What I'm Tuning Into...

From time to time, I like to share what I’m tuning into when it comes to diet culture, body diversity, Intuitive Eating, Health at Every Size and more.

It’s my hope that the following content, which comes from a diverse range of voices, will help support you on your journey toward a more peaceful relationship with food and your body.


>>WATCH

Your Body Has Survived a Pandemic. Don’t Punish It With Diet Fads. [New York Times]
“[The diet industry is] simply preying on our insecurities at a particularly vulnerable time as we re-emerge into society and propagating the age-old myth that weight is the best measure of someone’s health. If there was ever a time that we should be kind to ourselves and to others—especially about our bodies—that would be now.”

All Bodies on Bikes [YouTube]
The stars of this inspiring video are on a mission to change the idea that people in larger bodies can’t ride bikes. To learn more about this empowering duo, head on over to here. [Canadian Cycling Magazine]


>>READ AND LISTEN

The Majority of Women in America Have Disordered Eating [Good Housekeeping]
From counting macros and compensating for your eating to limiting the number of hours you allow yourself to eat, here are some signs that you may have a disordered relationship with food.

Although I’m not a fan of Good Housekeeping’s long history of publishing weight-stigmatizing content, I do appreciate the magazine’s new “Anti-Diet Series” and encourage you to check it out.

A Letter to Anyone Feeling the Pressure to Lose the ‘Quarantine 15’ [Self]
“The changes in your body are not a marker of your failure, but of your survival. Whatever your body looks like now, it is a body that has carried you through a time of tremendous tragedy, now to a point where we might finally be able to see glimmers of hope from the other side. And that matters so much more than weight gain ever could.”

I’m a big fan of all of Aubrey Gordon’s (aka Your Fat Friend) work and highly recommend her book, articles and podcast.

We are All Fragile Creatures: The Manufactured Moral Panic of a Free Krispy Kreme Doughnut [Roxane Gay, The Audacity]
"The real health crisis this country is facing is not fatness or free doughnuts or pandemic weight gain or any such nonsense. The real crisis is that we live in a country where tens of millions of people politicized wearing face masks, and made surviving a modern plague a matter of the survival of the fittest and sheer luck.”

Husky Boy [Vox Populi]
It’s not very often that men openly talk about their experience of living in a fat body. In this touching post, Andrew Reginald Hairston shares his journey towards body acceptance.

How Writing a Comfort Food Cookbook Helped Me Break Free from Diet Culture [Bon Appetit]
Julia Turshen shares how she had limited her range of emotions to just two options. “It hit me one day like a splash of cold water in the face. I had only ever felt two things in my life: happy or fat. Little did I know that ‘fat’ wasn’t even a feeling.”

I also love Turshen’s podcast, especially the episodes with Intuitive Eating Co-Creator Evelyn Tribole (#53), Chef Vivian Howard (#46), and Author Aubrey Gordon (#50).


I hope you find these recommendations to be helpful, insightful and inspiring. May you always remember that your body is a celebration of your survival.

It's Okay If I Eat This Because We're in a Pandemic

Does the following sound familiar?

“I’m letting myself eat whatever I want right now because we’re experiencing a global crisis. But once this is over, I’m not going to eat this way anymore.”

If you can relate to this, it’s completely understandable. It’s how diet culture has conditioned us to think.

Only Under Special Circumstances
Diet culture tells us we’re only allowed to eat certain foods under special circumstances.

It makes us believe that it’s okay to eat cake at a weekend birthday party but not on a regular ol’ Tuesday.

It drives us to think we can eat whatever we want on vacation as long as we get back on track once we’re home.

It tells us we can eat our forbidden "bad" foods during a pandemic, yet they must become off-limits again once it passes.

And, it's all a bunch of B.S. The truth is:

You have the right to eat all the available chips, cookies, brownies and bread you desire today—and every day of the year.

You don’t need a special reason, other than it’s what you want.

Diet Mentality vs. Non-Diet Mentality
If you’re feeling the need to justify your food choices during this challenging time (or at any time), you’re likely operating from a deeply ingrained diet mentality—one that includes a lot of rules and beliefs regarding what’s okay and not okay when it comes to eating.

Your experience is much different than if you’re operating from a non-diet mentality—that is, if you’re eating intuitively.

If you’re an Intuitive Eater, you truly know you have unconditional permission to eat whatever you want, whenever you want and however much you want (of course, depending on what food is currently accessible to you).

You don’t feel the need to give yourself special permission to eat certain foods during certain times because you know you can eat them anytime they’re available.

As a result, you don’t have a pandemic permission list.

It’s Okay Now—and Later
If your eating feels off-kilter right now, I encourage you to have compassion for yourself. The entire world is off-kilter right now, so it makes sense that your eating would feel this way too.

If you find yourself thinking “It’s okay if I eat this because we’re in a pandemic,” you are right. It is absolutely okay.

If you want to move toward greater peace, ease and freedom with your eating, you can start by following this thought with “It’s also okay for me to eat this when we’re not in a pandemic.” Because it is.