Processing Fears Diet Culture Has Given You (Outweigh)

you and die out? Happy Saturday? Outweigh Amy here and I'm gonna start this episode off with a clip from cat defod As Unied Therapy podcasts that went up this week, where she processes diet culture and anti diet cultures wildly polarizing content that has left many of us very, very confused. We don't know what we're doing because, like at one point, thin as ideal, and then no, no, no, it's fit is ideal, and then it's no, no, no, Being strong

is ideal. Do what makes your body feel good. But by the way, too much cardio is bad for you, and lifting weights is the best thing you can do for your body. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. We've heard that all our lives, But did you know fasting until lunch is better than eating a balanced meal before work. You should probably put butter in your coffee now and don't use artificial creamers. But remember, you should eat and drink foods that bring you joy.

I want you to wear whatever you want and whatever you feel comfortable in. But if you don't want to wear a crop top, it's probably because diet culture made you hate your body, and you should love your body no matter what it looks like at all times. However, if you love your body, you will not want to eat real ice cream because you can make ice cream out of bananas, and ice cream is full of toxins

that will cause inflammation. Remember, though, you should listen to your body and allow it to have what it craves, except if you crave an actual banana, then you should actually have some nuts because bananas are full of sugar, and when you crave sugar, you're not allowing yourself to

listen to the emotional need underneath. So try and go for a walk, but do it because it brings you joy, not because it's good and necessary for your health, because if you pay attention to your physical health, then you're suppressing what it is you really need underneath and allowing diet culture to manipulate you into a pawn of their multibillion dollar industry. So rebel against it no matter what,

and do what makes you happy. Accept if it has anything to do with what you look like, because you shouldn't care. And if you do care, you're hurting other people. And smaller is better, but stronger is better than smaller, unless stronger it means you become smaller, then you should be stronger. And actually I want you to remember you shouldn't care about anything except what makes you happy. I

encourage you to go listen to the full episode. It released on Monday, February twenty seven, so that's the date you can look for. And then the title is NIT a Week Diet Culture versus Anti diet Culture, and NITA stands for National Eating Disorder Awareness. We are wrapping up NIT a Week this week, and she has a lot of amazing episodes up. She's a great resource. She's a licensed therapist that specializes in eating disorders. So if you're

here looking for support, that's amazing. But there are experts out there doing really really great things and putting out a lot of helpful content. I am not here as an expert. I am here as someone that has oh Man dealt with an eating disorder for much of my life, and thankfully now I'm in recovery. But it's a journey, it's a process. So I just share my experiences and I bring on others that are in the space but

know what they're talking about. I really love that clip from Kat that I played for you, because it makes me feel less crazy that I spent so much of my life confused about what the heck to put in my body. It was so exhausting for me to keep up with all the latest diet trends. And then somewhere along the way, well probably because I talked about dieting all the time and food and working out and body stuff, I became the go to with different friends and family members.

I don't know, honestly, now that I think about it, if they were really asking or if I was just sharing. But I felt as though at times I would get asked questions like, oh, what's the latest this or that? Or do I need to try this cleanse? Or do I need to do that? Or have you read this diet book? And of course I was always able to say, yep, yep, yep, I'm doing this, and of course when I was in it, it was the best thing ever, and you have to try it. And it's because I didn't want to be

alone in my misery. I wanted others to join me. And so what I want to encourage you to do right now, without judgment, is to try to take note of all the fears that diet culture gave you about food. And for each of us it looks really different, but I honestly felt every single one that Kat mentioned in her little rant. Definitely felt the banana ice cream and the butter and the coffee. I felt those ones hard.

And maybe you're not doing this right now because because you're listening, But in a few minutes when this is over, if you have time, get out a journal and take note of those fears. What has society diet culture, What are the messages that you have been receiving, and what fears do you have around food? And become curious about the feelings that come up with those fears around food

and your body and sit with them. For me, personally, every time I choose to sit with my feelings rather than suppress them, which I mean, my eating disorder was a lot of suppressing and numbing my feelings. But when I sit with my feelings rather than suppressed them, I loosen their grip on me. And that would be my hope for you. And journaling has been a powerful tool for me in processing feelings and fears. So maybe give

it a try today, just for a few minutes. Set a timer for three minutes in journal what it would look like to have a drama free relationship with food after you make note of some of those fears from diet culture and all the space it's taken up in your brain right now, and what it would look like to have a drama free relationship with food. What would you do with all the brain space that you would

get back if you stopped obsessing about it? It lived rent free in my brain for years and years and years. It is all I thought about when I went to sleep, when I woke up, when I was out to eat with people, when I was working. Yeah, it was all the time. And if it wasn't about food, it was when I'm going to work out. So maybe some of your thoughts more so or around the workouts or body image things. My desire is for all of us to feel more peaceful around food and our bodies. That's the goal.

That's why outweigh is here. A life without disordered eating. Outweighs everything. And my desire is for us to all feel that, truly feel that in our lives. Whatever age you are, you can get there. If you're sixteen or sixty six. There is room for recovery. There is hope, and I want people to know that. And there's so so many amazing resources out there. If you're you know, thinking about your body. I know we were talking about food and fears around food and journaling around that and

what it would look like. But is there an area of your body that you pick apart? Can you start to have a loving dialogue with it? Can you talk to it? Can you look in the mirror and appreciate what it does for you? And maybe right a think you note to your body and all that it's been able to do for you. Are you noticing that writing is a theme. I've been writing a lot. Ali Fallon is a friend of mine. She's an author and a writer.

But she was one of the leaders in a self care workshop that I went to last Saturday, and it was so so good. And when she was on stage, she was talking about writing and how powerful it is, and she's always been that. She wrote a book called The Power of Writing It Down, and she said that twenty minutes of writing for four days in a row

will give you six months of benefits. And in that moment, I thought, well, that is doable, and I need six months of benefits, like I want the benefits of my journaling and my processing of my thoughts and putting pen to paper on things. So that was on Saturday, So Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. For four days in a row, I journaled for twenty minutes and it was amazing. I feel as though on day four my thoughts were flowing out so much more

freely than they were on day one. That twenty minutes went by so fast, and I was processing in a way that I hadn't processed before. I was using words that even surprised me. I was like, oh, well, look at that word that just popped into my head and now I wrote it down and a look at that thought that I just had. And what I'm excited to also do is to take the time to go back and read everything that I wrote during those twenty minutes for four days, because I Honestly, right now, I can't

tell you what I wrote on Sunday. I don't remember. That was day one and my writing was all over the place. It wasn't just twenty minutes of a specific topic, although you could do that. You could use a writing prompt like the prompts that I gave earlier, which Ali is big on that, so I know I mentioned earlier, also setting a timer for three minutes, but hey, you could take Ali's suggestion and try to do twenty minutes.

The first day, I was a little intimidated by it, but like I said, it got easier and easier, and maybe you check in with different parts of your body and you start writing about your feelings around that, right around your feelings about food. Choose an area of your body that is holding tension. At the self care workup workshop, excuse me, we also went through mindfulness movement and paying attention to your body and where things are showing up.

So can you breathe right now and just feel anywhere that your body is holding tension and you can also start to have a loving dialogue with that part of the body. Sometimes my throat holds it, and my therapist always has me to put my hand on my throat and breathe through it and have loving dialogue with my voice, because what we have determined is that at times I may struggle with using my voice or feeling I can really express what I'm thinking, and also listening to myself

and knowing that I can trust myself. That's huge. Something I've been working through is paying attention to my body and knowing, oh, I don't have to over explain this to anyone because I know this to be my truth and that is okay. Kind of just went off on a little thing there, but it's paying attention to your body. So whatever comes through for you, just pay attention to it, do some breathwork around it, take a moment to look inward.

That's all I'm asking. Do some reflection, work through this stuff. Write stuff down. If writing is intimidating for you, which I get it. It was for me to one hundred percent when I started a few years ago. But I can't tell you how many experts of talk to me

about the power of writing it down. You know, earlier I mentioned Kat's kneed a week episode from Monday, and I also wanted to share that she put up a couch Talks episode, which is her bonus episode that comes out on Wednesdays, and it's a Kneed a Week Q and A, and she addresses the following things. How can I handle the ups and downs between good recovery days and days I feel obsessed with food? How do I express my concern to someone who I think might have

an eating disorder? And what is the difference between an eating disorder and disorder eating? So again, just search Unique Therapy Podcasts for those episodes and more awesome content from Kat. And Kat's actually going to be at my live podcasts that are in Nashville at the end of the month March twenty fifth, in Franklin. She is full of wisdom.

She's going to be joining the stage with me and Leon Ellington and Ali Fallon which I mentioned earlier about the writing they are rock stars and the things that they're going to share with us. I feel like we're all going to leave Franklin Theater with a new energy, with new tools. We're going to feel empowered and encouraged and seen and supported. Now, the seven pm show is sold out and the three pm is close to selling out, So if you want to join us, get tickets because

it's going to be amazing. Franklin Theater dot com as the website, but theater is spelled the fancy way like t E A t r E. I'll also put the link in the show notes, and then I have a link tree on my Instagram that will take you lots of places at Radio Amy and you'll see links in there to the pop up shop for Haiti, which is a free thing you can come to. There's gonna be so many cute things that we're gonna be selling for

the orphanage in Haiti, where my kids came from. But if you RSVP to that, we're just trying to get a head count because it is a happy hour thing and drinks are on me. There's gonna be a bar, card a bartender, cocktails and cookies I think so far as the thing and shopping and it's going to be such a fun little happy hour hanging from four to seven the day before the live So that's in March twenty fourth. It's free to come if you're in Nashville.

Would love to have you, and yeah, we're just trying to get a head count, so that would be amazing, And I wish you well on this journey. I know it's a lot of work, one day at a time, and you'll get there. There's hope, and I hope you have the day that you need to have right bite