Life After Diets
Not dieting? Now what?
Hosted by Stefanie Michele, a coach and somatic therapist, Life After Diets explores what it really takes to heal your relationship with food and body image. Stefanie brings the lens of nervous system regulation into every conversation, showing how patterns of bingeing, restricting, and body anxiety are less about willpower and more about how our systems seek safety.
Through personal stories, professional insights, and candid reflections, Stefanie unpacks the messy, nonlinear process of recovery: the relief of food freedom, the discomfort of identity shifts, and the challenge of living in a culture obsessed with thinness.
This isn’t another motivational pep talk or wellness quick-fix. It’s an honest exploration of how to move beyond food obsession, regulate your system, and create a life that feels steadier, freer, and bigger than the scale.
- Update frequency
- every 6 days
- Average duration
- 41 minutes
- Episodes
- 211
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
90. But I Love Food Too Much
Do you feel like your problem is just that you love food too much? Is it possible for true foodies to ever feel neutral around food -- and is feeling neutral around food the key to recovery? In this …
89. But I Struggle with Procrastination
Do you feel like procrastination is a barrier to recovery? Sometimes we eat as a form of procrastination, or we eat because we feel badly about procrastinating. In this episode, we explore the concep…
88. But I Keep Failing at Recovery
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The definition of failure
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Stef’s motherhood “failures”
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When we feel like our appetite is a failure
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I have the tools but I don’t use the tools
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The failure of not showing up to an event becau…
87. But What If I'm a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP)?
Psychologist Elaine Aron coined the term "Highly Sensitive Person" to refer to a subset of the population (estimated to be about 15-20%) who seem to have more sensitive nervous systems than the rest …
86. But I Know What I Should Be Doing -- So Why Don't I Do It?
The voice of the "should" -- the things we know we should be doing but can't seem to do. Maybe we consume so much self-help information and don't feel like we can apply any of it. Why does this happe…
85. But I Feel Shocked When I See Photos of Myself
Have you ever looked at a photograph of yourself (or passed by your reflection in a mirror) and felt a surge of shock or body image distress run through your whole body? This is what Stef calls a "fl…
84. Transition Eating and Autopilot Eating
Have you noticed difficulty or discomfort in the small transitions of life, like coming home from work or preparing to wind-down for the night? Why are transitions a time we turn to food for help? In…
83. But Can Abstaining from Sugar & Carbs Help?
Many of us have tried to reduce or eliminate white sugar, flour, carbohydrates, and/or processed foods in order to improve our relationship with food, reduce overeating, and lose weight. Does this ap…
82. But How Do I Dress This Body? Feat. Dacy of Mindful Closet
Has your body changed in recovery, or as a result of your disordered eating patterns? This can be hard enough in our fatphobic society, but there is often an added layer of “clothing grief.” Fashion …
81. A Conversation About Brain Over Binge
Many people who've struggled with binge eating for a long time have come across the book "Brain Over Binge" by Kathryn Hansen. Sarah and Stef, co-hosts, both read the book as they tried to recover an…
80. But I Eat to Numb
Restricting and bingeing (and the spectrum of these behaviors) can be attempts to numb our emotional experience. This episode looks at different ways of numbing and how Sarah & Stef experienced using…
79. But I Just Want Some Control
Control is an unavoidable theme in the subject of eating disorder recovery. What is your relationship to control and how do you define it? The hosts explore their own experience of the concept and al…
78. Grief, Break-Ups, & Food
What role does food play in grief (around death, breakups, or existential itchiness)? In this episode Sarah & Stef share some personal stories, including a little cry!
- Sarah’s loss of her Mum
- Stef’s…
77. But Do Binge Urges Ever Completely Disappear?
In this episode, Sarah and Stef talk about their relationship with food from a recovered perspective. Do we ever feel binge urges? Does a disordered tendency ever really disappear?
- Stef’s experience…
76. "New Year, New Me?"
Happy (almost) 2023, LAD listeners!
This time of year is loaded with resolutions and plans for becoming a "better" version of ourselves. It seems like this is more often than not related to changing …
75. ADHD & Disordered Eating: A Conversation with Becca King, RD
The intersection of neurodivergence with disordered eating is a relatively unexplored area. Thought hyperactivity, food urgency, and nervous system dysregulation can have powerful consequences on our…
74. But Will I Ever Fully Recover From Disordered Eating?
In this episode we answer the following question from a listener: is it possible to hit a wall in recovery and not be able to go any further? How do you know if you’re in true recovery? What if our b…
73. But Is The Way You Eat the Way You Do Everything?
Have you ever heard the phrase: the way we eat is the way we do everything? Do you agree? What parallels to you notice between the way you feel around food and the way you feel about other things? In…
72. But How Do I Manage Food and Festivities?
It’s that time of year again! More food, more parties, more alcohol, more people to see. In this episode we talk about the many topics that come up during a season that can be tricky in a life withou…
71. Stef's Mom Spills the Tea on Stef
Stef’s mom, Donna, joins us on the podcast to talk about what it was like to be a mother to a daughter with an eating disorder, and how Stef & Donna reconcile that period of time in present day.
- Don…