Who Else Wants to Live Longer and Feel Good?

Hola amigos! Welcome to One Small Bite!

The pressure and stigmatization from diet culture that many people endure can be very isolating. It can often cause some people to feel like they’re stuck on an island all alone. The research is compelling: Social isolation and loneliness is linked to various chronic illness and various physical and mental conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s, and can even lead to death in some people. One of the best ways to beat the stressors of diet culture is to find people that can support one another, learn together, and make people feel like they belong and are important. In today’s episode, we are going to tell you about Sally’s journey to finding a positive relationship with food and her body by finding a supportive and nurturing community. We will give you the ingredients to a community that will help you feel good and live a long and higher quality of life.

Highlights of this episode:

• Alone – Netflix show
• Sally’s story
• A weight-inclusive community
• Features and benefits of the One Small Bite community

Episode Show Notes: 

[01:11] Alone – Netflix show
I’ve been watching this new show on Netflix called Alone. In this show, they take 10 participants and they plop them in some remote desolate and very difficult environments, such as Northwest British Columbia area, Patagonia, Mongolia, and even the Great Lakes remote regions. What’s interesting about this show is despite all the challenges trying to gather food, putting up a shelter and being starved, the really challenge is isolation. Most contestants tap out of the game because they miss their family and friends. Those important social connections that make them strong. Many of the contestants even call their spouses or loved one’s their “rock”, their emotional foundation. That sense of feeling alone is not very different when people try to diet or restrict foods. Listen, we are social creatures, born into this world surrounded by people who feed us or care for us in various ways. It’s what’s makes us strong and successful in life. In this episode, we’ll explore one person’s journey to feeling better and living longer through her strong connections, and the community we are building at Orozco Nutrition that will help people do just that.

[02:48] Sally’s story
Sally was worried she couldn’t lose the weight and worried about her health and feeling better. Sally is 53 and the mother of two adult children, divorced, lives alone. She has struggled to take her weight off and keep it off and feels that her weight gets in the way of finding a companion. Sally believes that she cannot feel good and live a long and health life if she doesn’t lose weight. Her life looks pretty darn good though. She likes to cook, have family and friends often at her home. She has a good job where she connects with people at work. She enjoys her kids when they’re around. She has great friends that she goes out and travels with. And she also has these side hustles like painting, crafting, and even message therapy.

I asked her to play a little game. Let’s make believe that she heads down the weight loss journey. After looking at her diet and I said, I explained how little she was already eating, and told her that in order to lose weight she would have to cut out more food. And she said, she looked at me and you could see her face, that dread fear of eating less. Missing out on parties because they have the food she wants. It would be too much, but more important that wonderful life would be gone. We then discuss the alternative. How to live a full life and feel good without having to diet or restrict anything or any time.

[12:28] A weight-inclusive community
Sally started developing a more positive relationship with food and her body. She started practicing new habits, and she found a community of likeminded people she could grow together and she wasn’t alone. She found another doctor that didn’t focus on her weight. That wouldn’t weigh her when she would go for check-ups and appointments but would work with her to find other ways of getting healthier, controlling her blood sugar, paying attention to what her blood pressure and her body, and finding medications that helped her feel better. She found a group of women that walked together, crafted, and just enjoyed life together. They did some different activities together. And I thought, yes, this is the community that we need to build. So, we’re building it. Sally was my inspiration of helping people not feel.

[[13:05] The features and benefits of the One Small Bite community

• They have your back – Finding support from others that have lived through the same challenges of diet culture
• Feeling heard, respected, understood, and belonging to a group that lifts people up despite their body shape and size
• Provides a safe space to practice new habits, learn, and grow together
• Reduces the stress by dismantling diet culture
• Creates a common purpose of likeminded individuals with the same goals

Resources:

Get Your Copy of the book – One Small Bite: Anti-Diet Stories that Empower You To Build a Positive and Secure Relationship with Food

ON Community

A community of people just like you interested in building a positive relationship with food and body, to learn and practice new habits, grow together, so that people can feel good and live fully. Read about it here: ON Community

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Chop the diet mentality; Fuel Your Body; and Nourish Your Soul!