Life's too short to count almonds

For our last podcast episode ever we enter the Dream Restaurant and share our dream menus. With a format ripped directly from our all time favourite podcast Off Menu. Lots of special foods and restaurants mentioned...not necessarily in this order. "A margarita" meme Sonoma bakery - Seeded sourdough baguette or mission bread Ripples Milson's point Barangaroo House Box on the Water at Ettalong Sonoma La Crema Chardonnay 2018 Black Bar & Grill Sake Restaurant Loulou Bistro Milson's Point Lisa McGuigan & Thomas Wines dessert wines Messina Pistachio Gelato Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz Penfolds Grange The Signet Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky Laphroigh Scotch Whisky

Today we chat gut health. We explore the different things that impact out gut, why jumping straight to restriction or elimination of certain foods or a low FODMAPs diet is not recommended. We touch on prebiotics, probiotics and the impact of trauma or out emotional state on our gut functioning. A couple of gut health specialist dietitians we like are Marnie founder of Fork That and Joanna at Everyday Nutrition. We also mention this episode of The Imperfect's Podcast with Professor Felice Jacka. The best things Meg ate this week were from Flower Child in Chatswood (seriously food cold brew and food) and Bo Larn in Bondi Junction.

Today we chat Halloween. Celebrating Halloween continues to grow in popularity and both Meg & Susan have had some positive community experiences that have changed their minds a bit on Halloween. We share how we deal with lolly overload in our homes, talk about our favourite sweets and as always share the best thing we've eaten this week. Resources mentioned include The Gamer Educator Instagram account.

Today we chat cultural foods and how diet culture undermines and devalues enjoyment, culture, nostalgia, connection when it comes to food. This was as close as we got to finding the original source for the Thai/Swedish research that we talk about.  We mention 'Your Latina Nutritionist' who talks a lot about this and it great to follow. We chat about the new RecipeTin Eats cookbook Tonight by Nagi Maehashi who is having a fantastic influence on the cooking habits of Australians!  

We're back and we have some news. After 2 years creating, podcasting and running courses we have decided to stop...for now. We're not sure how long but we both need a bit more time back to focus on our other commitments. We've loved this adventure and hope it has been helpful to thoses who have come along with us. Favourite things this week - Recipetin Beef Biryani - it's a book exclusive but there's a chicken biryani recipe on the website. If you're in Narooma check out Honorbread Bakery and Lynches Pub. Fancy a salmon dish, substitute the beef in this recipe for some skin on boneless salmon which was Meg's favourite thing this week and if you are in the Hunter Valley Baume is a great family restaurant.

Popping back for a bonus episode to give you a nudge to get along to a screening of 'Your Fat Friend'. The story of Aubrey Gordon (of Maintenance Phase podcast) who first rose to some recognition for her anonymous work blogging as yrfatfriend. The movie delves into the lived experience of living life in a fat body. The impact on relationships, especially with her parents, on food and eating, movement decisions and interactions with the medical field. It's definitely worth a watch so check out the fanforce page to find a screening near you or even host one if there's not one you can get to. Our session was completely sold out so get in quick. Best thing(s) we ate this week... Thai from Thai Riffic in Parramatta Tacos from Gringa in Wollongong Small plate deliciousness from The Punthouse in Bateman's Bay

Today we go through in depth a summary of the webinar that we watched on body dissatisfaction. The good, the bad and the dangerous. Unfortunately we simply can not recommend this webinar for parent needing help helping their kids with poor body image. Much of it was not about body image at all but about how to improve nutrition quality and get kids moving and the bits that were about body image unfortunately were very surface level or impractical. It was missed opportunity and we were pretty disappointed. If you do want to access some 'on demand' body image help we do recommend our 'teen masterclass' : Helping your Kids Eat Well in a Food Confused Culture. It includes a big section on body image, practical suggestions and extra resources. It's only $35 and we have a 50% discount until the end of October using the code NICK50 making it a total bargain.

Just s short episode today, we squeezed in recording this just before watching a webinar on body dissatisfaction. Entitled ' What to do When Kids Don't Like their Bodies' you would think as Eating Disorder Dietitians we'd be thrilled that more people are talking about this issue. We usually would be. Unfortunately the 'Special Guest Expert' is not a clinician, not a psychologist but a 'weightloss expert' and 'obesity researcher'. As soon as Meg saw it advertised she immediately reached out to the host (a parenting expert with a background in education) to flag her concerns about someone who as a (self described) weight loss expert actively contributes to diet culture and fat phobia which are the key drivers of the horrendous body dissatisfaction rates that we are seeing. Unfortunately she didn't hear back so decided to buy a ticket, keep an open mind, strap in and watch, hoping to be proved wrong. We'll jump in to a deep dive of the webinar next week but spoiler...we were not proved wrong.

You may have seen in the news that a report has been released by the Australian College of Nursing making the recommendation put more nurses in school (great) to weigh kids (not great.) Thankfully the pushback has been swift, clear, measured and evidence based and we share our thoughts on the idea. We thought Dr Kyla's response and The Embrace Hub response on The Project were both great ***trigger warning for stigmatising images in the edit***  The Mexican Corn Salad recipe Meg mentioned can be found here, it's delicious. 

We love a lot of the non-diet content we see on social media. It's such a great way for people to feel connected and less alone and is often the first introduction people have to a different way of relating to food. But, it can leave people feeling a bit stuck or uncertain. So we chat about what can get missed and some options for ridging the gap. Mentioned in the episode was The Intuitive Eating Workbook and Christy Harrison's 'Anti-Diet' book and our 'detox your metaverse' and positive social media resources are available fro free download here. Annabel Crabb's Glass potatoes that we both want to try cooking recipe can be found here.

This week's episode features Susan's middle and youngest daughters, and their takes on watching That Sugar Film in PE. In a shocking turn of events Susan's youngest daughter got in the car one day last week after school and said "Guess what WE watched today" and sure enough it was That Sugar Film. Argh, this film refuses to disappear. A heightened conversation ensued!   We thought it might be interesting to recreate the conversation minus Susan's swearing. The interview is in two parts as it was harder than it should have been to get everyone all in the same place at the same time. You'll hear both girls are fairly steady in their feelings about food and their body, and are fortunately not swayed by the film. This is exactly what we talk about all the time. We are working hard to change the world, but until we can we need to protect our children from Diet Culture by making our homes a safe have from it. You can sign the petition to remove this film from schools here Unreliable Narrator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreliable_narrator Good experiment design https://nc3rs.org.uk/3rs-resources/key-elements-well-designed-experiment  

We have a short (and high energy) chat for you today. We took the opportunity of being in the same room to record an episode straight off the back of our live "Diet Culture Spring Clean" webinar. We chat about an episode of the 'The Rest is History' podcast about the history of Italian food which is very different to the myths and assumptions that are made about it. It's fascinating and you might want to listen to it here. Meg's favourite thing this week was Recipetin Eats Dahl - cheap, filling, meat-free and delish!   Doors are OPEN for The Non-Diet Way.  The Non Diet Way empowers you to see through the toxic messages of Diet Culture and live life on your terms.  Course Outline Module 1: Looking Back to move forward - How did you get here? Your food and diet story.  Module 2: Body Trust and other influences on our food choices - Understanding what influences our food and eating behaviour. Module 3: Mindfulness the superpower for conscious eating. Module 4: Planning and Food Choice the non diet way - Non-diet planning for Values aligned eating. Click here to find out more or to sign up! 

Today we chat about how important it is that we don't continue to pass down diet culture from generation to generation but make a change. We have some practical suggestions on how to do this (cough, cough, come to our FREE Diet Culture Home Detox Webinar tonight!) and share some wins that we have experienced or heard about.  We are opening doors to The Non Diet Way TODAY!!!   Check it out here, we'd love to see you inside!  Meg & Susan

At this goes out we are halfway through the Paris 2024 Olympic games.  There's bodies on display and a lot of body commentary. Some of it is great, positive, inclusive and recognising that 'fit' doesn't have look and celebrating all the amazing things that different bodies can do. But unfortunately, a lot of it is awful. Objectification of both men and women, body shaming, and criticism, so we chat about that. Makingthe most of the good and managing the bad.  We are loving Ilona Maher's instagram posts as well as lots of Olympic themed memes and humour.    Meg's favourite thing this week was Recipetin Eats Dahl - cheap, fillig, meat-free and delish!   Join us for our FREE Diet Culture Spring Clean webinar Thursday August 15. Sign up HERE. We are opening doors to The Non Diet Way in August, we've had to delay by 2 weeks but it's coming! Keep an eye on your emails for more details. If you aren't already on it, you can join the wait list here and also read more about the program and get a discount when we launch.

This is what happens when we haven't caught up in a while and don't have a topic planned. We hope you enjoy our chat today, we talk food, cottage cheese getting out of it's scope of practice by pretending to be a wrap and then go off on many tangents. This is the butter chicken recipe Meg loves even more than 'the one in the book' and this is the braised fennel recipe that was Meg's favourite thing this week, just amazing with grilled lamb (cutlets or chops) dusted with Chinese 5 spice and a little salt. Susan also mentioned the delicious slow cooked brisket. Title of today's episode taken from Adam Buxton's excellent podcast and Films to be Buried With and No Such Thing as A Fish are also podcast's that we love. We are opening doors to The Non Diet Way in August, we've had to delay by 2 weeks but it's coming! Keep an eye on your emails for more details. If you aren't already on it, you can join the wait list here and also read more about the program and get a discount when we launch.

We're thrilled to bring you today's chat with the fabulous Dr Emma Beckett. Food Scientist and Nutrition Scientist, Science communicator and all round excellent human. We chat about Emma's new book "You are More than What You Eat", how she got into food and nutrition science, her excellent food print clothing style and much more. You can find Emma on Facebook and Instagram and fabric designer Kasey Rainbow here if you want to make your own food themed clothing!  The Non-Diet Way Round 3 is coming! Click here to jump on the waitlist and get a discount code! Meg's favourite Carrot cake recipe is here.

Welcome back to Season 4. Today we chat about dry July and alcohol consumption in general including the weird rise of 'low carb or low calorie' alcohol beverages being marketed with a 'health halo', cultural factors influencing alcohol consumption and some tips for reflecting on your own relationship with alcohol. We have a really big few months coming up. We are launching the Non-Diet Way for the last time this year. Click here to sign up for updates for when we launch in August. Meg's favourite thing this week was Recipetin Falafel - give it a crack, it's delicious. Susan's was inspired by this instagram post and if you want Meg's 'meal matrix' you can get it here.

Back for the final episode before we take a little break we thought it was a good time to revisit 'Boring Self Care'. We last spoke about this in October last year but in winter and summer we often need different ways to look after ourselves. From skin checks to bulk cooking, from deciding between early morning movement and a bit of extra sleep, we chat about what helps us, especially in school holidays when the routines can be thrown out. Meg's favourite thing this week was this cake by the fabulous Yotam Ottolenghi closely followed by Nagi's laksa which makes an appearance on the pod everytime she makes it!  The Frozen Green Pea and Ham recipe Meg mentioned is also here as promised!  We're preparing to launch another round of The Non-Diet Way. Our online program that steps you thgough the work we do one on one with clients who want to get off the diet merry-go-round but aren't really sure what that means. Jump on the waitlist for our next round here. 4 modules over 5 weeks with a live zoom to debrief each module and answer your questions. 

Today we share our reflections after watching 'That Sugar Film'. Yep, we sat down and donated 90 minutes of our life so you don't have to. It was even worse than we expected. Please do not let your kids watch this movie. If you haven't signed the petition to get this awful movie out of Australian schools please do that here. This was the restaurant where Susan had her birthday dinner and Meg's breakfast wrap was from here and we highly recommend making this carrot cake. Delicious!! Jump on the waitlist for our next round of 'The Non-Diet Way', 4 modules over 5 weeks with a live zoom to debrief each module and answer your questions.   

If you listened to last week's episode you'll know that we have started a change.org requesting ACARA to remove 'That Sugar Movement' from the list of resources in the Australian Curriculum. Recently there has  been some great changes to the food and wellbeing curriculum resources with the inclusion of eating disorder organisation's recommendations and school supporting programs as well as some clear recommendations in the supporting documentation recommending ceasing the use of BMI, not doing any activities that label foods good and bad and not doing and calorie tracking activities. This is great but undermined by the presence of 'That Sugar Movement' as a key resource really undermines it. There's been a good response and if you haven't signed yet we'd appreciate your support. The next step will be getting the message out to teacher who are using it that it is incorrect, harmful and a terrible example of the use of science. In a time where the critical consumption of media has never been more important it's pretty horrifying that this is show in classrooms around the country to 'teach' about sugar. It needs to go so please sign and share.