How to Love Your Body: The Official UNdiet Online Podcast

Welcome to How to Love Your Body - on today’s episode we are going to be talking about body checking. 

Before we dive in - we wanted to remind you that the 21 Day Body Image Intensive is closing Today - EOD - June 30th. We’ve been getting great feedback from women who have been currently taking the intensive.

If you want to dive deeper into healing body image this intensive is for you. Go to www.thebodylovesociety.com/bodyimage to get started on day 1. 50% of the proceeds are going to The Loveland Foundation, an amazing cause we are passionate about as it’s all about mental health. 

Okay so. Body checking.

First, what is it? 

An obsessive behavior in which one focuses on a certain body part/s while looking in the mirror/ at their reflection multiple times a day.

Behaviors include: 

 

Looking in the mirror multiple times a day checking the size of x body part. 

Obsessively weighing yourself 

Obsessively taking measurements of your body 

Constantly focusing on how your clothes fit/ feel tight etc 

Always comparing your body shape to another’s 

Checking your reflection in places other than the mirror 

 

Body checking could be something that is on your mind A LOT throughout the day, everyday. 

Now that you know what body checking is - you may now be aware of how much energy goes into this and how much attention it takes away from your daily life. When your mind is ruminating it truly does feel like there is no room for anything else in your life and let’s be honest we don’t want our lives to ONLY be about our bodies and how they look. 

One of the things that we really dive into when working on body image is mindset but one of the best tangible things you can do to improve body image is STOP body checking!! 

When you commit yourself to purposely not body checking you’ll see how much clearer and peaceful your mind becomes - how much energy you save to think about other things that actually matter to you. 

We are not making you wrong or bad for body checking nor do we want to make you feel bad for putting so much energy into it - we did this ALL the time! Food and body took up our thoughts 24/7, so we get it! 

We want to support you in freeing yourself! 

Here’s an activity to do if you choose to accept! 

Of course we want this to go beyond a day but for the sake of the activity- For one FULL day - No body checking - this means no mirrors, no looking at your reflection, no zero-ing in on body parts and judging them.

Bad body image days are created in our minds - it's our thoughts that make it so hard! So in order to keep your mind from creating all the mean thoughts about yourself - simply do not give energy to them.

Avoiding the mirror and choosing not to body check will give your mind a break. It won't trigger all the thoughts that come along with the tough body image days.

When you notice yourself wanting to look in the mirror to see how your arms look in your shirt or what your legs look like in those pants or wanting to assess your body to see if you approve or disapprove of it - let that be a signal to tell yourself....

"I really want to body check right now and I am choosing not to. I know this is the self honoring choice right now. Instead of berating my body I am going to not give attention to those thoughts."

At the end of the day - reflect on how it was to not body check. Did it make a difference in your thoughts about your body? Did it seem helpful? How did not body checking serve your highest good? Is this something you will do daily?

You can also reflect on what you feel body checking gives you? You wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t some sort of pay off. Does it feel like you have more control over your body if you're always looking it over? When you feel the urge to body check remind yourself of the real reason you’re doing it - one that isn’t helping you build a healthy body image.

If this activity seems helpful to you - take it on! 

Also, consider taking on the 21 Day Body Image Intensive! For 21 days you’ll

Welcome to How to Love Your Body on today’s episode we are talking about beauty, particularly conventional beauty and where it fits into the work of UnDieting and removing ourselves from diet culture.

Yes - the beauty industry, makeup, hair etc is another multi billion dollar industry that preys on low self esteem and the need to look a certain way.

Being aware of this is important - if the political side of this work is important to you, the best thing you can do is vote with your dollar, do not give money to these kinds of industries… and you’re also a grown woman who gets to choose what is best for HER!

The first step is being aware of the insidious side of the beauty industry - did you know cellulite as a negative body feature was made up by the beauty industry so they could then sell you a product to fix something that you never had a problem with… until they said it was a problem?

Take a step back and see if everything you buy and buy into is something you want to be a part of, cellulite creams, waist trainers, spanx, these things were developed so you could fit into a mould - and so is mascara, cover up and curling irons but we can choose where we draw the line for ourselves as individuals, there is no right or wrong answer here.

I do make it a point to not buy into supposedly body changing items like waist trainers and cellulite creams because of the work we do - if I try to look more like the diet culture mould I am not helping anyone else accept themselves and that is an important part of this work TO ME. It does not mean it has to be for you.

When becoming an UnDieter we are not saying - you now have to become an advocate and dive into the politics of body acceptance, fat acceptance and fighting against the patriarchy!!!

It is important work but we know it isn't for everyone.

What are you passionate about and where do you draw your line?

Wherever that is, it does not matter, just make sure its what you really want. 

I have my eyebrows microbladed, I want to get hair extensions this year, I wear makeup when I go to events and I like to wear conventional female clothing…

These are not things I feel I need to boycott to live this life or to help others find food freedom either.

Where is your line?

Do you want to avoid shape wear and try to practice some more body acceptance?

Do you want to wear makeup less often?

Do you want to stop buying anti aging creams ?

Cool! Don't want to do those things? That's fine too. We just encourage you to take a closer look before you decide.

Are you afraid of leaving the house without your hair and makeup fully done?

Are you afraid of what people will think of you if you arrived somewhere without spanx?

Living in fear isn’t making a choice, it’s being forced into a choice…

And we want genuine freedom for you!

You can grab your free worksheet to explore the different elements of beauty and decide where you are going to draw your line in the sand - once you’ve taken a closer look and decided what you’re okay with and what you are not, you can live a life of freedom in every aspect!! Get it at www.thebodylovesociety.com/111

And remember: you can become an UnDieter and just be the same wonderful you who loves makeup and hair products but who also has freedom around food and realized their self worth doesn’t come from those beauty products!

Please take a minute today to rate and review the podcast so other women can discover the world of UnDieting too!

Welcome to this week’s episode of How to Love Your Body 

The terms body love, body neutrality and body positivity along with Body acceptance and body image all get tossed around a lot in this work and many use them interchangeably but all of these things are different.

Today we are going to talk about the differences, what they mean for your journey and what to focus on in this phase of your journey.

Let’s start with body positivity:

This one is unlike the others. Body positivity is a social movement, it has its roots in the fat acceptance movement. It works along side racial justice, trans and queer inclusive, and disability movements. So when people ask, why is body positivity so political ? This is why - it IS, it’s a political movement. 

The other terms we are talking about are more about the individual - and likely what many are talking about on their platforms when they use the term body positivity.

Most people - even publications use these terms incorrectly. Take this article title for instance “ Forget body positivity: How about body neutrality?” This doesn’t make sense - body positivity is a movement and body neutrality is an individual experience of one’s body.

Let’s dive into Body Neutrality, it is usually the first step for people on their journey out of the diet mentality and into a healthier relationship with food and their bodies. 

Body Neutrality empowers you to embrace yourself as you are, including the parts you don’t like about yourself. This means avoiding self hate but also being ok not liking the way you look all the time. It's about respect and acceptance.

The power in body neutrality is that you don’t have to lie to yourself, bypass the emotional work and just pretend to love your body - you can work on slowly becoming okay with who you are as you move along in your journey.

An example of body neutrality is to turn your thoughts from negative “I hate the way my arms look”, to factual and objective thoughts. “I have arms that allow me to hug my loved ones”. 

Next up is body love - Obviously this one is one of our favorites since our community is called THe Body Love Society and our podcast is How to Love Your Body.

Body Love is important to clarify here - we never mean you love the way your body LOOKS - because honestly this work has nothing to do with the way your body looks but we do hope you can get to a place of loving your body.

Loving your body the way you love a loved one - by being forgiving, compassionate and gentle. It might annoy you at times and you don't love every little thing about it (just like with our loved ones), but overall you respect and are on your body’s side.

Body Love involves loving it NO MATTER WHAT happens. Gain weight, lose weight or stay the same - The love is still there. That is why it isn't about the way your body looks - we often hear from women that they started to be ok with and even love their bodies again but now they've gained weight and it’s all gone to hell!

It’s so important to begin cultivating unconditional love for your body - really this just means being on the same side as your body, working together to feel your best, through any ups and downs that might occur. 

Before we wrap it up today there is one more we’ll throw in that is just so important and that is body trust.

Body trust is an aspect of body love. Meaning you relinquish control over to your body to handle itself. Trusting your body means you no longer have to micromanage the way you eat or look - you know that your body has got your back and if you just listen to it, it’ll take care of you. 

Without body trust you cannot love your body, just like in a personal relationship - if you have to micromanage and control someone, it is not going to be a healthy relationship.

To begin working on body trust - begin slowly letting go of things that exert control over your body - still measuring food? Weighing yourself? Tracking what you eat? Benign very rigid in your workout routine? All of thes

On today’s episode we will be discussing what body image is,and how to improve it.

We will also be sharing about The Loveland Foundation, what it is and how you can help contribute while also improving your own body image.

So let’s dive in:

What is body image?

The dictionary definition is “an intellectual or idealized image of what one's body is or should be like”.

Both the words idealized and should hold the power of diet culture. Our ideas of what the ideal body is and what it SHOULD look like come directly from the message that thinner is better and all of the damaging self criticisms that come along with the diet mentality.

Body image has much less to do with the way your body looks and much more to do with your thoughts and judgements around what it SHOULD be and what is good or bad in a body.

The way to heal your body image is to transform these thoughts and judgements into ones of acceptance and flexibility.

Accepting your body does not mean liking the way it looks all the time - it means letting go of the idea that it SHOULD be a specific way. The pain that shoulds cause us isnt real - the minute you dont have that thought, the pain goes away. This is why mindset is so important. 

Here are 3 main thing to focus on when it comes to healing your body image:

 

Let go of all shoulds and shouldnts. These will only ever leave us dissatisfied and discontent.

Allow for flexibility - your body will change over your lifetime, it is inevitable. Allowing for that gives you freedom no matter how your body changes. 

Work on being ENOUGH as you are right now. The number one thing we hear when women do lose weight is - it was never enough. There are always flaws that need fixing and things that need changing - ALWAYS. 

 

Drop the shoulds, allow for change and find enoughness where you are right now.

NOTE: The question we will inevitably get from this is -- isnt that complacency, isn’t it good to practice self improvement. Sure! But how about using that energy to work on things that matter instead of trying to appease society’s oppression of your body? You can still choose to work on practicing positive health behaviors like getting enough sleep, eating a variety of foods, becoming an intuitive eater, moving your body. And all of that can be achieved while finding a healthy body image, resulting in both a positive change in physical and mental health.

We’d now like to share the Loveland Foundation with you.  We will be supporting this foundation through our 21 Day Body Image Intensive program that is open today.

The Body Image Intensive is a 21 day process you can go through where each day you will have a journal prompt or an activity to do to improve your body image. 

The intensive is $21 and 50% of proceeds will be going to the foundation.

The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 by Rachel Cargle in response to her widely successful birthday wish fundraiser, Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Her enthusiastic social media community raised over $250,000, which made it possible for Black women and girls nationally to receive therapy support. Black women and girls deserve access to healing, and that healing will impact generations.

The Loveland Foundation is the official continuation of this effort to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls. Through fellowships, residency programs, listening tours, and more, ultimately they hope to contribute to both the empowerment and the liberation of the communities they serve.

To learn more about the intensive you can go to thebodylovesociety.com/bodyimage and to learn more about The Loveland Foundation you can visit www.thelovelandfoundation.org

Welcome to How to Love Your Body. On today’s episode we are going to be talking about something that may get a little misinterpreted in the IE world. 

Before we get started there’s a free worksheet you can grab by clicking HERE to help you assess what IE means to you, how you can be more gentle with yourself, and how to celebrate yourself. 

IE is not about celebrating eating less. 

People may think this because things like this get “celebrated” 

“I stopped after one cookie.”

“I passed on the stale donut in the staff room.”

“I went out to eat, ordered what I wanted, and only ate half.” 

“I usually feel like dessert every single night but tonight I didn’t” 

“I listened to my body and realized I only wanted a slice of pizza with a nice salad to go along with it. Usually I want the whole pizza!”

It does seem as though eating less is being celebrated when touching on these handful of examples…. 

And we want to tell you why it’s not about that at all - and tell you what it IS all about.

 The IE world is not celebrating eating less - what it is celebrating is…..

 

Being in tune with your body

Feeling good in your body 

Stopping the bingeing because there’s no restriction 

Enjoying dessert without needing to eat it ALL in one sitting because you know you can have it tomorrow or whenever. 

Knowing what is worth it to you and if you don’t feel like eating stale donuts because you actually won’t even enjoy it - awesome! 

Having a healthy positive mindset around food. 

Being able to actually see the progress you are making in healing the relationship with food and your body 

That you feel at peace, hopeful, and happy that it CAN be different - you don’t have to live in a miserable world with food anymore. 

 

THIS is everything we are celebrating!! It truly is amazing! 

AND if you told us… 

-You got too full and didn’t tune in 

-You binged after a few months one night 

-You couldn’t stop after one cookie

-You didn’t leave food on your plate 

That doesn’t mean you have failed and it doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to be celebrated - it doesn’t mean you are a bad person and it doesn’t mean you are doomed and can’t ever heal the relationship with food and your body and find wellness without the obsession. 

It means you are learning, growing, evolving, having awareness, being curious and are human! - When things happen that you don’t like or wish didn’t happen or things that you beat yourself up for -- THOSE are the times when you learn the most!! It’s really about being gentle and compassionate with yourself and giving yourself a break. 

So whatever happens - You leave food on your plate one night or feel too full the next - THAT’S OKAY. There will always be an ebb and flow to the way you eat on any given day - tune into your body and know that you can always in every present moment choose what feels good to you - whatever that may be. 

You are always being celebrated as an UnDieter! 

Don’t forget to grab your worksheet HERE

A celebrity recently posted about her weight loss and there was a response from 2 different sides. This episode was inspired by Adele’s recent weight loss but what we talk about is true for anyone you know who loses a significant amount of weight.

One group of people were praising the weight loss and one group were upset by the weight loss.

The first group are dieters - those who believe that skinner = better, that weight equates to health, these are people that subscribe to the main stream diet culture that we live in, no surprises at all here really. We know people get praise for weight loss, it’s one of the many reasons we can even get sucked back into wanting to lose weight ourselves. This reaction is Predictable and quite frankly boring. We all knew people would have this reaction, they always do, its old it’s played out so lets move onto the next perspective that is mostly what we’re seeing online now.

The second group were mad, they were triggered, they were upset. These are the people who are working on their own relationship with food and their bodies. They are working to get out of the diet mentality. They see a prominent person go from being a fat person to a thin person and it causes feelings - these may include worry that maybe they SHOULD be pursuing weight loss after all, and disappointment that yet another prominent, fat woman has now fit herself into the mold of what a famous person is supposed to look like, one less fat woman to represent other body types in the media. 

It IS upsetting when we see ourselves in someone and that person changes in a way that we no longer identify with, it feels like a break up almost. Like “you understood me and now you don’t”. 

We get it!

And it is okay to respond in whatever way you responded - having compassion for every person is the best way to find peace for yourself. Most people still live entrenched in diet culture not even KNOWING they live in a diet culture - we all lived in that space at one time or another. 

Our response to this persons weight loss is about US, not them.

Just like we always say, others people’s comments about your body is about them not you, it’s the same thing here.

So yes praising weight loss promotes fatphobia and we could talk about that for the whole episode but we’ve already seen a ton of people discussing this side of things- and it’s obvious for those who already are working on disentangling themselves from diet culture which is everyone listening to this podcast.

What is less obvious is why comments like this are not useful either:

This is a comment I saw on an article from the fat acceptance side of the argument.

"She will probably just gain the weight back since DIETS DON'T WORK".

Yes, drastic weight loss is usually not maintainable. BUT IT IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS.

Can you imagine if we made comments like this about another woman on a topic other than weight loss? Like- oh she won the lottery? She’ll probably spend it all and be broke again anyways… 

And truthfully It’s completely fine if she gains the weight back, it’s fine if she doesn’t - it’s her body and it has nothing to do with us.

We know someone else’s weight loss can be triggering and we might turn to undermining the person who has lost weight - this is not the answer.

The key is to heal OUR relationship with our own bodies so that others’ bodies don’t effect our body peace.

If no one reacted to her weight loss - her post didn’t even mention weight, she was thanking front line workers during the pandemic - 

Bodies would just become free to fluctuate and do what they will without judgement, shame or praise.

Ironically, this would also be a world where we wouldn't feel like we have to manipulate our bodies in order to not be judged, shamed or to seek praise…

Win win all around.

If you are ever upset by someone’s weight loss, turn it around to you - what does this reaction say about my beliefs about bodies, weight and the trust I have or lack of in my own body.

Triggers

We had a pretty controversial post on Instagram about this with lots and lots of comments so getting this topic on the podcast felt appropriate! 

The reason is was so controversial is because we had a handful of dieters who couldn’t accept the fact that getting compliments for all their hard work is damaging - in a way they may have felt threatened that they wouldn’t be getting the external validation they so desperately need from the world to let them know - “hey you’re body is smaller, you are now worthy and enough.” 

 

Of course this need for external validation was something that was learned from diet culture - dieters aren’t bad or wrong for wanting this validation - it’s just how diet culture has groomed us as humans - no one is bad or wrong but our intention of bringing up this topic is not to demean anyone - just share our opinions on this …. 

 

So what’s so damaging about the phrase “Have you lost weight? You look so good!” ?

 

Most importantly - it perpetuates diet culture, it says “being thinner is good, and you’re thinner now so yay, you are now beautiful”. We want to get to a place where losing weight doesn’t get praise and gaining weight doesn’t get “concerns”... it’s all just natural body fluctuation and all bodies are good bodies. If you also are wanting to change diet culture this is a great place to start, keep the positive and negative comments of others bodies to yourself.

 

 

 

It can negatively impact someone with an eating disorder. That need for external validation becomes so great, that now there is pressure to keep the weight off even if it’s in a very unhealthy and obsessive way.

There is deep shame when the compliments stop - meaning that someone is no longer losing weight/ maybe gained all the weight back and more and now there’s no more external validation. That weight loss is the only way to get people to notice them - it’s like a hit of dopamine when someone compliments weight loss which keeps you coming back for more - and when the compliments stop it's like a punch in the gut. 

 

 

The focus on weight loss to be noticed by others becomes far more important than actually feeling good in your body and creating a healthy relationship with food. It turns into the “I’ll do ANYTHING to be in a smaller body” no matter what it takes - my freedom, my sanity, etc. It becomes the only thing that matters and someone’s life could be revolved around thinking about food, what their next meal is, what they can and can’t have, what the number is on the scale and when they’re getting in their workout- leaving no more room or energy for anything else that actually matters in their life. And this is the danger behind compliments - it can change the course of someone’s life in such a negative manner it’s sickening.

It is inappropriate to comment on anyone’s body ever. This is crossing a boundary - it doesn’t matter the opinions someone has if it be a positive or negative opinion in their mind - not their body not their business. A woman's body is her own and no one gets to have any ownership around it besides them. Think what you think in your head - but keep it to yourself. Just a note: This is not about making people feel attacked for weight loss - it’s sharing that focusing on your weight or anyone else’s weight can be a very dangerous line into the misery of dieting and EDs.

 

 

As we always mention- weight loss is NOT bad. It’s the obsessive focus around weight loss and changed (toxic) behavior that we are talking about - being intuitive, feeling good in your body and your mind, moving in ways that you enjoy, eating fruits and veggies that you love, and ice cream that you desire - that’s all fabulous - and when you have the intention of living with wellness without the obsession - your body is going to do what it’s going to do. 

This is about stepping away from the number on the scale and stepping into how you feel in your body and your mind. 

Live your life the way you want to live- just rememb

On today’s episode we are going to be talking about the ebb and flow of intuitive eating and UnDieting. 

You can download a free worksheet HERE.

Let’s dive in to today’s topic :

We talk a lot about the ebb and flow of intuitive eating and this is what we mean by it.

It means that intuitive eating doesn’t look the same everyday- and that is totally okay and normal and to be honest it really is the BEAUTY of Intuitive Eating! 

Some days may look a little lighter, a little more nutritious, a little more green, and a little more colorful. Which could include loaded salads, veggies, salmon, brown rice, and asparagus. 

Some days may look a little more dense, carby, less color, less nutritious, and filling! That could mean a pastry, pizza, and desserts! 

Some days may look a bit more of the in between, green smoothie, pizza, salad, and a glass of wine or a cookie 

Your days may look like some of these, all of these, or anywhere in between - we aren’t saying this is exactly what your days have to look like - we’re pointing out this is how it could look and they are all different and it’s all a part of Intuitive Eating. 

And here’s the thing- you aren’t TRYING to eat lighter on the more nutritious days and you aren’t feeling shame and guilt on the days you eat less nutritious and more dense. And you aren’t compromising and saying you’ll eat more balanced on the mixed day of eating… 

It all happens NATURALLY. It’s just what your body does, how it feels, and what it signals to you. You will be more hungry on days and less hungry on days and medium hungry on days - we aren’t robots who eat the same thing everyday, the same portion size, and perfectly balanced- that’s dieting actually, and it treats us like we are robots. As humans  We get to be flexible and flow! 

 

THERE’S AN EBB AND FLOW 

Even on the lighter days of eating you are eating food you WANT, that satisfies you, and that you enjoy! You aren’t forcing down nutritious food because you have to, you actually like it. (and maybe you never have days like this because you always have dessert or something - THAT’S OKAY. We are not glorifying the lighter days- we are pointing out they can happen if your body is feeling it that day. 

 

You get to eat however your body wants to eat AND add in some logic with how you want to feel. 

Each day you ask yourself “what will feel good right now? What will taste good? What sounds satisfying?” And that may mean ANYTHING! It could mean that pizza it could mean that salad it could mean both. It could mean whipping up a loaded green smoothie because you’re feeling like you haven’t had veggies in a while or it could mean ordering chinese food because that’s just what would make the soul feel good (and your taste buds too). 

Allow yourself to relax and ride the ebb and flow of your hunger signals, taste buds, and how you feel in your body. 

And just FYI- we know we talk about feeling good in your body - but you don’t HAVE to feel good in your body 100% of the time- that is an absolute choice! You choose the way you want to feel - it’s not some rule we created for you. 

This is your life - you choose what you eat, you choose how you feel - and on any given day it may look different. No one gets to tell you what to do or how to eat or how to live. This is an INTERNAL choice- you go within and ask yourself what it is that you choose - and then you choose- no validation from others just your own intuition and you get to trust yourself and trust your body that you are on the same team and you both know what’s best for you. 

 

Remember to download your free worksheet at https://theundiet.lpages.co/ebb-and-flow/

Please rate and review the podcast so more women can discover this important message.

When everything is going to hell around us, food and body issues can stick out like a sore thumb just waiting to be obsessed over!

So it’s absolutely normal if you’re feeling tempted to get back on a diet right now or even just “try to be sensible, healthier etc” -- but we know that any type of trying to restrict is just a diet, no matter what you call it.

Here are 3 reasons that this could be happening right now and how to shift back into what you know is true - that the best way to honor your body and find genuine wellness is to continue repairing your relationship with food and your body.

3 Reasons this might be happening right now

Control - Or lack thereof. Right now there are so many things that are out of our hands (in reality we actually have control over very little in life but our routines make us feel like we’ve got it) and the uncertainty of how long life will be like this can make us look elsewhere for something to control and keep in check. If your thoughts right now are, if this goes on for a long time I can’t keep living like this! Then yes you can make a shift but it doesn't have to be towards trying to control, restrict or diet. It can simply be to tune in more and prioritize your needs a little more.

Not moving at all and want to start? Go for a walk today, that's it. Start small and see where it goes, might be just a couple walks a week, might be some intense living room workouts or some gentle stretching. 

Feel bad in the way you’re eating? Tune into your body, You can make changes without it being restrictive at all.

Feeling like you’re eating more and exercising less - God forbid, have to FIX IT! 

 Sit with the idea that it’s OK to be eating more and exercising less right now. This is a global pandemic and we are going to have phases in life when we are moving less and eating more. That is OK! This is so against what diet culture tells us but it's true. If you just don't have the ware with all to really tune into what movement and food your body needs right now. Give yourself a break. As the weeks go on you might feel ready or you might not be ready until the world opens back up a bit and that's ok. Honor what you need right now and that might mean not prioritizing food and movement right now.

 

Messaging we’re seeing - We’re sure you’ve noticed the endless memes going around talking about how much weight people are going to gain during quarantine, how much food they can’t stop eating, how many snacks they are having - yeah it’s all supposed to be funny but when it comes to our UnDiet world - diet culture memes are not funny - they are most likely triggering and not to mention FULL of shame and judgement. Not only are you most likely seeing these memes on a daily basis (unfollow if you can) - you are probably seeing many messages to workout more at home, stream the live workout classes, get on an immunity boosting meal plan - diet culture has always been noisy - but now it’s even louder! Don’t let these memes and this pressure to move / eat less. Just remember you can focus on feeling good in your body - movement and eating things that make you feel good can be awesome but no need to obsess over it. Think back to what we mentioned in #1 & #2 - you can do things to feel good - no problem - but do things you enjoy and still allow yourself to eat all food and take a rest if you don’t feel like moving - we are in a pandemic - we are staying home to be safe and help the world not to obsess over our bodies and food and shame ourselves. 

If you are ready and wanting support in this continued time of self isolating we are offering an affordable 4 week program that covers food, movement, body image and mindset. The work we will do together will continue your work in repairing your relationship with food and your body while in isolation and also in general so you’ll feel more confident in this work even when the world opens back up. You can learn more at www.thebodylovesociety.com/course

We are covering this topic because we did a poll and 90% of our audience were interested in learning more about intuitive drinking.

If this topic does not relate to you, you choose to abstain or are bothered by the topic of drinking then this is an episode you might want to skip.

This episode is brought to you by our quarantine quiz which you can take to receive 1 personalized undiet strategy to make food easier while youre in self isolation. You can take the quiz at www.thebodylovesociety.com/thequiz

Drinking can also react to having a diet culture mindset around it.

If you’re worried about the calories, or have a screw it attitude because those couple drinks ruined your healthy day, drinking can be another difficult area.

So here are three pointers on how to drink intuitively:

 

1. Focus on how you feel when drinking instead of following what’s going on around you:

 

We had a client who was wondering about intuitive drinking because they would often go out with coworkers and everyone would drink so should she just not go? No! If you want to attend these events thats great, you can just listen to YOUR body and do what feels best for you. Sometimes a couple glasses of wine might feel good, sometimes a tea, sometimes a pop, sometimes a vodka soda. Tune in! 

 

2. Make empowered choices: Know yourself. How many drinks usually feels good for you? How much feels like too much? When you know this about yourself, you can then make empowered choices. Even if you CHOOSE to have an amount that you know will make you feel crappy tomorrow, thats fine but choose it. Don't be completely unaware, and then beat yourself up for the next 3 days because you “shouldnt” have done that. 

 

3. Untie diet culture and drinking: Do not worry about eating when drinking -- if you are restricting food then after a couple drinks when your inhibitions are down you can get stuck in a screw it moment with both the food and the drinks. Be sure that you are working on your relationship with food as well so that you are free to eat and drink freely. Yes you may want some snacky foods when you drink, and thats fine!

 

Don’t forget to take our quarantine quiz and get your personalized UnDiet strategy to make food easier while in self isolation at thebodylovesociety.com/thequiz