20 Comments
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Ariel's avatar

A million crying emojis. You just always get it and speak right to my soul. <3 Love you so much for all your insights on strength and body image.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

thank you so much my friend <3

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Rochelle's avatar

Julia, thank you for your insightful and intimate writing. Your words give us strength and connection.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

thanks mom <3

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Lindsay's avatar

The perfect take on this whole discourse. Thank you! People like you give me strength to keep on keeping on and to raise my young daughter with this perspective that we’ve all fought so hard to get to and maintain.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

This is very kind — thank you.

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Olivia Muenter's avatar

Thank you for all of this.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

thank you olivia!

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It's Your Kitchen's avatar

Hi Julia, I think this is a beautiful take on bodies, strength, and choices. I’ve been thinking a lot about the ‘ozempic of it all’ as a food and cooking person, as a person who was a chubby kid growing up in 90s diet culture, and as a person who has the good fortune to be able to buy and the time to cook the food I want to be eating. Yes, it’s about thinness, but I also wondered the other day wandering through Costco what it will do to our collective appetites for food and joy and living. I thought Mark Bittman’s most recent podcast was an interesting, zoomed out, public health take on the whole thing. Maybe our generation will rely on ozempic as a correction to such a broken food system and maybe (maybe!) we’ll get lucky enough that the incentives will realign in some way. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on this.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

thanks for this — I'll listen to that podcast soon.

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Ellen's avatar

Love this so much. Thank you!

Unrelated, but I just had your leftovers of your chicken thighs and pinto beans for brunch (after doing strength training). It's my new favorite recipe so thanks for that too! And yeah, it's the not most glammy looking dish--but DAMN does it taste great. Accessorized with avocados, lime, and some sour cream.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

thanks ellen! and i'm so glad you enjoyed that recipe — it's a favorite of mine for sure xooxox

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Erin Phillips's avatar

you're just the best. i love being able to share everything you write with my patients/clients with eating disorders in fat bodies as a fat positive dietitian. thank you!!

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Julia Turshen's avatar

Oh that’s amazing to hear - thanks for letting me know

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Nina LaCour's avatar

This was such a beautiful letter. I so admire how you can be simultaneously so clear-eyed and non-judgmental. I loved every word.

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Julia Turshen's avatar

Thank you so much Nina 🩷🩷🩷🩷

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Michelle's avatar

Thank you for writing this and sharing your hard earned wisdom. <3

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Julia Turshen's avatar

Thanks Michelle 🩷

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Lexie's avatar

Such a beautiful essay, thank you.

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Cheryl's avatar

I came to GLP-1 on a long, long hard road, surviving cancers, multiple traumas, watching my parents age with issues. At almost 68, I am absolutely doing this for me, for my future of maybe 20 years, so I can potentially avoid suffering the stroke my mother had, the vascular dementia both her mother and grandmother had, the arthritis and osteoporosis my father and his mother suffered. I am now stronger and fitter than I have been in a very long time, thanks to lifting heavy weight and awe walks in nature, as well as nurtured relationships at work and home. This is just one more tool I have that my family didn't have before me, not about how I look, all about how I feel and will feel. I would never in a million years say anyone else should make this choice. But I don't want to feel shamed for making it for me!

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