Once Upon a Binge Podcast

What if your relationship with food and your body isn’t a failure of willpower — but a response to trauma?
In this episode of Once Upon a Binge, I’m joined by psychotherapist, professor and body liberation activist Paula D Atkinson to explore a concept that may completely change the way you understand binge eating, dieting and body image: diet culture trauma.
We talk about how dieting and restriction can affect the brain and nervous system, why binge eating can continue even when you don’t think you’re restricting, and how shame and self-abandonment can keep the binge cycle going.
We also explore something I found particularly powerful: the idea that disordered eating can sometimes become a way of reclaiming ownership of your body after years of feeling that your body belongs to everyone else.
And if you’ve ever thought, “But I’m not restricting — I just binge,” this conversation may give you a very different, trauma-informed way of understanding what’s happening.
In this episode, we discuss:
1:46 - Paula’s personal journey from childhood body shame and anorexia to becoming a therapist and body liberation activist
10:22 - What “diet culture trauma” actually means
10:54 - The trauma of starvation and what the Minnesota Starvation Experiment can teach us about restriction
11:18 -Why your body may respond to dieting as though it is experiencing a threat to survival
12:18 -  Why you can still be affected by restriction years after your first diet
12:51 -  How diet culture can create body obsession and disordered eating
13:00 - Self-abandonment, body abandonment and internalising other people’s opinions about your body
17:16 - What diet culture trauma might look like if you binge but don’t believe you restrict
19:18 - Why food can be a way of regulating the nervous system
20:56 - Mental restriction, food rules and the “famine tomorrow” that can keep binge eating going
24:05 - How shame after a binge can actually reinforce the binge cycle
28:08 -  Whether diet culture trauma affects people in thin/straight-sized bodies differently from people in larger bodies
25:12 - How diet culture can teach us to distrust our own bodies and instincts
28:41 - Why fatphobia harms people of all body sizes
32:15 - Acute, chronic, complex and vicarious trauma — and where diet culture trauma fits
34:07 -  The connection between body comments, objectification, sexual trauma and disordered eating
35:06 - How food and eating behaviours can become a way of reclaiming ownership and control of your body
40:16 -What it means to stop abandoning your body and begin seeing your body as being on your side
42:29 - How curiosity can help you begin questioning the beliefs you’ve inherited about your body
44:03 - Paula’s experience appearing on Jubilee’s Surrounded with Jillian Michaels — and what really happened behind the scenes
If you’re struggling with binge eating, emotional eating, food guilt, body hatred or the feeling that you’re constantly fighting against your body, I hope this conversation gives you a different perspective.
You don’t have to learn how to control your body better. What if the work is learning how to stop fighting it?
💬 Have you ever thought about your relationship with food or your body through a trauma lens? Let me know in the comments — I’d love to hear your thoughts.
 
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Connect with the podcast:
- Instagram - @onceuponabingepodcast
- Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com  
 
Connect with Becca:
- Instagram – @bingefreeandbeautiful
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/
- Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
 
Connect with Paula:
- Email – pauladatkinson@gmail.com
- Instagram - @pauladatkinson
- Website - https://www.pauladatkinson.com/
 

What happens when years of dieting stop working? When you’re done with hating your body?
In this episode of Once Upon a Binge, Becca is joined by Flo, a coach and diversity & inclusion consultant, who shares her powerful lived experience of disordered eating. From growing up watching her mum diet, to years of restriction, binge eating and believing that losing weight would finally make her confident and happy, Flo opens up about what really kept her stuck—and the unexpected moment that changed everything.
Together, they explore why dieting can become an eating disorder, why recovery only works when you're truly ready, and how curiosity, intuitive eating and reconnecting with your body can help you find freedom from food obsession. They also discuss body image, diet culture, "fitspiration", friendships, values, and why recovery is about so much more than food.
If you've ever wondered whether life without constant thoughts about food and your body is really possible, this conversation offers both honesty and hope.
Becca and Flo talk about:
00:00 Meet Flo01:30 Coaching Meets Recovery05:03 Why Diet Culture Is Everywhere06:08 How Childhood Shapes Body Image07:07 From Restriction to Binge Eating17:24 The Promise of Thinness and Power20:16 When Therapy Doesn't Help21:14 The Hen Do That Changed Everything26:21 Recovery Readiness & The Fitspiration Era28:38 Why Recovery Isn't Black and White29:14 The Anger That Fuelled Recovery29:59 Learning to Trust Body Signals32:58 Gentle Nutrition vs Food Freedom35:01 Emotional Emptiness & Using Food to Cope36:33 Curiosity Instead of Self-Judgement39:15 Why Women Bond Through Body Talk41:58 Values, Identity & Life Beyond Food48:16 When Recovery Changes Friendships50:23 Creating a Recovery-Friendly Social Media Feed53:17 Final Takeaways & Hope for Recovery
If you found this episode helpful, please like, comment, subscribe and share as it helps my channel grow and reach more people who need to hear these conversations.
💜
Connect with the podcast:
- Instagram - @onceuponabingepodcast
- Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com  
 
Connect with Becca:
- Instagram – @bingefreeandbeautiful
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/
- Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
 
Connect with Flo:
- Email – flo@diversityintheboardroom.co.uk
- Instagram - @diversityintheboardroom
- Website - https://www.diversityintheboardroom.co.uk/
 
 

Are GLP-1 weight loss injections really the breakthrough they're being made out to be? Or are we missing some of the bigger psychological and physical questions?
From Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro to "food noise", binge eating, body image and weight stigma, GLP-1 medications are dominating conversations online. But are they really the answer?
In this episode of Once Upon a Binge, host and psychotherapist Becca Robinson sits down with nutritional therapist Lisa Unger for a balanced, evidence-informed conversation about the benefits, risks and unanswered questions surrounding GLP-1 medications.
Rather than taking a "for or against" position, this episode explores the complexity behind these drugs—including why they can be genuinely life-changing for some people, why they may not work for others, and the potential psychological and physical risks anyone should know before making a decision.
They discuss:
01:39 Why GLP-1s are divisive
02:57 Clients and eating disorders
05:26 Poll results and why now
06:42 How GLP-1s work
10:27 Research gaps and dosing
12:17 Weight loss vs food noise
13:54 Shame and fatphobia pressure
17:00 When it fails and coping swaps
20:46 Therapy without food noise
24:42 Nutrition and muscle loss risks
27:21 Training Injuries Concerns
28:21 Low Energy and Nutrition
28:43 Staying on for Life
31:20 Shame and Medication Parallels
32:56 Eating Disorder Motivations
34:56 Access Risks and Black Market
39:30 Body Image Backlash
43:12 Food Culture and Portions
45:13 No Magic Wand Wrap Up
49:16 Final Thoughts and Feedback
 
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Connect with the podcast:
Instagram - @onceuponabingepodcast
Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com
Connect with Becca:
Instagram – @bingefreeandbeautiful
LinkedIn -   / beccarobinson  
Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
Connect with Lisa:
Email – lisa@lisaunger.co.uk
Instagram - @_lisaunger
Website - https://lisaunger.co.uk/

Can you be healthy in a larger body? Does BMI really measure health? In this episode of the Once Upon a Binge Podcast, registered dietitian Alice joins Becca to discuss Health at Every Size (HAES), intuitive eating, body image, menopause, eating disorder recovery, weight stigma, and why weight isn't the whole picture when it comes to health.
Many of us have been taught that losing weight automatically means becoming healthier. But is that actually true? Together, Becca and Alice explore what the research says about BMI, Health at Every Size, intuitive eating, and how to support your physical and mental health without becoming trapped in the cycle of dieting, restriction and shame.
They also talk about the emotional impact of body changes caused by menopause, cancer treatment, illness, ageing, and eating disorder recovery, and why learning to trust your body again can be one of the hardest—and most important—parts of healing.
In this episode:
00:00 – Introduction to Alice and her work as a registered dietitian
02:00 – What Health at Every Size (HAES) really means
05:20 – Supporting people through body changes after cancer treatment
10:00 – Why weight gain after illness can be so distressing
15:00 – The similarities between cancer recovery, menopause and eating disorder recovery
19:00 – Why women's bodies naturally change throughout life
24:30 – Challenging unrealistic expectations around body image
28:00 – Using science and CBT-informed strategies to build body acceptance
34:00 – The role of a dietitian alongside therapy
39:00 – Common fears about weight gain, health and identity
43:30 – Debunking myths about BMI and health
51:00 – Why BMI is a poor measure of individual health
56:30 – The dangers of weight cycling and repeated dieting
59:30 – What intuitive eating actually is (and what it isn't)
1:05:00 – Rebuilding trust in your body after illness or an eating disorder
1:10:00 – How to advocate for yourself if your healthcare provider focuses only on weight
1:17:00 – Weight stigma, anti-fat bias and navigating healthcare
1:24:00 – Gentle nutrition after eating disorder recovery
1:32:00 – How to improve your health without returning to restrictive dieting
1:38:00 – Why food is about connection, culture and joy—not just nutrition
1:44:00 – Final thoughts on healing your relationship with food and your body
If you've ever struggled with body image, binge eating, emotional eating, dieting, weight gain, menopause, or eating disorder recovery, this episode will help you understand your body with more compassion and confidence.
If you enjoyed this conversation, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and leave a comment below – this helps the channel grow and help others through our conversations. We'd love to hear your biggest takeaway or any questions you'd like us to answer in a future episode.
#HealthAtEverySize #IntuitiveEating #EatingDisorderRecovery #BodyImage #Menopause #FoodFreedom
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Connect with the podcast:
- Instagram - @onceuponabingepodcast
- Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com  
 
Connect with Becca:
- Instagram – @bingefreeandbeautiful    
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/
- Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
 
Connect with Alice:
- Instagram – @hamptonnutrition
- Website - https://hamptonnutrition.co.uk/
- Email - alice@hamptonnutrition.co.uk
 
 

In this powerful episode of the Once Upon a Binge Podcast, therapist Becca sits down with Claire Ashton for an honest conversation about binge eating recovery, body image healing, and breaking free from diet culture.
Claire Ashton is a Body Confidence Coach and intuitive eating counsellor, nurse, and personal trainer who helps women over 35 stop waiting for weight loss to feel confident and start living fully now.
After years of working in the health and fitness industry, Claire realised that the problem was never a lack of discipline—it was the belief that confidence had to be earned through changing your body. Through her coaching she helps women break free from dieting, food guilt, and body battles so they can feel confident without conditions.
As a mum to three daughters, Claire is passionate about modelling a healthier relationship with food, movement, and body image for the next generation, while helping women reclaim their own confidence in the process.
In this episode, Claire shares her deeply personal journey through disordered eating, bulimia, compulsive exercise, and years of yo-yo dieting — including how working in the fitness industry reinforced harmful beliefs about worth and body image. She also opens up about the life-changing accident that left her unable to walk and how relearning to walk completely transformed her relationship with food, movement, control, and self-worth.
Together, Becca and Claire explore:
✨ Treatment for bulimia and what was missing
✨ The binge-restrict cycle and why dieting feels so addictive✨ Bulimia recovery and the emotional side of purging✨ Exercise addiction and toxic fitness culture✨ The impact of the “heroin chic” era and modern GLP-1 diet trends✨ Intuitive eating and rebuilding trust with your body
✨ How learning to walk again helped Claire see her body in a different light
✨ Learning to let go of food rules and finding meaning in suffering
✨ Body image struggles in motherhood and raising daughters in diet culture✨ Social media, comparison, filters, and teenage body confidence✨ Why your worth has nothing to do with your weight or appearance✨ How to stop waiting for weight loss to start living your life
 
This episode is a must-watch for anyone struggling with binge eating, emotional eating, body shame, chronic dieting, or feeling trapped in the cycle of trying to “fix” their body.
If this episode helped you, please like, comment or follow to stay up to date with the latest episodes releases. This also helps spread the message of body acceptance, intuitive eating, and eating disorder recovery to others who might need it.
 
💜 Connect with the podcast:
- Instagram - www.instagram.com/onceuponabingepodcast
- Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com  
 
💜 Connect with Becca:
- Instagram – www.instagram.com/bingefreeandbeautiful  
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/
- Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
 
💜 Connect with Claire:
- Instagram – www.instagram.com/claireashton_
- Website - https://claireashton.co.uk
 

I'm Becca, a therapist specializing in binge eating and body image, and this is the Once Upon a Binge podcast, where I have honest conversations with guests about breaking free from the binge restrict cycle and finding body acceptance.
Today, I'm joined by Anne Richardson. Anne is a registered nutritional therapist, cognitive behavioural therapy practitioner, lecturer, and supervisor. She's been practicing for more than 10 years and exclusively works in the field of disordered eating.
Anne suffered with anorexia in her teens, and now draws from her lived experience to blend her knowledge of nutrition with her CBT skills. She works with people all over Europe to help them achieve food freedom. She is also invested in helping other practitioners work with disordered eaters, as she recognizes that general nutritional advice can be extremely damaging to disordered eaters.
Anne is also a mom, the maker of all things, and especially a keen baker.
In our conversation today, we talk about supporting clients through cooking in recovery, the role of nutrition, and whether you fully recover from an eating disorder or not.
We also dive into:
✨ The role of nutrition in recovery
✨ Why calorie counting keeps people stuck
✨ Using rigid thinking to our advantage in recovery
✨ Cooking with clients in eating disorder recovery
✨ Perfectionism and control in anorexia
✨ The flaws with My Fitness Pal
✨ Mechanical eating vs intuitive eating
✨ Whether the “eating disorder voice” ever fully disappears✨ Recovery, body image, and coping with stress
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Connect with the podcast:
- Instagram - www.instagram.com/onceuponabingepodcast
- Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com
 
Connect with Becca:
- Instagram – www.instagram.com/bingefreeandbeautiful
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/
- Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
 
Connect with Anne:
- Email – anne@theeatingdisordernutritionist.co.uk
- Instagram - www.instagram/com/theeatingdisordernutritionist 
- Website - https://www.theeatingdisordernutritionist.co.uk
 

In this deeply honest episode of Once Upon a Binge, Becca is joined by her partner Will for a raw conversation about disordered eating, body image, binge eating, orthorexia, fitness culture, and recovery.
Together, they unpack how their relationship with food and their bodies changed through meeting each other — despite both struggling with unhealthy beliefs around eating, exercise, appearance, and self-worth when they first met.
Will shares his experience with:
Orthorexia and “clean eating”
Veganism and identity
Body dysmorphia in the fitness industry
Social media pressure and perfectionism
Binge eating behind the scenes
Male body image struggles
Personal training culture and physique obsession
Becca opens up about:
Restrictive eating and dieting
Fear of weight gain
Recovery from binge eating and food rules
Reassurance seeking and body image anxiety
Learning to feel safe in her body
Healing through relationships and connection
This episode explores how shame, diet culture, wellness culture, and external validation can shape our relationship with food — and how acceptance, compassion, and emotional safety can become part of recovery.
If you’ve ever struggled with:
binge eating
emotional eating
food obsession
calorie counting
body dysmorphia
orthorexia
fear of weight gain
restrictive eating
comparison on social media
feeling “not good enough”
…this conversation will likely resonate deeply.
Let us know in the comments:
Are you a male who's struggled with body image and disordered eating?Have relationships ever impacted your healing journey with food or body image?
Subscribe for more conversations on:Eating disorder recovery, binge eating recovery, food freedom, body image healing, mental health, self-worth, and recovery from diet culture.
Connect with Becca & the podcast....
Instagram:
@bingefreeandbeautiful
@onceuponabingepodcast 
Email:
bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com
podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com
💜
 

After 18 months of co-hosting the Once Upon a Binge Podcast, Katy is stepping away from the show. In this emotional and honest episode, Becca and Katy talk openly about the decision to end this chapter of the podcast, navigating change, burnout, recovery work, and what’s next for Once Upon a Binge.
If you struggle with binge eating, emotional eating, body image, perfectionism, or eating disorder recovery, this conversation may really resonate with you.
In this episode, we discuss:
-Katy's decision to leave the podcast
-The emotional impact of endings and change
-Burnout in the eating disorder recovery space
-Recovery, mental health, and capacity
-The importance of conversations around binge eating recovery
-What the future of the Once Upon a Binge Podcast looks like
-Upcoming guest episodes featuring lived experience and professionals
Moving forward, Once Upon a Binge will continue with Becca as solo host, alongside guests including therapists, dietitians, coaches, and people sharing their own recovery journeys.
This podcast is dedicated to helping people heal their relationship with food, break free from the binge restrict cycle, improve body image, and let go of perfectionism.
✨ We are also looking for future podcast guests with lived experience of binge eating, emotional eating, body image struggles, disordered eating, or eating disorder recovery. If you have a story or perspective you’d like to share and think it could help others feel less alone, please get in touch — we’d love to hear from you. ✨
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the podcast over the past 18 months through listening, sharing episodes, commenting, and reaching out 💜
Wishing you all the best Katy!
If you enjoy the podcast, please like, comment, and subscribe — it really helps more people find these conversations around binge eating recovery and eating disorder recovery.
#BingeEatingRecovery #EatingDisorderRecovery #BodyImage #MentalHealthPodcast #EmotionalEating #Perfectionism #RecoveryJourney #bodyacceptance #bodypositivity

In episode 36 of the Once Upon a Binge podcast Katy and Becca talk about navigating social events and disordered eating. They talk about how food rules blocked them from having food freedom at social events, the role of binge eating and how body image insecurities made socialising challenging.
They discuss:
•⁠  ⁠Anxiety before social events and binge eating as social avoidance •⁠  ⁠Mental calculations around food at social events •⁠  ⁠Introvertism and extrovertism and how it impacts our relationship with social events and food •⁠  ⁠Food restriction before social events•⁠  ⁠The role of dopamine in socialising and binge eating •⁠  ⁠How being ADHD impacts socialising •⁠  ⁠How alcohol effects socialising and binge eating •⁠  ⁠The need for time to prepare for social events and alone time afterwards•⁠  ⁠How food thoughts block connection with others at social events •⁠  ⁠Feeling like there’s something wrong with you for not wanting to socialise •⁠  ⁠Body image spiralling 
💜
 Connect with the podcast: •⁠  ⁠Instagram - www.instagram.com/onceuponabingepodcast•⁠  ⁠Email - podcast.onceuponabinge@gmail.com  
Connect with Becca:•⁠  ⁠Instagram – www.instagram.com/bingefreeandbeautiful   •⁠  ⁠LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccarobinson/ •⁠  ⁠Email - bingefreeandbeautiful@gmail.com

In this episode of Once Upon a Binge, Katy & Becca are talking about conflict - not just arguments or disagreements, but the way conflict can live in the body, shape your nervous system, and become tangled up with binge eating, restriction and body image struggles.
They explore how our very different childhood experiences with conflict shaped the way they responded to it: with one becoming conflict avoidant, swallowing feelings down and turning anger inward; the other becoming more reactive, using food afterwards to regulate the intensity of fight-or-flight energy.
They also talk about how binge eating can sometimes become the voice we weren’t able to use, the place our anger went, or the way our body tried to bring us back down when everything felt too much.
In this conversation, they cover:
How conflict can feel threatening to the nervous system
Fight, freeze and conflict avoidance
The link between suppressed anger, binge eating and body image
Why restriction can feel like control or obedience
Seeing the binge part with more compassion
Learning to speak up without abandoning yourself
Why conflict doesn’t always mean something is broken
How curiosity can help us understand our inner parts
This episode is for anyone who has ever felt like food became the place where unspoken feelings, anger, shame or overwhelm went.
Let us know: are you more conflict avoidant, more reactive, or something else entirely?
Thank you so much for listening 🤎