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.

Have You Ever Fallen Into the One-Last-Diet Trap?

Have you ever fallen into the one-last-diet trap?

It looks something like this:

• I’ll just do this one last diet, lose the weight for good, and then I’ll deal with my food issues.

• Even though I always gain the weight back, I have a strong feeling that this diet will be different.

• I’ve sworn off dieting, but so many of my friends are raving about this new program, I think I’ll give it a try.

• I’m going to be really good this time so this will be the last diet I’ll ever need to do.

• Let me just lose some quick pounds so I can leave dieting behind and start focusing on dating and job hunting.

• This program isn't a diet; it's a lifestyle change, even though it requires cutting out a bunch of foods and weighing myself daily.

Ignores the Facts
While the desire to lose weight is completely understandable given our weight-stigmatizing culture and its obsession with unrealistic body standards and tendency to equate thinness with health and moral virtue, falling into the one-last-diet trap ignores the fact that diets don’t work for most people.

There is not one study that shows that any intentional weight loss program leads to long-term weight loss.

Instead, research has found that 95 percent of dieters eventually regain the weight they lost and up to two-thirds gain back more than they lost.

Different Diet, Same Results
Rebound weight gain is not due to a lack of willpower, poor self-discipline or following the wrong diet.

Your body isn’t wired for restriction. It’s wired for survival.

Regardless of what diet, lifestyle or wellness plan you're doing, when you deprive your body of food, it thinks it’s being subjected to a famine and will do everything it can to survive. This includes triggering numerous compensatory processes, such as hormonal changes that increase appetite and decrease metabolism.

Although it may not feel like it, your body is trying to protect you.

Be Informed, Be Honest
As I said, the desire to diet and lose weight is completely understandable.

However, I think it’s critical that before embarking on yet another diet, you are fully informed of ALL the potential outcomes—especially all the stuff the diet ads and success stories don’t warn you about.

I also think it’s important to be really honest with yourself when it comes to your own personal experience with dieting and other forms of food restriction.

Would you describe it as successful, even if you regained the weight?

How has it affected you physically, mentally, emotionally and socially?

How has it impacted your relationship with food and your body?

How much of your time, energy, headspace and money has it wasted?

Is it truly aligned with what you value the most in your life?

When you reflect on your dieting history, you'll likely see all the more clearly how futile and harmful dieting can be. This is such helpful information to remember the next time you're tempted to try one last diet. 

Dieting Won’t Bring You Peace
If you want a peaceful relationship with food and your body, it can’t be achieved through dieting. If anything, dieting will only exacerbate your challenges.

Rather than put all your energy toward depriving yourself for a short-term result with potentially negative side effects, what if you put it towards healing your relationship with food and your body so you can avoid the traps and get off the dieting roller coaster once and for all?

What if You Resolved to Do This in 2021?

Happy New Year!

Whether or not you like to make New Year’s resolutions, here’s one intention for the coming year you may want to consider.

Resolve to be kind to your body.

Really, truly kind.

Here’s what body kindness might look like:

• Rejuvenating your body with abundant rest and sleep.

• Moving your body in a joyful way and breaking free from your Exercise Police (no punishing, painful or compensatory workouts).

• Speaking to your body—and about your body—with respect, appreciation, compassion and tenderness.

• Stepping off the dieting roller coaster and away from the physical and physiological harm dieting can cause.

• Listening to and honoring your body’s needs and desires, including its hunger and fullness cues (versus following external eating rules).

• Eating foods that satisfy your body’s need for both nourishment and pleasure.

• Wearing clothes that you love and comfortably fit your here-and-now body.

• Immersing your body in nature, nourishing it with sunshine and fresh air.

• Relaxing your body with deep breathing, stretching, meditation, a massage, a bubble bath, calming music or other soothing activities.

• Thanking your body every day for everything it does for you (like breathing!).

How Would Your Life Change?
I encourage you to reflect on what body kindness means to you and how your life would change if you were kinder to your body.

And, I invite you to consider that your body is a celebration of your survival and it wants more than anything to be your partner throughout this life journey.