For so many of us, nighttime feels like stepping into a different version of ourselves. One that feels "fine" all day, but starts to unravel the moment the sun goes down. One who can't stop thinking about snacks, who wanders into the kitchen on autopilot, who feels out of control around food in ways that never show up at noon. It can feel confusing, frustrating, even shameful.

Listen to the full episode for the full unpacking and for the practical steps that can help you finally feel at peace when the night comes.

"Your body might not be confused or just randomly anxious. It might actually be undernourished." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Sometimes we get caught up in what we call healthy habits… and these are like the perfect conditions to breed bingey eating or nighttime food anxiety." - Rachelle Heinemann

"At night, usually that's where all the leftovers emotionally show up." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Emotional hunger is not fake hunger, it's just a metaphoric hunger." - Rachelle Heinemann

"If you're hungry, whether it's metaphoric or otherwise, you're hungry for something." - Rachelle Heinemann

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Struggling to find motivation in recovery, or trying to make sense of what keeps people pushing through something as painful as an eating disorder, opens a door to a much deeper conversation. This episode steps right through that door.

In this episode, we welcome back a longtime favorite guest: Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo, a neuropsychiatrist and internationally known educator whose work sits at the intersection of brain science, mental health, and eating disorder treatment. If you've heard his previous episodes, you already know that he has a profound ability to make complex neuroscience feel not just understandable, but actionable. This time, he brings something new, something that might seem unexpected coming from a neuroscientist: the science of a bucket list. And no, not the Hollywood version. Not skydiving. Not "visit Paris." Something far more foundational.

"It's okay to be skeptical because that's part of it." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo

"Recovery kind of involves helping the brain remember how to feel that, that curiosity, pleasure, connection, and flexibility again." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo

"When you go places, and you meet different people with different cultures, the one thing I have learned… it has helped tolerability." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo

"We're programmed, and we don't even know we're being programmed to think and, more importantly, to react." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo

"Your brain is always changing." - Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

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Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo's YouTube Channel

Dr. Jeffrey DeSarbo's Website

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Whether you're supporting others or navigating your own process, this episode offers language and perspective to help you sit with the messiness rather than fear it.

In this episode, we slow down to explore why ambivalence exists, what it reveals about our experiences, and why it's a doorway rather than a roadblock. We unpack the deeper meaning behind body goals, what thinness represents, the safety it promises, and why those promises feel so powerful even when they aren't rooted in truth. You'll learn how to face fear without bypassing it, and why sitting with discomfort is often the catalyst for real change.

"When somebody has an attachment to a certain body size or shape, it's because it means something and it represents something." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Ambivalence is when you want two things that contradict each other, where there are opposites at the same time. This is literally the purpose of therapy is to work through ambivalence." - Rachelle Heinemann

"The reason why we get stuck is because of ambivalence. It's because we want two things at the same time, and they're contradicting each other, and we cannot move forward." - Rachelle Heinemann

"What if we stopped treating body goals as something to take apart or dismantle? And if we started seeing them as something to understand, something to explore?" - Rachelle Heinemann

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

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If you've ever wondered why PCOS feels so confusing, why the symptoms don't line up, why the advice is contradictory, why the solutions feel like guesswork, you're not imagining it.

That's exactly why I brought back Julie Duffy Dillon, registered dietitian, author, and host of Find Your Food Voice, to cut through the noise. Julie has a rare way of talking about PCOS that immediately makes your shoulders drop: it's science-based, deeply compassionate, and totally free of judgment or quick fixes.

" So many people are led to believe that it's just a problem with their ovaries, but really, PCOS is an endocrine disorder that starts in the brain, not in the ovaries. It's something that someone's born with and they're, they die with it too." - Julie Duffy Dillon

"We don't have a lot of research. Doctors don't always have the answers, and there's a lot of weight bias in there, too. And unfortunately, most people just know about the reproductive interventions. They don't know about all the other ones." - Julie Duffy Dillon

"I do feel like with PCOS, you have to advocate for yourself more. It's annoying." - Julie Duffy Dillon

"PCOS is the number one cause of anovulatory infertility." - Julie Duffy Dillon

" If you're eating enough with PCOS, adding movement is something that can really help with your insulin levels. But if you are someone who's painfully tired or your insulin levels are really high, so you have these cravings all the time, adding exercise or movement is just gonna make things worse." - Julie Duffy Dillon

Julie's Website: https://julieduffydillon.com/

Free Tools: https://julieduffydillon.com/voice/

Julie's Podcast: https://julieduffydillon.com/podcast/

Book: https://julieduffydillon.com/book/

Book bonus downloads: https://findyourfoodvoicebook.com

PCOS Membership: https://julieduffydillon.com/pcos-power-course/

Bergen Mental Health Group Inc. is hiring! If you think you'd be a great fit, check it out!

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

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Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode!

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You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at rachelle@rachelleheinemann.com

Relapse isn't the end of recovery. It's part of it. There's this moment that happens for so many people in recovery, that sinking feeling when you realize some of those old patterns have crept back in. Maybe it's skipping a meal. Maybe it's the familiar swirl of guilt, shame, or perfectionism. Whatever form it takes, relapse can feel like you've failed. Like everything you've worked so hard for just… disappeared.

Listen to the full episode to learn how to meet relapse with curiosity, connect with what it's trying to teach you, and continue forward on your path to healing.

Tweetable Quotes

"Relapse isn't the end of recovery, guys. It's not the end of the road. It's a moment in it." - Rachelle Heinemann

"We're not going to label it as a success or failure, but we're going to explore it." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Is the body communicating something that the mind can't yet say?" - Rachelle Heinemann

"Even if it feels like you revisit the same old place, you are there with a lot more awareness and capacity than you have in the past." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Recovery happens in connection. Recovery cannot happen outside of connection." - Rachelle Heinemann

Resources

Bergen Mental Health Group Inc. is hiring! If you think you'd be a great fit, check it out!

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!

Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.

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You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at rachelle@rachelleheinemann.com

Thank you to our sponsors! This episode includes paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services.

Hidden River Healing provides compassionate, residential eating disorder treatment for girls, adolescents, and young women. Their expert clinical team emphasizes family involvement and individualized care in a beautifully designed facility surrounded by nature — a peaceful environment that supports recovery and lasting healing.

Program Highlights:

• Specialized care for ages 8 and up, including a dedicated house for Emerging Adults (21+) and Mid-Life Adults
• In-network with most commercial insurances
• Ability to treat NG tube patients

Learn more: hiddenriverhealing.com/about-us
Follow on Instagram: @hiddenrivertx

NOTE: We will be taking next week off for Thanksgiving. See you in December!

Have you ever looked around and wondered how everyone else seems to have such an easy, peaceful relationship with food? They order what they want at restaurants, stop when they're full, and move on with their day. Meanwhile, you're stuck in your head, negotiating with yourself, worrying about how much you ate, or planning the next meal before you've even finished this one. If that sounds familiar, you're not alone.

Listen to the full episode to learn how you can start to rebuild trust with your body, release food guilt, and finally feel more at ease around eating; one meal, one moment, one connection at a time.

"Eating is not just a means to nourish yourself. It is a means to connect." - Rachelle Heinemann

"The very first thing is you need structure. Because we can't really play around if we're not eating enough. And when we play around with our food, then we play around with our hunger fullness cues." - Rachelle Heinemann

"What we're doing is shifting from our bodies and our meal plans as something to control and shifting to our bodies as something to listen to." - Rachelle Heinemann

"It's not about getting it right, it's about just rebuilding these lines of communication." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Your food choices don't define your worth." - Rachelle Heinemann

Bergen Mental Health Group Inc. is hiring! If you think you'd be a great fit, check it out!

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!

Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.

Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!

You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at rachelle@rachelleheinemann.com

Thank you to our sponsors! This episode includes paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services.

Hidden River Healing provides compassionate, residential eating disorder treatment for girls, adolescents, and young women. Their expert clinical team emphasizes family involvement and individualized care in a beautifully designed facility surrounded by nature — a peaceful environment that supports recovery and lasting healing.

Program Highlights:

• Specialized care for ages 8 and up, including a dedicated house for Emerging Adults (21+) and Mid-Life Adults

• In-network with most commercial insurances

• Ability to treat NG tube patients
  
  

Learn more: hiddenriverhealing.com/about-us
Follow on Instagram: @hiddenrivertx

The holidays are a time of joy, connection, and celebration. But they can also stir up difficult emotions, memories, and patterns, especially if you've experienced trauma or struggled with disordered eating. In this episode, we're diving into the complex and often misunderstood relationship between eating disorders and trauma.

Joining me for this powerful conversation is Dr. Giulia Suro—a psychologist and author in Washington, DC who specializes in the intersection of eating disorders and trauma.

"Being triggered is great. Like there's nothing wrong with being triggered, right? Being triggered means you're having a response and I want you to learn that you can feel that response and get through it because you're resilient, you're strong, you have agency, you have skills." - Dr. Giulia Suro

"All of us are gonna experience traumas over the course of our lifetime. That's baked into the price of being a human being." - Dr. Giulia Suro

"I think for many people with eating disorders, the eating disorder behaviors become avoidance behaviors." - Dr. Giulia Suro

"Doing eating disorder work is doing trauma work. We're learning how to be in our body." - Dr. Giulia Suro

"My biggest fear for anyone with an eating disorder is to sort of settle for three quarters recovery and live a life that's like good enough." - Dr. Giulia Suro

"Your feelings can't hurt you. Your thoughts can't hurt you. Memories can't hurt you. Like the hurt has passed, that has passed." - Dr. Giulia Suro

Dr. Giulia Suro's website

Follow Dr. Giulia Suro on Instagram

Bergen Mental Health Group Inc. is hiring! If you think you'd be a great fit, check it out!

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!

Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.

Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!

You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at rachelle@rachelleheinemann.com

Thank you to our sponsors! This episode includes paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services.

Hidden River Healing provides compassionate, residential eating disorder treatment for girls, adolescents, and young women. Their expert clinical team emphasizes family involvement and individualized care in a beautifully designed facility surrounded by nature — a peaceful environment that supports recovery and lasting healing.

Program Highlights:

• Specialized care for ages 8 and up, including a dedicated house for Emerging Adults (21+) and Mid-Life Adults

• In-network with most commercial insurances

• Ability to treat NG tube patients

Learn more: hiddenriverhealing.com/about-us
Follow on Instagram: @hiddenrivertx

Have you ever felt like your mind just won't shut off about food? You're in a meeting, at school, or out with friends, and instead of focusing on what's in front of you, all you can think about is what you'll eat next, what you shouldn't have eaten, or what you'll allow yourself later. That constant mental chatter, what many call food noise, can be exhausting.

Tune in to the full episode to uncover what food noise is really telling you, and what steps you can take to finally quiet it.

"Thinking about food and being interested in food is really another sign of physical hunger." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Restriction applies to the actual restriction of food not getting in enough, and it applies to the restriction of kinds of foods, types of foods, and the idea that they're off limits." - Rachelle Heinemann

"Once you start eating adequately and regularly and consistently, and allowing yourself to have a variety of foods, then you'd be surprised how the food noise starts to quiet." - Rachelle Heinemann

"If we still have our good foods and bad foods in different camps, then the food noise will probably be there." - Rachelle Heinemann

"The more you avoid sweets and cakes and all these other kinds of fun foods, it's going to hold that power over you." - Rachelle Heinemann

"The most important takeaway from today is 'Are you restricting? Is there some dieting going on? Are there lots of food rules?' In which case, you have to address that in order to decrease the food noise that is driving you up the wall." - Rachelle Heinemann

Bergen Mental Health Group Inc. is hiring! If you think you'd be a great fit, check it out!

Grab my Journal Prompts Here!

Looking for a speaker for an upcoming event? Let's chat!

Now accepting new clients! Find out if we're a good fit!

LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who may need this podcast by sharing this episode.

Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter here!

You can connect with me on Instagram @rachelleheinemann, through my website www.rachelleheinemann.com, or email me directly at rachelle@rachelleheinemann.com

Thank you to our sponsors! This episode includes paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services.

Hidden River Healing provides compassionate, residential eating disorder treatment for girls, adolescents, and young women. Their expert clinical team emphasizes family involvement and individualized care in a beautifully designed facility surrounded by nature — a peaceful environment that supports recovery and lasting healing.

Program Highlights:

• Specialized care for ages 8 and up, including a dedicated house for Emerging Adults (21+) and Mid-Life Adults

• In-network with most commercial insurances

• Ability to treat NG tube patients
  
  

Learn more: hiddenriverhealing.com/about-us
Follow on Instagram: @hiddenrivertx