We are now over one year into the global pandemic. While there is a sense of excitement and hope around seeing friends and loved ones who we have been absent from this past year, there is also a lot of anxiety around seeing people after your body has changed. Today the living legend Evelyn Tribole is here to share some of her best advice on these topics and help you navigate the world and your body in a post-pandemic situation.

Key Takeaways

If You Are Anxious About How Your Body Has Changed Throughout The Pandemic, You Should:

1. Set boundaries within your bandwidth to focus on things other than bodies with relationships that may have been built on diet culture
2. Embrace the opportunity to change the narrative and establish new social norms
3. Normalize that it is okay to not be productive and just to survive

You Are More Than a Body

Nobody in the world has more experience in intuitive eating and the anti-diet space than Evelyn Tribole. Co-creator of the Intuitive Eating Framework, which was introduced into the world 25+ years ago, Evelyn is a wealth of wisdom when it comes to connecting and honoring our bodies.

Surviving Is Something To Be Proud Of

The first thing Evelyn wants you to remember is that regardless of your body changing over the last year, your body also survived a pandemic, which is an amazing accomplishment. As we start to navigate the new social norms, it is an opportunity for us to change the narrative and move past the body objectification that has been a toxic part of our culture.

You are so much more than a body. When it comes time to reconnect with those we have not seen in a while, it is essential to set boundaries within your bandwidth and focus on the connection we have been missing from others, not the judgment of other people’s bodies. By being consistent and reinforcing your boundaries around conversation, you can normalize the accomplishment of simply surviving the global pandemic.

Being Kind To Your Body Going Forward

When was the last time you asked yourself if you have been kind to your body on a biological level? While it is instinctual to use food restriction as a means of control when so much of our world is out of our control, dishonoring your hunger through restriction disrupts your cells on a biological level and ruins their trust in you. Being consistently kind to your body in acts of predictable nourishment can help you cultivate trust between you and your cells.

Diet culture tells us that we need to outsource our nutrition decisions. Evelyn wants you to challenge yourself instead to tune in to how your body responds, which can be a beautiful adventure. You can stop the legacy of diet culture at your own kitchen table and take back some of the agency and hope we have been missing to bring your family and community into a healthier and more supportive post-pandemic world.

How do you feel about the potential to see people again and reestablish connections once it is safe to do so? Which of Evelyn’s tips are you going to integrate to ease your anxiety and nourish your body with consistency? Share your thoughts on how your body has changed throughout the pandemic with me in the comments section of the episode page.

In This Episode

• Addressing the anxiety of seeing people after your body has changed throughout the pandemic (7:20)
• How to move out of the backswing of ‘fuck it all eating’ when struggling with control issues (17:29)
• Why the diet culture industry co-opting the word ‘intuitive eating’ is intensely problematic (24:50)
• The importance of looking at the legacy of body lineage in your family of origin (30:55)
• What you can expect to see in Evelyn’s new book and which book you should dive into first (34:41)

Quotes

“Looking at yourself and that there might need to be some grieving that needs to take place. For this relationship and how it used to be, grieving for the time spent in pursuit of things that are no longer serving you, that you have found actually hurt and harm you. There might be anger with that, there might be sadness with that. And it is giving yourself the space and time for that.” (14:04)

“Our biology has a mind of its own, and it disrupts trust every time you mess with hunger.” (20:05)

“They can say all these sweet words of compassion and self-love, but at the end of the day, if you are still cutting your calories, your cells at a biological level are going to have a reaction to that.” (27:52)

“Intuitive eating is not pass or fail, it is a journey of learning and discovery.” (38:15)

“You need to go through the wobble to discover the connection with your body. I can guide you to some practices to help you figure it out, but it is going to take you connecting and checking in.” (45:16)

Featured on the Show

Enroll in the Free Food Freedom Mini-Course Here

Intuitive Eating for Every Day by Evelyn Tribole

Intuitive Eating 4th Edition by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

The Intuitive Eating Workbook by Evelyn Tribole, Elyse Resch, and Tracy Tylka

Join the Intuitive Eating Online Community Here

Follow Evelyn on Instagram

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

Steph Gaudreau Website

Check out the full show notes here!

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