And here we are, the last in the season and out last for a while, I'm sad to say. It's time I focussed on that book I keep talking about, as well as one or two other projects. I'll be back, probably here and there, rather than a full season. And maybe later in 2022, I'll bring season 4. let's see how things unfold. In the meantime, today, we have Emma Pullin a body confidence photographer.
We talk about the conflict of feeling sexy, the idea we don’t need a reason to like our bodies, and... the objectification of rabbits! We also talked about the challenges of being a naturally thin woman, and how few safe spaces Emma feels she has to be able to discuss her own challenges with body image. You can find Emma at @emmalita.x on Instagram.
As ever, whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you’re able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee, https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat If you have any comments following today's episode, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
This weeks guest is the fabulous Lorna Harris: a writer, a charity sector PR and sea swimmer from Whistable. 47 years young, Lorna and I chatted about the impact of grief on our relationship to food, the time someone put their child in fancy dress, as Lorna, and what she affectionately calls, the trifle months.
For more from Lorna, give her a follow her on @lornamedia
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you’re able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee, https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any comments following today's episode, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
Today’s guest is Sarah Mills, a disabled writer, performer, stand-up, content creator and passionate campaigner around invisible disability. You can see her web series, The Chemo Chat Show featuring comics like Phil Wang and Dara Obriain, here on twitter. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_DXNUSK07QN9nPa6K0aPug
We talked about what a colon cancer diagnosis does to your relationship to self, the advice from a doctor when she approached them about how to lose weight for health, the difficulty around talking about wanting to be slimmer or lose weight, and the stoma she calls Gillian McKeith.
You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @sazzymills Deffo check out her series of recreated iconic pictures.
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you’re able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee, https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any comments following today's episode, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
This week we have Kate Passmore a Cornish coastal walker, sea swimmer and marketing expert who shared with us the moment her body image shifted, the online ‘noise' around body image these days, and perhaps most importantly: Roast Potatoes.
To get updates from Kate, please do give her a follow on Instagram @katetocoast
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you’re able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee, https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any comments following today's episode, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
This weeks guest is the international best seller, Rowan Coleman. I've long admired Rowan's writing, and it was lovely to get the chance to chat about this subject with her. We talk about the years of being told she was greedy, sweet treats as medicine, and how dieting makes you fatter. I also want to add a trigger warning to this episode. Rowan and I talk about sexual abuse and the impact that can have on our relationships to our body. Thank you to Rowan for opening up about that part of her life, and for granting me the space to discuss my own experience.
If you'd like to buy any of Rowan's gorgeous books, please do head to https://rowancoleman.co.uk You can follow her on Twitter @rowancoleman, Instagram @rowanmcoleman or Facebook, RowanColemanAuthor
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you like what we do and feel you're able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee... https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any thoughts following this conversation, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
This week's guest is Clare, a 54 year old bundle of fizzing energy, who shares with us her experience of body image and the menopause, the things she learned from her mum and how she rejected those ideals, and how much she loves people and the power of community, shared through her project, The Community Scarf, which you can see on Instagram.
You can follow Clare on Twitter or instagram
And the book Clare mentioned, The Body is Not an Apology, is available at your local independent bookshop, or here.
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you like what we do and feel you're able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee... https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any thoughts following this conversation, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
Woohoo! We’re back! Welcome to Season 3 of How To Breathe So You Don’t Look Fat!
We have 6 lovely guests lined up for the new season and kick off with the excellent Sofia Nazar Chadwick, a 54 year old British/Asian Muslim, Mother, Wife and Daughter. In this funny and insightful chat we hear about 'diet day', cultural expectations of body shape and size, and clothes that - 20 yrs on - still have their labels on because they’ve simply never fitted!
You can follow Sofia at @timmydidit on Twitter or @discosofia on instagram
Whilst this is all free content that we love to create, if you like what we do and feel you're able to support us, please do consider buying us a coffee... https://ko-fi.com/howtobreathesoyoudontlookfat
If you have any thoughts following this conversation, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
And here we are again, at the end of another season, and what an absolute corker of a conversation I have for you. Eden Elgeti shared with me the moment she started to notice other peoples relationships to their bodies, we explored the fact that she had no recollection of things said to her as a child, and yet how her body has now become something people feel entitled to an opinion on, and she gifted the simplest of statements that, as you'll hear in the record, completely flawed me. Like, how have I been forgetting this main fact, for an entire life? Please do have a listen. And finally, I shared with her the things I do in restaurants when deciding what to eat. Something I've never told anyone, and something I feel shame about, every time I hear our conversation back.
You can follow Eden at @transgenderswimmer on instagram, or visit her website at www.thetransgenderswimmer.co.uk
If you have any thoughts following this conversation, or any of those in Season 1 and 2, please do give me a shout on Instagram or Twitter, or drop me an email at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
Season 2 has been such a joy to bring to you, and I really hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I'm going to take a bit of a break now and work out what future the podcast has, in light of some of my hopes not quite playing out the way I imagined. Isn't that always the way! We'll be back. :)
Today, I’m so grateful to be able to bring you two guests: mother and daughter Mel and Gabbi Osborne.
We’ve talked a lot on the podcast about the things we hear from our mothers, and how that has sometimes shaped our feelings about our own body’s. In today’s chat, we explore Mel’s relationship to her body and how hard she worked to not spread that to her daughter Gabbi, and the subsequent soul searching she did when Gabbi was diagnosed with Anorexia. We talk about Gabbi’s ongoing recovery. And we discuss the challenge around how much autonomy and privacy we should be giving our children when it comes to what they’re seeing on social media. We didn’t solve that one, so if you have any hot tips, do share!
I’m super grateful to both Mel and Gabbi for sharing their story so honestly, and we wish Gabbi continued wellness.
(Podcast references we made were with iWeigh, and How to Fail by Elizabeth Day. Elizabeth Day's book is called Failosophy, not Failology!!)
Fiona Houston, also known on Instagram as Fat_Black_Pregnant, describes herself as Fat, Black, late 30s mum to a lockdown baby. Her instagram page is all about building a space for women like her. We talked about the responsibility she feels towards other people, because of her race and size, the fear she inherited from health workers during her pregnancy, and apologising for ruining people's photos, just by being in them!
If you have any thoughts following the episode, you can email us at howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com
Connor Spratt is a 22 year old, living in Edinburgh, working in mental health. I came across his account via the wonder of iWeigh and his ability and strength to talk about what it's like as a young male with an eating disorder, really struck a chord. I've been looking forward to chatting to him about his own experiences, and all that he's learned during his recovering. We talk about his feelings of invalidation and emasculation in relation to his eating disorder, the challenge that men have talking about their feelings, and navigating the tricky waters of activism when in an ongoing journey of recovery.
If you are a young man, if you know a young man, and even if neither of those things are true, it really is a conversation worth hearing and I'm grateful to @recoveryconnor for taking time to chat to me.
If you have any thoughts following today's episode, you can email us here. Or find us on Instagram and Twitter.
‘At a certain age, a woman must choose between her face and her body!’ Allie's Mum.
This week’s guest is Allie Carr. An artist, living in Sheffield, working at the University of Huddersfield.
Her PHD is called Viewing Pleasure and Being A Showgirl - How Do I Look? Her work explores the slippery multi-faceted performance of femininity, the contradictions in physical bodily display and the divergent techniques of hiding in playing sight - being the dazzling spectacle in the spotlight.
We talk about the role her mum played in validating her; dressing in a way that reflects how she thinks and feels, whilst making the most of the bits she likes best about her body; who has the right to decide if her body is okay, and we shared mutual pain at the progression of our ageing faces
You can find out more about Allie's work via her website: alisonjcarr.net or follow her on twitter or instagram @alliejcarr and @modernshowgirl
Todays guest is Beth King, a 28 yr old nurse trainee also known as @Allthings_water on instagram. We talked about teenage diets, the lack of body confidence that impacted on her marriage, and fat shaming in the NHS.
If you have any thoughts following today's episode, you can email us here. Or find us on Instagram and Twitter.
In this week's episode, we talk with Val Reardon, a New Yorker living in Cornwall for 40 years. We talk about the weekly weigh ins from her father, problematic language around weight gain, and taking her 11 year old daughter to Weight Watchers. It's sweaty, searingly honest, and listening back, I really wish I'd asked more about that Kennedy story...!
If you have any thoughts following today's episode, you can email us here. Or find us on Instagram and Twitter.
I'm so chuffed to be able to bring you Season 2 of How To Breathe So You Don't Look Fat! Today's episode we talk with Lizzie Skinner from Beanology, all about the persecution of imperfection, whether we believe in our enoughness, and that time she put pebbles on her nipples. It's funny and sweary, and really lifted my mood when I was having a particularly bad body image day.
Give her a follow on social media @beanology1 or visit her website for more details on the work she does. https://beanology.co.uk
If you want to get in touch with us, you can email us or visit us on instagram, or twitter.
Jeanette Bär is our lovely guest for this week, the final episode in Season 1 of How To Breathe So You Don't Look Fat. Where has this last 8 weeks gone, and who has listened to every single episode? In today's chat, we talked about how we talk to ourselves, to hair free or not hair free, and her soft, lovely mum. TW: There is also some chat about Jeanette's experience of IVF and miscarriage, if this subject is challenging for you, please take care of yourself.
She is funny, warm, an all round delight. If you want to find her on social media she is @missjsoundtrack on twitter and @jbsoundtrack on Instagram. She is also the co host of Sudden Double Deep, a podcast with her husband Daryl and their friend (and all round dude) Matt Brothers. A triple bill title podcast talking about three films, linked by a word in the title. You can find that, here and here.
If you have any thoughts following today's episode, you can email us here. And feel free to tag us in photos of you eating in the bath, here on instagram or here on twitter!
Nicola Montfort is The Soprano to the St Ives Mermaid (and her slave photographer.) She is an opera singer and photographer commuting between St Ives and Vienna. She loves the outdoors, all year round open water swimming, along with art history, literature, old school horror and films. We talked about her experience with Anorexia, the things people say and the impact it can have on young minds, and social beauty standards being a fictional work of art. Yeah, we went there, well... Nicola did. She is VERY clever!
To follow her on instagram, you can find her here. She's on twitter, here. And her website, which is coming soon, is here
If you want to get in touch following this chat, please do email us. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
Clare Meardon is a former professional dancer, current pilates teacher and studio owner, and all round decent woman. We talked about her lock down body, how being a dancer shaped her relationship to body and food, and perhaps most crucially, what Lionel Ritchie smells like.
Apologies for swears, we've both got gutter mouths!
Since talking, she has also launched the instagram page @savvy4lifeonline for her online health and well-being community, www.savvy4life.co.uk where you can take advantage of a 7 day free trial of all their barre, yoga, pilates and HIIT classes, plus read up on nutrition and recipes for delicious, nutritious food. We've done a few of the online classes and they're great!
If you want to get in touch you can email howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com or find us on twitter or instagram.
Sarah Kennedy Norquoy is an author, and all round great woman being the first to agree to let this rookie host, chat to her over the airwaves, for a podcast nobody had ever heard of. She was generous and wise and ever so patient, despite my being nervous of saying the wrong thing, or terrified of us getting stuck on a part of conversation that I couldn't get us out of. Thankfully, that didn't happen and what came out of it was a chat between two women who understood so many of the same experiences. We talked about how she has dieted her way up to her current dress size, how pregnancy brought about new challenges for her body, and how Ella Chloe, a writer, swimmer and speaker, inspired her to starfish in the sea.
If you want to get in touch, you can email howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com or find us on twitter or instagram For more of Sarah's power poses, sea swimming and observations on life, you can follow her @seasaltandsarah
Sharmila is a woman I've admired for quite some time: strong, powerful, authentic and inspiring. When I started this podcast, I knew she was someone I wanted to talk to in order to get an insight into how she carried herself with such confidence. The truth was more complicated than I anticipated and made me respect her even more. In this week's chat we discuss the importance of movement for her body and mind, the warning that made her realise she needed to take better care, and she Sharmila opens up, for the first time, about her coping with the desire to binge and purge.
TW: Discussion around eating disorders.
If you want to get in touch, you can email howtobreathepodcast@gmail.com or find us on twitter or instagram For more of Sharmila's life in Portugal, you can follow her @rebel_n_roll
