The Body Love Binge - Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast

Your Questions Answered: Meal Plans, Bloating, Hunger, OCD, Movement & More
Right then, let's get into it.
I put a question box on Instagram and you all delivered. This episode is a juicy Q&A where I'm answering some of the most common — and some of the most vulnerable — questions that came in. From meal plans and bloating to OCD with binge eating, compulsive exercise trauma, self-care as avoidance, and ARFID being misdiagnosed in hospitals. We cover a lot of ground and I am not holding back.
This episode is for you if:
You're unsure whether to stick with your meal plan or eat intuitively
You're bloated, uncomfortable, and wondering when it will ever end
Your hunger signals have disappeared and you don't know how to eat without them
You have OCD rituals around food and wonder if full recovery is even possible for you
The thought of exercise sends you into panic and freeze mode
You're doing all the self-care things but still feel like you're avoiding something
You or someone you love has ARFID and is being treated like they have anorexia
In this episode, we cover:
✨ Meal plans versus intuitive eating — the real questions you need to ask yourself first
✨ How long bloating actually lasts in recovery and why it's a sign your body is healing
✨ Why your digestive system needs time and what's really happening inside your body
✨ How to eat when you have zero hunger — and why waiting for hunger is still restriction
✨ Mechanical eating explained — what it is, why it works, and why it's worth it
✨ OCD with binge eating disorder — yes, full recovery is absolutely possible
✨ Why your OCD latches onto food specifically and what your nervous system is really asking for
✨ Practical steps for OCD rituals around food — including tiny acts of rebellion
✨ The freeze response around movement — why it's not a problem to fix, it's a body screaming for safety
✨ Why you do not have a movement problem — you have a nervous system problem
✨ Why forcing yourself back to exercise right now would be re-traumatising
✨ What somatic healing practices actually look like when you're not ready for the gym
✨ The difference between self-care as support versus self-care as avoidance
✨ What true surrender actually looks like — and why it's uncomfortable on purpose
✨ ARFID versus anorexia — why treating them the same way is harmful and what ARFID actually needs
Powerful quotes from the episode:
💬 "You don't convince yourself to eat. You just decide to. There is no negotiating with an eating disorder — there is only a decision."
💬 "The bloating is temporary. The eating disorder is not temporary unless you heal. It will steal your entire life if you let it."
💬 "Your hunger signals have been suppressed for so long your body stopped sending them. You cannot restore hunger without eating consistently first."
💬 "You don't have a movement problem. You have a nervous system problem. Your body spent years being punished — and now it's finally safe enough to feel it."
💬 "Self-care can support surrender, but it can also become a subtle way of avoiding it. The real work is learning to just be with yourself, without doing anything about it."
💬 "You are not stuck and you are not failing. Your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do after years of trauma."
If you've been sitting with any of these questions — or recognising yourself in someone else's — this episode will give you clarity, compassion, and some very practical places to start. You've got this, my love. I really mean that.
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Parts Work, Inner Children & The Self: A Conversation with Mike
This one is a little different — and I think you're going to love it.
I invited my friend Mike onto the podcast because we've been having the most beautiful, deep conversations over voice messages for years now. It started when he reached out to me to help his friend Finja recover from anorexia, and somehow, three years later, we're still talking — about spirituality, parts work, fear, grief, and what it really means to heal. So we decided to have one of our conversations in real time, and this is it.

This episode is for you if:
You've ever wondered who the "you" is when you talk about loving yourself
You feel like you're at war with different parts of yourself and can't figure out why
You keep doing things you don't want to do and can't seem to stop
You've done the therapy, read the books, had the insights — and still feel stuck
You want to understand what parts work and Internal Family Systems (IFS) actually look like in practice
You're curious about the difference between fear and discomfort — and whether they're even different at all
You're on a healing journey and want to go deeper than behaviour change

In this episode, we cover:
✨ Mike's Word of the Year — why he chose "discomfort" and what it actually taught him
✨ The difference between your panic zone and your stretch zone — and how to know which one you're in
✨ Why checking in with your parts before, during and after facing fear changes everything
✨ What Internal Family Systems (IFS) actually is — explained in the most beautiful, accessible way
✨ The "self" versus your parts — and why the self is not a part at all
✨ The eight C's of self-energy: clarity, compassion, curiosity, courage and more
✨ Why all parts — even the ones that scare you — are rooted in love
✨ The difference between exiles and protectors, and how protectors keep you from your pain
✨ Why your protectors think you're still the age you were when the wound happened
✨ What happens to a part once it's healed — and where it goes
✨ The reframe that stopped me in my tracks: it's not self-love, it's part love
✨ My story of sitting at a traffic light, looking in the mirror, and saying "I see you"
✨ Why connection — not fixing — is what parts actually need
✨ The fear of loss at the root of every fear (try this experiment for yourself this week)
✨ Why grief might be the hardest emotion to sit with — and why it's also the most necessary
✨ The paradox of loss: you've lost something AND you've always had everything you need
✨ Why healing is seeing through illusions — and what that actually means in practice

Powerful quotes from the episode:
💬 "Discomfort and fear are the same thing. There's always a part that's afraid, and that fear is always connected to somewhere it once wasn't safe."
💬 "The self is love. That's literally what it is. So you can't love yourself — you can only love your parts. That's the real work."
💬 "I looked in the mirror at a red traffic light, looked into my own eyes, and just said: I see you. That was all she had ever needed."
💬 "Every single part of you — even the most destructive one — loves you so much it's trying to protect you from pain. There are no bad parts."
💬 "Healing is seeing through the illusions and coming to the ultimate truth that you are nothing and everything, all at the same time."
💬 "When a part finally feels seen and understood, that is the healing. Not fixing. Not reasoning. Just truly being with it."

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💙 Free trial group coaching: https://victoriakleinsman.com/coaching/
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💙 Follow me on Instagram @victoriakleinsmanofficial
💙 Become a coach: https://victoriakleinsman.com/become-a-coach/

Are Eating Disorders Physiological or Psychological? The Answer Changes Everything

This is a solo episode that shifts how you understand your eating disorder entirely.

I'm diving deep into Tabitha Farrar's work on the migration response and exploring the question that everyone asks: is it biological or is it psychological? The honest answer is it's both. And understanding why changes how you recover.

This episode is for you if:
• You've wondered if your eating disorder is "real" because you don't have anorexia
• You thought restriction should be easier and it wasn't (or it was, and then suddenly it wasn't)
• You've struggled with the binge eating that came after restriction
• You're stuck in restriction but your body won't cooperate anymore
• You've done all the therapy and still can't stop the behaviours
• You want to know why willpower doesn't work and what actually does
• You're trying to understand if you just need to eat more or if you need psychological work too

In this episode, we cover:
✨ The migration response — why some people's bodies make restriction feel easy
✨ The hibernation response — a different genetic physiological response to restriction
✨ Why your metabolism might speed up or slow down when you restrict (it's genetic)
✨ How the same person can find restriction easy, then nearly impossible (my personal story)
✨ Why some people achieve extreme weight loss easily and others don't, even with severe restriction
✨ The vicious feedback loop between biology and psychology in eating disorders
✨ What eating disorders are really about beneath the desire to be thin
✨ Why you restrict: acceptance, safety, validation, control, identity (it's always deeper)
✨ Why therapy alone won't fix an eating disorder (and why weight restriction alone won't either)
✨ Weight restoration isn't recovery — it's just the beginning
✨ How your nervous system learns to treat weight gain as danger
✨ Why you can't think your way out of what your body is experiencing
✨ The neuro pathways that need to be rewired
✨ Meeting the actual psychological needs your eating disorder was serving
✨ Why somatic work (body work) is absolutely essential for recovery
✨ The whole-picture approach: biology + psychology + nervous system + history

Powerful quotes from the episode:
💬 "Restriction wasn't hard, it felt right. It was nothing to do with willpower. It was genetics."

💬 "You can have all the insights in the world about why you developed your eating disorder and still be stuck in the behaviours."

💬 "Your nervous system has learned that weight gain equates to danger. Your brain has built neuro pathways that treat food as a threat."

💬 "Eating disorders are both physiological and psychological. They're usually not one or the other."

💬 "You deserve recovery that honours the full truth of your experience, not the simplified version that fits into a diagnosis box."

If you're confused about why eating more isn't enough, why willpower fails, why you can't just think your way out — this episode will make sense of all of it. Recovery works when you address the whole picture.

💙 Join my FREE support group: https://victoriakleinsman.com/free-support-group/
💙 Free trial group coaching: https://victoriakleinsman.com/coaching/
💙 Work with me 1:1: https://victoriakleinsman.com/1-1-coaching/
💙 Follow me on Instagram @victoriakleinsmanofficial
💙 Become a coach: https://victoriakleinsman.com/become-a-coach/

From Adoption Trauma to Root Healing - Sanne's Extraordinary Journey

This episode is absolutely raw and it's one you need to listen to if you're exploring what's really underneath your pain.

I sit down with Sanne, a physiotherapist turned Root Coaching founder, who was adopted from Sri Lanka as a baby and spent decades not knowing her story. Her journey took her from numbing with drugs and unsafe relationships, to meeting her biological mother, to using plant medicine (ayahuasca) to access the deepest layers of her trauma, to now helping others heal their inner child and access their roots.

This is not a light conversation. It's deep, it's real, and it's about understanding that everything that happened before you were even born is living in your nervous system.

This episode is for you if:
• You've experienced adoption trauma or identity confusion
• You're using substances or behaviours to numb overwhelming feelings
• You want to understand what plant medicine actually does for healing
• You believe trauma needs to be FELT to be healed (not bypassed)
• You're interested in inner child work that goes beyond talking therapy
• You're ready to go to the root instead of managing symptoms
• You want to know what authentic healing actually looks like

In this episode, we cover:
✨ What it means to be adopted and the nervous system imprint that creates
✨ How Sanne numbed decades of pain with drugs and escaping
✨ The moment she decided to search for her biological mother in Sri Lanka
✨ What ayahuasca is and why she felt called to use it for healing
✨ The difference between plant medicine in ceremony vs. random use
✨ How the ego protects us from truth and why plant medicine bypasses that
✨ The apology exercise that broke her open (writing apologies from people in her life)
✨ Why having someone physically present while you feel is the healing
✨ Trauma is created in relationship, so it can only be healed in relationship
✨ The difference between feeling it to heal it vs. rapid resolution (bypassing pain)
✨ Inner child work and why it needs to be a whole-body experience
✨ Authentic movement (not dance) as a way to release emotion through the body
✨ What happens when you combine inner child work + plant medicine
✨ How she now helps clients through Root Coaching
✨ The power of five minutes of silence when your nervous system is restless
✨ You can't force healing. You create space and it unfolds
✨ The lady who didn't cry for 10 years and what shifted it
✨ Why you need a safe person to heal. You can't do this alone

Powerful quotes from the episode:
💬 "The start is there. It really is everything. It starts from the very beginning."

💬 "You have to feel it to heal it. You can't just bypass all that pain."

💬 "Trauma is created via relationship, so it can only be healed in relationship."

💬 "The ego is lying continuously and very sharp lying to you. So you believe it most of the time."

💬 "I'm so proud of her. Even though it's so painful, she's going through everything. Badass."

If you're stuck in numbing patterns, if you think you need to understand everything intellectually before you can heal, if you're afraid of feeling your pain — this episode will change how you see what's actually possible.

This is about going to the root. Not managing symptoms. Actually healing.

Connect with Saane: https://sannevanrossen.nl/

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💙 Become a coach: https://victoriakleinsman.com/become-a-coach/

You Recovered From Your Eating Disorder, So Why Are You Still Anxious?

This is a solo episode that hits different.

I'm addressing something I'm hearing from clients constantly: "I've stopped restricting. I'm eating freely. I haven't binged or purged in months. I'm doing all the work, Victoria, but I'm still having panic attacks. I'm still depressed. Sometimes I'm more anxious now than when I had the eating disorder. Have I done something wrong?"

The answer is no. You've actually uncovered what was there all along.

This episode is for you if:
• You're recovered (or nearly recovered) but still struggling with anxiety, depression, panic, or shutdown
• You feel like recovery was supposed to fix everything, but you're still a mess
• You're wondering if you failed at recovery or if something's wrong with you
• The eating disorder was actually numbing what's underneath
• You're grieving the loss of your coping mechanism
• You want to know what the fuck to do about it

In this episode, we cover:
✨ Why recovery can actually make anxiety and depression feel worse
✨ The eating disorder as a coping mechanism — what it was really managing
✨ The window of tolerance and nervous system dysregulation explained
✨ Why your nervous system is swinging between panic and shutdown
✨ Hyper arousal vs hypo arousal — and which bank you're hitting
✨ How trauma and childhood overwhelm shaped your window of tolerance
✨ Why the eating disorder communicated what you couldn't say
✨ You are NOT a victim to your nervous system — you can manage it
✨ Up-regulation tools for when you're flat, numb, and depressed
✨ Down-regulation tools for when you're panicking, anxious, and overwhelmed
✨ The STOP skill from DBT — interrupt the automatic response
✨ Natural reframes to stop the shame spiral
✨ How to widen your window of tolerance intentionally and slowly
✨ It's not about avoiding the banks — it's about your relationship to them
✨ Practicing at your edge consistently until it expands
✨ Using fear foods as nervous system expansion work
✨ Why this is the real recovery work nobody talks about

Powerful quotes from the episode:
💬 "You didn't do anything wrong. You've just uncovered what was there all along."

💬 "Your eating disorder was never the problem. It was your solution to a problem. Now the solution is gone."

💬 "Recovery makes this worse because now you're feeling the full force of your nervous system dysregulation without the coping mechanism."

💬 "You are not a victim to your nervous system. You can actually manage it."

💬 "It's not about making the river wider so you never touch the banks. It's about your relationship to the banks when you do hit them."

If you're recovered but still struggling, if you're wondering what's wrong with you, if you're grieving the loss of your eating disorder because at least it managed something — this episode will reframe everything.

You're not broken. You're not failing at recovery. You're just finally feeling what was always there, and now you get to learn how to actually manage it.

The song I recommended:
QUIET (Acoustic) Hillside Recording & Diana Trout

💙 Join my FREE support group: https://victoriakleinsman.com/free-support-group/
💙 Free trial group coaching: https://victoriakleinsman.com/coaching/
💙 Work with me 1:1: https://victoriakleinsman.com/1-1-coaching/
💙 Follow me on Instagram @victoriakleinsmanofficial
💙 Become a coach: https://victoriakleinsman.com/become-a-coach/