Recently I enjoyed an incredible eye-opening interview with Linda Bacon, Ph.D. She is the creator and scientist behind the Health At Every Size Program. I had mentioned her work in a previous broadcast. The basis behind Health At Every Size is that you are the best qualified individual to determine what you eat, how much and when. When you make a habit of feeding yourself well and learning to listen to and trust your body, this works much better than starving yourself or dieting.
In order to find balance with your body again you must focus on health, not weight loss and learning to respect and love yourself exactly as you are. When you feel good about yourself, that will give you the motivation to make healthy changes and this leads to better choices. As Linda explained to me, it’s not a question of choosing a salad over a Snickers for lunch one day, it’s more about what you do all the time, every day. That’s what counts. That’s why balance is so critically important. Her book is filled with precious ground-breaking information about the science behind our bodies and why deprivation and dieting doesn’t work.
Health At Every Size has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was valuated in a government-funded academic study. It’s data has been published in well-respected journals.
You’ve already heard me say many times that diets don’t work. And you’ve also gotten from me the message that we have to love our bodies in order to make peace with all food. But Dr. Bacon helped me to see a disconnect in what I’ve been sharing with you. And I want you to get my message crystal clear so I’m going to correct any misconceptions I might have passed onto you.
Weight Loss Is Not a Worthy Goal
You see I didn’t realize how potentially harmful it was to convey weight loss as a goal. When I asked Linda if she would be interested in endorsing my Losing Weight without Dieting program, I never considered seeing the offer from her perspective. Here’s the insight that she shared with me:
“Hi Andrea,
I so enjoyed talking to you yesterday – you have a warmth and openness and asked such fun and thoughtful questions. But given the question you pose below, I think we were talking about the wrong stuff. Would I participate? Absolutely not. And I would ask you to consider the damage you are doing by promoting false hopes and spreading misinformation.
Please don’t use the valuable eating/stress mgmt practices to suggest that people will lose weight – it just creates yet another way for people to experience failure and blame themselves – there’s not a shred of evidence to prove they result in sustained weight loss for the majority of people who engage in them. And you are also supporting people in
valuing weight loss as a goal, instead of helping them move more into self-acceptance and open-mindedness.
Sorry for the harshness. I get that you are incredibly kind, compassionate, and want to do the right thing – I wish there were a way to get you to see your weight myopia.”
The Losing Weight without Dieting Program Gets a Self-Image Make Over
With great humility and my deepest thanks, I confess to now recogning that I have indeed had a myopia. A shortsightedness. Having lived most of my life as a dieter, I now see how it was so natural to continue to see weight loss as the ultimate goal.
Now newly armed with Linda’s scientific information about how our bodies work, I am making a public declaration that I want nothing more to do with promoting any program that endorses weight loss as a goal, including mine or anyone else’s.
Therefore I am changing the name of my program to The Lovin’ the Skin You’re In Program. I will still continue to teach the same content because it focuses on you being the best judge of what to eat, and giving you the tools to deal with the stresses in your life that make you want to eat out of control. To be truthful, there is really only about 10% content talking about changing your relationship to food. The core of my program is teaching the practical skills and how tos’ of being more assertive, feeling better about yourself, honoring your emotions, letting go of your past, and making changes with how you relate to yourself and others. Empowerment. That’s what I teach.
I will be revising some of the language on the sales page website to reflect my new insights. I had plans of promoting the program and starting it on June 12. I feel strongly that to do it the honor that it deserves, I want to take a bit more time to launch it properly.
To be fair, I also have a big presentation that I will do for Lane Bryant on June 30 and I want to take the time to hold a space in the program for those new clients. But more on that soon.
In the meanwhile, I will be holding weekly calls that you can purchase for $19.95 each that will empower you with tools to make peace with food and friends with your body.
Much love,
Andrea
The Juicy Woman, Self-esteem, HAES, Size Acceptance