Hello world! (That is what WordPress suggested I say for my first blog post). I’m Eling.
I’m here, sitting in the fifth week of New York City’s stay-at-home order. In these five weeks, my husband and I have stretched the limits of our 600 square foot apartment — no longer just a resting place, it’s become a full-time office for two people, a yoga studio, a dance floor, a therapy room, and a full-service 24/7 restaurant…among many other things.
As you can imagine, I’ve also been reading a lot of news (well, as much as I can bear, which some days is less than others!). I was not surprised to see that diet culture was starting to co-opt headlines, with ways we can avoid gaining the “Quarantine 15” or keep our physique in top shape without access to the gym. Diet culture thrives in times of uncertainty and discomfort. When you can’t control or guarantee anything around you, the idea of dieting can feel appealing – a structure to follow and an outcome to “achieve” that has absolutely nothing to do with what’s happening to our communities right now.
There is no roadmap to eating in times like these. For people recovering from an eating disorder, a return to their structured meal plan may be the safest option. For others, leaning into food as a source of emotional comfort may be the answer. Or the stress of the situation may zap away appetite, or bring on cravings for foods you haven’t enjoyed or wanted in years.
But no matter what, the truth is that no amount of weight management or thinness is going to make the pandemic less scary, or more bearable. Manipulating our food intake with the goal of manipulating our body size, especially right now, may be the most counterproductive thing we can do. In times of collective trauma and anxiety, we want to show our bodies and minds that we will be okay through consistent intake — with whatever foods are available and sound palatable.
Trusting your body to tell you what it wants and needs may feel as scary as what it doing on in the world right now, but I can tell you with a lot of certainty that your body is capable of doing so. I’m happy to be the person reinforcing those thoughts for you, if they don’t feel natural to start with.
I hope to keep these daily dispatches short and relevant to my favorite topics of non-diet nutrition, eating competence, intuitive eating, compassionate diabetes care — a list I’m sure will grow as I go. Thanks for being here!