Episodes
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Can you work toward body acceptance while considering a GLP-1 medication? In this unscripted collaboration, body image coaches Kristina Bruce of Unlearning Beautiful and Stefanie Michele of Full But Not Finished talk about what happens when you have spent years stepping away from dieting while the culture around you appears to be moving toward weight loss again.
We discuss the pressure on both sides of the GLP-1 conversation, the limits of turning dieting or anti-diet thinking into a fixed belief system, and why body trust cannot be reduced to one universally correct decision.
The conversation moves beneath the choice itself into the life, body, identity, or future we may still be attached to—and the difficulty of knowing what self-care means after years of confusing it with self-control.
Choosing relief does not necessarily mean abandoning yourself, and choosing not to pursue weight loss does not automatically make you freer. The work is learning to recognize what is true inside your own life without turning today's decision into another rule you must follow tomorrow.
This conversation is educational and is not medical advice.
Decisions about GLP-1 medications should be made with a qualified medical professional who understands your individual health history, including any history of disordered eating or eating disorders.
ABOUT KRISTINA BRUCE
Kristina Bruce is a body image coach and the founder of Unlearning Beautiful. She helps people stop obsessing about their bodies and develop greater peace, trust, and freedom.
Free Guide to Body Peace
https://www.kristinabruce.com/guide1:1 Body Peace Coaching
https://www.kristinabruce.com/private-coachingInstagram
https://www.instagram.com/kristinabrucecoachABOUT STEFANIE MICHELE
Stefanie Michele is a certified coach and somatic practitioner who helps people understand the psychological, emotional, and nervous-system patterns underneath binge eating, food control, body image anxiety, and feeling trapped in the relationship with their bodies.
1:1 Coaching with Stefanie
https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/coachingFull But Not Finished on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@iamstefaniemicheleWebsite
https://www.iamstefaniemichele.comInstagram
https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
In this Q&A episode, I'm answering two questions about eating disorder recovery.
The first is about how to make peace with the years an eating disorder took — the grief of looking back and realizing how much of life was shaped by food, body image, fear, and survival, without blaming yourself for not recovering sooner.
The second question is about why body image can still matter, even when part of you feels embarrassed by that or tells yourself it is a "first world problem."
I talk about lost time, self-blame, body shame, and the very human wish to feel okay in your body without turning any of it into another reason to shame yourself.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Missing episodes?
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In this episode, I'm joined by Marcus Kain Murray of Strong Not Starving for a conversation about strength training that goes beyond reps, programming, and pushing harder.
We talk about what changes when training becomes something you practice instead of something you perform for approval. Marcus gets into why a workout can feel hard and still be the wrong kind of hard, how the fitness industry sells exhaustion as progress, and why pulling back is sometimes what actually helps you get stronger.
We also talk about effort, intensity, rest periods, and what it means to challenge yourself without turning exercise into another place where you have to override yourself. If you tend to either overdo it or avoid it, this conversation gives a different way to think about strength, recovery, and consistency.
This is a strength-based episode, but the lens is bigger than fitness. It's about building strength without making training the boss of your life.
Marcus is the founder of Strong Not Starving. He is a trainer, StrongFirst certified instructor, and coach with 20 years of experience in the fitness industry. His work brings together strength training, nutrition coaching, disordered eating informed fitness, stress management and recovery, sleep, and relationship coaching.
Find Marcus here:
https://strongnotstarving.com/More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comWhat happens when a food restriction is not coming from diet culture, but from an actual health need?
In this episode of Full But Not Finished, I'm answering a listener question about giving up gluten for an autoimmune condition, feeling better physically, and then suddenly feeling the old psychological pull of restriction, scarcity, rebellion, and white-knuckling come back.
We talk about the difference between a true health accommodation and a food rule, why even medically appropriate restrictions can still register as scarcity, and what gets in the way of staying connected to food freedom when your body genuinely needs something different.
I also get into food morality, perfectionism, satisfaction, autonomy, and why your psychology may rebel against a protocol that starts to feel like obedience, even when your health matters.
This episode is for anyone trying to care for their body without falling back into old binge/restrict cycles, orthorexic thinking, or the belief that food freedom means never having boundaries around food.
Topics covered: medical food restriction, gluten, autoimmune conditions, intuitive eating, food freedom, food morality, orthorexia, binge restrict cycle, scarcity mindset, health accommodations, and restriction recovery.
Substack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
In this episode, I'm joined by Minea for a conversation about food recovery, body image, control, and what happens when you understand the concepts but still don't feel safe enough to let go.
This is not a neat success story, and that is exactly why I wanted to share it.
Minea talks about growing up as a child who loved food, the moment her body began to feel like something other people could judge, the early pull toward control, and the confusing shift into feeling out of control around food after years of trying to stay in control.
We also talk about shame, identity, perfectionism, productivity, attachment, fear of weight change, and the hard-to-name place where someone can have deep self-awareness and still feel caught between what they understand and what they feel able to do.
This conversation may not be right for everyone, especially if you are currently feeling pulled toward control or struggling to feel steady in your own food and body work. Please take care of yourself while listening.
For the person who has ever thought, "I understand all of this, so why am I still here?" — this episode is for you.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemicheleTopics include binge eating after restriction, eating disorder recovery, body image, weight gain fear, perfectionism, shame, compulsive exercise, nervous system regulation, intuitive eating, attachment, resistance, and the reality of being in the middle of healing
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Last week, I talked about resistance to exercise and how movement can become safer when it is no longer tied to weight loss, punishment, or proving yourself.
This week is the other side of the coin: what happens when exercise becomes compulsive and rest starts to feel threatening.
Movement can be genuinely regulating. It can help us feel strong, embodied, capable, grounded, and in control. But that is also why it can become hard to stop. For some people, exercise becomes the one place they can access agency, discharge anxiety, manage food guilt, or feel safe inside their own body.
In this episode, I'm talking about compulsive exercise through a nervous system lens: why the behavior can make so much sense, why slowing down can feel dysregulating at first, and why the goal is not to demonize movement, but to find a dosage that is sustainable.
We'll talk about:
why exercise can become addictive the difference between choosing movement and feeling controlled by it exercise as compensation, regulation, escape, and agency why rest can feel like collapse all-or-nothing patterns with movement how to start building a more sustainable relationship with exercise why slowing down is not a lack of discipline, but its own skillMovement can stay in your life without taking over your life.
Mentioned in this episode: the difference between movement as regulation and movement as compulsion, rest as a nervous system challenge, and what it can look like to tolerate the fear of doing less.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Exercise can be hard to separate from weight loss, calorie burning, food compensation, discipline, and body control.
In this episode, I'm talking about how to rebuild your relationship with movement after dieting, binge eating, restriction, or years of using exercise as a way to change your body.
For a lot of people, exercise does not feel neutral. It can bring up old rules, old pressure, old fear, old rebellion, or the sense that movement only matters if it leads to weight loss or somehow "counts."
But movement can also be something else.
It can be a way to move energy through the body. It can help discharge anxiety, shift a flat or frozen state, interrupt rumination, and create a different relationship with your own body. It can be slow, ordinary, rhythmic, gentle, practical, or enjoyable. It does not have to be organized around punishment, compensation, or proving anything.
I also talk about what happens when diet culture thoughts still show up while you're trying to move differently. Those thoughts may be present because they were built over time. Their presence does not have to define the meaning of what you are doing now.
This episode is about reclaiming exercise and movement from diet culture, and finding a way back to movement that feels more like support than self-control.
In this episode, I talk about:
why exercise can feel charged after years of dieting how movement gets paired with weight loss, control, and morality exercise as a way to move energy through the nervous system why low motivation may be connected to overwhelm, not laziness how slow, steady movement can help thaw a flat or frozen state how higher-energy movement can help discharge anxiety why diet culture thoughts may still appear how to build a new relationship with movement without making it another ruleMore from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
In this episode, Stef talks with her husband, Mike, about what it was like to support her through years of binge eating, restriction, body shame, and recovery.
They talk about what he noticed in the early years of their relationship, what he misunderstood, what helped him understand binge eating more clearly, and why trying to "fix" it usually didn't work. They also discuss the quieter parts of support: listening without judgment, staying steady when recovery felt terrifying, not making weight gain the center of the relationship, and having a life outside of the eating disorder so the relationship could still hold more than distress.
This conversation is for anyone supporting a partner, spouse, friend, or family member through binge eating recovery, and for anyone in recovery who worries that their struggle is taking up too much space in their relationship. It is a real look at what support can sound like when someone does not fully understand the eating disorder, but is still willing to stay present, learn, and keep taking the next step with you.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Hilary Duff's "Strong Not Small" campaign has brought up a bigger conversation about wellness culture, diet culture, fitness ideals, and the way bodies are still expected to show up.
On the surface, "strong not small" sounds like progress, especially for millennial women who grew up in the early 2000s celebrity body-shaming era. We were taught to fear weight gain, compare ourselves to famous women, and treat thinness as proof that we were disciplined, desirable, and doing life correctly.
But what happens when the new ideal still looks very similar to the old one?
In this episode, I'm talking about Hilary Duff's strength-training campaign, the shift from "skinny" to "strong," and how wellness culture can repackage diet culture in language that sounds more empowering. This isn't about criticizing Hilary Duff personally, and it's not about criticizing strength training. Movement, muscle, and feeling strong in your body can be genuinely supportive. The issue is the pressure that shows up when "healthy" still has to look toned, small, youthful, sculpted, and commercially beautiful.
We'll get into why fitness and wellness messaging can feel inspiring while also activating the same body-image pressure many women are trying to recover from.
I also talk about how social media, celebrity culture, wellness trends, and fitness campaigns shape what we believe is normal, even when we logically know celebrities have access to trainers, money, editing, time, and resources most people do not.
Topics covered in this episode include:
Hilary Duff's "Strong Not Small" campaign Millennial body image and early 2000s beauty standards Why "strong, not skinny" can still become a body standard The overlap between wellness culture and diet culture How fitness trends create pressure, rebellion, or over-compliance Why your nervous system absorbs imagery before your logic can argue with it The problem with equating health with visible aesthetics How to reconnect with movement, strength, and wellbeing on your own terms Questions to ask yourself when "shoulds" start moving in on your empowermentMore from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Aging is natural, but women are rarely allowed to experience it that way.
In this episode, I talk with Deb Benfield, author of Unapologetic Aging, about the pressure women face to keep defying the evidence. This conversation is really about the promise underneath anti-aging culture: that if we can stay young enough, thin enough, smooth enough, or close enough to the ideal, we might stay safe, wanted, respected, and socially protected. Deb talks about why that promise is so powerful, why it becomes especially intense in midlife, and why it can cost women so much of their attention, creativity, sexuality, and actual life.
We also talk about the body hierarchy, the fear of becoming irrelevant, the way younger women are being pulled into anti-aging fear earlier than ever, and what it means to come back into the body from the inside rather than constantly evaluating it from the outside.
This is a conversation about aging, but more than that, it's about compliance, embodiment, and the possibility of using midlife for something more... fun.
Deb Benfield is 67, a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, and body image coach who has spent over 40 years working in the ED and body image world. Her current work focuses on helping people mend their relationship with their aging bodies.
Deb's Unapologetic Aging Circle
Deb's Book: Unapologetic Aging
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Nutrition is a complicated, sometimes scary word after ED recovery or dropping out of diet culture.
You may want more energy, steadier meals, better digestion, or a way of eating that supports your body more consistently. But the second nutrition enters the conversation, it can start to feel threatening. Old rules come back. The pressure to get it right comes back. Even a small thought about protein, vegetables, or blood sugar can start to feel like a case for rebellion.
In this episode, I'm talking about how to include nutrition in a non-diet relationship with food without turning it into another set of rules or self-sabotage.
I get into overthinking, rebellion, adding instead of subtracting, keeping nutrition basic, all-or-nothing thinking, and why one food does not cancel out another. I also talk about life seasons, because what makes sense for your food has to make sense inside your actual life.
This is a conversation about letting nutrition become a neutral, shoulders down experience.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
In this episode of Full but Not Finished, I'm talking with Alison about finding food freedom as a mom after weight gain, years of dieting, and years of living in the binge/restrict cycle.
The Body Image Workshop is open!
Allison grew up in peak 90s diet culture, with cottage cheese, "Can't Believe It's Not Butter," and the message that gaining weight was something to fear. When her body changed in adulthood, dieting seemed like the obvious answer. What followed was years of restriction, overeating, guilt, and starting over again (including one meal plan that told her to eat exactly 12 scallops for dinner).
We talk about what it took for her to see the pattern clearly (through the eyes of her husband, who watched the cycle repeat.
In this episode, we cover:
Motherhood, weight gain, and recovery after dieting Perfectionism around food, movement, and parenting What support from a partner can look like Body image (including shopping and crying in the car) in a bigger body 🍽️ Raising kids and breaking the cycle Healing in gray areas (not making a big deal out of eating a lighter dinner) ⚖️ Food morality and the fear of "doing it wrong" Why recovery does not happen the day you stop dietingIf you're trying to recover from chronic dieting, binge eating, or body obsession while also navigating motherhood, body changes, or the fear of passing this down, this conversation will resonate.
Learn more about my work: www.iamstefaniemichele.com
Hi, I'm Stefanie Michele. I help people heal their relationship with food, body image, and themselves through a nervous-system-aware, intuitive eating approach.
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Bad body image day?
I'm sharing five things I use in real time to interrupt the spiral, work with nervous system dysregulation, and get through a trigger without letting it take over the whole day. We talk about body neutrality, somatic tools, movement, distraction, and what to do when you're too flooded to think clearly.
(This episode idea came to me as I was talking to a client on Whatsapp and walked by a full length mirror -- and worked through it in real time.)
In this episode:• how I work with a body image trigger in real time
The Body Image Workshop: www.iamstefaniemichele.com/body-image-workshop Hi, I'm Stefanie Michele. I help people heal body image struggles, binge eating, and their relationship with food through nervous system work, somatic tools, and deeper self-understanding.
• why distraction can actually help
• how movement helps when body image feels urgent
• one simple somatic tool for dysregulation
• what I do when I'm too flooded for any of the above -
What happens when two body image coaches start talking "off the record"?
(also: Join The Body Image Workshop this May for more of this type of conversation)
In this special joint episode, Stefanie Michele - a Binge Eating Recovery Coach and Kristina Bruce, a Body Peace Coach share a raw, unedited conversation that was originally happening offline. We realized the "good stuff" coming up was too important not to share, so we hit record.
We're diving deep into the high cost of perfectionism in how we've viewed and treated our bodies for decades. We're pulling back the curtain on what it actually looks like to unlearn the shame and find authentic body peace.
In this episode, we discuss:
The "Dangling Carrot" of Thinness: Why reaching your "goal weight" never actually feels like arriving.
Soul Disconnection: How the pursuit of beauty standards forces us to disconnect from our intuition and life force.
Subtle Trauma: How offhand comments from family and friends shape our body image from a young age.
The Path to "Enoughness": Why recovery isn't about fixing your body, but removing the negativity that blocks your inherent worth.
Stefanie's Turning Point: Making the decision to stop fighting her body after decades of binge eating.
Kristina's 40-Day Experiment: A radical approach to letting go of negative self-talk and sitting in the truth of who you are.
This is a different kind of episode—no scripts, no filters, just two women who have been through the fire talking about what it really takes to heal your relationship with your body.
CONNECT WITH US:
Stefanie Michele
www.iamstefaniemichele.com
https://www.instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele
Kristina Bruce
www.kristinabruce.com
https://www.instagram.com/kristinabrucecoach/
Download for free The Guide to Body Peace: www.kristinabruce.com/guideMore from Stef:
Body Image Workshop
https://www.iamstefaniemichele.com/body-image-workshop
Substack (essays on body image, eating, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
If you feel like you think about food more than other people, or your appetite just seems… bigger — this episode is going to matter.
This episode is about appetite and mental hunger, and why both are so often misunderstood in binge eating recovery.
A lot of people assume that thinking about food a lot means something is wrong. Or that if a "normal" meal doesn't satisfy them, they're doing something wrong. Or that needing more food than expected means they can't be trusted.
But those conclusions are often based on standards that were never built for everyone in the first place.
In this episode, I break down the difference between:
appetite vs mental hunger (and why mental hunger can be real hunger) habit eating vs compulsive eating eating to appetite vs eating in response to guilt why you can feel full and still feel driven to eat how cumulative hunger builds and shows up as "bottomless" hunger the role of psychological pressure, perfectionism, and agency in eating patternsWe also get into how appetite varies more than we've been taught to believe — and how using a fixed idea of what "enough" looks like can quietly create the very patterns you're trying to stop.
This is for anyone who has felt like:
"I eat more than I should." "I can't trust myself around food." "Why am I still thinking about food after I've eaten?"There's more going on here than willpower.
More from Stef:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating (BE2IE) Self-Study Course
iamstefaniemichele.com/iamstefaniemichelecourse.comSubstack (essays on body image, appetite, and the nervous system)
iamstefaniemichele.substack.comInstagram (daily thoughts + short-form content)
instagram.com/iamstefaniemichele -
Why does body image get so much harder when you go away, even when you thought you were doing pretty well?
You're out of your routine, around other people more, dealing with different clothes, different food, different plans, different mirrors, and less of what normally helps you feel like yourself.
It makes sense that body image can get activated there..
In this Q&A episode, I'm answering listener questions about what gets stirred up on vacation and why it can feel so much bigger than it does at home.
We talk about the difference between nervous system overwhelm and "food issues," why having zero structure can backfire, and how things like clothing, packing, and pre-trip shopping end up carrying way more psychological weight than they seem to.
Topics include:
✈️ why body image can feel worse on vacation
🧠 overstimulation, too many choices, and nervous system overwhelm
🍽️ food FOMO vs actually enjoying your experience
🧳 packing stress and why getting dressed feels harder away from home
👙 pre-trip shopping urgency and the hope that the right outfit will make you feel okay
🪞 body image vs overall emotional state and what's actually driving what
🧩 anchor meals, routine, and staying grounded without becoming rigid
💅 the pressure to put more effort into your appearance when you're feeling exposed
If trips tend to bring up body image spirals, clothing stress, or a sense that you need to get yourself just right before you can enjoy anything, this episode gets into what may really be happening underneath that.
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After a recent trip to the beach with friends, I found myself thinking: body image doesn't ever "finish" or resolve in a permanent way. It shifts, it resurfaces, and certain environments bring it right back to the surface.
In this episode, I talk through what came up for me on this trip and why body image often intensifies on vacation. Being out of your routine, in different clothes, around other bodies, and more aware of yourself physically can all heighten attention on your body. At the same time, things like mood, stress, hormonal shifts, and transitions can get misread as "something is wrong with my body," when that's not actually the full story.
I also get into comparison and how quickly it pulls the nervous system into scarcity, especially in close proximity to other people. This isn't just a mindset issue, it's a physiological one, and it changes the way you interpret what you see.
We also talk about aging as a layer of body image that adds a different kind of complexity, and why even a strong foundation in this work doesn't mean these thoughts or feelings disappear.
And importantly, I walk through the tools that helped me stay steady while this was happening, including separating body image from food decisions, using posture and breath to counter contraction, interrupting spirals, and practicing a form of radical acceptance that allows you to stay in your life even when you don't feel great in your body.
If you've ever gone on vacation and felt more aware of your body, more comparative, or more unsettled than expected, this episode will likely resonate.
Part two will be a listener Q&A on body image and vacation.
Visit iamstefaniemichele.com/wednesdays for weekly emails and updates from StefRESOURCES:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating Self-Study Course
Read my Substack essays
Read my short-form content on Instagram
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Anger is one of the most important emotions in recovery, and one of the hardest for people to let themselves feel.
In this episode, I talk about why anger gets such a bad reputation, why so many of us are afraid of it, and why I think it is deeply connected to body image, shame, binge eating, restriction, and boundaries.
Many people associate anger with aggression or danger. Others grew up in environments where anger wasn't allowed, especially for women, so it became something to suppress, avoid, or turn inward. And when anger gets turned inward, it often becomes shame.
I talk about anger as a nervous system experience, especially its connection to the fight response, and how suppressed anger can show up in body image distress, binge eating, restriction, and difficulty with boundaries.
In this episode we talk about:
• why anger is often feared or avoided
• how anger gets redirected into shame and self-criticism
• the connection between anger and boundaries
• why women are often conditioned to fawn instead of fight
• how diet culture and body standards provoke legitimate anger
• recognizing the somatic signs of anger in the body
• simple ways to move anger through the nervous systemAnger doesn't have to mean rage or confrontation. Sometimes the first step is simply being able to say: I feel angry.
And when anger is allowed instead of suppressed, it can become a source of clarity, agency, and change.
Visit iamstefaniemichele.com/wednesdays for weekly emails and updates from Stef!RESOURCES:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating Self-Study Course
Read my Substack essays
Read my short-form content on Instagram
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In this Intuitive Eating Q&A episode, we're unpacking three nuanced questions that often come up in recovery and food freedom work: ✨ How to say no to food without slipping back into restriction ✨ Whether eating lighter before a brunch or event can still be intuitive ✨ Why food can feel less exciting after recovery — and what that means Many people assume food freedom is only about permission and saying yes to previously restricted foods. But true intuitive eating also includes choice, discernment, and self-trust — including the ability to say "no thanks" when it genuinely comes from your body and not from diet mentality. We also talk about practical eating, nervous system safety around food decisions, and the confusing overlap between restriction and choice (because externally, they can look identical). And finally, we explore the experience some people have after binge eating recovery, when food loses its thrill or dopamine rush, and how to understand that shift without assuming something is wrong. If you've ever wondered: Can I say no and still be intuitive? Is planning ahead for food events okay? Why does food feel less special now? This episode is for you. Visit iamstefaniemichele.com for more information about how to work together. Also on Substack @iamstefaniemichele
RESOURCES:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating Self-Study Course
Read my Substack essays
Read my short-form content on Instagram
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Processed foods are having a cultural moment, and the way they're discussed online is so extreme that it's hard to know what to trust without feeling stressed or guilty.
In this episode, I'm talking about why the fear-based language around ultra-processed foods is such a red flag, and why I don't trust conversations that rely on absolutist claims meant to scare you into compliance (or sell you something).
I also get into what's missing from most of the discourse: systems. Time, money, energy, access, chronic illness, and the realities of modern life matter, yet wellness culture keeps collapsing this into "personal responsibility," as if everyone has the capacity to live like it's their full-time job.
I share how ultra-processed foods fit into my own all-in recovery and why I stand by that choice, while still being willing to talk about nutrition without turning food into morality.
And I spend a big chunk of this episode on the psychology piece—because even when people are arguing about physiology, the psychological impact of restriction, scarcity, and moralizing food often creates the exact chaos they claim they're trying to prevent, especially when these foods are everywhere (and especially with kids).
If you've been feeling spun up by UPF headlines or wellness content, this is meant to bring you back to a grounded, common-sense view that includes both physiology and psychology. Subscribe for more on binge/restrict recovery, body image, food anxiety, and nervous-system-informed approaches to eating.
RESOURCES:
Binge Eating to Intuitive Eating Self-Study Course
Read my Substack essays
Read my short-form content on Instagram
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