Food Psych #247: Navigating Pregnancy and Postpartum in a Larger Body with Kelsey Miller, Plus: Living with a Dieting Parent During COVID-19

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Anti-diet writer Kelsey Miller returns to the podcast to share her experiences of pregnancy in a larger body, adjusting to postpartum body changes, being a new mom, navigating the wedding industry as a plus-size bride, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about eating-disorder recovery while living at home with a parent who pushes diet culture on you. 

Kelsey Miller is a bestselling author and speaker based in Brooklyn, New York. While on staff at Refinery29, she created and wrote the award-winning Anti-Diet Project, one of the site's most popular franchises. In her role as Senior Features Writer, she covered a broad spectrum of topics, including popular culture, current events, body positivity and anti-diet culture, fitness, advice, and "weird history."

Kelsey is the author of the memoir, Big Girl (Grand Central Publishing, 2016) and I'll Be There For You (Hanover Square Press, 2018), a pop-culture study on Friends. Kelsey and her work have been featured in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Women's Health, Cup of Jo, Entertainment Weekly, Refinery29, People, Good Housekeeping, The Hairpin, Literary Hub, Ladies' Home Journal, SundanceNOW, The Rumpus, Bustle, and more. Find her online at KelseyMiller.com.

This episode of Food Psych is sponsored by Be Nourished. If you are a helping professional who would like to see the arena of the body be a place free from violence, disconnection, self-blame, self-improvement and shame, join their community of Certified Body Trust® Providers! Applications and more info can be found at benourished.org. 

This episode is also brought to you by ThredUP, the world’s largest online consignment and thrift store. Sell your old clothes and get new-to-you pieces at up to 90% off retail prices. Visit thredup.com/FOODPSYCH for 30% off your first purchase. Terms apply.

We Discuss:

  • What Kelsey has been up to since her last appearance on Food Psych®

  • How not dieting enabled her to focus on writing a book that was totally different from her first book

  • Getting married while in a larger body, including wedding-dress shopping and looking at wedding photos

  • Antiquated standards in the bridal industry

  • Why it’s easy to fall back to old coping mechanisms, even when they are unhelpful or no longer serve us

  • Kelsey’s pregnancy experience as a larger-bodied person with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

  • Expectations around how pregnancy would go given her body size and PCOS diagnosis, and how those differed from reality

  • Fatphobia at the doctor’s office, and finding a non-fatphobic medical practice 

  • How she navigated changes in her body and lifestyle postpartum

  • Her experiences as a new mother

  • Hormones, and how they’re often demonized in our culture

Resources Mentioned

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Listener Question of the Week

“How can I help my parent let go of diet culture, especially given my own eating-disorder history?”—Jae

We Discuss: 

  • Getting support from an eating-disorder treatment team

  • Framing your concerns about diet culture as being about your needs rather than about the other person’s beliefs

  • Asking for support from your parents as a teenager with an eating disorder

  • Discussing your care needs with people who are entrenched in diet culture

  • Where to find eating-disorder support

Resources Mentioned: 

 
Christy HarrisonWedding, marriage, bridal industry, oppression, disordered eating, pregnancy, PCOS, postpartum, motherhood, baby, hormones, eating disorders, eating-disorder recovery, eating-disorder treatment, teens, parents, anti-diet, S720