Rejecting Extremes, Finding Magic in the Grey Area of Health and Practicing Patience on the Healing Journey with Meg Dixon

Meg is a registered dietitian who works with women healing their gut, balancing hormones and recovering from disordered eating. She believes in the magic of living and eating intuitively. On this episode we dive into so many topics including why health doesn’t have to be your full time job, how to practice wellness without obsession, why there’s so much more to food than calories and labels and why patience and grace is key to healing.

We Talk About:

• How Meg became a registered dietitian & how she started her private practice with her friend and business partner Victoria
• How they found their niche based on their experience and serendipity
• How hormone health, eating disorder recovery and gut health are so intertwined
• How to develop your own wellness with living life in mind
• Why wellness is so much more than food
• How do we pursue wellness with out obsessive behaviors or extremes
• How do you start with wellness without that obsessive mindset
• Why she wishes she could tell herself that “Being skinny does not equal healthy”
• Meg encourages us to challenge expectations of yourself
• Why so much of wellness is about being yourself
• The value of living in the grey area
• Why calories aren’t evil and they aren’t just a math equation
• How do we promote a balanced approach to wellness without extremes
• How do we get people in the happy grey area of wellness
• Food should not be an extension of your morality
• Eat based on how it makes your body feel not whether it’s a good or bad food
• How binging or restricting is a maladaptive form of coping and how we can handle those emotions without abusing food
• Why intuitive eating isn’t accessible right away to everyone and how to get there
• Patience is an ultimate healing
• Grace and patience is the foundation for healing
• You don’t have to have it all together every day
• Why you can enjoy your life WHILE you improve your health - it’s not one or the other

Resources

Nourishing Women Podcast https://www.nourishingmindsnutrition.com/podcast/

Intuitive Living Ebook https://www.nourishingmindsnutrition.com/ebook/

Nourishing Minds Nutrition Practice https://www.nourishingmindsnutrition.com/

Connect with Meg

On instagram https://www.instagram.com/meg.c.dixon/

On her blog https://www.rootforfood.net/

For full show notes visit: init4thelongrun.com

Addie (aka @chickpeainthecity) is a health and wellness blogger who’s known for her epic spotify playlists, drinking oat milk cappuccinos and finding great joy in small things. We talked about what’s over hyped and whats worth the hype in the wellness world, how she’s navigating the loss of her mother and aunt and how music and group fitness has helped shift Addie’s perspective on health.

We Talk About:

• Learning in school versus the real world when it comes to business
• Addies thoughts on food and wellness trends
• Keeping it real in the wellness world - which products you don’t need to buy
• Keeping it real on IG and in real life
• Worth the hype: for food - collagen // for wellness - music
• Addies experience with grief and loss of her mom
• Why Addie took time to share her difficult news
• The perspective change she made after her mom and aunt’s death
• Addies tips for how to talk to someone who is grieving
• The power of appreciating small things
• “if there are people in your life who couldn’t continue to live, you have to live for them”
• How Addie’s approach to fitness and movement have changed over the years
• How group fitness has helped given Addie more positive relationship with working out
• Why Addie focuses on having fun while working out
• Why Addie’s ok talking about not feeling 100% about her body all the time
• Addie’s favorite part of living in Chicago
• Addie’s tips for dealing with dark winter weather
• Adjusting to a 9-5 after having a flexible college schedule

Connect with Addie

• On instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chickpeainthecity/
• On her blog: http://chickpeainthecity.org/
• On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/125085830/playlist/7rIxr1ButaxpEgKvLykWyH?si=0KM4IsfzR92mQQjbaqZIIA

For Full Show Notes Visit: http://init4thelongrun.com

How to Feel Good In a World of Bad News, Self Awareness & Fostering Conscious Optimism

If you've felt overwhelmed, frustrated, scared or depressed because of all the seemly endless bad news, this episode is for you. I'm talking with Branden Harvey humanitarian photographer and founder of Good Good Good about how to counteract cynicism. Branden was always a positive kid, but the more he traveled the more tragedy and injustice he was witness to. This led him to feel cynical, hopeless and powerless. Since then he's reclaimed his positivity and optimism with a twist of consciousness and reality. We talk about how it all starts with self-awareness and as we grow as people we can also grow as world citizens. This conversation touches on so many important, powerful and fascinating topics. It's a must listen and maybe one of my favorite episodes to date!

We Talk About:

Good Good Good - Branden’s company - how he got started

Celebrating good and then acting on it

Why Branden believes in “looking for the helpers”

Why they wanted to start a newspaper in 2017 - to inspire action in a less crowded space

How do you become a helper in a way that’s meaningful in your own life

Start to help where you have skill and passion

How Branden uses storytelling and photography for good

Why it’s ok to start without knowing all the steps along the way

The “how” of your goals and dreams isn’t always obvious

Why most things are not actually about you (and that’s a good thing)

The power and importance of self-awareness

Curiosity versus judgment… “isn’t that interesting”

Optimism - the difference between blind optimism and choosing optimism while accepting negativity

How to be happy when there’s tragedy in the world

Holding space for other people’s experience without feeling that pain ourselves

Balancing empathy with self-care

Why it’s important to allow people to be upset and not try to fix things right away

Why most news fosters cynicism

Humans have an internal negativity bias

How to consume news more mindfully - “if news is news it will still be relevant in a week”

How to have constructive conversations with people you don’t agree with

How to have hard conversations with your family and peers

It’s not the oppressor's job to educate people of privilege about how they’re being oppressed

The “me too” conversation

Join the Private Facebook Group

The Joy Squad: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thejoysquad/

Connect with Branden:

website: http://www.brandenharvey.com/

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandenharvey/

podcast: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/soundsgood

good newspaper: https://www.goodgoodgood.co/goodnewspaper

For Full Show Notes Visit:

http://init4thelongrun.com

Connect with Me (Georgie)

on Instagram: http://instagram.com/init4thelongrunblog

Today marks 40 episodes of the Chasing Joy Podcast. Every 10th episode is a Q&A. Thank you to everyone who asked amazing deep, thoughtful questions.

This is a very special episode for me because I had my fiancé Chris ask the questions. He also shares his thoughts on many of the questions too. Selfishly I loved it because I love Chris and it was a blast to do this together. I also think he brings a really unique perspective. Chris is incredibly thoughtful and wise. He’s a little older than me and definitely doesn’t have attachment to social media like I do. He’s an intuitive eater without even having to try while also having tons of really healthy habits. We answer questions about adulating, mindset, relationships, body image, work and photography.

A note about the answers - these are all answers from my perspective and without full context on your life. When it comes to advice I always tell folks you have to listen to your gut first and foremost. I hope this will give you food for thought or things that you might want to try. If the advice and thoughts I share do not resonate with you, and they just don’t jive, that’s totally ok.

Questions Asked:

• Girl how did you get your hair like that! Is it washing out?
• What kind of music do (and Chris) you listen to?
• How do you like living in on Nantucket? Do you ever miss the city?
• How much coffee is too much coffee? But seriously.
• Also any thoughts or experienced on "high fat" coffee or collagen in coffee?
• I recently graduated from college and I’m living at home right now. Obviously I can’t live at home forever but I get so anxious when I think about moving to a new city. Not only adjusting to a new city, but also adjusting my first full time job. How can I possibly handle all of that at once?
• How do you deal with the loneliness that comes in the seasons of life when there are less people in your circle?
• How did you choose your first job after graduation? I'm a senior with a couple job options, but don't know what would make me happiest.
• I’m curious to know what it was like transitioning from your 9-5 , so called “perfect” job to your coffee shop life? How did you manage the pay cut and the outside judging and the fear of the unknown?
• How to you get one thought out of your head? I’ve tried so much advice but can never seem to stop obsessing over x one day or y the next.
• I wonder sometimes if I’m just being lazy for wanting to take it easy when I’m feeling stressed/depressed/anxious. Should I push through it and make myself do what is uncomfortable?
• How do you organize your time when you work from home and/or work for yourself?
• What camera/editing do you use?
• How do you get started on a side photography business with the hopes of turning it into a full time job?
• I always struggle with taking photos in public, I feel like I will be judged if I take a picture of my food or a selfie in gym. How would you go around that? Does anyone else feel like that?
• Quick things to do when you don't have a ton of time or start/finish a task, but want to do something somewhat productive. For example I have 15 minutes at home before I need to leave for an appointment - what can I do instead of scrolling through my phone?
• Do you have any recommendations for practical daily tips for recovery for someone who is struggling with the restrictive eating/binge eating cycle who is already in therapy?
• Tips about being in a relationship with a gym junkie, diet focused person when you are trying to recover from an eating disorder?
• I'm in the middle of getting over an eating disorder/restrictive eating. I am working on being comfortable around all foods, but I feel like diet culture/"clean eating" talk is all around me. Do you have any advice for how to deal with hearing people talk about their weight, their food, etc.?
• How do I get away from what all the health bloggers say and instead be in tune with myself and give into what my body wants/craves versus what I “should eat”
• Do you have any tips or experience connecting the information we’ve learned from the wellness community to actionable steps? 
• Vegetarian/pescatarian dinner ideas that you and your fiancé make together!! I'm always looking for veg/pesce friendly recipes that are good for cooking with my boyfriend!
• I would love to know how you approach holidays and parties. I always find myself saying “whatever it’s vacation” but then feeling pretty gross after from all the unhealthy choices I made. How do you navigate those situations in an “intuitive” way without ending up feeling like you overdid it?
• Do you have any advice about coping with dating and body image issues/residual food shame and disordered eating thoughts?
• Also for both you and Chris - what ways do you help foster each other’s wellness? (Without being naggy)
• I live with my boyfriend (also his name is Chris!) and we’ve really been aware recently when we aren’t on the same energy or joy level. How do you and your Chris acknowledge and adjust when one has more energy when the other is feeling like sitting on the couch? And also when one is feeling more joyful or happy than the other when living so close together in the same space?

Resources Mentioned

Canon 5D Mark iii Camera

85mm lens

50mm lens

24-105mm lens

Adobe Lightroom

Get started with meditation

For Full Show Notes Visit:

http://init4thelongrun.com