Insatiable with Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC
257. Alcohol, Food, and Body Image: Push Off From Here with Laura McKowen
While Laura McKowen is known for her work around alcohol sobriety, her first coping strategy was food.
Like Laura, I have many clients who come to me where their first “thing” was food. And after getting sober or soberish, their eating issues return or becomes a “thing”.
In this special Insatiable episode, we apply the wisdom Laura writes about in her new book to food, body image, and the overlap with alcohol.
We discuss:
- How Laura’s original coping mechanism was bingeing and the overlapping and distinct root causes between her food and alcohol struggles
- Why stopping bad habits like alcohol and battling food is different than starting new habits and how you change has to shift to what Laura discusses as “being willing to be led”
- Grief from the loss of using alcohol, food, and the fantasies they offer
- How wanting to be saved, desired, and chosen fueled Laura’s alcohol and body image issues and the deep work she did to heal and now be in a healthy relationship
- How Laura views sobriety as an invitation into a “Bigger Yes” (we also discuss the pushback at this suggestion and how it’s even more politically incorrect to say your body battle is an invitation into a “Bigger Yes”)
- The connection between eating disorders, alcohol use disorder, and sensitive, empathetic, and perceptive people (and their nervous systems), and where they need to push off too.
Buy a copy of Laura’s new book, Push Off From Here: Nine Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (And Everything Else) at https://www.lauramckowen.com/books or wherever you buy your favorite books.
Connect with Insatiable & Ali:
Why Am I Eating This Now? Group Program opens in September! Why does the same hard work and discipline that has gotten you so far in life backfire when you try and apply it to your eating? Don't settle for this “food thing” hanging over you any longer. Find out what’s really happening when your food discipline disappears in the moments when you feel like you need it most. 12 WEEKS. MASTER COACHING. GROUP SUPPORT. Learn more.
Call our new Insatiable hotline: (412) 475-8006. Click here to text (for privacy, we only see the last 4 digits of your phone number) and won't be able to text back. Please don't delete prepopulated numbers as that identifies your message is meant for Insatiable ).
Help me reach 200 reviews by the end of the summer! It only takes 30 seconds to rate, review, and subscribe to Insatiable on your favorite podcast platform—it means more to me than you know—and helps others find the show!
While Laura McKowen is known for her work around alcohol sobriety, her first coping strategy was food.
Like Laura, I have many clients who come to me where their first “thing” was food. And after getting sober or soberish, their eating issues return or becomes a “thing”.
In this special Insatiable episode, we apply the wisdom Laura writes about in her new book to food, body image, and the overlap with alcohol.
We discuss:
- How Laura’s original coping mechanism was bingeing and the overlapping and distinct root causes between her food and alcohol struggles
- Why stopping bad habits like alcohol and battling food is different than starting new habits and how you change has to shift to what Laura discusses as “being willing to be led”
- Grief from the loss of using alcohol, food, and the fantasies they offer
- How wanting to be saved, desired, and chosen fueled Laura’s alcohol and body image issues and the deep work she did to heal and now be in a healthy relationship
- How Laura views sobriety as an invitation into a “Bigger Yes” (we also discuss the pushback at this suggestion and how it’s even more politically incorrect to say your body battle is an invitation into a “Bigger Yes”)
- The connection between eating disorders, alcohol use disorder, and sensitive, empathetic, and perceptive people (and their nervous systems), and where they need to push off too.
Buy a copy of Laura’s new book, Push Off From Here: Nine Essential Truths to Get You Through Sobriety (And Everything Else) at https://www.lauramckowen.com/books or wherever you buy your favorite books.
Connect with Insatiable & Ali:
Why Am I Eating This Now? Group Program opens in September! Why does the same hard work and discipline that has gotten you so far in life backfire when you try and apply it to your eating? Don't settle for this “food thing” hanging over you any longer. Find out what’s really happening when your food discipline disappears in the moments when you feel like you need it most. 12 WEEKS. MASTER COACHING. GROUP SUPPORT. Learn more.
Call our new Insatiable hotline: (412) 475-8006. Click here to text (for privacy, we only see the last 4 digits of your phone number) and won't be able to text back. Please don't delete prepopulated numbers as that identifies your message is meant for Insatiable ).
Help me reach 200 reviews by the end of the summer! It only takes 30 seconds to rate, review, and subscribe to Insatiable on your favorite podcast platform—it means more to me than you know—and helps others find the show!