Food Psych #250: Body-Image Healing and Body Grief with Brianna Campos, Plus How to Handle Scarcity Mentality Around Special Foods with Savala Nolan
Introduction & Guest Bio:
SEASON 8 PREMIERE! Therapist and body-image coach Brianna Campos joins us to discuss how to improve body image and fight internalized weight stigma, her concept of “body grief,” how body image is connected to what’s going on in the world around you, and so much more. Plus, Ask Food Psych co-host Savala Nolan answers a listener question about how to handle scarcity mentality with special-occasion foods that are typically served at holidays or parties.
Brianna Campos is a fat-positive, Health At Every Size provider. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of NJ and also does virtual body image coaching sessions, groups, and workshops. Find her on Instagram at @BodyImageWithBri.
Savala Nolan is a writer, teacher, and social justice attorney. She is the Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law, convening scholars, activists, lawyers, and community members at the best public law school in the country to tackle social justice problems.
Savala and her writing about race, gender, bodies and culture have been featured in/on Time, NPR, Forbes, Bust, The Nation, Detroit Free Press, San Francisco Chronicle, and more. She is a regular keynote speaker and panelist on social justice issues, including body-based bias, implicit bias, structural racism, and understanding Whiteness.
She has practiced law in San Francisco and Detroit, MI, and was a law clerk in the Obama Administration’s Office of White House Counsel, where she focused on constitutional law. Before becoming a lawyer, Nolan worked at the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. Find her online at SavalaNolan.com.
This episode is 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:
Brianna’s complicated relationship with food growing up
Her experiences with medical fatphobia, body shame, and dieting as a child
Her weight-loss surgery experience
The factors that protected Brianna from developing an eating disorder
How she first started questioning the conflation of weight and health
Cognitive dissonance in eating-disorder recovery
The trauma of medical oppression
Why you don’t need to be weighed at the doctor’s office
How medical fatphobia leads to poor health outcomes
Body-image healing, and why it is important in eating-disorder recovery
Body satisfaction, and how it differs from body image
Brianna’s concept of body grief
Intuitive eating as a path to body connection
Shame and body image
Sitting with, rather than “fixing,” grief and discomfort
Letting go of controlling our body and moving toward body peace
How body image is connected to what’s going on in the world around you
The role of thin providers in body-image work
Respecting a person’s desire to lose weight without actively promoting weight loss
Building resilience against pushback from diet culture
How to shift toward positive self-talk
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
My book, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating
Help spread the anti-diet message by subscribing to the podcast
Brené Brown’s work (TW: Brené is not HAES-aligned and has spoken about going on diets herself)
This episode is 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.
Ask Food Psych
Listener Question:
“How can I, as someone who has recovered from an eating disorder, help my family avoid the scarcity mindset around special-occasion foods when budgetary limits and the number of people in our household do make those foods more scarce?”—Amy
We Discuss:
Savala’s own experiences as a mom who has recovered from disordered eating
Accepting the scarcity mindset and changing our reaction to it
Normalizing excitement around food
Occasional scarcity versus food insecurity or prolonged restriction
How to make food lose its “power”
How Savala normalizes treats in her household
The different facets of appetite
How Savala manages her internalized diet mentality around her daughter
Inner and outer work in eating-disorder recovery
Communicating to your child and others that you trust them with food
Creating abundance within budget constraints
Practice not perfection
Resources Mentioned: