Body Kindness

Created in 1995, Intuitive Eating has exploded in cultural awareness in recent years. In this episode, I sat down with co-creators Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch to talk about intuitive eating's origins, the evolution toward weight inclusive wellness and why they reworked the material for the newest edition (to be released June 2020) as anti-diet. Plus I read letters from four fellow dietitians at...

Actress and comedian Lisa Linke (Bless the Mess on ABC) joins me to talk about the intersections of diet culture and entertainment. We discuss how social media continues to help her on her relationship with her body. Plus she dishes on her podcast Go Help Yourself and a free way you can coax her into doing (legit) silly stuff on Instagram. Visit bodykindnessbook.com/podcast for links and show note...

As a mom I wonder daily how I'm doing at helping my kids make sense of the world and that includes their bodies, other people's bodies, and how we all treat each other. Angie Manfredi has collected a powerful book of essays, art, and poems from adults speaking directly to teens who may feel like they don't belong because they believe "my body is a problem". The (Other) F Word: A Celebration of the...

Bernie and I are back with a special episode of Learn and Grow where we answer questions from people who are reading and listening to Body Kindness. We answer listener questions about leaving behind the rules of dieting for practicing body kindness, how to help empower our kids with awareness and compassion, plus we help a listener whose "healthy eating" still feels like restriction. Links mention...

Feel like your time isn't your own? Author and mom of four Laura Vanderkam has an answer. Track your time. Laura believes that the awareness that comes with time use tracking helps you find the correct narratives about your life rather than defeatist narratives you may have. For example, the fears "if I work full time I'll never see my family" or self care "I'm tired so I never get enough sleep."...

In this two-part episode, fellow anti-diet mom Virginia Sole-Smith and I discuss the ways in which culture sabotages parents, especially moms, by upholding unhelpful beliefs about food and weight. Tune in where we discuss how to handle unwelcome comments about our kids' bodies or food choices, what to do when they say "fat," and how to model body positivity. Plus I share some of my best tips for p...

In the wake of Episode 125 reacting to WW's Kurbo app, people are asking, "So what do I do then?". That's what I want to help with today. No matter if you're a parent or you have a job or community service that interacts with kids, we can all advocate for the well-being of all kids and we use our voices to stop the harm and speak out against making weight loss the goal for growing kids. I share th...

In this episode, parents speak out about why they would not use Kurbo Weight Watchers App to help their kids lose weight or or build "healthy lifestyles". Tune in to hear their heart wrenching stories of their own struggles with body shame and diets. Plus you'll hear me share what I found deeply concerning about the Kurbo when I used it for just a few days— and perhaps most important, I'll share i...

Dieting is unethical. But how do you approach eating if you never want to diet again? By now you probably heard of intuitive eating, but do you see yourself eating intuitively and feeling happier about your relationship to food? The co-creator of Intuitive Eating, Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD wants people to understand what intuitive eating is and is NOT. One big NOT… intuitive eating is not a diet or w...

I'm replaying a fan favorite episode of Body Kindness, with New York Times bestselling author Peggy Orenstein. [Adult content & language] How do we teach our daughters to respect their bodies, while still being curious about their sexuality? What do you say to a 2 or 3 year old in the bath? Would you tell a 10-year-old what the clitoris is for? If you're squirming in your chair, so am I, but this...

I'm replaying a fan favorite (and one of my favorite episodes) of Body Kindness from one of my favorite teachers. What if we all were fat activists? It's an interesting thought for people who are finally at the place of rejecting diets and a singular (thin) standard for beauty and health. Activism is not always getting angry and standing on the street with a sign screaming. Sometimes it IS that, b...

Weight stigma is harmful to human health at all sizes. The medical community upholds weight stigma and harms the very people they should be helping by weighing patients without informed consent, blaming weight on non weight related concerns like earaches and wrist pain, and recommending weight loss based on the unscientific BMI measurement. Medicine must work from the inside out to eradicate the p...

Grab a pen paper and get ready for some serious healing. It's time to write about your relationship with your body. No matter how painful your past, you can cultivate what you desire through the power of the pen. Tune in to hear my "sorry body" letter from August 2016 and Bernie's "peace offering" from July 2019. You don't want to miss his reading and our reflection. We discuss the abuse he faced...

Dawn Serra is a sex and relationship coach who has dedicated her life to helping others orient towards pleasure so that we can heal the shame we carry around sex and deepen the trust we have in our bodies. In this episode, we talk about the historical and very culturally relevant reasons today that women struggle with sex today. You'll learn why sex is a social skill, why it's OK to have a fraught...

Bernie Salazar, former NBC Biggest Loser "winner" and frequent guest for my series Learn and Grow, joins me to rant on the Nike Fat Mannequin debacle. We love the mannequin and want to see more size diversity in fitness culture. We strongly reject the fat phobia expressed by some people with large platforms, especially the harmful article in the Telegraph. Plus, we revisit my interview with "fan f...

In my second interview with Sabrina Strings, PhD, author of   Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia , we discuss why only white women's bodies were subjects of control in historical fat phobia. Dr. Strings shares the history of the BMI development and its flaws. We share personal stories for how BMI and weight bias in medicine harms people today. Dr. Strings also shares how she...

Sabrina Strings, PhD is the author of the new book Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia . In this two-part interview, we discuss how she was able to connect racism with fatphobia, control of women's bodies historically and through today's diet culture, and how medicine's use of the BMI metric is problematic and harmful. Dr. Strings shares why weight loss should not be part of t...

In part two of my series on BURNOUT, which is also the title of a new book by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, we're discussing why you should stop fighting your "inner critic" (that voice in your head constantly shouting at you, judging you and shaming you). In reality, this "madwoman in the attic" is trying to tell you something valuable about who you are, which can be really helpful in moving forward...

Burnout is the stress resilience book I'm recommending to friends and clients from now on. This two-part podcast series with Emily and Amelia Nagoski will explain why. We all have stress, but we aren't all completing the stress cycle, which can have real health consequences. Learn about "human giver syndrome"  and why the opposite is not "taker syndrome"— which is what I used to think. Find out ho...

How would it feel to get an extra one to two hours of sleep per night? If the thought of that sounds absolutely amazing then you're like most people who don't get enough sleep. (side effects include daytime feelings of being drunk! fatigue! irritability!) Get our real life complaints and realistic advice for mindset and habit shifts that help. --- Get the Body Kindness book It's available wherever...

In this two-part episode, fellow anti-diet mom Virginia Sole-Smith and I discuss the ways in which culture sabotages parents, especially moms, by upholding unhelpful beliefs about food and weight. Virginia shares her rock bottom moment of what it took to finally give her daughter chocolate milk and why she had to unlearn much of what she learned from culture, her childhood, and her work as a write...

In this episode listeners ask us what is the most difficult thing in leaving diet culture for the Body Kindness philosophy, how to practice self-compassion when feeling body shame, what to do about stress and anxiety related weight loss, and how to handle the fear of weight gain with intuitive eating. Rebecca shares her concerns for the disordered eating patterns with advice and encouragement to m...

Stress has a function and so does emotional eating. How you relate to stress and frame your views of emotional eating can make all the difference in how you feel about your body. In this powerful Learn and Grow episode, you'll learn why Bernie needed to stop restricting in order to realize that it would help cut back his stress eating even when his life stress continued to rise. SOS: support our s...

Storytelling is a powerful way to examine how culture constructs beauty standards and upholds appearance privilege. In this episode, Kimberly Dark , author, yoga teacher, and retreat leader performs a reading of her poem about Marilyn Monroe and her mom teaching her how to smile like a woman down to the exact degree angle of the head tilt. Listen as I share how my decision to "reflect and retreat"...

Dr. Jennifer Webb is back on the podcast to share outcomes of our Body Kindness research study examining mindful self-care and depressive symptoms in pregnancy and 5 years postpartum. Tune in to learn about the novel outcomes and get some advice you can use -- really it's good advice for anyone -- pregnant or not. We all have a body and we can all heal our relationship to it. Pick up Body Kindness...