44: Eat Breathe Thrive: Yoga & Eating Disorders with Chelsea Roff

Messages around “clean” eating and ideal body shape or size are ubiquitous, even in the yoga world, with potentially devastating impact for those who experience disordered eating.

Today host Rachel speaks with Chelsea Roff, who found her way to yoga early in her recovery from a serious eating disorder. Chelsea went on to become a scientific researcher and yoga teacher, eventually bringing her skills and experience together to become the Founder and Director of Eat Breathe Thrive: a non-profit organization aiming to prevent and help people recover from eating disorders.

Today Chelsea shares her definition of eating disorders and describes the wide range of people who can experience them. We discuss the process of redefining your relationship with food, debunk the myth that there is a single way that a healthy body should look, and unpack how yoga practice can help us learn how to truly feel what we feel.

Listen in to learn what constitutes disordered eating and how yoga can help with both prevention and recovery.

“Yoga can invite us into appreciating the body for more than what it looks like.” – Chelsea Roff

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“If given the care and resources, people can recover.” – Chelsea Roff

Show Notes:

• Chelsea’s professional background in scientific research [4:20]
• Chelsea’s own recovery from an eating disorder [7:43]
• The start of Chelsea’s relationship with yoga [9:58]
• Pivoting from researcher to yoga teacher [12:08]
• Defining disordered eating on a spectrum [16:13]
• Eating disorder recovery and yoga [20:51]
• The learned skill of interoception [25:44]
• Appreciating the body for more than its appearance [28:24]
• Regulating our internal state [30:48]
• Lessons from yoga philosophy [37:17]
• An unorthodox start for the non-profit Eat Breathe Thrive [41:27]
• The power of sharing our stories [49:38]
• Advice for yoga teachers working within our scope on eating disorders [51:11]
• Yoga as a double-edged sword in eating disorder recovery [55:40]
• A final takeaway from Chelsea: celebrate impermanence [1:02:06]

Links Mentioned:

• Watch this episode on YouTube
• Connect with Chelsea Roff and Eat Breathe Thrive:

Facebook | Instagram | Eat Breathe Thrive

“Having control over my body was giving me some illusion of control.” – Chelsea Roff