Real Health Radio

It's easy to get hooked by our thoughts, even when they are unhelpful and pull us away from the kind of life we want to lead. This episode gives you five practical tools to help remind you that thoughts are just thoughts.

What if recovery makes your life worse? This week, I explore why this fear can feel so convincing, what the eating disorder’s predictions leave out, and how to move forward without waiting to feel certain.

In this episode, I explore how eating disorders use comparison around food, bodies, achievement and recovery progress to keep you feeling inadequate and questioning your needs. I also share a practical process for dealing with comparison in real time so you can continue choosing actions that support your recovery.

In this episode, I speak with my client Shannon about living for 20 years with an eating disorder shaped by under-eating, over-exercise and an identity built around movement, despite appearing highly functional from the outside. She shares what it took to stop exercising, eat enough and face the physical and emotional discomfort of recovery, and how doing so transformed her health, relationships and sense of self.

Pamela St Clair shares how she achieved full recovery after living with an eating disorder for decades. We explore what finally helped her recover, why it is never too late and how her experience led her to become an eating disorder recovery coach.

In this episode, I explain what refeeding syndrome is, who may be at risk, the warning signs and monitoring that matter, and how nutrition can be increased safely. I also explore how unnecessary fear can reinforce restriction and delay the nourishment needed for recovery.

This week on the show I speak with Dr. Brad Smith, the chief medical officer for Rogers Behavioural Health. We talk about the co-occurence of many conditions with eating disorders: OCD, anxiety, depression, and addiction. We also cover ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) - what it is, how it works and how it can be used for different aspects of recovery.

Virgie Tovar joins the podcast to examine how GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are reshaping diet culture, from the medicalisation of restriction to the marketing of weight stigma as compassion. We discuss the impact on eating disorder recovery, the psychological cost of weight cycling, and what it takes to choose body acceptance in a culture still determined to sell thinness.

One of the most common mistakes I see people making is to go slow in recovery. As part of this episode I look at the common reason why people take this approach and why it doesn't help.

Nutritional rehabilitation receives a huge amount of attention, and rightly so. But considerably less attention is given to what comes next: learning how to build a life in which you no longer need the eating disorder.

Do you know how to cope without using eating disorder behaviours? For many (or most) the eating disorder becomes their only means of coping. This means that part of recovery is about learning other ways of coping, and that's what this episode is about.

This episode explores everything you need to know about extreme hunger in eating disorder recovery, including why it happens, why it can feel so frightening, and how to respond when hunger feels relentless. It also covers mental hunger, hypermetabolism, weight restoration, common mistakes, and the myths that can keep people stuck.

This week I the show I speak with Talia Cecchele. We talk about overcoming compulsive movement, digestive issues in recovery, the RAVES framework and how it can be used when making choices about food changes in recovery as well as some nutrition myth busting.

Summer can make eating disorder recovery feel harder, but it doesn't have to derail your progress. In this episode, I unpack many common summer challenges and share practical ways to navigate them without letting the eating disorder regain ground.

The eating disorder will always try to convince you that now is not the right time to recover. You will never feel completely ready, so rather than waiting any longer, start before you feel ready.

Most people think self-compassion is about being kinder to yourself. In this episode, I challenge that idea and explain why true self-compassion in eating disorder recovery is often a behaviour, not a feeling. We explore what self-compassion looks like in practice with food, movement, body image, and recovery commitments, even when your mind is arguing against you

This week on the podcast I am looking at Adam Grant's book Hidden Potential and the ideas from it that can be applied to recovery.

Today's guest is Livia Sara. In this episode, we chat about the overlap between autism and eating disorders, existential loneliness, metabolism, body image, eating variety and its place in recovery, the fear of weight gain, hunger signals, interoceptive awareness, and how intuitive eating does or doesn’t work with autism.

Are ultra-processed foods really “addictive” or is the fear around them creating more anxiety and obsession around eating? In this episode, I break down a new 2025 study exploring dopamine, ultra-processed foods, and overeating, while unpacking why restriction, deprivation, and psychology matter far more than simplistic “food addiction” narratives.

The eating disorder always makes out how hard recovery is. But the reality is, that living with an eating disorder is harder than recovery.

In this episode, I answer listener questions on navigating social life in recovery, giving yourself unconditional permission to eat, and coping with body image distress, relapse patterns, support groups, and the role of co-occurring medical conditions in long-term recovery.

Today on the show I'm chatting with Victoria Kleinsman. We cover her 20 year battle with an eating disorder, escaping an abusive relationship, reaching a place of full recovery, how she went from body hate to body love and so much more.

Knowing what to do in recovery isn’t the same as actually doing it. In this episode, I break down why change still feels overwhelming, why insight doesn’t lead to action, and how patterns, thoughts, and isolation keep you stuck. If you’ve ever found yourself saying “not yet,” this will help you understand why and what to do differently.

In this episode, I speak to recovery coach Emily Spence. We unpack the reality of living with an eating disorder and what it actually takes to reach full recovery. We cover extreme and mental hunger, neural rewiring, rest, food indecision and the importance of bold action taking in recovery.

This week on the podcast it's a deep dive into rest and recovery. We look at why your body needs it, the different types of rest, and what blocks you from getting enough.

Pregnancy, postpartum, and early motherhood can be uniquely triggering for those with an eating disorder history. This episode explores the physiology, emotional challenges, and practical strategies to support recovery during this demanding time.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Jennifer Averyt and we discuss how CBT applies across eating disorders, GLP-1s, sleep, chronic pain, and depression, and why behaviour, not thoughts, is the key to meaningful recovery.

Cognitive distortions are patterns of thought that distort our perception of reality, cause us to misinterpret situations, magnify negative emotions, and hold unrealistic expectations of ourselves, others and the world. This can lead to increased misery, anxiety, and self-doubt, ultimately impacting our overall well-being. In this episode, I look at a number of cognitive distortions that you can be on the look out for.

In this Q&A episode, I answer listener questions on identity in recovery, balancing planning with flexibility, fears about eating more, urges for “unhealthy” foods, navigating recovery during menopause, and coping with the numbers on the scale. We explore the practical and psychological realities of eating disorder recovery, including how to handle ambivalence, break the “earn your food” rule, and build a life that expands beyond the disorder.

In this episode, I chat with therapist Dana Colthart about OCD, anxiety and eating disorders. We look at how the rituals that follow intrusive thoughts (including mental ones like rumination and reassurance seeking) reinforce the cycle, and how approaches like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) help people break it.

In this episode, I’m joined by psychologist Shannon Patterson, co-author of The Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders, to explore how CBT can support full recovery in the context of chronic illness, perfectionism, ADHD, and neurodivergence.

This episode features an interview with past client Jayne Cudia, discussing her journey to recovery from an eating disorder. Over two and a half years, she went from firmly entrenched in an eating disorder to being free from food, exercise and body image concerns.

In this episode, I explore how appeasement functions as a nervous system survival strategy — and how it can drive eating disorder behaviours. We look at why recovery can feel threatening when your system is wired to stay small, compliant, and safe, and what it takes to shift out of that pattern.

In this episode, I’m joined by psychologist Dr Lauren Muhlheim to discuss her new Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders. We explore what CBT actually is (and isn’t), how weight stigma became embedded in traditional CBT-E, and what needed to change to make CBT genuinely supportive of recovery at any body size. We also unpack core recovery foundations including regular eating, restriction, weight suppression, and building a life that’s bigger than the eating disorder.

In this episode, I break down Constrained Energy Expenditure Theory (CEET) and why the body doesn’t burn more and more energy indefinitely. We’ll explore how restriction and threat lead to conservation, and why symptoms like fatigue, feeling cold, and plateaus are signs of protection — not weakness.

Goal setting is an essential part of the recovery process from eating disorders. In this episode I look at different types of goals, when they are applicable and how to best use goals in support of action taking.

This episode features an interview with my past client Kate Ely, discussing her journey to recovery from an eating disorder. It's an incredibly vulnerable and open interview as Kate discusses many of the family struggles that led to the eating disorder and kept it going for over a decade.

If you want to recover from an eating disorder this year, this episode is for you. I outline where to be putting your focus, the things that make a difference, and what to avoid.

This week is another Q&A episode, where I continue to answer listener questions. We cover how long nutritional rehabilitation really takes, hether full recovery is possible, est, compulsive movement, and stillness, recovery in larger bodies, extreme hunger, body changes, and much more.

This episode was inspired by a recent client conversation (in fact, a conversation I've had many times before). I cover a common fear that comes up connected to making changes and weight gain, something that can stop you in your tracks just as you're getting started.