What Does It Actually Mean to Be Mentally Healthy? | Yakira Apfel)

In this episode, Yakira Apfel — fitness studio owner and mom of four — opens up about a road

that wasn't always visible from the outside. She talks about the eating disorder that took root in

seventh grade and followed her into seminary, the shame of wondering if what she went through

was even "real enough" to count, and the honest admission that she didn't get help until years

later. She's candid about postpartum anxiety, a decade of hypochondria, and what it actually

took to come back to herself — including the role movement and purpose played in pulling her

out of it.

We also go into her religious journey — how becoming a mother reshaped her relationship with

observance, the moment her family was turned away from a school over a single photo, the

quiet grief of being judged on appearance instead of character, and what it meant to finally set

down something she'd been carrying for years.

By the end, Yakira lands on what she calls mental agility: not the absence of struggle, but the

capacity to actually feel the hard stuff — the anger, the grief, the fear — and come back from it.

A raw, honest conversation about eating disorders, motherhood, faith, and learning to trust

yourself.