The Virtual Silver Lining and Timing

​I have been wanting to go online with my Body Liberation Training program for some time but I never knew exactly when or exactly how. The bad news is, like so many folks, I’m not working. But the silver lining in that is that I actually have no choice now but to figure out the when and how of taking my business online. And I think I’ve figured out some of those details in the last week, as I’ve begun teaching yoga in my virtual studio and hosting some group discussions related to the Health At Every Size Movement.
 
Soon now, I will be launching my Real Rebel Health Podcast and my Fitness For Mortals Program. Real Rebel Health is a Body Liberation podcast I’ve been writing and planning for a little over a year. Fitness for Mortals is a Body Liberation personal training program I actually started offering bits and pieces of in 2014. Both of those projects are ready to see the light of day and I am excited to offer them.
 
However, as I have already mentioned on this blog, Diet Culture is shoulding hard all over social media right now. Online fitness programs are crawling out of every crack and crevice promising “weight loss,” and “toned” bodies. The pressure people feel to heed this dangerous and ridiculous call right now is too much. Taking advantage of the fact that people feel helpless AND may have time on their hands, Diet Culture is all too willing to sweep in and offer us “control.” I even saw an advertisement yesterday that said this outright: “Since there is so much beyond your control right now, why not control the one thing you can?” Manipulative. Cunning. And Irresponsible.
 
If you’re new to the concept of Body Liberation, you might not understand what is so wrong about telling people to “control” their weight and their bodies. Briefly, I will tell you that when we talk about “control” what we are really talking about is “restriction” and “deprivation.” Diets for weight loss – the restriction and deprivation type – do more damage than good in the long term. While almost anyone will see SOME degree of “success” short term on a restriction and deprivation diet, reputable scientific research (as well as our own lived experience) tells us that dieting for weight loss, over the long-term, actually increases your set-point weight, causes weight cycling, and leads to long-term mental health issues in the form of disordered eating, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and exercise resistance. Unfortunately for too many people steeped in Diet Culture, they have to experience the long-term devastating effects of dieting for weight loss (sometimes over and over again) before they will believe this truth. The promises of Diet Culture are that intoxicating.
 
I do not want the online programming I will be launching soon to be perceived as part of this devastating shitstorm of Diet Culture. I am offering fitness, yoga, and TRUE intuitive eating (NOT intuitive eating as a diet program)– programming to improve people’s relationships to movement, food and their bodies. Unfortunately, this programming sounds a lot to people like another form of Diet Culture, another wolf in sheep’s clothing (Noom, anyone?). And the fact is it is pointless for me to say, “it isn’t though!” because you’ll have to need it and want it and experience it to understand just how very different it is.
 
And the reality is, I have to launch now. I need to help support my family, if I can. I need to work. It is a sweet silver lining and blessing that this just so happens to be work I am extremely passionate about and love doing.