Food Psych #212: Breaking Free From Restriction and Food Obsession with Alissa Rumsey

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fellow anti-diet dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor Alissa Rumsey shares her experience with intuitive eating personally and professionally, how adopting a Health At Every Size® approach shifted her work with food companies, how stopping exercise helped her examine her relationship with movement and with her body, what she learned when she stopped wearing makeup, and so much more! 

Alissa Rumsey MS, RD, CDN, CSCS is a New York City-based registered dietitian and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor who is passionate about empowering women to reclaim the space to eat and live unapologetically. She is the founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness, a weight-inclusive private practice that specializes in intuitive eating, body acceptance and disordered eating recovery. Her philosophy is rooted in the anti-diet and Health at Every Size (HAES®) framework, as she believes true health comes from nurturing behaviors to enhance physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Through her virtual one-on-one coaching and online programs, she helps people break the dieting cycle and cultivate a healthy and peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.

Alissa’s expertise is regularly featured on television, online, and in print. She is a monthly contributor to US News and World Report and has appeared in over 100 media outlets including NBC Nightly News, CNN, SELF and Women’s Health. Alissa earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Dietetics and Exercise Science and a Master’s of Science degree in Health Communications. In her spare time, Alissa can be found traveling to far-off countries, and, as a self-proclaimed “foodie,” exploring the expansive New York City food scene. Find her online at AlissaRumsey.com.

We Discuss:

  • Thin privilege, and how it can protect people from diet culture

  • How dieting eventually led Alissa to an eating disorder

  • The normalization of disordered eating in diet culture

  • How disordered eating often leads people to a career in food and nutrition

  • Food obsession as a sign of restriction

  • The factors that contributed to Alissa’s eating-disorder recovery

  • Alissa and Christy’s experiences with habituation and unconditional permission to eat

  • The role of privilege in intuitive eating

  • How diet culture gets in the way of habituation

  • Physical and emotional restriction

  • Alissa’s journey back to intuitive eating personally and professionally

  • How she shut down her private practice as she shifted to intuitive eating

  • The parallels between entrepreneurship and intuitive eating

  • Transitioning out of diet culture as a helping professional

  • The values and beliefs behind a desire to lose weight

  • What helped Alissa to see the benefits of Health At Every Size® (HAES®) and a weight-inclusive approach

  • HAES and food marketing

  • “Detriment buying” vs. “best-interest buying”

  • Alissa and Christy’s current relationship with food as intuitive eaters

  • How their relationship with exercise and with their bodies have shifted over time

  • Subtle forms of diet culture and the diet mentality

  • Beauty ideals, and why Alissa has stopped wearing makeup

  • The role of makeup as a camouflage versus identity

  • The parallels between makeup and dieting

  • Challenging gender stereotypes

  • Using makeup as armor against oppression

Resources Mentioned

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

 
Christy HarrisonOrthorexia, dieting, restriction, parenting, children, The Wellness Diet, binge-eating, restrict-binge cycle, diet culture, The Life Thief, exercise, athletics, sports, eating-disorder recovery, eating disorder, recovery, family, science, research, privilege, classism, intersectionality, gluten, leaky gut, Hashimoto’s, thyroid, celiac, S719