It's time.

A necessary toolkit to help you separate health from beauty.....

When I was reading in a small cafe in Paris, I had an interaction with a fellow human being that changed the course of my life forever. It all started when I sat down at my table and —

Just kidding! I’ll give it to you straight.

Here are five tools to help you actively work against the pervasive idea that your health can be measured by thin-ness and narrowly defined “beauty”:

1. Read this book.

   1. Hate the pressure to read another book? Take the first step by following their work on Instagram.

2. Remind yourself that according to a 2016 meta-analysis examining 189 studies, being an underweight (or even on the lower side of normal weight) is more of a risk to your overall health than being overweight.

   1. Let that sink in, then….

   2. Ask yourself why your learned reaction to larger female bodies may be one of concern, while your learned reaction to thin female bodies may be jealousy (or perhaps an even deeper sense that everything would just be better if were thin - a troubling thought I’m working to leave behind)

3. Instead of wasting precious time taking your brain on a classic body-shaming tour de force, ask yourself these three helpful questions to help you identify what your body needs right now:

   1. Have I eaten enough to fuel my body?

   2. Have I taken a break (in the last hour, day, week) to simply sit and exist without a task, phone scroll, physical exercise, or conversation?

   3. Do I need to jump up from my seat to wiggle, bounce, and let out a barbaric yawp in order to move through an unhealthy thought pattern?

4. Remember that with about 99.5% of my 1:1 nutrition clients, one of my first recommendations is to eat more….

   1. More whole, real foods

   2. More protein

   3. More fat

   4. More colors

   5. 3 meals daily. Read it and weep.

5. Learn to read (and celebrate) your body’s signs of when it is functioning optimally, including:

   1. a regular cycle with minimal discomfort

   2. energy upon waking

   3. 1-3 bowel movements daily

   4. eating sufficiently sized meals without feeling uncomfortably full, bloated, or nauseous

Lather, rinse, and repeat as necessary.

Or, as my personal shampoo bottle says, “Take a deep breath and become centered. Apply a small amount of Hairbath [Shampoo. It’s shampoo.] into your hands and emulsify into a light lather.”

I kid you not.

You know we’re in a bind when our shampoo bottle is more aware of our needs than women’s healthcare in this country : ) !

Thoughts? I’d love to hear ’em.