Food rules, pop culture messaging, pressure, and the demonization of certain foods have huge impacts on the meals being eaten every day across the US. There is a better way to ensure we get the nutrition we need without beating ourselves up over the meals we eat. Dalina Soto, Your Latina Nutritionist, joins us for this eye-opening conversation. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Including your culture is an important part of nutrition.
• Racial bias, demonized foods (like white rice), and pop culture messaging
• Food IS fuel—but there’s more to it than nutrition!
• Rethinking your nutritional hierarchy
• Decision-making fatigue in meal planning 
• Reevaluating the “food rules” we follow
• The “eating out” vs. “buying more groceries” dilemma for American families
• Dalina’s top tips for quick meals and easy hacks (An air fryer saves the day!)
• We, as women, put much of the pressure around nutrition on ourselves.
• Dealing with kids: the key is to keep offering new fruits and vegetables
• The beauty in finding a good nutritionist who doesn’t demonize cultural foods
• Dalina’s new book, coming in March: The Latina Anti-Diet

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dalina Soto: TikTok, Website, and The Latina Anti-Diet book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where can you turn when a loved one is in the throes of addiction and needs help? How do you know what professionals to trust and if a treatment center is reputable? So many questions surround the topic of addiction treatment, and it’s a murky industry. We are discussing the seedy underbelly of the addiction industry with my guest. Heidi Voet, LPC, is a longtime mental health professional and the owner of Chapter House Counseling and Sober Living. Heidi and I take on this important topic and explain why, despite the problems, we would still send a loved one into treatment. Join us to learn more!

Show Highlights:

• Heidi’s take on the ugliness of the treatment industry
• Understanding the medical model of treatment vs. the community model
• 12-step programs, legalism, insurance corruption, and integrity
• The truth: Exploitation has bled into addiction treatment.
• The real dilemma for family members
• The struggle for political correctness while trying to intervene for an addict
• Heidi’s advice to families who want to intervene:
• Don’t intervene too fast. 
• Find the lowest level of appropriate care (think of a ladder of options).
• Be wise and ask questions of the consultant, case manager, or interventionist. (“Are you on the payroll of a treatment center?”)
• Speak to current clients, alumni, and families of the center.
• Red flags in your interaction with a treatment center and helpful questions to ask
• The need to consider gender-specific treatment
• Why KC would never recommend a wilderness treatment center
• Assessing a center’s approach to trauma, medications, and religious philosophies/affiliations

Resources and Links:

Connect with Heidi Voet and Chapter House Counseling: Website

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sensory health goes far beyond discomfort with a scratchy fabric or loud noises. If you are not familiar with sensory health, this episode will be full of new concepts and revelations for you. You WILL realize how important sensory health is for each of us! My guest is Virginia Spielmann, an occupational therapist who did a TEDx Talk on this topic. She explains sensory health, why it’s important, and how it matters in every area of life. Join us to learn more!

Show Highlights:

• Virginia’s background and journey to her work today
• Sensory health: “how” we feel, what we do with it, and why it connects to everything about our psychological well-being
• Understanding sensory health as the bridge between mental and physical health
• Active lifestyles and exercise don’t look the same for everyone.
• Differences in sensory processing
• How we unintentionally gaslight our kids’ sensory reactions
• The importance of being curious as a parent
• Finding a balance between accommodating and exposure/growth
• Understanding systematic desensitization
• Comfort AND challenge—not comfort OR challenge
• The #1 intervention for improved mental health? Dance and other forms of big play
• An overview of the STAR Institute’s programs, services, and events

Resources and Links:

Connect with Virginia Spielmann and the STAR Institute: Website and TEDx Talk

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the second part to my conversation with Dr. Karla Lester about food shaming, weight bias, metabolic diseases, “almond moms,” and more. Dr. Karla lends her professional expertise to the discussion of these important topics. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• The effect of “almond mom” parenting on kids: food shaming, eating disorders, and more
• The start of binge eating disorder in very young kids
• Guarding against “opposite” mistakes with your kids in making good food choices
• From KC, a parent’s perspective on food choices and neurodivergent kids
• A switch from compliance to compassion
• The goal in feeding kids should start with a focus on intentional, daily protein intake (Start with protein at breakfast!)
• Aim for habit change in a positive direction.
• Understanding “food noise” and what it means to bust common food myths
• Dr. Karla’s advice to parents: “Get to neutral.”
• Red flags for parents to look for in their kids’ food behaviors
• Responding as a parent to your child’s weight gain/loss
• The truth about insulin resistance: “It is an epidemic that we cannot ignore!”
• Understanding the term healthism

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Karla Lester: IME Community, Dr. Karla, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Dr. Karla's radio show

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s topic arouses a host of different feelings and reactions around the term “pediatric obesity.” Dr. Karla Lester joins us to share her expertise as a medical professional and her perspective as a concerned parent. Discussing food and eating habits for us and our kids can send us down a rabbit hole with many tangents. Let’s get some balance and clarity in today’s episode.

Show Highlights:

• Parents are victims of diet myths and bad science—and it carries over to our kids.
• Having food rules doesn’t mean a commitment to restrictive eating.
• How Dr. Karla came to the work she does today
• “Almond moms” and “thin privilege” in our society
• Fact: It is more difficult to navigate the world in a larger body, and parents fear this for their kids.
• Health myths that “almond moms” believe and pass on to their kids
• Does thinner always mean healthy? “No, you can be metabolically healthy, or unhealthy, at any weight.”
• Comorbidities between addictions and eating disorders
• Myths about obesity causing many health issues
• Understanding insulin resistance and its causes
• A look at the COVID-19 epidemic in a different light

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Karla Lester: IME Community, Dr. Karla, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Dr. Karla's radio show

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a lighthearted episode–because we all can use a break from all the heaviness around us. I’m welcoming Caroline, “The Niche Tea Lady,” to the show. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Understanding “niche tea”
• Caroline’s favorite story of niche tea: the amazing tale of two birders
• The biggest plot twist in a niche tea deep dive
• Memorable niche tea surprise endings
• Pyramids, video games, and the nuances of content creation
• Everyone loves an underdog story!
• “Discords” and weirdo behavior
• The funniest niche tea in Caroline’s experience: a published back-and-forth between two high-level academics
• The most viral niche tea stories in Caroline’s experience: birding and beekeeping

Resources and Links:

Connect with Caroline: TikTok, X, Instagram, and YouTube

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social anxiety is an interesting topic. Natasha Daniels is a social anxiety therapist and mom who joined us recently to discuss OCD and kids; today, we are exploring another form of anxiety as Natasha helps us understand social anxiety. She wrote a memoir, Out of My Shell, detailing her personal experience. 

Show Highlights:

• Natasha’s background, personal experience, and book about social anxiety
• The neuro-divergent affirming movement
• The difference between social anxiety and introversion
• Do we ALL have some degree of social anxiety?
• Thoughts on “bed rot,” social anxiety, and what’s “normal”
• Social anxiety as a defense mechanism
• The isolation that comes with social anxiety
• OCD, social anxiety, and autism—a common connection?
• “A paralyzing fear of others’ perceptions and a preoccupation with managing those perceptions”
• The difference between a defense mechanism and a personality trait
• An overview of Natasha’s experience with social anxiety and why she wrote her book
• Social anxiety is NOT a self-esteem issue.
• Outsmarting the negative critic in your head
• Dr. Kristin Neff’s concept of “fierce self-compassion,” which is “a feistiness of advocacy”

Resources and Links:

Future Fans:Helping little kids become BIG fans

Connect with Natasha Daniels: Website (and book) and Instagram

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s topic carries a degree of sensitivity, so consider this a trigger warning if you are sensitive to discussions about sexual assault and sexual harassment. Our focus is on how universities and workplaces are dealing with these issues–and how they can do it better. My guest is Nicole Bedera, a sociologist and author with a Ph.D. Her upcoming debut book is On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Predators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence.

Show Highlights:

• Nicole’s background as a victim advocate in the criminal justice system
• College as the entry point into an adulthood of privilege for perpetrators of violence
• The biggest challenges for universities regarding sexual violence
• Title IX: where it all began in 1980
• Punishing perpetrators AND meeting the needs of survivors—can we do both?
• Power, punishment, and consequences
• Nicole’s surprise when she dug deeper into sexual assault cases
• The myth: Sexual violence only happens from evil men.
• White supremacy history and sexual assault
• Barriers to justice and societal norms
• The truth: Perpetrators rarely change their behavior.
• The research shows that a lot of men will stop perpetrating IF they know there will be negative consequences.
• There is little accountability on college campuses for perpetrators.
• The need to create safe spaces for survivors over perpetrators
• The Brett Kavanaugh scenario
• What we CAN fix to have huge ripple effects

Resources and Links:

Connect with Dr. Nicole Bedera: Website, Twitter, and On the Wrong Side book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if our cities were designed with children participating in the process? What they would prioritize might surprise us all! My guest, Mara Mintzer, did a TEDx talk on the topic of including children in the city planning process, and she’s been involved in this kind of unique child-friendly endeavor in Boulder, Colorado, as the co-founder and Executive Director of Growing Up Boulder. Join us as we take a look at this topic!

Show Highlights:

• Mara’s background and current role in Boulder, CO
• Public spaces aren’t often designed for children (and mothers).
• The United Nations guidelines for human rights for those under 18 years of age
• Wisdom from the tiniest voices about slowing down, enjoying the world around us, and noticing our experiences on life’s journey
• The Nature Everywhere Initiative in cities across the US
• Are we supporting kids’ development with our public spaces?
• The value in having culturally relevant third spaces for kids
• What would a teen-friendly park look like?
• Hearing the voices of many diverse groups that have been traditionally excluded
• Feedback from people about what they want in their communities
• Promoting involvement from kids to understand their issues and craft workable solutions
• A few unexpected things that kids want in their spaces
• The dilemma for parents in kid-friendly restaurants with “adult food” AND “kid food”
• More relaxed parenting in other countries and better work-life balance
• 
  

Resources and Links:

Connect with Mara Mintzer: Growing Up Boulder

Mentioned in this episode: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Returning to school as a neurodivergent adult brings unique challenges, and we are discussing all aspects of this topic in today’s episode. I’m joined by “The Neuro-Spicy Student,” Amber, to share her experience and perspective on this topic. Join us!

Show Highlights:

• Amber’s “alphabet soup” of diagnoses, misdiagnoses, and disabilities
• Amber’s childhood experience in school
• Two sides of the coin for most neurodivergent students
• Amber’s story of multiple attempts at college and (finally) earning multiple degrees
• Internal barriers in returning to school as an adult
• A common experience for adults with ADHD: Learning and learning and learning—without formal degrees to show for it
• Differences in going to school as an older student with accommodations
• Finding empowerment in advocating for yourself–and healing your younger self
• Specific accommodations you can ask for in college
• Amber’s parting words for listeners considering a return to school

Resources and Links:

Connect with Amber: LinkedIn

Explore more from The Neuro-Spicy Student: Linktree

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How are your fighting skills? Most couples could use a LOT of work in this area, and I have just the person to help us! I’m thrilled to be joined by a great friend, Lindley Gentile, for today’s episode. She’s a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who recently wrote an ebook titled, How to Have the Best Fight of Your Life. Listen to our conversation about this thought-provoking topic and learn why looking for right and wrong is the WORST way to handle conflict. 

Show Highlights:

• Lindley’s motivation to write this book? Because many (most!) couples seek therapy around communication issues
• Fighting well leads to being seen well.
• The need to uplevel your fighting skill set beyond being “right or wrong”
• Ways in which we are fighting wrong
• Making the shift from arguing about who’s right to witnessing one another
• The fable of the elephant can teach us about being open to another’s experience.
• The value of “I” statements over “You” statements
• Withdrawing physically and emotionally during conflict vs. the skill of asking for a pause
• Fight, flight, or freeze
• The WWC framework: witness, witness, and collaborate

Resources and Links:

Connect with Lindley Gentile and Austin Couples Concierge: Website, Instagram, and book

Connect with KC: Website, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook

Get KC’s book, How to Keep House While Drowning

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: www.strugglecare.com/promo-codes.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices