Insatiable with Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC

You've done the work. Tried the protocols, followed the plans. And yet food still takes up way too much mental space. You're not the problem. Those one-size-fits-all protocols you've been handed were never going to work for where you actually are.
After nearly two decades working with clients, I've watched the wellness space get louder and louder with protocols and plans telling you what to do without knowing who you are or what stage you're in. Frameworks meet you where you actually are and help you figure out why you keep turning to food in the first place. That distinction is everything when it comes to lasting change.
In this episode of Insatiable, I explain why frameworks work when protocols don't, walk you through the four developmental stages most women move through in their relationship with food, and share details about my free Untangle Your Food Triggers workshop coming up in February for those ready to move beyond protocols. 
5:52 - How last year’s “composting phase” reshaped my body of work
9:46 - Why midlife women need frameworks instead of protocols
13:19 - An appetizer for the Truce with Food Consistency program to kickstart your year
15:16 - Stages in the developmental process to a truce with food
17:16 - Why stage two is both the most confusing and the most hopeful place to land (and how to leverage it)

Mentioned In Why Food Plans Fail After 40 and What Works Instead
FREE Workshop on February 10th (not 11th, misspoke in episode) - ​​Untangle Your Food Triggers: Catch Yourself Before You Fall Off Track
Braid Creative and Consulting
How to Better Understand Stress with Andrea Nakayama
Find Your Food Stage Quiz
Send me (Ali) a text message.
🧭 If you're tired of knowing what works but not being able to make it stick, try my free food stage finder. There are four distinct stages in how we relate to food, and a few questions will reveal yours along with next steps. Visit: trucewithfood.com/find-your-food-stage

Happy New Year, Insatiable listeners! Welcome to 2026.
Today I’m resharing my conversation with parenting expert Dr. Deborah MacNamara, where we explore how food connects to our deep need for belonging, how feeling significant plays into belonging and food choices, as well as the many ways we can heal our relationships with food, fullness, and needing other people.
If you want to make real changes with your or your loved ones eating, this episode just might help you make life-changing connections that have been elusive for years and be focused in the right direction for 2026.
Tune in, then make sure to check out my new website trucewithfood.com. 
We discuss:
The difference between attachment and belonging
What Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is missing
How to focus on receptivity in relationships with our kids
Why food is often the place our relationship dynamics play out
The surprising connection between food, fullness, and vulnerability
Self-soothing vs satiation
Why feelings are different than emotions
The problematic invasiveness of “work mode”
Experimenting with being “needy” so we can learn to depend on others
More about our guest: Dr. Deborah MacNamara is the author of two books, Nourished: Connection, food and caring for our kids (and everyone else we love), and Rest, Play, Grow: Making sense of preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one). She is on Faculty at the Neufeld Institute and the Director of Kid’s Best Bet counselling.
Connect with Dr. Deborah MacNamara:
Website
Books
Facebook
Instagram
Mentioned in this episode:
Dr. Gordon Neufeld & Dr. Gabor Maté
The Religion of Wellness Culture with Anne Helen Petersen (Episode 252)
Send me (Ali) a text message.
🧭 If you're tired of knowing what works but not being able to make it stick, try my free food stage finder. There are four distinct stages in how we relate to food, and a few questions will reveal yours along with next steps. Visit: trucewithfood.com/find-your-food-stage

What if your inability to change isn't a failure of willpower, but your heart's way of protecting you from something you're not ready to face?
Today I’m sharing a conversation I had with Meghan Telpner for the Courageous Pivot podcast about how my journey from overworking addiction to radical life redesign began with a simple question: "Why does this make sense?"
I reveals how addressing my relationship with food became the gateway to confronting deeper questions about worth, identity, and what success actually means—and why healing often requires becoming a beginner all over again. From my journey through cancer, infertility, and postpartum menopause to finally redefining wealth as "freedom over my time," we get into how having the courage to slow down and listen to your body's wisdom can unlock transformations you never imagined possible.
Essential listening for anyone measuring busyness instead of impact, struggling to make changes they know they need, or ready to understand why their body might be wiser than their ambition.
We discuss:
Why only 1 in 7 heart attack survivors actually change their diet and lifestyle—even when they know it could save their lives
The hidden cost of measuring busyness instead of impact and how it perpetuates chronic exhaustion
The developmental reason we spend the first half of life proving we can exert our will on the world—and what the second half requires
Why food (and overwork) are “almost addictive”—soothing just enough to quiet the alarm but never enough to meet the actual need
What “immunity to change” reveals about the knowing-doing gap and why willpower will never be the answer
How cultural conditioning around productivity and “earning your worth” gets embedded in our nervous systems
The question that transforms self-judgment into constructive self-compassion
Connect with Meghan:
Visit Meghan’s website
Listen to the Courageous Pivot Podcast
Mentioned in this episode:
Culinary Nutrition: How to Cook for Health and Taste with Meghan Telpner – Insatiable Season 12, Episode 2
Enneagram: personality types
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey — published by Harvard Business Review Press
Rest, Play, Grow by Dr. Deborah MacNamara
Nourished by Dr. Deborah MacNamara — available through her foundation website
Laura McKowen — writer on sobriety whose rule "it's not your fault, but it is your responsibility"
Dr. Stacy Sims — exercise physiologist, Ali references regarding protein recom
Send me (Ali) a text message.
🧭 If you're tired of knowing what works but not being able to make it stick, try my free food stage finder. There are four distinct stages in how we relate to food, and a few questions will reveal yours along with next steps. Visit: trucewithfood.com/find-your-food-stage

Today, Sas Petherick returns for the fifth installment of our Body Stories series — and she’s nearly a year into her holistic weight-loss journey!
In this conversation, Sas shares what’s become unmistakably clear along the way: true change happens at the pace of your body, and all-or-nothing thinking around food and movement is far more pervasive (and sneaky) than we realize.
Together, we discuss:
Why dieting isn’t an either/or thing — and you’re never just “on track” or “off track”
How Sas embraced her birthday dinner without stressing over macros
Moving at the pace of your body instead of rushing to the “end” of a diet
The realities of The Biggest Loser and the ways they faked things for TV
How to choose a trainer you can actually trust
Self-compassion as an antidote to perfectionism
Sas’ sobriety journey and finding the third way
Make sure to check out Ali’s new website trucewithfood.com, and take the new Find Your Food Stage assessment!
Connect with Sas Petherick:
Visit Sas’s website
Follow Sas on Instagram
Subscribe to Sas’s newsletter Courage & Spice
Mentioned in this episode:
How to Lose Weight AND Love Yourself (because you can do both!) with Sas Petherick [Body Stories Series #1]
“We’re the Brave Ones” — Discipline vs Devotion, Macros & Being “Sporty” with Sas Petherick [Body Stories Series #2]
Emotions & Embodiment for Sustainable Weight Loss with Sas Petherick [Body Stories Series #3]
How to Hold Your Weight Loss Goals Loosely (for better results) with Sas Petherick [Body Stories #4]
Fit For TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser
Self-compassion books from Kristin Neff
Train with Joan
Send me (Ali) a text message.
🧭 If you're tired of knowing what works but not being able to make it stick, try my free food stage finder. There are four distinct stages in how we relate to food, and a few questions will reveal yours along with next steps. Visit: trucewithfood.com/find-your-food-stage

You’ve probably heard the advice: “Feel your emotions.” But what does that actually mean in everyday life? Especially when so many of us believe we’re feeling our feelings when we’re actually thinking our feelings. And thus, not feeling better or resolving our stubborn bad habits.
In this episode, Mary Tilson joins me to explore how we’ve each learned to stay with and move through our emotions.
Mary also opens up about her journey with addiction and anorexia, offering an honest look at how activation, dysregulation, and stress show up in our bodies and minds.
We discuss:
Being with our feelings instead of “rising above” them
Practicing mindful awareness with the R.A.I.N. acronym
Simple (but effective!) ways to resource yourself
Addiction as an adaptation
The realities of recovery and finding joy every day
The science of awe and the healing powers of nature
 
More about our guest: Mary Tilson is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach and Somatic Practitioner with a Master’s Degree in the Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health. She draws on a holistic background, which includes Somatic Experiencing, a body-based approach to healing trauma and stress-related disorders and over a decade of experience as a Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher. Having experienced drug and alcohol addiction firsthand, Mary's approach to coaching is rooted in compassion and understanding. She has been sober for over 12 years and is passionate about helping others build fulfilling lives substance-free. She supports clients through 1:1 Coaching and Retreats.
Connect with Mary:
Visit her website at sunandmoonsoberliving.com
Follow her on IG: @marytilson @sunandmoon.soberliving
Listen to her Podcast: The Sun & Moon Sober Living Podcast
Join her 2026 Women's Recovery Retreat: sunandmoonsoberliving.com/banff
Send me (Ali) a text message.
🧭 If you're tired of knowing what works but not being able to make it stick, try my free food stage finder. There are four distinct stages in how we relate to food, and a few questions will reveal yours along with next steps. Visit: trucewithfood.com/find-your-food-stage