Have you ever thought about the rules - some more obvious, others almost unnoticeable - that you hold around food and your body? Everyone has unique beliefs, narratives, and ideas that drive how we each relate to food and body, but where did they come from and why do we hold onto them? To really understand your own unique set of food and body rules, it can be helpful to take a little trip backwards in time, to visit your younger self.*

*If thinking about your own childhood feels triggering or activating, we suggest thinking about children in general for the example below

PICTURE THIS

Hi, little child, you. Sitting criss-cross-applesauce on the floor of the kitchen, overhearing the adults chatter on about what they don’t like or need to change about their bodies, commiserating over failed dieting attempts and sharing the latest fad diet tips…  all of this swirling around as normalized kitchen counter chatter. The tune of the conversation getting slowly and...

Transitions, changes, the unknown. Boredom, monotony, lack of stimulation. Both sides of the spectrum, both faces of the coin, can bring a sense of restlessness within us. It can feel unsettling in the body and for many of us, it’s hard to sit and be with that buzzy feeling of unease. 

Our natural human instinct is to sound the brain sirens, react to that restlessness, impulsively grab the quickest and trustiest toolbox tool we’ve got, and hope the discomfort can be pacified, just for a moment, please! 

So what does that trusty tool look like for most of us? Like a mother that gives a bottle to a crying baby, our lifetime body wisdom tells us food will comfort, console, and bring relief to us during those pesky periods. 

And yes! Lived experience has shown us time and time again that the action of eating does soothe the ever-so-ancy soul. It is a tried and true tool in the emotional toolbox and because it’s also linked to the...

I’m sure I’m not the only one that needs to hear this (and could really use the reminder #forever&always ) but boy oh boy can it feel like an uphill battle to be kind in our highly stimulated minds! The not-so-kind-in-our mind thoughts can feel like second nature, like a smooth and deeply grooved neural pattern to berate and beat ourselves up with. Whether it’s something we said last week, something we did yesterday, something we ate today, or something we’re actively thinking about (“WHY AM I THINKING THIS WAY?” inception) it still leaves us feeling worse for wear in our mind and body and keeps the un-kind groove… groovin’. 

Our quirky and unique brains can easily get on the un-kind merry-go-round, but have a hard time getting off once the cycles and circles are in motion. The thoughts are painfully stimulating! Emotionally charged! And it can feel like they’re firing on all cylinders up there. 

 ...

Picture this. Early morning sun streaming through the window, you have your (most likely a bit procrastinated?) project in front of you, you adjust your horse blinders, activate your tunnel vision, and become obliviously passionate at the task ahead of you: *write write write* *read read read* *click click click*. Let the hyper-focus flow commence... 

Time passes, how long you’re not sure.

Your vision has blurred, your brain is pulsing, and you make the courageous decision to check what time it is. Here we are again, old friend.  You did that fun ADHD thing *again* where you hyper focused past the point of rational rhyme and reasoning. Oops! 

Nourishment and hydration were far away concepts during those hours and you’ve reached the state of ravenous reptilian brain. All earnest sense of “I planned on making this…” have *vanished* and your kind compassionate frontal cortex (and all the organs for that matter) are patiently waiting for...

So you’re here because intuitive eating sounds intriguing, but you just have no idea where to start. It’s ok - we’ve been there too! We’ve rounded up 5 actionable steps to start intuitive eating. Try 1-2 a week and call it your jump start month, or take allll the time you need. If you think about it, reading this article is already kinda the first step - so you’re killing it already! 

Recognize that diet culture is harmful and weight loss is not equivalent to health

You may still be on the fence about this whole ~intuitive eating~ thing - that’s okay! The best way to get clear about what you want is to learn the facts. Unfortunately, folks are told over and over by medical professionals (including dietitians) that losing weight is necessary, when there actually isn't robust or causal research behind those recommendations. What we do know is that 95% of people who lose weight intentionally, end up gaining all or more back within...

Intuitive eating has been a buzzword for quite some time now, and it's likely that you've come across various opinions and perspectives on the topic. With countless articles, blog posts, social media discussions, and even dubious spin-offs claiming the name of intuitive eating, it can be challenging to navigate the sea of information and determine the truth about its benefits and drawbacks. In this post, we'll break down the advantages and disadvantages of intuitive eating, highlighting that these factors vary depending on the individual. So, whether you're new to the concept or a seasoned pro, keep reading to learn more about this popular approach to eating.

Let's start with the good stuff and dive into the benefits of intuitive eating!

The Benefits

• A more balanced relationship with food 
  • Research has shown that practicing intuitive eating can lead to a more balanced relationship with food, decreased stress and anxiety around eating, and an overall more...

What is Health?

What is health, really? Is health itself a state of being? A set of behaviors? A performance? Is health a delicate balance between an individual, genetics, and environment? What we do know, is that if you ask 10 people what health means, you’ll get 10 different answers. There are multiple realms of health - physical, emotional, social, spiritual, mental - any of which may be more important to you than another. There may even be aspects of life that are more important to you than health, like personal goals or values. And that’s the point - whatever it means, health is personal!

What is Healthism?

Now, what is healthism? The term healthism was first coined by Richard Crawford in 1980. He defined healthism as the increased pervasiveness of health to all areas of life, and the promotion of health to a super-value that allows moral judgment. He argued that health was inherently political and due to healthism, the definition of health has become so...

The term “body trust” is showing up more and more on social media, in resources, and on the internet, but more often than not, we hear that folx are still unclear as to what body trust even means. We want to help explain not only what it is, but share 3 steps to start building body trust today, tomorrow, or whenever you are ready!

Body Trust is More than a Buzzword

 Body Trust® is a trauma informed model / healing approach developed by Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC and Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD (founders of The Center for Body Trust®). They define Body Trust® as “A radically different way to occupy and care for your body. It is a pathway to reclaim your body. Body Trust is paradigm shifting work that invites bravery and fierce body compassion.”

In action, body trust is a practice in which you counter conventional “wisdom” about food, body image, weight, and health in our culture, and instead look within your body for its own wisdom...

_{*The word fat in this article is used as a neutral descriptor of bodies, but acknowledges the intent behind fat shaming to be hurtful and discriminatory.*}

Ahh, remember those fond and formative years of the early 2000s … record scratch. Remember being bombarded with media from all directions with content devoted to fat shaming? Remember waiting in the check-out line at the grocery store and seeing the magazines plastered with insults and calling out how much weight a celebrity had lost or gained? Looking back, though, a lot of those people that were constantly being publicly bullied for their weight … weren’t actually fat. We’ve established that body shaming is completely horrible, but what about fat shaming people who aren’t fat? 

While it doesn’t compare to the harmful magnitude of fat shaming real fat bodies, body shaming those in smaller bodies is its own special brand of gaslighting that’s used as a method of...

 So you’ve heard about intuitive eating, but you don’t know if it’s for you because you live with a chronic health condition. There are 10 principles of intuitive eating, focusing on rejecting diet culture, finding your hunger and fullness cues, discovering satisfaction in food and movement, and gentle nutrition. While a chronic condition may pose a barrier to one or more of the principles, it is possible to start by focusing on the components that are within your ability. Read on to find out how you CAN eat intuitively with diabetes, PCOS, or any other chronic condition!

What About My Weight?

Many chronic health conditions carry the stigma that they are caused or worsened by weight, but clinical research has still failed to definitively show this to be true. Weight or BMI is not indicative of health. Those in the “overweight” or “o—-” BMI category lead just as long and healthy lives as those in the “normal” BMI...