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Ep 13. Fitness & Womxn’s Blood Rites: Tracking Menses, Not Macros and Embracing Menopause with Rachelle Ballard-Clayton

8/7/2020

There is a lack of representation of women aged 40+ in fitness. Rachelle Ballard-Clayton is shifting that pattern by basing her approach to training womxn on their shifting internal landscape and cyclical patterns.

In this episode:

A little pre-interview solo ramble on systemic racism and unrecognised privilege in yoga/wellness/spirituality worlds
Training womxn and running a fitness business, without body transformations or weight loss challenges (!)
The importance of strength training – as opposed to just cardio and yoga - for womxn, especially those over 30 years of age
Movement and the menstrual cycle: adapting your training to the hormonal fluctuations of one’s menstrual cycle - or mood cycle for peri-menopausal womxn
What movement might look like for a midlife womxn
Why we might find ourselves at this stage of life feeling less likely to move, more burnt out than ever and what we can do about that
Throwing all expectations of what we should be doing out the window
Understanding what our bodies are doing by tracking cycles
How to work with and not against your body
Why some weight gain around menopause is normal and protective
“Focus on what you can do, and understand YOU better”

PLUS, some post interview-thoughts on:

Rites of Passage in womxn’s lives, also known as the blood mysteries – menarche, childbirth, menopause
The phenomenal benefits womxn get from strength training
Better indicators of fitness than six pack or how lean you are
“Does weight training make you bulky?”
#YogaEveryDamnDay – with no other form of movement - is non-sensical
What yoga is missing that strength training can provide
What my own personal movement practice looks like

About Rachelle:
Rachelle Ballard-Clayton owns MEE Active a Womxn’s health and movement coaching practice on the Gold Coast, Australia and delivers her programs worldwide. She creates a safe space for midlife womxn to step off the sidelines & connect deeply with their mind & body.

Rachelle's Website, Instagram & Facebook

Resources mentioned:

Wild Power by Alexandra Pope
The Optimised Woman by Miranda Grey
The work of Jane Hardwicke-Collings
Casey's articles on why strength training is especially helpful for breastfeeding women here and here
Will Lifting Weights Make Me Bulky?

Support the show!

Ep 12. Our Bodies are Oceans: Energy Healing, Embodied Surfing & HAES® with Shae Dingle

7/6/2020

Enhancing a deep connection and awareness within our whole selves is at the heart of healing modalities such as reiki and yoga, as well as HAES and non-diet philosophies. Our bodies are oceans, and there are many parallels between our bodies as feeling, sensuous beings worthy of care and attention, and the kind of bodily care and movement encouraged in non-diet and weight neutral approaches like HAES. Shae Dingle is a non-diet dietitian, reiki practitioner, yoga teacher, and surf coach with oceans of heartful wisdom to share in this deep-diving episode.

In this episode:

Travel, yoga, energy healing, working with women’s health and indigenous populations: Shae’s path to becoming the multi-faceted non-diet practitioner she is today
The experience Shae had that turned her path towards reiki
Reiki as an intuitive approach and avenue into body connection
The connections between reiki, yoga and HAES, and what Shae’s reiki sessions look like
The need to create more inclusivity in the non-diet, Health at Every Size and eating disorder worlds in terms of complementary and alternative healthcare
Embodied surfing as a form of intuitive movement
Eating disorders and the sexualisation of women in the surfing space
Our bodies as oceans

Links:

Shae's Website, Instagram & Facebook

About Shae:
Shae is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, certified yoga & meditation instructor, Reiki Therapist, and surf coach. Shae is passionate about all things that enhance a deep connection and awareness within our whole self, as well as cultural views that shape our connection to how we see our self. Shae's experience as a dietitian has taken her to a range of health settings around the world with clients of all ages, cultures, and health concerns. As a dietitian strongly aligned in Health At Every SIze principles and non-diet approaches, Shae aims to support positive relationships with food and body trust. Her work particularly focuses on supporting eating disorders, disordered eating, body image concerns, and women's health. Shae is based on the Sunshine Coast and is available online or in-person consults, workshops, and healing sessions. Shae also holds various women's mindful ocean sessions, as a space to explore body trust, joyful movement and connection.

Ep 11. Wildly Accessible Food & Medicine: Foraging Edible Weeds & Bush Foods with Pat Collins

11/5/2020

Foraging for edible weeds is an accessible and inclusive healthcare practice, and a skill our grandparents and great-grandparents were well acquainted with. It's a way of enjoying nutrient-dense food and land-based medicine that does not require the degree of privilege that buying a $15 superfood smoothie does. Pat Collins is a highly experienced herbalist, natural health practitioner and bush craftswoman with a passion for sharing her foraging know-how and instilling in people a deep appreciation of edible and medicinal weeds: nature's gifts.

In this episode:

How being able to support her children’s health by making at home remedies motivated Pat into studying herbal medicine formally
Why familiarity with the abundance of edible foods around us - and how to harvest and use them - is so valuable, especially at this time in history
Why Pat published her book The Wondrous World of Weeds (it wasn’t because writing books pays well!)
“Once upon a time we were all wise women” – the need to take back our power by reclaiming our knowledge of foraging
The many uses of Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Paddy’s Lucerne (Sida rhombifolia)
Weeds grow where the soil is right for them, and will tell you what is wrong with your soil
Herbs in the time of COVID-19: Some of Pat’s favourite weed allies and ways to use them, to support immune and respiratory health, and to calm our nerves when “it all gets too much”
Which native Australian bush foods are in season right now, how can to use it – think, lemon myrtle cheesecake and bunya nut curry (!)
Pat’s views on MLM essential oil companies doTerra and Young Living, concerns about the safety of ingesting essential oils, and more affordable, practitioner grade alternatives to these brands
The beauty of using whole herbs
Menopause: How Pat views this powerful life stage, helpful plant allies (Withania!), organ systems to take extra special care of, and how St John’s Wort helped Pat through her surprisingly tumultuous peri-menopausal years
“If we as a culture respected our elders, we’d have far fewer problems with menopause”
The call for wise, old women

Links:

Pat's Website & Facebook
High quality, affordable alternatives to MLM essential oil companies: New Directions, Sydney Essential Oil Company, Essential Therapeutics
Funky Forest Apothecary
Casey's blogs:

About Pat:
Pat Collins is an experienced herbalist and owner of the Total Health & Education Centre in Muswellbrook, NSW Australia. She grew up in the bush and on dairy farms, and when her children were young she completed her diploma of herbal medicine, the first of many natural health qualifications. She has a passion for teaching - Pat has taught herbal medicine in multiple settings from wise woman gatherings to tertiary level, and she written several books including the latest, The Wondrous World of Weeds, a beautiful full colour book and guide to foraging edible and medicinal weeds in Australia. When she’s not seeing clients she is teaching herbal workshops and bush tucker camps and formulating her own herbal products for clients.

Chickweed Magic & Medicine: Soother of Fires, Maiden Strength, Priestess of Inner Knowing

10/5/2020

Chickweed. Softly spoken, yet with an equanimity as clear and bright as the vast blue autumn sky. She is able to distill clamour into calm, and stores her power, waiting patiently for the right time to act. When she does respond, she does so quietly and clearly even in the face of aggression. True to the Maiden archetype, she lives from the heart, un-jaded by the pain and inequity of the world, and feels empowered in her unique strengths and gifts.

With soft cooling hands she soothes the fire of inflammation and anger. She dissolves long-held cysts, and long-held grudges. She is not afraid to create boundaries to maintain her wellbeing, and bestows the knowing that you can be as gracious when you say no as when you give your agreement. She reminds one to never be cruel, or snap or condemn simply because it would be easier to do so. She restores grace, levity, and peace.

It's autumn, and Chickweed (Stellaria media) has been popping up in semi-shaded glades and pockets of dark, rich soil all around the countryside where I live in South-Eastern Queensland. I have been waiting for six months for this delicate little plant to reappear, eager to ask her to lend a soft and soothing hand to the wind-burnt, dry skin and irritating eczema that plagues my family as the weather gets colder and drier.

On a deeper level, I have found that Chickweed has a vast ability to soothe not only physical maladies where inflammation and dryness is involved, but emotional and interpersonal ones. Wherever long-held hot anger is involved, a once vivacious spirit has been desiccated by the whipping winds of unfair judgement, or one has simply lost their way amidst an emotional storm, Chickweed softens hearts and dissolves grudges.

No sooner had I harvested my first basket of Chickweed that an ongoing family feud came to loggerheads, and I needed her soothing, gentle but firm spirit more than ever. More about that in a bit.

Missing in Action: RED-S, Low Energy Availability, and Amenorrhoea in Female Athletes

29/4/2020

** TRIGGER WARNING: Contains discussion on eating disorders, exercise disorders and calorie intake.**

My Story

I'm 22 years old and a long time high-achieving perfectionist. On top of being in my final year of a full time veterinary medicine degree (at a load of 40 hours a week), I am training for a half-ironman triathlon for up to two hours per day. I'm also working part time as a promotional model for a scrupulous boss who pays the more attractive, thin and white girls up to double the wage.

When I first started training for triathlon seriously my fitness skyrocketed: I had the coveted six-pack and could beat the boys up mountains in off-road adventure races. But over the last few months I've been gaining weight, and no matter how much fasted cardio and carefully periodised training I do, the weight keeps creeping back on.

This morning I've woken at 4 a.m. Again. I don't have an alarm clock; my body just springs up at this hour. I wake up feeling adrenalised and awfully hungry from the ongoing restrictive eating I'm putting my body through. I've been vegetarian for years and recently went vegan. I don't suspect that this intrinsically restrictive diet has acted as a spring board into disordered eating.

Oh, and I'm beginning to experiment with water fasting. Because it detoxifies you and extends your life, right?

On this cold dark morning, instead of getting more sleep or I dunno, eating something, I go for a 50 minute run to "push through" the hunger pangs, finding some comfort in an idea I picked up from a fellow athlete that "fasted cardio burns more fat". My recent race times have worsened and I've stopped placing, so I figure my training needs to ramp up.

I haven't had a period for nearly a year. Initially I was thrilled to not have to deal with the bother of periods but my loss of sex drive is beginning to worry me (and my boyfriend). In that time, I've also sprained my ankles 11 times and spend inordinate amounts of money on physiotherapy, chiropractic, and orthotics from my podiatrist.

I know that something is off, but I've seen a GP who just wanted to put me on the contraceptive pill, and I'm too "natural" for that. I put it all down to dwindling will power. I conclude that I just need to diet and train harder.

Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness

28/4/2020

Gym culture can be incredibly toxic for people struggling with body image and eating concerns. Monique Jephcote, APD, PT and Intuitive Eating Counsellor, is infusing weight-neutral principles into the fitness world with compassion, respect and gusto.

In this episode:

How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
“We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional

Links:

Monique's Instagram
The Intuitive Dietitian on Facebook
Monique's website
Support the show by becoming a Patreon!

Rock Your Menopause

27/4/2020

Women in midlife are at a crossroads: either we can continue living with jobs, relationships, and poor health situations that we have outgrown, or we can do the inner work that our bodies and hormones are calling out for.

A full 85% of women suffer hot flushes, vaginal dryness, and emotional turbulence during menopause, and to top it off we are told that our risk of heart disease and of osteoporosis is rising! But does it have to be this way? Most of us know some women who seem to sail through menopause, and come out the other side stronger, wiser, and full of vitality.

In the last decade more women than ever have woken up to the power that menopause can bring, and have used it to their full advantage. Some of the most beautiful, intelligent, and luscious women I know are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. In a seniors’ yoga class I ran at a medical centre, one sparkly-eyed 90-something-year-old lady unhesitatingly shared with me the secrets of a good marriage – and a good sex life: “Eat lots of good food, drink good wine. And tell him what you want, because he wants very much to please you.”

A few years ago I learnt something very interesting about the way women’s hormones behave once we’ve passed through menopause. We have two hormones LH (luteinising hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) – anterior pituitary hormones that direct the behaviour of an egg developing in either of our ovaries. In pre-menopausal women, these two hormones normally peak around ovulation and stay low for the rest of the cycle. So at every ovulation, the point at which we are most electric, irresistible, and open to inspiration from all sources, our levels of LH and FSH peak drastically – but they don’t stay there.

However, once we have stopped menstruating and are officially menopausal, these two hormones remain at high levels for the rest of our lives. It’s akin to AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current) when thinking of the flow of electric charge: before menopause, we are alternately open and closed to the changing current of universal wisdom. After menopause, we are wide open to a direct, constant current of intuition and wisdom.

They aren't called the wisdom years for nothing.

Yoga as Community Cohesive during THE DAWN OF COronavirus

17/4/2020

A recent trip to Bali where I completed a training amidst an amazing community who embraced my little ones without hesitation.

One of the reasons people attended yoga classes (pre-Corona) was the feeling of togetherness one experiences when practising in a group, with familiar faces, in a familiar environment.

The capacity for physical togetherness has clearly been capped by the dawn of COVID-19, a day of which we do not know the length.

But these are interesting times. Since offering my first online class last week, I’ve received an unprecedented number of emails and messages from students expressing their gratitude, excitement, and hope. Despite my less than perfect video production skills, folks are just happy that I’m offering an opportunity for us to come together in this new and oddly comforting way.

In some ways, I feel closer to my yoga community than ever before. Last Saturday I saw students and friends I haven’t seen for years, as well as people who would like to attend my classes but live too far away to do so.

COVID has acted as a dam in the river of normality, and the resulting alternate route the relentless flow of life has taken has collected a larger, wider, more global involvement. In my weekly class, I’m witnessing a kind of togetherness I could not have imagined teaching my small but wonderful community classes in my little permaculture village in rural Australia.

Although I miss the capacity for physical connection an in-person yoga class offers, I feel as if I’m now riding the currents of this new branch of the river, along with everyone else. Strangely, yet reassuringly, we are in this together. We are being called to trust the flow. And in stepping into this new river, we find ourselves practising a yoga of acceptance, a yoga of letting go of the need “to know”, a yoga of embracing the unknown with open arms.

Apart, yet very, very much together.

Next LIVE online yoga class is Saturday 8:30am AEST. Classes are offered by donation and are intentionally inclusive and accessible to all. To join a class, click here.

Ep 9. COVID-19 and Diet Culture: Discerning Wisdom from Wellness Wankery in Uncertain Times

13/4/2020

With great uncertainty comes fear and uprooted trauma. COVID-19 has seen an amplification of weight stigma, wellness wankery, and conspiracy theories that have the potential to magnify our stress and trauma. Here's what to look out for, as well as ways to ground, protect and nurture yourself and your loved ones at this uncertain time.

In this episode:

The 3 categories of BS “health advice” circulating in the age of COVID-19: The Seemingly Innocuous, The Social Media Misinformation Storm, and The Blatantly Fat Phobic
Privileged health advice
Is cutting out sugar the most important thing to consider right now? (Clue: No, it's not.)
Essential oils, colloidal silver, celery juice: should we be using these to "boost" immunity?
What I really think about MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), and the ethics of downline recruitment and questionable advertising during a pandemic
Weight control during COVID VS. just surviving COVID
Higher BMI is NOT a risk factor for contracting COVID-19, and may even be a protective factor
Conspiracy theories, and the appeal of these to healers and lightworkers
What we really need to be focussing on right now
The ways we deal with stress and trauma, and how this manifests in our relationships with food, eating, our bodies and movement
How coronavirus is impacting me personally
Gentle ways we can support ourselves and others
Supplements and herbs can help support your immune health, but not having access to these is not the end of the world
Accessible nutrition counselling and yoga services I am currently offering during COVID-19

Links:
All Fired Up Podcast with Louise Adams
Bringing The Body Into the Room: Somatics, Food and Eating Experiences with Tracy Brown and Fiona Sutherland
Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani – author of the book Sick Enough
Dr. Kristin Neff on Self-Compassion
Stephen Harrod Buhner on herbal support for COVID-19 infection

Casey's Accessible COVID-19 Services:
LIVE yoga classes by-donation
Casey's accessible COVID-19 Nutrition Counselling Services
Mugwort Herbal Body Oil GIVEAWAY!
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/nondietyogi)

COVID-19 ONLINE SERVICES: Nutrition & Yoga

12/4/2020

Given the enormous changes happening right now I’ve felt a strong desire to offer my services in a way that is of value, flexible and most of all accessible. Here are the temporary COVID services I am currently offering (this page is updated regularly):

NUTRITION CONSULTATIONS

The new Medicate rebates seem to be changing all the time, but at the time of writing here are the Telehealth (phone or online via Zoom, Skype etc) options I am offering:

𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗸-𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 30 minute consults for people with EPC or EDMP, AND who are under 16 yo, have a Health Care Card, or are classified COVID vulnerable. Note that given the short time allotment a regular 60 minute consult will need to be spread out over two sessions, ideally on two consecutive days
𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 available for everyone else with EPC or EDMP. A gap is payable as per usual
𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 offered for ALL clients experiencing financial strain, regardless of whether you have an EPC/EDMP or not. This means the gap you are required to pay can be reduced
Usual private health fund rebates for those who use this.

A mutually agreed upon fee for folks using the sliding scale option can be discussed with me privately.

YOGA

I am offering 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

However my unique offering is an online PRIVATE session, which offers what a pre-recorded class (and to a lesser extent, a live class) cannot: one-on-one, personalised care and attunement. Here’s how it works:

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 are 30 minutes and include a check-in, instruction, and homework
𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. No having to turn up to class at the usual time when circumstances at home have changed so drastically (eg. kids no longer in school, partners working from home)
𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱. The student decides how much a 30-minute meeting is worth vs. what they can afford. It might be $5, it might be $50.

These offerings will likely shift as the situation morphs but right now this feels right for me. My wish is to be of service to folks doing it tough and at the same time continue to support those who have the financial capacity to pay the full price. If you have the capacity to pay full fee please do so, knowing you will be supporting my family AND enabling me to support those who cannot afford the full fee.

If you wish to discuss or book any of these services with me, please contact me personally at casey@funkyforest.com.au

Stay safe,
Casey❤️,❤️