#263: What If Your Struggles With Food Aren't Actually About Food? With Jennifer Lancaster

What can eating disorder recovery teach us about breaking free from diet culture, healing body image, and finally making peace with food? In this very special episode of Rebuilding Trust With Your Body, I'm joined by Carolyn Costin, a legendary eating disorder therapist, author, and pioneer in the field of eating disorder treatment and recovery. Carolyn shares her personal journey with an eating disorder and how it led her to dedicate her career to helping others heal. We dive into what decades of eating disorder treatment have taught us about recovery, and why these lessons matter even if you don't have a diagnosed eating disorder but still struggle with food guilt, body dissatisfaction, emotional eating, or the desire to lose weight. Whether you're recovering from years of chronic dieting, learning intuitive eating, or trying to overcome food and body image struggles, this conversation offers powerful insights into what it really takes to heal. You don't have to have an eating disorder to benefit from the wisdom of eating disorder recovery. And this is a conversation you won't want to miss!

Have you ever have days where you feel like intuitive eating isn't working, or you're frustrated with yourself for not being able to stick with it consistently?

What do you do on the days when you look in the mirror and not only don't like your body, but you loathe it…and you're triggered to want to "do something" about it like cut out carbs, skip breakfast, or download the Weight Watchers app for the 11th time. If there's one thing I know for sure it's this: Hating and berating your body isn't a pathway to making peace with it. On the other hand, you don't need to force yourself to "love your body" either. You do need to choose to respond to these bad body image days differently though. And it starts with choosing to RESPECT your body. In this episode, I'm breaking down what body respect looks like when your body image sucks, you're desperate to lose weight, terrified of gaining weight, or you're tempted to throw away all the sugar and processed food in our house and go back to "clean" eating. Improving your body image doesn't mean waking up every morning obsessed with how gorgeous you look. It's much less glamorous: feeding your body, wearing clothes that fit, going to the doctor, moving in ways that feel supportive, and refusing to bully yourself. If you're working on intuitive eating, body acceptance, healing your relationship with food, letting go of diet culture, or making peace with your body, this episode will give you concrete actions you can do (and things NOT to do) on bad body image days.

There are still more than 3 months left in 2026. What if, instead of waiting until January to "get serious" about your health, you used that time to actually become healthier…without going back on a diet? In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of what I'm working on for the rest of the year, what's coming that I'm REALLY excited about, and what I want YOU to be thinking about in your own life as we head into the final stretch of 2026. We're talking about the moves you can make NOW that support your health while also helping you build more trust with food and your body. Because intuitive eating and caring about your health are NOT opposites. And you certainly don't need to spend the next few months trying to lose weight in order to walk into 2027 feeling better.

What does it actually mean to have a healthy relationship with food and your body? Is it eating nutritious foods most of the time? Never overeating? Loving your body? Not caring about your weight? And how do you know when your attempts to be "healthy" are actually starting to work against you? In this episode, I'm joined by Donna Friedman, a licensed professional counselor and eating disorder specialist who brings a unique perspective through her clinical expertise, her own lived experience with an eating disorder, and her experience as a parent. We talk about what a genuinely healthy relationship with food and body looks like, where the line falls between dieting, disordered eating, and an eating disorder, and some of the behaviors around food, weight, and exercise that our culture considers completely "normal" but may actually be cause for concern. Donna also shares why letting go of intentional weight loss can feel so threatening, what people misunderstand about body image, why changing your body doesn't necessarily change how you feel about it, and the less obvious signs that your pursuit of health may be costing you more than you realize. If you've ever wondered, "Okay, but what am I actually trying to get TO with intuitive eating and body image work?" this conversation will help you see what a healthier, more peaceful relationship with food and your body can actually look like in real life.