Your body belongs to you. How to get off the diet train once and for all.

If social media were to be believed, everyone is on a diet.  No judgement here, believe me.  We live in a dieting culture - it is the air we breathe and the sea we swim in.

But we are shrinking ourselves in more ways than one, at a time, where we need to take up space and stand up to the establishment, not cower under it.

Alok Venom: "I belong firmly and irrevocably to me.  Once I began to realise that this body is mine,  other people's appraisal of it became irrelevant."

Ela and I have both stopped pretending that this diet culture noise doesn't affect us.  Yes, we care about how we look, but as Stefanie Michele mentioned on the podcast last week, we now refuse to give our appearance so much power.

How do we encourage our clients to do the same?  Staying on the 'non-diet' train takes work, determination, and an ability to sit with some discomfort. 

The non-sexy option?  Maybe.  But cultivating a good relationship with our bodies is invaluable.  Listening to our body's cues and nourishing them, rather than punishing them, will help to build that body respect, trust, and eventually acceptance.

Take care of yourselves.  It's tough out there. x

Please reach out if you would like some support with your relationship to food OR movement. Ela currently has limited spaces for Intuitive Eating coaching and if you'd like to reconnect with movement, contact Christine.

AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x

Chapters

• 1:19 Introduction and moan about the weather
• 4:23 Letting go of things we can't control
• 5:13 We can't manipulate our bodies in the way that we think
• 8:29 It's not your dream body if it's a nightmare to maintain
• 10:28 The true cost of chronic dieting
• 12:01 How to sit in the suck with body discomfort
• 13:56 The only body you have is the body you have now
• 14:39 How to feel at home in your today body
• 16:58 Jeff Hiller and being yourself
• 20:05 The illusion of control and ignoring body cues
• 22:25 Obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative
• 24:22 Getting INTO your body and rather objectifying it
• 25:55 Your body isn't supposed to look like hers
• 27:33 Hang in there. You're not alone.

Transcript

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Christine Chessman: Hello! Welcome, everybody. I've got no microphone today, so I'm hoping you can hear me. I can hear me?

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Ela Law: I can hear you very well. Yeah, sounds good. Yay!

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Christine Chessman: How are you, Ella?

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Ela Law: I'm okay! I'm just marvelling at the weather, because, literally 2 minutes ago, it was tipping it down, and now it's beautiful sunshine, although windy. It's just been a bit mad here.

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Christine Chessman: I mean, I've just flown back from Ireland, so I was in Belfast and Dublin. I was in Europe, UK and Europe in one day.

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Ela Law: You are, Globetrotter, in one day, wow.

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Christine Chessman: I quite like it. I got a bus to Dublin, and I do love the fact that you don't need passports, you don't need anything at all, you just get a bus and you're in Dublin, so there's no…

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Ela Law: Okay.

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Christine Chessman: There's no…

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Ela Law: Sail first.

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Ela Law: Oh, right! How long does that take?

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Christine Chessman: 2Rs?

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Christine Chessman: That's not bad. And then you're paying in euros, so it's like, what? They're like, oh, you've got 10… what? So it's kind of weird, and then you're back in British Pines, so… Anyway, that aside, what I was going to say was it was very bumpy flying.

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Ela Law: I'm like, don't like flying, I'm terrified of flying. Oh, God.

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Christine Chessman: Didn't look at the weather forecast, because I just assumed it would be fine.

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Christine Chessman: And then we got on the plane, and he was like, so, we're gonna do our service a bit early, and wrap everything up, because there's a few lumps and bumps, because it's very windy at Gatwick, and I'm like, ugh.

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Ela Law: Oh, God.

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Christine Chessman: Oh, it's just bracing yourself and trying to…

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Christine Chessman: It's gonna be okay, it'll be fine. And knowing you can't control it, so this is something we can talk about in the session, control. I knew in that situation, I just had to go through it. I was in the plane, go anywhere, we were in the air, very little you can do.

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Ela Law: That is very true. Yeah, that is outside of your circle of control, for sure.

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Christine Chessman: Something.

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Ela Law: Yeah, let go!

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Christine Chessman: I had to just breathe and listen to funny podcasts and try and look out the window and be like, we're nearly there, we're nearly there!

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Ela Law: Well, I think the funny thing is, with all those turbulences, they seem to be… they're very scary when you're on board, but I don't think they necessarily cause any accidents. I think the accidents happen when the pilot is not doing what he needs to do, or the machine is not working properly. I think the accidents don't happen because it's windy.

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Ela Law: As far as I know.

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Christine Chessman: But it is…

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Ela Law: That's horrible.

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Christine Chessman: It is difficult for them to land.

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Ela Law: So…

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Christine Chessman: Do you know what I mean? It wasn't an easy… they were having to kind of go in a little bit side… you could tell it was work for him, but he probably enjoys that.

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Ela Law: It's probably a bit more interesting than landing in conclude weather.

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Christine Chessman: We're never gonna find the runway, this is ridiculous. It seems very scary when you're on the plane.

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Ela Law: Yeah, of course it is.

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Christine Chessman: But that's my perception. Other people were just sitting, reading the books, and chilling out, and giggling, and…

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Ela Law: Oh, really?

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, whereas I was thinking.

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Ela Law: Maybe they let go of the control element as well, and they were just resigned to, this is what I have to just sit with now.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, and for me, it's okay. If I sit at the window and I can see the ground, it's fine. So I'm like, it's okay, it's bumpy, but we're coming down. We're nearly there now, so if I can see…

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: in a cloud, I struggle. Okay. I can't see what's going on. If I can see the grind, I'm happy.

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Ela Law: Okay.

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Christine Chessman: Okay, so it's weird.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Perhaps, let's move on to control, then.

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Ela Law: Nice segue there!

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Christine Chessman: It is perfect. So the whole idea of today's session, our little bonus episode, was about, you know, how do we stay steadfast in our non-diet approach when the world seems to be on some…

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Christine Chessman: Skinny talk.

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Ela Law: diet, so they're all kind of… everybody has changed. They're approached slightly.

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Christine Chessman: And, you know, control plays a massive part in that, because we have a feeling with GLP-1s, with all the current rhetoric, that we can control our bodies and how they change and sort of make them

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Christine Chessman: change, and how they put weight on, let's make them not put weight on, and not change through menopause, etc. So it is… I see control as a massive part of that, because actually we have much less

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Christine Chessman: Control than we think.

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Ela Law: Yeah, it's a bit of an illusion, isn't it? Even… even if we think we have control, especially with the GLP-1s, which will lead to some weight loss, maybe not to the extent that you have been promised, or that is, you know, is feasible, but it will.

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Ela Law: It's an illusion of control, because you are actually still being controlled by

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Ela Law: dive culture and the drug itself, really.

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Ela Law: So, yeah, it's really… the control element is massive, isn't it, in everything that we do, and the letting go of that is really hard for quite a lot of people.

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Christine Chessman: Nay.

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Ela Law: Yeah, so when you have clients that, that struggle with this being on the… on the non-diet path, and everyone else around them is trying to lose weight, how do you… how do you talk to them about it, and what do you say to help them…

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Ela Law: Sort of stay with what they believe is the right thing to do.

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Christine Chessman: It's… that's a tricky question, isn't it?

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Ela Law: I know.

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Christine Chessman: I think the only thing that you can do is… maybe leads by example. Okay.

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Christine Chessman: And…

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Christine Chessman: I mean, I tend to get a little bit on my soapbox, and I do… I am absolutely… I mean, this is another thing that I'd like to talk about. I'm absolutely here for body autonomy.

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Christine Chessman: I think people should know the whole story before…

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: We're… we're not actually… people aren't that versed in the fact that actually what…

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Ela Law: what side effects do certain things have? Not just talking GLP-1s, we've done an episode on that, but…

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Christine Chessman: you know, the fact that if you go on a really fast diet, where you lose a lot quickly, you're losing muscle mass, aren't you? Lead mass.

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Christine Chessman: And it's actually, if you're not giving your body enough calories, your organs simply don't Function very well.

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Christine Chessman: not thriving in your body, you're surviving. Your body's very adaptable, so it can cope with fewer calories, but this is… we're talking about, in terms of working out, I want my clients to feel good when they move, not.

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: low on energy, and feeling lightheaded, and… and that's what I've experienced.

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Christine Chessman: So that's from the physical side point. From the…

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Christine Chessman: It's just trying to build people up. It's trying to give them that inner locus of evaluation, isn't it? Rather than that all having to be seen. How is the world seeing us? It's like, we see ourselves, and knowing that we're…

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Ela Law: we're all unique, we're all supposed to have different bodies, and actually, why do we all want to look the same? Why are we… it's questioning, why do we all want to…

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Christine Chessman: look the same and give in to the diet culture rhetoric, because there's a bit of me that's quite angry and…

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Christine Chessman: wants to protest.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: And not just say, okay, well… you know… And…

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Christine Chessman: It's easier, certainly there's privilege, there's thin privilege all over the place, but…

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Christine Chessman: if it's a nightmare, so to maintain that sin privilege for so many people, it's not their natural body shape, or not their set point, their natural wit, so it's fight. You're going to be fighting your body.

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Christine Chessman: Constantly, and that's not easy, that's not fun, that's not… to me, that's not privilege, that's…

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Ela Law: I don't know. Yeah. I think.

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Ela Law: Yeah, it's certainly not sustainable. Yeah, I don't know, it's a tricky one, because this is coming up with most of my clients at some stage, doing my work with them.

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Ela Law: I… yeah, I…

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Ela Law: I always ask the question, what's stopping you from going back to restriction, or dieting, or taking weight loss drugs?

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Ela Law: Because I think that is an important question. They…

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Ela Law: They work with me for a reason.

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Ela Law: But I'm with you there, body autonomy all the way, you know, you can do with your body what you feel is the right thing to do, and what you want to do with it. I'm not judging, I'm not here to tell you what you can and can't do, but I ask the question, what is stopping you?

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Ela Law: And… literally every single person, maybe bar one or two that I've worked with, Have this incredibly, passionate…

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Ela Law: attitude to the non-diet approach. They said, well, I can't ever, ever, ever go back.

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Ela Law: to restriction, to disordered eating, to dieting, because I know I've experienced what it's done to me. My mental health, my physical health, my personal life, my relationships.

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Ela Law: It's… She basically fucked everything up, and I cannot go back to it.

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Ela Law: However, it's really hard right now, because everyone around them is doing something to lose weight, either on a new diet, or they're taking the drugs, or they're doing… whatever they're doing.

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Ela Law: So, what we…

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Ela Law: tend to do, we end up doing, is to build up some resilience to that discomfort by actually allowing that to be there, and to say.

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Ela Law: Yes, that is shit. Yes, that is really hard, and yes, that feels incredibly challenging right now, to be the person who's not doing it, to be the person that is maybe in a larger body, to be the person that is not jumping on the bandwagon. That is hard, that is tough.

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Ela Law: But allowing that to be there, and to be a truth, and to allow that truth to be part of you,

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Ela Law: I think is a really… Helpful way of looking at it, and of building resilience against that.

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Ela Law: narrative and that diet rhetoric. Does that make sense? Yes. Because we can't fix it, we can't just say, you know, yeah, it's very easy to want to go to a binary. It's like, either we do this, or we do that.

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Ela Law: So either we go back to dieting and restricting, or taking a weight loss drug, or we sit here and suffer, and we don't do any of that. But I think there is nuance around that, and there is nuance around the, not trying to fix that bit.

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Ela Law: by going back on the Diet Express. Does that make sense? So… Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, I think… I think knowing that it's… it's totally natural to have the desire to have a smaller body, because that is all that we see.

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Christine Chessman: And that's all that's… praised.

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Christine Chessman: To a large extent in the media.

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Christine Chessman: film and TV, you know? So that's what we're seeing, so it's natural.

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Christine Chessman: What would you say, the one thing that I would say, what do you say to people that go, but I feel more myself when I'm smaller? That's a… that's something that I get a lot. I just feel like myself again.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: And I have one…

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Christine Chessman: One lovely client that I had a few years ago was really worried about her, as she put it, muffin top. See, she used to go, I just need to get rid of this, I feel so uncomfortable.

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Christine Chessman: There is, and my suggestion was.

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Christine Chessman: It's the fault of the clothes if you feel uncomfortable. Go get yourself something you feel comfortable in, and that actually.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: round your beautiful curves, rather than squeezes and pushes everything in the wrong way, because I think clothes make a massive difference, but equally, there's a bit of…

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Ela Law: sitting with the discomfort's friggin' hard, and you get that dopamine rush from, oh, let's go on a diet, and then you think, oh, I'm changing energy, I'm losing that weight. It's a dopamine rush, it's a… but it's not sustainable, and actually, there's a lot of research to show that.

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Christine Chessman: This constant yo-yo.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: It's actually quite detrimental to her health.

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Ela Law: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I think that's a really interesting one, isn't it? That I want to just feel like myself again, because I feel that that is…

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Ela Law: That is an objectified way of looking at you, because you… yourself is a picture, an image, a body shape that maybe you used to be, and it's… it shows me that…

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Ela Law: Your self isn't about your inner self, it's about your body. And that you're… you're a self-objectifying

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Ela Law: a lot more than maybe is helpful. Does that make sense? It's just… it's one of those, phrases that I hear all the time, because it's that I want to feel like I did when I was in my 20s.

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Ela Law: Or I want to feel like I did when I was a teenager. That… unfortunately, every body is not going to happen. It's very unlikely that you will ever… it's like going back in time, we haven't got a time machine. We can't feel in that body again, but what we can do is we can work on feeling at home and ourselves in the body that we have here and now, and I think that's where we need to focus when we work with people

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Ela Law: to kind of…

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Ela Law: Help them along the way of feeling at home in their body, in their here and now.

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Ela Law: Body, rather than in the body that they used to have, or that they think they feel themselves in.

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Christine Chessman: I sort of, on that note, it's kind of… it's not really a tangent, I think it's on the same line.

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Ela Law: Oh, not a tangent, Christine!

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Christine Chessman: I am a big fan of watching things like the Emmys and the… I love TV, and the Emmys were last night broadcast from home.

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Ela Law: Oh, yeah. Did you watch it live?

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Christine Chessman: No, I didn't watch it live, but I was hoping of hopes that the show Somebody Somewhere won everything, because this is a little show, and the protagonists are, I would say, in inverted commas, normal people, as in, they have diverse body shapes.

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Christine Chessman: they are not Hollywood beautiful, even though they're all absolutely beautiful people. And it is just a really mixed bunch of people that… and the show was very different from the glamorized shows that you would get.

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Christine Chessman: Hollywood, and one guy, Jeff Hiller, look him up, he's absolutely brilliant. He was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a series, and I was like, please!

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Christine Chessman: It's Bridget Everett, I don't know if you've heard of her, but she created this beautiful show, and it's so heartwarming.

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Ela Law: What is it called?

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Christine Chessman: It's called Somebody Somewhere.

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Ela Law: Oh, I… you know what? It just popped up, as you might also like, on my… is it on Netflix or something?

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Christine Chessman: It's on HBO, I think, sadly.

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Ela Law: I've seen it somewhere, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: he won. He won. Oh, good. Oh, thank God. But he was sort of talking, he's written a book called Actress of a Certain Age, and he talks about his looks.

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Christine Chessman: And how he's not conventionally good-looking, which, that's in his words, which he has accepted, and it's… you know, he was bullied at school, but now he's kind of finding his own… finding him who he is, and what.

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Ela Law: It's cool.

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Christine Chessman: works, and his kind of… what makes him stand out as he is. And what makes him stand out is because he's himself. He's… and what makes Bridget stand out is because she's exactly… if she was in a really small body that wasn't the body she was supposed to be in, she would be forcing herself to not take up as much space as she should take up, because she's…

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Ela Law: And it just really hit me that that is very… in Hollywood, all you could see was this…

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Christine Chessman: Line of everybody that looks the same.

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Ela Law: Refinery.

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Christine Chessman: And then you had these amazing people that were…

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Christine Chessman: Telling a real story that was beautiful, and it… it made me sad, but equally hopeful.

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: I say it won an award, and I was.

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Christine Chessman: Thank God for that.

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Ela Law: We need more of that, we need more visuals, don't we?

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Christine Chessman: Yes, people.

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Ela Law: People, yeah, representing normal people.

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Christine Chessman: But what… when I'm watching that, you know, Bridget Everett is not in a small body, she's in a larger body, but she is so beautiful. This is what I'm saying, it's… beauty is not one…

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Christine Chessman: One size, one certain look, but it's just because it's forced down your throat all the time, that's what you think you should be.

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Ela Law: Hmm.

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Christine Chessman: it's… and I know I'm being cliched and everything else, but it is about

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Christine Chessman: Realizing that you are completely different from anybody else, and try and…

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Christine Chessman: Just be yourself and trying to just ex… it's… Hard, isn't it, Ella?

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Ela Law: It really is hard, yeah. It is hard, because that is the minority, and the majority of what we are exposed to is not that. It's, you know, the 99.9% of the films and series that we watch have got those very

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Ela Law: thin…

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Ela Law: very conventionally, to use that term, beautiful people. That, you know, if we compare ourselves to them, that makes us all feel crap. So, on top of that, you have the weight loss narrative in… in the office, or wherever you work, and…

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Ela Law: It's… it's really hard to go up against it, but, like, what you said right at the beginning about, sort of, control, the control element is…

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Ela Law: I think really important, because we have that illusion of being able to control all of these things, just like those stars are able to control things. But what we don't know is how…

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Ela Law: shitty they might feel when they can't eat the meal that is being presented to them because they're on a diet, or because they have massive side effects from weight loss drugs. We don't see all of that. We just see the glamour and the appearance at, say, the Emmys or in the TV program. We don't see all of the side effects.

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Ela Law: What's the cost when you're living in a body you don't like?

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Christine Chessman: Constantly trying to manipulate and force.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Submission, and beat into, you know, and…

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: That's… just recently, things like that have been really hitting me.

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Christine Chessman: Life is so short, and we are… this is our only beta.

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Christine Chessman: To do everything.

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Ela Law: to do.

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Christine Chessman: of our work, and we are hating on it, and we are forcing it to do all of this, not feeding it when it wants to be fed, and giving its cues, and…

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Christine Chessman: And it's working its ass off.

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Ela Law: To Joseph? Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Help us keep.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: And do all the things, and it's…

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: And I know that's really easy to say, but I agree with you that it's that objectified body versus the living body that I think Stephanie Michelle was talking about. That was really powerful, and I think that was one of our most popular episodes for a long time.

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: It struck a chord in people, that it's okay to feel

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Christine Chessman: it's okay to look in the mirror and go, I don't love that, but then…

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Christine Chessman: let's think about being in the body, and let's kind of try and look around. What do you see? How do you feel in the chair that you're sitting at? What's…

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Ela Law: texture is your blanket? How are you, you know, trying to get into the body a little bit more, rather than…

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Ela Law: Definitely. Yeah, I think… I think it's… I think it's really important to, as I said earlier, to have that as a truth. Yes, it feels shit if you're comparing yourself to…

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Ela Law: people who are in a body that you aspire to, and you don't have. Yes, of course that doesn't feel good, because that's the kind of culture that we live in, but you're absolutely right, it's about, you know, holding that, whilst also

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Ela Law: honoring the body that makes us able to do all of these amazing things, that wants us to be alive. Our bodies don't work against us, our bodies work for us.

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Ela Law: And we just don't give them the time of day, do we? We just fight and fight and fight against them, because they're not always behaving in the way that we would like them to.

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Christine Chessman: But it's maybe also about obedience, isn't it? I… a bit of me doesn't want to be obedient.

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Christine Chessman: And I feel like at this time, when everybody is getting more and more conservative and right.

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: everything. It's like… why is it now that it's… everybody wants to be thin? And it is, like, that sort of dieting is the most potent political sedative. This is the time, like another in history, that we need to be not quiet and…

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Christine Chessman: Kind of… Sounding up to the establishment rather than buying down.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: I don't know, sorry.

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: I just, I just think it is, it's not an accident that it's… you know, we're all…

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Ela Law: No, I completely agree. I don't think it's an accident that so many women in particular are now going back on the diet train. We had a moment where there was a little glimpse of hope that we might have equal rights and equality and equity, and we were doing something in the world. It's funny, isn't it? I know it might be a conspiracy theory, but, you know.

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Ela Law: Interesting that now dieting is back with a vengeance.

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Christine Chessman: Oh, I think it's very much not. I think it's… there's a reason for that, but I do…

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Christine Chessman: that… you know, I think, absolutely, let's… it's okay to feel it this way, but I do think a little bit of… not anger, but a little bit of, hold on a second, this is my body, I do not have to look like her, that's not my body. I always think that's such a simple thing.

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Christine Chessman: But, somebody said this once in a yoga class, don't look at anybody else, because that's not your body. What she can do with hers, it doesn't make any difference to you, because that's not your body.

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Christine Chessman: It does a hundred things that body doesn't do, and.

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Christine Chessman: But it's… It's as simple as that, that our bodies are not supposed to look the same, and they're…

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Ela Law: Hi.

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Christine Chessman: supposed to be the same size, or… Yeah.

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Ela Law: Or do the same things, yeah, absolutely. I had a really interesting example of exactly that last week, so you'll be very pleased to hear that I've started a dance fit exercise class. Yes, I'm dancing! Yes, I am. Finally. It's really interesting, because I'm by far the youngest in the group, I think, but it's really good funny.

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Christine Chessman: I just need to look shocked.

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Ela Law: Oh, I know, well, it's sort of ballroom steps, but as an exercise. And I thought, oh my god, I'm just so crap at this, I can't even… can't even follow the steps,

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Ela Law: And then I just had just a short moment to look around, and…

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Ela Law: No one knew the steps. Everyone was just having fun and moving their bodies in the way that their bodies were moving, and I thought.

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Ela Law: this is interesting, so I could just have some fun. And I could tell the difference after I made that sort of discovery, that I was just like, oh, fuck this, I'm just gonna… I'm just gonna do what I can, as long as I'm moving, and I'm having fun.

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Ela Law: But that was a really good example of actually not being worried about what other people think or do, and trying to copy what they do, or trying to emulate what they're doing, but just being in my body at that time, and doing the things that I can do, and that are bringing me some fun.

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Ela Law: So…

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Christine Chessman: I love that piece.

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Ela Law: It was, yeah, it was a… it was quite an interesting moment, actually, and I could tell that afterwards, I was smiling, I was just… I don't know what I was doing, but it was fun.

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Christine Chessman: Amazing, keep us posted on this.

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Ela Law: Oh, fuck.

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Christine Chessman: I'm gonna…

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Ela Law: Wow. This is… I've got, my friend and I are gonna do line dancing.

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Ela Law: Cool, with a hat!

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Christine Chessman: It's a club in Brighton which does a line dancing lesson, and then you can kind of just do… sit at the bar if you want, or you can keep dancing. So I'm kind of excited.

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Ela Law: That sounds good.

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Christine Chessman: I think?

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Ela Law: Yeah. You got your boots and your cowboy hat ready?

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Christine Chessman: I do not, no. I'm just gonna rock up and see what it's like. But yeah, I think it's… doing things like that can…

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Christine Chessman: That we might be scared of.

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Ela Law: Mmm.

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Christine Chessman: Can kind of help in.

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Ela Law: And so…

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Christine Chessman: Nice guy.

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Ela Law: Absolutely, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: your eyes to the fact that actually it's… it's okay that your body doesn't do everything that you think it should do, or that…

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Christine Chessman: That everybody else can do, and actually, it's okay to have a giggle sometimes, and just move in a way that feels good.

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Ela Law: Yeah, absolutely. And again, it's part of, you know, part of that is letting go of trying to control everything, and being…

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Ela Law: Being the puppet master, and just sort of…

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Ela Law: You know, chopping the strings and just seeing what happens.

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Christine Chessman: So how do we wrap up this episode, Ella? Because…

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Ela Law: I don't know, I mean, we haven't got all the answers, but I think if… I would say, if anyone who's listening to this is struggling with exactly this, where everyone around you is talking about dieting, is on GRP-1s, is…

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Ela Law: Sort of talking about that, and you are…

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Ela Law: really not keen on going there. As I said earlier, I'd invite you to

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Ela Law: Sit with that, and allow that to feel shit for a while, but also understand that, you know, what you're doing is for you, and it's not for anybody else, and finding a way of…

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Ela Law: Being… being okay in your here and now body, and that could be through…

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Ela Law: exercise and movement, that could be through, intuitive eating, that could be through being kind to yourself and self-compassion. There's all sorts of different ways, but rather than trying to fix

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Ela Law: That discomfort, just allow it to be there, because yes, it does feel horrible.

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Ela Law: That's what I would say.

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Christine Chessman: Also, bake yourself up.

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Ela Law: For the fact that you are swimming against the tide.

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Christine Chessman: Do you know what I mean? And you… you are actually trying to find that peace with your body, because it's that relationship, building that relationship with your body is so much more valuable than having to cut all your calories to be a certain dress size, do you know what I mean? Your body will thank you for it.

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Ela Law: Yeah, it will. And your mind will thank you for it, because a starved brain is not a happy brain.

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Christine Chessman: There's so much less noise, isn't there?

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Ela Law: Absolutely, yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Stop worrying about every morsel of food that goes into your mouth, and start even looking forward to meals, because you know that

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Christine Chessman: You can actually eat what… what tastes nice, and… and…

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: Do you mean?

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Ela Law: Yeah.

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Christine Chessman: brave, and it's okay. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, just, just, we're here with you, everybody, and, keep… I was gonna say logging on, no, keep listening.

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Ela Law: Keep listening.

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Christine Chessman: in.

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Ela Law: On share?

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Christine Chessman: Yeah, please share, and keep tuning in, because we just want to keep having the conversation, and if you do have any comments for us, or any feedback, we'd love to hear it. But for now, see you next time!

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Ela Law: Bye bye!