Food Shrinks Podcast By Clarissa Kennedy Molly Carmel Molly Painschab cover art

Food Shrinks

Food Shrinks

By: Clarissa Kennedy Molly Carmel Molly Painschab
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About this listen

Welcome to Food Shrinks, where your hosts— Molly Carmel, Clarissa Kennedy and Molly Painschab - offer candid, compassionate conversations about the realities of food addiction, recovery, and finding freedom with food. In each episode, we dive deep into the challenges people face in their relationship with food, share what we’ve discovered through years of clinical experience, and provide practical tools to help you along your journey. This isn’t just expert advice—it’s real talk among friends. We believe in navigating recovery with honesty, self-compassion, and empowerment, while acknowledging that healing is rarely a straight line. Whether you’re working through diet trauma, learning to trust yourself with food again, or figuring out what eating approach feels right for you, we’re here to support you every step of the way. Tune in for heartfelt conversations, actionable insights, and a safe space to explore what recovery looks like—for you.2024 Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Episode 36: Knowing Better Isn’t Doing Better - Ambivalence, Ego, and Compassionate Change
    Jul 1 2025

    In this heartfelt and hilarious episode, the Shrinks dive into one of the most relatable recovery challenges: the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. Whether it’s flossing your teeth, sticking to a food plan, or showing up for yourself with compassion, the struggle is real—and it’s not about laziness or failure. It’s about nervous system responses, shame scripts, feelings phobia, and learning to be with our shadows. Join Molly C, Clarissa, and Molly P as they explore ambivalence, ego death, and what it means to change from the inside out, without shame.

    What We Talk About:

    • Why “knowing better” doesn’t always lead to “doing better”
    • The myth of compliance and what the data actually says
    • Personal stories of avoidance, resistance, and showing up anyway
    • Ambivalence as a source of wisdom and transformation
    • Nervous system dysregulation and safety as the missing link
    • How shadow work, compassion, and ego humility fuel real change
    • Type 2 fun, Iceland waterfall revelations, and hiking metaphors that hit deep
    • Learning to celebrate what is working, not just what isn’t

    Mentioned in the Episode:

    • Compliance data on glaucoma and pediatric prescriptions
    • Sweet Sobriety community insights
    • Our mantra of the day: “I am loved and accepted exactly as I am.”

    Listener Homework:
    If this episode stirred something in you, try this:

    • Name one thing you know you “should” do—but don’t.
    • Now list three compassionate reasons why that might be hard.
    • Bonus: What are you already doing that supports your well-being?

    Call to Action:
    ✨ Liked this episode? Help us spread the word!
    🎧 Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform
    🌟 Rate & review if you’re feelin’ generous
    📤 Share it with a friend who needs to know they’re not alone

    💌 Got a question or topic idea? Email us at: asktheshrinks@foodshrinks.com

    The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.

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    21 mins
  • Episode 35: The Fourth Week - Patience, Pain, and the Miracle That Follows
    Jun 24 2025

    In this raw and reflective episode, Molly C, Clarissa, and Molly P dive into the messy, beautiful work of staying with the hard stuff, especially when it would feel easier to bolt. Inspired by Molly C’s bougie pup Danny and his enforced recovery rest, the team explores the emotional equivalent of “week four”: the moment when things feel better, but the healing isn’t finished, and the temptation to return to old habits is loudest.

    💡 Topics We Explore:

    • Why the hardest part of healing often comes right before the miracle
    • Recovery drop-offs and the fear of facing distress
    • Faith, impulsivity, and why divine timing is maddening (and necessary)
    • Learning to tolerate emotional pain without numbing
    • The spiritual act of doing it anyway—even when it’s not pretty
    • Practicing patience and staying present, one breath or brick at a time
    • Why community and connection are non-negotiable in recovery

    💬 Favorite Hot Takes:

    • “You don’t have to do it pretty. You just have to do it.”
    • “The goal of distress tolerance isn’t to feel better. It’s to not feel worse.”
    • “Maybe you’re not seeing the whole quilt—and maybe that’s okay.”
    • “Feeling sad and not numbing it? That’s a miracle.”

    🛠️ Practical Wisdom:

    • Daily grounding for emotional overwhelm
    • Using decision balance sheets in recovery
    • Letting go of judgment to increase distress tolerance
    • How to be someone’s Day 42 companion

    💌 Mentioned in This Episode:

    • The Love Letter, Molly C’s weekly newsletter
    • Sweet Sobriety and the Foundations Program
    • Recovery slogans that still hit (hello, “Don’t quit before the miracle”)

    💖 Closing Reminder:
    You are part of the quilt, even when it doesn’t make sense. Keep showing up. The miracle might be one breath away.

    📬 Questions or feedback?
    Email us anytime at asktheshrinks@foodshrinks.com

    🫶 Love the pod?
    Subscribe, rate us 5 stars, share with your people, and stay for the magic.

    The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.

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    20 mins
  • Episode 34: Body Talk - The Noise, The Anger, The Hope
    Jun 17 2025

    Hey Food Shrinkies — it's Molly C, Clarissa, and Molly P, diving even deeper into the conversation we thought we wrapped up last week. Spoiler: We weren’t done. Not even close.

    Last week, we cracked open the Pandora’s box of body image in recovery — and this week, we’re standing in the storm. Clarissa shares what surfaced for her after playing it “safe” last episode and comes back with fire, truth, and an angry love letter to the body image bullying that’s haunted her for decades. Molly joins with her own mix of sorrow and advocacy, and together, we ask: How do we live with our bodies when the world taught us to live against them?

    In this unfiltered, fiercely honest follow-up, we talk about:

    • The “body noise” that’s louder than the food noise
    • Why anger — not sadness — is sometimes the real breakthrough
    • Saunas, baths, and the quiet terror of being alone in your skin
    • Body grief, eating disorder residue, and the illusion of “thin = loved”
    • Releasing the fantasy of full freedom and embracing the messy middle
    • Body serenity: is it real? is it possible? is it even the point?
    • The shame of being a professional who still struggles
    • How diet culture gaslights our worth and confuses our healing
    • And the Buddhist practice of Tonglen — breathing in the collective pain, breathing out compassion

    This isn’t a “how-to” episode. It’s a “me too” episode.

    Because we don’t have to be done with this to be worthy. We don’t have to win the war to reclaim our skin. We just have to keep talking. Keep telling the truth. Keep holding each other in the struggle.

    💌 Got a question or want to share your own body story? Email us at AskTheShrinks@FoodShrinks.com — we read every word.

    ✨ And if this episode moved you, please:

    • Subscribe wherever you listen
    • Rate & Review (it only takes 3 minutes!)
    • Share it with someone who needs to know they’re not alone

    Together, we breathe through the noise. Together, we reclaim the body as home.

    We love you. We’re with you. Always.

    #FoodShrinksPodcast #BodyImageRecovery #SweetSobriety #RecoveryIsMessy #BodyGrief #TraumaInformedHealing #EatingDisorderRecovery #SoberCurious #EmbodimentMatters

    The content of our show is educational only. It does not supplement or supersede your healthcare provider's professional relationship and direction. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, substance use disorder, or mental health concern.

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    20 mins
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