Food Psych #129: Health at Every Size and Eating Disorder Recovery with Kristie Amadio

Kristie Amadio

Activist and recovery coach Kristie Amadio joins us this week to discuss why disordered-eating professionals need to shift to a Health at Every Size paradigm, why it’s important to advocate for FULL recovery, the effect of internalized fatphobia on our relationship with food and our bodies, how to support people in all stages of treatment, body dysmorphia, eradicating weight stigma in the medical community, and much more! PLUS, Christy answers a listener question about intuitive eating with an autoimmune disease.

‘RecoverED’ activist Kristie Amadio is the founder of Recovered Living, providing practical online eating disorder recovery coaching and support.

With a 14-year history of an eating disorder, Kristie sought treatment in three different countries before finding peace with food and her body. This unique experience led to the creation of putting video calling platforms to creative use, and was the driving force behind the birth of Recovered Living.

This heartfelt journey of being comfortable in her own skin has led to an effervescent passion about the notion of being ‘fully recovered’ as opposed to ‘in recovery’.

Described as empathic, quirky, and refreshingly honest, Kristie is a qualified therapist in Australia and New Zealand and a certified Eating Psychology Coach in America. She has a rich history of being an elite athlete, an outdoor instructor, and has helped individuals all over the world in their journeys towards ‘Recovered’.

Kristie embraces a non-diet and health at every size approach and is a true advocate for being free in your own skin. Find her online at recoveredliving.com.

Grab Christy's free guide, 7 simple strategies for finding peace and freedom with food, to start your intuitive eating journey. You can also text "7STRATEGIES" to the phone number 44222 to get it on the go :)

Get Christy's BRAND NEW online course for fellow health & wellness pros, Master Your Anti-Diet Message, at christyharrison.com/message.

 

We Discuss:

  • Kristie’s relationship with food growing up, including learning about how certain foods were “good” or “bad,” and being taught about food-based morality

  • The effect of body comparisons

  • Kristie’s experience being a weightlifting athlete, and how it contributed to her eating disorder development

  • The effect of internalized fatphobia on disordered eating

  • The widespread nature of diet culture, specifically its permeation in Australian culture

  • America’s influences on widespread global media

  • The rationale behind weight classes

  • The myth around weight control, the truth about set-point weight theory, and the cost of maintaining intentional weight loss

  • Kristie’s experience with a high-functioning eating disorder

  • Being drawn to nutrition and food careers due to a disordered relationship with food

  • Christy’s experience in her nutrition and dietetics education, and the seeds of Health at Every Size that she observed in the curriculum

  • Learning about the social determinants of health, and understanding how environmental influences affect people’s health

  • The importance of eradicating weight stigma in the medical community

  • Kristie and Christy’s process of embracing the HAES paradigm in eating-disorder treatment and turning their back on the fatphobic medical model

  • Embracing a model of true and lasting recovery

  • Kristie’s experience with body dysmorphia

  • Learning how to take the emphasis off the body

  • Kristie’s drive for evidence and research around HAES and intuitive eating

  • The cult of diet culture

  • How important and revolutionary it is to spread the anti-diet message

  • Why diet culture is a life thief

  • The challenge and timeline of recovery

  • Finding the motivation to change, and finding the value in suffering and ultimately recovery from disordered eating

  • The required ongoing work of unlearning weight bias and body shame to find full recovery

  • Navigating body image within diet culture, and embracing body acceptance and fat acceptance

  • Being aware of the shape-shifting nature of diet culture

  • Kristie’s process of embracing joyful movement through a recovered mindset

  • Kristie’s professional experience working with clients to work on the practical components for recovery, and her new company, Recovered Living

  • The limitations of the current American insurance model in eating disorder recovery, and how important it is to remember that eating disorders don’t have a size

  • The need for more eating disorder support for male-identified individuals

 

Resources Mentioned

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

 

Listener Question of the Week

What do we do if we want to do intuitive eating, but we have a chronic illness? Are dietary changes necessary for autoimmune issues? Do I need to avoid gluten even if I don’t have celiac disease? Is taking medication to manage a disease an indication of failure? How do we find weight-neutral care for autoimmune conditions? Can intuitive eating help manage some chronic issues? What are the caveats and dangers of trying this method too early?

(Resources Mentioned: Paige Smathers, Alan Levinovitz’s Food Psych Podcast episode)

 
Guest Userdiet culture, diet mentality, non-diet approach, anti-diet, eating disorders, eating disorder recovery, disordered eating, health at every size, healthcare, recovery, body dysmorphia, body acceptance, fat acceptance, fatphobia, the life thief, intuitive eating, social determinants of health, dietetics education, set point theory, weight loss, weight inclusive practice, weight stigma, weight bias, weight neutral, internalized fatphobia, weightlifting, S517