Introduction & Guest Bio:

Coach, author, and Anti Diet Riot Club co-creator Harri Rose joins us to discuss how to avoid The Wellness Diet and other forms of diet culture in the New Year, how diet culture is trying to infiltrate the anti-diet movement, the harms of social media despite being a tool for connection, life beyond body positivity, and so much more. Plus, in ”Ask Food Psych” guest co-host Ayana Habtemariam answers a listener question about whether limiting foods that trigger digestive symptoms is a form of restriction.

Harri Rose is a coach, author and one voice in Anti Diet Riot Club. Harri believes that for too long we have been apologising for our bodies, and that diet culture and beauty standards are holding many of us back from living life.

With no memories of liking her body even from a young age, Harri went on her first diet at the age of 13. This began more than a decade of disordered eating and misery at the hands of intense dieting and weight cycling. She went to university with what she now understands as an undiagnosed eating disorder but because she “never became thin,” she never would have called it so. After training to be a health coach, during what she had at the time considered her recovery, she also slid the slippery slope of “toxic wellness.”

Harri finally fully healed her relationship with food and her body through Intuitive Eating, learning massage therapy (and discovering how incredible human anatomy is), and the rise of the body positivity movement. An important strand to her work is to spread the word that bodies are political which she does as Head of Community of Anti Diet Riot Club.

For the last five years, she’s been teaching body acceptance via her 1:1 coaching, blog and workshops and in 2019, she had her first book published entitled You Are Enough (Octopus Publishing).

Most recently, she is the creator of Wonder Collective. Wonder Collective is the first club where recovering dieters and disordered eaters can embrace the magic of life through 13 “Pillars of Wonder.” These pillars include for e.g. curiosity, play, belonging and acceptance and take members *beyond* thinking about their body, even in a positive way, to refocus on all that makes life juicy.

She is happiest in a festival field or curled up with a book. And is a self-proclaimed coffee addict. She lives in Bristol with her partner and dog. Find her online at HarriRose.com.

Ayana Habtemariam MSW, RD, LDN, is a nutrition therapist, certified intuitive eating counselor, and macro social worker based in Arlington, VA. She is the owner of Truly Real Nutrition, LLC, a private nutrition practice where she empowers clients to give up dieting in exchange for trusting their bodies and breaking free from food rules that result in feelings of failure and shame. She encourages her clients to embrace the beauty, power, and connection that their food traditions, personal experiences, and values add to their lives. She provides nutrition therapy for clients with disordered eating and those who are recovering from an eating disorder.

She is committed to increasing awareness of weight inclusive philosophies in Black communities and believes that weight-centric approaches to health and wellness only serve to exacerbate body image issues, stress, and anxiety which contribute to increased rates of chronic diseases often seen in Black communities. Find her online at TrulyRealNutrition.com.

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We Discuss:

How Harri’s negative relationship with her body affected her relationship with food growing up
Her experiences with dieting and weight cycling as a teenager, and how that evolved into an undiagnosed eating disorder
How her training as a massage therapist helped to improve her relationship with her body
Harri’s experiences with health coach training, and how she adopted the Wellness Diet
How she learned about intuitive eating and the anti-diet movement
Her current work in self-compassion and self-kindness
Diet culture, and its co-opting of health and the anti-diet movement
The obsession with “wellness” during the New Year
Food activism, and how it’s an offshoot of the Wellness Diet
Privilege, and how it relates to wellness
How Harri started practicing unconditional permission to eat
The Honeymoon Phase
The culture around different fad diets
Her identity as a recovered disordered eater/dieter
How social media upholds oppressive beauty standards and is creating addictive-like behaviors
Social media as a tool for community and connection
Fighting systems of oppression
Life beyond body positivity and diet culture
How diet culture is responding to the anti-diet movement
The role of thin allies in fat liberation
Harri’s work as co-creator of Anti Diet Riot Club and creator of Wonder Collective

Resources Mentioned

Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.

Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered on the podcast
My online course, Intuitive Eating Fundamentals
My book, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating
Help spread the anti-diet message by subscribing to the podcast
The Anti Diet Riot Club
The Social Dilemma (CW: May contain incidental moralizing statements about particular types of food)

Jaron Lanier’s work
Becky Young’s work, and her Food Psych episode
Harri’s website and Instagram

Ask Food Psych with Ayana Habtemariam

Listener Question:

“Is limiting foods that make me feel unwell a form of restriction? How do I incorporate my body’s digestive reaction to foods into the decisions around the foods I eat?”—Allison

We Discuss:

Ayana’s personal experiences with GI concerns
Why recommendations from health professionals to eliminate foods/food groups can be problematic
Questions to consider when it comes to food and digestive symptoms
The low-FODMAP diet, and why it’s not useful in many situations
Gentle nutrition, and how it differs from restriction
Non-food triggers of GI symptoms and IBS
Trusting our inner cues

Resources Mentioned: