The Appetite

Did you tune into Netflix’s docuseries, Cheer? What did you think of the Navarro team culture portrayed? In light of all the tv-watching that’s been happening while sheltering in place, we decided to keep it casual for this episode and chat about our perspective on this inspiring and intense show that follows the Navarro College cheer squad as they train for competitive cheerleading championships in Daytona, Florida. Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS is one of Opal’s Co-Founders, head of the Exercise + Sport program, eating disorder expert, and a former collegiate athlete. She chats with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC, about the coaching style of Monica Aldama, and how it straddles the lines between a demand for perfectionism versus excellence, discipline versus dogma, all while creating a true team family. As professionals that work closely with those struggling with compulsive exercise, athlete identity, and eating disorders, Kara and Carter had a lot to talk about!   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

 How have you been doing lately? Mental health is of utmost importance during the coronavirus pandemic. In this mini episode, we’re offering you a Loving Kindness meditation, led by Opal Co-Founder, Executive Director and Radically Open DBT expert Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS. Lexi will walk you through this externally-focused meditation which will ask you to connect to your heart’s center and offer love, warmth, and kindness to others. Allow yourself the time to pause, breathe deeply, and send loving thoughts to those out there that are on your mind--a far away friend, the healthcare workers at your local hospital, or even that worried-looking grocery clerk you saw earlier this week. We hope you feel free to return to this episode again and again when you need a moment to re-center.    Links:    Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

How have social distancing and sheltering-in-place impacted your relationship to exercise? There is loss of all kinds during this time—there are relational and fiscal losses, losses of routine and identity, and of course, loss of life. However, as an embodied people, there is a lot freedom our bodies have lost—including when it comes to movement and exercise. Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founder and head of the Exercise + Sport Program, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS offers a way to understand your relationship to exercise through the lens of the stages of grief. In conversation with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC, Kara shares how she’s handling the grief of not getting to move in the ways she so enjoys and inspires curiosity in listeners about what and how they may be grieving during this pandemic.      Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau:  Social Media and Publishing by Camille Dodson 

 How have you experienced unwanted energy and emotion during the coronavirus pandemic? The Appetite crew is getting vulnerable and answering this question, using the Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT) skill of self-inquiry. Opal Co-Founder and RO DBT expert Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS shares how the skill of self-inquiry can be used during this time to move toward emotion in a compassionate, curious, and containing way. Lexi, along with Opal’s other two Co-Founders—Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD—and host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC will each reflect on what has been coming up for them emotionally during the shelter-in-place order. We hope that this episode will serve as both companionship and inspiration to you during this time where emotions are high, and each one of them arrives with something to teach you.    Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

How has the global pandemic impacted your relationship to food? As restaurants close, grocery shelves are emptied, and anxiety levels go up, you deserve compassion when it comes to the way your body is responding to this global pandemic. For those struggling with disordered eating or eating disorder recovery, we’re here to help with guided meal support. Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD—Opal: Food+Body Wisdom’s Co-Founder and Nutrition Director—sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to walk listeners through the fundamentals of full permission of food and attuned eating in action! She’ll talk through the stages of selecting food to eat, setting the stage for eating, attuning to hunger and fullness cues, and how to move on from food after you’re done with a meal! If you’re ready for some food, grab a plate and start listening! This episode can be a companion to your mealtime or an inspiration for later to eat with structure, mindfulness, and pleasure in mind. Links: Marc David's eater's agreement:     Ellyn Satter's "How to Eat" Resources:      on Instagram: offering hourly meal support every day   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

What might it be like to be a professional athlete—the symbol of health and strength in our culture—and to have a gut instinct that something is not well in your body? This was the case for elite runner and marathoner Tina Muir, when after nine years without a period she decided to stop running altogether, recover from amenorrhea, and try to get pregnant. Now the author of Overcoming Amenorrhea: Get Your Period Back. Get Your Life Back., podcast host of Running for Real, and voice of inspiration for the running community, Tina has fallen back in love with running. She sits down with Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founder Kara Bazzi, LMFT and host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC to discuss disordered eating, her former body image struggles as a runner, and how she’s using her voice to promote mental health in athletes. (Disclaimer: This episode was recorded before the COVID-19 global pandemic began.) Links: Tina Muir on Instagram: @tinamuir88  Learn more about Tina Muir on her website: Running for Real podcast: Buy Tina’s book, Overcoming Amenorrhea: Get Your Period Back. Get Your Life Back on Tina’s website or on amazon:   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau:

How can we best prepare for the psychological impacts of social distancing during the age of Coronavirus? In this episode, host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC shares her experience with self-isolating a couple weeks ahead of the curve in Seattle, a city already ahead of the curve in shelter-in-place mandates than most other US cities. Opal: Food + Body Wisdom’s Co-Founders, Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD, ask Carter the questions, exploring topics such as loneliness, loss of routine, experience of food, and relationship to exercise during this unprecedented time. Julie, Lexi, and Kara offer insights and wisdom from their areas of mental health and eating disorder expertise. While this episode speaks to the privileged experience of getting to self-quarantine and work from home, it doesn’t significantly address the growing economic crisis or the experience of the many people working jobs to keep the rest of us afloat, with no option to stay at home. Despite these gaps, we hope this conversation offers you a place to find resonance and support while we all live into the new, challenging realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.   Links: Deliciousness Matters, by Sam Sifton for the New York Times:  Encouraging Messages from Italians in Quarantine:  Research: The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence:  Research: The Healing Benefits of Nature:     Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

As the pandemic is rapidly removing what we’ve come to rely on in our day-to-day lives, it is becoming clear that we are not only in a health and economic crisis, but also a crisis of mental health. Opal’s Co-Founders Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Dr. Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS sit down with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC to offer an inspiring call to self-care and grace during an unprecedented time. Listen in to hear what Opal has to say about how to take care of your mental health as well as your relationship to food and exercise in the era of coronavirus.    Encouraging Messages from Italians in Quarantine: Research: The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence:   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau:

 “Leaning out” and manipulating body weight have been widely accepted modes of performance preparation for elite athletes. But as the sports world wakes up to the harm that the emphasis on weight manipulation can have on athletes’ mental and physical health (like in runner Mary Cain’s story), this question should be front and center: Is it ever appropriate to manipulate weight and body composition to enhance sport performance? What about using instrumental eating strategies to enhance performance? Opal Co-Founder and Exercise + Sport Director Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to discuss periodization in sport, attitudes around racing and competition, and what nutritional skills are essential for athletes to master before even contemplating nutritional strategies for performance enhancement.    Links:    : four-part series on Ellyn Satter’s eating competency skill         Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

Does design impact mental health? Inspired by Opal’s recent remodel, Opal Co-Founder, Executive Director, and design-enthusiast Dr. Lexi Giblin PhD, CEDS sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to talk about the psychology behind Opal’s interior design. Lexi will describe how even the smallest details at Opal were chosen to reflect Opal’s mission of offering transformative healing to our clients. She also addresses how—even while the process of eating disorder recovery seeks to deemphasize appearance—the aesthetics of space can support healing and connection.   Links:   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

What should you do if a medical provider is offering a treatment recommendation based on your BMI? In the second of a two-part series, Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church RDN, CEDRD-S, CD is answering this listener question (and others!) about the Body Mass Index. In conversation with host and therapist Carter Umhau, LMHC we’re diving into even more about the racist and unscientific measurement that a Belgian astronomer created without the intention of it becoming our main measurement of health.  Links:   The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI:    Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

 Can you actually measure health? BMI— or Body Mass Index—has become a widely embraced measurement of health, but is actually based on an entirely unscientific and racist 19th century research project. In this first episode of two parts, Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD sits down with host Carter Umhau, LMHC to talk about the history of the BMI, why it’s bogus, and what the implications of this reductionistic measurement are on our health.  Links: The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI:    Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:     

Body Image can be a struggle at any time, but what about when you’ve had a baby? For the birthing person, one’s relationship to food and body can be vastly impacted by the perinatal experience. In a roundtable conversation, Opal: Food + Body Wisdom Co-Founders Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD, Kara Bazzi, LMFT, CEDS, and Lexi Giblin, PhD, CEDS are sharing their (quite varied) experiences of pregnancy and being postpartum. As eating disorder experts, their stories serve as a reminder that everyone’s body and story is different. From the experience of infertility, the role of recovery during pregnancy, and thoughts on the “pre-baby body,” we’re jumping in!   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: 

What assumptions do you think are made about pregnancy and the postpartum experience? Doula Davinah Simmons and postpartum-focused therapist Julie Davidson, LMHC join Carter Umhau, LMHC to explore the ways in which our society under-prepares the birthing person or mother for the “emotional infancy” that begins when baby arrives.  They’ll explore how the perinatal experience brings about new body image concerns, can impact eating disorder recovery, and the identity crisis that can often ensue. This conversation elucidates the powerful work that is required in matrescence, and why this “development phase” requires a new way of thinking about body, personhood, attachment, and becoming.    Learn more about the work of Davinah Simmons at and on Instagram @rootedbirthdoula Learn more about Julie Davidson, LMHC’s work at and on Instagram @onbeingamother Alexandra Sacks’ TED talk on matrescence:   Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau:

Can we truly control our bodies in order to change the way we look? As talk of New Year’s “lifestyle changes,” diets, and new exercise regimens fill our feeds, we’re here to talk about a major function of the body impacted by unhealthy dieting and changes in exercise: METABOLISM. In this episode we’re exploring what it is, how it works, and whether or not the assumptions diet culture has made about our ability to control it are scientifically valid. (Spoiler alert: they aren’t.) In conversation with host, therapist and not-a-scientist Carter Umhau, LMHC, Opal Co-Founder and Nutrition Director Julie Church, RDN, CEDRD-S, CD expertly explains and debunks myths around metabolism, explaining how dieting can harm our metabolic processes for good.  Links: Thanks to Taylor Chan, MS, RD, CPT for the banner art today! Check them out here: Connect with Opal:  Facebook:  Instagram: @opalfoodandbody Twitter:  Youtube:      Thank you to our team... Daniel Guenther at Jack Straw Cultural Center:  Editing by Hans Anderson:  Music by Aaron Davidson:  Host and Producer Carter Umhau: