Sometimes, I do not think I am worthy of having this conversation– of preaching body acceptance and love– while still struggling. In Episode 15 of Conversations with Cam, I recorded with Nicole Ryan Suppes, who has created Good Soul Nutrition– a practice based on intuitive eating and health at every size.
I wanted to reiterate some of the things we touched on in this conversation:
– The diet industry is a $72 billion industry. This market is capitalizing on food fears, a bad relationship with food. If you don’t like something about yourself, who is profiting off of you?
– I loved this quote I found from Alyssa Royse from Glamour “Sometimes it seems that body positivity doesn’t leave any room for insecurities and frustrations, which every single one of us struggles with… Rather than preach body positivity, I’m making a shift toward working on body acceptance.”
I wanted to link two articles on this topic:
– The Difference Between Body Positivity, Neutrality & Acceptance
– Jessamyn Stanley on the Work of Body Acceptance
– I think it is really important to touch on WHY you should never comment on someone’s weight loss or body image: (From this article)
- It enforces the idea that thinner is better and it is healthier
- It contributes to fat phobia
- You could be complimenting someone’s depression, illness, or eating disorder (& therefore encourage disordered behaviors)
- Enforces the idea that our worth = our weight — we are so much more.
So instead of complimenting someone’s weight loss or their body, here are a few ideas for non-physical compliments:
Examples of the normalization of eating disorder culture: (from https://www.instagram.com/p/CC4lHO4J0Jq)
- normalizing the decision not to eat before you go out to “have more fun”
- normalizing not eating because of the outfit you are wearing
- noramlizing not eating to “cancel out” the calories when going out
- normalizing vocab such as “pulling trig”
- casually bringing up how little you ate today
- making others feel bad for not working out
- commenting on others people’s plates/food
- commening on other people’s clothing choices
- talking about the “freshman 15”
- wishing you had an eating disorder
a few really important reminders:
– you are made for so much more than chasing a smaller body!!!
– you are worthy of love, always
– people love you for WHO you are and not what you look like
– let’s start the conversation & #normalizenormalbodies
therapy resources:
favorite podcasts:– What the Actual Fork Podcast- Therapy Thoughts Podcast
favorite body image influencers:– @mikzazon- @hannah_neese- @bodyimagewithbri
The BOOKS that we talked about during the episode:
best wishes, be well and thrive,
cam
