Food Psych #85: How to Escape Diet Prison with Anne-Sophie Reinhardt
Anti-diet coach Anne-Sophie Reinhardt shares why she turned to food for comfort in childhood, how she quickly spiraled from dieting to an eating disorder in adolescence, why "willpower" isn't actually a good thing, how she discovered the body-postive movement and healed her relationship with food, why trauma is such a trigger for disordered eating behaviors, and lots more.
Anne-Sophie Reinhardt is an anti-diet coach and body confidence expert who wants you to know one thing: your weight does NOT determine your worth. A firm believer that you don’t (and shouldn’t) have to wait to start living because of your weight, Anne-Sophie works with women around the globe to help them escape diet prison and make eating fun again (because life is a lot more delicious when food doesn’t rule your life).
Now a Certified Eating Psychology Coach and Martha Beck Life Coach, Anne-Sophie struggled with disordered eating, yo-yo dieting and bingeing and purging for over 14 years. After a serious health scare, Anne-Sophie entered recovery and launched her own recovery-focused blog, later named one of the Best 25 Personal Growth Blogs 2015 by the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Since then, she’s helped countless clients write new rules around food, self love, body image and life in general and has shared her revolutionary anti-diet message in top publications like She Takes on the World, Tiny Buddha and Huffington Post.
And when Anne-Sophie’s not helping clients fall madly in love with their own bodies (and lives) you’ll likely find her enjoying her own by devouring a delicious book, swimming with adorable her son, savoring a massive ice cream cone (sans guilt) or (most likely) catching up on old episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. Join her Escape Diet Prison Tribe and her free Facebook group.
We Discuss:
The ways in which diets are now marketed as “lifestyle changes,” which makes it that much harder to be aware of the diet mentality and to not get sucked back into diet culture
Anne-Sophie’s relationship to food growing up, including the feeling of unease around food from a young age and the ways in which she used food to feel in control of and cope with an abusive experience
The ways in which trauma can trigger eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors as a way to cope with difficult circumstances
The impact of Trump's abusive rhetoric towards women, and how triggering his words and sentiments can be to survivors of abuse
Anne-Sophie’s experience with feeling shame over the size of her body, and how that shame led to excessive exercise and food restriction
How positive reinforcement of extreme weight loss, especially by encouraging the concept of “willpower,” can push disordered eating into eating disorder territory
Anne-Sophie’s experience with anorexia, including her abandonment of all creative pursuits and hobbies in favor of an obsessive relationship with food and her body
Her first steps to find healing and recovery from her eating disorder, including her experience with therapy and in-patient treatment
The deep need for more education about eating disorders within the medical and clinical communities, including the life-threatening element of eating disorders and the understanding that eating disorders are severe in all cases whether or not they physically present as such
Why many families are in denial about the signs of an eating disorder, and why it's important to encourage the family not to dismiss these red-flag moments
Anne-Sophie’s first exposure to self-care in her recovery journey, and why it was essential to learn to value her body for things other than weight
Her experience with intensive therapy, and how it encouraged her to find her self-worth and explore the emotional components of her eating-disorder behaviors
The ways in which recovery opens us back up to our lives, including our creativity and valuable relationships
The importance of baby steps in recovery, and the reality that recovery is a struggle
Anne-Sophie’s use of gratitude and journaling to bolster her recovery
Anne-Sophie’s experience getting pregnant, the challenges that came along with that weight gain, and the ultimately fulfilling experience of having a body healthy enough to create a life
The important development of body trust in eating disorder recovery to support intuitive eating
How watching a child’s relationship with food and movement, which is filled with ease, can have a profound impact on how we view our own relationships to food and movement
Anne-Sophie’s transition to being an anti-diet coach, including how she began with blogging and podcasting her journey and then eventually made her way her way getting her certifications in coaching