Body Kindness Learn & Grow

If you’re new to the Body Kindness philosophy, breaking free from diets, and Health at Every Size (HAES) our new podcast series is made for you!

Body Kindness Learn & Grow is a podcast series that will boost your hope and confidence in leaving diets behind from exactly where you are today. Think of it like “Body Kindness for beginners.”

Part 1 – Ditching ‘Diet Brain’ for Body Kindness

In the first episode, Bernie and I reflect on our personal growth in the past two years through the lens of our earliest 1/1 episode which many new listeners have flagged as their favorite. Tune in to hear our honest conversation and reflections for inspirations to help you learn and grow with Body Kindness.

Part 2 – Extreme Exercise is Unnecessary

In the second episode Bernie and I process his unhealthy experience with exercise as a contestant on The Biggest Loser. Tune in to hear an honest conversation about why extreme exercise is unnecessary. If you’re new to Body Kindness and would like help in finding that point where better mind-body health intersect, this is it.

Part 3 – Reflections on Intuitive Eating from Principles to Practice

In the third episode Bernie and I reflect on ways in which the practice of intuitive eating has helped him reject dieting and we discover new growth opportunities going forward. Tune in if you’ve ever felt confused about what the heck intuitive eating is and why it may be exactly what you need in your life. (Hint, the goal is to heal your relationship to food, not lose weight).

Part 4 – You don’t have a food addiction. You need permission to eat (and eat emotionally)

In Part 4 we reflect on Bernie’s early days saying “bye-bye” to his relationship with The Biggest Loser and diet culture forever! You’ll hear us discuss emotional eating, feeling like you’re addicted to food, and why it’s probably NOT the case. Tune in to this pivotal episode if you’d like to learn how to get a better grasp on emotional eating.

Part 5 – How Mindfulness Helps You Handle Bad Emotions

If you’re new to #BodyKindness our podcast mini-series, Learn and Grow, was made for you. Bernie Salazar and Rebecca Scritchfield reflect on Bernie’s early days saying “bye-bye” to his relationship with The Biggest Loser and diet culture forever! In Episode 5, you’ll hear us discuss mindfulness and the beautiful and subtle ways in which Bernie has been able to embrace mindfulness and emotion regulation skills in his life.

Part 6 – Creating New Habits Takes Serious Effort. Here Are Your Tools

You already know that it’s not easy to make changes to your habits. At all. It requires serious effort and a compassionate mindset as you try, mess up, and try again. In the next episode of our “body kindness for beginners” Learn and Grow series, Bernie and I discuss what is usually missing from the “new habit equation” and we share our own struggles with habits and how we’re working our way through them.

Part 7 – The Biggest Loser Did Not Exist to Create Better Lives with Bernie Salazar, a former “winner” of the show

Bernie Salazar has been a student of the body kindness philosophy for over two years. But early on in his practice, The Biggest Loser was still a popular show and Bernie was still trying to make sense of what it meant to be healthy. Though he was deeply concerned about the well-being of the contestants, he still had his own self love and compassion “work” to do. His original “loser letter,” which you’ll hear again in this show, still had some disordered logic and diet talk. Now, we come full circle in this episode with a deep reflection on culture, the show, and who gets access to feeling happy and safe in their body. Bernie shares that his true, happy and healthy self was always meant to have a fat body. And he is finally embracing it. He encourages all of us to keep practicing body kindness and heal our relationships with ourselves. [Full show notes]

Part 8 – How Your Body Fights to Regain Weight After Dieting (Research from The Biggest Loser)

Don’t miss this important episode in the Learn & Grow Series. We talk about one of the longest studies on weight cycling and dieting — a study that followed the Biggest Loser contestants from Season 8 for six years. I help Bernie understand the outcomes of the journal article and how he can make peace with his experiences and move forward with body kindness instead of dieting. [Full show notes]

Part 9 – The Upside of Stress (and Emotional Eating)

Stress has a function and so does emotional eating. How you relate to stress and frame your views of emotional eating can make all the difference in how you feel about your body. In this powerful Learn and Grow episode, you’ll learn why Bernie needed to stop restricting in order to realize that it would help cut back his stress eating even when his life stress continued to rise. [Full show notes]

Part 10 – How to get the sleep your brain and body really need

How would it feel to get an extra one to two hours of sleep per night? If the thought of that sounds absolutely amazing then you’re like most people who don’t get enough sleep. (Side effects include daytime feelings of being drunk! fatigue! irritability!). Get our real life complaints and realistic advice for mindset and habit shifts that help. [Full show notes]

Part 11 – Why we finally said “I’m sorry” to our bodies and how you can do it too

Grab a pen paper and get ready for some serious healing. It’s time to write about your relationship with your body. No matter how painful your past, you can cultivate what you desire through the power of the pen. Tune in to hear my “sorry body” letter from August 2016 and Bernie’s “peace offering” from July 2019. You don’t want to miss his reading and our reflection. We discuss the abuse he faced as a child and his post traumatic growth. Plus we share our best advice for anyone who wants to do this self reflection work. [Full show notes]

Part 12 – Your Body Kindness Questions, Answered

Bernie and I are back with a special episode of Learn and Grow where we answer questions from people who are reading and listening to Body Kindness.

We answer listener questions about what to do when “healthy eating” still feels like restriction, how to help empower our kids with awareness and compassion, plus how to start leaving behind the rules of dieting for practicing body kindness. [Full show notes]

Part 13 – “Dear panic attack, Thank you for all you have shown me.” (and other gratitudes from Body Kindness readers and listeners)

Bernie and I have gratitude on our minds. It’s been 3 years since Bernie and I reconnected, and he began practicing Body Kindness. In this special episode, we reflect on the positive changes in his life and self compassion practice over time. We also asked listeners to take a pause and share with us “what are you grateful for, big or small”. [Full show notes]

Part 14 – Listener Q&A: What’s the real deal with Intermittent Fasting?

Bernie and I tackle a listener question on intermittent fasting – is it a diet in disguise and why is it so dang popular? Tune in to hear Bernie break his silence about what drove him to step out of the public and “hide” after The Biggest Loser (spoiler: it’s related to fasting).[Full show notes]