screen
Heliocare 360 gel oil-free SPF 50
Facial Cleansers
Oily skin:
Sensitive Skin
Antioxidant Serums
Skin brightening agents (ingredients to look out for):
- Arbutin
- Kojic or mandelic acid
- Glabridin (licorice)
- Azelaic acid
Retinoid or Vitamin A based products:
YOU GUYS, this episode is 🔥🔥🔥 Megan Crabbe, aka BodyPosiPanda, BoPo warrior, author, and earth angel is back on the pod for round 2 (go back and listen to my first ep with her - #4). In this episode we talk about Megan’s experiences writing the book, and how that was for her in terms of her mental health. We talk about anxieties, insecurities, imposter syndrome and the comparison game. So yes, even one of the most influential body positivity advocates on Instagram has bad days and I’m so grateful to Megan for being so honest with us about her mental health. We also talk about what happens when you are learning to eat intuitively and some of the challenges of that process and how to deal with the fear that you may never stop eating. You guys sent me a bunch of questions on this so I’ve tried to work them in. We talk about some common questions that come up around health and body positivity, Megan shuts down diet culture, we talk about how to deal with diet mentality, and why representation and diversity of bodies is so important. We talk about thin privilege, and soooo much more. And then Megan leaves us with her top tips for body positivity, aside from buying her book, which, if you don’t have it yet, then what are you doing with your life?
In part two of my conversation with Steph Yeboah we discuss the idea that certain bodies dominate the body positive conversation, further marginalising the people who stand to gain the most from the movement and how the media have so much to answer for in terms of promoting certain more 'acceptable' bodies over others. We also talk about the damaging stereotypes that black women live with on a daily basis and how to be an ally for POC by listening, sharing their experiences and supporting their work. Finally we talk about how to build body confidence and be unapologetically yourself. Join in our #bodyapology challenge too.
Show Notes
{Nerd About Town Instagram | Twitter}
{Nerd About Town Blog}
{Tess Holliday}
{Body Positive Power}
{The Slumflower}
{Being Unapologetically Yourself}
{A Letter to my Body}
{Milk & Honey}
{MohDoh}
{R. Kelly's Cult}
{A Victim of R.Kelly's weird cult comes forward}
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING: This episode may not be suitable for people with an active eating disorder or for those who feel vulnerable. In this week's 'sode I'm talking to Steph Yeboah - aka Nerd About Town. Steph shares her experiences of being at the receiving end of fat phobia and bullying, and the subsequent self harm and disordered eating she went through. As Steph explains, she’s gone to really extreme measures to try and get the 'perfect body'. We talk about this really painful place to be in where society & people around you are telling you that your body’s a problem, but you can’t change your body so it really becomes a radical act to accept your body, accept your size and begin to love and respect your body. I also go off on a massive tangent about how the idea of healthy or sensible weight loss in a false economy and explain a bit of the weight science behind it (papers in the show notes for HCPs). Anyway, after we take a little detour into weight science, we got back to talking about body image and more specifically where the body positivity movement is at the moment and why Steph identifies more strongly with fat acceptance and fat positivity rather than body positivity. This is such a great episode, I can't wait to share part 2.
Show Notes:
{Nerd About Town Instagram | Twitter}
{Nerd About Town Blog}
{Sign up for FOOD FiGHT}
{Don't Salt My Game at the London Podcast Festival}
{Taylor Swift & Donald Trump}
{Stigma & Perpetuation of Obesity}
{Weight Bias in Health Care Settings}
{The Ironic Effects of Weight Stigma}
{Weight Discrimination and Risk of Mortality}
I’m really excited to introduce you to disordered eating dietician Haley Goodrich. Both Haley and I suffer from anxiety and Haley shares some great advice on how she deals with that, as well as her perfectionist tendencies that in her college days manifested as issues with food and over exercise. We discuss how they can morph and show up in other ways even when you've developed a healthy relationship to food. We also talk about the experience of being a nutrition student and how that can really fuel weirdness around food if you have perfectionist tendencies or are predisposed to it in some way. There's also a level of cognitive dissonance where on one hand you’re trying to be the perfect nutrition student, but on the other hand you want to drink beer and eat cake; something that intuitive eating is flexible enough to incorporate but traditional nutrition and dietetics models are way too rigid for which can again cause a lot of anxiety if you’re a perfectionist. Haley is also a total nutrition boss and she shares some advice for really anyone who wants to be an entrepreneur but especially people who want to work within the health at every size, intuitive eating, and non-diet paradigm.
Show Sponsor:
Symprove probiotics are offering Don’t Salt My Game listeners a 12 week supply for £120, so just a tenner a week, saving yourself almost 40 quid! To order, just call them up on 01252 413600 and quote DSMG and they ship it right to your door.
Show Notes:
{Haley's Website}
{Haley on Facebook |Instagram| Twitter}
{Inspird to Seek}
{Baby Goats}
{Pumpkin The Racoon}
{Helping Hurricane Harvey victims}
{Food Fight Intuitive Eating Course}(Use code 'DONTSALTMYGAME')
{The London Podcast Festival Tickets}
Today I'm talking to body positive yoga teacher and writer, Lily Silverton about the myths surrounding what a 'yoga body' should look like and how the narrow version of yoga, stemming from the beauty myth and propagated by diet culture, fails to make room for for people who deviate from this oppressive norm. We also talk about the concept of Ahimsa and how Lily interprets this to mean making her classes a safe, body positive space for her students. Lastly we talk about how owning your own privilege doesn't mean you can't be body positive, but it does mean that you can be critical of how diet culture has co-opted this term and how it suppresses the voices of already marginalised people. It's about holding ourselves accountable & fighting for diversity & representation of ALL bodies, not just the ones that are already visible, not just the ones we find pretty. We also talk about how, like all social change, fighting for true body positivity, equality, and diversity is slow and we are only at the beginning and how conversations like these are necessary to chip away at the status quo. Lastly, Lily shares some of her favourite bopo yoga accounts to follow. This feels like a heavy conversation in a lot of way - probably because checking our privilege feels uncomfortable, but I hope we can all learn from this. I by no means am suggesting I'm close to perfect in how we talk about these issues, but I want to learn alongside you guys, and use this podcast to learn and grow together ✌️
Show Sponsor:
Symprove probiotics are offering Don’t Salt My Game listeners a 12 week supply for £120, so just a tenner a week, saving yourself almost 40 quid! To order, just call them up on 01252 413600 and quote DSMG and they ship it right to your door.
Show Notes:
{Lily on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter}
{All Body Yoga}
{The Myth of the Yoga Body}
{Amputee Yoga}
{Skinny Shaming & Thin Privilege}
{Lily's Interview w/ BodyPosiPanda}
{My Interview w/ BodyPosiPanda}
{Naomi Wolf - The Beauty Myth}
{Stoner Yoga}
{Yours Truely Melly on Body Positivity}
{Dana Falsetti}
{Jessamyn Stanley}
{Yoga Bodies Book}
{Big Gal Yoga}
{Morning Gloryville}
{Omazie}
{Body Positive Power}
{The London Podcast Festival Tickets}
{Thrive Festival Tickets}
{Lily is an ambassador for the Choose Life Mat Project}
Chevy Rough is a Human Performance Coach, Mindful Mover, and running coach from the BBC1 documentary, Mind Over Marathon. In today's ep, Chevy shares how he went from City Banker to mindfulness ambassador by using movement to help him overcome and process mental health challenges. We discuss identity, fear of rejection, substance abuse, the stigma around mental health and medication, and using movement as part of your toolkit to help with improving mental health. Finally we talk about what mindful movement actually is, and how to put it into practice (spoiler: get off Strava). Have wanted to get Chevy on the podcast for a long time, so glad to finally make it happen!
Show Sponsor: Symprove are offering their 12 week course of probiotics for £120 exclusively for Don't Salt My Game Listeners - place your order by calling 01252 413600 and quoting 'DSMG'.
{Chevy on Instagram | Twitter}
https://www.instagram.com/chasing19/
https://twitter.com/chevyrayrough
{Chevy's Website}
http://www.chevyrough.com/
The Most Important Lessons from 83,000 Brain Scans (Ted Talk)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPRsT-lmw8
Today I'm so excited to introduce you to Christy Harrison, non-diet dietitian and host of the Food Psych podcast. There's so much in this episode, it's kinda tough to summarise it, but here are some highlights: we discuss the biology of why diets don't work, and, how when you really dig into the literature, it's not an evidence based practice. This raises an interesting question around the ethics of recommending weight loss diets. We also talk about why it's not intuitive eating if you're counting macros or calories and how those things may be keeping you in disordered eating. Christy shares so much insight and wisdom into the intuitive eating process, as well as her own experiences with recovering from an eating disorder. Finally we talk about how to be responsible when sharing messages of body positivity from a place of thin privilege. Buckle in kids, this is a great episode filled with so much great information; I have a feeling you're going to love Christy.
This episode is sponsored by Symprove probiotics. Symprove are offering their 12 week course of probiotics for £120 exclusively for Don't Salt My Game Listeners - place your order by calling 01252 413600 and quoting 'DSMG'.
{Christy on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook}
https://twitter.com/chr1styharrison
https://www.facebook.com/FoodPsych/
{The Food Psych Podcast}
https://christyharrison.com/foodpsych/
{Christy's Website}
https://christyharrison.com/
{Shrill - Lindy West}
http://amzn.to/2w2Bsuw
{My Fat Friend on Twitter}
https://twitter.com/yrfatfriend
{Flexible Dietary Control vs. Intuitive Eating}
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26162949
{Isabel Foxen Duke}
http://isabelfoxenduke.com/
{Eating in the Light of The Moon}
http://amzn.to/2vlykxr
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING: This episode may not be suitable for people with an active eating disorder or for those who feel vulnerable.
Daniella Isaacs is an actor who is recovering from orthorexia; she’s written a one woman show called Hear Me Raw about her experiences of how the wellness scene enabled and normalised her eating disorder. In this episode Daniella explains how she got into wellness, how things got bad, then worse, then she lost her period and developed osteopenia - so things got pretty bad before she was able to take a step back and figure some stuff out and give herself the space to find what well looked like for her. I love Daniella's honesty and bravery as she opens up and explains what she went through and she brings an awesome energy and makes this interview really fun even though we're talking about heavy stuff.
JARR kombucha are serious game changers, shaking up how we perceive soda alternatives and totally disrupting the kombucha scene in the UK. Join co-founders Adam and Neil as they tell us how their little start up is the talk of London town, their cool plans with WholeFoods, and why their booch is different from everything else on the market. PLUS, we go deep and answer some listener questions on how to homebrew your own kombucha.
Alright team, today we’re talking to big baller Izy Hossack of Top With Cinnamon about her new book, The Savvy Cooke. We also talk about Izy’s journey with food and how it changed by studying the science nutrition and how being around other nutrition students can be a kinda intense experience. We also talk a lot about processed food and how that’s not really a helpful way to describe food. Maybe surprisingly, we talk about even when you’re the New Nigella, it’s hard not to stress about likes on social media. Find out what ish bloggers have been saying lately, and why I got into trouble last time Izy was on.
This week's show was recorded in front of a live audience at the DSMG 1st birthday party! I talk to the super cool & super inspiring Jada Sezer, model and mental health/self esteem advocate. We discuss her background in psychology which led her to a career helping young women develop self confidence and self believe through body positivity and positive mental health messages (the trojan horse!). We also talk about the world of plus size modelling and the whole curves trend. Plus, audience member questions about the impact of social media on mental health and the cooption of body positivity by diet culture.
This week’s episode is with blogger (and soon to be Dr.) Jennifer Robinson. She’s giving us the lowdown on nutrition ed for med students, we talk about if body positivity is sending the wrong message about health and then we get real about Instagram’s exercise addiction. We talk about how much is too much, and how this healthy habit can become unhealthy, plus what to do when you can’t stop.
Let me introduce you to Ollie Aplin, designer and author of This Book Will Make You Stronger. We’re talking about mental health. Like, really talking about it. We cover deep issues like bipolar disorder, suicide, and drug use. If you, or someone you know is affected by any of these issues then please head to my site for resources to help you. Otherwise listen to this important conversation, share it with a dude in your life who needs to talk about some stuff. In this episode Ollie teaches us all a lesson in vulnerability, and shows us it’s a superpower, not a weakness. #1in4
Since not all of you can come to my talk at Balance Festival this week I wanted to cover some of the concepts of Intuitive Eating in a dedicated episode and I have my girl and friend of the podcast Pixie Turner here to help me. We talk about some of constructs of intuitive eating and the problems with dieting, and how lots of us are stuck in the diet mentality because of diet tools and diet culture. I'm also sharing some tips to help you break out of the diet mentality because without this step, intuitive eating becomes just another diet.
Today I'm taking about handling your ish when it comes to anxiety with Chloé Brotheridge, author of The Anxiety Solution, a new book that promises to help you become calmer, happier and more confident (sign me up!). I'm not going to lie, I got Chloé for totally selfish reasons, but I think there's going to be lots in here to help you out too! We talk about how to stop playing the comparison game, staying in your lane (but waving at the people in the lane next to you), and how to cultivate more happiness, which will ultimately lead to more success. Chloé shares loads of little nuggets of wisdom about dealing with anxiety and even sets you a little homework challenge (see my Instagram @laurathomasphd for deets).
I figured you could use a fun mini-sode to welcome you back to work after the bank holiday. Dr. Anita Mitra aka Gynae Geek is giving us the low down on the vaginal microbiome; what's it for, why is it important, and how do we keep it healthy, what do we do when something goes wrong, and should we take probiotics. Also how evolution screwed up when it comes to sperm :-/
In this episode we're getting up close and personal with the Gynae Geek, Dr. Anita Mitra. I'm asking those 'down there' health care questions that we usually feel a bit too weird and awkward asking when it comes to our lady parts. In this episode we're talking labia (never symmetrical), pubes (cushioning), HPV (we all have it) and discharge (totally normal). Ohhh yeah. But don't be freaked out, Anita is way cool and somehow makes the whole business fun and interesting, and there's a great story involving a disco ball. P.S. did you know your vagina was self-cleaning? I know, so cool, right??
And we're back! In a week where mental health is dominating the national conversation and I sat two rows behind Prince William at a screening of the new BBC1 doc I'm involved with (Mind Over Marathon) about removing the stigma of mental health, I figured we'd check in with Chartered Psychologist, Bake Off Babe, and all round supercool genius Kimberley Wilson. We talk about her work with EDs, how mental health isn't 'all in your head', and she gives her top evidence based self-care tips for looking after your mental wellbeing.
This week I'm talking to Rosie Spinks, a freelance journalist and creator of the Mouthy Women project. We talk about a whole bunch of things in this episode, the LA wellness scene (where Rosie grew up) versus London, the fear of bread and the nocebo effect, we talk about the culture of over exercise, and of course we talk about Mouthy Women and our shared obsession with fat acceptance activist and goddess Lindy West. Loved this conversation - let us know what you think @laurathomasphd @dontsaltmygame @RoJoSpinks
Here's a little bonus ep to tide you over until the next main episode. It's a excerpt from my interview with Liz Riley where we go deep on figuring out who you are and, asking what you want from life, and thinking about how you want to be remembered and why periods of alone time are so important for figuring that stuff out. This is something I've experienced and I think that's why it really resonated with me. I also thin it's relevant to the whole wellness world as so much of our identities get tied up with being the 'healthy one', but what's left when we strip that all away? Expect some serious real talk, and fodder for thought. Some of the sound is a little weird in places but stick with it, it's all good.