Episode #5: Intuitive Eating
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You are listening to weight a minute with Beth and Jessica, episode five.
Intuitive eating has gotten a lot of buzz lately, but it is nothing new. Intuitive eating was introduced in 1995, which feels like a long time ago, but it was not. That's when I got my first car. That's amazing. I had not heard about intuitive eating maybe until just like five or six years ago, when really we were studying the psychology of eating and trying to bridge the gap as a coach between standard nutrition, education and behavioral change.
That's when I was making food plans for everyone and they weren't doing them, or they would come into our office and break down in tears from sharing their stories and struggles with us. And we were like this is about so much more than just the food. How do we actually help these people? Yeah, intuitive eating is definitely a mind body approach that was founded on 10 principles created by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. I really should have known how to pronounce their names. Sorry about that. We're still crediting them though. Yes. We're still crediting them. Even if I get your name pronunciation wrong. It's main premise is offering unconditional permission to eat with body attunement. So this is especially important when working with eating disorder patients so they can relearn how to trust themselves, heal their relationship with food, resolving disordered eating patterns, and aligning with their natural hunger.
It was proven effective with these ED patients. And so the principles of intuitive eating went more mainstream and that's sort of how the whole Undiet culture started. Whew. Unfortunately over time and with the advent of ever-decreasing attention span and like other food modalities that offer up a way to support someone's health-related to food.
It has become a quick social media scroll or a one minute read on a blog that has been watered down to a simple thing of just trusting your body. Eat what you want, but that leaves out most of its greatness and fundamental principles. So while I like seeing more of these intuitive eating messages, because I feel like that is the right direction, many people take that and use it as an excuse to eat in that eff it mentality, which is often not coming from a place of intuition or it continues to perpetuate fear around relaxing into our relationship with food because so many people do not trust themselves around it.
So today we are going to talk about what is intuitive eating, what it is not, and our little spin on it. That said, Jessica, please start us out. Can you tell us the principles of intuitive eating please?
Yes. I want to briefly go over these 10 principles as a refresher for our listeners. So then we can examine more deeply our own spin on how we use this and what we do differently. So the first principle is rejecting diet mentality, and we know that diets don't work. There is data showing that most people regain a lost weight when they diet often because they are so extreme, they are not maintainable.
We know that temporary efforts create temporary results, not to mention the physical, emotional, and mental distress that comes along with that. So that one’s kind of a really big one.
Number two is learning how to honor your hunger.
Number three is making peace with food.
Four is challenging the food police.
Five is learning how to feel fullness.
Six is discovering real satisfaction.
Seven honor your emotions without using food.
Eight is respecting your body.
Nine move with joy.
Ten is to learn how food makes you feel, but without seeking a perfect diet.
So we are born understanding most of these innately. I actually have a baby who has been introduced to food in the last few months. I find it so fascinating to see what he does with it. I've actually already had input from other people about how or what he eats. And I can already see how our relationship with food can be shaped so early and often, and he's only 10 months old and I'm already pretty educated in this. And I'm still learning how to offer foods without my own comments, reactions, or judgements.
And to really let him guide himself because he really does know what he's doing. And he keeps showing me that he knows what he's doing. So somewhere along the way, our parents, family, friends, and society send us all the messages that disconnect us from what this natural knowing and learning intuitive eating can be super helpful in regaining that innate knowledge.
Yes. I can only imagine. The things that are sliding into your DMs when you show the hilarious photo of him just having an avocado half, like going to town on it as is like, it's not sliced up or anything like that. And I'm like, oh, that's my only thought is, oh, she's going to have to clean that up. It is not any of the other things that I'm sure you get advice or suggestions about, so yeah.
Those 10 principles, it's always good to re-hear them. I enjoy hearing them. So I'm so glad that we can kind of go through them. Yeah. I think like what I see on Social gets watered down. It mostly is challenging the food police and which has kind of goes in line with rejecting diet mentality and making peace with food.
But that I think gets lost that principle a little. It gets the most. Last. Yeah. And sometimes as we'll talk about later, they can conflict with each other. Yeah. What do you hear from clients, friends, and social media about what they think intuitive eating is. They know it is a non diet approach and I think that they like that, but then they often think it means just eat whatever you want in the moment.
So if your intuition says, eat this ice cream, then, and of course, we are not saying don't ever have ice cream, but there's just a little bit more to it than that principle seven. Talk about how do you honor your emotions without food. So if you're eating ice cream to avoid feeling something, then that leads us to principle eight, which is, are you really honoring your body?
Meaning is this the right time? Is this the right place? Some people might have lactose intolerance or diabetes. So it's like what is going to be the best? Choice for you and your highest good it's individual to everybody. But most people are thinking, oh, intuitive eating. I just get to eat whatever I want whenever I want it 'cause they're not there. Like all the other diets and things like that. They're not looking into what are the principles. They probably did not purchase the book or read extinct extensively about it, or have a intuitive eating nutrition. Therapist, walk them through it. So they're just going on the little like, oh, intuitive eating.
I know exactly what that means, but there is more to it. So one of the main principles of intuitive eating is honoring your hunger, which is super great. Love it, but can you tell us why this might be hard for people to get to this place? This one is a little tricky and so interesting. And maybe you can help me explain some of the science behind it, because basically if you've been living with imbalanced blood sugar than it is likely that your hunger hormones, which are leptin and ghrelin are also going to be off or dysregulate.
And these are the hormones, that signal when you were a hungry and when you were a full, you could actually get false messaging that might make you think you're hungry. When really you just had a very balanced whole meal an hour ago, or you might have a hard time noticing your full signals or vice versa.
Many clients we work with actually have a hard time understanding the true nature of their hunger and fullness because of that. And then you pile on thoughts and fears about feeling hunger or over fullness and it can get complex. Yeah, absolutely. That whole dysregulation of your hunger cues, I think is the biggest thing.
And one of the things that we talk a lot about with people to be clear, we actually don't see a lot of folks that have diagnosed eating disorders in the past. It is one something that people. Don't come to us with those issues, but here, nor there, there, there are specialists for disorder needing friends.
Yes. Yes. And so while we have a big knowledge on this, we just, for whatever reason, we don't see a lot of folks with a diagnosed eating disorders. But one of the biggest things about this is we get off in our eating hormones because we've either restricted for a long period of time. You can be a restrictive eater and not having an eating disorder.
You can be an overeater and not be classified as having binge eating disorder. So we can have these restrictive patterns that will alter our leptin and ghrelin levels and other hunger signals. The other thing that I think we really want to talk about too, is. Processed foods and how that totally dysregulates are our eating cues.
Having a lot of sugar and flour can alter our blood sugar balances and things like that. And so therefore we don't really get a lot of those normal, hungry and full signals. Yeah. And I just want to highlight again. Those disordered eating patterns are a spectrum. And yeah, you don't have to have full-blown binge eating disorder or something that severe it can be as we see a lot of people just with that, those diet habits.
Right? So like when we say restrictive, it doesn't mean that they're starving themselves. It just needs, maybe they're not eating enough to really nourish their hormone levels. Or like you said, they're eating processed foods. I'm not getting enough of the other things. Yeah. And I like to kind of think about this honoring those hunger signals, which is a little different than say the very popular intermittent fasting, which I think is totally fine to do that.
If the eating the quote, unquote, eating windows lines up with your hunger. So if you're naturally. Feeling okay. To not start eating until 11 o'clock in the morning, then that's fine, but don't push it to 11, 12, 1 o'clock if you're like hungry, but you're like, oh my God, I'm in this eating window. And so being able to like totally do that intermittent fasting thing, if you're still listening to your body and honoring your home.
Yeah, we could do a whole other podcast just on fast. A lot of people want to dive into that trend without also having balanced these hormones. So if your leptin and ghrelin are off and you attempt intermittent fasting, it's going to be miserable. It's probably not going to be as supportive for you as it would be if you came into it with more balance, total side note, and is that we help guide people into this.
These intermittent fascinating patterns that they are interested in. We don't just say, yeah, that'd be great. Let's start. Okay. So what's the biggest challenge to getting people to trust themselves that they won't be eating pizza and cake all the time. If they allow themselves to have it whenever they want people.
I think if we take out all of the food rules that they will go to town on their most favorite and. Forbidden foods and they will be able to stop so intuitive eating explains how this might be the case. And. They will maybe eventually tire and then you will truly desire more variety of foods. And that really freaks people out, especially the dieters, right?
Because diets remove all necessary skill of self-trust because the nature of a diet is to put all of your trust into the rules of the diet, not your own knowing of what your body wants you to be doing. Also because people don't want to face their desires. I think it scares them a little to admit what they want with food or honestly, anything in life.
And that can be scary for, I think, for all of us to truly admit what we want, what we resist persists. And I think we resist like, oh, I don't want to eat the cake and ice cream. Cause we're afraid of it. But then it's like, then we keep eating it because we're resisting it. I don't know. I think we also just.
If you resist your desires or you are living from a place of scarcity and restriction, instead of this known abundance, then you will continue to binge or stay on the path of eating the piece of the cake more often than what feels good to you. Does that make sense? Yes. I am sharing with my children. Now cause they want to eat the same thing over and over again.
And I'm like, sure, you can have a hamburger every day, but eventually you're going to be like, hamburgers are boring and you won't enjoy them anymore. Or the same for pizza. I'm like, there's a variety of reasons for why we just have it sometimes. And that's because you will get tired of pizza and I want you to like, enjoy.
How awesome pizza is when we have it, like once every other week or whatever, what I also want to offer as an alternative to. Cause I think some people are really freaked out by this idea of like, just go for whatever you want. We don't even necessarily agree with. I say, like, it's more of a mindset, it's a mentality of believing.
I can have whatever I want whenever I want it. But that doesn't mean that you actually have to eat it whenever you want. So it's. If I know I can have pizza every, like I literally can have pizza every day. If I want it I'm adult, I can, I can order it to my house for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No problem.
But that doesn't mean that I actually want to do that. So I think just having that abundance and allowing, just allowing the idea of abundance can also help kind of calm that mind. Yeah. Totally relaxing. Okay. So why my intuitive eating be so hard for people. Obviously the one above is like a, is a big one, but what are some other reasons why intuitive eating might be so hard for people?
So another big one is that making peace with food, which is one of the principles of intuitive eating. So making peace with food and your body requires learning to think, and just a totally new. So to me, that means letting go of a lot of the all or nothing thinking, right? So no more good and bad discussion about food or your body.
And most people's brains are craving those rules or this template because trusting yourself is so very scary and letting go of the old stories feels really like a high risk because you might let yourself down and there's nobody to blame really. But you where it's like when we're on a diet, we get to blame the diet, right.
So, this is why ultimately we're teaching people how to find a self-confidence, which means learning how to always have your own back, no matter what, if you can be willing to dive in and make a few mistakes along the way, but you pick yourself back up and keep going. That's truly how you're going to find.
Also simply reading the framework for something. So just like reading those 10 tenants of intuitive eating or following accounts on Instagram or watching tick talks is all fun and good, but to really apply and integrate these practices, most people are going to need a lot more support. We can't just jump to a different mindset because it sounds like a good idea.
It takes a lot of awareness and reflection. Dedication and practice to see food and yourself differently. So changing behavior, it takes time and a little effort and helping help is really the best way to do it. Yeah, I think that's where we spend almost all of our time. Working with people is still teaching them some general principles about food, but it's really relearning how to have them be and control.
Of the foods that they choose and when they choose them and when they're like, oh my God, I ate this thing. And then, ah, and then walking them through their mindset about what happened and why they feel, it felt like that was a problem when all actuality it wasn't a problem. Right. So just being okay with, I had the thing.
Right. That's it like? Yeah. Making those things neutral for people can be really challenging sometimes. And also it's a hard sell to be like, I'm going to teach you how to be in charge, but they're like, but I'm paying you to tell me what to do. And I'm like, actually, no, that's not sorry, because what is more valuable and me giving you like, Hey, I'm going to tell you what to do and you go do it and then quit or having this lifelong skill that you can take with you through all of the abs and flows.
Forever. All of them. Yeah. And that's what I want. That's what I do. I'm just kidding. So I did buy a random food item last weekend. Where was I? I was out Walgreens and we were having to kill some time. And I saw the end cap of Rondo foods. I don't know. It was like showing miles, those little chocolate, little Debbie.
Donuts. Do you remember those? They had the chocolate covered ones or the powdered sugar ones. I didn't ever, like, I didn't like the powdered sugar ones. It was too dry. I was like, basically like so true. So dry. It was like a joke one day on these things. I always got the chocolate ones and I was showing miles how I used to eat these.
For like breakfast all the time. And I just sat there. I was like, kind of amazed, like, wow. Like, and I was looking at them and I'm like, I bet they're really not that good. And you would think I would have purchased those, but I didn't. Cause I was like, I wonder what if they still taste the same? But what I, I knew that chocolate would be sort of weird and waxy.
And so I was like, no, and I know that's not, they're not going to be good. Like how I remember them. So they remain in my memory and I looked up and I was like, oh
no. How hoes, ding dongs, what are the ones that are like the. The ding-dongs are the best. Are those the ones that are like their little circle. And then they have like, they're like a hockey puck of chocolate and there's cream cream on the inside. It's like chocolate cake cream on the inside, which is different than the one that has like the little swiggle on top.
Anyways, I got those and I didn't eat them that night. Cause I was. It's like a foil wrapper or at least it used to be clear now because you can see it through it now. So anyways, so I got it, but I didn't eat it that night because I knew that I was. Buying it in a place of emotion and things like that.
And so I kind of waited till I could regulate myself around eating something. And so I've been slowly eating it because I didn't want all the sugar at once. And so I finally, I had the last of it today. Did you give him miles the bite?
Either didn't see me purchasing. I dunno what happened, but no, he was unaware that it existed. He has candy stash. Like he bought something else. So it's not like I bought something and then like, he didn't have anything. He definitely got something, but I can't remember what. So anyway, so I've been eating it for the last, over the last few days and has been delicious.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. We bring up a good point because like self-regulation is not one of the 10 tennis does definitely has spin that we do, but I don't know. Do you think that there's a tenant in there that you. Yeah. I think that the tenants that I honored was I was honoring my emotions without using food because really I was at that Friday tired feeling.
And obviously it was making peace with food because I know that this food is full of chemicals that I don't, and my body, I would eat these things normally, but made from like more of like a, from scratch bakery or like cleaner ingredients. So really that was like the challenge for me was eating this food that.
I was clean and then I did get real satisfaction out of it because if I had eaten it in like the excitement of it, I don't think I would've gotten the real satisfaction out of it. And I did not eat the whole package at once. Like I split one of them up into two and then the other one paid cause it's a two pack.
So I ate the other one in full. And so, cause based on like how I was feeling around other food, like I didn't want to over. Be overfull. So I used a lot of them. I'm glad you're sharing this with the people, because I think people think that we never eat anything like that. And we totally do. I do think, I thought this story was going to go towards more like the satisfaction route where sometimes I do this or I have a craving for something like that.
And then I'm like, wait, if I'm going to do this, I want to do it well. So then I'm like, oh, maybe she was going to go to get those gluten-free chocolate donuts from Mr. Natural. Cause those are so good. Those are so good. So sometimes. Upgrading. It's like, I'm going to do this. I want to do it. No, I really wanted to try that and see what was like, I remember many years ago I was at a grocery store and I lived in Georgia and they sold the oatmeal cream, the cookies, oatmeal cream cookies, um, individually.
Like sweet to buy a whole box of them to try them. I love those things. As a kid, I ate all junk food as a kid, children of the eighties. So anyways, and I was so excited and it was so gross. I was so disappointed and because it left this really weird because that. Filling left, like this really weird, like fill film in my mouth.
And like the cookie part was good, but like the taste that left in my mouth and I was like, ah, and so I have been really reluctant to try any of these old little Debbie snacks because I want to preserve the memory of them. And also. It's just low quality ingredients. No, I totally get it. And so yes, most of the time I do try to up-level the situation, but it's that I want to preserve like how I didn't buy the doughnut pack.
Cause I know that purchasing it's not going to, it was going to change my memories and I just want to change my memories. But the memory live. Okay. That was like a huge tangent. So sorry, people. Okay. So are there times you think somebody may not be able to like 90 to a hundred percent do intuitive eating?
Yes, of course. I know that you do this a lot with your clients because you're a dietician. And so you're often working with people who might have different disease states like diabetes, heart disease, or PCOM. And if somebody has more specific needs where some of their ways of eating are going to be different for them, then they might need something in addition to it.
So of course, we're going to still teach them the principles of intuitive eating and imply some of these tools. Like honoring their body, but there might be some twists to that. What do you think? Yeah, I think that's pretty much, it is mostly related to particular disease states and for trying to get the body to function metabolically properly again.
But again, we do put in the whole, like, if you go over. Say if it's like a carb amount and your blood sugar spikes, it's like, okay, that's fine. What did we learn from it? And how can we move forward? What are some other ideas? How can we fit it in? So it's not creating problems. And so we, I combined a, to wherever possible, and that has helped a lot, particularly with PCO S uh, my PCOS group and the type two.
Diabetes folks. Yeah, because there actually are going back to the food police on social media. And I know that we've probably, you know, learn from some other dieticians who do specialize in working with eating disorders that they really don't believe in like food sensitivity testing or eat gluten-free life, or they're like just no modifications ever.
And I think, yes, maybe that would be challenging if you're a diabetic and you had an eating disorder, I don't even know how that works. But as far as working with people who are going to be no, not diagnosed with an eating disorder, there can be some, I'm going to say quote, unquote rules and it, but it doesn't have to be a negative thing.
And we don't have to think about it as restriction, but coming back to honor. Their body. And that's kinda why I say I'm like, we're not really teaching into an, a meeting. It's just, everyone is unique. And while we may teach some of those principles, we're not using labels or dogma in our practice. Correct.
Oh, okay. That was good. What is another spin on intuitive eating that we might do with our clients? Okay. This is kind of a fun one for me. Anyway, every client is on their own path and we, you and I both have similar and different tools, but in a lot of cases, when we work on building that self-trust, I like to use a tool called the 24 hour plan.
And going back to the food place. I feel like planning could be a yellow flag for some, but just hear me out the 24 hour plan teaches skills such as simply just showing up. So making a plan for the next day and only the next day, we're not talking about meal prepping for the week or anything crazy like that.
It's just one day. Can I offer the lesson of how to be mindful and how to decide ahead of time, which is really flexing your prefrontal cortex into a meeting. It doesn't often talk about how your brain works and how to use it or what to do when it tries to trick you. Because right now, we're all, a lot of us are just using our monkey mind all the time, right?
Like we're living in fight flight or freeze because our lives are so crazy. But the more that we can use our prefrontal cortex, the better. And when we are learning how not to use food, to fix all of our emotions, we have to be friends with our prefrontal court. So planning also helps us learn how to be realistic and let go of those good and bad stories that we talked about earlier that all or nothing thinking when most people try to plan, they're totally over-planning.
They're like, oh, tomorrow's going to be the perfect day. And then they get there and they don't do any of it because it was a totally, well-intentioned a lot. And so learning how to be realistic in the planning process actually forces you to look in the mirror and say, what will I really do? What can I plan that I will hopefully a hundred percent accomplish?
And of course they're not nailing it on day one, which is expected on my end. And the point is so that they can feel a little bit so that we can see what is going on in their brain. So we can address that. And then once they get to the place where they can be honest and trusting of themselves, they have a very strong foundation for me. The real change or finding acceptance. Yes. Yeah. I love that planning because a lot of the times when we're emotional eating, that's the opposite part of the brain. And so if we can just get into that planning, then we're not making. Food choices from our emotional brain. And I like to tell people that you may not be eating like don't, you don't have to think about it as emotional eating in terms of mad, sad, glad you know that way.
But it's like decision fatigue is an emotion. And so you will choose foods out of the emotion of being mentally tired and not wanting to think about. What is the food that's going to be best for me right now. You're just thinking how easily can. Feed myself. Yes. And it's a lot about that. Dopamine serotonin hit of making a decision in the moment.
It feels really exciting where you're like, I want food to be upregulating right. I want it to be exciting. And so it also is kind of a mind developed for people when I tell them, Hey, when we're being realistic, don't play in kale for lunch. Like if you're going to eat fried chicken for lunch plan, fried chicken for lunch, and then they're like, wait, what?
That step one of them. The other part of it is it also teaches them that what we're practicing is not even just about the food. Cause there'll be like, why plant pizza, but then I had a salad and I'm like, that's all great. But you still made a decision in the moment instead of honoring what you had planned for yourself.
And that can be kind of conveniencing cancer. Like, wait, so I shouldn't have had that pizza and I'm like, not necessarily. We want to do what we say we're going to do that is even more important to training your brain, to have that strong prefrontal cortex. So that in the future, you are not making those emotional choices, because if you plan for the fun stuff or the more, not as nutritious item, Then when you have them, then your brain's like, okay, she's being on like, it's happening.
Like these are the, this is what's happening. And then when you also plan for the things, the, what I call it, just the basics of eating, of nourishing yourself then. Right. So both ways you need to honor. Your plan. And so it's like, you could totally have planned pizza, but if a salad sounds good, have pizza and the salad, like we talk a lot about and oh yeah, we love to.
And that's the surprising factor of the plan too, is if you plan for, let's say you're like, oh, I tomorrow I'm going to plan a cheeseburger or whatever. Maybe that's your favorite. By lunchtime because you planned it. It has a different sheen. It's not as exciting. And that can be disappointing at first, but that's also kind of the point.
We don't want to be so excited about the food all the time. And that's what we're doing to food. We're asking food to solve our boredom, our fatigue, all of our lives is problems. And so we're trying to make every meal be so delicious and so exciting. And when we planned it, It reduces the sheen, just a hair, right?
Yeah. In relation to intuitive eating, it's just as like, once we stop making food, have all this power, then we are able to listen a little bit more. And the way to get there in the beginning is planning the different types of foods. Yes. And in some ways it's not even about the plan. It's what the plan is.
It makes your brain do so, like some people are resistant to planning at all. Some people are resistant to planning. Realistically, some people are resistant to the follow-through process, so everybody's different and their resistance shows up in different ways. And the point is to kind of throw a challenge at your way.
That really doesn't have anything to do with the type of food you're eating, but let's see what your brain does and where the resistance is so that we can address that. Yeah. Okay. What's the spin that you would. So my spend that I use is related to ifs, so internal family systems. And so we're like, we're looking at what is the part or parts that are not getting on board or struggling with it.
Typically it's a control thing related to how do I want to say this? It's okay. It's a part that is not okay with it. And so we actually have to work with the part to be an alignment with the other parts and yourself. So a part of you does not want to plan because it's really scary. And then that's because that's how you use to restrict all your food was by planning and ended up.
And so what we really do is break down. Fears of that part that doesn't want to plan and do all that, and then find the underlying memories that are associated with that and work on healing that, so that's kind of like the other layer that I will kind of try to uncover there. Because again, a lot of our relationship with food stems from stories from our past experiences.
Yeah. So if I find that it's really the basics of like how we coach people in the planning is keeps hitting a roadblock. It's like, okay, we've got some deeper stuff going on here. And that's kind of where we're all kind of then working from there. But by and large, I think you've nailed it. You've said all that I could.
Yeah. I mean, have a lot of tools in our toolkit when we don't necessarily apply every tool to every client, what tools it's not necessary, but everybody truly is on their own path and has their own history and their own relationship with their body and food. Past traumas, et cetera. So it's just completely unique to you.
I will say I do like the intuitive eating for teens workbook of a teen or preteen out there. I do recommend that so we can start. Breaking this cycle with our young folks. Absolutely. I know that we've used it with some clients and honestly it can benefit adults too. So if you have, if you're not familiar with intuitive eating and we would highly recommend you explore it, and same with just anything it's like learning about these things is great.
But it's also just what we think of it as like one tool. There's just no one right answer. Correct.
Okay. Now is the time where we do our fun little segment where Beth and I find something in every day, mainstream life that is perpetuating diet culture. And we talk about it, but at the, what do you have for us today on that notices these things a lot? I don't know. Anyways, my, in particular, I think it's because a lot of your ads are related to kids.
I have told Beth earlier today we were Marco polo going and I said, Should I disrupt my algorithm for the sake of this podcast, because I feel like I've just gotten it right where it like gets me, but I will, because I know there's so much out there, but I've also tasked friends and family to send me anything that they might be finding as well.
I don't think you have to mess with your algorithm is fine. Leave your algorithm. There's plenty of fodder for one person to find. Okay. So there is a company, a dermatology company in the city of Austin. That has for years had large billboards across the city. And they bother me a lot because for various reasons, but I think a lot of what bothers me is that one, I go to this dermatologist.
They are one of the most predominant ones that does like all the nose jobs, the boobs stuff, the injections and whatnot. But I actually found a really good dermatologist that checks me for my yearly skin checked. And so I taught her into that little, like very plush dermatology office downtown. I don't love it, but anyways, I like, I liked the doctor.
Do they try to sell you other stuff while you're there in the waiting room? There's lots of information about how to check for my moles and other skin conditions as well as injections. And they have a lot of things displayed, probably if I went to their main campus, I'm talking about that one, that big, huge building.
Um, I bet I would there. But since I probably, since I go to the one downtown, probably not so much anyways. So the billboards over the years have really irked me because like a lot of things they display. Young girls. They're probably 18 to 22 years old. They still have young girls, skin college and college and things like that.
They're clearly people that have, and I'm sure they've been airbrushed. And so it's always just PR it's this, these huge billboards projecting. Body types that are not real. And then particularly when they're doing like the CoolSculpting ones and got this girl's tush, that looks perfect. And I'm like, she has never had CoolSculpting nor has she ever needed it.
So I'm like, so it's perpetuating a image of a body that people think that they're going to get. CoolSculpting, and it's just not going to happen. And so I'm just like, this girl has never had that procedure. And sometimes you see the before and after, and it's so subtle, you're like, yeah. So I haven't seen those on the billboards.
And then for the longest one, they had this one up that are to me to no end. And it was of the perfect looking person. Or, I don't know if that's like really the ideal. She appears to be flawless, I should say anyways. So she's saying there and some cute little outfit and, or radiant skin, and she's next to an older woman that is clearly in another country.
So it's just like, It was just such a weird dichotomy of like this like beauty of this girl with this like older woman that was clearly, she wasn't interacting with like, she was her grandmother or something. It just was like so bizarre. And I thought it was just me that was bothered by it, but it turns out lots of people that I would ask, be like, what are your thoughts about this billboard?
And they'd be like, oh, Yanking my chain, every time I go by it. Yeah. I want to preface this as like, I am not anti plastic surgery. Like I haven't ruled it out in this life to each their own, but I think the problem with billboards, like this is it shares this idea of like, we need to be better. It just, I don't know.
It just like over promotes it in a way. And there's so many people that are just so vulnerable to this. And then they also believe like, yes, this is the body that I could have. I could have the body of a 22 year old when you're like 55. And that's just not it's too much. I definitely, I agree to me. I think that is my problem.
It is. Yes, I'm fine with people getting work, done zero issues with it, but it's like, where, what is the place, the emotion that you came from to getting that work done and like the models that they use for the billboard have not had the work done. Right. It's false advertising. It's false advertising and they're always young and things like that, like super young.
So it's like, not even like show me a 30 year old or something on there. It's like being realistic. Obviously the plastic surgery industry is not about real BizOps. So if they can somehow combine body positivity with plastic surgery ads, that would be a sweet spot. But that sounds very contradictory.
Yeah. I'm not sure how that would fly, but I'm sure it could be done. And I think they would probably sell more. Honestly, I would be more enticed if I was like, oh, this is. Realistic. I don't know. Right. So I think that's what bothers me. Yeah. The main takeaway is you just can't really believe everything on a billboard on Instagram, anywhere on the internet.
Because as we know also with like before and after photos, those are kind of BS too. Like everything's doctored. You can take a photo, you could do your own before and after photo right now. Very easily. Just, yeah. There's like lighting angles, sucking in. It's just so silly. I sure hope we gave you something new to think about today and helped you take one more step on your path to freeing yourself from diet culture.
Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at path underscore nutrition, and we'll see you next week. Bye everyone.
