FOOD, BODY IMAGE, AND THE WHOLE DIET-AND-EXERCISE DRAMA
There’s a lot more to our struggles with food and our bodies than calories, willpower, or trying harder.
Here, I explore the assumptions behind the traditional diet-and-exercise model, why so many familiar solutions keep us stuck, and what changes when we approach food, exercise, and our bodies from a completely different perspective.
Some posts are personal. Some challenge conventional wisdom. And some might make you laugh.
Browse the articles below. Start wherever you're curious.
Why Exercising to Burn Calories Is Keeping You Stuck
A producer on a commercial shoot called me an athlete and I nearly laughed out loud. I don't train for marathons. I don't push through workouts I hate. I only move in ways that feel good — and apparently that's exactly what athletes do. Here's what I mean.
The 5 Steps to Healing Your Relationship With Food and Your Body
A reader wrote to me about celiac disease, food allergies, and feeling like she wanted to trade her body in. Her situation was unique — but the path forward was the same one I'd recommend to anyone. Here are the five steps that change everything.
Why Women Bond Over Body Shame (And What It’s Really Costing Us)
A reader asked me to dig deeper into something I noticed — that the diet culture small talk I receive changes completely depending on what I'm wearing. Here's what I think is actually happening, and why it matters more than it seems.
Why Being Smart Doesn’t Make You Thin (And What That Says About Diet Culture)
I heard a radio host say "if you're smart and you're not rich, something's wrong with you." I turned it off immediately — because I recognized the exact same assumption hiding inside every diet culture message. Here's what it is and why it keeps women stuck.
What a Pile of Women’s Magazines Reveals About Our “Weight Problem”
A friend tagged me in a photo of a store display — women's magazines piled up with the words "Shed Your Weight Problem Here." The Facebook comments it sparked were pure chaos. And that chaos tells you everything about how broken our cultural conversation around weight really is.
Why Women Tear Each Other’s Bodies Apart (And What It’s Really About)
Leaving the theater after The Avengers, I overheard a group of women critiquing Scarlett Johansson's body. Not teenage girls — grown women in their thirties and forties. And what struck me wasn't the comment itself. It was what it revealed about how we see ourselves.