We’re going deep today. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my great friends, Kate Brock of Kate’s Whole Life (formerly Nutrition with Kate), today on her struggles with anxiety, the connection between anxiety and nutrition, and the many ways she’s learned to help manage her anxiety through food, therapy, journaling, and many other lessons.
This is a totally open, raw, and honest episode – and I think it’s going to connect on a really deep level with a lot of you. Kate had actually never opened up about any of this stuff to almost anyone before, so I’m honored she chose to share it with me and you guys today. She has a passion for holistic nutrition stemming from a history of digestive issues and sickness, she’s a Whole30 Certified Coach, and for years she’s been learning how to nourish her body and teach her clients how to do the same with sustainable food and lifestyle changes.
Oh yeah, and we’ll also talk about the burning question you guys have been asking us for months – WHY the heck Kate and I decided to cut out coffee and booze for 60 days, and the results of our experiment!
In this episode, we talk about:
- Kate’s story of anxiety and how she realized it wasn’t normal
- What it’s like to experience general anxiety disorder vs. just being stressed or ‘anxious’
- How the Whole30 helped kate realize she could help her anxiety with food – and how she realized what foods were making her anxiety worse
- How food sensitivities can exacerbate anxiety
- The gut-brain axis and the vicious between leaky gut, serotonin, and anxiety
- How anxiety can play into orthorexia and disordered eating patterns
- The relationship between the need to control something and disordered eating
- The most helpful ways Kate has learned to manage her anxiety
- The results of our 60 day no coffee, no booze experiment and its impact on anxiety and stress
PS – we actually talked for so long in this episode that we split it into TWO episodes! For the second part, we’ll go more into our experiences and your questions about anxiety, coffee, and caffeine. Look for that coming soon!
Links mentioned in this episode:
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne, PhD
The Anti-Anxiety Diet, by Ali Miller RD LD
Check out Kate!
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Dear Dana. I have followed your blog for quite a while. Appreciate and admire you greatly. I am reticent to say anything critical but I just listened to you on on your podcast. You have a great clear speaking voice but if I could suggest it would be even better if you did not say “like” so frequently. I have 3 kids who do this and it is distracting to the power of your message. I once was told by a boss that my use of um or uh took away from the effectiveness of my public speaking. I was kind of offended at the time but in the end she was right and I worked on it. Just a suggestion. Thx for all you do
Hi Donna, I totally agree! I’ve been trying to work on that and be more conscious of it. Thanks for the feedback!
Dana, the Podcast “downloads” but when it is playing I can’t hear anything. What am I doing wrong? I really am excited to listen to this.
Hi Stacy, what app are you using to listen? Or are you listening on the computer? One silly thing to check is make sure your volume is all the way up, or your headphones are plugged all the way in. I miss that all the time! Or try downloading the podcast/playing straight from iTunes. If you’re still having issues please let me know!