Here To Learn
Anti-oppression is not about picking and choosing.
Here to learn.
I want to feel uneasy as a learner. To examine things I have not in the past. To hold my eyes open when I might feel more comfortable with them shut. I want to be corrected and called in and held accountable.
Instagram has introduced me to incredible teachers. That’s so cool.
BIG LOVE TO — @rachel.cargle @yrfatfriend @sonyareneetaylor @pinkmantaray @meg.boggs @sitting_pretty @ijeomaoluo @ihartericka @mattmcgorry @thefatsextherapist
Who are your most important teachers?
↓↓↓
I want to know them. To read their work and hear their words. I want to support their efforts.
#haes #weightstigma #oppression #sexism #patriarchy #disability #racism #fightthepatriarchy #lgbtrights #disabilityrights #fatpositive #fatactivism #activism #blacklivesmatter #eatingdisorderrecovery #blackhistorymonth #healthateverysize
"But you don't look like you have an eating disorder..."
“But you don’t look like you have an eating disorder....”
I hate that people say things like this. I’m sorry if something like this has been said to you. I can’t tell you the number of times, nor the number of stories, that I have been told with “you don’t look like you have an eating disorder,” as the punchline. What a punch in the gut.
As to suggest that there is one body shape and size that means eating disorder. As to suggest that there is one body shape and size that denotes suffering. As to suggest that societal standards of body ideals are feasible or practical or reasonable. As to suggest that being told that one’s appearance doesn’t line up with someone else’s stereotypical views will leave a human feeling good. (It won’t.) As to suggest that this statement is not steeped in weight bias. As to suggest that this statement is not dripping in fatphobia. As to suggest that this statement is not colored by racism and gender stereotypes. As to suggest that this statement is not deeply tied to diet and wellness culture.
As to suggest that this is a statement that should ever be made.
Eating disorders are largely invisible illnesses. The suggestion that there is one way to suffer is insulting and ridiculous and unequivocally untrue.
I don’t care what your body looks like.
If you are struggling, you deserve help.
I don’t care what your body looks like.
Your body is the least interesting thing about you.
I don’t care what your body looks like.
If you have an eating disorder self, you also have a healthy self.
I don’t care what your body looks like.
Because you have a healthy self, you can find life outside of an eating disorder.
I don’t care what your body looks like. Your story is valid. I SEE YOU. And I’m so glad to be here with you.
#comeasyouare #eatingdisorderawareness #nedaweek #nedawarenessweek #nedawareness #nedawarenessweek2020 #eatingdisorderecovery #edrecovery #bodyimage #anorexia #bulimia #orthorexia #arfid #osfed #bingeeating #pica #nourishnotpunish #dietitiansofinstagram #allbodiesaregoodbodies #haes
What Makes for a Healthy Food?
What makes for a healthy food?
Food that is culturally appropriate.
Food that feels good in your body.
Food that is accessible.
Food that tastes good.
Food that is safe.
Moral of the story? It is so much less about vitamins and minerals and macros and ‘health promotion’ and foods with capes, and so much more about everything else.
Eating is personal. And made less pleasant by outside noise.
Be gentle this weekend, my friends.
#nutrition #nourish #food #eatingdisorderrecovery #heal #selfcare #intuitiveeating #antidiet #diet #dietculture #bodytrust #bodyautonomy #culturalcompetency #culture #wellness #selfcare
You Don't Need to Watch
You don’t need to watch food documentaries.
You don’t need to watch movement documentaries.
You don’t need to watch the @goop series.
You don’t need to accept information gleaned from @netflix as gospel.
IT. IS. NOT.
Good filmmaking is designed to get your attention. It is designed to change your mind. Or make you think or feel. It is designed to make you talk about it. This is the reason that @whentheyseeus was so effective and has been handsomely rewarded, accordingly.
This is also the reason that @gamechangersmovie made waves without great science to support its message.
I’ve treated hundreds of folks who have described reduced self-trust, increased fear, inflammation of anxiety, and the development of disordered patterns after watching effective documentaries.
I am not here to tell you what to watch.
Free will is yours, of course. I am here to support you in trusting your instincts in not watching a thing that might leave you vulnerable.
Not watching as self-protection is okay.
Linking to a very important essay on documentary how-to, in stories. Thanks, @gofeedyourself_ for the tip!!
#selfcare #eatingdisorderrecovery #eatingdisorderprevention #media #orthorexia #orthorexiarecovery #bingeeatingrecovery #bingeeating #bulimiarecovery #bulimia #osfed #osfedrecovery #arfid #arfidrecovery #anorexia #anorexiarecovery #haes #antidiet #bodyautonomy #dietitiansofinstagram #rdchat #rd2be #science #documentary #safemedia
You Can Do Hard Things
No one asks for an eating disorder.
No one chooses to develop an eating disorder.
Eating disorders happen, not by choice.
Recovery happens, by virtue of countless choices.
Getting out of an eating disorder means actively choosing to move toward recovery. It means doing the next hard thing. Over and over and over again.
Choose you.
Choose that which frustrates your eating disorder.
Choose that which makes your eating disorder uncomfortable.
Choose the harder thing. Then do it again. You’re worth the time.
What are you most looking forward to being able to do in recovery?
YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS.
#EatingDisorderRecovery #EatingDisorderDietitian #Healing #HealingHappens #Recovery #AnorexiaRecovery #anorexia #bulimia #osfed #arfid #bingeeatingdisorder #orthorexia #BulimiaRecovery #0SFEDRecovery #ARFIDRecovery #wellness #fitness #dietrecovery #diet #BingeEatingDisorderRecovery
#orthorexiarecovery #antidiet #haes #eatingdisorderdietitian
I Am Here For You
There are so many things to say, and unfortunately, “I’m surprised,“ is not one of them.
As I learned from my client, when someone unenrolls from Weight Watchers, they ask why you leave.
So when my client clarified her reason for leaving was related to having been diagnosed with and being treated for an eating disorder, she assumed, as I would have, that they would have respected her choice.
That was almost 2 years ago.
Bring on the New Year, New You, new Weight Watchers, but really, same @ww.
They’re sending her emails again.
As though her explanation was unclear.
As though her explanation was inadequate.
As though THEY were not part of the development of her eating disorder.
As though they believe that spending more years in diet hell would make her life better.
As though they care.
I am an anti-diet dietitian. I promote health practices utilizing non-diet interventions. I am not anti-people who choose to diet. Of course not. But decades of research and innumerable studies have made one thing patently clear: diet, for most, don’t work. Not in the long run. And not without pain.
I am an anti-diet practitioner because I do not believe in encouraging practices that separate my clients from their bodies. I do not believe in encouraging practices that are unsustainable in the long run and make people feel poorly when their bodies are so excellent at being bodies. I do not believe that constantly working to be smaller is life-enhancing for anyone. I do believe in body diversity. And in body respect.
I do believe that all humans are worthy of weight neutral, health promoting care, that is not contingent on a number on a chart.
Diet culture is a bully. And diet culture doesn’t care about the very real devastation that it brings.
I am here for YOU.
I am not here for that.
@ww move over. You’re hurting children with @kurbohealth and you’re perpetually harming of age consumers, too.
#weightstigma #weightbias #weightloss #weightgain #weightneutral #eatingdisorderrecovery #diet #dietculture #bingeeating #bingeeatingrecovery #osfed #osfedrecovery #anorexia #anorexiarecovery #bulimia #bulimiarecovery #orthorexia #orthorexia #haes
Thank You For Not
OH MY GOODNESS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR ADVICE.
If you found me twenty years ago, I would have fixed myself - my energy - and avoided chronic illness and disability.
Maybe I’m manifestations incorrectly?
Maybe my vibes are too realistic?
Well, shoot.
See also, suggesting that humans who struggle just aren’t trying 👏 hard 👏 enough👏, believing the right way,🧚 or living in an adequately✨glittery positive way,✨is gaslighting of the most annoying kind.
Hope is not a mandate.
It doesn’t always feel genuine.
It doesn’t have to. That’s not real life.
Telling me, or anyone living with life stuff, (ahem, everyone) to just vibrate at a higher frequency, is rude. At best.
Thank you for not.
#manifest #manifestation #health #wellness #spirituality #chronicillness #disability #eatingdisorderrecovery #multiplesclerosis #spoonie
#orthorexia #cleaneating #antidiet #dietculture
#InaccessibleViews For All
This is a story of privilege.
I grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. With parents who loved the outdoors and made certain that my sister and I were exposed to the national parks that our state, and in the surrounding states. I grew up hiking and canoeing and fishing and camping.
I remember laying in the backseat of the van whining while being driven through Yellowstone National Park. Refusing to look outside because I was bored. I remember driving to the Badlands and exploring, but not without complaining about how long the drive was. The plains of South Dakota, with their wandering buffalo and cattle guards and endless horizons are beyond compare. I hiked in the Bighorn Mountains and clambered around Devil’s Tower. I dream about this place. I walk there while I’m dreaming. I haven’t been back in nearly two decades. I’d give a lot to have the opportunity to redo my youthful exploration in an able body, but that can’t happen.
When I started #inaccessibleviews, I did it selfishly. I wanted to go back to places that I’d once been able to enjoy in an able body, and always felt welcomed in. In the process, I have learned from POC that these places are inaccessible to them, too.
So when I saw this black family (selling a @subaru_usa) standing at the entrance to a National Park, I was doubly struck. I’ve seen ads for sporting goods stores. And National Parks. They’re full of white folx.
Who have the privilege of taking time from work, can afford park admission, own vehicles, and sport-specific gear.
My unearned privilege is humbling and the fact that this feels like a punch in the gut, is appropriate.
This is a continued plea for #inaccessibleviews - tag me in your stories. Please. Send your friends to the collections...nearly 300 photos and videos from all over the world with more than 10K views. I’m so grateful.
Tell me why you enjoy them, too!