Category: Uncategorized
Food Is So Much More Than Fuel.
April 20th, 2020 by Sara Upson
“I want to eat to live, not live to eat” is a statement I hear so often from new clients. And while on the surface that might seem like a good thing- it’s 100% diet culture. Food is so much more than just fuel for your body. Yes, food provides sustenance and nourishment, but food is also joy, pleasure, […]
It’s national nutrition month and I’ve had blogs planned (even written) about various nutrition related topics but with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) taking over the world and our country it seems insignificant to write about nutrition- or really much of anything. On the other hand, I also know that the eating disorder and diet culture don’t stop, […]
Did you know that many countries include enjoying food in their official dietary guidelines? Canada, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Lebanon, Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Barbados, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay all promote enjoying food as part of healthy living. The United States is one of the few countries that doesn’t! The United States takes […]
Elementary Nutrition education lays the ground work for disordered eating.
February 3rd, 2020 by Sara Upson
I’ve been dreading the month of February since September, when my 5 year old started kindergarten. At her school, February is the month where the curriculum centers around food and nutrition education. Last year’s nutrition curriculum was awful. One day, when my daughter was in the pre-k class, I just happened to take her to class […]
It’s not you. It’s not the food. It’s diet culture. And you can unlearn diet culture.
January 27th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Diet culture is a monster. And to be clear- diet culture is more than just dieting. It’s getting caught up in the culture that values body weight, shape, size and “wellness” or dogmatic approaches to heath over true wellbeing. Diet culture has strict rules around which foods are good or bad, healthy or unhealthy and even rules on […]
Intuitive eating isn’t giving up. It’s letting go and there’s a big difference.
January 13th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Imagine you’re standing at the edge of canyon and on the other side of the canyon is diet culture, your eating disorder, or your history of dieting/disordered eating (aka a monster). Between the two of you is a long rope that you’re each holding in your hands in an ongoing game of tug of war. […]
How to know if it’s diet culture or intuitive eating: 5 telltale signs that it’s not intuitive eating.
January 6th, 2020 by Sara Upson
Eating Well selected intuitive eating as the number one food and wellness trend for 2020. It’s included on the same list as CBD and grain free foods. Last year’s number one trend was cauliflower everything… On one hand I’m really excited for more people to learn about intuitive eating. On the other hand I dread the diet […]
2020 is just days away and before the clocks roll over to the next decade I wanted to share some helpful tidbits from 2019- at least based on social media algorithms and what other people thought. The following posts are the nine top performing posts from 2019– meaning the posts that reached the most people- […]
Tired of feeling out of control with Christmas cookies? Try these 5 changes…
December 16th, 2019 by Sara Upson
Growing up my siblings (I have two brothers) and I each got to pick a Christmas cookie or treat to bake. I can’t remember what I chose but recall making sugar cookies, pecan pralines, gingerbread cookies, and popcorn wreaths. Baking creates memories, traditions, and connections that tie associations to certain foods. What a gift it is we […]
Thanksgiving Reflection: Answer these 4 questions to help your next holiday event go better
December 2nd, 2019 by Sara Upson
I did my bachelors degree in music and spent a lot of time practicing and performing. As you know, the purpose of practicing was to make progress by learning from mistakes- to figure out where you needed to spend more of your time, energy, and attention and then how to make change. Sometimes it was easy […]
Do this one thing to lessen the impact of diet culture comments. For The holidays & beyond.
November 25th, 2019 by Sara Upson
Several years ago while leading an intuitive eating group that ran through the holidays we had a group competition over Thanksgiving… Most people in the group were anxious about the holidays because they had given up dieting, were making peace with food, had some concerns about the holiday food, but most concerns were about family. […]
When you’ve left diet culture but your family hasn’t. 3 tips for surviving the holidays.
November 17th, 2019 by Sara Upson
I once had a client who was doing everything they could to avoid diet culture and diet culture comments. It go to the point where they stopped reading magazines, stopped watching TV, and even stopped listening to the radio. (This was a while back- I’m not sure anymore listens to the radio anymore…) They felt […]
The Holidays Are Hard During Eating Disorder Recovery. Here are 4 steps to make them easier.
November 11th, 2019 by Sara Upson
The holidays are fun- but they’re also stressful. There’s a lot going on- increased parties/events, food, food pressure, special food, diet talk, body comments, travel, family triggers, diet commercials, new years, family, gift giving, budgeting, etc. whew, It’s a lot! Because the holidays are stressful it can often lead to increased thoughts, urges and behaviors. Usually when […]
75% of women are stuck in diet culture. Here’s why you don’t have to be part of that and how to get out.
November 4th, 2019 by Sara Upson
If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you? Do you remember you mom saying that to you also? It used to make me so annoyed- but now that I’m older and wiser I can see the wisdom behind it. Even though, part of me still feels annoyed! Diet culture has become the cliff that everyone’s jumped […]
Do These 3 Things To Have More Treats And Less Tricks This Halloween.
October 26th, 2019 by Sara Upson
“The thing I hate most about this time of year is walking into every store and the first thing that you see is a huge display of Halloween candy,”said my client. It’s a common theme that I hear from clients. On one hand- you really want to be able to enjoy candy, to eat it without […]
I took my daughter to see a plastic surgeon. That sounds like a shameful secret confession, but it’s not! She was six months old and was born with a few skin tags on her face that needed to be removed. We consulted with several different doctors about removal and a plastic surgeon was one of them. (They didn’t […]
Clarifying Truths about what Health At Every Size® Is and Isn’t. I’ve always found it so frustrating when people played an air flute backwards. It’s seriously not that confusing and the flute always goes to the right. I did my bachelors degree in music and I played the flute, so when someone does the air flute backwards […]
What is Weight Stigma
June 4th, 2019 by Sara Upson
Weight stigma is defined as negative thoughts, attitudes, devaluation and social rejection of a person because their body shape or size doesn’t comply with the cultural norms (from diet culture) about what a body “should” look like. Weight stigma also includes: stereotypes about people who live in larger bodies, bullying and teasing, nasty comments, being […]
Our culture (diet culture) makes food and eating so stressful! Diet culture has strict rules about what you should eat, but those rules are always changing. When you try to follow the rules from diet culture, it’s a guaranteed way to feel more stress, anxiety, guilt and shame around food. To truly feel at peace […]
Listening to the diet culture message about carbs? Here’s why you shouldn’t
March 15th, 2019 by Sara Upson
I’m not sure there’s a macronutrient with a worse reputation than carbs. Diet culture has labeled carbs as the root of all evil, the epitome of all illness, the thing that is going to make or break your health. Heck, even your life! The fear mongering around carbs is out of control! It’s unnecessary, and it couldn’t be […]
