Get Your Body Back or Respect What You Have?

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A new mom so deeply in love with her son is struggling with body image, weight, self-care and all the tough transitions to motherhood. She asks Food for ways to get her body back and eat right, yet will Food go down that rabbit hole of dieting, self-loathing? Naaaaw, Food gives insight into ways for this mom to stay connected to herself: the one she has known her whole life and the new person who is now a mom.

Julie Duffy Dillon phones in a friend, Lindsay Stenovec RD, CEDRD, a dietitian specializing in helping women who are postpartum experience body positivity.

Key Points:

• Motherhood is filled with ups and downs, massive transitions, and zero sleep.
• "Comparison is the thief of joy" Theodore Roosevelt
• Dieting followed by a period without dieting will feel chaotic yet exciting. It's not the food's fault rather the dieting.
• Postpartum can be filled with joy and love AND unfamiliar, disconnected, and full of grief. Commonly, we turn to the body and food to ground ourselves.
• Saying "I want my body back" = the quickest way to make Julie feel uncomfortable and turn into a raging feminist (that's a good thing by the way)
• Reaching out to past routines and people can help make the postpartum experience more familiar and less stressful.
• Hot coffee or a hot meal can keep us new and/or frantic moms stay grounded and promote self-care.
• Beginner's Mind: imagine how your child experiences your body; they haven't learned about weight stigma yet!
• New moms working toward body positivity will help her own self-care as well as prevent passing on cultural messages of body hate

Show Notes:

• Lindsay Stenovec The new mom body positive guru and registered dietitian (be sure to check out her new program called Nurtured Mama)
• International postpartum support and help line
• Julie Duffy Dillon's blog

Food Peace Syllabus additions:

• Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat: The Essential Guide to Loving Your Body Before and After Baby by Claire Mysko and Magali Amadeï
• Intuitive Eating Audio CD by dietitians Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole

Do you have a complicated relationship with food? I want to help! Send your Dear Food letter to LoveFoodPodcast@gmail.com. 

Thank you for listening to the Love, Food series. Give me feedback via Twitter @EatingPermitRD or leave me a review in iTunes and subscribe. This type of kindness helps the show continue!