Thank you so much for sharing this and your continued engagement with how we talk about our relationship to food. I've had so many strong reactions to "healthy" as a descriptor for food, especially as I've gotten older. As I think about it more, it almost feels like "healthy" is used (including by me) as almost a rationale or justification for eating. Which is kind of wild when you think about it. When I say "I made X and it was actually pretty healthy" the subtext I think I'm sending is "I made X and don't judge me for eating it because it was a 'good' thing that I put in my body." I appreciate you expanding our thinking of "healthy" beyond body size - it is about emotional and mental health and that we want to FEEL good but don't need to prove that we can BE good.
Thank you for shining a light on the shame that is so often interlaced with what and how we eat and providing an invitation to hold our relationship to food and joy differently.
This is just wonderful. Thank you for highlighting the fraught nature of that word in American culture in particular. What I love most about this post are the ways that you express what health means for you...accessibility, dependability, pleasure, togetherness, connection....these all sound like MY kind of health too! I've been working as a therapist for over 20, years in part helping women heal their relationships to food, body, and America's ferocious diet-and-thin-obsessed culture. It's the joy of my life that I get to work at doing what I feel really passionate about. AND as a menopausal woman, there is a whole other layer of (pardon my mouth here) full-fledged fuckery to deal with when navigating the changing needs of my body. For the most part, I have a well-practiced dismissal of any and all rules around what I eat, when, and why but I still have to swat away the gnats of thought that visit from time to time buzzing about and trying to dictate what a "woman my age" SHOULD eat, wear, not eat, not wear...etc. I try my best to meet that with a full-stop "oh no buttercup...we're not doing that to ourselves here" but sometimes it gets me. And when it does, I pause, breathe, thank myself for paying attention to that pain and keep on keeping on. And knowing other folks (but folks who identify as women, in particular) feel and see into this practice of self-defining health warms me deeply. So THANK YOU for mirroring that kind of loving practice and relationship. And now, would somebody PLEASE pass me a blender muffin?!?!?! XO
Thank you so much for this response Kristin!! You are soooooo right about the ageism that’s ingrained in healthism and just the all-around intersection of ageism/ableism/perfectionism. It sounds like you handle those moments with yourself with so much compassion- thank you for sharing. 🧡🧡🧡
Thank you so much for sharing this and your continued engagement with how we talk about our relationship to food. I've had so many strong reactions to "healthy" as a descriptor for food, especially as I've gotten older. As I think about it more, it almost feels like "healthy" is used (including by me) as almost a rationale or justification for eating. Which is kind of wild when you think about it. When I say "I made X and it was actually pretty healthy" the subtext I think I'm sending is "I made X and don't judge me for eating it because it was a 'good' thing that I put in my body." I appreciate you expanding our thinking of "healthy" beyond body size - it is about emotional and mental health and that we want to FEEL good but don't need to prove that we can BE good.
Thank you for shining a light on the shame that is so often interlaced with what and how we eat and providing an invitation to hold our relationship to food and joy differently.
Thank you so much for sharing this, Sasha. So much of your response resonates for me. Joy!!! That’s where I want us to point our compasses.
This is just wonderful. Thank you for highlighting the fraught nature of that word in American culture in particular. What I love most about this post are the ways that you express what health means for you...accessibility, dependability, pleasure, togetherness, connection....these all sound like MY kind of health too! I've been working as a therapist for over 20, years in part helping women heal their relationships to food, body, and America's ferocious diet-and-thin-obsessed culture. It's the joy of my life that I get to work at doing what I feel really passionate about. AND as a menopausal woman, there is a whole other layer of (pardon my mouth here) full-fledged fuckery to deal with when navigating the changing needs of my body. For the most part, I have a well-practiced dismissal of any and all rules around what I eat, when, and why but I still have to swat away the gnats of thought that visit from time to time buzzing about and trying to dictate what a "woman my age" SHOULD eat, wear, not eat, not wear...etc. I try my best to meet that with a full-stop "oh no buttercup...we're not doing that to ourselves here" but sometimes it gets me. And when it does, I pause, breathe, thank myself for paying attention to that pain and keep on keeping on. And knowing other folks (but folks who identify as women, in particular) feel and see into this practice of self-defining health warms me deeply. So THANK YOU for mirroring that kind of loving practice and relationship. And now, would somebody PLEASE pass me a blender muffin?!?!?! XO
Thank you so much for this response Kristin!! You are soooooo right about the ageism that’s ingrained in healthism and just the all-around intersection of ageism/ableism/perfectionism. It sounds like you handle those moments with yourself with so much compassion- thank you for sharing. 🧡🧡🧡