Fat and Fit

Comments About My Weight and Internalized Fatphobia

I had an experience at the end of my online Nia class today that I can’t get off my mind.   I was chatting with the students as I normally do when we’re done class. We’re talking about air travel when one woman makes a comment about my weight.   I paused in shock. This type…

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Breaking Body Biases: Can Exercise be Harmful? Orthorexia with FitPro Jennifer Hicks

I recently had the honour of being interviewed by Christine DiFilippis of Breaking Body Biases.  Breaking Body Biases is an anti-diet and joyful movement podcast which amplifies the voices of fitness professionals, dieticians and health practitioners promoting HAES (Health At Every Size). How wonderful to talk with Christine about diet culture, privilege, choice making and…

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Jenn Drakes Arrays of Living

I was so grateful to have the opportunity to be in conversation with Jenn Drakes a couple of weeks ago on her show “Arrays of Living“. We discussed my favourite topic, Nia, and also about being kind to ourselves. At 4:12 Jenn & I discuss what Nia is At 6:50 we connect on the benefits of…

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My body is bigger and I’m a better person now because of it

As my body has grown and changed, I have become a better person for it.   That’s right – gaining weight has made me not only healthier physically, but it’s given me mental clarity, emotional ease and confidence. Lots of it.   When I was a kid, I was so physically awkward, clumsy and shy.…

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How I feel is more important to me than my appearance

When I focused on how my body looked, my appearance was all I could think about. I was deeply anxious and solely focused on what others saw. Nothing else mattered – my appearance took priority over my mental well being, my relationships and my ability to engage in anything other than maintaining how I looked.…

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My “normal” body was clumsy and desperate and sick

In my 30s I developed anorexia. Back then I felt “normal” in my appearance. I say “normal” because that’s what euro-centric beauty standards tell us – that thin is the desired body type. But I’ll tell you, there was NOTHING “normal” about my life at that time. Knowing what I know now, I would NEVER…

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Fit and fat

Thin ≠ fit. Fat ≠ unfit. It is impossible to tell if a person is “fit” just by looking at them. Likewise, it is impossible to tell if someone has high cholesterol or diabetes by appearance alone. We have what some people might call a bias (and what I would call fat phobia) to believe…

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