Here at Insatiable, we’re all about providing the education you need for perimenopause, menopause and aging. I mean, we did a whole season on it, and it's obviously been my own focus since going through early menopause a couple of years ago.

But I'm starting to notice something alarming in terms of what we're not talking about — which is what these hormonal shifts mean for our stress and how this changes what works for our energy after 40.

So this week, we’re diving into the often-overlooked topic of how hormonal shifts in perimenopause and menopause impact our emotional stress resilience.

Because, did you know that the drop in estrogen and progesterone as we age removes a physiological stress buffer for cortisol? This means that the stress we're used to handling might now leave a mark on our energy, mood, and food choices.

So if you’re experiencing stress and food struggles in midlife, tune in to this episode to learn about:

• The exhaustion-fueled cravings cycle that I see with clients
• Why our relationship with food and our relationship with stress go hand-in-hand
• Emotional stress resilience in menopause and beyond
• Stories from the real-life women I support about how to overcome burnout, comparison, and overeating

And if you appreciate this episode, get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration in early April!

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

I love Philip Pape’s approach to health, because everything he teaches is evidence-based.

So today he’s joining me on the podcast to unpack a few “trendy” nutrition and fitness topics like fat loss, muscle building, protein, calorie-counting, satiety, GLP-1s and more!

Join us a we explore what’s really going on with health and weight loss — especially for women over forty. And don’t forget that this spring I’m teaching the first and only live round of Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course, which you can hear more about by getting on my email list here

We discuss:

• Mindset shifts for health over 40
• Why Philip uses the term “fat loss” instead of “weight loss”
• Over-fat vs under-muscled & why that’s a false dichotomy
• Why crash diets don’t work
• How Ali shifted her nutrition through perimenopause and menopause
• Protein’s role in satiety and satisfaction
• Walking vs running and the importance of sleep
• GLP-1s and dieting

More about our guest: Philip Pape is the host of Wits & Weights, a top 1% nutrition podcast where complex science meets real-world results. Known as the Physique Engineer, he combines his engineering background with evidence-based nutrition expertise to help people build stronger, leaner, and healthier bodies without the usual fitness industry confusion. Through his work, Philip proves that transforming your physique doesn't require endless hours in the gym, cardio, or extreme dieting—it just requires working smarter.

Connect with Philip Pape:

• Follow Philip on Instagram @witsandweights
• Get the Muscle-Building Nutrition Blueprint
• Try Wits & Weights Physique University for 14 days and get your first challenge FREE: https://link.fastpaydirect.com/payment-link/679e81b4ea47af97fc12172e
• Listen to this episode of Philip’s podcast for more on this topic: The Most UNDERRATED Fat Loss Secret Making You FATTER (and Sabotaging Muscle Gain Too) | Ep 257

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Today’s episode is with my long-time friend and colleague Sas Petherick. It’s about those times when you want to lose weight… but you also want to love your body.

This is also the beginning of our new Body Series: ongoing conversations about the nuances of being in relationship with our bodies. And today I'm announcing the first live round of my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course, which you can hear more about by getting on my email list!

We discuss:

• Sas’ relationship with her body + illness
• Diet culture as “thin at all costs”
• Feeling peace within our bodies
• Centering strength & health instead of weight loss
• How Sas has changed her eating habits
• Why restriction is different than deprivation
• Doing the “good thing” vs actually feeling good
• Finding satisfaction in our day-to-day
• Letting go of the Weight Watchers “walk of shame”

More about our guest: Sas Petherick believes that healing our self-doubt is one of the most important contributions we can make to ourselves, our families, our work, and the world.

Sas holds a Master's degree from Oxford, and her research on self-doubt was published in the International Journal of Coaching and Mentoring. She has developed an evidence-based, trauma-informed, ICF-accredited coaching methodology for cultivating self-belief.

For over a decade, Sas has coached with hundreds of women experiencing self-doubt in their professional and personal lives. Sas hosts the top 1% rated self-doubt podcast Courage & Spice which has enjoyed over half a million downloads. She is also an accomplished speaker and has developed coaching workshops and programmes for clients like BBC Worldwide and Pinterest. Her writing has appeared in numerous magazines.

After 25 years in the UK, Sas currently lives by the beach in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, with her partner Ash and pooch Bohdi, imagining a post-capitalist world, exploring consciousness, and listening to obscure UFO podcasts.

Connect with Sas Petherick:

• Visits Sas’s website
• Follow Sas on Instagram
• Subscribe to Sas’s newsletter Courage & Spice

Mentioned in this episode:

• That Sugar Film
• Freedom From Cravings Self Study
• Opt in here to be the first to hear about the first live round of my Why Am I Eating This Now? mini-course 

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

2025 has been the longest year ever (already), hasn’t it?

My sleep issues are back. I’m working on HRT shifts. The political climate is chaos. And I just needed to take February to rest.

But the podcast is coming back! I’m here today to let you know that we have a lot of exciting episodes coming up — including a new Body Stories series, an interview with a personal trainer about how to lose weight in mid-life, and minisodes from me about emotional eating and belonging.

Plus! In mid-April I’m launching a Why Am I Eating This Now? mini-course for only $97. Get on my email list to be the first to know when registration opens. And tune back in next week for a new episode!

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

After nearly 300 episodes of the Insatiable Podcast, I know you likely understand food challenges intellectually—now it's time for real change.

Join me, Ali, for a FREE breakthrough session that will transform your relationship with food. 

This Wednesday (Jan. 8th) at noon EST, I'm hosting Stop the Quick Fix Cycle: Why Band-Aid Solutions Make Emotional Eating Worse (and How to Actually Get Results).

In this episode, I briefly address 3 of the things I most often hear from people considering Truce with Food:

1) "I've tried everything" – Learn why emotional safety and belonging are the missing pieces.
2) "I know what works; I just can't stick with it" – Discover how unmet emotional needs, not willpower, affect your consistency.
3) "If there were a solution, I would have found it by now" – See why knowledge isn't enough and why you've been looking in the wrong direction (along with most of the nutrition and fitness industry)

At this free breakthrough session, we'll dive deeper into these three beliefs and you'll hear direcly from past participants who've achieved sustainable and lasting transformation with their relationship to food.

And you'll learn how to set transformational goals (and how they're different from traditional health and weight loss goal setting).

Ready to make this year really different? 

👇 Register below to turn your insights into action 👇

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Hey, Insatiable listeners. Today I’m sharing a conversation I had with Sonia and Kathleen for their podcast Sisters in Sobriety all about food, belonging, and self-awareness during the holiday season.

In this episode, I answer big questions, like:

• How do cultural narratives around food shape our holiday habits?
• What role does food play in our sense of connection?
• How can we honor our health while participating in long-standing traditions?

We also discuss actionable strategies for balancing blood sugar, managing holiday expectations, and identifying emotional triggers that lead to overeating.

I hope this episode can be your a roadmap for mindful eating and resilience during this festive yet often challenging time. Happy holidays!

Hear me on Sisters in Sobriety:

• Emotional Eating & Self-Worth: Ali Shapiro’s Guide to True Food Freedom
• Breaking Free from the Food Guilt Cycle with Ali Shapiro
• Enjoying Food and Staying Balanced During the Holidays with Ali Shapiro

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Ah, sugar…referred to as the sugar dragon, sugar siren, and sugar addiction. There are physical and emotional root causes and solutions of how to reduce sugar in your life.

In this episode, we will discuss:

• Why sugar is so dangerous and yet it comforts us
• 5 easy food swaps and additions to your diet to naturally prevent cravings
• The four emotional triggers that cause sugar cravings and how to work through triggers without sugar

For more support, I recommend my self-study course Freedom from Cravings: https://alishapiro.com/freedom-from-cravings/

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Happy Halloween season, dear Insatiable listeners! As we move toward this sweet-and-spooky holiday, I wanted to share how we approach candy in my household — before, during, and after trick-or-treating.

In this episode, I'll explain the three flexible, biology-rooted rules that guide how I handle sweets for my almost five-year-old son, Eça. I also talk about how I approach candy for myself. Because it isn’t just for kids, and the idea that there’s food for kids and food for adults is just a marketing strategy.

Tune in to hear about:

• Why food “rules” need more nuance
• My 3 principles for candy consumption: blood sugar, immunity, & joy
• How to center joy & belonging in your Halloween traditions
• Moderation as a radical approach
• Our Halloween night protocols
• The challenges of intuitive eating for kids

 
Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 280: What’s Missing From the “Emotional Eating” Conversation with Dr. Deborah MacNamara
• Episode 257: Alcohol, Food, and Body Image: Push Off From Here with Laura McKowen – Insatiable Special Episode
• Episode 234: How to Exercise to Prevent Sugar Cravings with Alisa Vitti
• Episode 233: Quitting Alcohol and Managing Sugar Cravings with Laura McKowen

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Not eating the right foods for our unique bodies creates anxiety. This anxiety shows up as a felt sense of anxiety AND also “needing something more” to eat but not knowing what that is or a general feeling of being unsatisfied with what they just ate.

To help us go into depth and teach us about this sugar-anxiety feedback loop, I’ve invited a holistic psychiatrist and my friend Dr. Ellen Vora onto the show. In this episode, we will discuss:

• Real and false anxiety
• How and why sugar creates anxiety
• Clean eating versus nutrient-dense foods
• Dr. Vora’s top foods to add in for reducing anxiety and sugar in one’s diet
• Caffeine’s role in anxiety and how to end your coffee habit

 
Mentioned in this episode:

• Read Dr. Vora's book, The Anatomy of Anxiety
• Ali’s Breakfast Experiment

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

I’ve shared on the show before that starting menopause radically changed my body. And we’ve talked about how hard it is to find smart, supportive, and true information about health, hormones, and HRT in midlife.

But now there is finally a book that shares everything I wish I knew five years ago! And I’m thrilled to talk about it with the authors today.

In this episode, I’m joined by Kristin Johnson and Maria Claps of Wise and Well, who wrote The Great Menopause Myth: The Truth on Mastering Midlife Hormonal Mayhem, Beating Uncomfortable Symptoms, and Aging to Thrive.

We discuss:

• How health declines during menopause
• The impacts of hormone loss as we age
• Deciding if HRT is right for you
• How to prepare yourself for HRT & manage your expectations
• Why you might need a new doctor in mid-life
• Weight loss during menopause
• The relationship between stress & weight gain
• Why “you have to pick your hormones or your alcohol”
• The importance of critical thinking & self-advocacy
• Why you probably don’t need to be on DIM

More about our guests: Maria, an FDN practitioner, and Kristin, an NTP Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition, are plainspoken friends and practitioners who share a passion for women's health, especially women's health at midlife. They are the authors of the widely acclaimed book "The Great Menopause Myth", a comprehensive, science based, yet easy to read guide for women who want their best chances at healthy longevity. As both are themselves menopausal, they've refined the art and science of thriving as a midlife woman based on both clinical and personal experience. They combine individualized nutrition and lifestyle changes tailored to midlife women's needs with mindset coaching, lab testing and hormone replacement therapy education to help women thrive so that they can stop or prevent their health from spinning out of control.

Connect with Kristin & Maria:

• Get The Great Menopause Myth
• Learn more about Wise and Well
• Explore the Mastering Midlife Mentorship

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.

Too many of us feel like we have to go it alone with food. We put so much work into trying to lose weight and get healthy, but we just end up feeling isolated and ashamed.

In this episode, I’m joined by my clients Ginny and Isis to talk about why all of us (even the “bad joiners”!) need community support to heal our food triggers, and how working alongside other people can improve our self-awareness, self-talk, and self-esteem.

This is part two of a conversation about the transformations Ginny and Isis experienced in my program Why Am I Eating This Now?.

Tune in to hear us discuss:

• Why even “bad joiners” need community
• Self-monitoring vs self-awareness
• The ways Why Am I Eating This Now? can support weight loss
• How to satisfy your food noise triggers without food
• Why you are not your coping strategies
• Isis’ Ozempic experience
• What you can expect if you join Why Am I Eating This Now? this fall

 
And if you love this episode, make sure sign up for my free masterclass that’s happening tomorrow!

 
Mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 278: How to Better Understand Stress with Andrea Nakayama, Functional Medicine Nutritionist and Educator
• Food Freedom 2: Feel In Control, Not Controlled By Food
• Episode 280: What’s Missing From the “Emotional Eating” Conversation with Dr. Deborah MacNamara

Send me (Ali) a text message.

🌟 Want to start to implement some of these emotional eating insights and tips into your real life? Get on my list to be the first to know when my Your Emotional Eating Blueprint: Why Am I Eating This Now? course is open for registration.