Podcasts, Books, and Instagram Accounts Related to Health at Every Size

You may have seen in my profile that I operate from a Health at Every Size informed framework (HAES) and thought, “what is that?” or maybe it is part of what drew you to my profile! The short explanation is that I operate from a weight neutral standpoint, but am anything but neutral when it comes to speaking out against weight and size discrimination. This means that I don’t care how much you weigh, but I care about the ways that living in a fat phobic world have impacted you. I care about your relationship to food and your relationship to your body -- not what your body looks like or the content of what you are eating. No matter what size, shape, gender, or race you are, you are worthy of dignity, respect, and care. As simple as this core principle is, the world of HAES is beautifully diverse and nuanced. 

The website https://haescommunity.com/ describes the Health at Every Size basic components as the following: 

Respect

• Celebrates body diversity;

• Honors differences in size, age, race, ethnicity, gender, dis/ability, sexual orientation, religion, class, and other human attributes.

Critical Awareness

• Challenges scientific and cultural assumptions;

• Values body knowledge and lived experiences.

Compassionate Self-Care

• Finding the joy in moving one’s body and being physically active;

• Eating in a flexible and attuned manner that values pleasure and honors internal cues of hunger, satiety, and appetite, while respecting the social conditions that frame eating options.

Thankfully, there are amazing resources out there full of educational material and many are completely free put out by experts in the field. I am not an influencer, and of course none of the resources shared here are in any way sponsored! If body image is something that is a core theme of your therapeutic work, none of these resources will replace therapy, but rather they can add to your understanding of this way of working.  It may feel really healing to read this content, and that is amazing! I certainly hope that is true for you. If you are reading this and thinking, “I don’t feel anywhere close to being ok with my size, “ that is okay too! That’s why you are actively engaged in therapy. 

I know that everyone has a different learning style, and one of the greatest things about the internet is that there is so much information available to each learning style! I am personally an auditory learner, so when I used to have a long commute to work I loved listening to podcasts! My coworkers could definitely always expect me to come in with thoughts about whatever episode I had streamed on my morning drive. 

For those of you who are more visually oriented, some of these instagram accounts have beautiful images that make complicated information simple and clear. I love that about the power of images! Lastly, if you are interested in doing a deep dive into a topic, books provide more thorough content and data. I love to read, but would probably elect audiobooks if I still had a long commute! 

There are so many great resources, these are just a few of my favorites! 

Podcasts 

• Food Psych with Christy Harrison

• Going Beyond the Food: Intuitive Eating, Emotional Eating, Body Neutrality, Diet Mindset and Anti-Diet Podcast with Stephanie Dodier

• Well and Weird with Holly Lowery

Books

• Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon

• The Intuitive Eating Workbook: Ten Principles for Nourishing a Healthy Relationship with Food by Evelyn Tribole

• Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison

Instagram Accounts

• @benourishedpdx - Be Nourished/Body Trust

• @chr1styharrison- Christy Harrison

• @with_this_body - Dr. Maria Paredes 

Here are some questions to reflect on. Feel free to pull out a journal and free write!

• What first comes to mind when you think about your relationship to your body?

• How has dieting impacted your life?

• When is your first memory of thinking about the way your body looks or how much you weigh? 

• How has your relationship to your body impacted your sense of self worth?

• How have these sources impacted your healing journey? 

• Do any immediately call to you from the title alone? 

• Does any of this information change the way you view your relationship to food and your body? 

• Do you notice a sense of resistance or disagreement coming up?

• What feels healing about the message that your weight is okay exactly as it is today?