Unapologetic Eating & Unapologetic Living

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What on earth would a podcast about designing human conversations, facilitation, leadership and organizational change have to learn from a coach and an expert on Food and Eating? Quite a lot, as it turns out! One of my favorite design thinking principles is to learn from “alternative worlds” - absorbing how other people and communities are solving similar problems in different contexts.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">My guest, Alissa Rumsey, is a registered dietitian, nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and the author of Unapologetic Eating: Make Peace With Food and Transform Your Life.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s always interesting to learn from reflective practitioners - people willing to think about how they do what they do. Alissa designs many human conversations in her work and life, from her coaching work to her group programs to her book, and the marketing thereof - a book is a conversation, after all. Alissa’s whole business is a series of conversations designed to shift the larger conversation about food and dieting.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Food and eating can be fraught topics, but Alissa's approach of connecting with and learning to trust your own body is inclusive, empowering, encouraging and wise. She places dieting in a much larger (and longer) conversation about historical racism and gender dynamics. At the core of Alissa’s work is an idea that is of deep interest to me:</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Interoception.</span></em></p> <p><strong>Interoception</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lately, I’ve been using this word in my coaching calls a lot, and it’s Alissa’s work that put it back at the top of my vocabulary. You might have heard the word</span> <strong><em>proprioception</em></strong><span style= "font-weight: 400;">: It’s how you can touch your fingers and toes with your eyes closed: You know where your body is, physically. Proprioception is s