Food Freedom Through Christ

Holy Week and Pascha are some of the most intense days of fasting (and feasting) in the Orthodox Church. In this episode, Krista explores the range of ways we experience hunger and fullness, offers us teachings from the saints, and gives us the hunger/fullness scale as a tool to help us take an embodied and intentional approach to the fast and feast.

In this episode, Krista explores the character of lenten food noise (a constant monologue of thought about food) and how to respond to it by keeping the spirit of the fast, and by transforming the monologue with ourselves into dialogue with God, aka prayer.

In this episode, Krista highlights everyday practices – such as singing, breathing, praying, and acts of forgiveness and gratitude – that tone the vagus nerve, reduce stress, and strengthen the mind-body connection.

In this first episode of a series on Embodiment in Lent, Krista reviews the definition of embodiment, why it's important for Christians to practice embodiment, and what can disrupt our body attunement. She then offers a revised definition of embodiment: the practice of returning to self, to reconnect with God, in my body.

In this episode, Krista reflects on the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, and how we seek to cleanse ourselves to be temples of God. She connects this to food and eating “clean,” the harm of "orthorexia," and the way the Church helps us to reframe this pursuit of cleansing & healing.

We end our series on feasting by talking about a very particular kind of feast. The wedding feast can teach us how to feast well in community, by connecting to Christ and others through hospitality, fellowship, and participation in a Holy Sacrament. Krista also discusses her new book published through Ancient Faith: Crowned: An Orthodox Christian Wedding Guide.

In this episode, Krista hosts Cynthia Damaskos and Molly Sabourin from Ancient Faith’s Filled with Less to introduce their new program offering: Back to Basics. We talk about the process of rediscovering the joy of cooking, celebrating the art of eating, and the power of community. You can learn more and sign up for their 10-week program here: https://www.filledwithless.com/b2b. Use the code FOODFREEDOM at checkout for a discount!

As we continue our journey through the 40 day festal period following Great and Holy Pascha, we do our best to keep the feast! This episode explores how the Divine Liturgy can teach us how to do so.

Feasting is not the opposite of fasting, but a most joyful application of the fruits of our Lenten spiritual efforts! Take what you have cultivated during the fast, and feast with joy by following these 5 tips.

In today's episode, Krista addresses one of the most common topic requests she's received since beginning this podcast series: how to fast with food allergies. She walks through three main considerations: spiritual guidance, nutritional balance, and keeping the spirit of the fast.

It's easy to fall into the "last supper mentality" before Lent -- eating all we can before the fast begins! This episode will cover what characterizes this mindset, how it can be harmful, and how to avoid it, so that we can more fully enter into the Great Fast, and find communion with God.

We take inspiration from a passage in the book "The Hiding Place," as well as the teachings of St. John Chrysostom and St. Maria of Paris, to consider the integration of fasting and almsgiving during Advent.

In this episode, Krista speaks about the physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of family meal time, and ways to avoid "distorting" this act of love, as laid out by Matthew the Poor.

"And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'" Jesus shows us that children have something that we need; they have something to teach us. In today's episode, we explore how children's innate ability to trust can help us with our own relationship to food and our bodies.

The typical summer change in routine can cause us to lose our spiritual focus. But for the first two weeks in August, the Church gives us a beautiful gift: the Dormition Fast! Here lies an opportunity to reorient ourselves toward Christ and His mother, the Mother of Life. In this episode, Krista offers some encouragement and nutrition tips for observing the Dormition Fast.

In today's episode, we discuss the "no eating after 8 p.m." rule, the self-proposed cut-off point for eating at night. We'll discuss why we might follow it, what ways it might be helpful and unhelpful, how we can redeem it in light of the Eucharistic fast prescribed by the Orthodox Church, and what to do instead.

In today's episode, we break down the clean your plate rule, the common automatic habit of eating everything on our plates. We'll discuss what it is, why we might follow it, what ways it might be unhelpful, both physically and spiritually, and how to combat it.

In this episode, Krista offers a three-part reflection on Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha. How have our hearts changed during Lent? How can we stay well nourished during a busy Holy Week? And what can we do to maintain a joyful Bright Week? What do we do if we overeat on Pascha?

In this episode, Krista Fedorchak unpacks the differences between the fasting mindset and the dieting mindset, so we can better understand and approach this ancient Christian discipline within the context of our current society's understanding of dieting.

In recognition of all the New Year's resolutions or intentions that may be set this year, today’s episode will focus on staying on track with your goals, and what the Orthodox Church offers us to help us in our efforts.

This episode continues the discussion around sweets and how to reintroduce them after Advent. Do you feel out of control around sugar? Is Christmas Day consumed with thoughts about how many cookies you’ve already had, and how many more you should allow yourself to have? Does your feasting plate come with a heaping side of guilt? If so, this episode offers three ideas for reorienting our celebration of the Nativity, and recapturing the joy of the Incarnation.

One of the most common fasting challenges we hear about during the Nativity fast is how to handle all the sweets! This episode discusses how to treat these sweets, how we might incorporate them into our celebrations with a fasting spirit, and what might help us fast from them so that we can prepare our hearts for the upcoming feast of the Nativity of Christ.

Many may enjoy a special dispensation to eat meat on Thanksgiving day, so Krista gives her top 5 tips for keeping the spirit of the fast on this joyous day.

People use the words “good” and “bad” to describe food all the time, usually in reference to a food’s nutritional value. But when viewed as a gift from God, all food has the potential to be good food. Listen to expand your definition of “good food.”

In this introduction to her new podcast, Krista explains how fractures in our relationship to food and our bodies can separate us from God. She also outlines the goals of the podcast, the most important of which is to help listeners cultivate peace with food.