Category: Disordered Eating

Ep 4. Yoga Guru ≠ Nutrition Guru: The Cult of the Unqualified Wellness Expert

26/1/2020

Yoga teachers, please stop giving terrible dietary advice to your students. This episode is based on an article I wrote in 2017. You will also hear my two year-old mumbling in the background. Whatcha gonna do.

In this episode:

That time I gave terrible nutritional advice
Why people ask yoga teachers for nutritional advice
Some of the crappy nutritional advice yoga teachers pass on to their students
The perils of getting nutrition advice from a yoga teacher, personal trainer, or health coach
The likely prevalence of disordered eating in yoga circles
MLM health products in yoga studios
Even when yoga teachers are also nutritionists, be careful!
Where to go for safe, individualised dietary guidance

LINKS:
Original blog post:
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/yoga-teachers-please-stop-giving-terrible-dietary-advice-to-your-students

Funky Forest Health & Wellbeing - online non-diet nutrition consulting services and in-person yoga classes

Grab your copy of my e-book The Modern Yogi's BS-Free Guide to Wellbeing

Funky Forest Health & Wellbeing Facebook page

Casey's Instagram

Support the show at Non-Diet Yogi Patreon

Ep 2. Cleanse, Detox, Hurt: The Allure of Unhealthily Strict Diets to the Ascetic Yogi Psyche

26/12/2019

Why is juice cleansing so popular in yoga culture? In this solo episode I take a deep dive and try to answer this question.

I also give a crash course in how detoxification actually works, and what you can do to support your body's detoxification processes without starving yourself.

In this episode:

What is juice cleansing? How it’s marketed vs. what’s actually going on
Why it’s so popular in yoga culture
How tapas and saucha may underlie and amplify the tendency towards spiritually-endorsed disordered eating and body dysmorphia
Ayurveda and juice cleansing
Disordered eating and eating disorders in Yogaland
My personal experiences with harsh yoga practices, fasting and orthorexia
The physiology of detoxification and how juice cleanses impede this
Why those initial “detox symptoms” and later, that feeling of “energised bliss” occur on a juice cleanse (it’s not what you think)
What you can do to safely support detoxification (if you wish to do so)
The next level of cray: water fasting in yoga circles

LINKS:
My articles on Ayurveda, TCM and Intuitive Eating:
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/ayurveda-tcm-intuitive-eating-or-dietary-dogma
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/beyond-pitta-kapha-vata-ayurveda-tcm-intuitive-eating

A biomedical look at the physiology of detoxification, how juice cleanses impede this, and what you can do to support detoxification:
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/detoxification-so-not-about-juice-fasts-colonics
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/your-bodys-lifelong-detoxification-kit

My article on the stress response of restrictive eating:
https://www.funkyforest.com.au/blog/the-honeymoon-period

Funky Forest Health & Wellbeing - online non-diet nutrition consulting services and in-person yoga classes

Grab your copy of my e-book The Modern Yogi's BS-Free Guide to Wellbeing

Funky Forest Health & Wellbeing Facebook page

Casey's Instagram

Support the show at Non-Diet Yogi Patreon

Introducing the Non-Diet Yogi Podcast!

13/12/2019

Errrrmaghaaad so it's finally happening.. I've released the first episode of my new podcast!

I warmly invite you to gather your earholes and tune in to the Non-Diet Yogi Podcast, where we explore yoga, earth-based living and gentle nutrition through a non-diet lens.

We will explore the wonderful, wacky and sometimes worrying places where the yoga world and diet culture overlap, as well as exploring how social justice, feminism, motherhood and bunch of other things all jive together within the Yogaland/diet culture Venn diagram.

In this episode:

Why this podcast needs to exist
Creating a podcast as a mum
A bit about me, including my personal and professional experiences with disordered eating and yoga culture
Why living and working on the Gold Coast (the L.A. of Australia!) was the perfect petri dish for developing Non-Diet Yogi
The need for the non-diet approach in the natural medicine sphere, and vice versa

Having been a guest on a couple of fantastic anti-diet podcasts myself, I am excited (and shitting myself just a tad) to join some of the great minds floating around in the Podosphere. My wish is to bring the non-diet approach, Health at Every Size and social justice savvy to the yoga and "wellness" space where I believe it is sorely needed.

I hope you enjoy!!

The alternatives to dieting

30/9/2019

"I'm SO confused by all the diets out there! Everyone says something different. How do you know what to eat, when to eat it, and how much of it to eat?"

This is one of the most common questions I am faced with in my nutrition counselling practice. It is usually asked by a client in an exasperated, overwhelmed tone of voice, accompanied by hands being thrown up in the air!

So I'm going to attempt to answer it here.

In my experience there are two levels at which you can know something to be true.

The first is to know something at the level of the intellect. This is where logic, science, traditional knowledge, past experience and “common sense” coalesce to inform and direct us.

The second is the deeper level of intuition, instinct, or “just feeling” something to be true. This more feeling-based truth happens “below the neck”, in the vast landscape of the body that lies beyond the brain. It may be described as feeling in your heart, sensing in your gut, or knowing in your bones that something is true for you.

Another way to think of it is that we have two different navigation or GPS systems that can help us to arrive at a personal truth: intellect and intuition.

The Wellness Diet Cycle

17/7/2019

The typical person I see in my clinic is female, in her 20s, 30s or 40s.

She goes to yoga and only shops at organic markets. She makes her own bone broth, vegetable juices, and paleo "treats" (because gut healing is good, and dairy and sugar are "bad").

She spends a small fortune on vitamins, probiotics and herbal supplements.

She is very health conscious, sometimes bordering on being obsessively so.

She has seen numerous health practitioners prior to seeing me.

And despite her utmost efforts to be healthy, she has long list of seemingly obscure health conditions. The list of signs and symptoms I see in these women goes something like this:

Headaches, migraines, intense cravings, cold hands and feet, sleep problems, rough dry skin, brittle hair, hair loss, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), dizziness, brain fog, low energy levels, low body temperature, constipation, low libido, bloating, indigestion, frequent need to urinate, anxiety, panic attacks, loss of muscle mass, heart palpitations, frequent colds and flu / thrush / UTIs / herpes outbreaks, unpredictable emotional swings, severe PMS, irregular periods, missing periods, infertility.

The woman in question usually doesn't have every single one of these (although some do), but she will have a significant number (around 80% or more) of them.

By the time they've come to see me, many of these women have attributed this long and baffling list of symptoms to candida. Or a food intolerance. Or simply "being too fat".

And they've come to the conclusion (via Google or some health guru) that the obvious solution is to embark upon yet another restrictive diet. Anti-candida, low-carb, paleo, keto, GAPS, SCD, vegan, intermittent fasting, and raw are the usual go-to's right now.

And herein lies the root of the problem.

The Big Thing most health-conscious people are missing (that's ruining their health)

Most of the women I see in clinic do NOT have a food intolerance, candida, or an allergy to grains. I should add that I have been trained to recognise and treat food sensitivity and intolerance so am well aware of what that looks like. Although it is a valid and very real issue, about ninety percent of the time, food intolerance is NOT the causative factor.

The root of these women's problems is this: They are trying too hard to be healthy and as a result, they are eating too restrictively.

The biggest mistake I see women making today is trying too hard to be healthy.

Intermittent fasting - rad or fad?

26/6/2019

Intermittent fasting (or IF for short) is so hot right now. In fact it's been hot since it rose to fame with the arrival of Michael Mosley on the television and book publishing scene in 2012.

Basically, it means going an extended period without eating. Sounds technical AF, right? (Unlike plain ol' healthy eating and regular movement, which is clearly not sexy enough to attract the attention of the masses!)

IF is fancy-sounding enough to get the attention of those who want the next magic bullet that will help them lose weight and/or get healthier.

So, nearly everyone.

But especially those who already have issues with weight concern, body image, disordered eating or eating disorders - the folks I see the most often.

In actuality, almost all of us intermittently fast. Every night. When we are asleep. Not so sexy, I know. So let's talk a bit about the sexier, newer, more restrictive version.

periods, fertility & eating disorders

21/5/2019

"I have my period. So I mustn't have an eating disorder."

For years I thought that if a woman was menstruating regularly, she was displaying one of the ultimate signs of health.

I thought that if a woman had a regular period she must be well nourished. That the moment her caloric intake dipped below her requirements, her body would stop ovulating and periods would disappear.

That Mother Nature never lets our bodies grow babies - a highly energy intensive endeavour that demands massive amounts of resources - in a perceived famine.

For years, I was wrong.

In my time as an eating disorder dietitian, student naturopath, and having lived through an (undiagnosed but still very harmful) eating disorder, I have learnt a thing or two about periods and under eating. Here I'll attempt to bust some common myths around periods, fertility and disordered eating.

Body peace and permaculture: the parallels

4/3/2019

For some years I've been interested in organic gardening, particularly permaculture. Recently I've taken a deeper dive into this method of 'natural' farming within which is embedded a deep reverence for, and trust of nature. And I've realised that permaculture has some uncanny parallels to the non-diet approach and Health at Every Size movement I am so passionate about in my clinical practice. For the last 7 or so years I've been working with people with weight, food and body image concerns, from wanting to lose a couple of kilograms to life threatening eating disorders.

One of the greatest teachers of this method of farming is Masanobu Fukuoka, author of The One-Straw Revolution. In this book Fukuoka describes his discovery of "do nothing" farming, where he creates situations where nature will do the work with the minimum of interference on his part.

So instead of spending hours ploughing the soil or spending money on adding chemical fertilisers to his crops, he simply chucks the rice straw back on the ground after harvesting it and scatters chook poo over it. Occasionally he sows clover to use as a green manure.

And that's pretty much it.

And rather than seeing everything turn into a wilderness and watching helplessly as the prickles take over, Fukuoka actually equals the yield of farms that have had these modern high intervention inputs applied to them, with a fraction of the investment of labour and resources.

What 'natural' farming can teach us about maintaining a "healthy" weight, naturally

Of course by "healthy weight" I don't mean what the BMI deems healthy. I adopt Dr. Rick Kausman's description of your healthiest weight being the most comfortable, natural weight for you - the weight your body naturally arrives at and maintains when we provide the right "soil" (see number 2). So here's what I gathered together in my current understanding of permaculture principles and my more deeply rooted understanding of HAES and the non-diet approach. The biggest parallels between permaculture, and the non-diet approach and HAES as roads to body peace, are:

Witches don't diet.

6/9/2018

It's 6am, and I'm tired but excited. My 8-month old baby girl, with whom I co-sleep, is up at 5:30am every morning crawling around our bedroom. As I type this she's pulling apart my pile of yoga props and dismantling the crystals, candles and oracle cards that decorate my bedroom altar.

But she's not the main reason why I'm particularly tired and simultaneously excited this morning. In the middle of the night I was up for over 2 hours as a bunch of information and the backbone of this blog, among other things, was downloaded seemingly out of nowhere into my mind, demanding to be written down. It happens from time to time. It's the only time I feel sleep deprived and am cool with it.

So.

Witches don't diet. Let me explain the title of this crazy midnight-inspired blog. Starting with the "witch" bit.

Witches

Up until recently I've felt really uncomfortable with calling myself a witch. My concept of a witch was someone who was a wise woman or man, and a respected elder of years past. One who was a healer, a shaman, a master of herbalism. One who helped and served others in his community. One who understood nature at a deep level, who communed with nature and viewed herself as a part of it, not in command of it.

In our climate of cultural misappropriation, and of hashtags like #witch, #witchvibes, and #blessed, it seemed cliché, cutesy, and just icky to label myself as a witch. I rejected the label and the bastardisation I believed (and still to some extent believe) went with it, much in the same way I once rejected yoga culture, hard.

Sure, I align my energy with the wheel of the year; I observe the sabbats, seasons, and the cycles of the moon.
I use multiple tools to connect with and sharpen my intuition, including but not limited to meditation, embodied practices like yoga.
I love nothing more than to spend hours wandering by myself in the forest - although these days I'm usually accompanied by little people.
I use divination tools such as oracle cards and occasionally scrying.
Despite being scared of ghosts, I feel the presence of long dead loved ones and communicate with them, not frequently but from time to time.
Most mornings I cast a circle, set an intention, burn sage, commune with my ancestors, journal, and/or read oracle cards.
I have had visions of past lives, my own and those close to me.
I have created multiple altars and sacred spaces around my home. My family is just used to having weird stuff including talismans and many sage sticks lying around the place.
I work with the elements of nature and use herbs daily, and crystals sometimes. The main reason I am undergoing a degree in naturopathy is to add clinical herbalism to my tool belt, yet I also talk to plants and try to connect with plant spirits.
I cast my first spell at age 17 and it worked so well I got frightened and didn't cast spells again until my late twenties when I decided I wanted to get pregnant. That, too, worked incredibly well.

Despite all of this, I have long rejected the label of witch. Not wanting to frighten my Christian friends, or freak people out, and not wanting to further disrespect the archetype of wise healer and elder I hold in my mind.

When my spiritual teacher unflinchingly pointed out that I was, indeed, a witch, I immediately recoiled. I told her I didn't feel comfortable with that term, that I felt it was overused and misused. Perhaps at some level, collective long held negative connotations and echoes of painful ancestral memories sounded through my psyche; the centuries when the word 'witch' led women to be tortured, drowned and burned at the stake stored as warnings in my cells.

She gently reminded me that "witch" comes from the word wicca, which means wise. Witchcraft in ancient history was known as "The Craft of the Wise" because most who followed the path were in tune with the forces of nature, had a knowledge of herbs and medicines, gave counsel and were valuable parts of the village and community as healers and leaders.

My teacher showed me that in my haste to retract from cultural misnomers and in my disdain of anything trendy, I had perhaps forgotten what a witch really is.

In the words of author Lisa Lister, a witch is "a woman in her power. She is wise, a healer, someone who is aligned with the cycles of Mother Nature and the phases of the Moon."

A witch is a woman in her power. Her intuition is strong and she listens to it and trusts it. She sharpens her intuition like a knife and uses it to cut through cultural bullshit, allowing her to stay true to herself. She knows the difference between intuition and the voices of fear.

I know many wise, intelligent, heartfelt people who meet this description. Social and environmental justice warriors fighting for gender equality, opposing weight stigma, and lobbying to stop deforestation. The fiercely compassionate and scientifically justified proponents of the Health at Every Size movement. Herbal medicine masters who are fighting to grant cancer patients access to plant medicine that could save their lives in a medical climate where natural medicine is viewed with suspicion and derision.

They are all witches. And so am I.

And if you're still reading this, chances are you are, too.

Intuition

I agree with the notion that a witch is a woman (or man, but I'm mainly talking to women within my platforms) in her power. And a woman can only be in her power by regularly listening to, honing, and trusting her intuition.

Intuition is rooted in the body. Think of the words we use to describe intuitive hunches: I had a gut feeling. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I felt it in my bones. I knew it in my heart.

Think of the times your intuitive, instinctual nature has kicked into gear. When somebody has stepped into your space and something feels "not quite right". When you know your child is in danger and you check they're still in their sandpit only to realise they're about to cross the road by themselves.

When you sense the presence of a loved one who has passed on, something around 75% of us report having experienced. When you recognise a soul mate or lifelong friend by how your heart feels and the tingles running down your spine. These are usually gut feelings, a body sense. Not calculations you've made in your head.

Dieting and the religion of thinness have cut down many a modern day witch, leaving a gaping hole in our collective wisdom and capacity to heal ourselves and others.

Dieting

Intuition is rooted in the body. Food rules keep you up in your head, disconnected from your body.

Food rules keep you up in your head, disconnected from your body. It's hard to notice your witchy hunches and intuitive body-felt messages when you're mostly in your head thinking about food, eating, and/or your body.

When you're spending hours googling gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free recipes instead of doing your practice, whatever that practice looks like for you.
Calculating, compensating and calorie budgeting instead of nurturing your innate gifts, talents and skills.
"Saving yourself" all day for a dinner out with friends and starving in the process, dwindling energy stores that you could otherwise have spent honing your craft.
Being so cut off from your hunger and/or fullness cues and your body, that intuitive messages seem a distant memory or a far off concept, rather than a daily normal experience.

It's hard to stay connected to your spidey senses if you've skipped breakfast AND lunch, all you can think about is how hangry you are and how you could probably hold out for another hour before you really "need" to eat.

So many women I know (myself included) do a bunch of weird shit that has the capacity to - consciously or otherwise - sharpen our intuition. We wear crystals, read oracle and tarot cards, journal, meditate, practice yoga... all in an attempt to "be more intuitive". Or more accurately, to connect us to the wisdom and intuition we already embody.

But food rules pull us right back out of our bodies and into our heads. You can wear a bone necklace made by a Hopi shaman, burn sage until the neighbours call 000, and do a three-hour headstand atop a giant piece of clear quartz... but as long as you're still stressing about how much sugar you ate yesterday, you're going to stay largely shut down to your intuition.

Intuitive eating

Intuitive eating, intuitive EVERYTHING.

For women whose slavery to the thin ideal has cut them off from their full witchy capacity, intuitive eating is a way to open a doorway to intuitive living. As I once heard another non-diet advocate say, "Intuitive eating, intuitive EVERYTHING."

Intuitive eating asks that we begin listening to the hunger and fullness cues of our bodies. But that's not all. It also offers ways to reject the diet mentality and let go of the religion of thinness so pervasive in our cultural and inherited conditioning.

One caveat: If you've been chronically dieting, or you're in a semi-starved state, listening to and honouring your hunger and fullness can be difficult and complicated. This is where getting help from a non-diet practitioner can be of great value to re-nourish your body first so you can begin to receive and interpret those messages correctly.

Witches don't diet

Witches don't diet. It's impossible to be deeply connected to your intuition while you're still tracking macros like there's no tomorrow, you're not eating enough, or you're deadly afraid of carbs.

Getting a balanced, satisfying and adequate intake of food can ease mood swings, panic attacks, anxiety, and mild depression. Mental health takes a dive when we're in a state of semi-starvation as the body struggles to construct all the neurotransmitters it needs to remain healthy. Intellectual clarity and intuition is improved when the mind receives proper nourishment.

It's time to stop wasting your energy on the illusion of weight loss or maintaining a low weight as if that's the most important thing in life. It's not.

Sister, we need you. Now is the time to hone your craft, shine your light and offer your healing gifts, and dieting is only stopping you from reaching your magical potential. The world needs your witchy-poo self, and it needs it now.

Author

Casey Conroy is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, eating disorder specialist, herbalist in training, yoga teacher, and coming-out-of-the-closet witch.

I'm recovering from an eating disorder: can I still be VEGAN?

18/10/2017

I work with a lot of yoginis and yogis, alternative lifestyle leaders, animal rights activists, and environmentally conscious folks. I also work in the field of disordered eating.

So naturally I often find myself in the situation where I'm chatting with somebody who is very keen to heal their troubled relationship with food... but they don't want to budge on their vegan ideals.

This person may have been through the psychological hell that is a full blown eating disorder...

... OR they may fall into the spectrum of disordered eating on the end of the continuum that wouldn't be classified as a clinical eating disorder, but disordered eating and disordered body image - an issue that faces a significant number of women in Australia.

OFTEN, they've experienced both.

The big question here is, "If I'm actively recovering from a clinical eating disorder - or any other form of disordered eating - can I be vegan and still get better?"

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