Did healing your relationship with food result in weight gain? Are you angry that healing your relationship with food has made you gain this weight? Do you feel judged based on the weight gain? Listen now for some ways to deal with this part of the food and body peace journey. Subscribe and leave a review here in just seconds. Key Points: It's Eating Disorder Awareness Week! It's time we tackle our cultural eating disorder recovery and speak out about the seriousness of eating disorders. Dieting is a part of the eating disorder experience... if diets weren't normalized, we would have fewer eating disorders! On March 1st start looking for #ChangeTheGame!! Let's change the conversation around dieting. Dieting is NOT healthy eating. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! Eating disorders kill more people than any other mental illness. One person dies every 23 hours from an eating disorder. The Canary in the Coal Mine metaphor: Coal miners used to bring canaries down into the coal mines with them. If the canaries were singing, the coal miners knew they were safe. Once the singing stopped though, that was the coal miners' cue to get out quickly before the toxic gas killed them too. We live in a toxic environment focused on the thin ideal... some people are impacted much more quickly or intensely than others, and they develop eating disorders (the canaries). They are our warning to fix our toxic environment before it gets us too (the coal miners). Many people who go through classic eating disorder treatment receive a meal plan from their dietitians to guide their eating in recovery. This system may be flawed though, and potentially damaging, and we are actually discovering that we may be able to use intuitive eating much earlier in eating disorder recovery than we initially thought! What exactly is a "set healthy weight?" We really have no clue what any single person is supposed to weigh. At certain points in eating disorder recovery this "set-point" can be an important number, and is determined by past weight experiences... but it's very difficult to actually pin this number down. Our "healthy weight" CHANGES based on our age and other life factors! Some research indicates that being in larger body as we get older can be protective. It's time we change our thought process on what weight indicates! Trying to manipulate someone's weight is going to negatively impact their behaviors. What if the enemy is not food at all, and the enemies are really body hate, the need for control, the value attached to body perception, and the value we hold for the judgment others place on our bodies? We do an activity from When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies, a book that approaches recovery from a feminist perspective. How would we lead our lives if we lived in a world where all bodies were valued, no matter their size? What if we were all considered important and precious the way we are now? We DON'T know what anyone's weight is actually supposed to be, and we probably never will. We just need to accept where our body is at, no matter what. We don't have to fight against our bodies. We need you in this world, as you are now. Food is NOT the enemy! Show Notes: Link to subscribe to the weekly FREE Food Peace Newsletter. It is sent out every Tuesday morning and no spam EVER. By signing up, I will also send you Love Food's Season 1's Food Peace Syllabus. Overcoming Overeating: How to Break the Diet/Binge Cycle and Live a Healthier, More Satisfying Life by Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter  ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #1 When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies: Freeing Yourself from Food and Weight Obsession by Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter ---> This week's Food Peace Syllabus addition #2 Love, Food Episode 22 with Dr. Maria Paredes Eating Disorder Dietitians Julie Dillon RD blog Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com.  Click here to leave me a review in i