Why Diets Don't Work: The Biological Response
Many of us have managed to lose weight at some point in our lives, But how many of us have managed to keep this same weight off for 5 years or more? In this post, I'm going to be summarising some of the most commonly cited biological explanations.
Does body positivity promote obesity?
Short answer: no, it promotes radical self-acceptance over self-loathing. It promotes a kinder society over a culture rife with appearance-based bullying and body shaming and it promotes physical and psychological recovery from dieting and disordered eating. Here's why:
Are you dieting because you feel out of control in your life?
Do you feel more ‘in control’ of your life on some level, when you're restricting or micro-managing your weight, food and exercise? Here's how to handle that.
How To Improve Your Health Without Focusing on Weight Loss
Here's how you can improve your health, without focusing on weight loss. I also explain why not all weight loss is a 'good' thing, or likewise: why not all weight gain is 'bad'.
What is Intuitive Eating and its Meaning?
Intuitive Eating is much needed a breath of fresh air from diet culture. It's about listening to your body's cues for hunger, fullness, satiety, taste and emotional needs - i.e. your instincts, instead of external 'food rules' and giving yourself unconditional permission to eat.
How To Overcome An Emotional Eating Disorder
Emotional eating is NOT an eating problem. It's a coping mechanism for difficult emotions and therefore cannot be treated by dieting or restricting foods. To overcome emotional eating you must learn how to manage your emotions, here's how.
What Your Body Wants You To Know
The ability to pick up on your body's signals and translate them is called 'Body Awareness'. Here's how to develop the skill of listening to what your body is trying to tell you and knowing how to act on it.
Why Body Acceptance Is Essential For Health
You don't have to 'love' your body, but you do need to reach a point of accepting your body, in order to make peace with food and free yourself from dieting and worrying about weight.
How and Why You Need To Rebel Against Diet Culture
Dieting and diet culture encourage a cycle of self-hatred -> regret -> food restriction or purging -> binge. Which is why you need to rebel against it.
How Body Positivity Enabled Me To Recover from Disordered Eating
Here’s how the discovering Body Positive community helped put me on the path to recovery from a lifetime of disordered eating…
6 Steps to Ditching Diets Forever: Make Peace With Food, Exercise & Your Body
Here are the six steps you need to take in order to recover from a lifetime of dieting and disordered eating. Be sure to download the free guides!
What made you obsessed with diets?
Where does the dieting mindset come from? We're not born with the instinct to diet or restrict food, in fact, it completely goes against our instincts (which is why dieting fails in the first place!). This is something we learn (and sometimes from a worryingly young age!). So let's look at some of the factors which contribute to the dieting mindset.
Why is Mindset Important for Health?
When it comes to our health and fitness, our mindsets (i.e. our attitudes, beliefs and assumptions) are often the hardest part of us to change. Mindset matters because it affects the relationship you have between food, exercise and your body. In this blog post we look at the difference between a dieting mindset and a healthy mindset.
No Thank You, Fat Club
Here's why I won't be joining my local slimming club, and why I gave up on weight loss in favour of much more worthy pursuits of my time and mental energy (and what happened to my health and fitness when I did this).
Body Wise by Dr Rachel Carlton Abrams - Book Review
Are you tired? Do you suffer from headaches, backaches or pelvic discomfort? Do you experience depression or feel anxious? Do you have allergies, rashes or autoimmune issues? Have you lost your sex drive? Dr Rachel Carlton Abrams' new book, Body Wise, might just hold the answers.
Making You Feel Bad is Good For Business
In the summer, it seems like every health and fitness company is out to make you feel rubbish and self conscious in your swimwear, to sell you quick fixes and useless products. Women's magazines are the worst adverts for it and you've even paid them for the privileged!
10 Tips For Self Care, For When You Have No Energy
We have three types of energy: Physical, Mental and Emotional. Here are ten self care tips for restoring three of these.
Healthy Eating, Clean Eating and Orthorexia: Where Do We Draw The Line?
Where do the lines between healthy Eating, Clean Eating, and Orthorexia blur? A look at Wellness Bloggers and the cult of wellness, inspired by BBC3's Clean Eating's Dirty Secrets and Selfridges #Bodytalk