I am available to be an expert source for journalists writing about topics including eating disorders, body image, and mental health. Please complete the contact form for inquiries and requests.
MEDIA
‘Half-Assed’ Wellness Is Where It’s at for Me—Here’s Why
Photo: Getty Images/ Westend61
The push for “total wellness”—often conflated with diet culture—is everywhere. It looks like Instagram captions about “no cheat days,” conversations about being “bad” for eating dessert, multi-hour-long skin-care routines, journaling every morning at 5 a.m., and more. From advertisements to daily interactions to TikToks, we’re bombarded with the idea we have to eat and exercise perfectly. In other words, there's no room for half-assed wellness.
Dr. Breese Annable talks shame and healing from an eating disorder, and where diet culture plays a role
Hi Navigators! Catherine and Francis are excited to welcome Dr. Breese Annable, a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Certified Eating Disorder Specialist, and owner of Living Balance Psychotherapy, a private practice based in Asheville, North Carolina (yes, this is yet another connection through the amazing Carolina Resource Center for Eating Disorders!). Breese specializes in working with clients who also have co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder, anxiety disorders, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. She is passionate about raising awareness on the damaging effects of diet culture and providing education on weight neutral approaches to health. In this episode, Breese talks about shame, why it's not necessarily a "bad" emotion to feel, and potential antidotes to help manage a typically distressing emotion. When it comes to diet culture, Breese takes an approach that we cannot unlearn what we've been sold our entire lives, so we must learn about diet culture for what it is, and not what we've been told. As she poignantly inquires, "what if there's nothing wrong with you...what if the solution you've been sold is the problem." We were so grateful for her time and energy!
Is Clean Eating Good For You? Not Really.
Trying to eat perfectly all the time is a losing battle. The clean-eating trend isn’t new, but it is ever present. It’s a hashtag on Instagram, a hot topic on Twitter and Reddit, and a whole category of food blogs, cookbooks, and magazines. While this approach to eating looks a little different for everyone, it always promotes whole foods and warns against processed options and added sugars. Some clean-eating plans even eschew whole-food staples like dairy, grains, and naturally occurring sugars. Despite the trend’s prevalence—and the fact that “eating clean” as a term sounds benign enough—health experts are wary of the approach for a handful of reasons. Here’s an overview of why athletes should steer clear of the trend.
The Truth about Negative Self-Talk, Shame and Body Image and How to Move Beyond It All
In this episode, Sarah and her guest, Doctor Breese, discuss what shame feels like and sounds like, especially as relates to negative body image. Learn the differences between negative body image and body dysmorphia and how dieting is often a form of disordered eating. However, with mindfulness, we can wake up to our patterns of thinking and behaviors and lean into our emotional experiences. These mindful abilities are the antidote to body and eating challenges that affect more than half of Americans. Learn specific steps you can take to make changes and feel better as soon as the episode concludes.
Counting Calories Doesn’t Work.
If you look closely, you’ll notice that most new diet trends are just iterations of old classics—no matter how groundbreaking they seem or how neatly they’re rebranded. Take food-tracking apps, for example. Sure, they can crunch your diet into a perfect breakdown of macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals with a single tap, but they’re really just a high-tech approach to the oldest diet plan in the book: counting calories.
In fact, most diets boil down to the old calories-in, calories-out approach to weight loss and weight maintenance, and many experts argue that it isn’t the best approach to sustainable healthy eating. It’s stress inducing, often feels restrictive, and is pretty hard to get right. Here’s why you should reconsider calculating your food intake.
In fact, most diets boil down to the old calories-in, calories-out approach to weight loss and weight maintenance, and many experts argue that it isn’t the best approach to sustainable healthy eating. It’s stress inducing, often feels restrictive, and is pretty hard to get right. Here’s why you should reconsider calculating your food intake.
Why you shouldn’t freak out about post-college weight gain
The first few years out of college are a time of major change. It might be your first time working a full-time job or living independently; you may also be in a new place without the big network of peers and activities that college provides.
For several reasons, you might also notice that your body changes as well. This might include some weight gain. While your first instinct might be to do everything you can to lose it, experts say weight gain isn’t something to panic about, and turning to diets and extreme exercise routines can cause trouble. So, let’s look at the facts around weight gain and adulthood.