The Full Plate Podcast with Abbie Attwood, MS

Therapists Ashley Wilfore and Sarah Louer know what it's like to have dieting and body shame passed down to you like a family heirloom. We discuss what it means to experience intergenerational trauma, how disordered eating and body hatred get inherited and perpetuated through family values and behaviors, and what it's like to grow up surrounded by diet culture in your home. Ashley and Sarah and speak with honesty, compassion, and humor about their experiences letting go of the pursuit of thinness, and trying to raise their own children while being cycle-breakers.
Tune in to hear more about:
- What’s on their plates (hint: foods to eat when you're sick, and an ode to eggplant...)
- A clinical and personal definition of “intergenerational trauma”
- Being impacted by generational passing down of dieting and body shame
- How the idea that starving yourself is power has been believed by their family members who were otherwise independent-minded and strong 
- Specific moments and vivid memories from childhood that form beliefs today
- Overhearing the women they looked up to talking about their own bodies
- The moments they realized they couldn’t keep dieting and over-exercising 
- The intentional decisions they made as mothers when it comes to food and body talk
- How they handle their parents' anti-fat bias today

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
 
Apply for Abbie’s 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 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.
More About Ashley:
Ashley is a wife, a mom of two boys and a clinician. She has her master's in science in forensic psychology and is working on her second advanced degree in social work. She specializes in working with people with IDD and complex needs, but really enjoys talking and working with people who have experienced family trauma and supporting others to break out of social norms.
More About Sarah:
Sarah is a 54-year-old mother of four living in Vermont, working in New York. She's a licensed clinical social worker, an avid traveler, foodie, and a recovering disorder dieter. She's passionate about human rights for all, and a rectal cancer survivor. She loves Costa Rica, the ocean, and craft cocktails.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com

Abbie sits down with Meg Bowman, a nutritionist who works at the intersection of mental health, trauma, and nutrition, to explore how our lived experiences—especially chronic illness and trauma—shape our relationship with food and our bodies.
Meg shares her own story of being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, how it led her to a career change from PR to nutrition, and what she’s learned from working with clients who live with trauma, mental health conditions, and digestive issues. This is a conversation that unpacks the deeply human side of nourishment—why it’s not just about what we eat, but about how safe we feel while eating.
More of what you’ll hear:
* How trauma and chronic stress affect digestion and inflammation
* Why nervous system regulation is an essential (and underrated) part of nutrition
* The difference between physical and psychological restriction
* How self-blame and shame can trigger survival responses in the body (and make eating so hard!)
* The illusion of control that dieting and food rules can offer—and why it’s really about safety
* What “messages of safety” look like in real life (hint: regular, balanced meals count!)
* Why so many primary care visits are actually related to stress and trauma
* How to approach food when living with chronic illness without falling into restriction
Meg also shares her refreshing, realistic take on healing—one that doesn’t romanticize “perfect eating,” but instead honors the nervous system, lived experience, and the body’s need for both nourishment and compassion.
More about Meg and her book: https://www.megbowmannutrition.com/body-on-trauma-book
Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
 
Apply for Abbie’s 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
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Abbie is joined by Christyna Johnson, a registered dietitian whose work sits at the intersection of nourishment and social justice (a perfect fit for Full Plate, as you all know).
They unpack the way systems have weaponized hunger. And why that matters so much at a time where extreme thinness is being celebrated, hunger suppression is being normalized, and health is feeling more like a performance than ever.
Tune in for more on:
* Hunger as a tool of control—historically, politically, and culturally* Growing up with limited food variety, dieting, and respectability politics* Diet culture as a cult (yes, it’s fascinating)* Why appetite suppression is being framed as “health”* GLP-1 medications, food noise, and informed consent* Epigenetics, famine, dieting, and intergenerational impact* The difference between the performance of health and actual well-being* Pleasure, nourishment, and why enjoying food matters* Why younger generations give us real reasons to hope
This episode is honest, funny, gentle, and deeply unsettling in the best way. It invites us to ask bigger questions:
Who benefits when we’re disconnected from our bodies? And what becomes possible when nourishment takes up less brain space—so we can look up and care for one another?
Make sure you’re following Christyna on Instagram. And check out her book, 100 Food Affirmations, right here.
Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
Apply for Abbie’s 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
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcastFind Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com

Abbie is joined by registered dietitian Anna Sweeney for a conversation that gently but firmly pushes back on the loudest nutrition narratives we’re seeing and hearing right now (carbs, sugar, protein hype, processed foods, “good fats” and everything in between). Together, they unpack the potential harms of the newly released dietary guidelines, the moral panic around convenience foods, and the way “real food” nutrition messaging lands on disabled folks, people with eating disorders, parents, and anyone just trying to get fed.

Tune in for more on:
Anna’s lived experience with disability and how that impacts eating
Why convenience foods are not something to fear
What is inside the new dietary guidelines (and what’s left out)
How “clickable nutrition advice” is fueling misinformation
The violence of demonizing accessible foods
Why “real food” is a misleading (and loaded) concept
Protein recommendations, cultural bias, and who gets left out
Should we be avoiding sugar?
Carbohydrates as essential (and why the fear-mongering won’t stop)
How nutrition messaging creates shame instead of support
The missing role of pleasure in conversations about health
Why individual responsibility is overemphasized—and systems are ignored
Social determinants of health and nutrition conversations
Learning to trust your body in a culture that profits from distrust

Anna Sweeney (she/her) is a chronically ill and disabled relational nutrition therapist and registered dietitian. She has dedicated her career to counseling, supervising, and consulting in the field of eating disorders. Anna is the owner of a group nutrition therapy practice dedicated to anti-oppressive, fat-positive eating disorder care. Anna has spoken nationally at numerous conferences and media outlets, is globally recognized as a resource in her field, and regularly communicates on social media as @dietitiananna.

Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
 
Apply for Abbie’s 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
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.

Sharon Maxwell returns (she might hold the record!?) to talk about embracing pleasure with food and bringing fat joy into the new year. Oh and...why body liberation is not dead, they just want us to think it is.
Tune in for more on:
- Why pleasure matters in healing
- How Sharon is learning to savor food, perhaps for the first time
- Psychedelics in Sharon's recovery
- Finding “glimmers” of joy during hard seasons
- Fat joy in the new year
- How community support helps us resist diet culture
- Body liberation as an everyday practice
- Using play as an act of resistance
Support the show: Enjoying this podcast? Please support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
Sharon Maxwell (she/they) is an educator, speaker and fat activist. With compassion as a guiding principle, Sharon is a leading force in dismantling systemic anti-fat bias. She dedicates her work to eradicating weight stigma on both a social level and within healthcare settings
Find Sharon on IG: @heysharonmaxwell
Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership:
Already been at this anti-diet culture thing for a while, but in need of 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
 
Podcast Cover Photography by Anya McInroy
Podcast Editing by Brian Walters
This podcast is ad-free and support comes from your support on Substack. Subscribe HERE.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe