Non-Diet Yogi - Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness with Monique Jephcote

Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness with Monique Jephcote

Explicit content warning

04/28/20 • 82 min

Gym culture can be incredibly toxic for people struggling with body image and eating concerns. Monique Jephcote, APD, PT and Intuitive Eating Counsellor, is infusing weight-neutral principles into the fitness world with compassion, respect and gusto.
In this episode:

How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
“We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional

Links:

Monique's Instagram
The Intuitive Dietitian on Facebook
Monique's website

Support the show

How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
“We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional

Links:

Monique's Instagram
The Intuitive Dietitian on Facebook
Monique's website

Support the show

Previous Episode

Ep 9. COVID-19 and Diet Culture: Discerning Wisdom from Wellness Wankery in Uncertain Times

With great uncertainty comes fear and uprooted trauma. COVID-19 has seen an amplification of weight stigma, wellness wankery, and conspiracy theories that have the potential to magnify our stress and trauma. Here's what to look out for, as well as ways to ground, protect and nurture yourself and your loved ones at this uncertain time.
Show notes:

The 3 categories of BS “health advice” circulating in the age of COVID-19: The Seemingly Innocuous, The Social Media Misinformation Storm, and The Blatantly Fat Phobic
Privileged health advice
Is cutting out sugar the most important thing to consider right now? (Clue: No, it's not.)
Essential oils, colloidal silver, celery juice: should we be using these to "boost" immunity?
What I really think about MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), and the ethics of downline recruitment and questionable advertising during a pandemic
Weight control during COVID VS. just surviving COVID
Higher BMI is NOT a risk factor for contracting COVID-19, and may even be a protective factor
Conspiracy theories, and the appeal of these to healers and lightworkers
What we really need to be focussing on right now
The ways we deal with stress and trauma, and how this manifests in our relationships with food, eating, our bodies and movement
How coronavirus is impacting me personally
Gentle ways we can support ourselves and others
Supplements and herbs can help support your immune health, but not having access to these is not the end of the world
Accessible nutrition counselling and yoga services I am currently offering during COVID-19

Links:
All Fired Up Podcast with Louise Adams
Bringing The Body Into the Room: Somatics, Food and Eating Experiences with Tracy Brown and Fiona Sutherland
Dr. Jennifer Gaudiani – author of the book Sick Enough
Dr. Kristin Neff on Self-Compassion
Stephen Harrod Buhner on herbal support for COVID-19 infection
Casey's LIVE yoga classes by-donation
Casey's accessible COVID-19 Nutrition Counselling Services
Mugwort Herbal Body Oil GIVEAWAY!

Support the show

Next Episode

Ep 11. Wildly Accessible Food & Medicine: Foraging Edible Weeds & Bush Foods with Pat Collins

Foraging for edible weeds is an accessible and inclusive healthcare skill. Pat Collins is a highly experienced herbalist, natural health practitioner and bush craftswoman with a passion for sharing her foraging know-how and instilling in people a deep appreciation of edible and medicinal weeds: nature's gifts.

In this episode:

How being able to support her children’s health by making at home remedies motivated Pat into studying herbal medicine formally
Why familiarity with the abundance of edible foods around us - and how to harvest and use them - is so valuable, especially at this time in history
Why Pat published her book The Wondrous World of Weeds (it wasn’t because writing books pays well!)
“Once upon a time we were all wise women” – the need to take back our power by reclaiming our knowledge of foraging
The many uses of Chickweed (Stellaria media) and Paddy’s Lucerne (Sida rhombifolia)
Weeds grow where the soil is right for them, and will tell you what is wrong with your soil
Herbs in the time of COVID-19: Some of Pat’s favourite weed allies and ways to use them, to support immune and respiratory health, and to calm our nerves when “it all gets too much”
Which native Australian bush foods are in season right now, how can to use it – think, lemon myrtle cheesecake and bunya nut curry (!)
Pat’s views on MLM essential oil companies doTerra and Young Living, concerns about the safety of ingesting essential oils, and more affordable, practitioner grade alternatives to these brands
The beauty of using whole herbs
Menopause: How Pat views this powerful life stage, helpful plant allies, organ systems to take extra special care of, and how St John’s Wort helped Pat through her surprisingly tumultuous peri-menopausal years
“If we as a culture respected our elders, we’d have far fewer problems with menopause”
The call for wise, old women