Making Peace with Food
This is one of the multitudes of ways that intuitive eating is misinterpreted.
If a food has held energy, it is possible to interact with said food with reduced energy, but that does not mean that it will no longer be enjoyed or a part of your life.
Messaging that suggests that you will “forget about/skip/no longer crave,” a food after you have given yourself permission to eat it, is false.
And is another version of diet culture pandering. You’re allowed to have a peaceful relationship with a food that has not always been peaceful.
The belief that you should no longer desire a food, isn’t real life.
>> if you’ve been made to think that a desired food won’t be desired after you eat it freely, your teacher missed the boat.
>> does this resonate with anyone?
Health is Not an Equal Opportunity Experience
Health is not an equal opportunity experience.
It is impacted by a multitude of factors. That are largely outside of most humans control. This is not about not working hard enough. This is not about modifying priorities. This is not about pulling oneself up by their bootstraps. This is not about love and light and best wishes.
Health is not simply about what someone eats or doesn’t eat. Or simply about how someone moves or doesn’t move. Or how committed someone is to engaging in ‘health promotion practices.’
Now, more than ever, we should be appreciating health as a community experience.
Stop. Please read that again.
There is a reason why the rates of COVID-19 are disproportionately elevated in communities that have been oppressed for centuries.
There is a reason that weight stigma impacts care provided to humans who live in larger bodies. Reliance on BMI, (an explicitly racist tool used implicitly to communicate these ideals, as a norm) weight bias in healthcare and the belief that weight, not the multitude of determinants of health that have nothing to with body size, make this largely unchallenged practice seem okay.
It’s not.
There is a reason that racism in healthcare impacts care provided to humans who live in Black and Brown bodies. Oppression of Black and Brown bodies is older than the existence of the United States. And has been perpetuated here since the beginning of the beginning.
Health is not a thing that I’ve been able to fully appreciate for nearly 20 years. And I’ve benefited from having access, privilege, at every stage of my life. I’ll never be healthy. I do have the opportunity to maximize what health I do have.
I hope you are healthy and well. And if you’re not, I see you. And if health promotion is not a thing you value, I see you. And if you’d do anything for health, but can’t access it, I see you.
You owe your health to no one.
And I wish you peace and respect and wellbeing.
>> what would you add to this definition of health?
>> fellow practitioners, are you asking questions about health as a value? Are you examining barriers to health on behalf of your clients?
Read: Fearing the Black Body
Your Body Has Your Back
Your relationship with food is more important than anything you’ll eat.
Ever.
If you’re limiting access to a type of food, you’re giving that food power that something intended to nourish shouldn’t have. Binge invitation, anyone?
If you’re giving yourself permission to eat nutritious food, but not delicious food, (not to suggest that they are mutually exclusive) you’re missing out on a happy and health-promoting part of eating. Obsessing about eating food for pleasure zaps any goodness that food had to offer. No, thanks.
If you have the privilege of having access to food, food matters a heck of a lot less than diet culture wants you to believe.
Kale won’t save you from anything, even if diet culture gives it a superhero cape. As an aside, I almost feel badly for kale because it has existed for centuries, and is now the brunt of many diet/wellness culture jokes. Not badly enough to stop making them, but that poor old veg.
Your body is designed to handle food.
Lots of it.
It’s okay to listen to and honor your appetites. Doing so allows you to move on. Doing so reduces food preoccupation. Doing so puts food in its place as only ONE component of what makes up health.
Your body has your back.
Eat.
Food you enjoy.
Regularly.
Forever.
Healing can’t happen on an empty stomach and it can’t happen when hyper-vigilance around food is the name of the game.
Healing happens.
Recovery happens.
Focus on relationship to food, not specifics of what you eat.
Just Say No To.....
Wellness culture costs far more than it is worth.
Monetarily.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
Physically.
You are in charge of how you interact with it, too.
Just say NO to ⬇️
unsatisfying food
culturally uninformed food
food consumed with the hope of it doing a thing. food is awesome if you have enough of it. but it’s not magical
unfulfilling movement
other people’s ideas of ‘health’
fighting against our brilliant bodies
engaging in body bashing convos
any and all SHOULDS
the idea that a body need be changed to fit into a season
detoxes, cleanses & anything that costs money but do NOTHING but cost money
What else would you add here?! It’s June, friends. It’s getting hot. 🔥
Let’s get fired up about tending to ourselves.
Can’t think of a better thing to smolder about.
Would I Feed This to a Friend?
I love this question.
And friend could also be a younger version of yourself, or a child in your life, or a sibling, or loved one, or simply an acquaintance.
When you’re making food choices, think about how you might nourish someone you love.
Think about what it would feel like to assemble an eating experience on behalf of that human.
Would you offer a pal a diet product?
Would you offer them a half-sized portion?
Would you suggest they stop eating before they’re satisfied?
Would you advise that they not eat a thing?
Or insist that they eat something they dislike?
Would you insist they follow meticulous rules?
Would you feed this to a friend if they came to visit your home?
All of my clients are kind humans AND all of my clients have interacted with food in a way they wouldn’t ask or encourage another human to.
Today, when you’re making food decisions, ask this question of yourself.
WOULD I FEED THIS TO A FRIEND?
If the answer is yes, awesome.
If the answer is no, what can you do to make your food choices more friendly?
Sweating is Normal
Sweating is normal.
Sweating is normal.
Sweating is normal.
This is a normal bodily function to help you regulate body temperature. Without this, one might experience heat stroke. Heatstroke is a medical emergency that can cause damage to internal organs and the brain. This can be fatal.
Sweating is better than not sweating.
If you’re comparing your summer body to a previous version of your summer body, and noticing that this one sweats more, I would argue that this one is more efficient at cooling itself off. Neat-o.
Juneteenth
I am sharing this information here, because although our Apple calendars now include Juneteenth as a recognized holiday, it is not yet, a nationally recognized holiday.
Four states, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota (I love you, you will always be home, and your politics devastate me.) and Hawaii, have yet to recognize it.
The US Senate passed a resolution to recognize this holiday last year, but the House has yet to approve it.
Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States.
President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
This executive order was not enforced in the state of Texas until June 19, 1865.
That is two and a half years late.
This is a day that should be celebrated.
And I can’t help but to recognize the significance of this holiday occurring in the midst of national racial reckoning, and the civil rights movement of our lifetimes.
Where being Black in America is STILL dangerous, and deadly. Where Black humans are oppressed, continually. Where capitalism and racism and white supremacy have disallowed Black humans from realizing the American dream.
Most everyone I’m talking to right now is learning more about racism, is getting involved in one way or another, be it by protesting or reading or talking to their white peers about how to move forward.
Even after the Black Lives Matter protests, we need to stay in this fight.
BLM is a movement with no expiration date.
Black lives are precious.
Black lives are essential.
Black lives are valuable.
Black lives deserve more than 8:46 of your time. Everyday.
Black Lives Matter.
Why am I posting this? Because most of my followers hold white privilege.
Because I was not educated about Juneteenth. And didn’t know anything about it until the holiday showed up on my calendar and I did some research. And because diet culture is a byproduct of racism and is a powerful political relaxant.
>>>
If we weren’t preoccupied with our bodies conforming to a shape established as ideal by diet culture standards, imagine what we could do.
Anti-racism work is anti-diet work.
Here for it.
Follow #juneteenth with me.
Weight Loss is Not Your Purpose
Weight loss is not your purpose.
Weight loss is not your purpose.
Weight loss is not your purpose.
Conflating weight loss with health is foolish, dangerous, based heavily in racist ideals and is patently false.
For those who know me, the * was an instinctive challenge, but the point remains. 🤟
Eating Disorders Do Not Discriminate
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” -James Baldwin
I’ve been an eating disorder dietitian for thirteen years. I’ve worked at all levels of eating disorder care. I’ve had a private practice for almost as long as I’ve been an RD.
I’ve treated thousands of clients.
I can count the number of Black & Brown clients I’ve cared for on two hands. Maybe two hands, twice.
I’ve worked with hundreds of brilliant, lovely, compassionate professionals in the time I’ve done this work.
I can count the number of Black & Brown professionals I’ve worked with on one hand.
This is not to suggest that humans who live in Black & Brown bodies do not get eating disorders. This is not suggest that humans who live in Black & Brown bodies are not practitioners with the same degree of dedication to the treatment of eating disorders that my white colleagues and I have.
This IS to suggest that something needs to change.
In caring for clients with different racial experiences than mine, I have been curious about their experiences, but nowhere near curious enough. I have asked about what it feels like to work with a thin, white professional, and recognize that I have had no alternative to offer.
I have asked about what food looks like at home, but I’ve provided folx with menus & meal plans (long ago) & portion sizes (less long ago) that support consumption of foods that are familiar to ME.
But were not at all culturally informed.
I never discussed this with my white colleagues. And my clients sure never challenged me. My education was more important than my clients cultural wisdom. How insulting. How untrue.
I’m bringing this to supervision. I’m talking with leaders in the eating disorder treatment community. I’ve advised local ED treatment centers to seek input from BIPOC professionals, instead of providing suggestions myself. I’m certain that Black and Brown folx would benefit from ED treatment with and from humans who look like them.
Let’s change the face of eating disorder treatment. Not doing so is leaving far too many unseen, and unsafe, and untreated.
Until a treatment center run by Black and Brown professionals for Black and Brown clients exists, needs will remain unmet. I’m committed to working to change this.
In the mean time, please join me in supporting the efforts of @diversifydietetics.