May 6 was International No Diet Day. INDD was created in 1992 by British feminist and anti-dieting advocate Mary Evans Young. The goal of this worldwide observance is to get people to stop focusing on weight loss diets and to instead focus that energy on the many other things that make us mentally and physically happier and healthier. People celebrate this day with activities ranging from live actions (like the Bay Area folks who took to the streets with Marilyn Wann’s Yay Scale, which tells people how fabulous they are) to social media campaigns (like Fat Positive Louisville’s “I Celebrate No Diet Day” selfie campaign). Hashtags like #NoDietDay and #INDD will help you find examples of the things done by nutritionists, HAES practitioners, fat liberation activists, body positive spokespeople, and regular folks who spent the day celebrating freedom from calorie counting and weight stigma.

In honor of this day, I want to share a memory. Back when I worked at a high school where I was one of the only fat folks on campus, I once made a schoolwide announcement about No Diet Day. I set out a basket of fruits and candies on the plaza for everyone to enjoy, encouraging them to have whatever felt right as long as they ate it with no self-judgment. Sitting at my desk later, I heard one student ask another where they got the candy they were enjoying. The indulging student replied enthusiastically, “I got it from Tigress’s Let’s All Be Fat basket!” I was tickled, but I was also sad. How pervasive is diet culture that you can’t tell a teenager they are allowed to eat a piece of candy without them thinking you’re trying to fatten them up? (And would it be so wrong if you were?)

And this, of course, is the point of International No Diet Day. Diet culture convinces us that the only way to relate to food is around how it will make our bodies look, and the only way our bodies should look is fat free. We know better, and we change other people's lives when we spread the message that the diet industry and the culture that supports it are no friends to people of any size.

I am glad to have been introduced to NAAFA in college, and to have been re-introduced to fat activism in my 20s, and to have been able to take leadership in weight neutral and fat positive events and activities in my 30s. In my 40s, my membership on the NAAFA Board is just one of the many ways I celebrate body diversity, and I thank all of you who do the work in ways big and small that further size inclusion. Belated No Diet Day wishes to you all! To borrow a phrase from my friend and fellow activist Saucye West, I invite you to imagine Tigress’s Let’s All Be Fat And Free basket. Reach in and help yourself to a handful of body love 365 days a year!

Hello Friends,
My days have been so full! Full of clients, dogs, motorcycling and writing to name a few. It’s all good stuff and it’s still a lot.

This month’s column is about taking a break when you need it. I’m writing about this because I need a break, lol. As I was on my way home contemplating what to write about, I realized that all I wanted to do was sit on the couch. That’s exactly where I am right now; sitting on my couch, writing about taking a break. It feels perfect. I am smiling. My young dog is hopping around with a squeak toy and my older dog is watching her like she’s nuts.

When it comes to taking care of yourself I always recommend that you get out in front of it. So take that break before you need it desperately. Pay attention to your body’s signals. As you get better at listening to your body, you’ll hear the signals earlier and that’s a big part of self-care.

Take a break when you need one. Or better yet, take that break before you really need it.

Here’s to being easy and having fun!

Love, Cinder

PS Did you hear about my new book Easy Fitness for the Reluctant Exerciser? One review on Amazon said that this is the best exercise book for non-exercisers! http://easyfitnessbook.com

May 11, 2016: Heather Mae’s video of “I Am Enough” is a wonderful lesson in body acceptance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfYLEJEZH3g

April 2017: In a departure from many wellness programs these days, Salveo Partners offers training for wellness program facilitators that focus on health instead of weight or body size.
https://salveopartners.com/products-services/health-for-every-body

April 2017: Researchers find that the effectiveness of antidepressants can differ depending on the sex and weight of the patient, and encourage practitioners to consider these in finding the appropriate antidepressant for a patient.
http://www.personalizedmedpsych.com/article/S2468-1717(16)30024-2/fulltext

April 13, 2017: Plus-size blogger Jasmine Grimes talks about why she posted underwear selfies and why she hopes more plus size women follow suit.
http://www.refinery29.com/2017/04/149929/plus-size-blogger-underwear-selfies-instagram

April 14, 2017: A study finds that among patients who have coronary revascularization, those in the overweight and obese categories had better survival rates than those with “normal” BMI. The patients who did worst were those in the highest obesity category who did not have type 2 diabetes, although this could just be noise in the data.
http://jaha.ahajournals.org/content/6/4/e005335

April 17, 2017: Katherine Alyse is an actor, writer and the creator of The Fat One, a YouTube romcom about a young fat woman, and she explains why writing a sex scene for the show was difficult and freeing and important.
https://medium.com/@katherinealyse/why-this-fat-ass-wrote-herself-a-sex-scene-e580960c3c40

April 24, 2017: Bristol-Myers Squibb releases study results on a new drug they are developing to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). Injections of the drug reduced liver fat by 5.2% to 6.8% depending on dosage, and improved certain other biomarkers associated with the disease.
http://www.dddmag.com/article/2017/04/bmss-nash-drug-meets-main-goal-mid-stage-study

April 27, 2017: Some experts on eating disorders believe that studies should be done to see what can be learned from anorexia nervosa (the deadliest of all mental disorders) in terms of long-term weight loss maintenance. In response, the Psychology Today article (1st link) calls for better and more consistent mental health treatment for patients of all sizes.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eating-mindfully/201704/is-anorexia-the-latest-treatment-obesity
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eat.22685/full

May 2, 2017: A study finds that gifts from pharmaceutical representatives to American doctors often creates an increase in or a bias for prescribing the drugs sold by the pharmaceutical company.
https://psmag.com/in-2015-american-doctors-received-2-4-billion-in-payments-from-the-biomedical-industry-5229c0b3d0a4
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2623607

May 9, 2017: This might be a good article for someone who's just beginning to question the wisdom of dieting, as it discusses the typical results of dieting: stress and weight gain.
http://nypost.com/2017/05/09/it-might-be-a-bad-idea-to-go-on-a-diet