By Brie Scrivner, MA, Board Member-at-Large, and ASDAH Education Blog Coordinator Welcome to the first in a new series where I sit down (have a Zoom call) with members of… Read More »Meet Your Leadership Team Series: Education Committee Chair
by Danielle B. Grossman, LMFT ‘Binge eating is about using food to numb emotions and stuff feelings.’ ‘Anorexia is about control.’ ‘Disordered eating and eating disorders are about acting out… Read More »Eating Disorders Are An Active Trauma, Not A Maladaptive Coping Strategy
by Chelsea Fielder-Jenks, LPC-S, CEDS and ASDAH Education Committee Chair
When I heard Dr. Lindo Bacon was releasing a new book, Radical Belonging: How to Survive and Thrive in an Unjust World (and Transform it for the Better), I was eager to read an excerpt that they generously sent along (see full excerpt below).
In the excerpt, Lindo revisits their first book Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, which was written over a decade ago, and expresses how they have personally and professionally evolved since that time.
Read More »Revisiting Health at Every Size® with Lindo Bacon, PhDOona Hanson discusses the challenges of addressing weight stigma in the pediatrician’s office. Doctors care about their patients and want the best for them. Pediatricians in particular are deeply invested;… Read More »First, Do No Harm: The Importance of Removing Weight Stigma from the Pediatrician’s Office
Priya Payda talks about her upbringing in one of few Indian families in a small Canadian town, surrounded by diet culture. She discusses how cultural and familial influences contributed to… Read More »Growing Up Indian in a Diet Culture World
McKenna Schueler offers a compassionate framing of weight gain to combat harmful cultural messaging that glorifies weight loss while vilifying weight gain as a ‘problem’ to be fixed. Within, McKenna… Read More »How We Can Reframe Gaining Weight as an Act of Self-Care
by Theresa Jarosz Alberti
I was so angry at my surgeon. He’d finally agreed to operate on me, but his initial refusal to give me total knee replacement surgery had resulted in more than a year of excruciating pain and disability. Facing the upcoming surgery, I knew I needed to let go of my negative feelings before he sliced me open. It was time to focus on positive energy so that I’d be in the best frame of mind to heal.
Read More »A Tale of Advocacy: Two Knees and a Surgeonby Dawn Haney and Max Airborne
In this poignant and timely piece, Dawn Haney and Max Airborne of Fat Rose describe how disability and fat liberation politics are inextricably connected to migrant rights. They describe how fat and disabled people have taken a stand against the detention centers at the USA’s southern border, in the #NoBodyIsDisposable movement, and explain how ASDAH members can deepen their social justice work by taking action on this critical issue.
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No Body is Disposable!
All Bodies are Valued, Indispensable, and Cherished!
Your Body is Integral. It is necessary to make things whole.
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This is the world we fight to live in, one where all bodies are cared for, including our own. This is part of the ASDAH vision.
Read More »No Body is Disposable! Fat and Disability Communities Join Powers to Close the CampsIn the age of “childhood obesity” rhetoric amid the global panic around adiposity, one anonymous writer writes of her experiences as a fat child and adolescent in medical care. Sadly, the physician’s attempts to “control her weight” led not only to disconnection from her body, but also to a dangerous eating disorder. As much of our readership is aware, there is currently a “starvation trial” involving intermittent fasting for adolescents being conducted in Australia. Many Health At Every Size (HAES®) advocates and several professional organizations have spoken out about the potential harms of this trial, giving rise to more global awareness of the negative impacts of restrictive diets on children. Given this context, this is a particularly poignant piece about the very real harms of weight management practices with children and teens.
Dear Dr. “X,”
I hope this letter makes its way to you. It has been many years since I’ve visited your practice and I’m not sure if I have the right address or if a well-meaning assistant might deem this letter ill-suited for your undoubtedly busy schedule. I’ll admit it’s long, and possibly difficult to get through, but I promise it’s worth the read.
Read More »An Open Letter to Dr. X, From a Former Fat Childby Lindley Ashline
Encountering weight-based discrimination and internalized weight bias can be particularly challenging in spaces designed to highlight fitness and body movement. In this piece, Lindley Ashline writes a letter to fitness professionals about the challenges faced by fat persons in fitness spaces and encourages fitness professionals to be more intentional and inclusive of fat bodies.
The Happy Place
Recently I saw a comment from a fitness professional that got me thinking. She said that she wants to help people in bodies of all sizes get to the “happy place” of exercise.
Read More »An Open Letter to Fitness Professionals