Enjoying ______? Cool.
Enjoy football? Cool.
Enjoying food? Cool.
Celebrating? Cool.
Not celebrating? Cool.
Watching the game? Cool.
Not watching the game? Cool.
Eating special food? Cool. Your body has your back.
Not eating special food? Cool. Your body has your back.
Drinking? Cool. Be safe.
Choosing not to drink despite the irritatingly sexist ads that urge you to “do so responsibly?” Cool.
The Super Bowl is a football game. It will introduce us to commercials that we will see for the next several months. It will definitely include those stupid beer commercials with the squires and knights. Probably Flo will make an appearance. It will probably include a lot of commercials for trucks because you know, people who watch football drive them…
It will probably have its fair share of diet culture mumbo-jumbo. Please, please, please do your best to keep this in the rearview. Diet culture makes money on making people feel like shit. Period.
I’m watching the game casually. My partner and my dog. No booze and no special food. And I’m probably going to record every commercial that makes me feel offended and then share the WHY I’m offended with you...TBD.
You made it through the holidays, fam. You survived the start of 2020! You’re okay! Better than okay. You’re amazing.
And you can absolutely make it through a football game. 🏈 Thinking of you!
#superbowl #superbowlfood #superbowlcommercials #superbowlguilt #dietculturesucks #eatwhatyouenjoy #football #sports #eatingdisorderrecovery #bingeeating #bulimia #orthorexia #arfid #osfed #anorexia #food #eatwhatyoulove #todayisaday #antidiet #dietitiansofinstagram #rdchat #rd2be
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
It's Called Balance
It’s called balance. More appropriately, it’s called homeostasis. Your body loves it and will do whatever it can to achieve it.
I am so tired of the cultural elevation one type of eating disorder behavior while condemning others. These behaviors occur in concert with one another.
This is not about willpower.
This is not about effort.
This is not about not wanting it enough.
This is about maintaining equilibrium. If you have been stuck on the pendulum of diet or disorder, swinging from one end to another, for a period of time, please be gentle with yourself.
Extremes beget extremes.
Be gentle. YOU’RE SO HUMAN.
#EatingDisorderRecovery #EatingDisorderDietitian #antidiet #weightloss #weightgain #weightneutral #bodytrust #AnorexiaRecovery #anorexia #bulimia #osfed #arfid #bingeeatingdisorder #BingeEatingDisorderRecovery #orthorexia #orthorexiarecovery #BulimiaRecovery #0SFEDRecovery #ARFIDRecovery #wellness #fitness #bodyautonomy #exercise #balance
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
Hey 50K!
Hey friends!
It’s been a while, so it makes sense to do another introduction! And somehow, we just hit 50K! WOWWWW.
I am so very grateful that you are here.
My name is Anna. I am an anti-diet, Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Supervisor, Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image distress.
I talk a lot about eating disorder recovery, diet culture, body reclamation, and why-I-hate-wellness-culture here. I also talk about the realities of living as a disabled human and as a human with a chronic illness.
Increasingly, get ready for this page to be about social justice. Of all kinds. I do not believe that being selectively woke is particularly helpful to anyone. I’m evaluating how I want to show up in the world, and in doing so, plan on sharing what I learn as I go.
I never dreamed of having a social media family like this. And while social media will never take the place of individualized nutrition support, I am delighted to be here, to be human, with you. Your presence here makes a difference, in this community, and to me. So from the deepest of the deep, thank you.
On a personal note, I don’t believe in fate, but I do believe that I was made to do this job.
I would not trade this for the world.
I became an eating disorder dietitian because someone I love lived with an eating disorder. In the last 11 years, I have worked at all levels of eating disorder care, and now exclusively in private practice. I have treated many thousands of people. I remember a lot of names and even more faces.
Thank you for being the greatest of teachers. You’ve made this hard work worth everything.
Instagram fam, YOU, have made me certain that I will be able to continue to do this work I do love, regardless of my degree of disability. What a gift.
I’m deeply honored that you’ve chosen to hang with me. Connecting on social media is a big deal and one that I take very seriously. Look forward to getting to know you!
#disableddietititian #antidiet #haes #eatingdisorderdietitian #ms #dietitiansofinstagram #disabled #disability #ilovemyjob #gratitude 📸 @rachlynsey
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
Body Grief is Real
In a culture that suggests that there is one way to have a body.
In a culture that suggests that there is one body to be attained by all.
In a culture that combats body change, at all cost.
In a culture that does not celebrate body change as a part of healthy evolution and growth.
Bodies are supposed to change.
Your body does not look like it did when you were in high school, because you are no longer in high school. This is a good thing.
And maybe you have dedicated time to changing your body, and maybe you have been successful, in doing so. And maybe you have not. And maybe you have wished for a body you don’t, can’t, won’t have.
Blown out birthday candles with the wish for a different body.
Thrown pennies into fountains.
Wished on lucky stars.
It is unrealistic to suggest that you will not have feelings about your changing body. It is also unrealistic to suggest that your body will not change. You are alive. Living things change. This is good. And in the vein of realism, grief is allowed to be part of the process. And as I am learning, in the context of living with a chronic illness, grief is an emotion that is perpetual. It changes shape. It takes up more time or less. But it is in the background. It is part of my story. And holding it as part of the story, makes it feel better.
You are allowed to feel whatever you feel about your body. And I hope that regardless of how you feel, you will do your best to take care of it. Grief is not best managed by cruelty.
Happy weekend, lovelies.
#haes #eatingdisorderrecovery #bodyimage #grief #allbodiesareworthybodies #nourish #heal #aging #disability #compassion #change #evolve #antidiet
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
Stay
Anyone else have those days? When the things that you say to yourself about yourself are not the most gentle or generous?
I KNOW THAT I DO.
I want to clarify something about the tone that I use on social media.
There is a very specific reason that I am emphatic about having a strong weight-inclusive, HAES® informed message. There is a very specific reason that I am direct in messaging about all things eating disorder recovery. There is a very specific reason that I am unapologetic about moving away from all things diet and wellness culture. There is a very specific reason that I speak about body image and body acceptance in the way I do. There is a very specific reason that I don’t mince words about wellness culture interventions for chronic conditions.
There is a very specific reason that I say hello and send best wishes on my stories. Daily.
The reasons that I show up in this fashion is because diet culture is unapologetically loud. Eating disorders are convincing and noisy and persistent. Wellness culture is pervasive.
I am one voice. More specifically, I am one person. I can’t beat wellness culture or eating disorder messages, and I certainly can’t beat diet culture. But it matters to me that I show up with an assertive voice. Because the voices I’m combatting? They are super assertive. And are going nowhere.
The reasons that I am this assertive? They have names. They are people. They are my clients, my colleagues, my friends. Sometimes, they are for me.
The reason my tone is different in my daily hellos? Because I am a whole human.
I am fiercely protective of this space. And sometimes, I’m going to miss the mark. Sometimes I’m going to take things seriously, too seriously. Sometimes, I feel like I could show up here better, more. And then, I breathe. And I know that the people who are here, are meant to be here.
So while I might not be the best person to talk to about myself today, I’m still here. And you might not be the best person to talk to about you today, either.
But stay. Offer yourself COMPASSION. Check in again later.
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