Podcast
Truce with Food with Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC
Hosted by Ali Shapiro, MSOD, CHHC · EN
You've done Weight Watchers. Therapy. The functional medicine workup. You know more about nutrition than most people. And yet, you still can't make it stick. So now you're wondering if you're just the problem.
You are not the problem. The framework you needed—that integrates real, lasting change—just never showed up, so you keep blaming yourself instead.
Truce With Food® is a podcast for women in perimenopause and menopause who are exhausted from emotional eating, binge eating, overeating, and food noise taking up more space in their lives than they ever wanted. If you're eating when you're not hungry, can't figure out why what used to work no longer does, or just want a real conversation about your relationship with food and your body, you're in the right place.
Host Ali Shapiro is a holistic nutritionist, cancer survivor, and creator of the research-based Truce With Food® framework that’s also built on 19 years of real client results. She healed her own relationship with food and has spent nearly two decades helping other women do the same through honest conversations about food, psychology, physiology, and why showing up with a C+ effort gets you further than any plan that demands perfection ever will. And how the real work is to be counterculture and trust in satisfaction, not more discipline.
New episodes every other Wednesday.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
323. The Body You Were Always Meant to Have with Sas Petherick [Body Stories Series #6]
2w ago01:19:29Tap to summarizeFor many of us, the body has long felt like an inconvenient, separate entity. Our intellect does the heavy lifting while our physical selves get relegated to the background. You know how to think your way through problems, build a career, figure things out. But when it comes to looking down and asking your body what it actually needs, there's a tight ball of feelings most of us would rather not touch.My dear friend and developmental coach Sas Petherick used to live that way. Over the past year, through a process she describes as one of the most vulnerable experiences of her life, Sas has gone through a complete identity shift in how she relates to her body, her marriage, and herself. She's lost 52 pounds and built her most developed muscle mass as an adult. But what surprised her most wasn't the physical change. It was that figuring out her body stuff required more growing up than changing careers, getting sober, or losing a parent.Sas returns to close out a year-long conversation about what it actually takes to change your relationship with your body. We get into why body image lives in the brain and not the mirror, how the padding she carried was protection against vulnerability she wasn't ready to feel, and what it means when your insides finally match your outsides. This is what it looks like to move from self-monitoring to true self-awareness and become more fully yourself.7:21 – Why Sas ranks this body journey alongside sobriety, grief, and career change as one of the most identity-altering experiences of her life13:00 – Difficulties of the journey and how much Sas’s relationship with her body has impacted her nearly 20-year-old relationship with her partner19:08 – Highlights of the journey and what Sas noticed while watching a stranger at dinner that revealed just how far she's come32:50 – Why maintenance (which everyone says is the hardest part of this journey) has actually become easier for Sas46:23 – Why Sas’s relationship with food is more difficult than her relationship with exercise, and how she’s learning to work through it50:11 – Why body dysmorphia might have a root emotion that doesn't get talked about enough1:00:07 – Defining body image, embracing the body positivity movement, and why grief isn’t just about loss1:02:37 – Sas's honest take on GLP-1s: what’s missing from the conversation, what she'd do if she were taking them, and what everyone should be asking before they decide1:09:12 – How exploring her relationships with food, movement, and her body are no longer tied to the scale for SasHow to Lose Weight and Love Yourself (because you can do both!)“We’re the Brave Ones” – Discipline vs Devotion, Macros & Being SportyEmotions & Embodiment for Sustainable Weight LossHow to Hold Your Weight Loss Goals Loosely (for better results)How to Finally Stop White-Knuckling Your Weight-Loss JourneySas Petherick Find Your Food Stage Quiz
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322. Healing Your Relationship With Food Is a Rebellious Act
4w ago00:42:36Tap to summarizeThe world is a lot right now. Globally, personally, often both. And when things are this intense, it can be easy to feel like your relationship with food is a first world problem, or that nothing matters, you're just going to eat. To dismiss the battle as something to deal with later, when things calm down.But this is exactly when it matters most. We can't all collapse at the same time. If you're hungry, depleted, or consumed by overriding your cravings, you don't have the energy for your own life, let alone for showing up with the values you want to see ripple out into the world. And the conditioning that tells you investing in yourself takes from others, that you should be able to power through, that your needs are too much, is the same conditioning that keeps the cycle going.In this episode of Truce with Food, I walk through three reasons your food battle matters more in hard times, not less. I cover why you need to be physically nourished to show up for what you care about, why the all-or-nothing thinking that says investing in yourself takes from others is the same conditioning we need to change, and why most weight and food struggles are really about a complicated relationship with power. Healing your relationship with food isn't a distraction from the work of this moment. It's part of it.5:47 – Why overriding your hunger actually robs you of the rebelliousness and energy needed for your life11:17 – Why learning to connect how you eat to how your body works is revolutionary13:52 – The cultural conditioning that makes you believe investing in your own health must come at the expense of your family or work17:23 – How this zero-sum cultural conditioning trap exists on every level19:55 – How a client learned the emotional work of tending to her needs, instead of trying to fix issues for her daughter21:13 – Your food battle as a doorway to examine where you’re still sacrificing yourself to unsustainable norms24:01 – How that guilty feeling you get for overeating or not working out is often a symptom of internalized capitalist productivity26:42 – Backlash as a sign of actual progress and how “slow and steady” keeps you in the game31:41 – How stubborn weight issues are often linked to an unconscious resistance to dominative power, and the need to redefine power as collaborative36:03 – The yin archetype’s association with food and body issues (including eating disorders)Mentioned In Healing Your Relationship With Food Is a Rebellious ActWhy Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don’t with Erin HoltWhat Your Food Stage Reveals About Why Nothing Has Worked Long TermFreedom from Cravings courseTruce with FoodFood Stage Finder Assessment
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321. Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don't with Erin Holt
Apr 2201:06:43Tap to summarizeTwenty years ago, functional medicine changed everything for me. My IBS cleared. My skin cleared. My depression lifted. And for the first time, I understood food as medicine instead of just calories. But somewhere in the last five years, functional medicine started looking a lot like what it was railing against. A supplement for every lab marker. A protocol for every person. A business model that profits from making you feel more broken than when you walked in.So I stopped talking about it much here. But I still believe in root cause resolution. And I wanted to bring on someone who practices it the way it was meant to be practiced. That's why I brought Erin Holt on the show. Erin is a seasoned clinician, clinic founder, and trainer of other practitioners who has been vocal about what's gone wrong in this industry while still believing fiercely in what it can be. She practices what she calls intuitive functional medicine, a framework that starts with the physical body and refuses to stop there.In this episode of Truce with Food, Erin and I get into what's actually broken in functional medicine right now, why data can never replace discernment or lived experience, and how her five-phase formula bridges the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic aspects of healing. We also talk about why you can't rewire an inflamed brain with mindset work, and what it really means to self-source your health instead of outsourcing it to someone in a white coat.2:48 – Introduction to Erin and how she and her trainees help one-on-one clients7:56 – The shift in functional medicine over the last five years that’s recreating the exact problem it was designed to solve11:25 – Defining functional medicine and comparing it to more conventional medicine16:46 – What intuitive functional medicine is and what it looks like in Erin’s practice (and her training of other practitioners)24:08 – Self-sourcing vs. outsourcing your health and the long, underexamined history of the loss of self-trust in so many people34:09 – A basic example of how Erin helps her clients rebuild their self-trust (without forcing it)39:55 – Why too many choices in the name of empowerment can actually cause someone to freeze in response (and what skilled practitioners do differently)44:11 – The real point of fear-based marketing and how to spot it before it sells you something you don't need47:00 – Why the nocebo effect, medical hexing, and the labels a practitioner puts on you can quietly become the ceiling on your healing49:15 – Functional labs that are actually worth it and the very contextual, individualized way Erin administers them as a practitioner51:43 – Erin’s framework for whole-person healing, why the starting point doesn’t matter, and what needs to happen before you can rewire your brain using mindset work1:00:42 – The importance and meaning of self-compassion and why you must only work with those who see your potential to healMentioned In Why Intuitive Functional Medicine Works When Protocols Don't with Erin HoltManifest Your Health™The Funk’tional Nutrition | Instagram | Facebook | PinterestFunk’tional Nutrition Academy (FNA) Funk’tional Nutrition: How Belonging, Not Willpower, Shapes Your EatingFind Your Food Stage Quiz
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320. What Your Food Stage Reveals About Why Nothing Has Worked Long Term
Apr 800:37:11Tap to summarizeYou've tried the plans. The protocols. Maybe therapy, journaling, intuitive eating. And food still feels like a battle. The problem isn't that you haven't tried hard enough. It's that no one has ever shown you where you actually are.I've spent 19 years working with women who've tried everything and nothing's worked long term. What I keep finding is that the approach mismatches the stage. And you can't know what to do next until you know where you're starting from.In this episode of Truce with Food, I walk through I walk through the four developmental stages of resolving your food battle and introduce my free Food Stage Finder Assessment. If you've ever wondered why you're still struggling despite everything you've done, this is where to start.1:40 – How women's healthcare concerns get dismissed and what led Ali to this work3:59 – Why food struggles fall into two extremes and why both miss the point6:26 – What the Food Stage Finder Assessment is and why Ali created it7:34 – Why more information stopped being the problem for Ali's clients9:03 – Women's health span post-menopause and why midlife is the time to get this right11:56 – Taking responsibility for your own body literacy without burning out13:11 – Why intuitive eating is hard when you've never had healthy eating patterns14:06 – How adolescent culture shapes our food culture and why quick fixes dominate19:50 – Why maturity, not more learning, is what actually creates food freedom22:38 – The four developmental stages of resolving your food battle25:53 – Stage one: Gathering Evidence27:04 – Stage two: Breakthrough Ready29:37 – Stage three: Practicing Freedom32:48 – Stage four: Trusting in Satisfaction36:19 – Why most people are surprised by their Food Stage Finder results36:32 – How to take the free Food Stage Finder AssessmentMentioned In What Your Food Stage Reveals About Why Nothing Has Worked Long TermTruce with FoodFood Stage Finder Assessment
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319. What a Truce with Food Taught Me About Redefining Success
Mar 1800:40:23Tap to summarizeAfter nearly a decade of conversations about food, culture, and psychology, this podcast has a new name. What was Insatiable is now the Truce with Food Podcast. What started as a rebrand turned into an honest look at how success, ambition, and identity shift over time.Ten years ago, metrics like downloads and productivity felt like the scorecard. Then motherhood happened. Menopause happened. The realities of limited time and energy became impossible to ignore. I had to ask what actually feels like success now.In this episode of Truce with Food, I share how hustle culture quietly shaped my definition of success and how I used my own framework to work through overworking. Because creating a truce with food often means creating a truce with the relentless pursuit of success itself.4:26 – How a decade of podcasting quietly reveals how cultural definitions of success shape our goals and habits 9:57 – When things began to shift in my energy and capacity regarding hustle culture13:13 – What the rebrand is about and why a years-long evolving framework involving work with real people matters now more than ever16:48 – The Truce with Food framework as a way to take back your power and how I used it to stop overworking23:32 – Re-evaluation of time, energy, and capacity as a result of hustle culture limits in midlife 32:54 – What is and isn’t changing about the podcastMentioned In What a Truce with Food Taught Me About Redefining SuccessTruce with FoodHow Just Showing Up Ended Years of BingingContent with Carlos | my husband, who designed my new website and content strategyBraid Creative | Kathleen Shannon on Skipping One-Size-Fits-All and Experimenting InsteadHealth, Body, and Business with Ali Shapiro (Being Boss Podcast)Find Your Food Stage Quiz
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318. Funk’tional Nutrition: How Belonging, Not Willpower, Shapes Your Eating
Mar 400:57:35Tap to summarizeDiet culture, anti-diet rhetoric, and functional medicine all live in a messy middle ground. Our culture trains us to outsource authority, chase gold stars, and equate thinness with worth. We're taught to live by someone else's food rules, health rules, weight rules. So if you're still struggling to figure food out, it's not a failure of discipline. It's a misunderstanding of safety and belonging.In this episode of Insatiable, I join Erin Holt on The Funk'tional Nutritionist podcast to talk about how functional medicine, adult development, and lived experience create pendulum swings in eating patterns. We get into why food feels like both the problem and the solution, and what it means to author your own choices around health and weight without shame, dogma, or perfectionism.6:28 – How Ali’s history with cancer, functional medicine, and adult development work led her to see “falling off track” with food as a symptom instead of a core issue10:15 – Erin’s history with eating disorders and how her story overlaps with Ali’s14:00 – How the “good girl” (or socialized) mindset influences your thinking with food, weight, and health (even after you’ve rejected diet culture on the surface)18:10 – Example of how seeing yourself (not others) as the author of your story changes what “success” looks like.22:54 – Why people “go off track” with food and how it has nothing to do with willpower27:45 – Erin’s food memories that illustrate the clash between the need for rest and resourcefulness vs. the need for approval and belonging 34:34 – How tools like GLP‑1s aren’t inherently good or bad and can help or harm 38:32 – Why weight loss alone can never deliver belonging, purpose, or a meaningful life42:37 – Why it’s okay if you still feel like weight loss should be your focus right now46:56 – Where to start if you don’t even know what emotional needs you have that need to be met 52:26 – Seeing the inner critic as protection, not self-sabotage, and an example of how healing doesn’t always have to be difficultMentioned In Funk’tional Nutrition: How Belonging, Not Willpower, Shapes Your EatingThe Funk’tional Nutrition PodcastFind Your Food Stage QuizDr. Deborah MacNamaraNext Level by Stacy Sims
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317. How Just Showing Up Ended Years of Binging
Feb 1100:44:28Tap to summarizeWhat happens after you've tried everything? The plans, protocols, cleanses, and tracking apps. The running, the restriction, the attempt to outrun the fork. At some point, the effort becomes its own kind of exhaustion. You're no longer chasing health, you're chasing relief.In this episode of Insatiable, I sit down with Dee, a graduate of the Truce with Food: Consistency program, to talk about what actually creates lasting change when food has become comfort, numbness, and self-punishment all at once. Dee shares what it was like to move from binging and rigid thinking into something quieter and more powerful: just showing up.3:51 – Why Dee felt stuck before joining Truce With Food: Consistency 7:47 – Why Dee had no hesitation about signing up, even after having tried so many things before11:04 – What changed for Dee when success was defined as simply showing up13:47 – Having a safe space and the role of compassionate witnesses in ending her isolation 21:13 – The unexpected power of language in reshaping Dee’s thinking and behavior27:23 – Where things shifted for Dee and where she is now compared to when she started30:50 – How Dee’s rigid thinking and perspective on movement and motivation have changed34:40 – The biggest shift for Dee in her relationship with food and why intensity and duration matter more than perfection37:19 – The shift from measuring thinness to measuring aliveness40:32 – What else surprised Dee about the work within the program and her words for anyone considering joiningMentioned In How Just Showing Up Ended Years of BingingFinding Me: A Memoir by Viola DavisFind Your Food Stage Quiz
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316. Why Being Too Tired Is Exactly Why You Need Support
Feb 400:23:21Tap to summarizeYou tell yourself you're too busy and too tired to focus on yourself. You'll do it when things calm down, when work eases up, when the kids need less, when you finally get a good night's sleep. But food still calls your name at all the wrong times. You've tried to fix it, but the cycle keeps repeating.You're not lazy. You're not broken. You're trying to solve exhaustion without understanding where it actually comes from.In this episode of Insatiable, I break down why "too busy and too tired" is often protective resistance in disguise and why waiting for life to calm down costs you more than you think. I walk through how midlife physiology, perfectionism, lack of agency, and how we're conditioned as women all fuel the tired trigger. Plus, why turning to food makes complete sense as a solution, not a character flaw.1:48 - Why “too busy and too tired” can be protective resistance disguised as practicality4:48 – Example of how investing in your health earlier creates dividends you can’t see until later6:33 - Biological shifts in midlife that quietly change hunger, satiety, and energy9:16 - How perfectionism and over-functioning impact your energy9:50 - Why sugar and “I deserve this” thinking are solutions before they’re problems12:03 - Example of the surprising role of agency in chronic exhaustion15:25 – How investing in the right support for yourself and self-compassion can energize you19:25 - Final takeaways for this episode and an invitation to youMentioned In Why Being Too Tired Is Exactly Why You Need SupportOura RingFREE Workshop on February 10th - Untangle Your Food Triggers: Catch Yourself Before You Fall Off TrackFind Your Food Stage Quiz
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315. Five Shifts to Finally Stay Consistent With Food
Jan 2800:37:30Tap to summarizeYou've followed the plans. Upped the discipline. Doubled down on getting back on track. And still, food and taking care of yourself feel harder than they used to.You're not the problem. The problem is trying to apply the same strategies you relied on in your twenties and thirties to a body and life that have fundamentally changed.In this episode of Insatiable, I share the five shifts that finally make consistency possible when perfectionism stops working. You'll learn why your resistance to showing up imperfectly is protective, not personal, and how to stay in the game even when it feels like you're barely moving forward.3:28 - Why old strategies no longer working for you isn’t a sign of your failure11:06 - Why C-plus effort triggers disgust and why that disgust has nothing to do with laziness19:52 - How certainty becomes a shield against vulnerability and keeps you repeating the same all-or-nothing loop24:51 - Why “momentum” sounds like a soft metric but becomes the only measure that compounds into lasting change28:52 - The protective resistance that shows up the moment you try to break the cycle and why planning for it is non-negotiable34:25 – Quick recap of the five shifts that redefine what success actually looks like in midlife with food strugglesMentioned In Five Shifts to Finally Stay Consistent With FoodFREE Workshop on February 10th - Untangle Your Food Triggers: Catch Yourself Before You Fall Off TrackFind Your Food Stage Quiz
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314. Why Food Plans Fail After 40 and What Works Instead
Jan 2100:21:16Tap to summarizeYou've done the work. Tried the protocols, followed the plans. And yet food still takes up way too much mental space. You're not the problem. Those one-size-fits-all protocols you've been handed were never going to work for where you actually are.After nearly two decades working with clients, I've watched the wellness space get louder and louder with protocols and plans telling you what to do without knowing who you are or what stage you're in. Frameworks meet you where you actually are and help you figure out why you keep turning to food in the first place. That distinction is everything when it comes to lasting change.In this episode of Insatiable, I explain why frameworks work when protocols don't, walk you through the four developmental stages most women move through in their relationship with food, and share details about my free Untangle Your Food Triggers workshop coming up in February for those ready to move beyond protocols. 5:52 - How last year’s “composting phase” reshaped my body of work9:46 - Why midlife women need frameworks instead of protocols13:19 - An appetizer for the Truce with Food Consistency program to kickstart your year15:16 - Stages in the developmental process to a truce with food17:16 - Why stage two is both the most confusing and the most hopeful place to land (and how to leverage it)Mentioned In Why Food Plans Fail After 40 and What Works InsteadFREE Workshop on February 10th (not 11th, misspoke in episode) - Untangle Your Food Triggers: Catch Yourself Before You Fall Off TrackBraid Creative and ConsultingHow to Better Understand Stress with Andrea NakayamaFind Your Food Stage Quiz
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