Hey, I’m Katie Harvey, a non-diet dietitian. If you’ve spent years battling food in your body, I’m here to show you the path to healing  here on the rebuilding trust with your body podcast. I teach you how to find your own freedom with food through tools, strategies, mindset shifts, and heartfelt discussions around what it means to make peace with food and your body while still existing in diet culture. 

I believe that all bodies deserve respect. and that health is so much more than a number on the scale. It’s about connecting with our true selves and learning that our relationship with food is more important than the food itself.  So if you’re ready to discover the freedom of rebuilding trust with your body, grab a seat and maybe a snack and let’s do this. 

Hello, and welcome to an extra special and break from the norm podcast episode here on rebuilding trust with your body. So you probably heard that last week I hosted a live masterclass webinar. And I know that there were a lot of you who listened to the podcast who, for whatever reason, weren’t able to attend or Maybe webinars just aren’t your thing.

Like, whatever, I get it. People are busy. We only have so many hours in the day.  But I also know that if you’re a podcast listener, there’s a good chance you would totally dig the Masterclass if it were in podcast format. So what I have done for you is created a podcast episode replay version of Bye. Bye.

The masterclass. So I’m going to walk you through what I taught in that masterclass in podcast format, that way you can get all of the information, the strategies, the mindset shifts, all the great stuff that people were raving about last week. I got so excited. Such good feedback on this masterclass. I was like, I have to share it on the podcast where it can reach more people.

So prepare your hearts because we are going to dig right in. In this masterclass replay, you are going to learn how to navigate the balancing act of wanting to feel better in your body while understanding that dieting isn’t the key thing that is going to tip the scale to get you there. Is this a tall order?

Yes, and I am here for it. I eat this stuff for breakfast. I could talk about it every day of the week and twice on Sunday. This is my jam. Most people who listen to this already know quite a bit about me, but just a quick CliffsNotes rundown. I’m Katie. I am a Midwest girl, born and raised. Grew up in Iowa. I now live in the Kansas City area with my husband, Trevor, and my two little boys.

I am a registered dietitian by training, and I now consider myself an intuitive eater, and I accept my body, but I did not always. Thinking back, it was probably around the age of five or six that I started to become self conscious of my body, and I felt like my body was too big compared to my friends, and I started wishing that I was smaller.

And the reason I share this is because my hunch would be that for you listening, your struggles with your body image also go way back in your life. And I want you to think about how far back does it go? How old were you when you first started feeling like there was something wrong with your body or something you didn’t like about it?

And let’s just send some compassion to that younger part of you. My point also with sharing this is that I get it. I know what it’s like to struggle with this and I grew up in that era. I mean it was the low fats era. I was a 90s kid It was all about the snackwell’s cookies We had the spray butter The idea was that eating fat make you fat and then being fat is bad and unhealthy And so, you know, yes the dieting trends have shifted since then But we really honestly have not come very far in terms of the judgment and the assumption that fatness is something we should all be ashamed of and afraid of.

I created this masterclass  to help you if you’re tired of being on the dieting rollercoaster, if you are exploring and you’re embracing the non diet and the intuitive eating approach to food, and if you’re also still struggling with how you feel about your weight and your body image. What do you do when you don’t want to diet but you still want to lose weight?

That’s what I want to help you sort through today. So, for me, it started with my own journey towards making peace with food when I was in college, and even once I was feeling pretty good about intuitive eating, I still didn’t like my body. And it wasn’t until I did the work and applied the concepts that we’re going to talk about today that I actually started to feel differently about my body and about my body. 

And I know you might be thinking, if you have seen me in real life or on social media, you might be thinking, that’s easy for you to say, Katie. You don’t know what it’s like to be fat.  And that is true. Like, 100 percent that is true. I do not have the lived experience of being a fat person. And I don’t want to come off as tone deaf or oblivious to that in this discussion. 

But what I will tell you is that I have invested a lot of time and money to learn from people in larger bodies who do have that lived experience. I’ve learned from people who are both professionals who teach this stuff, who have lived experience, and from my clients of all shapes and sizes. who have lived experience.

And so what I teach is built around what I have learned from people with lived experience. So don’t discount what I’m going to say today just because of my body and my vessel. I 100 percent get that I have thin privilege and just like your cardiologist doesn’t have to have heart disease in order to treat your heart disease.

I can teach you these skills and strategies that you can apply. Regardless of the size of your body.  Yes, weight stigma and fat phobia are very real things in our culture.  All of this is taught today through the lens of knowing that’s true and knowing that you deserve to be treated with dignity, love, and respect, no matter the size of your body.

And while we can’t control what society around us is doing, we can control how you are responding to your own struggles. That’s what I want to teach you today. As far as my background with my work that I do, as I mentioned earlier, I am a dietician and again, most of you listening to this, if you’re part of the podcast fam, you already know this and I have a private practice here in Kansas City where I work with clients.

I’m licensed in Kansas and Missouri and then I have an online business where I have clients and followers from all over the world and  I have literally helped. I sat down and thought about this the other day. I have helped hundreds of one on one clients and students in my programs to navigate the balancing act with food in their bodies through using the non diet approach to healthy eating and body image. And I want to show you how you can do it too. So who  is this training for on this episode today? You are in the right place listening to this right now. You are meant to be here right now. If you are tired of dieting and you know that it doesn’t work as a long term solution, but you also still want to lose weight to be healthier or to feel better about yourself. 

You’re also in the right place if you’ve stopped obsessing about weighing yourself, like you’re not getting on the scale every day anymore.  But if you’re being honest, the number still has power over you.  You’re also in the right place. If you’re worried that by not dieting, you’re going to gain tons of weight and become unhealthy and unhappy forever. 

And you’re in the right place. If you hear people talking about body acceptance or feeling comfortable in their own skin, and you think they’re just lying about feeling that way, they don’t really feel that way, or they’re lying to themselves.  Or, you think, I’d feel that way too if I had her body. So if any of this resonates with you, this is going to be the perfect episode to address these concerns.

And whatever your motivation is,  I am here for you. And I’ve got lots of great strategies to share with you today, and some big mindset shifts with how you are approaching these things. Now, I want to kick things off with a little mental exercise.  I want you to think, and if you have to pause and do this and then push play again, that is totally fine.

I want you to think about three things you are grateful for. about your body.  And what we are doing here is beginning the process of rewiring the way that you think and feel about your body, which of course then impacts how you treat your body.  Because here’s the thing, we aren’t going to hate ourselves. 

I had this client once in one of my programs, she could barely look at herself in the mirror.  Like she told me how she would get out of the shower and she would be sure to avoid catching a glimpse of herself naked in the mirror. And then she would rush to get dressed, and she had a closet full of all these black clothes that were supposed to be slimming, right?

Because that’s what we were told about black clothes, it’s slimming. And none of her clothes were very fitted, like it was loose and flowy because she did not want to show the shape of her body. She was trying to hide her body and avoid her body.  And when she would see herself in photos, She would be picking herself apart and going into this total shame spiral over how she looked and how big she was compared to everyone else and compared to how she used to be. 

And the more she scrutinized herself, the worse she felt. In fact, this often led to binging and then she’d feel bad about that.  We don’t hate ourselves for weight loss or confidence in our bodies.  And not liking your body is what got you into this mess in the first place. It’s what led you to go on a diet, to restrict your food, and to try and fix something about your body or about your health.

Like, that’s how we got here and developed a screwed up relationship with food and our bodies.  So, we need to try a different way.  There are studies that show that 79 percent of Americans report not liking their bodies. And 91 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and have dieted to try and change their size.

In other words, 9 out of 10 women in our society feel negatively about their bodies and have gone on a diet to try and feel better about themselves.  Yet,  we also know that 95 percent of diets fail and that most people who go on a diet will regain more weight than they lost in the first place. Let’s think about this a different way.

That’s what we’re here for today, to look at this differently and to approach it differently. So let me give you a quick high level overview of what I’m about to cover with you. First, we’re going to look at the balancing act. What is the balancing act that we are navigating here?  And what do you do? with your desire for weight loss,  because you know, I’m not going to tell you to go on a diet, right?

I am going to give you some other guidance and some other strategies.  Then we’re going to talk about your health, how to navigate your health again, without going back to dieting.  And then I’m going to give you some strategies that you can implement to start feeling better about your body now and long term moving forward. 

And then we’ll talk a little bit about how we can work together if you want to go deeper on this.  So, what is this balancing act that we are navigating?  The balancing act is knowing that dieting doesn’t work as a long lasting strategy for your health or happiness,  and at the same time,  you still wish you could lose weight. 

I’m going to take a sip of my coffee, just a sec. 

Okay, we’re balancing these two things, knowing that dieting doesn’t work, but still wanting to lose weight.  Another part of the balancing act is acknowledging the reality that yes, our society is super fatphobic.  Yes, there are certain health conditions that are impacted by weight. Yes, you might feel better and be healthier or be treated better at a lower weight. 

And we’re balancing that with the reality that dieting still isn’t an effective solution.  I will also remind you that there are a lot of things in life that matter more than your gravitational pull.  That’s all that your weight is. It’s a measure of your gravitational pull. It’s really not very exciting when we think about it this way. 

And  we live in a world that often forgets this. That’s another part of the balancing act here.  We are navigating the messy middle of healing your relationship with food and your body. It requires sitting in the suck rather than jumping back on the bandwagon to escape your discomfort.  The great news is because I know it’s a bummer to be like, Oh, I don’t want to sit in the suck.

Of course you don’t.  But I want to give you hope as well. There are a lot of things we can do. So many things that we can do to improve your health. And your confidence and your body image have nothing to do with dieting. Things that you can do to physically be more comfortable in your body. Things you can do to feel better when you look in the mirror.

To learn how to speak differently to yourself, about yourself. There is so much that can happen when we expand our minds beyond the limiting and ineffective idea of dieting and weight loss being the only way to address these issues.  And let’s remember that health and happiness look different for everyone.

There is no one size fits all, and we can all find ways to exist in harmony with our bodies, even with whatever limitations we might have.  You might have Very real challenges with your body, such as mobility issues, health conditions, stores might not carry your clothing size, you might need special seating accommodations for your body. 

None of this means that your body is bad or wrong,  or that you have failed if you have physical challenges or health issues.  We can address your health and improve your health with care and compassion through the non diet approach. And the really cool thing about this is that there is no right or wrong.

It’s going to be unique to the nuances of your body, your health, and your life.  Which is why I love working with clients inside my programs, because we get to dig in and explore and experiment with what works for you personally.  The key message that I want you to take away here is that you can feel better about your body, you can improve your health, you can feel more comfortable in your body, and none of it has to involve dieting or fixating on your actual weight. 

The number itself does not need to matter. 

So let’s talk about what to do with your desire for weight loss.  We talked about that balancing act and how part of what you’re balancing is the desire for weight loss while knowing dieting doesn’t work.  I want to share my lottery analogy with you. So imagine for a moment That you are a financial counselor and the person sitting in front of you, your client, is coming in and they are broke.

They’re up to their eyeballs in debt, they can barely pay their bills, they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and they’re like, help me.  Would your advice be that they go on down the street to the gas station and buy a bunch of lottery tickets?  Probably not, right?  Because even winning the lottery would theoretically solve these problems and make their life better. 

You also know that the odds of them winning the lottery are slim to none.  So instead, you would help them and counsel them to approach their situation from different angles. You might start by looking at their income. How can they increase their income? Maybe asking for a raise, or getting a higher paying job, or adding a second job, or a side hustle, or selling some stuff. 

And then you might look at ways to reduce their spending. Maybe you cut unnecessary expenses. Maybe they need to cancel their Netflix subscription for a while. Maybe they need to consolidate some debt, whatever it might be. You’re going to come at it from these different angles to help them. improve their situation over time and it’s not going to be a quick fix. 

But what you’re going to do is going to help set them up for financial stability and security.  And you’re not going to play the lottery and gamble with them.  It’s the same thing with dieting. Just because. Losing weight might make you feel better, might improve your health, might make people treat you better, might make you more confident. 

It does not increase the odds of you winning the dieting lottery and permanently losing weight. And so instead, we are going to come at it from many different angles to improve your situation.  The next thing we need to do is get curious about why do you want to lose weight? Because it’s different for everybody. 

Was it because your doctor told you needed to? Is it because you feel uncomfortable in your body? Maybe you’re heavier than you’ve ever been. Perhaps you don’t like the way that your clothes fit. Maybe you want to feel more confident or have more energy.  When we can understand what your actual concern is, we can address it directly.

So let’s say that your doctor told you that you need to lose weight to improve your cholesterol and your blood pressure. First of all, we know that those are highly genetic conditions, so we need to start off by recognizing that.  And while dieting might temporarily make those numbers look better, you The most likely outcome is weight regain and worsening health from the weight cycling itself. 

Instead, we can directly address your cholesterol and your blood pressure with some general nutrition strategies with food, with movement, maybe with medication. And we can target those things with evidence based practices that are designed specifically for those conditions.  And none of it has to include dieting and having tunnel vision on that as the only option. 

Let’s say that your concern is not so much medical, but it’s about how you feel in your body.  There are a lot of things that we can do to help you feel more comfortable in your body. And it starts by accepting that this is your here and now body and being kind to yourself about that.  If you have aches and pains, we need to understand where that’s coming from. 

Maybe you have arthritis. Maybe you are bone on bone with your knees and you need a knee replacement.  Maybe you have an injury. Maybe it’s just age. As we get older, we’re going to have more aches and pains.  We can do a lot for pain in the body when we understand the source.  And so let’s say it is weight.

Like for argument’s sake, let’s say your doctor’s like, nope, it’s nothing else. It’s just your weight that is the problem. If you lose weight, this goes away.  Again, still doesn’t make dieting an effective strategy, so what can we do instead? We can address the pain through things like physical therapy. We can strengthen those muscles around the joint to take the pressure off of it. 

We could potentially add in some fish oil. That can help with joint health.  You may need some anti-inflammatory medications. You may need movement in your life, physical activity, because it lubricates the joints. Maybe you need steroid injections. Maybe you need to icing it. Like, there’s a lot of things you can do to address your pain with compassion. 

Let’s say your concern about your weight is that your clothes don’t fit  because you’ve gained weight.  I know this might sound harsh, but it comes from a loving place.  If your problem is that your clothes don’t fit, you need to get clothes that do fit.  Because remember that the clothing is supposed to fit you, not the other way around. 

And I know it sucks to get new clothes, especially if you have clothing items, like maybe you have that pair of jeans that you just loved, those jeans, they were so comfy, and you just have fond memories of them, and they were your favorite, but now they don’t button, or they’re just too snug.  It sucks to have to get rid of those things we used to love, but if it’s not working for your here and now body, Let’s bless it and release it, or set it aside, put it in a tote, set it aside for later if you’re not ready to get rid of it.

But you need to get yourself some clothes that fit your here and now body. And I’m not saying go spend thousands of dollars on a whole new wardrobe. I get that it’s not feasible for everybody. There are inexpensive ways to get versatile pieces of clothing that fit your body right now.  Even if you have begun intuitive eating and you’ve gained a crap ton of weight and  you feel absolutely positive and certain that you are above your set point weight and this is not where you’re meant to be and your doctor’s telling you to lose weight or you don’t feel good, you have no energy, your knees are in pain. 

Whatever your reason for wanting to lose weight, it does not mean that focusing on intentionally losing weight is the thing that’s going to help you.  Am I saying that we should ignore these concerns, these struggles, these feelings that you’re having? Absolutely not.  I’m saying that just like the financial counselor would come at it from many different angles to improve your financial situation, we can come at your health and your body image from many angles to improve your situation.

rather than playing the lottery of weight loss, which you are most likely going to lose.  Let’s say your feelings about your weight boil down to you just don’t like your body at this size.  You might be worried that it could impact your health, like that’s there in the back of your mind, but if you’re deeply honest with yourself, you don’t feel good about yourself. 

That is a much deeper issue than the number on the scale or the size of your genes.  That is something we need to peel back the layers on and understand where this core belief came from that you’re not good enough and how your sense of self worth has gotten attached to your body’s size and shape. 

A lot of people wonder when we have this discussion, like, how do I know what my body’s ideal weight is? Like, what, how do I know if I’m where my body is supposed to be right now?  And it’s hard. There’s no precise formula or calculation that’s going to tell us that. Certainly the BMI is not going to tell us that. 

Let’s think about it this way.  Your ideal weight is when you are eating intuitively, without dieting, without restricting, without having disordered eating behaviors, such as binging and impulsive eating.  And when you are moving your body and exercising in ways that work for you in your life.  When you’re getting enough sleep, take the medications you’ve been prescribed.

When you’re managing your stress, you’re taking care of yourself overall. When you are socializing and doing things that bring you joy and fulfillment and you’re living life fully.  When you’re doing all of this and you’re living life according to your values,  that will be your body’s ideal weight. Your body’s weight as a byproduct of this is where your body is meant to be at this phase of your life. 

You are so much more than the size of your body, though. The size of your body does not reflect your worth, your intelligence, or your character.  Your body will change throughout life. Your ideal weight range will change throughout life. That’s a fact of life.  But who you are as a human being doesn’t change based on the size of your body.

You are the same wonderful person,  no matter your size or weight. And you’ve got to work on letting go of using the number on the scale to judge yourself. And your health.  Speaking of health, let’s talk about how to navigate that without going back to dieting, because here’s a fundamental part of the problem.

We have been taught over and over again  that managing your weight is the same thing as managing your health. Like we have blurred those two things together. As if they are synonymous, and they are not.  And our society has such a narrow definition of health. Our society thinks that health is this look.

It’s this aesthetic look, like you see online, where thin people, toned people, in their athleisure  wear, drinking green smoothies and meditating and doing yoga. And it’s the six pack abs and eating nothing but fruits and vegetables.  That’s how our society envisions health.  And it’s so distorted.  We’ve got to keep in mind that weight is not a great indicator of health in and of itself.

And I know this is hard for people to really believe and to wrap their minds around because we’re told over and over again about all this research about weight and health. And I’m not saying that weight has nothing to do with health. What I am saying is that the connection between weight and health has been very exaggerated.

And there’s some problems with the research and the way it’s been done, which is part of why the results are potentially a little misleading. So  here’s what I mean by that, or here’s some examples of that.  A lot of the weight research is done utilizing the BMI cutoffs.  The BMI itself is junk science to begin with.

So we’re already on a shaky foundation here. Thank you.  Oftentimes in the research, most of the time in the research, weight cycling, which is that yo-yoing up and down in your weight, and weight stigma aren’t accounted for.  And both of these things are shown to worsen health outcomes.  So it’s hard to tease apart in the research how much of the health concern is truly coming from weight.

Versus these other variables that are playing into the situation.  And the other thing is, we have got so many better ways to assess health in 2024 besides using the scale. We have so many ways where we can assess if your body is actually functioning properly, which is really what we’re getting at when it comes to health. 

Managing your health is not about managing your weight.  It’s about being well nourished and well hydrated and well rested. It’s about seeing your doctor periodically  for a checkup.  It’s about taking medications as prescribed.  A lot of times when we’re fixated on managing our weight, thinking that’s our health,  it leads to worsening health because of weight cycling.

That’s actually really bad for your body.  Not to mention  The unhealthy things that we often do when we’re dieting, like cutting our calories really low, restricting food groups, skipping meals.  That’s not how your body is going to be healthy and well nourished. It’s just not.  Managing your health also means directly addressing whatever health concerns or conditions you have.

If you have diabetes, we need to treat it. If you have joint pain, we need a medical workup to figure out why you have joint pain and address the underlying issue.  Maybe for you, you’re like, okay, I don’t have an actual condition. I just. Don’t want to develop one. I want disease prevention basically. 

Okay, cool. That’s a great goal. The first thing I would tell you is to stay off the dieting rollercoaster  and find balance and peace with food and exercise.  Because having an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise is worse for you than any particular food that you do or don’t eat or any type of exercise that you do or don’t do. 

And the great news is that we can address your health and improve your health beautifully and effectively with the non diet and the intuitive eating approach to health. Let me give you an example of this, because I think it’s helpful to understand, okay, what does that actually mean, or what does that actually look like, or what, like, what do people actually do to make that happen?

Quick story about a client who came to me with prediabetes.  And she was able to go from having prediabetes to having healthy blood sugar and A1C.  when she quit dieting. This was a person who was put on her first diet as a kid,  and she went to Weight Watchers with her mom. I’m sure many of you are listening, that’s been your experience. 

They had a really strong family history of diabetes, so she grew up with this fear of developing it, and a lot of shame about it, and there was a lot of shame and blame. and treating it like someone gave it to themselves. And there was lots of talk about good and bad food at home. And of course, carbs in particular were really demonized. 

So when this client came to me, she had been trying to do a combination of keto dieting and intermittent fasting. And I was like, Oh my goodness, so restrictive. Of course, you can’t keep doing that. She’s like, Katie, I can’t keep doing this anymore. I’m binging all the time. And Then what was happening medically, her blood sugar and her A1c were climbing up. 

So here she is trying to be healthier and it’s backfiring. We talked about how the dieting was not only not helping, in fact it was making things worse because it was setting her up to binge, it also wasn’t necessary. Like she didn’t need to be skipping meals and cutting out carbs because there are plenty of ways to improve blood sugar. That allowed her to eat things like pasta and ice cream. So we implemented right off the bat a strategic eating schedule so that she had consistent intake throughout the day and we practiced pairing together foods that were blood sugar friendly.  And then she turned back into her hunger and fullness and re-established that connection and that trust with her body. 

So, we had the practical side of these strategies with food,  and then we also worked mentally on rewiring the way that her brain thinks about food, and helping her let go of all of those food rules and judgments that she had been entrenched in for so long.  Her doctor also wanted her to go on a medication called metformin, which initially she didn’t want to do.

because it made her feel like she was a failure.  But as we talked through how it worked and what it does in the body, and we reframed it as a tool for her health, she decided to do it. And I was so proud of her for making that decision.  Six months later, her A1C is back in normal range. So you can see that there are absolutely things that we can do through the intuitive eating lens that support and improve health. 

And one important thing when using intuitive eating is to make sure that you’re doing it the way it’s intended and that you’re not inadvertently turning it into impulsive eating. Because that can actually damage your health.  And that’s where working with a professional can be really helpful to make sure that you’re not accidentally doing it in a way that’s not healthy.

as intended.  Okay, so that covered health. Now let’s talk about some of those strategies to feel better about your body now and long term. Negative body image and not liking your body is a thought pattern. You were not born feeling this way or thinking this way. It was something you learned. And this thought pattern is based on these faulty core beliefs  that are leading to unhelpful behaviors. 

So what we need to do is dismantle these core beliefs, change your thought patterns, and that’s going to allow you to change your behaviors.  Let’s start with exploring what your self-talk sounds like.  So I want you to get curious about this. Like when you are looking in the mirror or looking at a picture of yourself or when you’re thinking about your body, what are the thoughts that are going through your head about your body? 

My hunch is it’s things like I’m so unhealthy at this size. I’m such a failure. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I figure this out? I have to lose weight.  I hope intuitive eating will lead to weight loss.  I’m guessing these types of thoughts are familiar to you.  We want to shift these thoughts to something like  I’m having a hard body image day.

It’s going to be okay.  I have the tools to deal with this without going into fix it mode.  I trust that I’m doing what’s right for me and my body.  Getting curious. I wonder what triggered my urge to weigh myself today.  Compassion. What would I say to a friend?  You see how different this feels?  And no more grasping at straws.

No more posting your dieting questions inside your local mom’s Facebook group. I see this all the time and it drives me nuts. The comment section is wild with dieting advice.  No more calling your sister to see what diet she’s currently doing. No more Googling how to lose weight. None of that is helping you. 

Instead,  you are going to choose to do the work of healing your body image, which is going to open the door to more peace and freedom with food and in life. Then you ever imagined  and remember this is not going to be a quick fix. I am not promising you that  it’s going to be an ongoing Process these thoughts and these feelings about your body are not going to change overnight And they’re not going to change at all unless you start doing something different  healing your body image is work And even though it’s work that takes time, there are things you can literally start doing today that will help you feel better about your body.

And just imagine, okay? Imagine this with me for a second.  You wake up tomorrow, and you get dressed. And when you’re getting dressed, you just have your closets full of clothes that fit your body, so you don’t have to worry about that, you get dressed, you feel comfortable, you feel good in what you’re wearing, and you go on with your day.

It’s just not that big of a deal.  And, as a bonus, what if you could get there without having to diet or control your food in order to feel that way?  Does this sound like a dream? Or does it sound almost unrealistic?  I promise you it’s not. It is totally realistic.  And it’s no wonder we don’t feel good enough.

Think about the bombardment of the messages we receive.  The before and after pictures. The clickbait headlines. The TV shows like The Biggest Loser and America’s Next Top Model, the constant chatter about diets and weight loss medications and fitness programs, all of the anti aging stuff, like we’re not allowed for our bodies to change in that way either, like we just don’t feel good enough. 

When it comes to our bodies and our appearance on multiple levels,  and that’s on purpose because these companies want us to feel insecure and inferior so that we will buy their products and programs.  Here’s a statistic. It breaks my heart every time I share it, but I think it’s eye opening.  There was a study that was done that showed that 46%, so almost half,  Of 9 to 11 year olds are sometimes or very often on diets. 

Those are 3rd to 5th graders, y’all.  Elementary school.  And as thickening as that is,  that’s about when I started not feeling good about my body.  I don’t know about you, that might have even been when you were put on your first diet. So, as horrifying as it is, that is a lot of people’s lived experience.  And that’s not okay.

That is not the message our children should be receiving about themselves.  There’s a quote from Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle that I really like.  He’s a psychologist. He says,  ” I only deserve love if I’m good enough, or if I contribute enough, or if I’m hot enough, BS is hard to shake. It’s been programmed into us for decades.

Life isn’t about earning love from anyone. It’s about creating opportunities to feel good and live our values.  Isn’t that powerful?  And here’s the thing.  The stories we tell ourselves about our bodies  impact the way we show up in the world.  So I want you to ask yourself, what is the story I am telling myself about my body? 

And I know you might be thinking, okay, here we go. Now she’s going to tell me I got to be body positive. That I have to gaslight myself into loving my body and feeling amazing about my body. I am actually not going to tell you that.  The problem with body positivity. is that it’s two sides of the same coin with hating your body. 

Because no matter which side of that coin you’re on, the positive, like, woohoo, I love my body, or the negative, like, I hate my body, I have to change it,  we’re putting a lot of energy and emphasis on how you feel about your body. And it’s just, are we positive or negative today?  And  instead,  What is more helpful and what I want you to aim for and explore here is body neutrality. 

So we’re going to aim for just that, that middle range where you’re just neutral. It just is.  And you don’t have judgment about it one way or another.  So many of my clients tell me that is such a revelation for them because  The idea of trying to feel positive about their body always felt unattainable,  and they never actually thought they were going to get there. 

And when they learn about body neutrality, they’re like, Oh my gosh, yes, I can do that.  So that is the first strategy, and if you’re taking notes, I want you to jot that down. Body neutrality. It’s neither positive nor negative about your body. It just is. This just is your body. It’s the body that you have.

It’s the only body you’re ever gonna have. You might as well learn how to coexist with it.  And with body neutrality, we can be aware of the judgments and the thoughts about our bodies. without having to attach to those thoughts. This is a technique called Thought Diffusion.  And with Thought Diffusion,  it’s like your thought, I want you to imagine your thought as a cloud in the sky.

Like you can see it, it’s out there, you can acknowledge it,  so that you can think to yourself, I noticed that, I’m having the thought that, fill in the blank. I don’t like my body. My thighs are too big. I’ve got to lose weight. My belly is disgusting. Whatever it is.  Just because you have a thought does not mean the thought is true or accurate.

It may be. It may not be.  That thought can exist without you having to  do anything with it, without you having to fight with it, without you having to believe it, without you having to take that thought and alter your behaviors because of it. You can just notice the thought. And then the thing is, if you stay defused and detached from it,  The thought will eventually pass on by like the cloud in the sky. 

The other thing with body neutrality is that we recognize that your body will change throughout your life. Like, that’s a fact of life. It is what it is.  But your worth as a person does not change in conjunction with that.  You don’t have to feel positive about your body or love the way your body looks or even like the way your body looks in order to treat yourself with kindness and respect.

So when we aim for neutrality, it helps us to not get tripped up. Buy that. One way to practice neutrality is when you’re showering or getting dressed.  It’s just to say factual things about your body. These are my arms. This is my belly. These are my legs.  And if you want, you can add in some body gratitude like we practiced earlier. 

And with the body gratitude, here’s a hot tip. I want you to focus more on what your body does for you than how it looks. So don’t be like, oh, I’m so grateful that I’m having a good hair day. Like, okay, that’s fine. You can be grateful for that. But let’s also practice. I’m grateful that My hair keeps my head warm.

I’m grateful that my arms allow me to give hugs. Things like that are more connected to you feeling thankful for your body being on your team and on your side and the way that your body shows up for you.  The next strategy I want to talk about is body acceptance. So it’s similar to neutrality, but we’re taking it a step further. 

And like I said, liking your body. It’s not a prerequisite for accepting your body. We can accept things that we don’t particularly like.  My late dog, Zoe,  Lord bless her.  She had so many quirks and so many things that annoyed the crap out of me.  She would go through these spurts where she would get scared of the outside.

And she would go like 48 hours without going out to go pee.  And she would bark at everything that walked by. And she would just do all these weird dog things.  And as much as she drove me nuts part of the time,  I also loved her dearly, and I accepted her for who she was with all of her quirks and all. And I could recognize that, like, she’s a dog and this is what dogs do. 

So we can channel that same energy towards our body.  That this is your body, and this is what bodies do. Bodies get older, bodies change,  and  Most of us are not going to have a body that conforms to society’s ideals of bodies because those ideals are unrealistic for 99. 9 percent of the population.  The other cool thing with body acceptance is that it allows you to understand health at a much deeper level.

When you say, this is my body, this is my genetics, these are the health conditions and concerns that I have or that I’m at risk for or predisposed to, and you can address those without shaming yourself.  And you can also see how you’ve been getting it wrong by focusing on weight loss. You’d be like, okay, that tunnel vision hasn’t been helping me.

And so if I stop fighting against my body, what can I do instead?  And you learn how to cultivate a new way of relating to your body.  And as much as this might seem impossible for some of you, I know that when you’re still in just a really negative place about your body, it’s hard to envision that this is even possible, so I want to share a quote from a client of mine that depicts what is possible, because this person isn’t a unicorn, they’re just a person, an average person like you or me.

She said,  Becoming more engaged in life has been the most fun.  Honestly, when I wake up and remember I don’t have to track or weigh my food, diet, or step on the scale,  I’m instantly so happy. It feels like I have total freedom. Thank you, Katie. You’re truly an angel. It’s so awkward to like to read compliments about yourself, but the part I want you to take away from this is The freedom she talks about,  that is what’s possible for you. 

Now, you might be thinking, but Katie,  my body hurts. I can’t move. I’m so uncomfortable and I know, I am positive that I would feel better if I lost weight.  I hear you and I believe you and I am not discounting this at all.  And it doesn’t change the fact that dieting isn’t going to work. So even if you felt more comfortable in your body or about your body at a lower weight, How are you going to do that? 

We can address your pain and discomfort in so many other ways. And if you’re having resistance to that,  I think we want to be curious about where that resistance is coming from and what additional meaning you are connecting with your weight?  That’s often the deeper part of the body image work. And I love doing that with clients. 

My colleague, Anna Sweeney, she’s a dietitian, Anna on Instagram. Go follow her if you don’t already.  She made a post that said  you might not recognize your body, you might have very big feelings about the fact that this once known entity feels like something unfamiliar.  I believe you. I honor your experience.

Familiar, recognized, or not. Your body is worthy of care, compassion, and respect.  And I thought that was just so beautiful and it captures the essence of what we’re talking about here.  Let me give you a few practical examples of what body acceptance looks like in action. It means wearing clothes that fit your here and now body.

Even if you wish the body you had right now was smaller. Wearing clothes that fit it.  It means not using the scale as an assessment of your worth or your health.  Body acceptance means treating your body with kindness even on the days you don’t like it. Especially on the days you don’t like it.  And, What makes my approach to eating and body image different here is that we want to work with your body rather than against it. 

Rather than trying to force your body to shrink so that you can feel better about it or be healthier, I want to show you how to work with your body and feel better about yourself along the way. Because you will feel better when you’re working on the same team as your body instead of treating your body like the enemy. 

And I know that  You may be coming back to health concerns. You’re like, okay, like, I get it. I get that I need to be nice to myself, but I still am worried about my health.  And you’re worried that the intuitive eating approach might not be good for your health.  Let’s look at what the actual research says about this. 

The research shows that intuitive eating correlates with improved cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, lower inflammation markers, improved body image, less depression,  lower levels of disordered eating and eating disorders, and more nutritional balance.  What’s so interesting about this list of things I just read is that it’s what dieting promises us. 

that it doesn’t deliver on. In fact, dieting is actually shown scientifically in research studies to make all of these things worse.  So let me share another case example with you from one of my clients.  I’m going to use the name Gina, although that’s not her real name. I just want to humanize her a little bit.

So we’re gonna call her Gina. And she did give me permission to share this. Gina was one of those people who had done a ton of dieting and her weight would go up and down. And over time, it ratcheted up.  Because of all the diets she had done, and because of just, like, existing in diet culture, foods like sweets, and, in particular, cookies, had charm.

Charm is the term I use for the power that certain foods have over you.  So, What do you think happened when she encountered cookies? She had this monthly meeting at work where they would meet over lunch, and so food was catered in, and it always included these large bakery cookies, like those ones that are the size of your head. 

And she used to spend half the meeting debating whether or not she could have a cookie, not taking one, and then finally giving in and letting herself have one if someone else who was skinnier than her ate one.  But then she’d get mad at herself for eating it, and she would feel like she had already blown it, and she’d scarfed down another one on the way out. 

So relatable, right? Then she started intuitive eating, and she signed up for my program, Non Diet Academy. And together, we worked on healing her relationship with food, her body image, and we de-harmed the cookies.  Then at one point, There were these two months in a row where there were no cookies at the meeting, and the third month, they’re back. 

And normally, this would have, like, heightened the charm, because now they’re back and they’re even more special than ever. But she had already de-harmed them.  And she said,  I went to that meeting. I ate my lunch. I ate a cookie, I stopped when I was full, and after that I never thought about it again. No stress, I felt great, I enjoyed it.

It was just a non issue.  And as they’re walking out of the conference room, after the meeting was over, a co-worker grabbed a cookie and she said to Gina, ” I shouldn’t, but I can’t resist.  And Gina realized how happy she is that she no longer obsesses about these cookies and that she doesn’t feel that guilt for eating them because she’s no longer obsessed about losing weight or worried that every food she puts in her mouth is going to cause her to gain weight. 

So if you take just one thing from this masterclass here today,  I want it to be  that you have the power to accept your body to make peace with food. And to improve your health,  all of that is possible for you, even if part of you still yearns for weight loss.  Now let’s put this all together. So,  these body image strategies with weight and health and body image,  it’s just one piece of the puzzle for making peace with food and your body overall. 

And because of this, I created a program that I wish I would have had when I first started my own intuitive eating journey. I’m certain that it would have helped me to make peace with food and my body faster.  And this program I created as the culmination of the work that I have done with hundreds of clients over the past 15 years. 

And it’s where I teach all of my signature strategies and my frameworks.  And this program is how we can work together this fall.  It is called Non Diet Academy, and I would like to personally invite you to reach out to me if you are interested in joining. I am currently enrolling clients for my fall 2024 cohort.

And if you’re listening to this after the doors have closed, feel free to reach out and I can get you on the waitlist for my next cohort. And we could talk about ways that I could support you right now.  Non Diet Academy is the only program of its kind that shows you exactly how to stop obsessing about food and how to feel worthy in your body so that you can have freedom with food, Peace with your body and live life more fully. 

What exactly is Non Diet Academy? It is a combination course and group coaching program.  And this will be my last cohort of 2024. So, if you want in, now is the time because I only open the doors twice a year. This is your last chance this year.  The curriculum, the modules inside are self paced, so it’s convenient learning on your own schedule.

You don’t have to show up for class at a certain time, and you can go through those at your own speed. You have lifetime access. And then we do group coaching, which is where it’s the secret sauce. It’s where we dig into the implementation, the troubleshooting, and taking action. And I will be with you. for 10 weeks of support and coaching through this program.

It is my most comprehensive, most transformative, most popular program.  Inside Non Diet Academy, it combines five modules of curriculum with group coaching.  And let me break this down for you. Module one is all about breaking up with diet culture. Like how do you let go of all of the dieting thoughts, the rules, the judgments about food, that urge to go on diets, and how do you realign yourself with your values?

And commit to staying off of the dieting bandwagon. Module 2 is where I share all of my best strategies for food and intuitive eating. I will teach you how to heal your metabolism from dieting. I will teach you how to pair foods together so that you can eat the foods you crave while also honoring your health.

I will teach you how to reconnect with your hunger and fullness and how to trust your body. I will teach you how to charm the foods that have power over you that call to you from your kitchen.  All of that. We can talk about your health concerns and specific strategies there. Module 3, we do a deep dive on body image and weight fears.

Today, what I shared with you is like the tip of the iceberg. We go so much deeper than that in this module. Module 4 is about self care. And I don’t mean bubble baths and pedicures. The type of self care that if you’re not doing it, you’re infinitely more likely to be using food in a dysfunctional way. 

And then module five, we talk about exercise, which I like to call movement. And then we do group coaching.  And I easily could charge five grand for this program. Like that is how much value is packed in here. But I’m not going to charge that much. Because I want this to be accessible. And I want you to be able to do this and to get the  peace and the freedom that you so deeply yearn for. 

So I’ll share the pricing breakdown in just a second, but I also want to share, here’s what we’re going to put into action inside Non Diet Academy. You will learn how to eat intuitively and work with your body rather than against it. You will make peace with all foods, even sweets. We will address your health directly.

You will learn how to heal your body image and your self esteem from deep within. You will learn how to identify and deal with the reasons that you have turned to food and dieting to cope. That’s the emotional work. And you’ll learn how to incorporate exercise in a way that works for you in your life. 

Okay, so what’s the breakdown? How much is it going to cost? For only 697, you can get the entire course curriculum at www. adclinic. com And group coaching.  You also have the option to upgrade and add on one session with me as well.  And like I said, I could easily charge five grand for this, but I want it to be accessible to you.

And I’m not just saying that to say it. I know it sounds cheesy, but I can promise you that you will get far more out of this program than what you invest. And I have payment plan options because I’m Also very aware that this is a chunk of change and it’s an investment for most people. So  you can get started today right now for $237.

You can do three monthly payments of $237  and get started immediately. You’ll get immediate access to all of the content and bonuses inside.  Or you can do the one time payment of $697. So, go check out the website for all the details and the enrollment info, as well as the VIP upgrade if you want one on one support.

It is at nondietacademy.  com forward slash enroll.  I want to share a quote from a previous Non Diet Academy client. She said,  I am so glad I invested this last year. I gained so much and I’m amazed at the progress I have made. If you think about all the money you wasted on dieting in the past, this is a fraction of that cost and you have lifetime access to the info.

I am telling you, it made a difference in my life.  If you’re sitting on the fence, Go for it. You won’t regret it.  So what you get when you sign up is the program, the curriculum, which contains five modules that contain 30 short lessons that are all about taking action  that will take you from stressed and obsessed  to having peace with food in your body. 

You will get all the tools you need. You get videos, audios, PDF guides, templates, meal and snack examples, everything you need to implement the concepts.  You also get a resource library, an entire library of research articles, books, podcasts, social media accounts to follow all of this to further support and enhance your process.

And you get the group coaching. We will do five group coaching calls where we dig into what you’re struggling with, and I will coach you through how to move forward. And then you have the option for one-on-one coaching with me, as well as 10 weeks of direct messaging support, which is a big deal because I’m not new.

One on one clients on my caseload right now. So if you want one on one support and access to me, it is through being a member of a non diet Academy.  And then you’re going to get all of the bonuses that I’m about to tell you about.  So  you might be thinking, what if I get stuck? What if I get in here, I get stuck, and then all I have is this like group coaching thing to hopefully get my question answered.

I need to be able to troubleshoot with you, Katie, like right away in real time. No problem.  Bonus number one is 10 weeks of support with me and the other members inside of our private support group on Facebook.  I will be in there literally every single day, supporting you, encouraging you, giving you accountability and reminders and cheering you on. 

You might be wondering what if my family or my doctor doesn’t agree with the intuitive eating approach so they don’t support me.  No problem. In addition to the 10 weeks of the Facebook support group, you are also going to get a bonus guide of scripts for intuitive eating conversations, and they’re broken out into sections of what if you’re talking to a family member versus an acquaintance versus your doctor.

I’ve got talking points, quotes you can use. Do’s and don’ts for the conversations so that you can communicate what you need from them, even if they disagree.  You might also be wondering, what if I’m not totally sure this is going to work for me, or if this is the right thing for my health? Okay, the third bonus I’m going to give you is going to help with that.

It is the Empowered Intuitive Eating Experience On Demand Workshop. So this is an on demand workshop. You can watch it just like you would Netflix.  And in the workshop, I’m going through all of the science and the biology behind why dieting doesn’t work and 

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