Food Psych #185: How Diet Culture Hurts Your Relationships with Kristina Bruce
Health At Every Size® life coach Kristina Bruce joins us to discuss how diet culture can affect relationships, how to find self-trust and self-acceptance in recovering from disordered eating, how diet culture shows up in spiritual communities, why health and well-being is about so much more than eating and exercise, and so much more! Plus, Christy answers a listener question about weight stigma in the military.
Kristina Bruce is a Certified Integrative Life Coach and advocate of the Health at Every Size paradigm. Calling upon her education in health studies, sociology, yoga, meditation, and The Work of Byron Katie, Kristina works one-on-one with people to help them reconnect to their bodies and feel more trusting and accepting of themselves. Find her online at KristinaBruce.com.
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We Discuss:
Some of the covert diet culture messaging that Kristina received growing up, despite her parents avoiding overt diet talk
The evolution of diet culture, particularly over the last few decades
How Kristina’s relationship with her body changed from childhood to young adulthood
Yoga culture, and how it uses “spirituality” to reinforce The Wellness Diet
How relationships—particularly romantic relationships—can highlight and be affected by disordered relationships with food, exercise, and/or the body
What helped Kristina stop dieting and embrace Health At Every Size
Her experience of returning to dieting while in recovery
Diet culture in spiritual communities
Relearning self-trust, and why the “honeymoon phase” is sometimes necessary to get there
The body-soul connection
Self-acceptance, and its importance in recovery
Letting go of our inner critic
How relationships transform with recovery
Why health and well-being is about so much more than eating and exercise
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
Help spread the anti-diet message by subscribing to the podcast
Isabel Foxen Duke’s work
David Foster Wallace’s work
Be Nourished, and co-founders Dana Sturtevant and Hilary Kinavey’s Food Psych® episodes
The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat, and author Alan Levinovitz’s Food Psych episode
Marie Kondo’s work
This episode is brought to you by Poshmark, the fun and simple way to buy and sell fashion (including many plus-sized options!) Get $5 off your first purchase when you sign up with the invite code FOODPSYCH.
Listener Question of the Week
Is it possible to challenge the BMI and body-size standards required by the military? How can a person choose between their health and their career? How can individuals advocate for systemic and institutional change? Why are some organizations and people quicker to adopt new ideas than others?
(Resources Mentioned:
Email Christy’s team with your response to this question: admin@christyharrison.com