Smash the Wellness Industry

[rubytue]

Now that some other have mentioned personal health, being seen by oncology is such a mind fuck for the fat girl. I’ve lost 25 pound since Christmas. My pcp was so happy when she saw me back in February. At the time, I attributed it to my “furlough diet” (I.e., the office snack drawer was no longer available). And when we went back to work, I was all “I lost 10 pounds, over furlough!!” Of course, we now know why I was losing weight, and at 25 pounds, it’s actually considered a diagnosable factor. And my oncologist is telling me to try to stop losing weight. Even the first time through, one thing I was told is I was at a good weight to start chemo (at 5’4” and over 180).

[sillygoosegirl]

Today I went to the store and bought 6 pairs of shorts and skorts that actually fit or are even a little bit roomy. Because wearing shorts for exercise that I *wish* still fit me is for the birds.

[pugz]

Jun 12, 2019 22:28:51 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

Today I went to the store and bought 6 pairs of shorts and skorts that actually fit or are even a little bit roomy. Because wearing shorts for exercise that I *wish* still fit me is for the birds.

This summer I am wearing shorts for the first time in over a decade!

[cuadrado]

I'm a dietitian who practices Intuitive Eating / Health at Every Size and I'm really happy that people have been receptive to this article. While I love my job, it has been quite the uphill battle to "undo" everything that diet culture teaches women. I feel like most women put their weight way above their health, and it keeps them on this hamster wheel of yo-yo dieting and weight cycling (which ironically is actually tied to worse health outcomes).

What is even worse is that I see so many women who avoid medical care and exercise because they are in a larger body. 

A lot of what the medical field has fed us about the cause and effect relationship between weight and health is just not true. There are SO many studies out there that show us our actual behaviors are tied to our health rather than only our weight. I see this in my practice all the time.... clients make healthy changes and their labs drastically improve, but their weight doesn't really change. It's sad that we can see on paper how much they have improved their health, but a provider may look at them and tell them they failed because they didn't lose weight. It's not right. Someone already mentioned this, but the book called Health at Every Size is great at explaining this in detail.

Also, for anyone more interested in this topic- the BMI equation was actually created by a mathematician who specifically requested that the equation not be used to classify someone's health status. We have somehow made it into the standard for classifying wellness based off of no science whatsoever.

[mrsukyankee]

Can I add something - I'm a CBT therapist. I work with thoughts. And I still have unhelpful body and shame thoughts. If I could teach myself to get rid of them, I'd be a millionaire. You aren't necessarily going to ever get rid of unhelpful thoughts - in fact, if you try to push them away, you may get more. But if you accept that this is your brains way of trying to protect you from something (probably judgment in society or the treatment you got when you were younger), and just acknowledge but don't engage in them, it'll help a lot. I definitely suggest The Happiness Act by Russ Harris if you want a good resource around it. As soon as I stopped taking my unhelpful thoughts as something I had to listen to and give power to and focused on what I truly value, I began to accept myself a lot more.

[bronxgirl]

I work in mental health. For one of my groups this AM the hospital dietician is coming to talk with patients about general nutrition information and concerns. I want to ask about intuitive eating and see what she has to say. I have a feeling she'd be pretty on board with it and I'd love for my patients to hear her thoughts.


cuadrado, thanks so much for your insight, especially your information about BMI. I feel like it's been problematic from the start and whenever people point it out the response seems to be "you're making excuses why you're too fat." I find it infuriating.

[litebright]

Jun 13, 2019 1:26:49 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

Can I add something - I'm a CBT therapist. I work with thoughts. And I still have unhelpful body and shame thoughts. If I could teach myself to get rid of them, I'd be a millionaire. You aren't necessarily going to ever get rid of unhelpful thoughts - in fact, if you try to push them away, you may get more. But if you accept that this is your brains way of trying to protect you from something (probably judgment in society or the treatment you got when you were younger), and just acknowledge but don't engage in them, it'll help a lot. I definitely suggest The Happiness Act by Russ Harris if you want a good resource around it. As soon as I stopped taking my unhelpful thoughts as something I had to listen to and give power to and focused on what I truly value, I began to accept myself a lot more.

Whoa. This phrase alone feels like a lightning bolt for me.  

Thank you for sharing. 

[cuadrado]

Jun 13, 2019 8:01:06 GMT -5 bronxgirl said:

I work in mental health. For one of my groups this AM the hospital dietician is coming to talk with patients about general nutrition information and concerns. I want to ask about intuitive eating and see what she has to say. I have a feeling she'd be pretty on board with it and I'd love for my patients to hear her thoughts.


cuadrado, thanks so much for your insight, especially your information about BMI. I feel like it's been problematic from the start and whenever people point it out the response seems to be "you're making excuses why you're too fat." I find it infuriating.

Please share what the dietitian ends up saying about it!

My experience has been that people who don’t like intuitive eating actually don’t understand what it is and have never read the book. They just think it means to eat whatever you want, which isn’t the case at all. You can even see this in the comment thread of the actual article... people are commenting that they have XYZ allergy or intolerance so they can’t get on board with intuitive eating. IE puts you in the driver’s seat of making your own decisions when it comes to your diet based off of what makes you feel the best, both physically and emotionally. So avoiding a food because you can’t tolerate it is completely in line with IE.

[followyourarrow]

Jun 12, 2019 23:52:09 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

I'm a dietitian who practices Intuitive Eating / Health at Every Size and I'm really happy that people have been receptive to this article. While I love my job, it has been quite the uphill battle to "undo" everything that diet culture teaches women. I feel like most women put their weight way above their health, and it keeps them on this hamster wheel of yo-yo dieting and weight cycling (which ironically is actually tied to worse health outcomes).

What is even worse is that I see so many women who avoid medical care and exercise because they are in a larger body. 

A lot of what the medical field has fed us about the cause and effect relationship between weight and health is just not true. There are SO many studies out there that show us our actual behaviors are tied to our health rather than only our weight. I see this in my practice all the time.... clients make healthy changes and their labs drastically improve, but their weight doesn't really change. It's sad that we can see on paper how much they have improved their health, but a provider may look at them and tell them they failed because they didn't lose weight. It's not right. Someone already mentioned this, but the book called Health at Every Size is great at explaining this in detail.

Also, for anyone more interested in this topic- the BMI equation was actually created by a mathematician who specifically requested that the equation not be used to classify someone's health status. We have somehow made it into the standard for classifying wellness based off of no science whatsoever.

I have continually found your instagram helpful on this front.  Plus your dog is super cute!