You’re listening to Burnt Toast!

We are Virginia Sole-Smith and Corinne Fay, and it’s time for a bonus March Indulgence Gospel!

Today we’re chatting about:

⭐️ How to talk to your kids about (your) weight loss and/or GLP-1 use.

⭐️ How to handle medically-advised diets without getting…diet-y.

⭐️Our favorite leggings (we stand by all these recs!)

⭐️Dealing with haters… and more!

To hear the full story, you’ll need to be a paid Burnt Toast subscriber.

If you’re already a paid subscriber, you can add on a subscription to Big Undies, Corinne’s newsletter about clothes, for 20% off.

Today’s episode is a rerun; we’re bringing you episode 100, which ran in June 2023—such a simpler time! But we had a really valuable conversation about how to talk to kids about body changes, especially if you’re losing weight on Ozempic and we thought it might be a helpful one to revisit now. Plus there is our usual smattering of assorted random Indulgence Gospel topics. And dahlias! Enjoy.

PS. This transcript does contain affiliate links; shopping our links is a great way to support Burnt Toast!

Episode 186 Transcript

Virginia

You’re listening to Burnt Toast! This is the podcast about diet culture, anti-fat bias, parenting, and health. I’m Virginia Sole-Smith and I also write the Burnt Toast newsletter.

Corinne

And I’m Corinne Fay. I work on Burnt Toast and run @selltradeplus an Instagram account where you can buy and sell plus size clothing.

Virginia

It is time for your June Indulgence Gospel! We are going to answer your questions like we do every month. We are going to read a little hate mail—I have a fun one teed up for you. And we are going to celebrate! Because this is the 100th episode of the Burnt Toast podcast.

Corinne

Wooo!

Virginia

That’s wild. Corinne, how are you? I’m happy you are here with me on this auspicious occasion.

Corinne

I am so excited that it’s the 100th episode! It’s fully summer here. It’s hot. It’s Pride. I am trying to find shorts.

Virginia

Are you finding any? Or are you frustrated in the shorts journey?

Corinne

I’m both finding and frustrated. For some reason I’m feeling like all the shorts I wore last summer I don’t like anymore. It’s not that they don’t fit. I just don’t like them anymore.

Virginia

I had a similar reaction. I had the Target linen shorts from last summer.

Corinne

They just haven’t held up?

Virginia

No. It’s not the highest quality linen, I guess.

Corinne

I do find that sometimes with fast fashion stuff, the next season it’s dingy.

Virginia

Yeah. But happy Pride! Are you doing any fun Pride things?

Corinne

I am! I’m going to an ice cream social on Wednesday which I’m very excited about. And I think I might also get a tattoo.

Virginia

Wait. Tell us everything.

Corinne

At Dyke Night.

Virginia

Okay, the mom in me is like, you’re getting a tattoo in a bar? Have you checked it out? Are they reputable?

Corinne

I don’t know if you recall, but I got COVID at Dyke Night.

Virginia

I am recalling that, Corinne.

Corinne

So it is like, a disease vector.

Virginia

Have we just done like a little background search on this tattoo artist? High quality needles?

Corinne

They do seem cool. But yeah, I will wear a mask.

Virginia

I will wear a mask, but I will let you put needles in my body.

Corinne

Yes. So I think it’ll be an exciting week!

Virginia

Are you a big tattoo person? Do you have a lot of tattoos?

Corinne

I do. It’s funny that you don’t know that. I have a fair amount of tattoos. I don’t have a ton on my body but I have some on my limbs.

Virginia

Nice. I am the only millennial who doesn’t have a tattoo. Because I’m very scared of sharp needles.

Corinne

Well, It’s not too late.

Virginia

I know. I’ve just never had a thought of, that is what I would like. Do you know what the tattoo is going to be?

Corinne

It’s a flash event which means that they have pre-drawn stuff. And it’s a bunch of weird cute little creatures.

Virginia

This sounds delightful.

Corinne

I’m excited to get a little creature tattoo. How are you doing?

Virginia

I am good. It is it is Pride here as well. It’s also high garden season for me. May and June are like the months. So I’m just gardening as much as I can now that the book stuff is calming down. I planted too many dahlia tubers this weekend.

Corinne

Oh my gosh.

Virginia

It’s gonna be a whole thing. First of all, I just want to say Corinne is being all cool and getting tattoos and I’m now going to tell you a nerdy gardening story. We are who we are. It’s fine.

Corinne

Gardening is very cool.

Virginia

So I failed to successfully overwinter my dahlia tubers is how this story starts. Just so we know how much coolness is involved. I just dumped them in the garage and never packed them up properly. There’s a whole process you have to do. So I killed all my dahlia tubers, and in a panic, because I love dahlias, I ordered a bunch online and ordered way more than I needed. Then that order was delayed infinitely and I thought they weren’t coming. So I bought some locally from my amazing local flower store Parcel. I planted all of those and then my online order arrived. So now I have 66 dahlia tubers in my garden. Too many. I was sticking them anywhere.

Corinne

It sounds like it’s going to be awesome though.

Virginia

I don’t know. I’m late getting them in the ground. We’re having a drought already. We’ll see. And it was a ton of work to plant them all. But yes, I’m on a dahlia journey this year.

The most important thing—and everybody who listens to this podcast, please hold me accountable on this. This November when they freeze, please say: Virginia, dig them up and store them properly. Because you have now spent all the money on dahlia tubers and you cannot ever buy them again.

Corinne

It sounds so labor intensive though.

Virginia

It is very labor intensive. But they’re not inexpensive. And I have now bought them twice.

Alright, let’s do some questions!

We are going to start with a couple of health questions.

Corinne

Yes, here we go.

I have recently been diagnosed with a mild case of fatty liver disease. When talking to my GI, who was more compassionate than I expected, he discussed dietary changes I should make to reverse some of the damage over time and maintain a healthy liver. As the mother of a new baby, I’m strongly incentivized to be as healthy as possible to be around for my kid. As a fat woman with a recently healed relationship with food and a firm anti-diet Intuitive Eating approach to life, I’m struggling to find the balance between “this is a diet” and “this is necessary for my health.” Can you make a recommendation for how sick folks can approach adjusted eating regimens in a way that is both effective and respectful of their journey and their own relationship with food and their bodies?

Virginia

Okay, so I want to say before we get started: We are not doctors. We’re not dietitians. You are here for our informed opinions. Standard disclaimer. Also, I am not an expert on fatty liver disease and I did not report that out. So we’re not going to talk specifically about what your protocol should be or is this the right thing to be doing.

What I really want to talk about is how this happens with all kinds of health conditions, where you get told you have to cut out a food group or make some diet adjustment in order to deal with a physical health ailment. How do you do that in a way that’s supportive and not triggering and not pushing you back into a diet-y place?

Corinne

Yes, that makes sense.

Virginia

So I would first do some research and see how necessary the dietary adjustments are. I think they’re often prescribed—and again, I don’t know about liver conditions, but they’re often prescribed as a knee jerk, one-size-fits-all kind of prescription, without a lot of nuance as to whether it’s really necessary for you. The research often isn’t as clear cut as we would like.

So, you might ask your doctor: “Is this dietary change something you would recommend for a thin person with this condi