Below is advice on how to mentally handle the holidays from someone that I consider to be one of the more reasonable online “Health Coaches”.  Isabel Foxen Duke comes from the position of: Stop Dieting.  Peace of mind will come when you entirely stop trying to control your weight, and when you accept Your Own Body Size and Set Point, whether it is fat or thin. 

Although I, personally, don’t choose to follow her position, I understand and agree with a great deal of what she says.  Perhaps her presentations resonate with me more because I, too, have a BA in Sociology, and so we share that specific undergraduate educational background.

I respect, and agree with, her references to “intuitive eating” as the “Hunger & Fullness Diet”.  She says: “While intuitive eating itself is not “the answer” to your food problem, the basics are helpful to know if you’re struggling to get off traditional dieting.”

You Are Allowed.
by Isabel Foxen Duke,
BA in Sociology and online “Health Coach”.
at “How To Not Eat Cake … really fast,
standing up, when nobody’s looking.”

You are allowed to disagree with food and body shamers this year,
you are allowed to have a different opinion,
you are allowed to request that someone withhold body or food shaming comments around you,
you are allowed to leave the table if your request is not respected.

You are also allowed to sit quietly and disagree with them in your own mind,
with the understanding that their beliefs don’t have to be your own;
you do not need to convert others to validate your own experience,
and their approval is not needed for you to be yourself.

You are allowed to not diet, when other people are dieting.
and you can feel compassionately for dieters,
who are likely struggling just like you have,
and who are also victims of an unfortunately weight-discriminating world.

Recognize that you cannot control other people,
you cannot educate someone without their permission,
and also recognize, that doesn’t make them right,
nor does it make food or body shaming okay.