Episode #99: Health, Liberty and Happiness Are for All Sizes With Ragen Chastain

Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, trained researcher, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in Weight Science, Weight Stigma, and Weight-Neutral Health.

On the podcast, Ragen shares her discovery that diets don’t lead to long-term weight loss. She shares the pivotal moment when she knew she couldn’t just be a fat dancer, she had to be a fat activist, why healthism can’t ever excuse fatphobia, how diet culture has hijacked health and healthcare, the history of BMI, and why we all need to challenge the assumption that poor health has to do with being in a big body. 

Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon, and co-founded the Fit Fatties Facebook group which has over 11,000 members. Ragen lives in LA with her fiancée Julianne and their two adorable dogs.

Connect with Ragen here.

Instagram: @RagenChastain 

Facebook: @RagenChastain 

Twitter: @DancesWithFat 

YouTUbe: @DancesWithFat

Check out Ragen’s Fat Healthcare Summer Workshop Series

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Looking for one-on-one coaching support  around intuitive eating, body image and emotional eating? 

Schedule a clarity call with me where you can share what your goals and intentions are, I’ll offer you some insight around what’s going on and if we feel like we’re a good match, I can share more information on how we can move forward. 

Here is my calendar link.

Episode #76: Uncovering the Truth with Noom, the “Obesity Epidemic” and White Feminism with Virginia Sole-Smith

Virginia Sole-Smith woke up to the impact of diet culture when her daughter had a significant health crisis that drove her to not eat when she was 2 months old because she didn’t feel safe. This was the catalyst for Virginia to examine her own relationship with food and to decide that she needed to make food joyful and her home a safe space for her family. 

On the podcast, Virginia and I discussed what it’s like to not believe we’re dieting, but are.  Virginia talked about the Noom app, which is essentially a diet for smart people in different packaging. She wrote an informative and insightful article here.

We talked about the so-called obesity epidemic and how the Body Mass Index, politics and the pharmaceutical industry have played a pivotal role in how we look at obesity. And we talked about white feminism and its origins with equal pay and abortion rights. 

Connect with Virginia on Instagram and Twitter @v_solesmith

Virginia Sole-Smith is the author of The Eating Instinct: Food Culture, Body Image and Guilt in America and the forthcoming Fat Kid Phobia.

Check out Burnt Toast, which explores questions (and some answers) around diet culture, fatphobia, health and parenting.