No Agenda, Just Community
You are beloved.
You are important.
You are needed here.
Thank you for allowing me to be one of your people. Thank you for being mine.
See you TODAY at 3pm EST for Virtual Connection on IG Live! This will be saved to IGTV, too.
NO AGENDA, JUST COMMUNITY
I’m eating snack; bring a meal or snack
eating disorder recovery
body image healing
HAES, anti-diet
social justice
disability
anything!
If your relationship with food or body or recovery is being tested, please join me! And send this to anyone who you feel may benefit from a safe, supportive space!
*Virtual Connection does not constitute a therapeutic relationship and is not intended to replace individual therapy or nutrition therapy.
Vote Vote Vote
Right now is a lot. We are living through a moment in time that will be forever etched in the history books.
You are a part of that history.
Right now.
YOU.
Books will be written about this moment and your participation in it.
Your inclusion, your oppression, your resilience, and your frailty.
> Please wear a mask. I have the good fortune of being taken care of by nurses whose clinics were closed for the three months that COVID-19 ravaged New York City. They wore PPE while working in ICUs all over the city. And now wear masks. Without face shields. Their clinics are open again. If you need more evidence that face coverings are effective, I’m not sure what to say. Driving through Manhattan? It’s a sea of humans wearing masks, taking this very serious illness very seriously.
Please do the same.
> Black Lives Matter. Black oppression is real. Living in a Black body should not be a death sentence. It is one. And those of us with the privilege of just noticing how. bad. it. is. need to pay attention. Need to recognize privilege as fact, not fiction. Need to stop NOT having conversations about reality. And do anything, everything we can to demonstrate that we are going to do our part to change the trajectory of history in the direction of equity.
> Register to vote.
Get your tush to the polls, if you can do so safely. I’m voting from home. It all counts.
VOTE. VOTE. VOTE.
2020 has been a lot. It’s not over.
We need all of you, right now.
Your earth suit being the least of it.
Permission to Eat at Any Hour, Granted
The truth is, if you stop eating at X hour and wait to eat until the following morning, your body might change. It might not. But it might.
What is guaranteed? Is that you will experience hypoglycemia. Probably nothing dangerous, but your body will be seeking out additional food.
Assuming you don’t eat in the middle of the night. Which you might do. And no judgment, but most of my clients dislike that eating experience. If I’ve not fed myself thoughtfully enough during the day, I get hungry at night and eat. But I’d prefer uninterrupted sleep.
Making rules about when we stop eating, in accordance to a clock, is like making a rule about when we stop going to the bathroom, in accordance to a clock.
Silly. Also, an invitation for a UTI. Fun!
And, normalized restriction.
Somebody, sometime, somewhere, made some statement about the importance of pushing pause on appetites in the evening. I don’t know who that person was, but I do know that they have been fucking with my clients for as long as I have been a dietitian, and I would wager but they have been fucking with humans for a lot longer than I have been in practice.
A stop sign? A rule. It makes sense. Not up for interpretation.
Voting? A privilege and responsibility. Not a rule, but highly encouraged. And critically important.
Putting bodily functions on a timer? Foolish. Unnecessary.
No food after some hour because someone said so? A rule with unknown ideology that is well worth breaking.
Permission to eat at any hour, granted.
One Word to Describe Your Ideal Relationship with Food
This may feel like a useless task, but there is power in speaking to what you want to experience. Say it here, write it in your journal, write it on your hand.
Take it one step further. Say it here, and identify one action item to make it possible. This is incremental. It doesn’t need to be entirely possible right now, but saying and planning step one is the first step in making a change.
Name it. Commit to the action. For today. See how it feels. Recommit tomorrow.
What’s your word? ⬇️
Notes of Gratitude
I closed my office on March 13th.
To think that I have been working virtually since that time, six months ago, is incredible.
I’m not sure about you, but pandemic time is weird. I can’t believe it’s been six months. It feels like time has flown in a flash. And the first several weeks felt like they were going by so slowly. It felt like the month of March was never-ending. I can’t believe that the summer is almost over. And what an odd summer it has been.
I miss people. In real life people. And I’m also grateful for the fact that I’m healthy. The humans around me are healthy. That is a blessing.
My appreciation for humanity has increased exponentially in the time in which I’ve had limited contact with it. Because somehow in this weird time, I still feel really connected. How fortunate.
I made these notes because they are things that I have said to humans that matter to me.
I mean it when I say it, every time, and I am deeply grateful for my connection to each of you.
Please accept these notes with my sincere gratitude. Feel free to tag anyone, in comments, who you wish to share these messages with.
Warmly,
a
Dietitian Approved Activity: Adults, Snacking
As a child, was after school snack a highlight of your day? Thinking back, you were also fed a morning snack?
And then you got older and somehow the importance of snacking just **disappeared?** And the act of nourishing between meals was vilified by diet culture or the humans around you?
Or you just Didn’t. Have. Time.
So when you started yawning between meals, you grabbed a coffee?
But not food?
Reminder that full-grown humans also need fuel on the regular. Not because we are growing any longer, but because our bodies are working.
All. Day. Long.
You are allowed to snack. It’s awesome for digestion & blood sugar regulation & prevention of hangry.
Challenge for the weekend: test out the guideline of threes, snack edition. When you feel tired during the day, you’re allowed to have your coffee, but grab a snack, too.
I’ll check in at the end of the weekend to ask for noted improvements in mood, concentration, bowel health, energy, and overall life experience.
YOU ARE ALLOWED TO SNACK.
If you’re up for it, what was your after school favorite snack?
Blue gushers, anyone?🔹
Super pretzels? 🥨
What I Know About Your Health by Looking at You
Wait for it.
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...keep waiting.
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ST🛑P.
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Bodies are endlessly varied. It is lazy to presume anything based on appearance, alone. I’m sorry if you’ve been put in a position to defend yourself, your wellbeing, based on assumptions made about your Earthsuit.
Humanity deserves better.
You deserve better.
I see you. I hear you. I believe you.
If You're a Fitness Professional....
I am privileged to have a following of diverse backgrounds. Some folks are here for eating disorder and body image support. Some folks are here for discussion of disability, multiple sclerosis, chronic illness, and inaccessible views. Some folks are here because, in the process of managing my MS, I had the privilege of working with @frankduffyfitness. When we worked together, he cataloged our collective efforts. Many of the humans who watched our journey, are here with me, today. I am most grateful for that.
On the heels of the resurgence of @jillianmichaels spewing her fatphobic rhetoric, because that’s how she makes her money, DOZENS of humans sent me a video of her take on a practice that she doesn’t understand, that I refuse to watch, urging me to do something. I decided to not waste my effort on her, but to speak to the trainers, coaches, & fitness professionals who are here, instead.
If you are a fitness professional, you are working with people who have eating disorders.
All of us are immersed deeply in wellness cultures’ interpretation of what fitness “looks,“ like. I hear this all the time in my office. A desire to look ‘toned.’ A desire for a ‘thick’ backside. A desire for muscle definition. Or a differently shaped tummy.
A sense that life would dramatically improve if these physical attributes were attainable. And more so, that they indeed are, if a human. Just. Works. Hard. Enough.
Except that’s not true. Many bodies will never have muscle definition, even if they are very strong bodies. Many bodies will never achieve physical characteristics that are largely genetically predetermined. And your words and messages really matter.
If you are a fitness professional, you are supporting humans who live with the most lethal of all mental illnesses.
It’s important to me that you know this. And it’s also important to me that you know that resources exist to support you.
My colleague, @jessihaggertyrd, is a dietitian and a personal trainer. She wrote a program, just for you. Follow & sign up.
I was recently on a podcast with @coachustrong in which we discussed this very topic. Listen, ponder John’s questions, and please let me know your thoughts.