Episode #106: What is Overeating?

I got this question from a friend and I knew it was time to go back to basics. I use the term “overeating” so often, but it’s important that you have a clear understanding of what overeating is and why you may be doing it. 

On the podcast, I share why we’ve been conditioned to believe that overeating is wrong and bad. We don’t worry if we haven’t had enough water to drink or if we’ve over-hydrated!  

I offer a concrete way to know if you’ve eaten past a comfortable fullness, as opposed to believing you’ve overeaten if you eat more than a portion size that’s been determined by a diet. I also offer four reasons why people typically overeat. It’s not surprising that three of these reasons have to do with dieting!

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Episode #102: Diet Culture, Thin Privilege and Thin Fragility

After sharing a post about how exhausting I felt talking about diet culture (see post below), I realized a few things that I needed to name and share.

On the podcast, I shared the post I shared, why it was an important piece for me to share openly, the reaction I received from the community, and two surprising take-aways; thin privilege and thin fragility. 

I share and name my own thin privilege and get specific about how I know I’m privileged living inside of a straight-sized body. I also share my own fragility and how recognizing the impact of diet culture on marginalized identities is critical to our own freedom. 

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The social media post: 

I know this is very uncool of me, but I get tired of talking about diet culture. 

I'm in awe of so many of my colleagues that call out the harmful messages and inaccuracies we're being told about health, weight, food and body size. 

I know I've done my share and there is more for me to do, but it just wears on me. 

I feel hopeless. Like we are fighting a losing battle. Any impact I have is a faint whisper compared to the massive marketing machines behind diet culture kings like Weight Watchers, Noom, and Jenny Craig. 

In this hopelessness, I feel indifference. Fine- go ahead. Keep marketing to kids. Keep lying to people and telling them your diet is a lifestyle plan. Take people's money and take away their body autonomy. 

It makes me so angry, I could scream. But who do I scream at? Who do I call? It's like I'm swinging my arms blind folded. Diet culture is everywhere, with no obvious physical location. 

I've given my hard earned money to Weight Watchers. I've been duped by them too. 

Maybe that's why I'm tired of talking about diet culture. I'm mad at myself. I'm mad that I was deceived. I'm mad that all of my clients have been deceived too and they have to hire me. 

I wish it never existed. I wish I never went on a diet when I was 12. Then I wouldn't have to talk about diet culture. 

I realize now that I'm just fuckin' sad. That's all. 

Episode #97: Debunking “Love Yourself Thin” and Other Messages

There was a point in time, before I discovered Intuitive Eating, when I believed that my rocky childhood and poor self-image were the reasons I couldn’t keep food under control and stop eating emotionally. Sadly, a decade or so later, I’m hearing the same messages from diet culture that tell people they need to do the inner work if they want to lose weight. For example, when deciding on the title of this podcast, I found an article called “How to Overcome 5 Psychological Blocks to Weight Loss”. It’s easy to believe this advice when the authors are highly educated and the article is stamped “medically reviewed”. 

And guess what? In some ways, this message isn’t completely wrong. The work I do with my clients is all about challenging old beliefs and shifting mind-set. But where this advice goes wrong, and destructively so, is telling us that how we feel about ourselves and how we’ve been surviving is getting in the way of us achieving a body size they feel is appropriate. It’s incredibly deceitful and very tricky to piece apart. 

Which is why I wanted to highlight what these articles aren’t saying. I want you to be aware of the subtle assumptions that are probably making you blame yourself for diet failures and wondering what’s wrong with you. And I want to remind you of the truth; diets won’t deliver on long term weight loss and you don’t need to wait to lose weight to treat your body with great respect.