Chasing health at any weight is not only possible but what we should all do.
Almost everyone has experienced emotional eating to some degree, whether it’s to cope with sadness, loneliness, anger or in celebration. I this interview I explain the common triggers for emotional eating, what we can do about it and how diet culture can be an influence.
“Our body, no matter what the size is, does not define us. It’s not an art object that we need to love…. [Body neutrality] is about realizing that your value, your self-worth as a human has nothing to do with your physical shell.”- Stephanie Dodier guest on Fill Your Cup podcast
In May 2019 I was interviewed by a colleague and dear friend and it turned out to be an amazing experience and I wanted to share with you today. Rachel Molenda is a fellow Nutritionist and host of the Fill Your Cup podcast.
“For most of us who have shamed our body and have attempted to manipulate our body to fit society’s standard, we lived in a space of shaming most of our life… To jump over to body positivity is too big, it’s literally as scary as s**t.”- Stephanie Dodier guest on Fill Your Cup podcast
In this interview I discuss:
- My first and second career life and her journey to becoming an emotional eating coach
- The challenge of being in a body that isn’t accepted by society and being a health practitioner at the same time
- Implementing intuitive eating and Health At Every Size philosophies into your practice as a practitioner (and the importance of doing so)
- The difference between binging and overeating
- Is emotional eating really that bad?
- What we can learn from emotional eating
- What is diet culture?
- Why people get caught in the dieting cycle
- Diet culture as the antidote to feeling stuck in your health habits
- How the dieting cycle keeps people stuck
- Adopting the Health At Every Size philosophy to pursue health
- Stephanie’s rebrand towards Health At Every Size
- Why Stephanie continues to lose followers every day
- Body neutrality VS body positivity?
Key Takeaways:
- Your behaviour, including behaviour towards food, is a result of your emotions.
- People often resort to binge eating as a coping mechanism when they experience an emotion that they want to avoid.
- Emotional eating is normal. It’s part of human behaviour and how your brain is wired. Whether you’re binge eating or eating simply because you’re hungry, dopamine is released so you want to eat more next time.
- The diet culture is a system of beliefs, customs, messages, and behaviours that places value and focus on weight, shape, and size over and above health and wellbeing.
- You don’t have to be thin to be healthy. You can strive for health at any size.
- Body neutrality is the safe bridge between body shaming and body positivity. It’s that space where we see our body as the vehicle for us to live our life.
Action Steps:
- Begin your journey with our Get Started Guide- Intuitive Eating.
- Consider health beyond weight. Look beyond food and exercise and look at how you manage stress and filling your cup.
- If you are a health practitioner, educate yourself about Health At Every Size and the diet culture.