The Full Plate Podcast with Abbie Attwood, MS

Today’s episode is free for everyone. Full Plate is made possible by paid subscribers. To receive bonus posts and support the pod, consider upgrading to paid. It really means the world, so, thank you!
Paula Atkinson is a psychotherapist and Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who has spent decades working with people around trauma, disordered eating, body image, internalized weight stigma, anxiety, grief, and relationships. For ten years, she was also a professor of Weight & Society at George Washington University, where she taught about our culture’s obsession with thinness, the history and politics of body ideals, and the oppression of larger bodies.
Listen for more on:
Paula’s experience growing up in a fat body, developing an eating disorder, and discovering how differently people treated her when her body became smaller
Why Paula thinks of thinness as a cult, and what makes its promises so difficult to walk away from
The relationship between beauty, patriarchy, white supremacy, and the policing of bodies
How attractiveness became tied to women’s survival, and why beauty standards shift alongside social and political power
Thinness as a moral hierarchy, and the promises of purity, superiority, and belonging
GLP-1s, starvation, and the normalization of suppressing our bodies’ most basic needs
Why understanding body hatred as a systemic issue can change the way we approach recovery
The grief of letting go of the promises attached to thinness, even when we know they aren't real
What to do when you know the body hierarchy is b******t but still struggle with your own body (hint: seething feminist rage)
Find more about Paula here. Follow her on Instagram here. And if you’re not following Full Plate on Instagram, make sure to do that here!
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 for live sessions every other week and a community of support from healing from diet culture:
https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group
Social media:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness


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

What if our struggles with food and body image have as much to do with our need for safety and connection as they do with food itself?
Upgrade to paid to hear the second half of the conversation right HERE.
Today I'm welcoming back Dr. Vanessa Scaringi and Kate Garland, therapists, eating disorder specialists, and authors of Hungry for Connection: Heal Your Relationships with Food and People in an Insecurely Attached World.
In our first conversation, we explored attachment theory and how our relationships with other people can shape our relationships with food and our bodies. This time, we're taking that conversation further, looking at how diet culture, weight-loss messaging, and the world we're living in can make it difficult to trust ourselves and feel like we belong.
Part One: Free for everyone
In the first part of our conversation, we explore:
*How attachment theory helps us understand our relationships with food and other people
*Why fitting in and genuinely belonging are two very different things
*The connection between loneliness, disordered eating, and our need for safety
*How our relationships can influence our ability to trust ourselves
*Why so much of diet culture recovery involves more than talking about food or bodies
Part Two: For paid subscribers
Upgrade right here to get access to part two.
In the second half, we get into:
*The GLP-1 era and how increased weight-loss pressure is impacting people trying to make peace with food and their bodies
*Why diet culture is so good at selling us belonging and acceptance
*The exhausting pressure to optimize ourselves and how that disrupts our connection with self and others
*How to learn to trust yourself again, and why it doesn’t mean always making the “right” decision
*How we can loosen our dependence on external rules and reassurance
*Why disordered eating isn’t an individual failure, and who gets let off the hook when we treat it like one.
I hope you enjoy this conversation!
Connect with today's guests:
Hungry for Connection: Heal Your Relationships with Food and People in an Insecurely Attached World
CALM Counseling — Austin, Texas
Kate & Vanessa on Instagram

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 for live sessions every other week and a community of support from healing from diet culture:
https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group
Social media:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a good woman. Particularly in light of what’s been happening at Cornell, the actions of this administration, and the ways we’re watching people and institutions respond to injustice, violence, and abuses of power.
And I keep coming back to this conversation with Savala Nolan.
Savala Nolan is an essayist, speaker, and teacher whose work explores race, gender, power, and the body. She is the author of Good Woman: A Reckoning, which is the book at the center of our conversation. It’s a beautiful, challenging examination of what it means to be raised to be “good” in a culture that has very specific ideas about what goodness looks like for women.
Tune in for more on:
* The myth that being “good” (thin, quiet, agreeable) will keep women safe
* The connection between dieting, thinness, patriarchy, and social control
* Why the endless pursuit of body improvement can keep us from fully participating in our own lives.
* What happens when we stop performing the familiar rituals of body shame and food guilt.
* The discomfort and freedom of becoming a woman who no longer follows the expected rules.
* Raising girls who feel empowered to question authority and resist harmful expectations.
* Race, white supremacy, and the particular ways white women are rewarded for maintaining the status quo.
* Midlife as rupture: dieting, divorce, and the unraveling of social conditioning
* Body liberation as a daily practice — especially in the age of GLP-1s
* What it means to become “illegible” to misogynistic culture
* Savala's powerful question: Where am I being asked not to bear witness?
This conversation is about so much more than food or body image. It's about the price of belonging, what we're taught to ignore in order to remain acceptable, and the difference between being perceived as good and actually living according to our values.
Whether you're hearing it for the first time or revisiting it with me, I hope it gives you something to think about long after the episode ends.
Find Savala on IG: https://www.instagram.com/savalanolan/
Order "Good Woman" here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/good-woman-savala-nolan?variant=43871718604834
Savala's Substack: https://savala.substack.com/
Support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
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 monthly membership: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group



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

What if you’ve been working on your relationship with food and your body for years…and you’re still struggling? Does that mean you’re doing recovery wrong?
This is at the heart of today’s bonus episode of Full Plate, and I think it’s a conversation we desperately need more of.
(To hear the full conversation, become a paid subscriber right here.)
Eating disorder stories are often told from one of two places: from the absolute depths of the struggle, or from the other side, where everything gets wrapped up into a neat recovery story. But most healing happens somewhere in between.
Johanna Scoglio, author and mental health educator, joins me to talk about living with and healing from an eating disorder that has been part of her life for more than 25 years—and what changed when she stopped measuring recovery by whether she could make every thought, urge, or struggle disappear.
Johanna shares honestly about rigid definitions of recovery, weight-centered care, all-or-nothing approaches to food and exercise, and the feeling that struggling meant she was failing.
But we also get into something I think will resonate deeply with anyone who has been doing this work for a long time: the sheer exhaustion of always working on recovery, and figuring out how much of your life to devote to healing.
Listen for more on:
* Why eating disorders are so often about much more than food or body image
* The difference between being “high functioning” and actually being okay
* How perfectionism can follow us straight into recovery
* What Johanna wishes had been different about eating disorder treatment
* Weight stigma and the issues with using weight as a marker of illness or recovery
* Why an all-or-nothing approach to movement can create its own harm
* Harm reduction as an alternative to shame, compliance, and perfection
* Including exercise without an all-or-nothing approach
*The exhaustion that can come from working on recovery for years
* What Johanna believes is the real thing she's healing from (and it has nothing to do with food)
* Learning to trust yourself, your emotions, and your own inner wisdom
* What it means to create a meaningful life while you’re still “in the water”

🎧 To hear the full conversation, become a paid subscriber right here.
Paid subscriptions directly support Full Plate and make it possible for me to continue having long, nuanced, independent, sponsor-free conversations like this one.
If you’ve ever wondered, Why am I still struggling with this?, I really hope this one meets you where you are and offers a way forward.
Johanna Scoglio is an author, educator, and mental health advocate dedicated to reducing stigma and creating compassionate spaces for those navigating eating disorders. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, four bonus children, and their puppy, Copa. Her memoir is called: When the Water Still Holds Me: Letters Through the Tides of a Long-Term Eating Disorder.
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 for live sessions every other week and a community of support from healing from diet culture:
https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group
Social media:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness

Today I’m speaking with Stephanie Dodier, a non-diet nutritionist, certified Intuitive Eating counselor, and cognitive behavior coach. Our conversation covers a lot of ground, but constantly circles this question:
What happens when you understand all of this diet culture stuff intellectually…but it still doesn’t quite feel true for you and your body?
We get into:
* The difference between eating something because you genuinely enjoy it and eating it because diet culture told you to
* Why satisfaction and pleasure matter in having a calm, compassionate relationship with food
* How gender, body size, and other identities affect who is “allowed” pleasure with food
* Why Intuitive Eating can feel like it “isn’t sticking”
* The connection between food, body control, self-worth, and belonging
* How patriarchy and cultural conditioning shape our beliefs about our bodies
* Why understanding diet culture intellectually is different from embodying new beliefs
* Why body image work can feel less straightforward than healing our relationship with food
* What embodiment can actually look like in everyday life
* Stephanie’s experience learning to wear short sleeves after years of hiding her arms
* How community helps us grow stronger roots outside of diet culture
* A practical exercise for separating facts from the thoughts and beliefs we’ve attached to them
Stephanie's work is focused on behavioral science, human psychology and body image. Her podcast is called It's Beyond the Food, and you can find her on Instagram at @stephdodier.

Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership for live sessions every other week and a community of support from healing from diet culture:
https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group

Support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe

Social media:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness


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