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.

I Thought I Had to Earn the Right to Eat

As I was standing in line at my favorite bakery following a Sunday morning run, the woman next to me exclaimed:

Well, you certainly deserve a pastry! You've earned it!

Years ago, when I was entrenched in diet culture, I would have completely agreed with her.

Back then, I believed in order to enjoy a scone, muffin or cinnamon roll, I had to earn the right to, usually by eating “clean” and exercising excessively.

It was only after consuming many bunches of greens and running many sweaty miles, that I’d give myself permission to sink my teeth into a buttery baked good without feeling guilty or ashamed. I had worked hard for it!

Earning the Right to Eat
Do you ever feel like you have to earn the right to eat something in particular or to eat at all? Do you question whether or not you deserve to? 

It often looks something like this:

• I had a big lunch at the restaurant so I shouldn’t eat much for dinner, even though I’m really hungry.

• I going to diet for the next few weeks so I can eat whatever I want on vacation.

• With a body like mine, I don’t deserve to eat what I actually want.

• I had a really hard day today; I've earned this ice cream!

• I really overdid it on the holiday candy, so no dessert for me this week.

• Since I skipped my workout this morning, carbs are off-limits today.

• As long as I eat good during the week, then I'm allowed to eat anything I want on the weekend.

• I’m celebrating my birthday tonight so I need to burn some serious calories at the gym this morning.

An Oppressive Belief System
Our diet culture’s “earn it and burn it” mindset is damaging and dangerous.

It fuels the diet mentality, drives disordered eating and, ultimately, negatively impacts your physical, mental, emotional and social health.

The idea that you have to earn the right to eat is an oppressive belief system created by diet culture. It causes you to obsess about what you shouldn’t eat and punish yourself for your "bad" choices rather than trust your inherent ability to nourish yourself.

You Deserve to Eat—No Matter What
There is nothing in the world that makes you unworthy of food.

Despite what diet culture wants you to believe, your eating does not have to be earned or paid for. 

You have the right to consume whatever you want, whenever you want and however much you want. 

You have the right to eat what looks good, tastes good and feels good in your body.

You deserve to eat without judgment, guilt or shame.

You deserve to eat without justifying, questioning, monitoring, moralizing, counting and compensating.

You deserve to eat with ease, freedom and gusto.

You deserve to eat no matter what.

It's your birthright.

Innate Capacity to Trust Your Body
Like all humans, you were born with the innate capacity to trust your body, your appetite, your instincts and your desires.

Diet culture disconnects you from this inner knowing. But you can reclaim it.

You can start by noticing when you question if you've earned the right to eat or if you deserve to eat. When that voice in your head pops up, hit the brakes and challenge your thinking.

Ask yourself: Where did this belief come from? Is it true? Is it based on my inner cues or external rules? Is it helpful or harmful? Is it driving a fraught, disordered relationship with food or a peaceful, trusting, pleasurable one? 

This type of self-inquiry will help you free yourself from our toxic diet culture and empower you to reclaim your ability to eat intuitively so you can spend your time, energy and headspace on more fulfilling, meaningful pursuits.

Josie's Hit Diet Rock Bottom. Have You, Too?

Josie has been dieting for more than 20 years.

At the age of 11, she went on her first diet. She’s been riding the dieting roller coaster ever since.

Over the years, she’s tried dozens of plans and programs, some of them multiple times.

She can easily rattle off the number of calories, points and carbs in hundreds of different foods.

Again and again, she’s felt the euphoria that comes with weight loss—and the shame that accompanies rebound weight gain.

When friends, co-workers and celebrities have raved about their new diet, she’s always jumped on board believing “This might finally be the one!”

Lately, however, she just can’t muster up her usual enthusiasm.

She’ll start a new diet then abandon it after a week or two.

Her decades of yo-yo dieting have left her feeling frustrated, exhausted, depressed and hopeless—and like a huge failure.

Josie's ready to throw her hands up in the air.

She's finally hit diet rock bottom.

Hitting Diet Rock Bottom
Although she’s unhappy with her weight, Josie can’t stand the thought of going on another diet.

She can’t stomach one more Last Supper, one more Monday of starting over, one more list of good and bad foods.

She’s burned out on tracking, counting, measuring and weighing.

She’s sick of letting her bathroom scale dictate her mood, her behavior and how her day unfolds.

So much of her life, she feels, has been wasted obsessing over every bite, feeling guilty about her choices and strategizing how she can make up for her food sins.

Josie’s tired of packing her own food to take to social gatherings and being preoccupied at parties by all the food she’s not allowed to eat but really, really wants.

She’s sad about how many events she’s skipped because she feared falling off the wagon or didn’t like how she looked.

After decades of being told what to eat, Josie doesn’t even know what she likes anymore.

She eats what she thinks she should, which often leaves her feeling unsatisfied and, understandably, scrounging for more food.

Her long list of food rules has sucked all the joy and pleasure out of eating.

The more she deprives herself, the more she finds herself eating in secret and bingeing on all her forbidden foods.

Many foods are banned from her house because she simply doesn’t trust herself with them.

Josie’s tired of denying her cravings, sneaking food, swinging from restricting to bingeing, and feeling out of control and ashamed.

She’s flat out dieted-out.

No matter how tempting the latest diet may sound, she now knows all too well that it will not improve her relationship with food and her body—it will only make it worse.

Yet, she doesn’t know what to do. For most of her life, all she’s known is dieting.

Sound Familiar?
If any of this sounds familiar, you’ve likely hit diet bottom, too.

Please know, you’re not alone.

I’ve heard hundreds of stories like Josie’s over the years.

And while you might feel like you’re stuck and at a dead end, you’re not.

There is another way; it's called Intuitive Eating.

Intuitive Eating isn't a plan or program but rather a set of guideposts that lead you back to the intuitive eater you can into this world as before diet culture disconnected you from your innate wisdom. 

It's about rejecting the diet mentality and trusting your body's inner cues (e.g., hunger, fullness, pleasure, satisfaction) to guide your eating instead of external rules.

By putting the same effort you put into dieting toward getting out of it, you can cultivate a more peaceful, trusting and roller coaster-free relationship with food and your body.

I don't have any magical powers. Neither do my clients. If we can reclaim our ability to eat intuitively, so can you.