Understanding Disordered Eating: Eating Disorder Recovery and Body Image Healing

You know when someone says, "Oh, that's normal", but something in your body clearly doesn't feel right? Maybe you've lost your period and brushed it off because you exercise a lot. Maybe a doctor waved it away. Maybe you've been praised for your discipline, your control, your "healthy" lifestyle, even while your body has been quietly asking for more.
In this episode, we're having an honest, deeply human conversation about hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), disordered eating, and the ways diet culture disguises itself as wellness, especially in athletic, high-achieving bodies.
Tweetable Quotes
"It is not normal to not have a period." - Dr. Nicola Rinaldi
"I had prided myself on my body because I thought I was very healthy. What I came to realize was that I was not, and I was abusing my body in a lot of ways." - Gemma Lewis
"I told countless people in my life that I didn't have my period, and nobody had ever said that. Nobody had ever asked me, 'Are you not concerned about the long-term implications of this and what you're doing to your body?'" - Gemma Lewis
"Our society really encourages that. Our society encourages exercise more, eat less." - Dr. Nicola Rinaldi
"I Googled 'how can I get my period back without gaining weight'. There is no good answer out there." - Gemma Lewis
"HA can happen to anyone in any body size." - Dr. Nicola Rinaldi
"You are more than your body." - Dr. Nicola Rinaldi 
Resources
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat! 
Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit! 
Dr. Nicola Sykes website
Connect with Dr. Nicola Sykes on Instagram
No Period, Now What?
Period Recovery Community 
REVEAL Study
Grab my Journal Prompts Here!
 
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January has a way of making everything feel louder. The pressure to start over, "fix yourself", and come back "better" than before. If you've ever felt that quiet panic underneath all the New Year motivation, this episode is for you.
Instead of making a New Year's Resolution, we're making an anti-resolution. 
Tweetable Quotes
"When we're under pressure, it's kind of impossible to make deliberate decisions and to really feel calm about it." - Rachelle Heinemann
"You don't need a dramatic reinvention to be worthy of the start of the year or even a 'fresh start'." - Rachelle Heinemann
"A lot of food-related resolutions or like body-related resolutions are rooted very much in shame, guilt, comparison, anxiety, fear of not being in control." - Rachelle Heinemann
"If you're thinking 'I need to change because there is something terribly wrong about me as a person'… even if it is the best resolution in the world, that is never gonna hold up." - Rachelle Heinemann
Resources
Grab my Journal Prompts Here!
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!
Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit! 
 
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You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected]

For so many of us, nighttime feels like stepping into a different version of ourselves. One that feels "fine" all day, but starts to unravel the moment the sun goes down. One who can't stop thinking about snacks, who wanders into the kitchen on autopilot, who feels out of control around food in ways that never show up at noon. It can feel confusing, frustrating, even shameful.
Listen to the full episode for the full unpacking and for the practical steps that can help you finally feel at peace when the night comes.
Tweetable Quotes
"Your body might not be confused or just randomly anxious. It might actually be undernourished." - Rachelle Heinemann
"Sometimes we get caught up in what we call healthy habits… and these are like the perfect conditions to breed bingey eating or nighttime food anxiety." - Rachelle Heinemann
"At night, usually that's where all the leftovers emotionally show up." - Rachelle Heinemann
"Emotional hunger is not fake hunger, it's just a metaphoric hunger." - Rachelle Heinemann
"If you're hungry, whether it's metaphoric or otherwise, you're hungry for something." - Rachelle Heinemann
Resources
Grab my Journal Prompts Here!
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!
Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit! 
 
LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.
Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!
You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected]

Struggling to find motivation in recovery, or trying to make sense of what keeps people pushing through something as painful as an eating disorder, opens a door to a much deeper conversation. This episode steps right through that door.
In this episode, we welcome back a longtime favorite guest: Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo, a neuropsychiatrist and internationally known educator whose work sits at the intersection of brain science, mental health, and eating disorder treatment. If you've heard his previous episodes, you already know that he has a profound ability to make complex neuroscience feel not just understandable, but actionable. This time, he brings something new, something that might seem unexpected coming from a neuroscientist: the science of a bucket list. And no, not the Hollywood version. Not skydiving. Not "visit Paris." Something far more foundational.
Tweetable Quotes
"It's okay to be skeptical because that's part of it." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo
"Recovery kind of involves helping the brain remember how to feel that, that curiosity, pleasure, connection, and flexibility again." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo
"When you go places, and you meet different people with different cultures, the one thing I have learned… it has helped tolerability." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo
"We're programmed, and we don't even know we're being programmed to think and, more importantly, to react." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo
"Your brain is always changing." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo
Resources
Grab my Journal Prompts Here!
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!
Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit! 
Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo's YouTube Channel
Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo's Website
 
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You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected]

Whether you're supporting others or navigating your own process, this episode offers language and perspective to help you sit with the messiness rather than fear it.
In this episode, we slow down to explore why ambivalence exists, what it reveals about our experiences, and why it's a doorway rather than a roadblock. We unpack the deeper meaning behind body goals, what thinness represents, the safety it promises, and why those promises feel so powerful even when they aren't rooted in truth. You'll learn how to face fear without bypassing it, and why sitting with discomfort is often the catalyst for real change.
Tweetable Quotes
"When somebody has an attachment to a certain body size or shape, it's because it means something and it represents something." - Rachelle Heinemann
"Ambivalence is when you want two things that contradict each other, where there are opposites at the same time. This is literally the purpose of therapy is to work through ambivalence." - Rachelle Heinemann
"The reason why we get stuck is because of ambivalence. It's because we want two things at the same time, and they're contradicting each other, and we cannot move forward." - Rachelle Heinemann
"What if we stopped treating body goals as something to take apart or dismantle? And if we started seeing them as something to understand, something to explore?" - Rachelle Heinemann
Resources
Grab my Journal Prompts Here!
Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!
Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit! 
 
LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.
Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!
You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at [email protected]