Real Fit
Do you worry that you’re not enough—not good enough, successful enough, or thin enough?Do you ever wonder if your self-worth hinges too strongly on your weight or your athletic performance? Real Fit is for women like you. You can expect conversations with remarkable women athletes where we get real about issues like body image, impostor syndrome, and empowerment. My goal is to share stories that will inspire you to be your best self and to and let you know you're not alone.
Figuring out who you want to be on the other side of menopause with Selene Yeager
Episode #60 // Eating disorder recovery, thriving in menopause, navigating perimenopause, fueling for power and performance without restriction
CW: Eating disorder
If you have questions about perimenopause, menopause, or how you can eat what you want without adhering to any rules and still perform well as an athlete, do not go anywhere, this episode was MADE for you.
Today I have Selene Yeager, the host of the Hit Play Not Pause podcast, content manager at Feisty Menopause, and best-selling professional health and fitness writer, including the co-author of ROAR and Next Level with Dr. Stacy S...
Intuitive Eating Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality (Part 3)
Episode #59 // Covering the first principle of Intuitive Eating: Reject the Diet Mentality, part 3- the importance of curiosity
I'm back with a solo episode on intuitive eating, discussing the first principle: Reject the Diet Mentality. (Quick backstory if you're new here: Intuitive Eating is a practice Evelyn Tribole and Eileen Resch originally presented in the 90's in the book Intuitive Eating, is now in its 4th edition.)
This is actually the third in a three-part series on the first principle of Intuitive Eating (the first two as well as an episode where I go over...
The life-saving magic of embodiment with Alison Rothman
Episode #58 // Alison Rothman, Body-Centered Holistic Empowerment Coach and yoga practitioner // How can we use what's already inside of us to heal from trauma and cultivate resilience?
TW: trauma, gun violence, eating disorders, addiction
I’m so excited to bring you a conversation with Body-Centered Holistic Empowerment Coach and yoga practitioner Alison Rothman. Alison is a fellow Boulderite and podcaster- her show is called Embodied and Awake, and she’s also the mom of a teenage boy.
Through healing from her her experiences with trauma, addiction, and an eating disorder (please consider this yo...
How self-compassion can unleash your speediest, strongest athletic performance with Erin Ayala
Episode #57 // How do the stories we tell ourselves impact our self-image, our performance, and even the enjoyment we derive from sport? And what if those stories aren’t serving us? How can we change them?
Licensed sport psychologist, certified mental performance consultant, researcher, and elite cyclist Erin Ayala and I explore these questions and so much more in this week’s episode of Real Fit.
Erin also shares the surprising comment from an ex that sparked her leap into endurance sports, her experience competing in triathlons in the Athena category, why she’s passionate about creating...
Sara Gross on the intersection between diet culture and sport | Ep. 56
Growing up, Sara Gross was one of the strongest, fastest, kids in her class. So she didn’t understand why she only saw women playing sports on TV once every four years, at the Olympics. Today, she’s a retired professional triathlete and the CEO and Founder of Feisty Media, a company she created in 2017 with the goal of creating an empowering culture for all active women. Feisty Media approaches change-making in a multi-disciplinary way, using four pillars of performance: Physiology, Nutrition, Mental Health and Culture.
After defending her PhD in Women’s History in 2008, Sara competed as a p...
Ditching dieting to embrace authentic, wholehearted living with Kim Basler | ep. 55
TW: Suicidal thoughts
How do you let go of restrictive dieting and a lifetime of people pleasing to ultimately embrace intuitive eating and start living a life that honors your true needs, desires, values?
Food freedom & mindset coach, author, speaker, and award-winning fitness professional Kim Basler takes a deep, vulnerable, insight-filled dive into that question in this episode. Kim is a flipped her professional and personal life upside down when she admitted that dieting and perfectionism were destroying her mental and physical health.
I suggest preparing to be inspired and having a tissue rea...
Intuitive Eating Principle 1: Reject the Diet Mentality (Part 2) | Ep. 54
No matter what you've seen on Instagram, intuitive eating is about so much more than eating whatever you want whenever you want. It's not the hunger/fullness diet. It's not license to eat donuts all day every day or permission to never eat a vegetable again.
Intuitive eating (which is based on the eponymous book by dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Eileen Resch, originally published in the 90s), is based on ten principles — the first of which is Reject the Diet Mentality.
This episode is part of a series on Intuitive Eating where I'm exploring each of t...
Christine Yu, author of Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes | Ep. 53
Christine Yu is an award-winning journalist whose work focuses on the intersection of sports science and women athletes. Her writing has appeared in Outside, The Washington Post, Runner’s World, and other publications. She’s a lifelong athlete and yoga teacher who loves running, surfing, and skiing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Her new book, Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes, masterfully blends narrative and science to explain what we know about female athletic performance, why women have historically been left out of the research, why it matters, and what it would take to f...
Jill Merkel, Anti-Diet Dietitian and Runner: On uncoupling weight and health | ep. 52
Jill Merkel is an anti-diet, weight-inclusive Registered Dietitian specializing in disordered eating, Intuitive Eating, and sports nutrition. She’s been in private practice since January 2017 helping women find freedom from diet rules and restriction and helping athletes and active individuals fuel their bodies without obsession.
The team dietitian for the NFL Tennessee Titans for 5 seasons (2017-2021), she previously worked for several colleges, serving their student athletes. In Jill’s free time, you’ll find her reading, running, or traveling. Her goal is to run a race in all 50 states.
Connect with Jill
Shilletha Dragonsky Curtis, queer athlete writer, and influencer of color: Facing mental health issues and racism on the Appalachian Trail | ep. 51
When queer athlete, writer, and influencer Shilletha “Dragonsky” Curtis lost her job right when the pandemic lockdowns started, the depression and anxiety she’d been living with for years kicked in — hard. She experienced panic attacks, and ended up doing intensive outpatient treatment and when her program ended, the New Jersey native noticed everyone seemed to be talking about hiking.
As a New Jersey native, hiking wasn’t something Shilletha had done or knew much about. But she followed her curiosity, first to the trails of the Garden State, and eventually to thru-hike all 2190 miles of the Appalachian...
