Timestamps

 

(1:15) Introduction to Nicki, our staff Dietitian! 

(4:30) Working through disordered eating while supporting digestive issues 

(14:00) How to enter our giveaway (!!!)

(25:00) The middle ground between between restriction and “all foods fit”

(28:00) How to identify your inner authentic self 

(33:30) Empowering the individual vs. fighting the system 

(42:30) Why “self-sabotage” isn’t a thing

(46:00) Separating our diagnosis from our identity 

(47:30) Exactly how much protein to eat & how to do it! 

(54:45) Blood glucose lab values 

(56:15) Lipid panel lab values  

 

Transcript 

 

Introduction to Nicki Parlitsis, RD, CPT

 

Michelle Shapiro

Oh my gosh, here we are. We are on our season one episode 12. The final episode of season one of quiet the diet. Yay. I'm so excited.

Nicki Parlitsis

Obviously I'm biased. But I'm fangirling hard because this is my favorite podcast. And so you know, to be on my favorite podcast is very exciting.

Michelle Shapiro 

I mean, Nicki, you're pretty integral to literally every single part of making the Quiet the Diet podcast and for people who don't know you, they better start knowing you. Nicki is our staff dietician, she's kind of just the person at the practice to that pulls everything together those show notes, you see, the topics we talk about, Nicki is so much of the I've been saying this for like the heartbeat of the company already.

And it's been, you know, not too long that we've working together. But you've really fundamentally changed my life. So thank you and change the lives of all of our clients as a result. So thank you, Nicki and introduce yourself to.

Nicki Parlitsis

Yeah, so I am like Michelle said, I'm a registered dietitian at Michelle Shapiro nutrition. And I'm also a certified personal trainer. So I really like Michelle, I believe in that very, very individualized and holistic approach to nutrition, but also Fitness and Lifestyle to really help guide you toward your healthiest, most competent self. Because I think, you know, when we feel our most confident which comes from within, then the choices we make are just kind of positive downstream effects from that.

Michelle Shapiro 

Totally, it's like you do the inner stuff so that the choices become easy, and you don't have to put as much effort or willpower or motivation behind them. I love that Nicki, and Nicki, you got your rd degree at NYU, and you're totally our lead up. And you've been a certified personal trainer for how long. For about two years,

Nicki Parlitsis

almost one and a half, it was one of those COVID things where you know, you're kind of looking to fill the time in the middle of the pandemic and my undergrad major was exercise physiology. So I've always been into fitness, but just seemed like the next step to be honest.

Michelle Shapiro 

And this is interesting, too, because you came to the practice really as our like general functional nutritionist, but you have to tell people, what have you been super into working with clients on what's been lighting you up recently,

Nicki Parlitsis

there's so first of all, I just need to say and I always used to make fun of people for saying this. So I get it if you hear this and you're like rolling your eyes, but I genuinely at the end of every day feel so lucky to have the clients that we have, because I'll like leave every session smiling because everyone is so amazing in their own way.

And lately, I did my internship at an eating disorder treatment facility. So I also love working with clients, and we'll talk about the binge eating episode today. But on binge eating disorder, bulimia, you know, working on healing our relationship with food.

Also, when you know sometimes people just kind of want to like I said feel more confident in their body and so combining that you know, basis of resistance training with nutrition and kind of optimizing you know, your how you feel in your body in that way. I love and digestive issues. We always love to work with, you know, things that we've dealt with in the past. So, you know, helping people through something that I had dealt with in the past is always I mean there's honestly like nothing more rewarding in the world than that.

 

Working through disordered eating while supporting digestive issues

 

Michelle Shapiro 

No, it's It's the gift that keeps on giving on our struggle becomes an opportunity and I really believe that too. And Nicki it's really interesting because to have The things that you do and have experienced yourself or enjoyed working with, you've actually bridge in this really cool way, which is having some sort of disordered eating or binge eating like we were talking about. And then also this gut piece.

So what we've both found is that there's kind of a gap in care that people can experience if they're trying to work on disordered eating or eating disorders, and at the same time, have gut issues. So you have found this beautiful bridge where people who are working on disordered eating or eating disorders can also be focusing on the physical side of themselves, which is that kind of gut peas, do you want to speak into that a little bit too, because I think it's pretty amazing. Yeah, and it's,

Nicki Parlitsis

it's one of those, like, we always think of like chicken or the egg, like what came first. And I truly believe it's different for every person, everyone's journey has been different, every story is different. So you know, for some people, I think, and this was in the case of myself that eating disorders kind of are born from feeling not safe within your body. So having digestive concerns, and then the bloating that comes with it also kind of feeds into that distorted body image. And then, you know, we start to, we can't control or we don't know how to control at that time, our digestive symptoms.

So we turn to food and, you know, restrictive diets and elimination diets, and then we kind of go down that path. So you know, for that was, in my case, what happened. And I think sometimes it's the opposite. So sometimes people have, you know, either are controlling food because of something that happened in their life, or they are, you know, restricting their eating or binging for other reasons. And then because of the inconsistent patterns of eating and the stress that they're putting on the body, then that downstream turns into digestive issues, which again, can just spiral and exacerbate the body image piece as well. So I think it's a very intricate play.

And that's why I love that the one on one nutrition counseling piece, because you really don't know someone's story until you will listen and ask them what their story is. And so we can't heal either one the digestive issues or our relationship with food until we really get down to the root cause and how exactly that's impacting your life.

Michelle Shapiro 

Absolutely. And I think it can feel really isolating to have either of those conditions. And I think it's been such a blessing for the clients you're working with, that that relationship and rapport, you're building together, that it's okay to have an eating disorder and still say, hey, my digestion is not good when I kind of include all these foods, how do we ease into this? How do we, you know, support my symptoms. While I'm doing that, and I know your clients already have received so many benefits from that really, really delicate relationship you were talking about.

And just as a reference point to Nicki is accepting new clients in our practice, I have been a dietitian for eight and a half, almost nine years now. And I've been in my own practice for about five ish year, four to five years. And I have been legitimately looking for a dietitian to join the practice that entire time. And within the first month of your internship, I was like, Oh, my God, Nicki's, the one. So I don't, I can't even express in words how excited I am to kind of unleash you, Nicki, onto our listeners unleashed you onto a future clients because you have a real healing capacity, and you're a true listener. So I'm just I'm so excited and so excited for the listeners, they get to have you here today.

Nicki Parlitsis

I have to say that this goes both ways. Because and again, I'm not I promise I'm not trying to butter you up right now. But this is just honestly, when so I met Michelle when we were in when you were I'm saying way but it was at the time I was not even close to working in this practice. You were watching launching wellness map which is now the quiet the diet community. And it's so especially in the nutrition world. As we will recap in episode one, I believe when you brought that in that there's this divisiveness that's going on in the nutrition world.

And so even for a new dietitian, to find a practice to work in and find someone to work with and learn from. It's difficult because we it's so rare to find someone that you feel 100% aligned with, like you always feel like you're gonna have to make sacrifices in what you believe in terms of nutrition and also how you'd like to treat clients and help people in their healing journey. So being able to just like kind of stumble into finding you and your practice and like what you stand for was like the biggest blessing and this is my second career.

So I had gone back to grad school after just feeling not very aligned in my previous job. And so it really just kind of feels like, you know, this is the universe aligning our clients are amazing practice. I mean, I'm obviously biased, the practice I believe is amazing. Just to have something to stand for that is completely aligned with what I believe in what you believe as well,

 

How to enter our season 1 giveaway!

 

Michelle Shapiro 

totally. And Nicki, you've been here in my practice from the beginning of when I started the Quiet the Diet podcast. And so Nicki and I have really kind of seen, we've been doing the podcast now for a couple months, obviously, this is the last episode of this season. And I'm just going to tell you guys right off the bat, we're not stopping by any means we've already recorded a bunch of episodes for the next season, season two is actually going to come in three weeks on May 1 2023, from when this is released. And in between those episodes, we're going to do a fantastic giveaway for you. We're going to I'm going to tell you about that in a minute.

But when we first started quiet the diet, you know, I had a vision of I have this message about the kind of trends I'm seeing in nutrition, I have a pretty vocal minority kind of voice in the balance between functional nutrition and body positivity. And we didn't know what it would become. And I mean that in a really positive way. And what I think we've known and seen quiet diet has become and what you can start to expect to see from us is we want to kind of show you what we're seeing in the nutrition world. We want to teach you about kind of the the biological basis of functional nutrition.

And then we want to whenever possible, deprogram from the trends and the marketing that we're seeing, and then reprogram with your own intuition. So that's really the goal of quiet the diet and every episode with every practitioner, that is going to be our goal. So quieting the diet, what that means to us is it means that if there's information that's wrong or harmful, we're going to try to unlearn it. And if there's information that's potentially helpful, we're going to help you to insert it.

And amongst all of this, we're going to help you to use your own intuition and to understand what information you want to be applying that really is for you. So our amazing friend Andrea and Akiyama said something to me recently that that just struck home so much, which is that there are people who are focused on the science of nutrition, and there are people who are focused on the practice of nutrition, and certainly on the quiet the diet platform. Thank you, Andrea, I love you. We are focused on the practice of nutrition.

So not just telling you random studies and random scientific facts, and random nutrition stuff, but telling you how it could apply to you. And I'm always the most interested in the people who fall in the cracks. I want to know about that one client who has been to an eating disorder facility who still had a gut issue and couldn't heal their relationship with food. Because of that gut issue. I want to know about the person who was amazingly body positive, positive, intuitive eating, but was still experiencing other medical stuff, joint inflammation and things like that, I always want to know about the real people who these broad models and these broad systems do not apply to.

And again, that's really our goal here and what you'll you can expect to see from us very consistently, and what the definition of quite the diet has become. And Nicki, you've been here from the beginning. And we've kind of watched it mold into what it is. And now we have streamlined a little bit by the end of the season. And that's what you can expect to see from us in the future, which I'm so excited about is how do we turn these trends into real life application? And how do we know when something is just a trend or when it's kind of the real deal.

Nicki Parlitsis

And with Season One, our goal was to kind of lay the foundations of different nutrition science topics, and also nutrition practices. So that's what we're kind of working on recapping today is all of those foundational pieces, we'll talk about like a little recap of each episode, and also what we loved from it and what we missed.

Because again, these topics are so multifaceted and just complex. So there's always going to be things that we miss, and we'll always fill in the gaps. But then that way we can now after making your way through season one, when we get to season two, you kind of have this great basis of nutrition foundation, that then we can start to move into a little bit, you know, different type of topics in season two.

Michelle Shapiro 

Absolutely. And the giveaway that we mentioned, we're going to talk to you about so we have again throughout the season, we've been really excited about what we put together and we we like I we all we have our like favorite episodes Nicki and I. And we felt like there were things that we were so pumped about, and they were things that were like, Oh, I wish I would have said that like that would have been sick if we were to mention that.

So that's what we want to do today is all those thoughts that we had after publishing the episodes were like, Oh, we would have loved to talk about that and kind of dig a little deeper into there. And what we did find was there was a lot of common threads throughout the episodes and one of the common threads as you can definitely imagine, is that stress is a major driver of the chronic health conditions that we have. So a lot of our giveaway is focused on recuperation.

And the products that we see are some of just our favorite products. So what we're going to do is host this giveaway, it's going to be, you know, you'll be able to enter and he's going to tell you how to enter in between seasons. One and two. So in the next three weeks is the timeframe, we're gonna write this out for you also in the show notes. But the way to enter the giveaway Nick is going to go through and what you actually could potentially win, we're gonna have two winners from the giveaway, and he's gonna go through two. So Nicki, tell us all about this giveaway that you put together, because honestly, you put together most of it,

Nicki Parlitsis

we have two winners, we have to you can get up to two entries per person. So if you want to just go all in and do both of these, totally up to you, you can definitely do that. So the first way to enter would be to screenshot your favorite episode of quiet the diet, whether that's Apple, Spotify, Google, wherever you're listening, screenshot, post to your Instagram stories, and then tag quiet the diet pod in your Instagram story. And so we will get a notification when we are tagged.

And that's how you will enter for the first entry. The second entry will be also for those of you who just aren't into Instagram, which we completely valid, we totally understand. So you can enter by rating and reviewing on Apple. So the way that you do that is you go to Quiet the Diet podcasts on Apple, scroll down, you'll see the star rating.

But underneath that there's an option to write a review. So when you click on "write a review," you put like a little title, you know, you'll write your review, and then you can screenshot that review and email it to me at [email protected] We'll put that in the show notes as well. If you forget to screenshot, which also completely understand, then you can also just email us with the title or username that you used to write the review. And that will work as well. So you get one entry from Instagram Stories, one entry from reading and reviewing on Apple specifically. And then you have two entries to win. And we have two winners.

Michelle Shapiro 

Whoa. And we want to do two winners just want to make the stakes higher for people. We also love the written reviews because we just are so warmed. I think we already have like 70 Something reviews. And I just it's so emotional for me to see how you've been interacting with Quiet the Diet. So we actually want to hear from you as opposed to just I love a five star review, obviously, but I would love to just hear how the experience has been for you.

And we will announce that winner before season two, but you have to hang on season two is coming. We promise it's recorded. We're ready to rock and we're really excited to share it with you. So thank you and good luck if you enter the giveaway. Nicki, what kind of products are we giving away and the giveaway? What do you got?

Nicki Parlitsis

We got some good stuff, Michelle. I mean, I don't think that I'm eligible for this giveaway but I'm so sad about that. Yeah, okay, just wanted to put that out there. Double check. Love it. So we have woke we're gonna have again, all of these kind of relate a little bit to the episodes that we've done in season one so we're kind of tying everything back in. So we have Further Food vanilla collagen powder. From the protein episode obviously we have some Redmond Real Salt. So if you're making your adrenal cocktail from the anxiety episode, you can toss that in.

We have a protein bar called Raw Rev. It's a variety pack so you can kind of see what flavor you like the best. We have Chomps sticks, so those you know grass fed beef sticks, great for snack, we have LMNT which is an electrolyte powder, we have a variety pack from them. We will have a massage oil from Banyan Botanicals. So that is related to that episode on Ayurveda that Dr. basmati Bhattacharya. Yep.

And so she had mentioned the different doshas, and so the Banyan Botanicals massage oil is great for that as well. We'll have some Epsom salt, some flax or is great from the carbs episode a great fibrous carbs snack. We have cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, we have MUD\WTR adaptogen coffee alternative if you're trying to either reduce your coffee consumption or just looking for a different alternative to get some of those adaptogens in there.

We'll have some Hu Kitchen dark chocolate covered almonds, and then we'll have if you don't have time sometimes to make your own adrenal cocktail. Jigsaw Health has a supplement that's an adrenal cocktail powder. So you kind of just toss that into your water or whatever you're drinking in the morning. And so that's a little quick on the go kind of hack if you're on vacation or something too. So all of these things are in bold. to giveaway boxes, so you have no matter which one you win, you will have access to all of these.

So yeah, like I said, I'm a little jealous of you. But I am just super, super excited to give these away to people. And sometimes you just don't, you know, you see something or we talk about something on the pod and you want to try it, but you don't want to have to buy a whole box of something. So this way, you can kind of taste test everything, see what you like, and then, you know, move forward after that.

Michelle Shapiro 

And I think we're giving away like 50,000 million bajillion milligrams of sodium. So it'll be enough to last someone like lifetimes, lifetimes, honestly.

Nicki Parlitsis

to another level, exactly. You can

Michelle Shapiro 

literally die and come back to life and still have enough for the next life you could do you could reincarnate like four or five times, you'd still have enough sodium, which is fun, because we do love our sodium in the right place at the right time. So thank you, Nicki, again, all the information for how to enter the giveaway, we're gonna put in the show notes, too. We hope you enter, we can't wait to see your reviews.

And I just have to say like, I don't think I could ever put into words, how insane it is for this experience that you guys are all listening, that we've gotten this gorgeous feedback, it means so much that we can connect with you in this platform. So I just want to thank you so much for season one already. It's been a freaking ball. So thank you so much for listening. Alright, let's do our recap and what we missed.

Nicki Parlitsis

Okay, so we and I also just wanted to give a shout out to all of the people who have been listening and sharing the Quiet the Diet podcast with your kids, your daughters, your sons, and you know, family members that you kind of listened together, and kind of shifting your view on whether it's the way we view our bodies, or the way we view food, really kind of sharing those with the people that you love. Because all of these things have been ingrained in, you know, diet culture.

And the way we view food in our body has kind of been ingrained for our whole lives. And so when we know better, we do better. So it's, you know, obviously, especially as parents, it's like, you know, we're doing that you're doing the best you can. But now when you hear some new information that kind of changes the way you're thinking about it, sharing it with your sons and daughters is has just been such an amazing thing to read and hear. So shout out to all of you guys for that, because that's amazing.

Michelle Shapiro 

Yeah, I mean, Nicki, I know you're also specifically referencing we got about, I would say five client requests, some who have become clients who are specifically Well, not all were client requests, some people are just reaching out saying that the reason I'm reaching out is because my mom made me sit down and listen to this episode with them.

And we were I mean, I got one email from someone who did become a client and shout out to that client. She knows I just absolutely adore her. But when I got that, that comment or that email, I was like crying like a lot. It's just such a, it's such a weird experience to be like a person, just a random person who, through like our own experience on a personal level, professional level can like access people who they otherwise wouldn't in other parts of the country and other parts of the world. It's a really moving experience.

So I just the gratitude I have is extreme. And just yeah, like you said, so sweet. Like moms like saying come over after school and listen to this with me. It's like an unbelievable experience. It makes me very emotional. Okay, thank you, Nicki. So to get on emotional so we can move on and get through a recap. We have 11 episodes. To recap here. We got work to do, sister. All right. Episode One, Nicki, what did we love about episode one? And then what do we wish? I wish we would have said that about episode one.

Nicki Parlitsis

So Episode One, for those of you that don't remember, this was you know, feels like forever ago even though it wasn't actually that long ago. It was can we lose weight while being body positive. And this was a solo with Michelle, where she shared her personal story of drastic weight loss efforts, and then the health consequences that came with it.

And what we loved was first off, acknowledging fat bias and fat phobia, and societal views of thinness like acknowledging that that exists. No matter what our views are on haze, or intuitive eating or body positivity, we can kind of dive into that as well. But really just acknowledging that that does exist. And it's valid if you've had those experiences, and they've affected you as well. We also talked about or you also talked about accessing your own voice to make autonomous food choices, because when we have certain movements, whether it is haze or intuitive eating, when they're kind of still telling people how they should feel, we're still kind of losing that piece of accessing our own voice.

And so that was something that you emphasize in this episode, which was just a great reminder to everyone. And also it's just a basic explanation of what even do we do with functional and Integrative Nutrition. And we can, you know, especially when it comes to finding that holistic whole body healing and enjoy Seeing the root cause of symptoms. So that's kind of it was a little bit of like laying the groundwork in that respect, and really focusing on inner versus outer wisdom.

 

The middle ground between between restriction and “all foods fit”

 

Michelle Shapiro 

And I'm adding into my I'm like, Hold on Nicki, I just thought of something too, which is, again, like I talked about, which I really want to focus on on Quiet the Diet podcast overall, which I was happy that I got to talk about was that there are people who fall through the cracks, there are people who body positivity all foods fit, if they have chronic illness, it just doesn't work for them.

There are people who've written to me and said, you know, eating intuitively and eating kind of an all foods fit model has literally ruined my life. I mean, that's an actual direct message that I got the other day, it ruined my life. And in some ways, again, while repairing your relationship with food is essential. And I believe in the principles of intuitive eating, the feedback we got from people was like, Yeah, Michelle, when you said, it's okay for me to want to lose weight.

That was pretty revolutionary for me, because what I'm noticing, and I'm sure Nicki, you're already starting to notice in your client sessions, is people coming in saying, I know I shouldn't want to lose weight. And I'm hearing that all the time. I know I shouldn't. And I'm like says who, who's the should police in this one who told you that? So the feedback that I got reinforced the fact that we really hit home with a lot of people in this episode, and that they don't feel like it's societally or morally good to want to lose weight.

And like they have to suppress what they actually want in order to be a good person and society. So I think we covered that. But I'm glad that we're kind of hitting it home again, here, because that's a really important message that if you're a person who feels like, I shouldn't want to lose weight, start to notice that voice as being not that authentic voice for you. The should is never the real you, right? So notice that the showed could also be coming from something that is like a more virtuous, positive movement, like body positivity, and anti fat bias and understand again, how it applies to you and how it integrates with your own intuitive voice and just know, it's okay, if you want to lose weight, it's okay to feel that way. Now, let's explore that.

Nicki Parlitsis

And it's what I've seen, too Is this, like pendulum swing. So it's like we have, whether it's, you know, you spent your whole life dieting and feeling like there's foods you shouldn't eat. And that's where the should comes in again, then all of a sudden swinging all the way to the other end of that, you know, let's go all in all foods fit, it doesn't matter how certain foods make me feel, because they're all allowed.

And then like you said, what we see is, you know, clients kind of coming back in and wanting to find that that middle ground that spot in between where they can, you know, not be influenced by diet culture, but also acknowledge that if certain foods don't sit well with you, that's your body telling.

And we this is what we talked about in the Andrea episode, this is your body telling you through its signs and symptoms, that maybe something does not fit with you and your friend or your family member, that food might be great for them. But it's your body telling you that that foods not great for you whether it's forever or for right now. And so really just finding that middle ground in between the two because, you know, if something doesn't feel right, and you don't feel good in your body, that's a valid feeling. And anything that invalidates that feeling is also likely an issue or a problem.

Michelle Shapiro 

Absolutely. And I like that it's we're applying that individuality to it and applying that self compassion. I love how you're phrasing that. Nicki, what do you what are we? What were we like, Oh, darn, I wish we would have gotten done this episode that we didn't get to talk about what was your top thing? So, okay, so

 

How to identify your inner authentic self

 

Nicki Parlitsis

I think that the top thing was, and we just touched on, it's all kind of bring in another one. But acknowledging that there are times where that intuition may even if it is trying to access your authentic self. If we've been quieting him or her for a long time, then it might feel very difficult to find your authentic self or to find your intuition. And so sometimes it's a practice of kind of taking and again, when we're super, super stressed out or tired, or you know, there's something else going on in our life. This is not the time to find your authentic self because there's, it's too loud, there's too much going on.

So really finding either a time of day or a time of your life where things feel a little bit quieter, and taking whether it's first thing in the morning, just taking that moment, whatever works for you, if it's doing breath work, if it's journaling, if it's even just sitting in bed for five minutes after you wake up and just trying to identify what am I hearing in my head? What are all of these voices telling me and can I identify which one is the law? Center, which one is my authentic inner self.

And then once you kind of start to practice that slowly over time, then you know, maybe weeks months go by, and then that voice starts to get louder and louder. And then you can really start to hone in on your accessing that intuition because it's been practiced. But don't get discouraged if you've been silencing this inner self for 3040 years, and they're not coming out to play anytime soon. Like, that's completely understandable and makes complete sense. And it's just really practicing that and being patient with yourself.

Michelle Shapiro 

Yeah, I need to add on to that incredibly insightful piece that you said too, which is I kind of view our brain as having like different layers of thought. And I kind of lay it out the top layer, and the the least accessible, while the most accessible, but the least layer you want to be functioning in is like that fear layer, then underneath that is your conscious thought underneath that is your subconscious thought. And underneath that is kind of like the unconscious collective.

So whenever we give ourselves space or time to listen, and to kind of dive in, we might be accessing one of those layers, I would say it the more that we practice listening and tapping in and you know, nervous system regulation, we get lower and lower, which we like, where we can get all the way down to that unconscious collective. And that's where you get like your psychic energy, that's where you're accessing other people's thoughts.

And that's, that's kind of the best of us is when we're at the most peace. And if you're in a place of constant fear, it can be really, really hard to tap in. So the work you'd be doing with a practitioner would be kind of trying to bring you down closer into that real unconscious version of yourself that is totally there, and all of us, but like you said, if you're in a place of fear, you're going to hear the fear voice really, really quite loudly. And it's okay to just listen to it, except it not like it would just let it rock if you're in that really, really high fear state, as opposed to trying really hard to, you know, climb the mountain of Self Realization. Even if we think about something like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, right, we need to meet our basic physical and emotional needs.

Before we start, like hitting home with that authentic voice. Now, I will say there are times when people are sick and can very easily access that authentic voice. But it's it can be more challenging for others. And don't judge yourself at all. Whatever layer of thought your body is in is absolutely perfect and fine. Just knowing kind of where you're at is is powerful and healing in and of itself. I love that Nicki, was there something else you feel like you wish we would have hammered in from episode one.

Nicki Parlitsis

The only other thing which I think we actually will get into in the Andreea episode is the you know, understanding that because this fatphobia is persistent in our culture. And we are actively trying to dismantle that and just re educate people in that way.

If you have had a bad experience with a doctor or a medical provider and been written off for that, first of all, you are incredibly valid in however you're feeling in that moment. That is, you know, it's a medical trauma, but it's okay to find a new doctor, we don't have to kind of sweat, I know that. It can be an easy thing to and rightfully so, it's easy to feel like, you don't want to go back to the doctor, you don't want to put yourself through that experience, again, which is completely understandable.

But also remembering that there are providers out there, there are people out there that are inclusive in terms of their health care practice. And so, you know, again, this is a great opportunity for the client, the dying community where we have some medical providers that are either virtual or in New York City to search for it. But just know that this doesn't mean that the health care system is not right for you. It just means that we have to kind of find the team of practitioners that

fits well with your needs.

 

Empowering the individual vs. fighting the system

 

Michelle Shapiro 

Nicki, you also said something so important there, which is that we're trying to dismantle fatphobia so I have to critique myself in one way, which is I'm a very hardcore person and I'm a very I'm a big fighter like if I have one trauma response, like I definitely lean on the fight response for sure. And I have felt like within the nutrition world, my qualms with being a dietitian with some of the recommendations that I don't agree with as a functional dietitian, and with kind of the societal issues that are so vast and systemic.

A lot of dietitians are in the mix actively dismantling fat phobia. I'm more of a like psychological and sociological fighter. So I My goal is to empower the individual in these situations. So I'm like, listen, fatphobia is extremely real weight discrimination is extremely real. It is devastating. life altering and dangerous for our health. That being said, I don't believe I am the person who's going to make the societal changes, I will, I will do my part to educate people on how to protect themselves in those situations there.

And I again, I think that's a flaw of mine, potentially, but it's just my approach. And I'm owning that there are amazing practitioners and dieticians who are fighting, licensure wise, they're fighting, you know, out there, I'm more like, let me talk to your doctor. And also, I'll you know, I'll set the conversation straight. And that's adventure, but I'll set the conversation straight, let me tell you what you can do to walk into these appointments to get the most out of them.

And that's why I'm grateful for a platform like the Quiet the Diet podcast, because it's impacting individuals, but on a wider scale than I would normally be able to do. But I have to say that, you know, when it comes to dismantling fatphobia, my goal with quiet the diet is I want to I want to help people do within their brains, not within the societal context is I don't believe I have the power to do that very unfortunately. But I hope that if we have enough individuals feeling and this is like a big conversation about life, kind of, but if we have enough individuals feeling safer, and feeling like those things can impact them as much. That might be another edit approach, I can't say that my approach is better or worse. It's just what I know, and my best way that I know how to help people.

And that's the tools that I have, whereby I think like we would need lawyers, and we would need like politicians and things like that to make bigger moves. And those people are very necessary, too. So that is something I also just wanted to acknowledge, as we are trying to dismantle these ideas within you so that you can go and protect it. And one of these things with weight bias, specifically that we hear all the time as people walking into doctors offices, and being treated differently because of their weight being ignored because of their weight.

And the kind of main response I see from a lot of body positive practitioners is just tell them you don't want to be weighed. And the issue has been that people then don't get medical care because the doctors become resistant. And because all right, so you took weighing off the table, what about the rest of your care, you actually still need the medical care that you went to the doctor for.

So that's what we want to do, again, is not only just have these kind of broad strokes, societal ideas about what should change, but actually give again, application application. So thank you, Nicki, that brought up that idea, which we didn't even write down. I just thought of it now.

Nicki Parlitsis

Yeah, it's mirroring also your approach to anxiety, which is a great segue into the anxiety episode, but that bottom up approach, it's like your bottom up approach of how do we, in our own selves, you know, make these changes or, you know, access within our own selves, how to change the the way that we you know, we're operating within the healthcare system, and it's that bottom up approach versus that macro, you know, approach of like fighting in DC, which is not within exactly,

Michelle Shapiro 

I definitely, I always felt like if I had a theme song, for my like, if I was going to go on stage, doing like one of these public speaking engagements that I've done that I was like, oh, we should play, we're not going to take it before we walk in by Twisted Sister were not gone. Because I definitely feel like it's like, it's a it's an individual level. But it's a we level, like we all can do this together. And we can tell each other like, Hey, it's okay, you feel this way.

And that's where we can make that kind of bigger shift. So I love that. And then yes, we definitely talk about this approach in the anxiety episode with Amanda Montalvo, one of my favorites of the season, I can't say which is my favorite, but it's definitely one of my favorites of the season. And what I felt like I loved so much about that episode was that we were able to talk about anxiety from a mindset approach from a personal approach.

And then we were able to parlay that into a real scientific conversation about what is going on in the body during times of anxiety. And the feedback we got from this episode was really profound and that people didn't understand again, that anxiety was anything more than just this mental experience. So I love that about the episode, Nicki, tell us what you felt like we did right there. And what we could have added in Oh, man, I wish we would have gotten that done, too.

Nicki Parlitsis

This is the episode I think I hear about most from clients and discovery calls. Because I think with you know, there's been such a push to talk about mental health and access to mental health solutions in our society, but they've almost all of them are looking at that, like you said, top down approach of how do we you know, whether it's talk therapy or from the mind, translating from the mind to the body, how do we address anxiety? Now, not saying that that's not a solution. It's sometimes multi, you know, you need both solutions at the same time.

But I think this bottom up approach of addressing our physicality and how that causes anxiety or mental health symptoms, is sometimes a new concept for people and also very validating because they're like, I feel this anxiety in my body and sometimes I'm not even thinking about something At that time to be anxious about like, I feel like it's coming from my body. So I loved how that resonated with people. And also that component of you know, knowing are my stress hormones a little out of whack are they, you know, a little jacked up from years and years of chronic stress.

And I think that, you know, especially when you mentioned waking up between, you know, two and four in the morning, maybe an indicator of this cortisol response, and that kind of was a lightbulb, I think, for a lot of people. And also realizing that this is a very, you know, it's a normal response in the body for natural stress. It's just that our daily lifestyles, especially when we're talking about New York City just becomes this chronic level of stress, that then depletes these nutrients that we, you know, desperately need in our body.

And also, our organs need like, especially when Amanda was mentioning this impact of cortisol on the thyroid. And I know that hypothyroidism is something that a lot of people are dealing with right now. So making those connections between anxiety and that physical component, and our nutrient depletion, just really, really resonated with people. And I think that was my favorite part of the episode along with her mention of the adrenal cocktail, because we love and adrenal Yeah, and I think, one of my clients favorite favorite things in their plans?

Michelle Shapiro 

I think so too. And I mean, Amanda's just Amanda Montalvo. I mean, she's like a genius goddess Queen anytime I sit down with her, and we're like best friends. And anytime I just sit down with her casually, I'm learning something. She was a wealth of information on that episode, too. I think what I would have loved for us to have done was also really talks about the identity issues that we have with anxiety, there's kind of two pieces of feedback I got a lot was that people said to me, first of all, Michelle, I didn't even know I was anxious before, I didn't even know that I had been functioning with such high level anxiety for such a long time.

That episode made me think, Oh, my God, have I been anxious this whole time. And that was a lot of feedback I got and then on the other end of the spectrum was a lot of people saying, you know, I'm just an anxious person. And this feeling that we attach our identity, to our anxiety so much. And in the process of working on our anxiety, understanding that anxiety is a thing that is happening, but it is not who we are as people, even though some of us have more of a tendency to react to our environments. I don't believe that people are just anxious people.

I don't believe one piece of us also makes the whole of us and I also believe that anxiety is something that changes as our bodies and health change too. So that's something that I wish we would have hammered in a little bit. Otherwise, that was a baller episode. All right, Nicki, let's just be honest, episode three was your favorite. Just be real with people and just say that episode three was your favorite.

 

Why “self-sabotage” isn’t a thing

 

Nicki Parlitsis

I don't even know. And I know that I've mentioned this over Instagram to her. But I don't know if she if Stephanie, Stephanie Mara Fox was on the binge eating episode, I don't know if she is even aware of my obsession. So now I'm just saying it out loud and very public forum. Because I saw when I was going through my own experience with eating disorders, and I kind of went through that spectrum of restriction to bulimia to binge eating like that typical pattern of, you know, progression that we see so often, I think, is having the message of someone like Stephanie and the things that she was talking about in terms of somatic eating, and that episode would have been a complete life changer for me.

And I mean, luckily I was able to use other tools to get to where I am now. But I mean, it would have saved yours like she she is just truly the way that she presents information and her perspective on somatic eating is just unbelievable. I I love her so much. And it was that body that somatic eating was that body oriented sensation, focus therapeutic approach to eating so not just talking about the food, but how do we why are we binging why there's a instead of that, you know, a lot of people look at that self sabotage piece.

They're like, Oh, I'm self sabotaging. And it's always kind of blaming the self. And kind of reframing that into this notion of our bodies and our brains are trying to protect us at all times. So reaching for food. Instead of calling it binge eating, it might be more of a protective eating mechanism, because we have these emotions that are just too much for us to experience in that moment. Whether we haven't dealt with them for a very long time or just in that moment.

They're above the threshold of what we can manage. And so food is very good at regulating our nervous system and calming us down to a place that we can manage. So you know shifting that that perspective I think also, it's just very calming for people. It's like a weight off their shoulders like, Okay, I'm not doing something wrong, I'm actually trying to protect myself. And I just need some more tools in the toolbox for how to regulate my nervous system in those moments so that I'm not always turning to food.

Michelle Shapiro 

Yeah, I mean, Stephanie is listening to her voice, I feel my nervous system regulating. And I think the biggest piece of feedback we got from that episode was absolutely people saying, oh, my gosh, my binge eating has been helping me this whole time. I'm not sabotaging myself by binge eating, it's actually been saving my life.

And that, like you said, just that switch is a transformation in and of itself. And people really, really told us that after that episode, I just also thought the idea of our body and brain needing to be connected for us to make these changes is very foreign to typical eating disorder treatment as well, where it's, again, more brain focus, definitely have to get the nutrients in. But that added element of somatically, checking in with your body.

And the experience at the time, I think is a game changer in a lot of ways. And that was actually one of the things that I wish that we would have talked about. And one of the things that I felt like we missed was that again, I'm always interested in who's falling through the cracks. And for a lot of people, the piece of standard eating disorder treatments, or disordered eating treatment is, again, including all foods. And that's one really awesome way to kind of liberate that stress. But then on another hand, we're missing that connection to body that we really might need. So that was one thing I wish we would have hammered in a little more in episode three as well.

 

 Separating our diagnosis from our identity

 

Nicki Parlitsis

No, there's one more piece that I also just wanted to bring in because this was something that and it relates to you mentioning that some people feel like Oh, I'm an anxious person and attributing that state to their physical being. And I think we do that with eating disorders. Like we say I'm anorexic or bulimic or I'm a binge eater. And you are not a binge eater, you have just been using these behaviors to regulate something that's going on in your body.

And that may be a temporary state of being that you can totally shift out of. And I think using terminology and the way we talk about ourselves is a crucial piece of the healing process. So just always remembering you are not a binge eater, you just are going through a state of something that you you know, over time will definitely be able to, you know feel more comfortable with in your body afterward.

 

How much protein you should eat & how to do it!

 

Michelle Shapiro 

You you frickin nailed it. And again, that's That's exactly right. And that comes back to a lot of this identity and authenticity piece of the puzzle, which is that we attach labels and diagnoses onto ourselves when all of these are temporary states of being obesity as a word. That's a temporary state of being it shouldn't be a full blown permanent diagnosis on your medical record. That's what's happening right now. And that's the same thing.

And when we apply curiosity to these things, as opposed to judgment and shame, we get to learn about why they're happening in the first place and not why they are who we are as people. I love that Nicki, thank you. The protein episode was episode four with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, my dear and darling friend obsessed with her obviously, Do I even have to say that everyone's freaking obsessed with her. She's a genius goddess, we talked a lot about the influence of muscle mass not only as this aesthetic organ, but also as an endocrine organ and how it influences the rest of the systems in our body. And we had the privilege of having Dr. Lyon on to talk from this really high level about muscle that it's a complicated conversation.

Because I think when we think of protein, we think a muscle. These are kind of owned almost by the fitness community it feels like and we were talking about in a medical and nutrition context, in a really refreshing way to talk about, again, how all the systems in our body are connected and how essential muscle is for Aging and Longevity.

Because we lived in that pretty high level. What I wish we would have been able to talk about in our timeframe was kind of more tangible applications of what Gabrielle would recommend Dr. Lyon would recommend for protein in individuals. I got one piece of feedback that was really powerful about the Quiet the Diet podcast, episode two in this application sense, which was someone who was suffering with a lot of chronic illness, saying, Michelle, it's awesome that you're saying you need protein for chronic illness. Now tell me how the heck do I eat it?

My chronic illness makes me not hungry. My chronic illness makes me not have an appetite for animal protein. How do I actually incorporate it? So I definitely want us to speak into that because that's really important. So the first kind of more tangible recommendation for that episode that I feel that we could have hit and we didn't because of time constraints was that gabrial Dr. Gabrielle Lyon recommends one gram per one gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight.

That means if you your ideal body weights 150 pounds you'd be eating 150 grams of protein per day, many People just want in their head when I said that, by the way, that's funny. I made that sound for my nephew, and he always giggles a lot. And I'm like, I'm like, wow, that I haven't used that sounds in other contexts recently, I just been me like losing my voice literally, because I'll lay on the ground or do anything to make him laugh ever.

So I'm just like, oh, all day. So if you were shocked about that, yeah, it's definitely a lot more than much of the many of us are eating. And because of that, we definitely would want to walk you into how to kind of move up to that level, because it's extremely challenging and intimidating have a number. So Nicki, tell us like, what, how would people start to introduce more protein? What are some easy ways to start to introduce more, if that's what they're looking to do?

Nicki Parlitsis

Yeah, so I'm just laughing because my friends call me the protein police because I am obsessed with protein. And you know, I just one of my biggest pet peeves is like thinking of, yes, beans and nuts have protein. But they aren't. When we talk about protein, we mean food, the way in which the macronutrient is protein is the main macronutrient in that food. So again, when you're looking at if your aim is 150 grams of protein, that number can feel very overwhelming.

So first of all, I'd like to break it down over the course of your day. So if you're having three meals and two snacks, let's divide that 150 by five, and maybe we're aiming for 30 grams at each meal, or it sounds better. Right? Exactly. Exactly. It's that might be a little 30 might be a little high, but then focusing on higher protein foods.

And then how can we kind of balance the plate around that higher protein food. So if you're having, let's say oatmeal for breakfast, for breakfast, you can add a protein powder into that oatmeal, you can add some eggs on the side or some egg whites into the oatmeal, which sounds crazy, but I promise it's delicious. We can also then add some different types if we're not having if we're chickens always a go to for people.

But maybe we can add a little bit more fish and we're getting some omega threes in there too. And then when it comes to snacks, that's I think what I see where we fall through the cracks is with snacks. So if we think of snacks, I like to use the term mini meal. So I actually heard that from a nutritionist I saw years and years ago, the term mini meal is helpful to think about because we're very focused on balancing our meals, but we don't think about snacks in the same way.

So looking at a snack as either incorporating leftovers so having an actual mini version of a meal, or having just thinking about snack type foods that have higher protein like those chopsticks, we talked about. Even some edamame a some some of these foods, and we have our Protein Guide, which will have specific tangibles for high protein foods and meals and snacks. But like I said, breaking it down a lot. And if you're currently eating 60 grams of protein a day, please don't try to just jump to 150. Like, let's go from 60 to 70 to 80. And then three months later, before you know it, you're at your goal when you didn't even realize,

Michelle Shapiro 

yeah, and the piece of the protein puzzle that's very hard for people is if they don't have the appetite for protein, which in that case, you're going to want to look at your body's ability to produce stomach acid. If you have acid reflux, you're going to want to look at your liver, I'm very happy to say one of the early episodes in season two is going to be focused on acid reflux, and why we kind of lose our interest in protein when we have low stomach acid or hypochlorhydria, as it's known as in the medical community, and how we can kind of start to introduce some of that acid back in to get that interest back in protein.

So we will definitely be able to talk about that in season two. So definitely stay tuned for that episode. And again, I think that the name of the game is slow introduction like Nicki is saying, and trying to find the foods that you enjoy the most. And I also I love that the mini meal idea because snacks in America are like randomly different than meals but like shouldn't be like it should just be all food as food. You just like have to eat like weird kids food at snack time. Like you don't have to eat granola bars just because it's like snack time. You could just eat like turkey again. You know, it doesn't have to be like that. So I think that was really powerful too.

So episode five in our macronutrient series. So Episode Four was protein with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. Episode Five was the carb episode with the amazing Julian greaves, one of my other best friends. And I love that we were able to focus on carbohydrates in the context of cortisol, blood sugar in the context of chronic illness. And I think Julian did such a beautiful job of laying out the basics of blood sugar. And we got great feedback on that episode just because of those essentials coming up and we also gave some really specific numbers for that. But I think we could review those if you don't mind Nicki kind of taking us through because we we did do a lot of high level and a lot of low level but if you might have missed kind of some of those essential markers to check for in your blood, I think Nicki's gonna walk us through those.

 

Optimal blood glucose lab values

 

Nicki Parlitsis

Yeah, so first of all, knowing that these you want these blood glucose lamp values to be taken or these labs to be taken fasted, which is incredibly important to remember. So we want our fasted glucose to be between 70 and 90. And then our hemoglobin a one C, which is a marker of the past three months or so to be less than 5.4.

So also just a reminder, if you are outside of these numbers, and your doctor has diagnosed you with either pre diabetes or a diagnosis of diabetes, there's so much that can be done with both diet and lifestyle to influence this. So please don't, you know, feel like this is something that you are stuck with or like we said before, is a marker of you because, you know, there's a lot that that we can do to shift that as well.

Michelle Shapiro 

Absolutely. And again, a lot of these conditions we're talking about are lifestyle driven conditions, which means that not only with changing the amount of carbs that you eat help you with these conditions, but influencing your body's ability to process sugar from an insulin perspective can be really helpful too. And then the last episode in our macronutrients series was the fat episode with the amazing Jay Gould, al Ghul, and aloe Nicki smiling already.

All right, we were very obsessed with Jay and this episode too. He is a smooth talker, he can put that research to use and really pull these different pieces together to make a really clear picture for people. Tell us Nicki, what did we love about Jays episode?

Nicki Parlitsis

So we loved clearing up the confusion about cholesterol because I still get questions about this. You know, my doctor told me I can't have eggs, I can't have red meat. We are clearing up the confusion about cholesterol we cleared about up the history of why we even started to worry so much about cholesterol in the first place. And just reiterating that for the majority of people 80% of the cholesterol in your bloodstream is made. And honestly which means it's made by your body. So only about 20% is influenced by the food that you're eating.

So please if you are you know cholesterol is something that you are worried about for your own body, it is not something that we need to go on a huge elimination diet for one thing we missed was really just touching on some functional lab ranges for cholesterol. I know that Jay had mentioned the ratio of HDL cholesterol to triglycerides, as being something that we might want to look at a little bit more than just that total cholesterol number.

 

Optimal lipid panel lab values

 

Michelle Shapiro 

So again, you're going to look at that HDL to triglyceride ratio, new estimates for what the best kind of most protective HDL range are about 60 to 80 of your triglycerides, you really want less than 100, maybe around 50 to 80 and then your Apolipoprotein B is something else you want to look at for your LDL risk, it's going to show you also the particle number is going to show you more if that LDL you have is oxidized and it's it's more like the size or the placement of the particles matters and what type matters.

And the ApoB is a more specific measure of that to let you know about the particle size too. And then again, I would take all their cholesterol labs more in context than just looking at random numbers. And I would also implore you that if your numbers are altered, to really focus on what's going on with the liver inflammation wise as a piece of a bigger metabolic picture, not just focused on high, this number is high. That's it.

The other thing Nicki that you just saw highlighted is looking at the context of these numbers, not only in the context of your overall health, but how do they compare to your last numbers. And I had a patient a client who recently with a patient of a doctor who went and they were freaking out about her cholesterol numbers and her blood sugar numbers, but they were substantially better and well within the range that I would consider normal by the way since the last time she went in.

So it's really important again to see what your patterns and trends are not these numbers in isolation. And not these numbers in isolation without context of your overall health to what I feel like we might have missed in the cholesterol and the fat episode is just a little more context and a little more nuanced when it comes to application. What we mean by that is when we were talking about seed oils and Omega six fats, Jay mentioned the halflife of these fats.

So we can know that scientifically, seed oils might not be protective or helpful for our health and might cause harm, and still know that in America. It's extremely abundant in our food supply. So if not consuming those things is going to take away from your social life if it's going to take away from the context of your health and other ways. It might just be okay to consume it once in a while and take the hit If it's and for some people, it might not be as big of a hit.

So we don't want to say, hey, you can never dine out restaurants as a result of this, Hey, you can never engage in these pieces of life. Because it's not only unrealistic, it's potentially harmful to view things that way. That being said, we're not going to negate the science that Jay said, which is where I think some dietitians go a little too far saying, hey, too bad. It's already in our food supply, you have to eat it. But I think there's a little bit of wiggle room there where it is going to be in the food supply, but it's not going to be an instant death. If you consume it, there's a there's more nuance there.

So understand in the context of your own health and your own life, how impactful those things might be. Let's rock with another definite fan favorite. And I was joking with poor Dr. Kachko, Episode Seven, the trauma episode, because I said, you know, Dr. Kachko rob is so freakishly smart that I was like, I don't know if you're gonna be too nerdy for people to understand what you're talking about. But that wasn't the case.

And he was like, I'm very, he was like, I'm very hurt that you thought, you know, I wouldn't be a good speaker. And we were joking back and forth. I was like, of course, you're a good speaker is one of the best speakers are met. But I was like, I'm really glad people understood cause trauma so complex that we were able to get that kind of trauma episode to a really usable level for people. And I just thought that Rob, you know, Dr. Kachko did such a gorgeous job of that. Nicki, what did you love about that episode?

Nicki Parlitsis

My favorite piece was honestly learning about the concept of Mind Body re integration, because we hear about the mind body connection all the time. But calling it mind body reintegration, he emphasized that this is something that is our natural state of being. And we have lost that over time, especially with trauma, we become dysregulated and disconnected between our mind and our body. So in trauma work, we're just re integrating the mind with the body, because they once were connected, and we're just getting back to that.

Michelle Shapiro 

I thought that was so beautiful, too. I thought that was so beautifully stated. That statistic that Dr. Rob used with us, too, that 85% of IBS sufferers, they found in one study have some level of childhood trauma, I think that hit home, like really hard for people, because it just brought us to this understanding that what we've learned through our nervous system is what our nervous system still knows.

Which is why I think conventional treatments of anxiety sometimes fail for people because we're just trying to kind of bring down our anxiety, but our nervous system hasn't learned a new way of existing and being and why I think stress can be so addicting for people too. I mean, there was just so much beauty in that episode. And I think it was so functional and helpful for people. Nicki, what do you feel like we missed in that episode, and you wish we would assess. So

Nicki Parlitsis

one thing is I just also wanted to remind people that sometimes if you've had a past experience of trauma, doing those body scans and checking in with your body may cause some type of uncomfortable sensation, because you don't have you know, being within your body is in itself dis regulating. So if you do a body check in and you find that you're really feeling more unwell afterward, then you might associate checking in with not feeling well. So remember that, you know, in certain situations, we might need to work with a trauma informed practitioner before kind of trying to do those body check ins in terms of you know, whatever our past experience of trauma might have been.

Michelle Shapiro 

I love that. And again, if you're experiencing a lot of trauma already, then diving into that trauma can feel like a lot, which is why talk therapy can be challenging for people too, because they feel like they're bringing up a lot of stuff that they don't know how to clear basically. So in the experience of talk therapy, which is tremendously helpful. We're huge fans of always just be checking in with your body to and and noticing what your physical body I think is telling you it's really important also. Thank you for that Nicki,

Nicki Parlitsis

I just wanted to give a shout out. This is not sponsored at all, but I just need to give a shout out to could be when you were talking about it could be when you were talking about IBS and that connection between IBS and trauma and our nervous system. There's this app called Nerva, which is a gut directed hypnotherapy app. It's just 10 to 15 minutes a day. And I find that it's been super super helpful for both myself and clients for just kind of calming down the nervous system but directly related the words that they'll use is they'll literally talk to your intestines and into your subconscious and it's just a phenomenal app so I'll put the link in the show notes but I just need to give them a shout out yes

Michelle Shapiro 

you do. Nerva app we love that Nicki that's awesome. And really I think huge themes and quiet the diet is self communication, cell communication and communication outside of self and within self. So that's that's really powerful. Episode Eight was the gluten or elimination diet episode. What did we love about that episode I found feedback wise, and what other people found really helpful was, again, this idea of quiet, the diet being a place for the people who have fallen through the cracks.

And the people who do not fit a one size fit model at all. And those people are generally people who reached out where people who had been in eating disorder facilities or had worked with sort of eating practitioners who could not acknowledge again, that gluten for them was exacerbating that negative relationship with food. I also felt like we were able to talk about gluten in a way that it hasn't been talked about before, which is from the functional nutrition perspective, but also again, in that model of disordered eating, which is really nuanced.

And I was really excited about that episode. For that reason, too. We also talked about strategies people can use to talk to others about their choosing to be gluten free, like your, I don't know, like, have to announce this as a part of your identity. I also would say, with the identity piece, what I wish I would have said is how much being gluten free used to be a part of my identity, much like how much being vegan used to be a part of my identity, and how I don't really feel the need to like, do that anymore. But it felt like I was part of a cool club. I mean, I think we're still in you know, if anyone wants to join the club or whatever, that's totally fine.

But it's been for me also important to separate that piece out from my like identity of like, I'm gluten free, you know, because it allows me to also see context for all of my clients where not everyone has to cut out gluten. A lot of people chronically ill probably want to or try to for that very valid reasons. But I think there was that identity piece with gluten. That's pretty strong. Have you experienced that to Nicki like where you were like, I'm also gluten free?

Nicki Parlitsis

Yeah, because I also had the same experience where I was vegan for four or five years and it became like a such an identity piece that when I started into I like cried the first time I had chicken and seafood because like, I had been kicked out of this club. And now I don't have I'm like stranded on the street with no club to join. And also that feeling of hopping from club to club, like I'm going from the vegan club to the gluten free club.

And I mean, like, you know, obviously, we love the gluten free coffee. But it can be a little bit unsettling to be outside of this and trying to tap into like, how do I actually want to eat in a way that feels like it is coming from you and not coming from? Whatever, you know, this external voice is telling you that you should be doing

Michelle Shapiro 

absolutely it always comes back to is it your voice? Or is it the voice of the person who wants to be a part of the club? Who's that voice? Nicki, what did we miss? And what exciting? Addition do we have since then for the people from the gluten free episode?

Nicki Parlitsis

Oh, yeah, so I'm not gonna lie. I feel like this was a pretty comprehensive episode. I don't feel like we missed much. The only thing is we didn't give like tangibles of exactly if you are trying to if you find yourself gluten sensitive or you are trying to pick gluten free options, what do you do? So we created a gluten free guide with both restaurants in New York City and products that we have links in there for you to try.

We have some specific different bread items, but also prioritizing naturally gluten free foods like quinoa, rice, sweet potatoes, starchy vegetables, like squash. So you know, if you feel a little bit lost in your journey here, we have this gluten free guide for you!

Michelle Shapiro 

Yes, and this is a really exciting and Nicki and I again, we're both part of the gluten free club. And now we're just people who don't happen to consume gluten in our diets. So and we both been in New York for you know, actually, Nicki also, at least in New York State, the entirety of your life and New York City that your whole adult life as well. So we've been kind of scouting, a lot of gluten free options for people in New York.

So if you're traveling to New York also, the guide will also of course, include like just gluten free products you can get from anywhere in the country. But we found the best spots and we feel very confident about I'm very excited to share just our personal favorites in the city too. And then episode nine joyously was the ancient Ayurvedic wisdom with Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya who is I mean a rock star as an understatement for Dr. B. We really talked about kind of what she has seen as in her own practice the bridge between Western and Eastern medicine.

You know, we we did some intros to Ayurvedic medicine we talked really about again, how in America, we tend to eat the same every season, we eat the same no matter how we're feeling, and how we need to incorporate seasonal elements into what we do. And we just also ripped on a lot of the American tendencies that we have regarding health care and nutrition, which is always my favorite. I would say that what I love so much about Dr. B and about this episode was that Dr. B has this capacity to understand the complexities of Ayurveda and the complexities of Western modern medicine and has been able to find that beautiful kind of bridge between the precision of modern medicine and the traditions of Ayurveda.

And I, we had this funny conversation at the end of the episode about kind of the context of intuitive eating within Ayurveda. And the summary was, it kind of doesn't exist in the realm of Eastern medicine, the the ideology itself is faulty, because there are foods that are inherently a match for our bodies and foods that are inherently not and kind of the way Dr. B described it was, if we eat based on what we want, that will not always give our body what we need. I would say that was it even more gentle way of phrasing it, I think that she did, but I'm gonna be the gentle one.

And she's awesome for that, and bold and brilliant, and we appreciate her personality for that way, too. So I think that that was what was amazing about that episode. And I mean, we will definitely be hearing from Dr. B in the future as well. And what I wish we would have been able to go into more honestly, is just, I think, a deeper dive on Ayurveda, I think that would have been really, really cool. And I know Nicki, you made a note, too, that we wish that we would have kind of talked about why we dismiss these ancient practices so much.

And I think the answer is a little too political and a little too racial, to be honest with you, and a lot of ways and I think that that's it's a money game, it's a big, it's a big game that we probably don't want to ever get into, unless Dr. B wants to come back and do it what she would for sure. And that was episode nine, which we loved.

And then Episode 10, which just came out recently, of course, was all about navigating medical appointments with Andrea Nakayama. I mean, Andrea is one of my closest friends, I consider her a personal Savior for one of my family members, as we talked about, and we really talked about medical gaslighting, how to become your own patient advocate in those appointments.

And again, what I felt like was missing in this conversation about doctor's appointments is if you go in and say I refuse to be weighed, where does that leave you with that with the practitioner? Where does that leave you in ways of pursuing health? So again, it's one thing to protect yourself by trying to limit the amount of harm when you walk into appointments.

But it's another thing entirely to prepare yourself to receive help. And that's what I think we covered really well. Nicki, tell me what you thought we loved about that episode and what you feel like we wish we could have gotten into. I loved the tangibles

Nicki Parlitsis

that Andrea provided about exactly how to walk into your doctor's office and speak with your provider, and access your own intuition. That was phenomenal. And then one piece that I think that you guys had touched on, but that I wanted to kind of elaborate just a little bit more on was that if you are experiencing this bias in a healthcare setting, it can be a trigger for other self preservation behaviors.

So if you're confused at why you were prescribed weight loss, and then you actually had an increase in binge behaviors after that, that actually is not an uncommon response, because we are more dysregulated and then need to use something. And if food is our only tool, then that's kind of what we are needing to use in that moment to, you know, deal with whatever we experienced in the healthcare setting that was, you know, traumatic for us.

So I just want to let people know that that is nothing to be ashamed of. It's just that same concept of how do we advocate in the healthcare setting in a way that we feel comfortable, but then, and then we tie it into again, that binge eating episode about how do we, you know, emotionally regulate with other tools besides food as well?

Michelle Shapiro 

Absolutely. And Andrea is such a wealth of knowledge from a client perspective, but also from a practitioner perspective. So she couldn't really has been able to really successfully walk it back through kind of the practitioner side of things, too. And what she does is trains practitioners, to not have those biased interactions, which I think is so powerful. So Andrea does what I wish I could in some ways, which is again, she fights the system from within and also empowers the individual. So Andrea, we love you, and thank you for that too.

And then our most recent episode, which was I have to just say, kind of like the biggest get of my life. I mean, this is just unbelievable. I don't think I can already tell you and this was the cult of diet culture with Sarah Edmondson. So I just I what I didn't get to mention in the episode enough was how absolutely obsessed I've been with Sarah Edmondson, her husband Anthony as their friend, Mark Vicente.

I have been following the NXIVM cult and the powerful brave people who left it since I first heard about the vow since probably before that because I heard of NXIVM before that and I have just been absorbing their podcasts absorbing any information I could. And while I've been so interested in there, I would call it like honestly at this point they're, you know, successful outcome. I've also been so invested in just the idea that we could lose this autonomy of self.

And what always fascinated me so much about the people in the NXIVM cult specifically was that they were like, the smartest and coolest people. And I was just like, Oh, these are like, really smart people, some of them were celebrities, some of them were, you know, they're very adored. So high social support networks, really smart people that I would think would have shielded them from what was to come, and I wish it did.

But we're on shield double in some ways as people because we all are human. And we and especially in this specific cold, everyone really wanted to do good in the world. And it was actually their wanting to do good. That was what their vulnerability was. And I think that in so many ways, when it comes to diet culture, when it comes to our health, we all want to do good, be perceived as good. And that can be our biggest downfall when it comes to falling into diet traps and things like that, too.

And I noticed this so much of the body positivity movement, because you are instantly perceived as a bad person, if you don't believe in intuitive eating or body positivity, which I don't think was the intention of the creators of these movements, by the way at all. But that's kind of where it's spun into, which can lead people to deny their own voice for the sake of what society perceives as positive. And I think that that is just such a huge concern for me with all kind of what I've been seeing in the ways of diet culture and anti diet culture.

And what I two things I would have written more is what my concern is there and also how absolutely obsessed I am with everything related to this and how literally, it's been months of me talking to everyone in my life about this. And the fact that Sarah even was able to sit down with us was just ridiculous for me. Nicki, tell me about your takeaway from the episode two.

Nicki Parlitsis

First of all, I Michele got me into the bow and now it's taken over my life because it's amazing HBO, but I admire their their ethical like moral compass, and how hard they fought once they realized that this was problematic, California, and it

Michelle Shapiro 

was scary. It was scary. Yeah, that was not a joke. They were going against like billions of dollars, and they were going against vicious narcissism, and they did not back down. And it was really freakin scary. Sorry. Go ahead. I just had to add that, and I agree with you.

Nicki Parlitsis

And so I think so one of the things I loved was when Sarah gave us tangible red flags to look for in terms of cruelty tactics, and diet and health sales. And then the other thing that we actually don't think we miss it, I think you you touched on this was that, you know, healthcare is an industry and you will be sold things. But I think what she did a great job of pointing out was that you don't need to, like we said, you don't need to join the vegan, you know, club or join a certain eating pattern club, you can pick out of all of these clubs, you can pick what works for you and your body in that moment.

And also recognize what works for you in that moment might not work for you a year from now because your life might look different. So what she did a great job of explaining was how to pick and choose what which nutritional component and health components what might be great for you to focus on in your life. And when you do you have that internal compass and you do have that conversation with your inner authentic self, then you can feel very confident knowing that that what you're choosing is based on your own beliefs and not push on you from someone else.

Michelle Shapiro 

I love that. Yeah, and this is what's such a good episode to wrap up the season in again, it's always about accessing your authenticity, regardless of what every single person around you believes to be true and is willing to die on the Hill of it only matters how it influences you and how you can hear that own voice of yours. And I would say that anytime you're in a cultish situation or diet situation, that kind of diagram I'm thinking of with your thought patterns being either your fear your subconscious, I mean your conscious, subconscious unconscious.

I think generally when we're doing things based in diet culture, or even just based on any diet pattern that is not a fit for us. We're often doing them from a place of fear and urgency and to just address the urgency instead of acting on the urgency I think is really really important. And I obviously put Sarah's episode right up against the finale which is this episode because I'm again like beyond obsessed like beyond obsess if you didn't want to evaluate you have to it has to ruin your life like I've ruined Nicki's in more ways than one I'm sure Nicki you rock today by the way and I know we're gonna have you on more episodes because by threat of death you'll be working with me you know forever literally forever and she connects on the contracts like yeah, you're you're done don't listen to your authentic voice just listen to me I'm so Nicki is actually I am I have a waitlist a bit of a waitlist right now to work with me but Nicki is accepting clients in our practice.

We cannot thank you and you can schedule a discovery call with Nicki too. We are so ready for season two, we have some bangers coming up in season two, we have some heavy hitters, some brilliant practitioners to go through a lot more of those foundational topics and a lot of really fun topics to come and we so hope you enter this giveaway. We want to see your reviews we want to we want good winners here guys, we want to we want to pick two winners for the giveaway.

And we also just hope to see you in season two and from the bottom of both of our hearts like I can't believe you guys listened. It's a shock to me that you guys are listening still to this day and I just I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for your ear and your attention it means the world to both of us.

Nicki Parlitsis

Thank you everyone like Michelle said who listens and you know, I think Michelle is surprised I on the other hand I'm not entirely surprised because I love listening to all of your perspectives and everything that you stand for and have to say and I'm just really really excited and happy and thrilled honestly that we can provide this middle ground for people that feel like they don't fit into either end of the spectrum and if you feel that if you feel that when you're listening to the Quiet the Diet podcast it's the really some of the only time where you're like ah that's it I feel seen like that's exactly what I'm thinking that's what I need. We are here for you and there is a place for you. It might not seem like it exists but we are here so we're very very happy that you're here with us Yeah,

Michelle Shapiro 

you're I love that and there's always a safe space when you're open and will always be open and eager to listen and you wrapped up perfectly we will see you all in season to head to the giveaway right now so you don't forget and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. We can't wait thank you so much

Transcribed by https://otter.ai