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Jamie English

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January 22, 2021 by Jamie English Leave a Comment

Decluttering, Anti-Diet Style

Okay, y’all, it is January. Time to do some decluttering. If you are on this journey away from diet culture, even if you are just toying with the idea, let me offer you three decluttering ideas. I hear decluttering is a focus for some people this month….let’s declutter anti-diet syle.

  1. Here is a simple and quick thing to declutter—your scale. The number on the scale means nothing. NOTHING. How many times have you been having a good day until you look at the number? And then your day turns bad because of some story that you have been telling yourself about what that number needs to be. The number means nothing. There are lies about that number. I want to keep this a little simple for now. It does not serve you to have a scale. So, declutter it. Donate it or throw it out (or smash it with a hammer, friend, I know some have done this and report it feels ah-mazing).
  2. The next thing to declutter is clothes that don’t fit you or that aren’t comfortable. Or that you don’t love wearing. Many folks out there who have a history of dieting or disordered eating are hanging onto clothes that are too small, hoping that they’ll lose weight. Open up space in your closet and donate those clothes. If you don’t love wearing it or it doesn’t feel right, let it go. (Our size does fluctuate up and down some, and it is okay to have a little bit of flexibility here as you get to know and accept your changing body). Be reasonable with yourself.
  3. The last thing to declutter is your social media feed. Unfollow diet accounts or “fitspo.” Clean up your feed. You can do this all at once and/or have it as an ongoing mindset. It is quick and easy to unfollow (and block if needed) an account. Take some time and dig into who you are following (you might find some anti-diet folks to follow while you are at it). Last year (2020), I tried to see if there was one person to unfollow or unfriend a day….or unsubscribe from a newsletter that was no longer an interest.  My thought was it took me less than a minute to do this, and if I were consistent all year long, I would unfollow more than 350 things (spoiler alert, I was only consistent until about March—then so many things went out the window).

Those are just three things to declutter. Even if you are only dabbling with anti-diet ideas, these three can benefit you and your mental health regardless. I mean, if you are wearing clothes you don’t like or aren’t comfortable….or if you are following social media accounts that make you feel gross….you’ll feel better decluttering. And the scale, well….that may need more of its own blog post one day, but at least put it up, so you don’t see it all the time!

Filed Under: Anti-Diet, Body Image, Self-Care Tagged With: anti-diet, body image, declutter, Diet Culture Rebel, letting go, mental-health, self awareness, self-care, self-esteem

January 15, 2021 by Jamie English Leave a Comment

Let’s Look a Little Closer

As we are on this journey of figuring out this new way of thinking, I remembered an exercise I did about a year ago. Make a timeline of the times you have dieted over the years. Give yourself space on each of them to journal your mindset at the time–what you had hoped (maybe fantasized) the diet would bring you. When I did this exercise a year ago, I made two connections. One was adding to my community, which I wrote about previously. Another was my wish for life to be effortless. I fantasized that “when I get my life together and lose weight, everything will be so much easier.” If you do this exercise, be gentle with yourself. Allow me to offer a couple of thoughts as you go forward with any connections you make.

  1. You may need to grieve. Grief is universal, and no one can tell you how to grieve, as we are each so unique. Many of us may not realize that grief is not just the loss of people from our lives, but sometimes the loss of an aspect of ourselves….or a belief about the world. For me, in the fantasy about life being effortless, I had to grieve that maybe that isn’t a thing. Maybe effort will be required, at least to some extent, forever and always. Acceptance can sometimes be freeing. It seems like a paradox, but in accepting that effort may be required, I found some peace, and life seemed a bit easier.
  2. If you uncover a need, as I found that I needed community, see if there is a way to meet that need without dieting and diet culture. We often believe that we have to have a particular body to go to school or pursue a career, pursue a relationship, or do something that brings us joy or pleasure. Often, body size is not a requirement. See if you can do the thing now, in your right now body. And if you meet actual resistance from the outside, it might be time to do some research and advocate. A lot of times, that resistance is simply a story inside our heads.
  3. Don’t be afraid to call in the troops. There can be support on this journey. It might be online through social media or all the various options that the Internet brings. And it might be a therapist. Healthy people have therapists. If you don’t have one, look for one that is HAES aligned, eating disorder informed/trained (maybe even if you don’t think you have an eating disorder), and/or body positive.

Filed Under: Acceptance, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Anti-Diet, Body Image, Growing, Self Awareness, Self-Care Tagged With: acceptance, acceptance and commitment therapy, anti-diet, body image, body positive, Diet Culture Rebel, empowerment, grief, internal wisdom, mental-health, self awareness, self-care, vulnerability

January 8, 2021 by Jamie English Leave a Comment

Neutral Content, Please

Last week, I talked about diet culture and how it is everywhere. As someone who enjoys watching films and television shows and reading books (fiction and non-fiction), I would like to make a list of options that are simply neutral. A few options are out there that are body-positive (which are great), but can we have some neutral content, too? Just don’t mention diets or make body-shaming comments. Can we just not? Even better is to include various shapes and sizes, and it NOT BE about their bodies, just normalize that people come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

I will admit that I am extra sensitive to the content because I am conscious of the pain it can cause many of my clients with body image concerns and because, ugh….it’s not funny and it’s unnecessary. I am all for body-positive messages as well. These go to the top of my list to support the message, as well as the artists putting this particular content out there.

Allow me to highlight an example that was shared with me recently—Gilmore Girls and the character of Sookie. Sookie wasn’t the lead, but she was a strong supporting actress, portrayed by Melissa McCarthy. She is a good friend to one of the leads, and she develops a healthy and positive romantic relationship. If you watched the show, you know. Sookie is not in a thin body, and the storyline is not about her body or the need to change it. It is nice to see this show up.  It is happening slightly more these days and there are a few other examples out there. I want to keep a list of body neutral and body-positive books, films, and shows.  So send your suggestions my way.  I would love to hear about them and check them out!

Filed Under: Anti-Diet, Body Image Tagged With: anti-diet, body neutral, body positive, Diet Culture Rebel, mental-health, pop-culture

January 1, 2021 by Jamie English 1 Comment

Another Way of Thinking

It is the time of year when we are inundated with New Year’s Resolutions, and there are strong ad campaigns for just about every diet program out there. If you aren’t familiar already, know that some of what I am about to say will go against cultural norms. It might surprise you.

It may not fit with what you have believed, or it may challenge some deeply held beliefs.

You may experience some emotional discomfort. You may experience some resistance or defensiveness. Growth often feels like that.

Do take care of yourself. Know that it often takes some time to process this information if it is new, but maybe see if you can remain open and notice your response.

We have been lied to and tricked by the diet industry.

We’ve been taught and conditioned to believe that thinness is ideal, that thin is healthy and moral. We’ve been taught that weight loss is the path to happiness and well-being. This set of beliefs is often referred to as diet culture. Diet culture has us believing we are always broken, not good enough. It compels us to spend MASSIVE amounts of time and energy and money trying to shrink our bodies. It demonizes certain ways of eating and elevates others, so we are constantly comparing ourselves, our bodies, and food choices or how we are eating. Diet culture is making over 66 billion dollars a year from us believing this way.

Diet culture is everywhere, and I am tired of it. This time of year, it is super loud!

There is another way of thinking.

Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size can help you break away from this pervasive and sketchy belief system. As an eating disorder therapist, this is the approach I promote and teach. As a person who once had the chains of diet culture tightly wrapped around me, this is the approach I apply to my own life. One thing I have learned is this change can be challenging. Diet culture shows up almost everywhere. Unless you are unplugged from any technology, isolating from other people, and not reading any books or other media, it is so hard to escape. Even then, we may have old programming showing up in our memory.

For so long, I have felt I wasn’t as knowledgeable as many of the amazing anti-diet teachers out there. And maybe I’m not. One thing I do know….we need more anti-diet content out there, so I am going to offer it more here. My hope for this space is that we can learn together and figure some things out. I’ll share some things I have learned and ways I’ve grown, and it won’t be perfect. This anti-diet world can feel complicated, but let’s journey and learn together!

 

Photo by Jorne Hermans on Unsplash

Filed Under: Anti-Diet, Eating Disorders Tagged With: anti-diet, Diet Culture Rebel, disordered eating, eating disorders, growing, growth mindset, health at every size, intuitive eating, learning, mental-health

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Jamie English



(903) 399-5131
jamie@innerrevolution.org

2080 N. Hwy 360, Suite 430
Grand Prairie, TX 75050

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