Body image is complex, deeply personal, and tangled up in a lifetime of cultural, familial, and social messages. And newsflash—changing your body won’t magically deliver the love, confidence, and belonging you’re hoping for. If it did, then everyone with a so-called “ideal” body would be living in bliss, right?

Let’s be real: there’s a lot of confusion surrounding weight, health, and chronic illnesses like diabetes and PCOS. And if you’re like me, you’re probably tired of hearing the same old, tired advice. There are so many mixed messages when it comes to health and body size. Especially this myth that being in a larger body means you’re unhealthy. 

In this episode, we cut through the jargon and get real about why BMI and weight-centric health advice might be doing more harm than good. Dr. Gordon shares her experiences, both personal and professional, that led her to ditch the "lose weight" script and actually listen to her patients. Spoiler: turns out, telling someone in a larger body to “just lose weight” is about as helpful as reminding them to drink water.

When we talk about topics like weight loss or body positivity from an emotional angle, it's easy to paint the other side as the villain. It's tempting to accuse those advocating for weight loss of spreading misinformation or manipulating the truth. It’s tempting to speak with cynicism and sarcasm and scoff at the other side. This mindset can lead us to dismiss their views, believing that only our perspective holds the real answers.

There’s a sea of misinformation out there because medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have become so popular. But the real question is why? These aren’t necessarily brand-new medications but lately, we’ve seen them “prescribed” right and left and it leaves us wondering if it’s something we should consider.

We should be exploring questions around the perception that excessive weight is a health problem, the dangers of intentional weight loss, and the conversations that uncover this controversial topic.

In this episode, we will be unpacking Alexis’s Diet Free Revolution. We talk about incorporating mindfulness (insert eyeball if you feel like it, we’ll talk directly to you soon) and compassion and why they are so important. We’ll talk about some major problems with diet culture, society’s obsession with wellness and thinness, and how you can break free from the ridiculous standards.

Alexis Conason, PsyD, CEDS-S, is a clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist in private practice in New York City. She is the owner of Conason Psychological Services, a Health At Every Size ®-informed group therapy practice specializing in the treatment of binge eating disorder, disordered eating, and body image. She is the founder of The Anti-Diet Plan, a weight-inclusive online mindful eating program and is the author of The Diet-Free Revolution: 10 Steps to Free Yourself from the Diet-Cycle with Mindful Eating and Radical Self-Acceptance (North Atlantic Books, 2021). She was previously a research associate at the New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center in affiliation with Columbia University. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, she is a frequent speaker at conferences, and she has been featured widely as an expert on the topics of mindful eating, body image, and diet culture in the media. ​