Food Psych #147: Why Nobody Needs "Weight Management" with Jennifer Rollin
Health at Every Size therapist Jennifer Rollin joins us to talk about dispelling eating disorder myths, why weight stigma in the eating disorder field is harmful, how Health at Every Size work contributed to healing Jennifer’s body image and breaking down her learned fatphobia, the problem with the idea of “weight management,” and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to handle it when a significant other’s family comments on your weight.
Jennifer Rollin, MSW, LCSW-C is a therapist in private practice in Rockville, Maryland, eating disorder and body image specialist, and expert writer and speaker. She is passionate about helping people to find freedom from eating disorders and body-hatred. Jennifer has completed certificates in CBT-E for Eating Disorders, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and is a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. She is a member of The Junior Board of Directors for The National Eating Disorders Association. Her articles have reached thousands of people through media including The Huffington Post and Psychology Today. She offers eating disorder therapy in Rockville, Maryland and eating disorder recovery coaching to people worldwide. Find her online at JenniferRollin.com.
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We Discuss:
Jennifer’s relationship with food growing up, including how growing up with a mother who was a dietitian taught her food rules and diet culture at a young age
The beginning of Jennifer’s body image struggles, including the role of comparisons
How gender plays into body policing
Jennifer’s first forays into dieting, and how that eventually led to an eating disorder
The roles of isolation and rigidity in disordered eating
Why diet culture is The Life Thief
How restriction around food leads to obsession around food, including our professional career tracks and hobbies
Dispelling eating disorder myths, and what drew Jennifer to the therapy field
Jennifer’s discovery of Health at Every Size work, and how it contributed to healing her body image and breaking down her internalized and learned fatphobia
Why weight stigma in the eating disorder field and general medical field is harmful
The need for evidence-based work in eating disorder treatment
How important it is for providers to understand their own size bias and disordered behaviors around food
Why it’s necessary to hold compassion for our past selves and our previous weight-centric paradigms
The value in finding a Health at Every Size community, and Jennifer’s efforts to create the HAES Therapists and Nutritionists Facebook group
The problem with the concept of “weight management”
How important social connection is to our overall health
The ways in which control over food often hides the desire for control in other areas of our lives
Why our body size is really out of our control, and why that’s okay
How important it is to work with trained professionals in your recovery and in order to help you identify diet culture thoughts in your life
Feeling gratitude for our struggles
Resources Mentioned
Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.
Project Implicit (resource for implicit bias tests, including weight bias)
Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered on the podcast!
My online course, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals, which includes monthly listener Q&A podcasts and access to my private Facebook support group
Ready to learn how to cook, make movies, and more from the masters? MasterClass has launched the All-Access Pass – a thoughtful gift for the home cooks or lifelong learners in your life. Food Psych listeners can get the All Access Pass at MasterClass.com/FOODPSYCH.
Start sleeping ahead of the curve with Casper. Get $50 toward select mattresses by visiting Casper.com/PSYCH and using the code PSYCH at checkout. That’s Casper.com/PSYCH, offer code PSYCH for $50 off your mattress purchase. Terms and conditions apply.
Listener Question of the Week
What do we do when people around us make fatphobic comments about our bodies? How do we set boundaries around what language is and isn’t okay for us? How do we react when our partner’s family participates in this fatphobic language and weight bias and talks about our bodies?
(Resources Mentioned: Rachel Millner’s Food Psych Podcast episode)