Welcome to Food Psych, a weekly podcast about intuitive eating, health at every size, and body liberation.

I'm your host, Christi Harrison, and I'm a registered dietitian and certified intuitive eating counselor.

Join me as I talk with interesting people from all walks of life about their relationships with food and their bodies.

Hey there. Welcome to episode 124 of Food Psych. I'm your host, Christi Harrison.

And today I'm talking with Amber Karns, a body acceptance activist and yoga teacher who founded body positive yoga.

We talked about her journey from disordered eating to intuitive eating, embracing a health at every size mentality, why accessible yoga is a social justice issue,

why community is such an important part of this anti-diet work, her process of mourning the thin ideal and embracing internal growth regardless of body size, and a whole lot more.

I can't wait to share it with you in just a moment.

But first I'll answer this week's listener question, and we've actually gotten a few similar questions recently, so I'll just read one of them, which is from a listener named Alicia, who writes,

Hey, Christi, thank you for all that you do. I've truly found some peace and healing in my relationship with food from listening to your podcast, and I can't wait to start your online course and intuitive eating.

I absolutely love the idea of intuitive eating and body acceptance. I would love to spread this message to the women in my own life, as I've noticed how many are struggling with this issue of body hatred.

I'm so interested in how complex and unique our bodies function as individuals. I would love to get into the field of nutrition.

I hear you talking to other dietitians about school being an orthorexia trigger. What would be your recommendation in entering this field?

Is there anything other than going to school to be a dietitian? I'm not interested in working in a hospital and giving meal plans.

I would really love to help women have a great relationship with food in their bodies, and more importantly help them feel amazing from the inside out through nutrition.

I'm needing some advice on which steps to take in entering this field. Thank you.

So thanks Alicia for this great question. Before I answer, just my usual disclaimer that these answers are for informational and educational purposes only,

an Arna substitute for individual medical or mental health advice, or in this case, individual career coaching or counseling.

There are definitely pros and cons to going to school to be a dietitian. I will say on the balance, I'm really happy that I did it,

but the cons are, like you said, it can be an orthorexia trigger. A lot of what is taught in traditional dietetics programs is very orthorexic or within the traditional weight paradigm,

where you're counseled to tell people to lose weight and diet and all the things that we're trying to get away from here.

But I will say the pros of getting a dietetics degree are that it's still a really respected credential and it can allow you to do more than you might be able to do.

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