Shoulders Down
Shoulders Down
Leah Kern
When you live in the diet mindset, you spend much of your time living in your head- constantly tallying, dwelling, and stressing over your food and lifestyle choices. When you become an intuitive eater, you learn to drop into your body and start living shoulders down. The territory below your shoulders contains your innate wisdom and power. Shoulders Down is a podcast designed to teach you how to harness your intuition to govern not just how you eat but also how you live. Shoulders Down Podcast is hosted by Anti-Diet Dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, Leah Kern, who works with clients to heal their relationships with food in her private practice, Leah Kern Nutrition. Disclaimer: All content in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. The information and education provided is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis.
🍎 Fat-Lived Experience as a Dietitian, Body Grief, and Endocrine Conditions with Chelsea Levy
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with Chelsea Levy, MS, RDN, a weight-inclusive dietitian specializing in eating disorders, PCOS, diabetes, and endocrine-related conditions. Chelsea shares her personal journey from chronic dieting and weight cycling to discovering intuitive eating while studying to become a dietitian. Together, Leah and Chelsea explore the realities of living in a weight-centric world, the impact of weight stigma on healthcare and body image, and why body res...
Jul 6
50 min
😐 Why It Feels So Hard to Figure Out What To Eat (& How To Fix It)
In this solo episode, Leah talks about why it can feel so hard to figure out what to eat when you’re coming from a history of dieting. She outlines some of the main obstacles she sees clients running into, and then offers a solution for how to transition into intuitive eating without feeling like you’re free falling. She gets into: Why figuring out what to eat is likely a muscle you haven’t strengthenHow loosing the structure of dieting can feel destabilizing and overwhelming.The obstacle of ...
Jun 29
26 min
📊 The Weight Loss Research Nobody Talks About with Ragen Chastain
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with Ragen Chastain, speaker, researcher, board-certified patient advocate, and leading voice in the fields of weight science, weight stigma, and healthcare. Ragen shares her personal journey from years of chronic dieting and an eating disorder to becoming a weight-inclusive health advocate. She explains what happened when she conducted an extensive review of the weight loss literature and discovered that the evidence did not support many of t...
Jun 22
1 hr 4 min
✌️Responding To Hate Comments From The Jillian Michaels Debate
In this episode, I respond to and unpack some of the most common comments I received after the viral Jillian Michaels vs. Body Positivity debate video was published. I’ll be honest: it took me a long time to record this episode. Reading through hostile and misinformed comments is unpleasant. But I ultimately decided this conversation was worth having, because the comments reveal deep misunderstandings about weight, health, and what ethical nutrition care actually looks like. In this episode, ...
Jun 8
32 min
🌞 Intuitive Eating 5 Years Later: Parts Work, Group Fitness, & Cycle Syncing with Lizzie
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah reconnects with former client Lizzie Marks for a conversation about what intuitive eating looks like five years later — and how healing your relationship with food can ripple into every area of life. Lizzie shares how her early intuitive eating journey began with swinging fully away from rigid food rules and exercise habits, and how she eventually found her way toward a more nuanced middle ground with movement, nutrition, and self-trust. Together, Leah ...
May 25
29 min
🧠 ADHD, Body Image & Intuitive Eating: Making Sense of the Overlap with Brittany Modell
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with Brittany Modell to explore the nuanced relationship between ADHD, body image, and eating behaviors — and how neurodivergence can shape our experience with food in ways that are often misunderstood. Brittany shares her personal story growing up immersed in diet culture, from early Weight Watchers meetings to navigating a lifelong sense of feeling “out of control” around food. Together, she and Leah unpack how ADHD can intensify food though...
May 11
45 min
🏃‍♀️ Extractive vs. Regenerative Movement: Reframing Your Relationship with Running with Karly Borden
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with Karly Borden, founder of The Public Run Club, to explore what it really looks like to rebuild a relationship with running after disordered eating. Karly shares her personal story of navigating eating disorder recovery and the often-overlooked challenge of returning to exercise in a way that feels safe, grounded, and self-trust-driven. Together, they unpack the tension between discipline and intuition, and why so many people feel stuck in ...
Apr 27
1 hr 4 min
🔄 Transfer Addiction: When Substance Recovery Shifts Into Orthorexia with Sydney Greene
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with certified eating disorder specialist Sydney Greene, to explore the overlap between disordered eating and substance use. Sydney shares her personal story of growing up around addiction, developing orthorexia, and later navigating sobriety — only to find her compulsive behaviors shifting toward exercise, clean eating, and wellness. Leah and Sydney unpack how addiction and disordered eating often co-occur, why recovery isn’t always linear, a...
Apr 13
53 min
📺 Unpacking the Viral Jubilee Body Positivity Debate with Marcy Guevara
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with plus-size style expert and reality TV producer Marcy Guevara-Prete to reflect on their experience participating in a viral Jubilee debate with fitness personality Jillian Michaels. Leah and Marcy unpack what it was like to engage in a highly charged, public conversation about body positivity, health, and weight — and how lived experience, media framing, and personal values shaped their perspectives in the moment and afterward. Marcy share...
Mar 30
1 hr 5 min
🤔 We Watched The Jillian Michaels Debate Back... And Had Thoughts [with Edie Stark, LCSW]
In this episode of Shoulders Down, Leah sits down with therapist Edie Stark, LCSW, to discuss their thoughts on the final edit of the Jillian Michaels x Body Positivity debate. Leah and Edie reflect on what they thought of the edit, how it felt to watch the video back (after experiencing it in real time a few months ago), and what frustrated them about the final video. Mentioned in this episode: First episode reflecting with Edie (before we saw the final edit)Watch the Debate Here!...
Mar 24
32 min
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