Measuring Wellness: A Moving Target

An Episode About Weight Loss (Eek!)

In this episode, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist Amy Isabella Chalker discusses how she addresses clients' wishes for weight loss in her practice. She mentions factors that drive thin ideals, factors that influence weight, and describes how she works with clients who present with eating disorders that include fixation on weight loss.

Measuring Wellness: A Moving Target

In Episode 11, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist Amy Isabella Chalker discusses how we might reconcile the oft discrepancy between relying on lab values and other data points to serve as health markers with patients' lived experiences. She uses examples like that of the BMI chart to illustrate how little is being captured in numbers on a page and suggests some reasons why clients and clinicians alike may be more likely to defer to rote numbers a than to think and listen critically to individuals' inner worlds.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Food

In episode 10, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Eating Disorder Specialist Amy Isabella Chalker discusses how talking about food and body is a gateway into even deeper, relational conversations that can help clients heal from disordered eating in a more meaningful way. She gives case examples to illustrate this process and encourages addressing the clinical relationship to effectively treat eating disorders.

"Phantom Limb" Feeding

In Episode 9, Amy discusses the flip side of "When Food Hurts"; when digestive conditions are effectively managed and foods that were once off limits can be re-introduced, how might we understand the seemingly contradictory feelings that arise, and how do we go about re-integrating foods in a way that feels both physically and emotionally possible?

Carbohydrates: The Pleasure Molecule?

In Episode 8, Amy considers why carbohydrates specifically have received the level of notoriety they have in the nutrition and diet world. She touches on the science of what a carbohydrate molecule is, it's chemical role in the body, and describes how our unconscious mind may be operating when it comes to our complex craving for and aversion to carbohydrates.