Healthy At Any Size

This episode features Jenny McQuaile, the Director / Producer / Lady Boss behind the film Straight/Curve: Redefining Body Image, which is available to rent or buy on iTunes, Amazon and Vimeo on Demand from May 18th.

Imagine if a quarter of a million women, mothers and daughters gathered in homes around the world for a real talk about body positivity and invited the men and boys in their lives to be a part of this conversation. What kind of change would be possible if women and girls everywhere...loved themselves? That's our goal for Straight/Curve - 250,000 conversations - 250,000 women and girls ready to spread the message about body positivity.

You can go to http://www.straightcurvefilm.com to find a link to get the film and to download the FREE House Party Screening Kit so you can have the sometimes tricky conversations about body image in the safety of your own home with your kids/sisters/friends/coworkers. The Kit comes with discussion questions and fun activities for all ages.

The Straight/Curve House Party Project, in partnership with CoverGirl and the Geena Davis Institute, will launch on May 22nd with an event in NYC. There will be a panel of exciting body image experts and advocates broadcast LIVE on Facebook Live so everyone around the country can tune in and ask questions. Check out the website for more information on this event.

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Jenny H. Conviser, PsyD, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Feinberg School of Medicine, and on staff at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Conviser is Certified in both Sport Psychology and Child and Family Therapy. She specializes in eating and weight-related disorders, couples therapy, sports psychology and women's' health.

In this special Mother’s Day bonus episode, Dr. Conviser and I discuss the importance of self-care for moms, how to create an atmosphere at home that supports your child’s love of their body, and how to be an advocate for your child in pediatric medical settings, particularly when it comes to weight and size.

I’ve had my own challenges with my newborn daughter’s weight, and after this discussion I feel so much better equipped to navigate her healthcare! I hope you all gain as much from the conversation as I did. Happy Mother’s Day!

Key takeaways:

• The importance of self care for new moms

• How dieting can be detrimental to new mothers

• Why you might not want to keep a scale in the house

• How to be the best advocate for your child’s healthcare

• Ways you might be passing on your own body image issues to your child

Mentioned in this episode:

Unweighted Nation

“Why Dieting is Making You More Unhealthy with Dr. Jenny Conviser” podcast episode

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Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Shainna Tucker is the blogger babe behind A Thick Girl’s Closet. She started her blog in college, and it’s grown into a very successful venture where she’s gotten to work with many prominent brands, be featured in campaigns (including one with me!), and many other, tremendous opportunities as a blogger.

Shainna is a tall, thick woman of color who’s made her peace with her looks over the years. She’s got such strong, inner confidence that is infectious to anyone who meets her! And she prides herself on taking great care of herself and showing her body love regardless of her size.

Shainna is actively growing her brand on YouTube, making her health a bigger priority, and all around becoming the woman she wants to be. In this interview, we cover all that and more. There’s so much we can all learn from Shainna’s journey!

Key takeaways:

• How Shainna got her start in the blogging world

• What it’s like to be thick, black, and a blogger!

• The kind of content that Shainna’s focused on putting out via YouTube

• How Shainna’s overcome bullying and low self-confidence to become who she is today

• How Shainna cultivates confidence for herself every day

• Why Shainna wears whatever she wants these days

• Mirror talk and other tools that Shainna uses on her journey to body confidence

• Why Shainna’s made it her personal mission to show young women how to love themselves

• Why self love is one of Shainna’s biggest priorities this year

• Shainna’s struggle with anxiety, and how she’s overcoming it

• Shainna’s fitness journey, her favorite ways to move her body, and how she’s sharing it on social media

• Why size isn’t the ultimate measure of your health or your worth

• Why you shouldn’t strive to have any other body but the beautiful one you have right now!

Mentioned in this episode:

Shainna’s Instagram

Shainna’s YouTube

Shainna’s Fitness Account

Share the Body Love!

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Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Caralyn Mirand got her start in plus size modeling as a high school student when she was selected for Tyra Banks’ Fiercely Real Model Search. Although she didn’t win the competition, it got her in with an editor at Seventeen Magazine, which launched her as a professional plus size model.

Since then, she’s worked with loads of clients in the fashion industry, gotten her college degree, and has launched a successful lifestyle blog. She’s preparing for her wedding in 2018 and is chronicling her journey on her blog and social media!

Caralyn has literally grown up in the industry, and while she’s been growing her career she’s also stayed true to her upstate NY roots, her own sense of identity, and her sense of self-worth! It’s awesome to hear how she got to where she is today, what she’s working on, and how she’s taking care of herself! Caralyn shares many insights and tips we can all apply to our own experiences.

Key takeaways:

• Caralyn’s beginnings in the modeling world

• What it’s like to be a college student and a working, traveling model

• Growing up confident in your own skin

• Seeing yourself on packaging in department stores

• How Caralyn’s career has morphed as the fashion industry has become more size inclusive

• What Caralyn’s learned about the importance of a properly-fitting bra!

• Why it’s hard to be on the cusp between plus size and straight size

• How Caralyn stays grounded when she gets negative feedback about her appearance from modeling clients

• The ways that Caralyn stays on top of her healthy living routine while traveling

• The importance of positive self talk

• Caralyn’s experience at the Glamour “Woman of the Year” summit

Mentioned in this episode:

Caralyn’s blog

Caralyn’s Instagram

Share the Body Love!

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Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say!

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Alexa Phelece is a plus size model, fashion blogger, and body positivity influencer and the founder of Every Body Deserves Love (EBDL), a non-profit. Through her own journey to self love, Alexa came to understand the importance of self acceptance, self confidence, and self esteem in order to reach your full potential in life.

Alexa began modeling in 2016, which helped her discover even more newfound confidence and self love. Now, she finds herself at the center of the body positive community. She works with brands like Torrid, Rainbeau Curves, and Forever 21. She pairs her work in modeling with her education in mental health psychology in order to encourage others to love themselves even more.

Alexa has made loving her body and being the best version of herself her sole mission in life, and it’s beautiful to hear all the ways that she’s putting that into action. We can all use a little more body love in our lives, and Alexa is happy to serve that up!

Key takeaways:

• Alexa’s start in the modeling world

• Every Body Deserves Love (EBDL), Alexa’s non-profit

• The many different aspects of the plus size modeling world that Alexa works in

• How to build a career as a new model

• How Alexa has built her self confidence over the years

• Alexa’s weight fluctuations and how she copes with weight gain and loss

• How to measure self love and the growth of self esteem

• The importance of learning how to love yourself, and the EBDL mission

• Alexa’s YouTube channel, Sugar Plus Spice

Mentioned in this episode:

Every Body Deserves Love

Alexa’s Instagram

Alexa’s YouTube channel, Sugar Plus Spice

Share the Body Love!

Share what you learned here via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say!

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Isabel Foxen Duke is a Certified Health Coach and Emotional Eating Expert. She helps women make peace with their bodies, so they can stop obsessing about food and get back to living awesome lives!

In our interview, Isabel gives an amazing account of her own personal experience with disordered eating, an the downward spiral she went on before she was able to heal herself through intuitive eating. Isabel’s experience in the healthcare system, and therapeutic settings, speaks to some of the shortcomings that lead to many women suffering for much longer than they need to with self harm and mental illness related to weight management.

Ultimately, Isabel’s story is incredibly empowering and inspiring, because she’s made her mess her message, and she’s applied her own experiences to becoming a coach who helps other women heal their own relationship with their bodies, food, and themselves. She drops so much wisdom and insight throughout this conversation that can help all of us take our relationships with our bodies to the next level!

Key takeaways:

• Isabel’s own journey with disordered eating

• The ways that Isabel’s eating disorder flew under the radar of the healthcare system

• How food was controlling Isabel’s life for many years

• Why bingeing isn’t the start of the binge eating cycle...deprivation is!

• The fact that binge eating is a normal, healthy, biological reaction to deprivation, not your lack of discipline

• The importance of releasing your expectations around what your food and your body should look like in order to heal

• Isabel’s attempts to control her behavior around her food and how it backfired, every single time

• Isabel’s “rock bottom” moment with dieting and weight control

• The period of “allowing” that followed, and what it’s like to eat an entire jar of Nutella in a day!

• How food stopped being a big deal for Isabel, and what that translated to in terms of her body and her life today!

Mentioned in this episode:

DC NEDA Walk, March 25, 2018

Isabel’s website

I AM.Creative

Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

Geneen Roth

Share the Body Love!

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Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Jessica Torres is a body positive fashion blogger, beauty influencer, and reporter who is best known for her work with Revelist. She’s built a huge following, become a very recognizable face in our feeds, and built an amazing community around her celebration of her body, and her own standard of beauty and fashion.

In this interview, Jessica and I discuss her own personal journey to become body positive. Like many plus size women, Jessica grew up hiding until she got to college when she was able to come out to the world as her curvy, confident self. Jessica stopped waiting for approval and decided to begin living her life authentically and fashionably, and sharing that with the world through her blog.

When she started working at Revelist, the visibility of her work was launched to a whole new level. Now, she’s focused on staying grounded, keeping her sense of humor, and holding space for the days when, even as a very prominent body positive influencer, she may not love her body. It’s a great reminder for all of us that body positivity is a journey, not a destination. And that journey is very individual. We can all take a page from Jessica’s playbook!

Key takeaways:

• Growing up “closeted” as a curvy woman

• “Coming out” curvy in college

• How Jessica got started as a blogger

• How Jessica uses humor to cope with the challenges of navigating the world as a curvy-bodied woman

• Why being a plus size blogger is about way more than fashion

• Mirror work and other practices Jessica uses to stay grounded in a culture that can make us obsessive about our appearances, especially as influencers!

• The importance of having a community of strong, body positive women to support us on our journeys

• How Jessica’s boldness in presenting her life, and speaking out about her experiences, has paid off big!

• Why it’s okay to not love your body every single day

Mentioned in this episode:

Jessica’s website

Jessica’s work for Revelist

Jessica’s Instagram

Jessica’s YouTube channel

Melinda’s Bathtub Moment

Share the Body Love!

Share what you learned here via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say!

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Sarah Chiwaya (the blogger babe behind @curvily, CurvilyFashion.com) discovered the world of plus size blogging around the time of her wedding several years ago. She learned firsthand the power of representation, and fashion, to radically transform a woman’s sense of self-worth!

Sarah has built her own blogging empire since then and has used her voice and her image to create powerful representation for curvy bodies in the fashion world. She also happens to be my fashion week spirit guide--I’ve literally bumped into her every time I’ve attended shows at NYFW, and she knows all the insider tips and tricks for getting on the lists for shows and establishing yourself as a fixture on that circuit.

She also knows the progression of plus size representation within NYFW first hand, because she’s witnessed it at the shows she’s attended over the years. Sarah is a pioneer and she’s paving the way for women to fall her into the world of high fash-un for plus! Keep tabs on Sarah to get the best insider’s POV on upcoming NYFW 2018, starting February 8!

Key takeaways:

• Bridal body drama

• How Sarah discovered the world of plus size blogging

• The power of representation

• “Thinspo” trolls and follower politics for plus size bloggers

• Sarah’s journey with body positivity and why being unremarkably remarkable is now a goal

• The progression of plus in NYFW over the past few years

• Chromat’s use of plus models in fashion week

• Fashion week hacks for those who want to get into the shows

• Why fashion insiders resist size inclusion, and the controversy over the term “plus”

• Sarah’s favorite exemplars of plus size brands delivering high-end fashion

• Why brands are running out of excuses not to be size inclusive

Mentioned in this episode:

Chromat

Universal Standard

All67 leather jackets

Rachel Antonoff’s collaboration with Gwynnie Bee

CurvilyFashion.com

Sarah’s Instagram

Share the Body Love!

Share what you learned here via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter

Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say!

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!

Alissa Wilson is the founder and editor-in-chief of Stylish Curves, and a certified O.G. of the plus size blogging world! She started from the bottom rung of the fashion editorial scene and has risen to be the creator of her own fashion media empire. And she’s just getting started! 

In the interview, we discuss Alissa’s rise to where she is today. She’s grown the site from a side hustle, passion project to a full-time gig! Along the way, she’s witnessed the transformation of the plus size fashion world over the past eight years. Alissa’s managed to carve out a unique niche within the industry, and bring a unique perspective to the growing conversation about plus size women in the fashion world. 

Alissa’s never been one to allow her size limit her experience. As she’s raised her voice in representing plus size women, she’s learned that there is strength in numbers when we rally together as plus size women. From navigating sponsor relationships, to putting outfits together, to swimming upstream on behalf of plus women within the fashion world, Alissa is a force to be reckoned with. And hearing from her is a great shot-in-the-arm of body positivity and confidence for women of all sizes, and all walks of life! 

Key takeaways: 

• What inspired Alissa to start blogging 
• Growing Stylish Curves from a side hustle to a full-time gig 
• How Alissa has carved out a unique voice for Stylish Curves in the blogosphere 
• The evolution of plus size fashion from 2009 to now 
• Learning how strong you really are as an entrepreneur 

• The reality of size and racial bias in the fashion industry 
• Alissa’s vision for the future of Stylish Curves 
• Alissa’s tips for anyone looking to get started as a blogger  

Mentioned in this episode: 

The Stylish Curves website 

Stylish Curves on Instagram 

Share the Body Love! 

Share what you learned here via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter 

 

Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say! 

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize! 

Keyaira (Key) Boone is a freelance writer, blogger, and all around great human who also created thecletter.com. She’s set out to carve out a space for herself online where she can share authentically about who she is, what she loves, and the things that are important to her, inspiring us all in the process! 

Like so many of us, Key has always wanted to have a voice, and create a platform for herself, but she’s struggled with the idea of being an “influencer,” and commodifying her personality. This includes being authentic about having more than one source of income and having to “side hustle” to make ends meet as an aspiring media maven. 

Key is super well read, and I follow her book recommendations via Instagram religiously. When I shared on social media that I had been placed on modified bed rest earlier in my pregnancy, she reached out to offer me some book recommendations. We decided to share the list and our discussion about them with all of you! Along with that, we discuss just about everything from latte art to the importance of being a good community member. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy getting to know Key as much as I have! 

Key takeaways: 

• thecletter.com 
• Resisting the urge to commodify your personality in order to have a voice 
• Keeping it real about you side hustle(s) 
• Key’s recent piece in Allure magazine 
• Key’s reaction to Kelly Augustine’s interview on the podcast 

• Key’s book recommendations for the #healthyatanysize community in 2018 
• Key’s personal takeaways on each book 
• Keeping it real on social media, pimples and all! 
• Why being attractive is not the ultimate measure of your worth 
• The importance of being active in your community, and Key’s magazine drive for local hospital patients 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Keyaira’s blog, thecletter.com 

Key’s Instagram 

Key’s piece in Allure magazine 

Kelly Augustine’s episode of the Healthy at Any Size podcast 

Track 5 Coffee and Key’s Turkey Latte 

The reading list Key put together for me and the rest of the #healthyatanysize community! 

Share the Body Love! 

Share what you learned here via Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter 

 

Subscribe on iTunes and leave a review. I love hearing what you have to say! 

Post your own experiences, thoughts, and feedback to social media using the hashtag #healthyatanysize!