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5 episodes with judith matz
6 episodes with judith matz
2 episodes with judith matz
2 episodes with judith matz
On today's episode, I'm so excited to be joined by Amy Pershing to talk about Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Amy is essentially THE expert on treating BED with IFS, and I'm so thankful that she's sharing her wisdom with us! We've been trying for months to record an episode, and we finally did it! Just a little about her, Amy Pershing, LMSW, ACSW, CCTP-II, is the Founding Director of Bodywise, the first BED-specific treatment program in the United States, and President of the Board of the Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is the founder of Pershing Consulting, which offers training to clinicians treating BED and trauma worldwide. Amy is also the co-founder of "Attune", an online coaching program for attuned eating and recovery support. Amy is an internationally known leader in the development of treatment paradigms for BED, and one of the first clinicians to specialize in BED treatment. Based on 35 years of clinical experience, Amy has pioneered an approach to BED recovery that is strengths-based and trauma informed, incorporating Internal Family Systems (IFS) and body-based techniques to heal the deeper issues that drive binge behaviors. Her approach integrates a non-diet body autonomy philosophy, helping clients create lasting change with food and body image. Amy is also the author of the book Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond (Taylor and Francis, 2018) and Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing And Body Image: A Trauma-Informed Workbook, with co-authors Judith Matz and Christy Harrison (PESI Publishing, 2024). She also offers a variety of trainings on BED treatment through PESI. Amy maintains her clinical practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Amy begins the podcast episode by discussing her own history with binge eating disorder and how, thanks to the relentless messages from diet culture, she believed that her body "needed to be fixed because it was fat." Throughout the episode, we touch upon: How IFS views Binge Eating Disorder The role of Binge Eating parts Shame as a coping mechanism How to build trust between Self and parts What Self-led eating looks like Developing trust in your body Amy also emphasizes the fact that Self cannot be damaged by trauma, and Self does not accept body shame narratives. She states, “There's never a time that you're in-Self and accepting a body shame narrative. It just doesn't happen. Self knows that body shame doesn't exist.” We ended the episode speaking directly to therapists, both those who work with food and body issues and those who don't. Amy noted that all therapists are working with clients who live in a body and we're therefore all working with body stigma to some degree. She further notes that all clinicians really need to think about how their parts feel about their own body, food, weight stigma, and health. And finally, she states, "If you treat BED, you're treating trauma. We have to understand the binge eating in the context of their history." Amy gives us so many pearls of wisdom in this episode that you'll want to listen to it more than once (and take notes). Even if you aren't someone who binges, how she talks about body shame is applicable to everyone in a body. Take a listen! Where to find Amy: The Bodywise Program Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing And Body Image: A Trauma-Informed Workbook Where to find me: drkimdaniels.com Instagram TikTok
Why are diets always going to fail? What does the diet cycle look like? How can you identify emotional eating? In this podcast episode, I interview expert Judith Matz about making peace with food. We discuss how therapists can support clients by promoting self-care, and why its important to understand emotional eating. Sign up for the FREE e-course to understand your eating disorder and embark on the road to recovery. We reflect on the harm caused by mirrors, comparing ourselves, and wearing the wrong clothing sizes. SHOW NOTES: Click here Follow me on Instagram @behind_the_bite_podcast Visit the website: www.behindthebitepodcast.com
Why are diets always going to fail? What does the diet cycle look like? How can you identify emotional eating? In this podcast episode, I interview expert Judith Matz about making peace with food. We discuss how therapists can support clients by promoting self-care, and why its important to understand emotional eating. Sign up for the FREE e-course to understand your eating disorder and embark on the road to recovery. We reflect on the harm caused by mirrors, comparing ourselves, and wearing the wrong clothing sizes. SHOW NOTES: Click here Follow me on Instagram @behind_the_bite_podcast Visit the website: www.behindthebitepodcast.com
Therapists and authors Judith Matz and Amy Pershing join us to discuss our new collaboration, The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook; why the typical diet-culture response to emotional eating is unhelpful, and what to do instead; how to know if you're a chronic dieter (as opposed to just a “healthy eater”); the role of trauma in binge eating; why high body weight isn't a sign that you've suffered trauma; and lots more. Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW, is a therapist, nationally recognized speaker, and consultant on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of the new Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook, as well as The Diet Survivor's Handbook, Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, The Making Peace with Food Card Deck, The Body Positivity Card Deck, and author of Amanda's Big Dream. Judith offers continuing education and training for professionals through PESI as well as customized presentations for a variety of companies and organizations. Judith's work has been featured in the media including NPR, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and Psychotherapy Networker. She has a private practice via telehealth in Illinois where she meets with clients seeking to heal their relationship with food and their bodies. Find her at judithmatz.com and on Instagram @judmatz. Amy is an internationally known leader in the development of treatment paradigms for BED, and one of the first clinicians to specialize in BED treatment. Based on 35 years of clinical experience, Amy has pioneered an approach to BED recovery that is strengths-based and trauma informed, incorporating Internal Family Systems (IFS) and body-based techniques to heal the deeper issues that drive binge behaviors. Her approach integrates a non-diet body autonomy philosophy, helping clients create lasting change with food and body image. She is the author of the book Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond (Taylor and Francis, 2018) and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook, with co-authors Judith Matz and Christy Harrison (PESI Publishing, 2024). She also offers a variety of trainings on BED treatment through PESI. Amy maintains her clinical practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more about her work at thebodywiseprogram.com. Check out Christy's three books, Anti-Diet, The Wellness Trap, and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the pod. If you're ready to break free from diet culture and make peace with food, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. For more critical thinking and compassionate skepticism about wellness and diet culture, check out Christy's Rethinking Wellness podcast! You can also sign up to get it in your inbox every week at rethinkingwellness.substack.com. Ask a question about diet and wellness culture, disordered-eating recovery, and the anti-diet approach for a chance to have it answered on Rethinking Wellness. You can also subscribe to the Food Psych Weekly newsletter to check out previous answers!
Full Plate: Ditch diet culture, respect your body, and set boundaries.
Christy Harrison, RD MPH CEDS, joins Abbie on the pod to talk all things wellness culture. This conversation is such an important one, as they explore how the diet culture contrived version of wellness preys on those with medical conditions, is steeped in healthism, and perpetuates misinformation about pseudo-scientific diagnoses. Christy's second book, "The Wellness Trap", just released last week, so you'll also get to her more of the BTS on her book launch and writing process in this episode, too! Topics discussed: Our love affair with chips of all kinds Christy's experience launching her second book in a different stage of life and as a new mom Creating boundaries and protecting your mental and emotional well-being on social media Wellness misinformation during pregnancy and postpartum Debunking dubious diagnoses: "adrenal fatigue", "candida overgrowth", and "leaky gut" How our consumption of social media influences our experience of diet and wellness culture The spread of misinformation and disinformation about health conditions How fearing food harms our health and wellbeing Chronic illness and wellness culture Finding trustworthy sources of information How diets cherry-pick insignificant studies or cite studies that don't support their claims The meaning behind Christy's new book cover and new podcast art Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She's the author of The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being (coming in April 2023) and Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. Christy is also the coauthor, with psychotherapist Judith Matz, of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck. Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which have helped tens of thousands of listeners around the world think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies. Full Plate is listener-supported (no ads!) so please support the show on Patreon for bonus episodes at Patreon.com/fullplate Patreon is also home to the episode transcripts (which are publicly available to everyone, not just our patrons!). If you're looking for those, head over to Patreon. Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness Apply for Abbie's summer group coaching cohort: https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/group-coaching
Anna Lutz and Elizabeth Davenport have a conversation with Christy Harrison, a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. Christy is the author of a new book, coming in April 2023, The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being. They discuss: The definition of wellness culture, how it differs from diet culture, and how the two are connected. The rise of wellness culture and what led to food and exercise becoming a large part of the tenets of wellness culture. How wellness culture is an entry to disordered eating, and the ways in which this can affect new parents. How wellness culture impacts kids and teens. Advice for listeners to protect themselves and their kids and teens from wellness culture. Links: Christy Harrison Sunny Side Up Nutrition Podcast Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy Pinney Davenport Nutrition https://thirdwheeled.com/ https://m8.design/ https://www.sonics.io/ Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She's the author of The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being (coming in April 2023) and Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. Christy is also the coauthor, with psychotherapist Judith Matz, of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck. Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which have helped tens of thousands of listeners around the world think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies. Christy began her career in 2003 as a writer and editor covering food, nutrition, and health, and she's written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, WIRED, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, The Food Network, and many others. Her work has been covered in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Health, and TODAY. Learn more about Christy and her work at christyharrison.com.
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She's the author of The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being (coming in April 2023) and Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. Christy is also the coauthor, with psychotherapist Judith Matz, of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck. Christy is the producer and host of two podcasts, Rethinking Wellness and Food Psych, which have helped tens of thousands of listeners around the world think critically about diet and wellness culture and develop more peaceful relationships with food. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies. Christy began her career in 2003 as a writer and editor covering food, nutrition, and health, and she's written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, WIRED, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, The Food Network, and many others. Her work has been covered in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Health, and TODAY. Learn more about Christy and her work at christyharrison.com.To stay connected with Better Place Project and for updates and behind the scenes info, please follow us on social media:Website:https://www.betterplaceproject.org/ Instagram: @BetterPlaceProj To follow Steve on Instagram@SteveNorrisOfficialFacebook: Facebook.com/BetterPlaceProjectPodcastTwitter: @BetterPlaceProjEmail: BetterPlaceProjectPodcast@gmail.com
Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CEDS is a journalist, registered dietitian, and certified intuitive eating counselor. She's the author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating (Little, Brown Spark 2019), and The Wellness Trap: Break Free from Diet Culture, Disinformation, and Dubious Diagnoses and Find Your True Well-Being (Little, Brown Spark 2023). Christy is also the coauthor, with psychotherapist Judith Matz, of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck. Since 2013 Christy has produced and hosted Food Psych, a weekly podcast exploring people's relationships with food and paths to body acceptance. It regularly ranks as one of Apple's top 100 Health podcasts, reaching tens of thousands of listeners worldwide. In addition to her media work, Christy offers online courses and private intuitive eating coaching to help people all over the world make peace with food and their bodies. Christy began her career in 2003 as a writer and editor covering food, nutrition, and health, and she's written for publications including The New York Times, SELF, BuzzFeed, WIRED, Refinery29, Gourmet, Slate, The Food Network, and many others. Her work has been covered in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, Health, and TODAY. Learn more about Christy and her work at christyharrison.com. Topics covered in this episode: Wellness Culture Wellness Misinformation Disinformation Supplements Disordered Eating Anecdotal Evidence Adrenal Fatigue Mental Wellness Improvement Intuitive Eating Referenced in the episode: The Lindsey Elmore Show Ep 174 | Overcoming Political Influence on Healthcare | John Abramson The Lindsey Elmore Show Ep 210 | Rewiring an Addicted Brain | Deborah Mash To learn more about Christy Harrison and her work, head over to https://www.christyharrison.com/ __________________________________________________________ Amare has a new product and it is called GBX Burn. If you have been ready to burn fat before it weighs you down, you might consider getting this little orange capsule. This is a synergistic blend of natural herbs and spices and amino acids to help you burn more calories and burn more fat. You'll love it because it improves thermogenesis. This is the way your body creates heat to burn calories and helps with appetite control. It's stimulant free, but still helps you to increase your energy and it may help to reduce visceral fat storage. It's gluten-free soy, free dairy free, doesn't have any preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors or sweeteners. It's also all natural and vegan and available to you now. Head to http://www.lindseyelmore.com/amare to save $10 off of any purchase today! __________________________________________________________ Do you want to live a healthy lifestyle but you don't know where to find reliable health education, you don't have someone you can trust to lead you to which health and wellness options are out there. When you go to http://www.Wellnessmadesimple.us you can learn practical skills that you need to build a healthy lifestyle. You'll gain access to more than 85 videos, 11 hours of education and more education is always being added, and you'll join a community that has given more than 2400 positive reviews. All you have to do is get access, and right now we are offering half off of an annual subscription when you shop the code 2023Wellness and after that, watch the coursework, then implement daily changes positively transform your help you can feel better. Go to http://www.Wellnessmadesimple.us to get an annual subscription, and shop the code 2023Wellness for half off of your annual subscription. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ We hope you enjoyed this episode. Come check us out at www.lindseyelmore.com/podcast.
Intuitive eating has become rather trendy. When celebrities start jumping on it, you know it's going to pick up speed. I loved that Demi Lovato credited intuitive eating in helping her combat her disordered eating patterns but then Gwinnie ruined it (so did the author Dr Will Cole) when she promoted intuitive fasting. Dear Gwyneth (Paltrow), please stick to your vagina candles, at least they aren't dangerous! The problem with media coverage is things can get twisted. Intuitive eating is a weight-inclusive model you see. It was never created to be sold for weight loss or changing your appearance or shape. But this is what's happening. The original message is at risk of getting diluted as diet culture co-opts the intuitive eating language. So when folk say ‘but I didn't lose weight doing intuitive eating' or ‘it's not working' I wonder if they really get what intuitive eating is or asks of you? Or it hasn't been explained what the barriers can be. In this episode I give 5 reasons why intuitive eating might not have worked or be working for you and I can tell you now, it won't be your fault. But what is often NOT talked about is the impact of chronic dieting, the lingering diet mentality, stress and trauma on our ability to truly listen and respond to our body. I also provide 5 resources from my Pick N Mix that may help you fill in the gaps in terms of tools to help you embrace the practice that is intuitive eating. Content warning: I mention body weight. There is context but please be mindful if you are triggered by the language around dieting behaviours. I hope you find the resources below helpful – all are mentioned in this episode. Resources Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach 4th edition by Evelyn Tribole & Elise Resch. Also The Intuitive Eating Journal: Your Guided Journey for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food by Elise Resch The Making Peace: 59 Anti-diet Strategies to End Chronic Dieting and Find Joy in Eating card deck by Christy Harrison and Judith Matz. Christy is author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating Judith authored (amongst others) The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care Anchored – how to befriend your nervous system using polyvagal theory by Deb Dana A compassionate body scan by Dr Kristen Neff Fear of weight gain by Tabitha Farrar Come and wave to CakeOverKeto on Instragram: @cakeoverketo You'll find Mel at www.wakemannutrition.com Instagram: @mel_wakeman_rnutr Patreon: patreon.com/melwakeman or you can drop her an email at mel@wakemannutrition.com.
Wyatt and Mary snuggle into Wyatt's office to talk to anti-diet trailblazer Judith Matz (LCSW, author of The Diet Survivor's Handbook and creator of the Making Peace with Food card deck) about weight stigma, binge eating disorder, and common myths about fatness. Also on the agenda: The Manic Episodes hired a bunch of unpaid employees; Wyatt is hooked on the Civil War; and poems by Sylvia Plath and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Instagram: @judmatzJudith's Website
Let's talk about the assumption that fat people are fat because they have trauma. I'm reading and discussing Judith Matz's article called Unlearning Weight Stigma: The Latest Science on Trauma and Weight in this episode. TW: mentions of abuse and SA Episode show notes: http://www.fiercefatty.com/114 Free Training: The 4 Simple Steps to Feel Confident in Your Body and Around Food ... Even If You Believe It's Not Possible! https://event.webinarjam.com/channel/org https://www.instagram.com/p/CZu_0V_v2jS/ https://www.psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/article/2621/unlearning-weight-stigma/751aa799-34e8-44c4-80c3-7cd27416454a/oim?fbclid=IwAR21-Jl5JQ_kMQRuHwuheFwxkUV1AztiXQ0JARIuC9QNgqLe7kL9d_ZQ-IU
Just a quick content warning: on this episode and in this post, we're going to be discussing eating disorders and diets. If that's not a topic you're ready to listen to, skip this one and come back. We get it.We're in our second week of our deep dive into diet culture on our podcast, #WeGotGoals. And this week, we're speaking to Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW. In terms of our deep dive, think of this episode as an intro to what diet culture is and a 101 on how to get out of it.Judith Matz is a therapist and nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She has her own journey with dieting and she shares on the episode how she inevitably broke up with her scale and made a professional choice to dedicate her professional life to undoing what diets have done to human beings.Matz is the co-author of the books The Diet Survivor's Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet. She also co-created two card decks that are meant to make an anti-diet and body positive lifestyle more accessible - The Making Peace with Food card deck and the Body Positivity card deck. We looked to her for her expertise in diets and diet culture for us. Read that as, I asked the stupid questions so you don't have to.You'll hear her define a diet as “Any time you make a change in how you eat for the purpose of weight loss.” I've been reading anti-diet books in public this month as I prepare for these interviews, and I've heard from a lot of people about their systems that aren't diets - they're more like do's and don'ts. According to Matz, your system is a diet if you're doing it to lose weight. And you'll also hear her define diet culture, which might as well be, “well, it's in the air you breathe,” but for the purpose of this conversation, it's “a belief that thinness is a moral virtue and thinness is health. Therefore, it's worth doing anything to achieve that status and when you get to that status, you'll be happier and healthier.”So, as we dive deeper, I'm convinced that diet culture is basically the matrix - our minds are so occupied with the illusion in front of us that if we just lose weight, we'll have the life of our dreams. We're so occupied, in fact, that we're willing to ignore the fact that you'll hear from several experts this month on diets and diet culture. Diets simply do not work.As Matz puts it, there's only a 3-5% chance that a diet will work - and there isn't a single program or plan that has the research to support sustained weight loss over 2-5 years. Resources:Judith Matz has a private practice in the Chicago area, which you can learn more about at www.judithmatz.com Follow Matz on Instagram @judmatzMatz's book The Diet Survivor's handbook is a good place to start if you're breaking out of diets - she reminds you that you haven't failed at diets - they've failed you.Matz goes through her Making Peace with Food card deck in our conversationYou'll hear Matz mention the book Sick Enough by Jennifer L. Gaudiani in reference to eating disorder recoveryPast episodes in this month's deep dive:A Deep Dive into Diet Culture with Dr. Lindo Bacon, pioneer in the HAES movementHere are some of the frequently asked questions I've heard since talking about this project as well as some resources (you'll also hear other experts speak to these this month):What's a diet? Any time you make a change in how you eat for the purpose of weight loss.What is diet culture? A belief that thinness is a moral virtue and thinness is health. Therefore, it's worth doing anything to achieve that status and when you get to that status, you'll be happier and healthier.What exactly is obesity? And should you use that word when talking about someone else's weight? In short, it's complicated, based on the BMI *which has its own problems* and no. Here's more research on the words we use and weight stigma.How do we know what our set point is? Ugh, it's complicated. But, you'l hear Dr. Bacon speak about how a body behaves when below it. (see the Keys' study “During the semi-starvation phase [about 1,500 calories a day] the changes were dramatic. Beyond the gaunt appearance of the men, there were significant decreases in their strength and stamina, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive. The psychological effects were significant as well. Hunger made the men obsessed with food. They would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day they were given.”) How are we supposed to eat? That is literally the question that started this all and you'll hear more specific answers to this question throughout the month (From both Judith Matz and Dr. Alexis Conason, who you'll hear from next week), but when I spoke with Dr. Conason, it was clear that the question itself was rooted in diet culture. Damn it. Our bodies have cues that we'll speak to in the coming weeks that we've conditioned ourselves to ignore.
Content warning: in this post and on this episode, we're going to be discussing eating disorders and diets. If that's not a topic you're ready to listen to, skip this one and come back. We get it.Dr. Lindo Bacon, whose pronouns are they/them, wasn't an easy interview to get. They're a force in the emerging research that supports the health at every size (HAES) movement and in the movement to end fat stigma. They also authored the books "Health at Every Size," and "Radical Belonging," as well as co-authoring "Body Respect." Dr. Bacon also required a little convincing as to why a media outlet called "aSweatLife" cared about being a part of the conversation on diet culture. And that concern wasn't without merit.For years, we've avoided talk of diets on aSweatLife - sure, you'll see a reference here or there to a name-brand diet - but we've said for years that we don't want to tell you what to eat or not eat.Indulge me for a minute here - I spent the first 18 years of my life in Minnesota. If you've heard of "Minnesota nice" the concept would be more aptly named, "Minnesota avoidance." My people don't talk about things that are uncomfortable and will even go so far as to lie to retail associates. "I'll be back later for this," we say holding up an item of clothing we tried on and hated. Everyone knows you're not coming back.So as we were approaching our 6th year of the podcast, #WeGotGoals, we decided as a team to talk about the things we've avoided or that we truly just want to learn more about, starting with diet culture.In not participating in the conversation about diets, we weren't doing any work to undo their negative impact.That brings us to the start of our deep dive on diet culture over the month of January. We chose this month to tackle this topic because we know the messages you're being inundated with right now - yesterday, I lost count of how many commercials offered me a chance to lose weight or get my money back. Over the month, we're featuring four experts who each have a unique point of view in the diet culture space - therapists, researchers, experts in eating disorder recovery, and those with lived experience.And we're starting with Dr. Bacon because they have the education and background to support the fact that over a person's lifetime, diets simply do not work, which you'll hear all about in the episode. You'll also hear about the emotional effects of dieting that their work validated.Dr. Bacon is a curious human, pursuing several degrees to understand their body and the relationship between the size of a body and health. They went to graduate school for psychology, pursued another graduate degree in Exercise Physiology, and finally landed on a PhD in physiology from the University of California, Davis. That's where they did their research that led to the book "Health at Every Size." Their peer reviewed research found this: "Concern has arisen that this weight focused paradigm is not only ineffective at producing thinner, healthier bodies, but also damaging, contributing to food and body preoccupation, repeated cycles of weight loss and regain, distraction from other personal health goals and wider health determinants, reduced self-esteem, eating disorders, other health decrement, and weight stigmatization and discrimination [6–8]."Needless to say, they know their stuff and they are an expert in not only the negative impact of dieting, but also, the medical stigma that those living in larger bodies face, as well as the identities that intersect with weight, like socioeconomic status, gender, and race.Resources: Dr. Bacon's website has a litany of resources on fat stigma, HAES, as well as resources for those working in health and fitness.The Maintenance phase podcast episode I reference titled "Is Fat Bad for You" is an excellent listen if you want to know more about the challenge of doing science-based anti-diet research.Research by Dr. Bacon and team that resulted from the research they conducted around HAES: Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift.The Keys' study that we reference (if you've taken intro psychology, you've probably read about it), in which 36 men starved themselves for research at the University of Minnesota.You'll hear us reference the theory of a body's set point (on this episode and throughout the month) here's more on thatOn the episode, we chose to use the word, "fat" you'll hear that throughout the episode. We made that choice because of the fat acceptance movement, which you can learn a lot about through this podcast from NPR.Why is the fat acceptance movement a thing? It's basically a movement to change the world for those experiencing anti-fat bias, which you can read more about from Harvard Business Review (why HBR? Because anti-fat bias prevents people from getting jobs).Here are some of the frequently asked questions I've heard since talking about this project as well as some resources (you'll also hear other experts speak to these this month):What exactly is obesity? And should you use that word when talking about someone else's weight? In short, it's complicated, based on the BMI *which has its own problems* and no. Here's more on how the Mayo Clinic talks about it.How do we know what our set point is? Ugh, it's complicated. But, you'l hear Dr. Bacon speak about how a body behaves when below it. (see the Keys' study "During the semi-starvation phase [about 1,500 calories a day] the changes were dramatic. Beyond the gaunt appearance of the men, there were significant decreases in their strength and stamina, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive. The psychological effects were significant as well. Hunger made the men obsessed with food. They would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day they were given.") How are we supposed to eat? That is literally the question that started this all and you'll hear more specific answers to this question throughout the month (From both Judith Matz and Dr. Alexis Conason), but when I spoke with Dr. Conason, it was clear that the question itself was rooted in diet culture. Damn it. Our bodies have cues that we'll speak to in the coming weeks that we've conditioned ourselves to ignore.
Your relationship with food doesn't have to be a struggle. Judith Matz sheds light on why diets rarely work and the power of reconnecting with your body through intuitive eating! In this episode, Cathy and Judith discuss: Judith's struggle with food and what it taught her about dieting What it means to truly be at peace with food and how Judith works with people with a diet mindset The psychological and physiological reasons of diet failure Unhooking weight loss from exercise and adding foods vs. taking away How intuitive eating answers questions about when, what and how much to eat Making a match vs. filling a feeling that isn't filled Why planning groceries is helpful for intuitive eating and addressing scarcity How to help someone who claims to be an emotional eater Scope of practice and when a health coach should make a referral to a therapist Why weight loss shouldn't be the main focus of health coaching Destigmatizing obesity and working within the Health At Every Size framework Details about the Making Peace with Food Card Deck Memorable Quotes: “The minute I make things forbidden, they started to glitter…the minute something's being taken away, it increases in value.” “At its core, intuitive eating is about helping people reconnect to their own bodies and trusting themselves.” “Planning is very important. It's important to have groceries, it's important to have the foods you like.” Judith Matz, LCSW, ACSW, is a therapist and nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of The Making Peace with Food Card Deck, The Body Positivity Card Deck, The Diet Survivor's Handbook, and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet. Her work has been featured in the media including NPR, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and Psychotherapy Networker. Judith has a private practice in the Chicago area. Mentioned In This Episode: https://judithmatz.com/ https://judithmatz.com/books/the-making-peace-with-food-card-deck/ Links to resources: Health Coach Group Website https://www.thehealthcoachgroup.com/
Anti-diet therapist and author Judith Matz joins us to talk about shifting the focus of emotional eating toward the underlying deprivation and diet mentality, why turning to food to meet emotional needs isn't an “eating problem” but a “soothing problem,” how diet culture and marginalization rob us of the ability to meet our needs, why Health at Every Size and intuitive eating are better approaches for true health, Judith's work teaching other therapists about weight stigma, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to frame public health efforts to change the built environment in a way that doesn't stigmatize people in larger bodies. (This episode originally aired on April 9, 2018.) Judith is the co-author of two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles. Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and a favorite resource for therapists to use with clients. She is also the author of Amanda's Big Dream, a children's book that helps kids to pursue their dreams – at any size! Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL, where she focuses her work with clients who want to get off the diet/binge rollercoaster and learn to feel at home in their bodies. Through her individual counseling, groups, workshops, presentations and books, Judith has helped thousands of people to develop self-care skills that increase physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing without a focus on the pursuit of weight loss. Through educational programs, she is dedicated to helping people end the preoccupation with food and weight and to fighting weight stigma. Judith is a popular speaker at national conferences and descriptions of her work have appeared in the media including the New York Times, LA Times, Allure, Fitness, Self, Shape, Today's Dietitian, Diabetes Self-Management, Psychotherapy Networker, NBC News Chicago, Huffington Post Live, and she appears in the documentary America The Beautiful 2. Find her online at JudithMatz.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, Food Psych Weekly, to keep getting new weekly Q&As and other new content while the podcast is on hiatus! If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. You'll get all your questions answered in an exclusive monthly podcast, plus ongoing support in our private community forum and dozens of hours of other great content. Christy's first book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.
In this week's episode, Jenn and Audriannah celebrate 1 year of the podcast (!!!) being 'on the air' by sharing their goals for the future and takeaways from Year 1. In their main topic, the ladies discuss the concept of Body Positivity as a movement as well as an ideology that can support mental health wellness. As part of this process of treating our bodies with love and kindness, Jenn and Audriannah discuss how to incorporate pleasure practices as a vital aspect of your self-care routine. To explore this vast and evolving topic, the ladies pull cards from The Body Positivity Card Deck to talk about their own Body Positivity journeys as well as to explore ways to use mindfulness, self-care, and self-compassion to build healthy self-image and body shame resilience. Shout-Outs/Resources in this Episode:- The Body Positivity Card Deck by Judith Matz, LCSW and Amy Pershing, LMSW- Book: Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brownNOTE: All episodes contain guided meditation and grounding. Please skip these exercises if you're driving. RECORDED: 3/2821
The news media are a major source of diet culture BS. Every day there's an apparently "inspirational" story in which diverse bodies are shrunk down to diet culture's version of acceptability. We're literally brainwashed into viewing increasingly disordered, bizarre and downright dangerous behaviours as "#inspirational". Join me and my guest, anti-diet warrior and coach Summer Innanen as we present some truly epic examples of "SHITSPIRATION" from Australia and Canada. You will not believe how ludicrous they are! Grown up humans are supposed to be #inspired by a 'doubledown diet' which reduces calorie intake to almost nothing, a BARBIE DOLL (I am not joking), and....a Malamute? You have to hear this to believe it, it's next level #ridiculous. Trigger warning for this episode - very explicit language and we're discussing diet, calorie counts, etc, in (critical) detail. This one's not for the faint hearted! But if you're ready to get your rage-o-meter cranked up to ALL FIRED UP, this episode's for you! Show Transcript Louise Adams: Oh, Summer, thank you so much for coming on the show. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. Louise Adams: Tell me, what's firing you up? Summer Innanen: Well, I saw an article recently in Women's Health, and it's about... it's supposed to be like a, you know, quote unquote 'weight loss inspiration story'. And it's about a woman who had a very significant weight loss experience by doing a very disordered diet. And I think what fired me up so much about it was not just the content within it, which I'm sure we'll you know, dissect and talk about it. But the fact that in 2015, in December 2015, Women's Health came out and it was a huge... we got a lot of headlines, a lot of publicity around the fact that they were taking the words, 'bikini body' and 'drop two sizes' off of their covers. So they sort of made this like quasi- body- positive stance. Like, 'hey, we've heard you, our readers. And we've heard that, you know, you don't like us sort of using this very patriarchal, sexist language'. Yeah. Yeah. And so, like I remember at the time this was shared, like even people within the sort of anti-diet community were sharing it, saying 'this is great, like nice to see a major publications sort of making these changes' and then, you know, to, to look and see here we are five years later and it's the same shit. Louise Adams: It's back. Summer Innanen: Worse. Like I would argue what this what's contained in this article is so terrible from the perspective of promoting disordered eating and like really what this person is talking about is like, the way that they eat to me sounds like a, like an eating disorder, which obviously like I'm not here to diagnose or go... Louise Adams: it's disordered eating practices. Right? It's promoting starvation. Summer Innanen: Yeah. So it's a combination of keto and intermittent fasting. So it's like keto isn't bad enough on its own. So it's like, we're going to make intermittent fasting onto it. Louise Adams: It's an unholy marriage. Summer Innanen: It is honestly, and that's like, for me, I think why I was so fired up about it too, is because when I sort of reached the end of the line with my own disordered relationship with food, I was doing, I was trying to...attempting, it would only last like three days...to do something kind of similar. And it's what absolutely destroyed my body. Like just... like put me into amenorrhea, even with like a higher body weight percentage, and like completely disrupted my hormones. And when I work with clients, I see the same kind of behaviors really being kind of the end of the line for a lot of people. Like the one that really, really kind of messes up their head and their physical, like their actual, you know, physiology a lot worse than other diets that they have done previously. Louise Adams: Oh, this is an awesome thing to get completely fired up about because like we have Women's Health magazine here, which is... it's not health, it's women's starving magazine. They did no such thing as like...to tell us that they're not going to do the 'bikini body', but how gaslighting to say, 'Oh, we're not going to do that anymore. Hello, here's something worse'. And like to use that kind of little bit of that... they just wanted the publicity of that. 'We want to perform the idea of body positivity, but like, hell no, we're not actually going to stick to that'. Summer Innanen: Yes, yes. Louise Adams: It's going to go back to this apparently inspirational behaviour of this lady. Who is doing the very thing that tipped you into like a severe eating disorder? That's so disturbing. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. And, you know, they give a outline of what she eats in a day and as I think, as I emailed you before, I was like, that's kind of what I eat for breakfast. Like, it's the same amount of calories that I consume for breakfast. Like, that's it. And I remember being in that frame of mind where you would read a magazine and they would sort of show like, 'oh, here's what somebody eats in a day'. Or 'here's what a celebrity eats in a day'. And I remember always feeling like, so ashamed because I ate so much more than that. And I was always like, 'what's wrong with me? Like, why can't I eat as little as this?' And you know, I just can't believe that stuff is still being put out there, like that the author of that piece didn't think like, 'Hey, this might really promote an eating disorder.' When it's that blatant! Literally... Louise Adams: my dog eats more than that. When it's that blatant and there's, you know, throughout every article that we're going to talk about today is...oh, except the last one. There's literally no critical thought. Or even appreciation of the damage that's being spread by these, like it's full on evil messaging as far as I'm concerned, dressed up as inspiration. That the fact that a journalist...journalists, as far as I know, are trained to be critical thinkers and, and yet it's like that goes out the window when it comes to these apparently inspirational stories. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Like there's absolutely no consciousness at all. That's what I felt like. Cause you know, it's just, it was one of those things. That's, it's almost like when I first read it, I was like, it's almost too ridiculous to believe this is...that they actually publish this as something that's supposed to be inspirational. But it's to me like, you know, I think the readership probably skews a little bit, you know, on the younger side, you know, maybe more like 20 to 30 age group or younger, probably teen, a lot of teenage girls and you know, to be reading that at such an impressionable age and to think 'oh, this is how...this is what I should be doing'. Which is essentially like starvation as well as like malnutrition and just something that would put such a high amount of both physical and mental stress on your body, that would really create like long lasting damage. Yeah, both biologically and psychologically. Louise Adams: And that's, that's who I see, you know, my clients are the diet casualties, people who have had these experiences and then...you know? Dieting like this, crash dieting...because this is, this lady is on a severe calorie restriction. And then she's added intermittent fasting, which basically means you're only allowed to eat for six hours a day and squish in your tiny little bits of food into six hours. Like when you really think about that, that is so many levels of fucked up and she's saying, 'oh, it's so good'. And I feel for her being in that diet head, And who knows maybe an eating disorder head, but there's ...the payoff is so great for her because the weight loss like that, the whole article is about her trying to shift the last bit. And she's still got a way to go. And her poor body, if her poor body could talk would be going, 'I'm starving. I'm slowing down this cause it's getting dangerous'. And she's like, 'right, I'm going to double down using the halo of intermittent fasting', which is starving. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yeah. And the other thing too, that stood out to me, well, two things. One is the amount of caffeine that she talks about drinking in terms of hydration. Cause it says, like, what really works for her. It's like, 'I'm really hydrating'. And it's like so much coffee and green tea. And I'm like, if I had that much caffiene I'd be, I don't even know what I would be doing. Louise Adams: That's a question I ask when I'm seeing people with eating disorders, like, what are you drinking? Because quite often when you get an eating disorder, you will drink caffeinated stuff to kill your appetite. So, she's calling that hydration. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing too, is that she uses the language of 'food freedom' to talk about how she feels, because she says you know, 'food is really just food. It's not good or bad. I don't obsess about it anymore'. And it's like, really that could be pulled from any sort of anti-diet playbook, which is what we want, but it's so counter to what she's actually doing. And I think that it kind of shows like when you're really into, like, when you' re really kind of overtaken your mind, you're sort of riding this, this buzz or this wave where it does feel like that. But, you haven't woken up to how you really are looking at things that way. And you really are, you know, like if you're tracking every calorie, which is what she says she was doing... Louise Adams: How is that freedom? Summer Innanen: Yeah. That's not freedom. And that's, that's like, maybe she's sort of, you know, like kidding herself. She's at the sort of like, kidding, 'I'm kidding myself' phase. Like, it's like, you know, most of us when we were sort of dieters were like, 'well, no, no, no, I'm doing it for my health. Like I'm doing no, this is for my health', but really underneath it's, you know, there's, there's some other stuff going on, but I hate it when they kind of steal, like they sort of co-opt the language of intuitive eating and co-op the language of the anti-diet message and really use it to promote something that's so restrictive. It just makes... Louise Adams: You know who came to my mind when you were saying that is Rebel Wilson. Summer Innanen: Yes Louise Adams: she's an Aussie actor and has always been in a larger body. Apparently like her kind of whole catch phase for 2020 was that it was her 'year of health'. Summer Innanen: Yes! Louise Adams: But the behaviors are restriction and starvation and over-exercise, but she's masking that in the language of 'I'm so healthy now'. Like, 'I don't think about food anymore. My habits are so great', but it's the same thing. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: Worlds apart from what the anti-dieting and intuitive eating stuff is actually about. Summer Innanen: Yeah. And, and like, it's not their fault. Like, I don't like talking about this. I'm not, I don't want to like, shame this, this woman at all. Louise Adams: As an individual, no. Summer Innanen: Or Rebel Wilson. It's like, but it's really about. You know, the it's really about the culture diet culture, and just the fact that we feel as women and more, you know, more specifically that we have to go to these extremes to really like, you know, show our, our worthiness as humans, like in our value. And like, Rebel Wilson is so talented. Louise Adams: I know, so funny. Summer Innanen: She's an awesome actress. And now it's like, everyone's just talking about her body and her weight loss. And it's like, it takes away from all these other amazing things that she's done. Louise Adams: And when it's really uncritical, as well. It's like, why is she so much better now than she's small? That just reinforces the diet culture message and keeps stories like the woman you talking about going. It's like, I can get all this attention, uncritical, positive attention, but it's like, we're not seeing what's right in front of it. Like we are teaching and promoting women in this case did a really, really sick eating disordered and stuff under the flag of health. Summer Innanen: And that is like, supremely unhealthy. Yeah. Yeah. It's so frustrating too, because you see all these positive changes happening in the way of, you know, women becoming more liberated or just having, you know, bigger voices taking up more space. And yet it's just like the same old shit is still there as it relates to our bodies and our value and, and... Louise Adams: There's such an uptick too, in January, isn't there. Summer Innanen: Oh yeah. It's a predictable tsunami of the weight loss. The walls of relentless inspiration, whether we want it or not. It's just, it's here. ESpecially with the pandemic, you know, because everyone, a lot of people have...maybe their bodies have changed a little bit, which makes a ton of sense because we're under a lot of stress or just life changes that have happened. So I think that, you know, depending on where you live, if there's still a lot of restrictions, which I was saying to you before, like there still is here. Dieting gives you like a bit of hope, almost like weight loss gives you a bit of hope. In this time when maybe some of us are feeling a little hopeless or just like really kind of sick of, sick of the isolation and everything else. And so I wouldn't be surprised that maybe your body's changed a bit during quarantine. I wouldn't be surprised if this year really you see like just a lot more people really engaging in dieting as a way to cope with the emotion, emotional discomfort of living through a pandemic. Louise Adams: That is a really good point, isn't it. Dieting can be a bit of a lifeline. It can feel like it, like something familiar to do in a scary time. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Some sense of control, some sense of like, you know, hope, something else to focus on other than like the fact that there's a lot of horrible things happening in the world. Yeah, absolutely, a hundred percent. And I just, I, you know, I've heard it from people that I work with just feeling more urges to diet lately. And I think that, yeah, it's just something to be mindful of. If anyone listening is experiencing that too, like I think it's pretty normal to be experiencing more of those urges, but hopefully you can... Louise Adams: LIsten to today's episode and get your bullshit detector back. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't drink the Kool-Aid it's not actually going to help. Louise Adams: It's not control! Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Louise Adams: It's so interesting because like, Canada is very similar to Australia, culturally in lots and lots of ways. And it's funny...not funny. It's not funny. Cause like, you're talking about really disturbing uncritical weightless articles. And we've got them here in Australia too. And I really want to talk to you about the lady who lost weight, because she wanted to look like Barbie. Yes. And Summer Innanen: I, so you said that to me, I honestly, it was like, okay, this needs to be a tabloid. Like this can't be like a real, and, and then you told me that it's actually a very legit publication. Louise Adams: Yeah. Oh, I'm so ashamed of ourselves. So, this is on Nine News. Channel Nine is Murdoch press and it's, you know, one of it's a huge...it's the number one news platform in Australia for news. I want to say news, right? News. Okay, exciting. And in this news, I'm just using air quotes. It's this story from late gen a Barbie fan has dropped a whopping blah-blah-blah kilos in a bid to look like a favorite doll. And it's a story about a lady called...a 35 year old lady called Kayla. Who's apparently battled with her weight since she was seven, and has done all of the diets in the book and… Like, I just, I can't even, because yes, Nine News is promoting this as, as awesome. This lady that the article is...littered with her dressed as Barbie. She's a full grown female adult woman dressed as Barbie. And the whole story is about how she's had a gastric sleeve and, and is also starving herself, post gastric sleeve, and now she's very happy and...like I just, I mean, I can't get this article out of my head because it's on a major news platform also. I've just realized it was on the TV on a morning show. She now lives in Las Vegas pursuing her Barbie lifestyle. And I'm not criticizing Kayla herself whatsoever, but what I'm criticizing is the news. Which, by the way, I've also found out isn't even news, because this is from Jan 2021. When I'm Googling, to send you the article. THis article actually came out in June last year, it's old, it's not, it's old. It's not news. But it's been rehashed - guess why, it's January - it's Diet season and then some, you know, money hungry gastric sleeve doctors, and some people who want to sell their diets saying 'let's get her on TV, and uncritically throw this... it's an appallingly ridiculous idea that we need to look like a doll in order to reach the pinnacle of our existence. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think like, you know, there were, I don't even...there were so many things wrong with this piece. Louise Adams: It's hard to know where to start. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Okay. Well, let's start with when she was a kid, because she talks about how, you know, 'it didn't matter how hard I tried or what side I was on. I could rarely shift the weight or I would lose some and then regain double'. And it's like, well, yeah, that's what diets do. And so, this poor girl probably had her parents putting her on diets, which we know she did actually. Louise Adams: It says 'my obsession with Barbie began as a child and has continued into my adult life. I used to have over 200 dolls as my parents use them as an incentive to go on a diet and lose weight'. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Which is so messed up. Louise Adams: That just made me want to cry. Yeah. Because as a parent to, bribe your a child with a Barbie doll, like the poor thing, she's seven. I know. And I don't know, that's at least 200 diets, isn't it? Summer Innanen: Well, exactly, like how horrifying is that? So, her metabolism is probably been so altered and she has no sense of her own instincts on what actually, you know, feels good for her. And her parents basically instilled like this belief that like you're better or you're good or you're more worthy when you lose weight, And like, to think about the damage that that would do to someone's self-worth and their body image and the way that they feel it. Yeah. Yeah, right. Louise Adams: Cause it's...I see this as a real heartbreaking story and I cannot understand how this is inspiration. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. It's so awful. It reminds me of the there's this book. I don't know if you've ever read it. It's called 'The Heavy' and it's about a mother who puts her daughter on a diet and it's...it's a memoir written from the mother's perspective and she keeps putting her, she can't figure out why her daughter can't lose weight. She keeps putting her on diet after diet, after diet. And like, it just reminds me of that because the parent is...has so much internalized fat phobia and their own disordered relationship with food that then they pass down to their kids. And like, that's what I see. I'm sure you see all the time with the people that we work with is that what our parents did, which they kind of were doing out of this like, protection. They wanted to protect us by helping us lose weight or commenting on our body or restricting food...actually completely backfired and made us feel like we, you know, we weren't worthy of their approval, of love, like of our own existence, unless we looked a certain way unless we lost weight, unless we ate a certain way... Louise Adams: All contingent on weight, which is it's insane because a weight is not under our control. And when we do the diet thing, all we guarantee is a slowed metabolism and weight regain. And she even says in this that she would lose it, then lose weight and then regain like that. Plus some, which is, we know that's perfectly normal as a response to starvation her. And cause her parents obviously have that internalized weight stigma, and she has it, you know? This is a story about her internalized weight stigma and how, you know, rather than kind of pushing back or being able to push back against it. She's really drunk the Kool-Aid. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. And again, they highlight what she eats in a day, which is like, why, why these places do this is like, beyond me, because... Louise Adams: Well, they go into so many stereotypes too. Cause like it's the, it's the traditional thing like, 'Oh, before I had my gastric sleeve, I was a bad person and I ate terribly'. And ignoring the fact that perhaps her, part of her weight issues was to do with the diets themselves. Summer Innanen: Right? Louise Adams: Yeah. So that's ignored and so about...'it was definitely 100% my personal fault' quote unquote, 'that my body was large and I ate terribly but now I eat great'. But, what we see actually, like when you look at that, what she used to eat, she used to starve herself all day and then eat at night. Summer Innanen: Right? It's like, well of course you're going to binge at night. If you starve all day, that's no surprise there. You're going to be so hungry. You'll eat anything that's not locked down. And then what she eats now is like, it's so dangerous. It's like such a low amount of food and... Louise Adams: And says, 'I ate,'...I'm going to read some numbers here so trigger warning. Cause it's just, I just want to get across the point of how restrictive it is. She's had 80% of her stomach removed, and then she's saying 'I eat 90 grams of protein a day, 10 grams of carbs and five grams of sugar'. Everyday. Summer Innanen: Do you know what...10 grams. That's not even a banana. Right? 10 grams of carbs. Like that's like, that's like what? Like a few baby carrots or something like that? Louise Adams: There's no actual veggies. Breakfast is a protein shake. Lunches, chicken or beef with cheese, dinner is chicken or steak or a protein shake. And the snacks, cashews or walnuts. Like there's there's no fruit or veggies. Poor thing. In a stomach which is 80% removed, amputated. Summer Innanen: And can't be reversed. They also say that, which is another thing. Louise Adams: And it says this article has the hide to say 'she now has a good relationship with food'. Summer Innanen: Yes. I highlighted that too, because again, it's like, co-opting this language of food, freedom and, and using it in like a place where it's like clearly a very disordered. Louise Adams: How is that a good relationship with food? Summer Innanen: Yeah, it's sad. Louise Adams: And works out seven days a week. Summer Innanen: That, right. That was the other thing that really stood out because also extremely unhealthy to be, to be doing something like that. And you just sort of wonder, like what's going to happen to this individual. You know, and they may be riding the sort of like validation of having a significant weight change and getting the publicity and feeling really good about that. Louise Adams: But, you know, as we all know totally done it, you know, as a psychologist, she's finally saying to her mum, 'look, I am the Barbie doll'. I just...it's heartbreaking. I totally get why she's doing it. Summer Innanen: Right. Louise Adams: But I find it an incredibly sad story. Summer Innanen: I know, and I feel bad for her as a child. Louise Adams: I feel like I'm kind of alone in seeing her as a really sad story. Summer Innanen: No, it's really sad. It is really sad. And it's, and it's this idea like, again, it's like this idea that it's our fault, like, and it's a kid's fault if they are in a larger body instead of thinking, 'okay, well, this is just, you know, genetics'. Louise Adams: Here's my child, here's my kid. Give her a barbie doll, for fuck's sake, if she wants one. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Not to earn it by restricting food or whatnot. To put all the onus on her and to, you know, that she had to earn it by losing weight, earn Barbie dolls by losing weight. Like, it's so sad. And yet it's being like, you know, applauded and praised and... Louise Adams: It's sickening. How like diet culture, it's weight loss at all costs. And this is an extreme example of the costs, but I mean...2015, right? Women's Health magazine is talking about, 'Oh, we see the harm done by diet culture. We see that talking about women as if they're a bikini body and stuff is not cool anymore. Well, we're going to stop doing that'. But now, like we just talked about like two really extreme articles promoting starvation. Like there's no problem here. And we've gaslit ourselves to the point where these things are being called lifestyle changes or health behaviors. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Louise Adams: We're talking about stuff that's much, much worse than the good old diet industry days. Summer Innanen: Right, right. Yeah. It seems to have gotten a lot more extreme, hasn't it? Like it's, it's something that has, it's always sort of been extreme, but it seems to be even more....I guess now the extremism is normalized. Louise Adams: Yeah. And it's mainstream. It's like pro-ana used to be pro-ana, cause we could see it as being different to what the world was. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: Yeah. Someone said to you, I only ate in a six hour window and I don't eat any vegetables or fruit or carbs. We're like, 'Oh, you're so healthy. How do you do it?' Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. 'Let me put you in my magazine. You're a success story'. But I wonder if like, if either of them took, you know, assessments on whether or not you have an eating disorder or disordered relationship with food, you would most likely see that they would probably check most of the boxes in terms of the things that they would say that they're thinking and doing as it relates to...you know, the behaviors, but I was going to say as well, it also just shows how weight stigma plays a role here. Because if this was an already thin person eating this stuff, you know, we as....there might be more people sort of calling this out as like very disordered or an eating disorder, but because they were in larger bodies and they went to these extreme measures to get in a smaller body it's applauded and like, that's the influence of weight stigma. It's like, we prescribed these eating disorder behaviors to people in larger bodies that we would diagnosis an eating disorder and somebody in a smaller body. Louise Adams: Yeah. that's Deb Burgard's point, isn't it. That's so like... Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. Thank you. Cause I was like, I'm saying this and I'm like, I can't remember....thank you. Louise Adams: I know, it's such a slam dunk awesome quote because it's exactly what's happening here. Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Louise Adams: You know, I wonder, I literally wonder, like what you're saying about, if it was someone smaller, would, would the media alarm bells ring. Because I'm thinking, well, if that was Gwyneth Paltrow's day in a plate, we'd probably still be going, 'Ooh, isn't she cool?' Summer Innanen: You know what, you're right. And I saw that recently because Aaron Flores who hosts the Dieticians Unplugged podcast, he posted...I think it was via Glamour magazine. It was like what Kelly Ripa eats in a day. And it was the same thing. It was like, she was basically talking about how she eats dust. But...it was honestly very similar to what the first, the girl in the Women's Health magazine was talking about eating in a day. And so, you're 100 percent right. So, so maybe my point is... Louise Adams: I do think it's viewed differently. But I actually think that we're getting to the point where like it's competitive, not eating is at such extreme levels that we're not, it's only the people in the eating disorder industry who are going, 'hello, what the hell', like it has become so unfashionable to eat like a grownup. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. Eat like a grown ass adult is what I say exactly. Exactly. Yes. I remember. I remember in the one that the Kelly Ripa, when she says, like, she called it...'my first chewable food of the day is around like 11:00 AM' or something, like that was the way that she described it. And I just, I remember commenting on it when Aaron and I was like, I can't believe she just used the expression, my first chewable food of the day. Like if, if that's not a red flag that you're describing the way you eat stuff, using those terms. And I don't mean to laugh. It sounds like a laughing at someone with a disordered relationship with food, but it really is horrifying. Just how normalized and then praised and applauded that is. Louise Adams: Like, 'oh, oh no, it's any 10 o'clock. Should I be chewing? Oh my God'. Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. And I just, and again, like, I just remember always looking at those things and feeling so ashamed and always just being like, why can't I do that? Like, why can't. And thank goodness, my body couldn't do that because it was the reason why I didn't actually have like a full blown eating disorder and instead was just a chronic dieter. Louise Adams: We really need to stop this. We really need to stop listing what people like in a day. It's ridiculous. It's kind of like comparing what we eat to each other, it's encouraging externalization of eating behavior? We cannot continue to do that. Like really, the articles about 'what I eat in a day' should just be followed by the phrase 'is going to vary every single day', and it's none of your damn business'. Right. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. That's the headline right there. Louise Adams: Right. Eyes on your own plate. Does it matter? It's not a fricking competition. It's not like we're going like, 'ooh, what my poo looks like every day. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe that's where we are we going? Comparing physical functions. We just need to stop. It's so true. You kind of quid pro quo's me with, like, I came up with the Barbie ridiculous story and you came up with a whopper from Canada. Summer Innanen: The dog? Louise Adams: Yeah. Summer Innanen: So, this was on the CBC. So CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Company, it's like our major national news network. And like, that's the one place I go when I want to get unbiased, like just straight up, really factual news. And they have this article that they posted called 'meet Woody a massive Malamute, serving up weight loss inspiration for the new year'. I just couldn't believe this was on the CBC and it's literally like this story, this weight loss story of a dog that like dropped half its weight and also had like shared it on social media as a way to inspire others to, you know... Louise Adams: Other dogs? Summer Innanen: No, no, no. Oh no. Humans. Louise Adams: This is a new low, eat like a dog. Summer Innanen: This is... Louise Adams: Oh my God. It says, 'If you're looking for inspiration to meet your new year's resolution to trim the fat, look no further'. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Yeah, no, it's to inspire humans. Louise Adams: Oh, please stop inspiring me. Oh my God. Summer Innanen: It's such a cute dog though. I just, as a side note, he's a really, really cute dog, but you know, this has come up. I don't know if you've been...you've probably been asked this question too before, but people will say like, well, you know, why is it okay to put pets on diets, but not humans? Do you have a good answer for that? By the way? Before I was going to say what I say. Louise Adams: I don't think I have actually had that question put to me. Summer Innanen: Oh, you haven't? Just me. I've gotten that. Louise Adams: Why is it okay? I don't, I don't know if it is okay. Like, I haven't looked at the weight loss research for dogs, but I'm assuming it's going to be physiologically similar to humans. Right? I don't know. I don't know. Summer Innanen: I don't know. My answer is like, we're not dogs. Like we aren't dogs, dogs aren't influenced by like diet culture. Like dogs don't have fat phobia., cause they're not like looking at thinner dogs everywhere and thinking like, 'I'm not good enough because I don't look like that'. Like they're... Louise Adams: Oh my God, you're reminding me of poodle science, you know, ASDAH's awesome little video. Which is like, it's illustrating what body diversity is like, you know. But in weight science it's like, all the poodles are in charge and they're telling everyone, all the breeds of dogs to like, they like 'be like me, be like the poodle', but like a starving mastiff will never be the same as a poodle. Summer Innanen: Right, exactly. Yeah. One of the first like, quotes that I said many years ago was 'we're not Golden Retrievers'. We're not all meant to look the same. It's one of the things that I still say to this day, because it's true. And you know, in this article, like it's a pretty basic...they're just restricting the dog's food and making the dog exercise. But this idea that like we're similar at all. It's just so, it's so backwards to me because it completely ignores the culture that we live in. And like the fact that we are emotional being...dogs are emotional beings too. Yes. I will give you that. I love dogs. But they don't have the same. Not living in like a patriarchal society. They're not exposed to sexism. Like they're not, they're not exposed to fatphobia like, I don't think they're internalizing those charts at the vet that have like pictures of the different dogs with the big classifications like we would be. They don't feel ashamed when they step on the scale. Louise Adams: There's no diet culture in dogs, but there's diet culture in the humans that own them. And you can hear that in this article, can't you? Because it's like...actually it's everywhere. Like this sentence, 'he once weighed double what he should have'. How do you know what he should? He's a fucking Malamute. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. Louise Adams: 'Should have'. So, we've decided what he should weigh and we starved him down there. And then, Pam Hedgie, who's the foster mom, apparently she's known for doing this. Starving the dogs so that they're adoptable. Now, that is awful. And...but the woman she's like, totally like lost it. She puts it on social media and...here we go. She says, 'humans have something to learn from dogs. They're so willing. I think that's the most amazing part about them. They don't get down, they get up everyday, they're happy to go to the park. And it has to be hard work. It can't be a breeze, but they're so happy and willing to do it. We could all learn a little bit about that'. I'm sure what he likes going for walks. Yeah, but I'm also sure that if Woody could talk, he'd say 'why are you starving me?' Summer Innanen: Yeah. I think it's, again it's like, you know, it just shows, 'okay, you have to do something extreme to be healthy'. Whereas really it's like, of course the dog wants to go out and play. And if we just let them do that by letting them tell us and get them outside, and they listened to their bodies, kind of like humans do..then you wouldn't have to, you know...It's not like this, like... 'oh, you should work out every day and you have to like push yourself through'. It's like dogs are naturally hardwired to kind of want to be that way anyways. And so long as we give them an environment where they can do those things, then they're going to be healthy regardless of their size. And that's, that's sort of similar to humans in a way. Louise Adams: His health is not even mentioned. Like it'e literally just his size. And this assumption that he has to be half his size. Like we don't even know it was here actually just a larger dog in good health? We don't even know how old he is? Summer Innanen: No, you're right. You're right. Because yeah, because malamutes are huge to begin with anyways. Louise Adams: Yeah. Well, I've got a Great Dane and like big dogs, the big dogs. And like, my vet, there is no correct weight. And like, I love my vet because my vet is like full of body diversity. It's like, there's a great big range in Great Danes. You can have smaller Great Danes and big Great Danes. And they're all Great Danes. Summer Innanen: That's so refreshing. Wow. Louise Adams: Thank you. I'm in the right place. Summer Innanen: People used to criticize my dog all the...my dog might, we lost my dog a few months ago. People used to like stop me on the street and like...not me actually, they would always do my husband for some reason. Cause they probably saw the look on my face and was like, 'I'm not going to say anything'. They would say like, 'what are you feeding your dog? Like your dog is too big' because we had a pug and he was really big and he was just naturally. Really big. He'd always been really big and like, vets were always totally fine with him. We never had a vet say, 'hey, you know, you gotta watch this weight' or anything like that. But, you know, people in the street would stop and comment. And I remember just saying to my husband, I was like, 'I swear if someone did that to me, I would just rip them to...', I don't know why they always stopped him. Louise Adams: Yeah. Actually now you say it. I get that about my Great Dane, Dolly. Her name is Dolly Pawton. It's so cute. They stop us and they're like, Oh, what is, what does he ate? Oh, first of all, they say 'he', cause obviously a big dog is always a 'he'. 'What do you feed him? He must eat you out of house and home.' This dog eats, you know, not as much as my boxer that I used to have. So there's assumption about size and what they eat. Let's look to our dogs, right? No as inspirational weightless stories, but as diversity right in front of us. Summer Innanen: Yes. Louise Adams: And connection. Summer Innanen: And how we just love them regardless of their size. Louise Adams: I know. Like, poor old Woody, he's not more oveable now he's starved into submission. Summer Innanen: It's so silly to me that they would use that as a story of inspiration. Must've been a slow news day in Canada. Like you don't have a pandemic going on, I don't know why. Louise Adams: The sad point is that it appears that Woody has more variety in his diet than the Barbie lady. Summer Innanen: Oh yeah, at least he's eating lots of fruits and vegetables. I know. Oh my gosh. Right. Louise Adams: God. So, we've arrived at our last. Article, which is an interesting one in Good Housekeeping. That's just come out. Jan 29th, 2021. 'The unbearable weight of diet culture', which...it's such an exciting article cause it's really long, really in-depth, and it's talking about this whole idea of diet culture. In the intro, it says this: 'throughout 2021, Good Housekeeping will be exploring how we think about weight, the way we eat and how we try to control or change our bodies in our quest to be happier and healthier. While Good Housekeeping also publishes weight loss content, and endeavours to do so in a responsible science backed way, we think it's important to present a broad perspective that allows for a fuller understanding of the complex thinking about health and body weight'. So, kind of cool. Summer Innanen: Kind of reminded me of the Women's Health 2015 publicity. What I do like about this article, I will say, is Judith Matz and Christy Harrison are quoted quite a bit through it. Louise Adams: And Sabrina Strings. Summer Innanen: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Which I thought was great because they tied in that component too, like the race component. And I thought it was one of those articles that you could probably send to a family member or a friend that didn't understand why you were doing Intuitive Eating or that had questions about it, but you didn't really know how to give them the information in a way that was a little more palatable. And I thought that this article was one of those things that you could totally pass along to them. It's easy to read, makes a lot of sense, kind of hits all the main points. It's one that I'll probably bookmark for people. Louise Adams: It's nice too as evidence that the wider culture is taking the whole concept of not dieting and looking at the Health At Every Size sort of stuff seriously. Summer Innanen: Yes. And actual people who are in the space instead of like the people who are in between who talk about this stuff yet still promote weight loss, you know, like the sort of like, you know, Geneen Roths of the world and whatnot. So, I thought it was really great that they actually had a lot of, like a lot of like really well-respected experts weighing in and some good links and things like that, but there was still a little problem with it. Did you want to talk about that or do you want me to talk about it? Louise Adams: So it's at one point it says, look like it's all this awesome, awesome and stuff. And then it says, loo... they're talking about how the media in particular can promote dieting, and it says 'even Good housekeeping's own article on 1200 calorie diets is a tricky juxtaposition. The article aims to serve the approximately 40,500 people who search for 1200 calorie meal plans on Google every month. Despite the 2015 study that shows this number of calories falls within the realm of clinical starvation'. And that's, that's been changed... Summer Innanen: It has actually, because I... Louise Adams: I think it said something about the Holocaust before? Summer Innanen: Okay. So I have it, cause I cut and paste it into a document. It says, this is what used to say. It says, 'It's the most popular article here on Good Housekeeping's own website, about 1200 calorie diets that netted over 2 million search users in 2019 alone. Our second most read story of the year, despite the fact the number of calories falls within the realm of clinical starvation. In brackets - Holocaust concentration camp prisoners were fed 1,250 to 1400 calories per day'. So, that's really interesting that they changed it. Louise Adams: They've watered it down, haven't they? They've removed a bit of culpability. Like, cause that example of like in a concentration camp, you would get more food. Summer Innanen: It reminds me of the Minnesota starvation study, which, which was around like 1500... Louise Adams: 1500. Summer Innanen: 1500 calories a day. Louise Adams: And they all went around the twist from that over six months. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: I'm so glad you cut and pasted that. Summer Innanen: Yes. So that, and then the other big thing is they still link to the goddamn diet. Like they still link to it. They link to the 1200 calorie day diet. Like it's like they're saying, 'okay, we're exploring this'. And then they're linking to the thing that is probably the most like harmful triggering thing that you could put in that article. Louise Adams: 'We're not actually going to stop doing it because it's the second most popular thing we do'. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: That is so fucked up. Summer Innanen: It's like these publications want to explore these topics and they admit that they're complicit and they get publicity because of that, they get a bit of applause and then they continue to uphold and perpetuate the same dangerous stuff. Louise Adams: Get off the fence, Good Housekeeping. Get the splinter out of your ass. Take the article down. Summer Innanen: Yeah, take it down, take it down. If you want to, you know, put your money where your mouth is... but they don't, they want to keep taking other people's money. And then you were telling me this was the article that people were opening and then they were seeing weight loss advertisements, right? Was it this one? Louise Adams: Yeah. So I was saying chats and people like reading the article, but in between the text of the article, were getting sold weight loss stuff. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Louise Adams: I mean, geez. I mean, can we, at some point stop the fence sitting and stop performing the recognition of diet culture as harmful and, and start actually stopping the harm. So we protect little kids, like little miss Barbie. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Louise Adams: And we stop the metabolic and physiological harm. If nothing else, you know. People are so worried. In the article, Good housekeeping. It's talking about how more people are dieting than ever before. Did you see ...'In November, 2020, the CDC, Centre for Disease Control, reported that more people are actually dieting now compared to 10 years ago', you know? Dieting, even though no one's dieting, more people are dieting than in 2010. And we are in massive trouble from the perspective of psychological damage and also from the perspective of long-term metabolic damage. And if I hear one more person bang on about diabetes, insulin resistance, you know, metabolic problems from being fat and they haven't kind of put the pieces together about actually, maybe it's the people who are dieting because it's the dieting that's doing that kind of physiological damage. You know, we need to wake up. So Good Housekeeping aren't just able to politically fence it because it sells sharticles and sells hits on their harmful website. We've got to. If we care about health, let's start caring about it. Right, right. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that historically Good Housekeeping's always had like, you know, advertisements for Slim Fast and like diet, weight loss drugs in their magazine. And so I, you know, I would wager I guess, that that's still going to be there. And, you know, I think the reason why diets have probably gone up like over the last 10 years is because it's all shrouded in health now. Louise Adams: Yeah, it's 'not dieting' Summer Innanen: Like everyone thinks that, yeah. It's like, this is our quote unquote 'healthy lifestyle'. Louise Adams: 'I've got a good relationship with food'. Summer Innanen: Right. And it seems, it's almost seen, like positioned as more empowering versus restrictive. And so like, more people are buying into it, but like you said, it's all the same bullshit when you look at it. Louise Adams: Just wrapped in glitter. Summer Innanen: Right, exactly. It's like that meme that the HAES student doctor says, it's like the poo emoji called 'diet' and then like in glitter, it's like 'lifestyle change'. It all, you know, it all upholds fatphobia. And dangerous dieting. And quick weight loss. And this idea that... Louise Adams: And a massive industry. Let's not forget that this is all a bloody huge industry. It's...what is it? 600 billion in the States every year. Summer Innanen: Yes. Louise Adams: Yeah. This is a business and the media is in the business of keeping these businesses going. And even when they admit it, they don't stop it. Summer Innanen: Well because they would lose their sponsors. And, and then it would, I mean, it would all probably collapse. So it's a tough situation. It's a tricky situation. I don't think it's an easy fix. I think you have to really stand out. You have to be willing to say like, 'okay, we're going to really be, you know, these are our company values and we're going to, you know, stand, actually stand by them regardless of what the fallout is from that'. But I mean, my hope is that more people are going like, you know, would support those messages. Cause I think there are, there's also a growing population of people who are sick of it and who are, are tired of that crap and who know that diets don't work. Louise Adams: Yeah. I think the pushback is happening. It is maddening when we see stuff nearly, nearly get it. And then kind of, whiplash straight back into it, but we keep pushing. We keep these voices going and the voices are getting louder and louder and more diverse and more strident. And I think, you know, 2021 January has been the usual bullshit tsunami, but I hope that this conversation for the listeners helps get the bullshit detector flashing. Push back against this whole idea that insane levels of starvation are somehow healthy. And you know, what we can do is like articles, comment on articles like that. I haven't read too many of the comments on that article, 'The unbearable weight of diet culture', but I did see the usual shit fight starting underneath. Summer Innanen: I did too. Louise Adams: 'Oh my God, you're killing people'. Summer Innanen: I know, that's going to happen. That's going to happen. But you know what, like good on them for at least publishing that and getting it out there. And let's hope that five years from now, they're not, they're still standing by those things and not totally changing. Although I think I might be...I'm going to be cautiously optimistic on that one. Louise Adams: Uh, I mean, it's so crappy when you go to that little bit about the 1200 calorie diet. It says 'follow this and you will feel satisfied and drop all the weight', which is exact opposite of what we've just spent like half an hour telling you. Yeah. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like enough for maybe a seagull or something, but not a human being. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's...I'm still like, I'm just still in amazement that they took out the reference to the Holocaust concentration camp prisoners, because I think that, that was like, that was such a huge thing to say that...but maybe it was because then they didn't want to take down the 1200 calorie-a-day article. And so therefore they... Louise Adams: Interesting too that they hid the idea that this is our second most read article. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Louise Adams: That's pretty huge. Summer Innanen: It really lowered the number of people who had requested it or looked for it, or what did you say? It was like 45,000? Louise Adams: It was annually rather than by the month. Like it's just kind of interesting that they tapped in...they altered that part of the article. Which is kind of the bit, which says this is the bit where complicit with. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, have media literacy. Louise Adams: Yeah. Oh my God. But thank you so much for coming on and unpacking the crappy diet culture stuff that's circulating in our countries. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much for having me. I loved chatting with you. I loved, yeah, just kind of dissecting all this stuff. Yeah. Louise Adams: All the rage. So thank you for getting it off your chest and thanks for coming on. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much, Louise. Resources Mentioned in the Show: (Major trigger warning - all of these sharticles discuss weight loss in excruciating detail !!) The lady who lost weight to look like Barbie Woody the Weight loss guru Malamute The horrendous Keto plus fasting diet that claimed to be inspiring us (the same method that spiralled Summer's eating disorder) The Good Housekeeping article "The unbearable weight of diet culture" Find more about the wonderful Summer Innanen here Summer's wonderful podcast Eat The Rules
Today, Kathy welcomes Judith Matz, LCSW, and their topic is body positivity and you. In this conversation, they discuss body image and some strategies around it.
The news media are a major source of diet culture BS. Every day there's an apparently "inspirational" story in which diverse bodies are shrunk down to diet culture's version of acceptability. We're literally brainwashed into viewing increasingly disordered, bizarre and downright dangerous behaviours as "#inspirational". Join me and my guest, anti-diet warrior and coach Summer Innanen as we present some truly epic examples of "SHITSPIRATION" from Australia and Canada. You will not believe how ludicrous they are! Grown up humans are supposed to be #inspired by a 'doubledown diet' which reduces calorie intake to almost nothing, a BARBIE DOLL (I am not joking), and....a Malamute? You have to hear this to believe it, it's next level #ridiculous. Trigger warning for this episode - very explicit language and we're discussing diet, calorie counts, etc, in (critical) detail. This one's not for the faint hearted! But if you're ready to get your rage-o-meter cranked up to ALL FIRED UP, this episode's for you! Show Transcript Louise Adams: Oh, Summer, thank you so much for coming on the show. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. Louise Adams: Tell me, what's firing you up? Summer Innanen: Well, I saw an article recently in Women's Health, and it's about... it's supposed to be like a, you know, quote unquote 'weight loss inspiration story'. And it's about a woman who had a very significant weight loss experience by doing a very disordered diet. And I think what fired me up so much about it was not just the content within it, which I'm sure we'll you know, dissect and talk about it. But the fact that in 2015, in December 2015, Women's Health came out and it was a huge... we got a lot of headlines, a lot of publicity around the fact that they were taking the words, 'bikini body' and 'drop two sizes' off of their covers. So they sort of made this like quasi- body- positive stance. Like, 'hey, we've heard you, our readers. And we've heard that, you know, you don't like us sort of using this very patriarchal, sexist language'. Yeah. Yeah. And so, like I remember at the time this was shared, like even people within the sort of anti-diet community were sharing it, saying 'this is great, like nice to see a major publications sort of making these changes' and then, you know, to, to look and see here we are five years later and it's the same shit. Louise Adams: It's back. Summer Innanen: Worse. Like I would argue what this what's contained in this article is so terrible from the perspective of promoting disordered eating and like really what this person is talking about is like, the way that they eat to me sounds like a, like an eating disorder, which obviously like I'm not here to diagnose or go... Louise Adams: it's disordered eating practices. Right? It's promoting starvation. Summer Innanen: Yeah. So it's a combination of keto and intermittent fasting. So it's like keto isn't bad enough on its own. So it's like, we're going to make intermittent fasting onto it. Louise Adams: It's an unholy marriage. Summer Innanen: It is honestly, and that's like, for me, I think why I was so fired up about it too, is because when I sort of reached the end of the line with my own disordered relationship with food, I was doing, I was trying to...attempting, it would only last like three days...to do something kind of similar. And it's what absolutely destroyed my body. Like just... like put me into amenorrhea, even with like a higher body weight percentage, and like completely disrupted my hormones. And when I work with clients, I see the same kind of behaviors really being kind of the end of the line for a lot of people. Like the one that really, really kind of messes up their head and their physical, like their actual, you know, physiology a lot worse than other diets that they have done previously. Louise Adams: Oh, this is an awesome thing to get completely fired up about because like we have Women's Health magazine here, which is... it's not health, it's women's starving magazine. They did no such thing as like...to tell us that they're not going to do the 'bikini body', but how gaslighting to say, 'Oh, we're not going to do that anymore. Hello, here's something worse'. And like to use that kind of little bit of that... they just wanted the publicity of that. 'We want to perform the idea of body positivity, but like, hell no, we're not actually going to stick to that'. Summer Innanen: Yes, yes. Louise Adams: It's going to go back to this apparently inspirational behaviour of this lady. Who is doing the very thing that tipped you into like a severe eating disorder? That's so disturbing. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. And, you know, they give a outline of what she eats in a day and as I think, as I emailed you before, I was like, that's kind of what I eat for breakfast. Like, it's the same amount of calories that I consume for breakfast. Like, that's it. And I remember being in that frame of mind where you would read a magazine and they would sort of show like, 'oh, here's what somebody eats in a day'. Or 'here's what a celebrity eats in a day'. And I remember always feeling like, so ashamed because I ate so much more than that. And I was always like, 'what's wrong with me? Like, why can't I eat as little as this?' And you know, I just can't believe that stuff is still being put out there, like that the author of that piece didn't think like, 'Hey, this might really promote an eating disorder.' When it's that blatant! Literally... Louise Adams: my dog eats more than that. When it's that blatant and there's, you know, throughout every article that we're going to talk about today is...oh, except the last one. There's literally no critical thought. Or even appreciation of the damage that's being spread by these, like it's full on evil messaging as far as I'm concerned, dressed up as inspiration. That the fact that a journalist...journalists, as far as I know, are trained to be critical thinkers and, and yet it's like that goes out the window when it comes to these apparently inspirational stories. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Like there's absolutely no consciousness at all. That's what I felt like. Cause you know, it's just, it was one of those things. That's, it's almost like when I first read it, I was like, it's almost too ridiculous to believe this is...that they actually publish this as something that's supposed to be inspirational. But it's to me like, you know, I think the readership probably skews a little bit, you know, on the younger side, you know, maybe more like 20 to 30 age group or younger, probably teen, a lot of teenage girls and you know, to be reading that at such an impressionable age and to think 'oh, this is how...this is what I should be doing'. Which is essentially like starvation as well as like malnutrition and just something that would put such a high amount of both physical and mental stress on your body, that would really create like long lasting damage. Yeah, both biologically and psychologically. Louise Adams: And that's, that's who I see, you know, my clients are the diet casualties, people who have had these experiences and then...you know? Dieting like this, crash dieting...because this is, this lady is on a severe calorie restriction. And then she's added intermittent fasting, which basically means you're only allowed to eat for six hours a day and squish in your tiny little bits of food into six hours. Like when you really think about that, that is so many levels of fucked up and she's saying, 'oh, it's so good'. And I feel for her being in that diet head, And who knows maybe an eating disorder head, but there's ...the payoff is so great for her because the weight loss like that, the whole article is about her trying to shift the last bit. And she's still got a way to go. And her poor body, if her poor body could talk would be going, 'I'm starving. I'm slowing down this cause it's getting dangerous'. And she's like, 'right, I'm going to double down using the halo of intermittent fasting', which is starving. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yeah. And the other thing too, that stood out to me, well, two things. One is the amount of caffeine that she talks about drinking in terms of hydration. Cause it says, like, what really works for her. It's like, 'I'm really hydrating'. And it's like so much coffee and green tea. And I'm like, if I had that much caffiene I'd be, I don't even know what I would be doing. Louise Adams: That's a question I ask when I'm seeing people with eating disorders, like, what are you drinking? Because quite often when you get an eating disorder, you will drink caffeinated stuff to kill your appetite. So, she's calling that hydration. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing too, is that she uses the language of 'food freedom' to talk about how she feels, because she says you know, 'food is really just food. It's not good or bad. I don't obsess about it anymore'. And it's like, really that could be pulled from any sort of anti-diet playbook, which is what we want, but it's so counter to what she's actually doing. And I think that it kind of shows like when you're really into, like, when you' re really kind of overtaken your mind, you're sort of riding this, this buzz or this wave where it does feel like that. But, you haven't woken up to how you really are looking at things that way. And you really are, you know, like if you're tracking every calorie, which is what she says she was doing... Louise Adams: How is that freedom? Summer Innanen: Yeah. That's not freedom. And that's, that's like, maybe she's sort of, you know, like kidding herself. She's at the sort of like, kidding, 'I'm kidding myself' phase. Like, it's like, you know, most of us when we were sort of dieters were like, 'well, no, no, no, I'm doing it for my health. Like I'm doing no, this is for my health', but really underneath it's, you know, there's, there's some other stuff going on, but I hate it when they kind of steal, like they sort of co-opt the language of intuitive eating and co-op the language of the anti-diet message and really use it to promote something that's so restrictive. It just makes... Louise Adams: You know who came to my mind when you were saying that is Rebel Wilson. Summer Innanen: Yes Louise Adams: she's an Aussie actor and has always been in a larger body. Apparently like her kind of whole catch phase for 2020 was that it was her 'year of health'. Summer Innanen: Yes! Louise Adams: But the behaviors are restriction and starvation and over-exercise, but she's masking that in the language of 'I'm so healthy now'. Like, 'I don't think about food anymore. My habits are so great', but it's the same thing. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: Worlds apart from what the anti-dieting and intuitive eating stuff is actually about. Summer Innanen: Yeah. And, and like, it's not their fault. Like, I don't like talking about this. I'm not, I don't want to like, shame this, this woman at all. Louise Adams: As an individual, no. Summer Innanen: Or Rebel Wilson. It's like, but it's really about. You know, the it's really about the culture diet culture, and just the fact that we feel as women and more, you know, more specifically that we have to go to these extremes to really like, you know, show our, our worthiness as humans, like in our value. And like, Rebel Wilson is so talented. Louise Adams: I know, so funny. Summer Innanen: She's an awesome actress. And now it's like, everyone's just talking about her body and her weight loss. And it's like, it takes away from all these other amazing things that she's done. Louise Adams: And when it's really uncritical, as well. It's like, why is she so much better now than she's small? That just reinforces the diet culture message and keeps stories like the woman you talking about going. It's like, I can get all this attention, uncritical, positive attention, but it's like, we're not seeing what's right in front of it. Like we are teaching and promoting women in this case did a really, really sick eating disordered and stuff under the flag of health. Summer Innanen: And that is like, supremely unhealthy. Yeah. Yeah. It's so frustrating too, because you see all these positive changes happening in the way of, you know, women becoming more liberated or just having, you know, bigger voices taking up more space. And yet it's just like the same old shit is still there as it relates to our bodies and our value and, and... Louise Adams: There's such an uptick too, in January, isn't there. Summer Innanen: Oh yeah. It's a predictable tsunami of the weight loss. The walls of relentless inspiration, whether we want it or not. It's just, it's here. ESpecially with the pandemic, you know, because everyone, a lot of people have...maybe their bodies have changed a little bit, which makes a ton of sense because we're under a lot of stress or just life changes that have happened. So I think that, you know, depending on where you live, if there's still a lot of restrictions, which I was saying to you before, like there still is here. Dieting gives you like a bit of hope, almost like weight loss gives you a bit of hope. In this time when maybe some of us are feeling a little hopeless or just like really kind of sick of, sick of the isolation and everything else. And so I wouldn't be surprised that maybe your body's changed a bit during quarantine. I wouldn't be surprised if this year really you see like just a lot more people really engaging in dieting as a way to cope with the emotion, emotional discomfort of living through a pandemic. Louise Adams: That is a really good point, isn't it. Dieting can be a bit of a lifeline. It can feel like it, like something familiar to do in a scary time. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Some sense of control, some sense of like, you know, hope, something else to focus on other than like the fact that there's a lot of horrible things happening in the world. Yeah, absolutely, a hundred percent. And I just, I, you know, I've heard it from people that I work with just feeling more urges to diet lately. And I think that, yeah, it's just something to be mindful of. If anyone listening is experiencing that too, like I think it's pretty normal to be experiencing more of those urges, but hopefully you can... Louise Adams: LIsten to today's episode and get your bullshit detector back. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't drink the Kool-Aid it's not actually going to help. Louise Adams: It's not control! Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Louise Adams: It's so interesting because like, Canada is very similar to Australia, culturally in lots and lots of ways. And it's funny...not funny. It's not funny. Cause like, you're talking about really disturbing uncritical weightless articles. And we've got them here in Australia too. And I really want to talk to you about the lady who lost weight, because she wanted to look like Barbie. Yes. And Summer Innanen: I, so you said that to me, I honestly, it was like, okay, this needs to be a tabloid. Like this can't be like a real, and, and then you told me that it's actually a very legit publication. Louise Adams: Yeah. Oh, I'm so ashamed of ourselves. So, this is on Nine News. Channel Nine is Murdoch press and it's, you know, one of it's a huge...it's the number one news platform in Australia for news. I want to say news, right? News. Okay, exciting. And in this news, I'm just using air quotes. It's this story from late gen a Barbie fan has dropped a whopping blah-blah-blah kilos in a bid to look like a favorite doll. And it's a story about a lady called...a 35 year old lady called Kayla. Who's apparently battled with her weight since she was seven, and has done all of the diets in the book and… Like, I just, I can't even, because yes, Nine News is promoting this as, as awesome. This lady that the article is...littered with her dressed as Barbie. She's a full grown female adult woman dressed as Barbie. And the whole story is about how she's had a gastric sleeve and, and is also starving herself, post gastric sleeve, and now she's very happy and...like I just, I mean, I can't get this article out of my head because it's on a major news platform also. I've just realized it was on the TV on a morning show. She now lives in Las Vegas pursuing her Barbie lifestyle. And I'm not criticizing Kayla herself whatsoever, but what I'm criticizing is the news. Which, by the way, I've also found out isn't even news, because this is from Jan 2021. When I'm Googling, to send you the article. THis article actually came out in June last year, it's old, it's not, it's old. It's not news. But it's been rehashed - guess why, it's January - it's Diet season and then some, you know, money hungry gastric sleeve doctors, and some people who want to sell their diets saying 'let's get her on TV, and uncritically throw this... it's an appallingly ridiculous idea that we need to look like a doll in order to reach the pinnacle of our existence. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think like, you know, there were, I don't even...there were so many things wrong with this piece. Louise Adams: It's hard to know where to start. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Okay. Well, let's start with when she was a kid, because she talks about how, you know, 'it didn't matter how hard I tried or what side I was on. I could rarely shift the weight or I would lose some and then regain double'. And it's like, well, yeah, that's what diets do. And so, this poor girl probably had her parents putting her on diets, which we know she did actually. Louise Adams: It says 'my obsession with Barbie began as a child and has continued into my adult life. I used to have over 200 dolls as my parents use them as an incentive to go on a diet and lose weight'. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Which is so messed up. Louise Adams: That just made me want to cry. Yeah. Because as a parent to, bribe your a child with a Barbie doll, like the poor thing, she's seven. I know. And I don't know, that's at least 200 diets, isn't it? Summer Innanen: Well, exactly, like how horrifying is that? So, her metabolism is probably been so altered and she has no sense of her own instincts on what actually, you know, feels good for her. And her parents basically instilled like this belief that like you're better or you're good or you're more worthy when you lose weight, And like, to think about the damage that that would do to someone's self-worth and their body image and the way that they feel it. Yeah. Yeah, right. Louise Adams: Cause it's...I see this as a real heartbreaking story and I cannot understand how this is inspiration. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. It's so awful. It reminds me of the there's this book. I don't know if you've ever read it. It's called 'The Heavy' and it's about a mother who puts her daughter on a diet and it's...it's a memoir written from the mother's perspective and she keeps putting her, she can't figure out why her daughter can't lose weight. She keeps putting her on diet after diet, after diet. And like, it just reminds me of that because the parent is...has so much internalized fat phobia and their own disordered relationship with food that then they pass down to their kids. And like, that's what I see. I'm sure you see all the time with the people that we work with is that what our parents did, which they kind of were doing out of this like, protection. They wanted to protect us by helping us lose weight or commenting on our body or restricting food...actually completely backfired and made us feel like we, you know, we weren't worthy of their approval, of love, like of our own existence, unless we looked a certain way unless we lost weight, unless we ate a certain way... Louise Adams: All contingent on weight, which is it's insane because a weight is not under our control. And when we do the diet thing, all we guarantee is a slowed metabolism and weight regain. And she even says in this that she would lose it, then lose weight and then regain like that. Plus some, which is, we know that's perfectly normal as a response to starvation her. And cause her parents obviously have that internalized weight stigma, and she has it, you know? This is a story about her internalized weight stigma and how, you know, rather than kind of pushing back or being able to push back against it. She's really drunk the Kool-Aid. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. And again, they highlight what she eats in a day, which is like, why, why these places do this is like, beyond me, because... Louise Adams: Well, they go into so many stereotypes too. Cause like it's the, it's the traditional thing like, 'Oh, before I had my gastric sleeve, I was a bad person and I ate terribly'. And ignoring the fact that perhaps her, part of her weight issues was to do with the diets themselves. Summer Innanen: Right? Louise Adams: Yeah. So that's ignored and so about...'it was definitely 100% my personal fault' quote unquote, 'that my body was large and I ate terribly but now I eat great'. But, what we see actually, like when you look at that, what she used to eat, she used to starve herself all day and then eat at night. Summer Innanen: Right? It's like, well of course you're going to binge at night. If you starve all day, that's no surprise there. You're going to be so hungry. You'll eat anything that's not locked down. And then what she eats now is like, it's so dangerous. It's like such a low amount of food and... Louise Adams: And says, 'I ate,'...I'm going to read some numbers here so trigger warning. Cause it's just, I just want to get across the point of how restrictive it is. She's had 80% of her stomach removed, and then she's saying 'I eat 90 grams of protein a day, 10 grams of carbs and five grams of sugar'. Everyday. Summer Innanen: Do you know what...10 grams. That's not even a banana. Right? 10 grams of carbs. Like that's like, that's like what? Like a few baby carrots or something like that? Louise Adams: There's no actual veggies. Breakfast is a protein shake. Lunches, chicken or beef with cheese, dinner is chicken or steak or a protein shake. And the snacks, cashews or walnuts. Like there's there's no fruit or veggies. Poor thing. In a stomach which is 80% removed, amputated. Summer Innanen: And can't be reversed. They also say that, which is another thing. Louise Adams: And it says this article has the hide to say 'she now has a good relationship with food'. Summer Innanen: Yes. I highlighted that too, because again, it's like, co-opting this language of food, freedom and, and using it in like a place where it's like clearly a very disordered. Louise Adams: How is that a good relationship with food? Summer Innanen: Yeah, it's sad. Louise Adams: And works out seven days a week. Summer Innanen: That, right. That was the other thing that really stood out because also extremely unhealthy to be, to be doing something like that. And you just sort of wonder, like what's going to happen to this individual. You know, and they may be riding the sort of like validation of having a significant weight change and getting the publicity and feeling really good about that. Louise Adams: But, you know, as we all know totally done it, you know, as a psychologist, she's finally saying to her mum, 'look, I am the Barbie doll'. I just...it's heartbreaking. I totally get why she's doing it. Summer Innanen: Right. Louise Adams: But I find it an incredibly sad story. Summer Innanen: I know, and I feel bad for her as a child. Louise Adams: I feel like I'm kind of alone in seeing her as a really sad story. Summer Innanen: No, it's really sad. It is really sad. And it's, and it's this idea like, again, it's like this idea that it's our fault, like, and it's a kid's fault if they are in a larger body instead of thinking, 'okay, well, this is just, you know, genetics'. Louise Adams: Here's my child, here's my kid. Give her a barbie doll, for fuck's sake, if she wants one. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Not to earn it by restricting food or whatnot. To put all the onus on her and to, you know, that she had to earn it by losing weight, earn Barbie dolls by losing weight. Like, it's so sad. And yet it's being like, you know, applauded and praised and... Louise Adams: It's sickening. How like diet culture, it's weight loss at all costs. And this is an extreme example of the costs, but I mean...2015, right? Women's Health magazine is talking about, 'Oh, we see the harm done by diet culture. We see that talking about women as if they're a bikini body and stuff is not cool anymore. Well, we're going to stop doing that'. But now, like we just talked about like two really extreme articles promoting starvation. Like there's no problem here. And we've gaslit ourselves to the point where these things are being called lifestyle changes or health behaviors. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Louise Adams: We're talking about stuff that's much, much worse than the good old diet industry days. Summer Innanen: Right, right. Yeah. It seems to have gotten a lot more extreme, hasn't it? Like it's, it's something that has, it's always sort of been extreme, but it seems to be even more....I guess now the extremism is normalized. Louise Adams: Yeah. And it's mainstream. It's like pro-ana used to be pro-ana, cause we could see it as being different to what the world was. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: Yeah. Someone said to you, I only ate in a six hour window and I don't eat any vegetables or fruit or carbs. We're like, 'Oh, you're so healthy. How do you do it?' Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. 'Let me put you in my magazine. You're a success story'. But I wonder if like, if either of them took, you know, assessments on whether or not you have an eating disorder or disordered relationship with food, you would most likely see that they would probably check most of the boxes in terms of the things that they would say that they're thinking and doing as it relates to...you know, the behaviors, but I was going to say as well, it also just shows how weight stigma plays a role here. Because if this was an already thin person eating this stuff, you know, we as....there might be more people sort of calling this out as like very disordered or an eating disorder, but because they were in larger bodies and they went to these extreme measures to get in a smaller body it's applauded and like, that's the influence of weight stigma. It's like, we prescribed these eating disorder behaviors to people in larger bodies that we would diagnosis an eating disorder and somebody in a smaller body. Louise Adams: Yeah. that's Deb Burgard's point, isn't it. That's so like... Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. Thank you. Cause I was like, I'm saying this and I'm like, I can't remember....thank you. Louise Adams: I know, it's such a slam dunk awesome quote because it's exactly what's happening here. Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Louise Adams: You know, I wonder, I literally wonder, like what you're saying about, if it was someone smaller, would, would the media alarm bells ring. Because I'm thinking, well, if that was Gwyneth Paltrow's day in a plate, we'd probably still be going, 'Ooh, isn't she cool?' Summer Innanen: You know what, you're right. And I saw that recently because Aaron Flores who hosts the Dieticians Unplugged podcast, he posted...I think it was via Glamour magazine. It was like what Kelly Ripa eats in a day. And it was the same thing. It was like, she was basically talking about how she eats dust. But...it was honestly very similar to what the first, the girl in the Women's Health magazine was talking about eating in a day. And so, you're 100 percent right. So, so maybe my point is... Louise Adams: I do think it's viewed differently. But I actually think that we're getting to the point where like it's competitive, not eating is at such extreme levels that we're not, it's only the people in the eating disorder industry who are going, 'hello, what the hell', like it has become so unfashionable to eat like a grownup. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. Eat like a grown ass adult is what I say exactly. Exactly. Yes. I remember. I remember in the one that the Kelly Ripa, when she says, like, she called it...'my first chewable food of the day is around like 11:00 AM' or something, like that was the way that she described it. And I just, I remember commenting on it when Aaron and I was like, I can't believe she just used the expression, my first chewable food of the day. Like if, if that's not a red flag that you're describing the way you eat stuff, using those terms. And I don't mean to laugh. It sounds like a laughing at someone with a disordered relationship with food, but it really is horrifying. Just how normalized and then praised and applauded that is. Louise Adams: Like, 'oh, oh no, it's any 10 o'clock. Should I be chewing? Oh my God'. Summer Innanen: Yes, exactly. And I just, and again, like, I just remember always looking at those things and feeling so ashamed and always just being like, why can't I do that? Like, why can't. And thank goodness, my body couldn't do that because it was the reason why I didn't actually have like a full blown eating disorder and instead was just a chronic dieter. Louise Adams: We really need to stop this. We really need to stop listing what people like in a day. It's ridiculous. It's kind of like comparing what we eat to each other, it's encouraging externalization of eating behavior? We cannot continue to do that. Like really, the articles about 'what I eat in a day' should just be followed by the phrase 'is going to vary every single day', and it's none of your damn business'. Right. Summer Innanen: Yes. Yes. That's the headline right there. Louise Adams: Right. Eyes on your own plate. Does it matter? It's not a fricking competition. It's not like we're going like, 'ooh, what my poo looks like every day. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe that's where we are we going? Comparing physical functions. We just need to stop. It's so true. You kind of quid pro quo's me with, like, I came up with the Barbie ridiculous story and you came up with a whopper from Canada. Summer Innanen: The dog? Louise Adams: Yeah. Summer Innanen: So, this was on the CBC. So CBC is the Canadian Broadcasting Company, it's like our major national news network. And like, that's the one place I go when I want to get unbiased, like just straight up, really factual news. And they have this article that they posted called 'meet Woody a massive Malamute, serving up weight loss inspiration for the new year'. I just couldn't believe this was on the CBC and it's literally like this story, this weight loss story of a dog that like dropped half its weight and also had like shared it on social media as a way to inspire others to, you know... Louise Adams: Other dogs? Summer Innanen: No, no, no. Oh no. Humans. Louise Adams: This is a new low, eat like a dog. Summer Innanen: This is... Louise Adams: Oh my God. It says, 'If you're looking for inspiration to meet your new year's resolution to trim the fat, look no further'. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Yeah, no, it's to inspire humans. Louise Adams: Oh, please stop inspiring me. Oh my God. Summer Innanen: It's such a cute dog though. I just, as a side note, he's a really, really cute dog, but you know, this has come up. I don't know if you've been...you've probably been asked this question too before, but people will say like, well, you know, why is it okay to put pets on diets, but not humans? Do you have a good answer for that? By the way? Before I was going to say what I say. Louise Adams: I don't think I have actually had that question put to me. Summer Innanen: Oh, you haven't? Just me. I've gotten that. Louise Adams: Why is it okay? I don't, I don't know if it is okay. Like, I haven't looked at the weight loss research for dogs, but I'm assuming it's going to be physiologically similar to humans. Right? I don't know. I don't know. Summer Innanen: I don't know. My answer is like, we're not dogs. Like we aren't dogs, dogs aren't influenced by like diet culture. Like dogs don't have fat phobia., cause they're not like looking at thinner dogs everywhere and thinking like, 'I'm not good enough because I don't look like that'. Like they're... Louise Adams: Oh my God, you're reminding me of poodle science, you know, ASDAH's awesome little video. Which is like, it's illustrating what body diversity is like, you know. But in weight science it's like, all the poodles are in charge and they're telling everyone, all the breeds of dogs to like, they like 'be like me, be like the poodle', but like a starving mastiff will never be the same as a poodle. Summer Innanen: Right, exactly. Yeah. One of the first like, quotes that I said many years ago was 'we're not Golden Retrievers'. We're not all meant to look the same. It's one of the things that I still say to this day, because it's true. And you know, in this article, like it's a pretty basic...they're just restricting the dog's food and making the dog exercise. But this idea that like we're similar at all. It's just so, it's so backwards to me because it completely ignores the culture that we live in. And like the fact that we are emotional being...dogs are emotional beings too. Yes. I will give you that. I love dogs. But they don't have the same. Not living in like a patriarchal society. They're not exposed to sexism. Like they're not, they're not exposed to fatphobia like, I don't think they're internalizing those charts at the vet that have like pictures of the different dogs with the big classifications like we would be. They don't feel ashamed when they step on the scale. Louise Adams: There's no diet culture in dogs, but there's diet culture in the humans that own them. And you can hear that in this article, can't you? Because it's like...actually it's everywhere. Like this sentence, 'he once weighed double what he should have'. How do you know what he should? He's a fucking Malamute. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah. Louise Adams: 'Should have'. So, we've decided what he should weigh and we starved him down there. And then, Pam Hedgie, who's the foster mom, apparently she's known for doing this. Starving the dogs so that they're adoptable. Now, that is awful. And...but the woman she's like, totally like lost it. She puts it on social media and...here we go. She says, 'humans have something to learn from dogs. They're so willing. I think that's the most amazing part about them. They don't get down, they get up everyday, they're happy to go to the park. And it has to be hard work. It can't be a breeze, but they're so happy and willing to do it. We could all learn a little bit about that'. I'm sure what he likes going for walks. Yeah, but I'm also sure that if Woody could talk, he'd say 'why are you starving me?' Summer Innanen: Yeah. I think it's, again it's like, you know, it just shows, 'okay, you have to do something extreme to be healthy'. Whereas really it's like, of course the dog wants to go out and play. And if we just let them do that by letting them tell us and get them outside, and they listened to their bodies, kind of like humans do..then you wouldn't have to, you know...It's not like this, like... 'oh, you should work out every day and you have to like push yourself through'. It's like dogs are naturally hardwired to kind of want to be that way anyways. And so long as we give them an environment where they can do those things, then they're going to be healthy regardless of their size. And that's, that's sort of similar to humans in a way. Louise Adams: His health is not even mentioned. Like it'e literally just his size. And this assumption that he has to be half his size. Like we don't even know it was here actually just a larger dog in good health? We don't even know how old he is? Summer Innanen: No, you're right. You're right. Because yeah, because malamutes are huge to begin with anyways. Louise Adams: Yeah. Well, I've got a Great Dane and like big dogs, the big dogs. And like, my vet, there is no correct weight. And like, I love my vet because my vet is like full of body diversity. It's like, there's a great big range in Great Danes. You can have smaller Great Danes and big Great Danes. And they're all Great Danes. Summer Innanen: That's so refreshing. Wow. Louise Adams: Thank you. I'm in the right place. Summer Innanen: People used to criticize my dog all the...my dog might, we lost my dog a few months ago. People used to like stop me on the street and like...not me actually, they would always do my husband for some reason. Cause they probably saw the look on my face and was like, 'I'm not going to say anything'. They would say like, 'what are you feeding your dog? Like your dog is too big' because we had a pug and he was really big and he was just naturally. Really big. He'd always been really big and like, vets were always totally fine with him. We never had a vet say, 'hey, you know, you gotta watch this weight' or anything like that. But, you know, people in the street would stop and comment. And I remember just saying to my husband, I was like, 'I swear if someone did that to me, I would just rip them to...', I don't know why they always stopped him. Louise Adams: Yeah. Actually now you say it. I get that about my Great Dane, Dolly. Her name is Dolly Pawton. It's so cute. They stop us and they're like, Oh, what is, what does he ate? Oh, first of all, they say 'he', cause obviously a big dog is always a 'he'. 'What do you feed him? He must eat you out of house and home.' This dog eats, you know, not as much as my boxer that I used to have. So there's assumption about size and what they eat. Let's look to our dogs, right? No as inspirational weightless stories, but as diversity right in front of us. Summer Innanen: Yes. Louise Adams: And connection. Summer Innanen: And how we just love them regardless of their size. Louise Adams: I know. Like, poor old Woody, he's not more oveable now he's starved into submission. Summer Innanen: It's so silly to me that they would use that as a story of inspiration. Must've been a slow news day in Canada. Like you don't have a pandemic going on, I don't know why. Louise Adams: The sad point is that it appears that Woody has more variety in his diet than the Barbie lady. Summer Innanen: Oh yeah, at least he's eating lots of fruits and vegetables. I know. Oh my gosh. Right. Louise Adams: God. So, we've arrived at our last. Article, which is an interesting one in Good Housekeeping. That's just come out. Jan 29th, 2021. 'The unbearable weight of diet culture', which...it's such an exciting article cause it's really long, really in-depth, and it's talking about this whole idea of diet culture. In the intro, it says this: 'throughout 2021, Good Housekeeping will be exploring how we think about weight, the way we eat and how we try to control or change our bodies in our quest to be happier and healthier. While Good Housekeeping also publishes weight loss content, and endeavours to do so in a responsible science backed way, we think it's important to present a broad perspective that allows for a fuller understanding of the complex thinking about health and body weight'. So, kind of cool. Summer Innanen: Kind of reminded me of the Women's Health 2015 publicity. What I do like about this article, I will say, is Judith Matz and Christy Harrison are quoted quite a bit through it. Louise Adams: And Sabrina Strings. Summer Innanen: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Which I thought was great because they tied in that component too, like the race component. And I thought it was one of those articles that you could probably send to a family member or a friend that didn't understand why you were doing Intuitive Eating or that had questions about it, but you didn't really know how to give them the information in a way that was a little more palatable. And I thought that this article was one of those things that you could totally pass along to them. It's easy to read, makes a lot of sense, kind of hits all the main points. It's one that I'll probably bookmark for people. Louise Adams: It's nice too as evidence that the wider culture is taking the whole concept of not dieting and looking at the Health At Every Size sort of stuff seriously. Summer Innanen: Yes. And actual people who are in the space instead of like the people who are in between who talk about this stuff yet still promote weight loss, you know, like the sort of like, you know, Geneen Roths of the world and whatnot. So, I thought it was really great that they actually had a lot of, like a lot of like really well-respected experts weighing in and some good links and things like that, but there was still a little problem with it. Did you want to talk about that or do you want me to talk about it? Louise Adams: So it's at one point it says, look like it's all this awesome, awesome and stuff. And then it says, loo... they're talking about how the media in particular can promote dieting, and it says 'even Good housekeeping's own article on 1200 calorie diets is a tricky juxtaposition. The article aims to serve the approximately 40,500 people who search for 1200 calorie meal plans on Google every month. Despite the 2015 study that shows this number of calories falls within the realm of clinical starvation'. And that's, that's been changed... Summer Innanen: It has actually, because I... Louise Adams: I think it said something about the Holocaust before? Summer Innanen: Okay. So I have it, cause I cut and paste it into a document. It says, this is what used to say. It says, 'It's the most popular article here on Good Housekeeping's own website, about 1200 calorie diets that netted over 2 million search users in 2019 alone. Our second most read story of the year, despite the fact the number of calories falls within the realm of clinical starvation. In brackets - Holocaust concentration camp prisoners were fed 1,250 to 1400 calories per day'. So, that's really interesting that they changed it. Louise Adams: They've watered it down, haven't they? They've removed a bit of culpability. Like, cause that example of like in a concentration camp, you would get more food. Summer Innanen: It reminds me of the Minnesota starvation study, which, which was around like 1500... Louise Adams: 1500. Summer Innanen: 1500 calories a day. Louise Adams: And they all went around the twist from that over six months. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: I'm so glad you cut and pasted that. Summer Innanen: Yes. So that, and then the other big thing is they still link to the goddamn diet. Like they still link to it. They link to the 1200 calorie day diet. Like it's like they're saying, 'okay, we're exploring this'. And then they're linking to the thing that is probably the most like harmful triggering thing that you could put in that article. Louise Adams: 'We're not actually going to stop doing it because it's the second most popular thing we do'. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Louise Adams: That is so fucked up. Summer Innanen: It's like these publications want to explore these topics and they admit that they're complicit and they get publicity because of that, they get a bit of applause and then they continue to uphold and perpetuate the same dangerous stuff. Louise Adams: Get off the fence, Good Housekeeping. Get the splinter out of your ass. Take the article down. Summer Innanen: Yeah, take it down, take it down. If you want to, you know, put your money where your mouth is... but they don't, they want to keep taking other people's money. And then you were telling me this was the article that people were opening and then they were seeing weight loss advertisements, right? Was it this one? Louise Adams: Yeah. So I was saying chats and people like reading the article, but in between the text of the article, were getting sold weight loss stuff. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. Louise Adams: I mean, geez. I mean, can we, at some point stop the fence sitting and stop performing the recognition of diet culture as harmful and, and start actually stopping the harm. So we protect little kids, like little miss Barbie. Summer Innanen: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Louise Adams: And we stop the metabolic and physiological harm. If nothing else, you know. People are so worried. In the article, Good housekeeping. It's talking about how more people are dieting than ever before. Did you see ...'In November, 2020, the CDC, Centre for Disease Control, reported that more people are actually dieting now compared to 10 years ago', you know? Dieting, even though no one's dieting, more people are dieting than in 2010. And we are in massive trouble from the perspective of psychological damage and also from the perspective of long-term metabolic damage. And if I hear one more person bang on about diabetes, insulin resistance, you know, metabolic problems from being fat and they haven't kind of put the pieces together about actually, maybe it's the people who are dieting because it's the dieting that's doing that kind of physiological damage. You know, we need to wake up. So Good Housekeeping aren't just able to politically fence it because it sells sharticles and sells hits on their harmful website. We've got to. If we care about health, let's start caring about it. Right, right. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that historically Good Housekeeping's always had like, you know, advertisements for Slim Fast and like diet, weight loss drugs in their magazine. And so I, you know, I would wager I guess, that that's still going to be there. And, you know, I think the reason why diets have probably gone up like over the last 10 years is because it's all shrouded in health now. Louise Adams: Yeah, it's 'not dieting' Summer Innanen: Like everyone thinks that, yeah. It's like, this is our quote unquote 'healthy lifestyle'. Louise Adams: 'I've got a good relationship with food'. Summer Innanen: Right. And it seems, it's almost seen, like positioned as more empowering versus restrictive. And so like, more people are buying into it, but like you said, it's all the same bullshit when you look at it. Louise Adams: Just wrapped in glitter. Summer Innanen: Right, exactly. It's like that meme that the HAES student doctor says, it's like the poo emoji called 'diet' and then like in glitter, it's like 'lifestyle change'. It all, you know, it all upholds fatphobia. And dangerous dieting. And quick weight loss. And this idea that... Louise Adams: And a massive industry. Let's not forget that this is all a bloody huge industry. It's...what is it? 600 billion in the States every year. Summer Innanen: Yes. Louise Adams: Yeah. This is a business and the media is in the business of keeping these businesses going. And even when they admit it, they don't stop it. Summer Innanen: Well because they would lose their sponsors. And, and then it would, I mean, it would all probably collapse. So it's a tough situation. It's a tricky situation. I don't think it's an easy fix. I think you have to really stand out. You have to be willing to say like, 'okay, we're going to really be, you know, these are our company values and we're going to, you know, stand, actually stand by them regardless of what the fallout is from that'. But I mean, my hope is that more people are going like, you know, would support those messages. Cause I think there are, there's also a growing population of people who are sick of it and who are, are tired of that crap and who know that diets don't work. Louise Adams: Yeah. I think the pushback is happening. It is maddening when we see stuff nearly, nearly get it. And then kind of, whiplash straight back into it, but we keep pushing. We keep these voices going and the voices are getting louder and louder and more diverse and more strident. And I think, you know, 2021 January has been the usual bullshit tsunami, but I hope that this conversation for the listeners helps get the bullshit detector flashing. Push back against this whole idea that insane levels of starvation are somehow healthy. And you know, what we can do is like articles, comment on articles like that. I haven't read too many of the comments on that article, 'The unbearable weight of diet culture', but I did see the usual shit fight starting underneath. Summer Innanen: I did too. Louise Adams: 'Oh my God, you're killing people'. Summer Innanen: I know, that's going to happen. That's going to happen. But you know what, like good on them for at least publishing that and getting it out there. And let's hope that five years from now, they're not, they're still standing by those things and not totally changing. Although I think I might be...I'm going to be cautiously optimistic on that one. Louise Adams: Uh, I mean, it's so crappy when you go to that little bit about the 1200 calorie diet. It says 'follow this and you will feel satisfied and drop all the weight', which is exact opposite of what we've just spent like half an hour telling you. Yeah. Summer Innanen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like enough for maybe a seagull or something, but not a human being. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's...I'm still like, I'm just still in amazement that they took out the reference to the Holocaust concentration camp prisoners, because I think that, that was like, that was such a huge thing to say that...but maybe it was because then they didn't want to take down the 1200 calorie-a-day article. And so therefore they... Louise Adams: Interesting too that they hid the idea that this is our second most read article. Summer Innanen: Yeah. Louise Adams: That's pretty huge. Summer Innanen: It really lowered the number of people who had requested it or looked for it, or what did you say? It was like 45,000? Louise Adams: It was annually rather than by the month. Like it's just kind of interesting that they tapped in...they altered that part of the article. Which is kind of the bit, which says this is the bit where complicit with. Summer Innanen: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So, have media literacy. Louise Adams: Yeah. Oh my God. But thank you so much for coming on and unpacking the crappy diet culture stuff that's circulating in our countries. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much for having me. I loved chatting with you. I loved, yeah, just kind of dissecting all this stuff. Yeah. Louise Adams: All the rage. So thank you for getting it off your chest and thanks for coming on. Summer Innanen: Thank you so much, Louise. Resources Mentioned in the Show: (Major trigger warning - all of these sharticles discuss weight loss in excruciating detail !!) The lady who lost weight to look like Barbie Woody the Weight loss guru Malamute The horrendous Keto plus fasting diet that claimed to be inspiring us (the same method that spiralled Summer's eating disorder) The Good Housekeeping article "The unbearable weight of diet culture" Find more about the wonderful Summer Innanen here Summer's wonderful podcast Eat The Rules
Judith Matz on uncovering the sneakiness of diet culture, how it shows up in healthcare and how we can move forward. In this episode, Judith shares more about her inspiring and long career, how her first book ‘Beyond the Shadow of a Diet evolved and how it helped her find community, how this work has changed over time, the process of learning and unlearning and the cruciality of the ongoing learning/work, the many sneaky faces of diet culture, more about the Body Positive Card Deck created by Judith and Amy Pershing and Judith’s hope for the future of HAES and anti-diet work. As mentioned in the podcast: Beyond the Shadow of a Diet, 2nd Edition (Book), by Judith Matz, LCSW and Dr Ellen Frankel, PhD. The Diet Survivors Handbook, by Judith Matz, LCSW Body Positive Card Deck by Judith Matz, LCSW and Amy Pershing, LMSW, ACSW, CCTP-II Jess Campbell, HAES student doctor and Nutritionist. Dr Natasha Larmie, The Fat Doctor. Dr Joshua Wolrich MBBS MRCS, NHS Surgical Doctor (HAES). Dr Lisa Erlanger, MD Dr Lesley Williams, MD, Author, Physician, Advocate About Judith: Judith Matz, LCSW is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of The Body Positivity Card Deck, The Diet Survivor’s Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, and author of the children's book, Amanda's Big Dream. Judith's work has been featured in the media including NPR, New York Times and Psychotherapy Networker, and she has a private practice in the Chicago area. Judith offers a popular full day training (live webinar or digital) for mental health/health professionals: Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing and Body Image: What Every Clinician Needs to Know through PESI, Inc. Connect with Judith: Website Instagram Books Facebook Training
Anti-diet therapists and authors Judith Matz and Amy Pershing return to the podcast to discuss their latest project, The Body Positivity Card Deck; how trauma and shame affect our relationships with food and the body; intersectionality in body-acceptance work; the role of self-compassion in eating-disorder recovery; and so much more. Plus, in Ask Food Psych, Christy answers a listener question about whether a particular fad diet is misusing the term “intuitive eating.” Judith Matz, LCSW is a therapist, author and nationally recognized speaker on the topics of diet culture, binge eating, emotional eating, body image, and weight stigma. She is co-author of The Diet Survivor's Handbook and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, and the author of Amanda's Big Dream. Her work has been featured in the media including NPR, The New York Times, and Psychotherapy Networker. Judith has a private practice in Skokie. She recently co-authored The Body Positivity Card Deck (PESI, 2020). Find her online at JudithMatz.com. Amy Pershing LMSW, ACSW, CCTP-II is the Founding Director of Bodywise Binge Eating Disorder Treatment Program, and the Clinical Director of the Center for Eating Disorders in Ann Arbor. She is also the creator of Hungerwise™, an online 9-week program for ending chronic dieting and weight cycling. Based on 30 years of clinical experience, Amy has pioneered a powerful treatment approach for binge eating that incorporates Internal Family Systems theory and the latest somatic techniques for healing trauma. Amy's treatment program also integrates a non-diet “attuned eating and movement" approach and a Health At Every Size philosophy. Pershing lectures internationally and writes extensively on the treatment of BED and her own recovery journey for both professional and lay communities. She has been featured on radio, podcast, and television speaking about BED treatment and recovery, relapse prevention, weight stigma, and attuned eating and movement. She is the winner of BEDA’s 2016 Pioneer in Clinical Advocacy award, and has served on a variety of professional boards. She is the Past Chair of the Binge Eating Disorder Association, and the author of the book Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery and Beyond (Routledge, 2018). Amy maintains a clinical practice treating binge eating disorder both virtually and in Ann Arbor. Find her online at TheBodyWiseProgram.com. If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, come check out Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Christy's book, Anti-Diet, is available wherever you get your books. Order online at christyharrison.com/book, or at local bookstores across North America, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, for help getting started on the anti-diet path. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.
Anti-diet therapist and author Judith Matz joins us to talk about shifting the focus of emotional eating toward the underlying deprivation and diet mentality, why turning to food to meet emotional needs isn’t an “eating problem” but a “soothing problem,” how diet culture and marginalization rob us of the ability to meet our needs, why Health at Every Size and intuitive eating are better approaches for true health, Judith’s work teaching other therapists about weight stigma, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to frame public health efforts to change the built environment in a way that doesn’t stigmatize people in larger bodies. This episode originally aired on April 9, 2018 Judith is the co-author of two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles. Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and a favorite resource for therapists to use with clients. She is also the author of Amanda’s Big Dream, a children’s book that helps kids to pursue their dreams – at any size! Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL, where she focuses her work with clients who want to get off the diet/binge rollercoaster and learn to feel at home in their bodies. Through her individual counseling, groups, workshops, presentations and books, Judith has helped thousands of people to develop self-care skills that increase physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing without a focus on the pursuit of weight loss. Through educational programs, she is dedicated to helping people end the preoccupation with food and weight and to fighting weight stigma. Judith is a popular speaker at national conferences and descriptions of her work have appeared in the media including the New York Times, LA Times, Allure, Fitness, Self, Shape, Today’s Dietitian, Diabetes Self-Management, Psychotherapy Networker, NBC News Chicago, Huffington Post Live, and she appears in the documentary America The Beautiful 2. Find her online at JudithMatz.com. This episode is brought to you by Christy's forthcoming book, Anti-Diet, which is now available for pre-order! Learn more and pre-order now at christyharrison.com/book. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, to get started on the anti-diet path. If you're ready to break free from diet culture once and for all, join Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions. To learn more about Food Psych and get full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych.
How do other people recover into a world that hasn't recovered from its own eating disorder? How do others binge less and love their body more in this thin obsessed world? Listen to this Love Food episode featuring words from a previous letter writer who wants to share the steps they've taken. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode is brought to you by my courses: PCOS and Food Peaceand Dietitians PCOS and Food Peace. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. thirdwheelEDis a social media advocacy platform that raises awareness of eating disorders in LGBTQ+ communities. Started by a queer couple whose writing addresses the intersectionality of eating disorders and body image, including gender dysphoria; a queer identity; trauma; and gender identity and expression, CJ and OJ provide a dual perspective of eating disorder recovery through the lens of a nonbinary person in recovery and of a nontraditional family carer, who just happens to also be a registered dietitian! CJ and OJ would love to work with eating disorder professionals on cultivating inclusive treatment for eating disorders in LGBTQ+ communities and are available to discuss training, webinars, and speaking engagements. You can follow them on instagram, facebook, and twitter @thirdwheeled or email them at info@thirdwheeled.com. This episode's Dear Food letter: Dear Food, I wrote you back in episode #64, and so much in our relationship has changed since then that I wanted to write you again. I was so terrified when I wrote that letter, so scared of what lay ahead and unsure of whether I could do what needed to be done to recover from a lifetime of disordered eating that had left me at rock bottom. But I write you today saying that I am on the other side of that mountain, and sometimes I still can’t believe it. It’s not perfect, and never will be. But that is the beauty of life, we will always struggle, and there is beauty and meaning and so much learning in that struggle. So I wrote you, and Julie and Judith Matz discussed the contents of my letter with such care, kindness and compassion. It meant so much to me, and I felt more validated that my struggle was real, and that I needed help. I ended up finding a wonderful eating disorder therapist in my hometown. She was a huge support during the really hard parts of my recovery, and helped me to challenge my beliefs and made me realize - or at least begin to digest the fact - that my worth as a woman and a person in this world does not depend on the size of my body. I have to say that when I wrote that first letter, I never thought I’d be able to internalize that as truth. I wanted to share the three pivotal parts of my journey. And my intention here is to try to speak to those who feel as I did back then: that there was no way I could ever stop dieting, and there was no chance that I could accept my body if it was not thin. For those who feel as scared as I did, I want to let them know that it is possible, and there truly is freedom on the other side. It involves taking some big risks, lots of trust in the process, as well as grit, patience and commitment. The first part of my journey involved letting go of all rules around food - which was terrifying - literally like jumping off a cliff and hoping that I'd be okay on the other side. I would say for me, this took a few years, and the beginning was so rough. It felt out of control and so awful at first, and I just had to keep going and trust that I would be okay. Over time, things slowly started to shift, to the point where today, I literally eat whatever I want. I no longer question my food choices, and rarely feel regret over what I’ve eaten. I crave healthy food a lot more than I ever thought I would, and when I want treats, I don’t think twice. I have ice cream and chocolate and cookies in my house all the time, and often don’t even think about them. My hunger and fullness signals are so much stronger than I ever knew they could be, and it feels so good to see foods that would have once sent me over the deep end, and now if I want them I eat them, and if I don’t feel hungry or don’t feel like eating them, I just say “meh” and leave them for others to enjoy. I can honestly say I never thought I’d have that freedom. The second part of my journey was body acceptance work, which involved beginning to undo the beliefs that I had about a woman's value, and really questioning why people in my life do value or love me, and eventually realizing that it truly has nothing to do with how I look. That took time - but I continually remind myself that since I stopped dieting and my body changed, not one relationship has been negatively impacted by it. I still have wonderful friends, laugh my head off, have a great marriage, have sex, go to parties, spend time with family. Changing my social media feeds was super helpful with respect to body acceptance -seeing strong, smart and incredible women of all shapes and sizes owning their shit and unapologetically living their truths - that continues to be so helpful and inspiring. Doing this work also got me thinking about how I would want to be remembered after I’m gone. And I asked myself, do I want people to say, "Oh she had such a great body! Such small, tight thighs and she worked out so hard!" I can say with 100% conviction that that is not the legacy I want to leave behind on this earth. I would much rather it be that I truly loved and cared about those around me, and tried to live a life true to who I am and to my values. The third important part has been self-compassion: This was another critical part, because we can be so cruel to ourselves, and we would never talk to others the way we speak to ourselves. Self-compassion means that in times of trouble and inner conflict (which is basically all the time), that we talk to ourselves as we would speak to someone we love - a good friend, a child. So as I let go of food rules and my body inevitably changed, instead of using words like gross and disgusting when I looked in the mirror, I worked on being more neutral and accepting. Changing that inner dialogue to a much kinder one was a real shift for me and I continue to work on that every day. This doesn’t mean I look in the mirror every day and think I look beautiful. What it means is, I can now look in the mirror and even if I don't like what I see, I can say, "Ok. I don't love how I look today. But...oh well. I am still gonna go to work, hopefully accomplish something productive, have some good talks or laughs with colleagues and friends I cherish, and then come home and share a meal with my family, and love and be loved. How I look today will have no impact on any of those things.” So there you have it. No more food rules, accepting my body, and practicing self-compassion. So many big hurdles, so much change. And here I am on the other side of it. When I wrote you back in episode #64, I never thought I’d be where I am today. I know that this journey will be lifelong, and I am completely okay with that. I can’t and won’t ever go back to that way of life, to those values I had internalized that were never really my own, to a world of body shame and unrealistic beauty standards. I am committed to the ups and downs of the road ahead of me, now that I know that my beauty and value lie within. I choose freedom, I choose to live my own truth, and I choose to honour all people and all bodies, including my own. Sincerely, Previously Stuck and Scared and Wanting to Charge Show Notes: 6 Keys To Food Peace™️ blog post Episode #64 of Love Food with Judith Matz Julie Dillon RD blog Link to subscribe to the Love Food’s Food Peace Syllabus. Eating Disorder Dietitians Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!
Anti-diet therapist and author Judith Matz joins us to talk about shifting the focus of emotional eating toward the underlying deprivation and diet mentality, why turning to food to meet emotional needs isn’t an “eating problem” but a “soothing problem,” how diet culture and marginalization rob us of the ability to meet our needs, why Health at Every Size and intuitive eating are better approaches for true health, Judith’s work teaching other therapists about weight stigma, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to frame public health efforts to change the built environment in a way that doesn’t stigmatize people in larger bodies. Judith is the co-author of two books on the topics of eating and weight struggles. Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating and Emotional Overeating has been called “the new bible” on this topic for professionals. The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care was a #1 bestseller on Amazon and a favorite resource for therapists to use with clients. She is also the author of Amanda’s Big Dream, a children’s book that helps kids to pursue their dreams – at any size! Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL, where she focuses her work with clients who want to get off the diet/binge rollercoaster and learn to feel at home in their bodies. Through her individual counseling, groups, workshops, presentations and books, Judith has helped thousands of people to develop self-care skills that increase physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing without a focus on the pursuit of weight loss. Through educational programs, she is dedicated to helping people end the preoccupation with food and weight and to fighting weight stigma. Judith is a popular speaker at national conferences and descriptions of her work have appeared in the media including the New York Times, LA Times, Allure, Fitness, Self, Shape, Today’s Dietitian, Diabetes Self-Management, Psychotherapy Networker, NBC News Chicago, Huffington Post Live, and she appears in the documentary America The Beautiful 2. Find her online at JudithMatz.com. Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food , to start your intuitive eating journey. If you're ready to give up dieting once and for all, join Christy's Intuitive Eating Fundamentals online course! To learn more about Food Psych and get full show notes and a transcript of this episode, go to christyharrison.com/foodpsych. Ask your own question about intuitive eating, Health at Every Size, or eating disorder recovery at christyharrison.com/questions.
Are you struggling to make peace with food while simultaneously grappling with food scarcity? Is poverty and food insecurity contributing to feelings of deprivation? Listen now for ideas on how to navigate this food peace challenge. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. This episode is brought to you by my online course, Your Step-by-Step Guide to PCOS and Food Peace. Sign up now to get on the waitlist for the next enrollment period in January 2018, and receive my FREE road map: Your First 3 Steps Toward Food Peace with PCOS. You CAN make peace with food even with PCOS and I want to show you how. Episode's Key Points: I just got back from BEDA! I had the honor of presenting at the conference, as well as meeting previous Love, Food guests and listeners!! Lack of food access is a real food peace problem! When our body doesn't have consistent access to food, food gains a lot of power in our lives. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Only once our basic needs are met (food, shelter, oxygen, etc.) can we can reach higher levels. The Hierarchy of Food Needs by Ellyn Satter: If someone doesn't have access to food, you can't work on changing eating patterns to support health. Living in poverty causes oppression, and oppression physically harms our health. PCOS is connected to many health markers that we KNOW are connected to oppression and poverty (high blood pressure, insulin issues, high triglycerides etc). Struggling with both simultaneously exacerbates the problem! Poverty, living in an oppressed body, and experiencing chronic microaggressions sets us up for living in a fight or flight response. This can make conditions like PCOS MUCH worse! Being pushed to diet long-term ALSO causes these negative health outcomes due to increased inflammation. Most people who diet and lose weight with regain that weight in the long run, and most people who regain weight will actually regain more weight than they lost initially. This means that weight loss efforts are actually weight cycling... and weight cycling ALSO contributes to inflammation, high blood pressure, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, etc. PCOS, poverty and discrimination, dieting, and weight cycling ALL contribute to inflammation, high blood pressure, high insulin levels, high triglycerides, etc. in the long term!! You probably aren't addicted to food... your body is just telling you after years of chronic dieting that you need food!! Make sure you're eating enough, especially if you're in a larger body and people are shaming you for your food intake, and that feeling of addiction will likely decrease. Access to healthcare is also a problem here... we need equal access to health for ALL bodies!! 25% of health is determined by behaviors, and 75% of health can be attributed to genetics and the social determinants of health... this means that poor access to healthcare, food, and resources will impact your health negatively. So we need to promote health EQUITY if we want a healthy population! Practice permission and cast aside shame. Show Notes: Julie Dillon RD blog Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Food Peace Syllabus. Christy Harrison's Love, Food episode Judith Matz's Love, Food episode Aaron Flores's Love, Food episode Rebecca Scritchfield's Love, Food episode Deb Burgard Jes Baker's Instagram and book, Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition Eating Disorder Dietitian Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series.
On this episode of the podcast author, speaker, and clinical social worker, Judith Matz, talks with us about the diet-binge cycle and how to let go of the diet mentality. We talked about: Judith’s professional and personal background, including her struggles with the diet-binge cycle How Judith realized diets don’t work Why dieting is harmful Why diets don’t work but many people feel they have to diet anyway Weight stigma, shame, and the emotional effects of dieting Attuned eating Identifying your hunger and fullness Letting go of judgment toward food Honoring your needs and increasing self-compassion Self-care and eating recovery Judith Matz, LCSW is the co-author of Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Comprehensive Guide to Treating Binge Eating Disorder, Compulsive Eating, and Emotional Overeating and The Diet Survivors Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance, and Self-Care (2006), and author of Amanda’s Big Dream. Judith has a private practice in Skokie, IL, and is a popular speaker at local and national conferences. Descriptions of her work have appeared in the media including Allure, New York Times, LA Times, Fitness, Self, Shape, Today’s Dietitian, Diabetes Self-Management, Psychotherapy Networker, NBC News Chicago, Huffington Post Live, and she appears in the documentary America The Beautiful 2. https://www.amazon.com/Judith-Matz/e/B001IYTOJU/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 This podcast is hosted and produced by Janean Anderson, Ph.D., CEDS. Dr. Anderson is a licensed psychologist, author, and podcast host. She holds the Certified Eating Disorder Specialist designation from the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP). She is the Founder and Director of Colorado Therapy & Assessment Center, an outpatient treatment center in Denver, Colorado that specializes in eating disorders. Dr. Anderson also provides private, one-on-one recovery coaching for listeners of the podcast. Interested? Email for more info: podcast@eatingdisorderrecoverypodcast.com To learn more about the podcast, visit www.eatingdisorderrecoverypodcast.com. Want a free sample of Dr. Anderson’s book, Recover Your Perspective? Sign up at www.eatingdisorderrecoverypodcast.com or email us at podcast@eatingdisorderrecoverypodcast.com to request to be added to our email list. Follow Dr. Anderson’s work here: Facebook.com/DrAndersonAuthor Facebook.com/DrJaneanAnderson Twitter.com/DrJanean Get emails about Dr. Anderson’s writing and other happenings at www.eatingdisorderrecoverypodcast.com This podcast is sponsored by 'Ai Pono Maui. 'Ai Pono is led by internationally renowned expert on eating disorders, Dr. Anita Johnston. Located in a home-like oceanfront facility in beautiful Maui, Hawaii, Ai Pono offers residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient treatment for eating disorders. Visit aiponomaui.com This podcast is sponsored by EDCare. EDCare has provided PHP, IOP & Outpatient treatment for all genders, 18 and over, since 2001. CAMSA ( which stands for Connection, Acceptance, Mindfulness, Sense of Self & Action), is EDCare’s mindfulness-based treatment approach and is incorporated into each individualized treatment plan. Facilities are located in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Kansas City and all treatment is supported by Masters’ Level Clinicians or higher. EDCare offers 4 specialty tracks (BED, ELITE Athlete, Substance Use, & Trauma), and the Connections House, an affordable supportive housing component, adds an extra layer of supervised support. www.eatingdisorder.care or (866) 771-0861
EB010 - Healthy Relationships to Food and Stop Binge Eating with Judith Matz Judith Matz realized the work she wanted to pursue after seeing the connections between her personal experience with losing weight, her professional experience with people going through Optifast, and the book she read titled Overcoming Overeating. It was made clear that her purpose is to help individuals stop dieting and she made this her mission ever since. With over 25 years of experience as a therapist, speaker, and author, Judith is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master's degree from the University of Michigan. She is the author of The Diet Survivors Handbook, Beyond a Shadow of a Diet, and Amanda's Big Dream. She joins me today to discuss binge eating disorders, weight bullying, and how we feed our children. She explains how binge eating gets passed on from generation to generation, and the role of sugar addiction in our society. She also shares the Health At Every Size paradigm, and the social justice aspect of the movement that tries to end discrimination on people based on shape and size. “We need to acknowledge size diversity - that people come in different shapes and sizes.” - Judith Matz This Week on the Every Body Podcast: Where the “thin ideal” in children lead to and examples of fat-shaming messages Approximate age that children start to diet and be conscious about their weight and body size How the diet-binge cycle changes the body’s physiology Damaging effects of weight bullying and how people tend to put the blame on the victims Child obesity and preconceived notions about it Why access is important in improving healthcare and healthful behavior How to teach children to be healthy eaters The significance of talking about restriction in sugar addiction research Advantages of having Binge Eating Disorders added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) Manifestations that show how deep the weight stereotypes are embedded in people Resources Mentioned: Overcoming Overeating book by Jane R. Hirschmann Your Child’s Weight book by Ellyn Satter Rethinking Thin book by Gina Kolata Relationship Between Weight and Health Quiz 3 Common Myths About HAES Handout Connect with Judith Matz: Amanda’s Big Dream book by Judith Matz The Diet Survivor’s Handbook book by Judith Matz Beyond a Shadow of a Diet book by Judith Matz The Relationship Between Health and Weight Quiz 3 Common Myths About HAES Rate, Share, & Inspire Thank you for joining me this week on the Every Body podcast. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, head over to iTunes, subscribe to the show and leave a review to help us spread the word to Every Body! Don’t forget to visit our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and join our mailing list so you never miss an episode!
Are you stuck at diet rock bottom? Do you feel shame about your food behaviors and your body? Are you struggling with the diet/binge cycle, looking for support on this food and body peace journey, and trying to break free from the diet mentality? Listen now for some solutions to these challenges. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. Episode's Key Points: The common experience with food and body struggles is SHAME. That shame can prevent people from getting the help they need! Diet rock bottom: the realization that diets just aren't going to work anymore. Judith Matz joins to give us a therapist's perspective! The diet story is always the same, but everyone has their own unique journey. You are not alone!! One comment can lead to a lifelong feeling of shame about the body. People are often stuck in the diet/binge cycle for so long!! By sharing our stories and experiences, we can break out of the shame. Before we start bringing in and stocking up on our forbidden foods, we have to connect with our hunger and fullness cues and rebuild those muscles. When we say we can't have a food, we are more prone to eating it all!! On the flip side, when we make forbidden foods "normal" and give ourselves permission, they become less special. Those forbidden foods become just like any other! Sometimes we need some help on this journey, whether that's a group, a therapist, or a dietitian trained in intuitive eating. Food peace is so hard because we live in a world that moralizes food, adheres to the thin ideal, and equates size to health. This work can feel impossible if you don't have a great support system behind you! Understanding weight stigma is a huge part of this process!! We internalize beliefs about weight and worthiness... letting go of these beliefs about the body can be the hardest part of this process. Weight discrimination hurts everyone, and affects all of us negatively!! It's a social justice issue that we all have to work hard to change in our culture so that we can find body peace. We pass messages down about food and body to our kids all the time that lead them into the diet/binge cycle, but there are ways to stop this pattern! Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Dr. Dan Siegel's work Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch The Diet Survivor's Handbook by Judith Matz ---> This week's Food Syllabus Edition #1 52 Ways to Love Your Body by Kimber Simpkins ---> This week's Food Syllabus Edition #2 "9 Common Mistakes Parents Make About Their Kid's Weight" by Judith Matz ---> This week's Food Syllabus Edition #3 Judith's work Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD.
Lovely radicals, it's show time again! This week, it’s my honor to welcome Judith Matz to the podcast. Judith is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 25 years of experience as a therapist who helps people make peace with food, their bodies, and themselves. As someone who knows the struggle of feeling out of control around food, she now specializes in the treatment of Binge Eating Disorder and compulsive eating. Judith is the director of the "Chicago Center for Overcoming Overeating", an organization dedicated to ending the preoccupation with food and weight through educational programs and workshops. She also loves public speaking and frequently presents at local and national conferences and meetings. Judith also is the co-author of two acclaimed books for adults called: "Beyond a Shadow of a Diet" and "The Diet Survivors Handbook" as well as a book on body image for kids called "Amanda’s Big Dream". Her work has appeared in countless media outlets, and today, here she is! Judith tells us: – How she remembers being in a body in her pre-teen years – How her family related to food and body – Why her body image plummeted in high school – How she learned that girls "bonded" through body-hatred and diet-talk – What she experienced in the years she was restricting in order to "fix her body" – What made her realize that it was restriction that messed with her once-normal relationship with food – How the false promise of diets keeps people trapped in the same cycle – What we are avoiding by making everything about our body’s size and its weight – How to approach the journey towards self-acceptance and body acceptance – Why this healing work is so worth it – How she helps the many, many health professionals, nutritionists and personal trainers who are struggling themselves and unwillingly pass on their biases – How the diet-binge cycle works and why it takes courage to break free from it and actually empower ourselves – How you can tell if someone is dieting (no matter what they might call it to make it sound like they are not) – Why there is often so much resistance when we tell them that diets are harmful – How to find out what to do instead of dieting – What she teaches parents about how to address body, food and weight – What the research on the bodies of identical twins says in relation to diets – Why you simply can not tell a person’s health by looking at their body – How to re-learn eating after a lifetime of dieting and restricting – How to switch to a kinder way of talking to ourselves... – Why self-compassion and patience are pivotal in healing our body image and how we relate to food and weight... ... And so much more! Check out Judith’s website: www.judithmatz.com Please consider supporting the podcast by becoming a "Patreon"; so that I can keep producing it. Thank you! Here's the link: https://www.patreon.com/lifeunrestricted Like the podcast? Great! Do subscribe on iTunes (Apple): https://itunes.apple.com/ch/podcast/life.-unrestricted.-podcast/id1130713233?mt=2 or on Stitcher (Android): http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=93987&refid ********* Don't forget!********* Make sure to join my tribe and meet some of the most supportive, loving and kind people of all shapes and sizes, including great coaches and leaders. We’re right over here at: http://www.lifeunrestricted.org/join/
Have you been told that following diets and maintaining a certain weight is necessary to be healthy? Do you find that rejecting diets feels difficult because of the culture we live in? Are you thinking about cutting out certain foods to help manage a health issue? Listen now for some help with these varied obstacles to food peace. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. Key Points: Intuitive eating: a way to relate to food without dieting, relying on your own hunger and fullness cues to decide when to eat and how much to eat, unconditional permission to eat what you need and want, and finding ways to deal with our emotions without food. Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT): when someone use food to help manage their disease and prevent disease progression. Joanne and Jonah Soolman of Soolman Nutrition and Wellness join to discuss disease management using nutrition and intuitive eating! Coming out of dieting and entering intuitive eating can be really difficult! It's a huge mindset shift, and some people may feel ambivalent about the transition. Intuitive eating is complete 180 degree shift from diet culture, which is something we have been taught from a super young age. Diet culture includes "truths" such as fat is unhealthy etc. It makes sense that we might have strong feelings in opposing directions (ambivalence)... the research doesn't support diets, but dies are what we've been taught to believe in. So what now? By recognizing ambivalence, we can help individuals empower themselves to make their own decision! People who are considered "overweight" or "obese" have healthier outcomes when they engage in healthy behaviors, regardless of weight. Dieting is an all or nothing approach! Sometimes this leads people to feel like they're going to go out of control with food when they give up dieting for good and shift to intuitive eating. When we leave dieting behind, it may actually feel like a void has been created. This attachment and anxiety is normal! Intuitive eating takes time!!! Generally speaking, if someone is completely recovered from an eating disorder, it takes about a year to move through all of the intuitive eating principles. Fear of weight gain can be a huge deterrent for people to commit to intuitive eating. Intuitive eating is a process, so be patient and let it work itself out! How do we deal with feeling like our weight is causing us physical pain? We have to consider that weight may not be the issue. Bodies get older, and this makes them hurt. It may not be the weight at all, and it might be more beneficial to try and strengthen certain muscles or change up exercise routines to alleviate stress on the body. We also have to not make weight the focal point. 95% of diets fail, and most people regain more weight than was lost... so if you try to lose weight to help alleviate chronic pain, you may actually make it worse in the long run! Thin people have joint and knee pain at a certain age... it isn't necessarily the weight! There are other ways to relieve pain! Doctors, physical therapists, Advil... Can you name one disease that fat people have that thin people don't? NO! How do we explore managing a disease with our food? First we have to meet our essential food needs (Ellyn Satter's Hierarchy of Food Needs)... intuitive eating is part of these essential, baseline needs! Medical Nutrition Therapy: managing a medical condition through food. It is a part of our food needs as well, but it is at the very top of pyramid, and one of the last things to worry about. If you have chronic, rather than acute health conditions, allow yourself to build a solid foundation in intuitive eating. Once you are secure in that, then you can add MNT in! Otherwise MNT could spiral into just another diet. Be careful when trying to cut out foods in the name of health! There's a lot of dietary guidelines out there that are extremely restrictive, and extreme restriction leads to bingeing. Disease is gradual. One cookie or one milkshake is not going to cause the onset of diabetes, for example. We must work through our fear of deprivation before we make food choices in the name of health. TRUST THE PROCESS! THINGS ARE NEVER LINEAR!! Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Ellyn Satter's Hierarchy of Food Needs Beyond a Shadow of a Diet by Ellen Frankel and Judith Matz ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #1 The Diet Survivor's Handbook by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #2 Joanne and Jonah's website and Facebook page Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD. This episode is sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run. A Taste of Green Mountain – Weekend ProgramGreen Mountain at Fox Run is excited to announce a one-time opportunity to newcomers – an all-new A Taste of Green Mountain weekend program! Key strategies for mindful eating, mindful movement, self-care, and stress management will be introduced to help participants to eat, move, feel, and LIVE in the moment...to #BeHerNow! This opportunity is only open to new guests of Green Mountain. https://goo.gl/tCVQWl Binge & Emotional Eating Weekend IntensiveThe Women's Center for Binge & Emotional Eating is offering its foundational one-week Pathway™ program in an intensive weekend format. Participants will explore personal barriers and how to counter them with evidence-based strategies to prevent eating in response to stress and emotions. Dates are scheduled monthly throughout 2017 although capacity is limited, so visit https://goo.gl/xFh2up for more information. TAKE TIME TO INVEST IN YOU.It's time to shine the light on yourself and make YOURSELF the priority. Here at Green Mountain at Fox Run, we're all about embracing and supporting yourself through self-care. Through powerful tools such as mindfulness techniques, stress management skills, and movement that is customized to your body and fitness level, you'll learn to practice self-care in your daily life. Visit https://goo.gl/si9wZi for more information. Green Mountain at Fox Run's Foundational Guide to Reaching & Maintaining Your Healthy Weight Download Green Mountain's free healthy weight foundational guide to learn how to embrace healthy (and pleasurable) eating strategies, cultivate a fitness practice you enjoy, and use mindfulness to overcome stress & emotional eating https://goo.gl/WwUDOr
Can you not remember the last time you ate without being on some kind of diet? Do you feel anxious and preoccupied about your food choices? Do you feel like you use food to escape your life, and avoid intense emotions? Are you consumed by feelings of loneliness, and find yourself trying to use food to fill that hole? Listen now to get some insight on these issues. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. Key Points: Dieting harms us and disconnects us from our own innate wisdom about our health. We associate the word "skinny" with positive attributes, and the word "fat" with negative attributes, but these are FALSE TRUTHS fed to us via toxic diet culture. Erica Leon joins to talk about our cultural ideas around "skinny" and "fat," and diet culture overall. We often diet to feel in control, but inevitably it does the opposite and makes us feel out of control instead! This pain is so VALID, and our pain surrounding food and our bodies is so, so common. Perfection is not reality!! Using food to cope is an understandable reaction to trauma... but this means that we must tackle the emotional underbelly of our relationship with food. We must let go of dieting, begin to trust our inner wisdom, and understand that all foods fit! This process can cause a lot of uncomfortable emotions to arise, and so having additional mental health support is very important during this process. Dieting, disordered eating, and eating disorders have a function! They allow us to get through trauma, and we cannot discount how important these behaviors are in the context of our journeys. Therapy is such an important adjunctive piece of healing a client's relationship with food and their bodies, especially when working with a nutrition therapist who may not be able to support clients in that mental health capacity. Our relationship with food is about so much MORE than the food! Discomfort means you're GROWING!! Keep going... The first step of intuitive eating is to let go of the diet mentality. This can trigger the feeling of being out of control, and having the support of a dietitian in this phase can be super important! This is when we start to tune into our hunger and fullness, explore food in a new way, and observe everything with non-judgmental awareness. Feeling out of control with diets might be the first step away from diets... but this feeling does NOT last forever! Part of this process is rediscovering foods you may have not liked in the past, things you thought you loved that you don't like anymore, and just feeling it all out by asking yourself questions and reconnecting to your wisdom. You are not alone!!! Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Intuitive Eating, 3rd ed. by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat by Michelle May --> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #1 The Diet Survivor's Handbook by Ellen Frankel and Judith Matz --> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #2 Erica's website, intuitive eating workshops, Facebook page, and FREE webinar! Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD. This episode is sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run. A special promotion for Love Food listeners: Join Green Mountain at Fox Run for their Binge & Emotional Eating Weekend Intensive (January 20-22, 2017). Participants will explore personal barriers and how to counter them with evidence-based strategies to prevent eating in response to stress and emotions. For more information or to register, please visit https://www.fitwoman.com/therapy-services-eating-disorder/offerings/binge-eating-intensive-weekend/. Immerse yourself in a practice of mindfulness. Join Green Mountain at Fox Run for "Mindfulness for Women Who Struggle With Food and Body - A Meditative Retreat", designed to help you reduce stress, eat well, move joyfully, and guide the way toward ending eating and food struggles. For dates and registration information, please visit www.fitwoman.com/weight-loss-program-reinvented/2017-mindfulness-weekend/. The Women's Center for Binge and Emotional Eating at Green Mountain at Fox Run is the only clinical program in the nation solely for women suffering with binge & emotional eating. Their insurance-eligible program is backed by over 40 years of experience and is staffed by licensed clinicians. Their program has created life-altering changes by helping women to manage emotional overeating through the practice of mindfulness. For more information, visit www.fitwoman.com/binge.
Judith Matz, MSW, LCSW, took some time with us to discuss Binge Eating Disorder, and focuses on how recovery is not about weight loss. According to statistics, more people suffer from binge eating disorder than any other eating disorder, and this episode sheds some light on recovering from binge eating disorder.
Do you have a hard time eating without worrying about "good" and "bad" food labels? Do you feel like food is your enemy? Do you feel overwhelmed by all the nutrition info out there? Join Julie and fellow dietitian Fiona Southerland to start unpacking this issue! Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds! Key Points: Our bodies have lots of different methods, including our brains and our intuition, to help them figure out what they needs in terms of food in order to feel satisfied and full. Healthy eating includes PLEASURE! Fiona Southerland joins to help answer this week's letter! Self-compassion and kindness is super important when we confront our beliefs related to food rules. We are not alone… so many of us feel this way. It's impossible to follow every single food rule! The more we try to follow rules and live in our heads (intellectualizing!), the less we listen to our body and intuition (innate wisdom!). There are so many crazy things going on in the world… why are we focused on whether or not something has gluten in it?! Even the professionals don't know everything about nutrition… it's confusing! When we try to control things that weren't supposed to be controlled (like our food intake) we go haywire. Our culture is confusing health with our appearance (like our body shape). Our expectations about the female body inform our opinions of health. Fiona's "Build up and let go model:" build up our skills of inner awareness, which will allow us to let go of rigidity. We need skills related to our intuition in order to drop the food rules and stick to it! How do we find a stable place outside of food when we feel out of control with our body? The wise parts of us are not perfect! Intuitive eating can become another set of diet rules… don't let it! The foundation of intuitive eating is unconditional permission to eat. We must help people build long-term resilience against the cultural crap! Self-care and personal connection are super helpful for our wellbeing, and we have to return to our well of wisdom and call upon a stable place of self-compassion to take care or ourselves and move past cultural expectations. Intuitive eating is s different way of BEING with food. It's peace. But it's scary, and that's okay! Perfectionism and the all-or-nothing approach can get in the way of healing around food. Fiona says, “Reassurance without assurance”… we will support you through the confusion! HEALING YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO FOOD IS MESSY!! (Cultivate the mess!) Although knowledge is important, it can take us away from living. It's time to slow down and hone in on our intuition. Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Work by Ellyn Satter Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Trioble and Elyse Resch Embody by Connie Sobczak The Diet Survivor's Handbook by Judith Matz and Ellen Frankel Find Fiona Southerland at Body Positive Australia! Find her professional development, resources, and workshops about mindfulness and intuitive eating for dietitians at The Mindful Dietitian Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. Click here to leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue! Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD. This episode was sponsored by my friends at Green Mountain at Fox Run. A special promotion for Love Food listeners: VIP Upgrades at Green Mountain at Fox Run On stays November 6 - December 17, 2016 Green Mountain at Fox Run is offering special upgrades for one+ week reservations through the end of the year. Receive a free room upgrade and $250 credit towards amenities and professional services. See Details
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