Combatting Diet Culture This Holiday Season
Its November! And with that... it feels like the start of the holiday countdown!
Of course, this time of year often brings holiday parties and events. Across cultures and religions, these gatherings, along with workplace breakrooms and celebrations, often mean more food, snacks, and “treats.”
And with that often (always?) includes people openly expressing their struggles with food. We are all familiar with coworkers, family and friends moralizing food as “good” or “bad,” and often labelling themselves as “good” or “bad” for having a donut, cupcake, or other snack.
One of my favourite ways to combat the onslaught of these messages is by continuing to read and listen to anti diet, fat liberation or ED recovery related content - be that podcasts, social media, films and/or books.
So with that, I thought it would be a good time to re-read Anti Diet by Christy Harrison.
If you havent read this book yet, I recall it being a fantastic read to ground yourself in healing your relationship with food and your body (be that from disordered eating (dieting) or an eating disorder).
If you recently read this and are looking for something else, here are some other excellent options:
Podcasts:
Books*:
The Body Liberation Project (excellent as an audiobook too!)
*these are all affiliate links to amazon, so its a little way to support me if you'd like! At the same time, if you can, I strongly recommend and support local book shops, so buy local if its accessible to you!
If you're a clinician (therapist, dietitian, OT, PT, coach) and would like more targeted and spcialized coaching/supervision, there's still room in my winter small group supervison: more info here
With these resources in mind, let’s bring it back to where we started: continuing our Anti-Diet book club with Christy Harrison!
🎄📚Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
📅 START DATE
Monday, November 9th
📚 HOW TO JOIN
Choose whatever format works for your brain:
🔄 Mix of both (my personal fave!)
Library: Available via the Victoria Public Library/Libby App (though warning you have to sift through diet books if you search this title!)
Local clients bonus: There are already a couple paperback copies in my office "library" available to borrow!
🧠 HOW THIS BOOK CLUB WORKS
Read at your own pace
Weekly blog posts from me:
Key takeaways
Reflections
Discussion questions
Share as much or as little as you want:
Blog comments
Text/email
In session (if you’re a client)
Join my "Buddy Read" on Storygraph
👉 Take what’s useful, skip what’s not & tell me how you feel about the book's content! I always want the tea 🫖 ☕️
📖 READING SCHEDULE for Anti Diet
Week 1 (Nov9-15) →Intro & Chapter1 (p.1-49)
Week 2 (Nov16-22) →Ch2&3 (p.50-112)
Week 3 (Nov 23-29)→ Ch4&5 (p.113-162)
Week 4 (Nov30-Dec6) →Ch6&7 (p.163-202)
Week 5 (Dec7-13)→Ch8&9 (p.203-242)
Week 6 (Dec14-20)→ Ch10&11 (p.243-285)
This works out to ~45–50 pages/2 chapter per week.
I've skipped a dedicated “rest/catch-up” week this time around, as I'd love for us to wrap up before taking a few holiday weeks to pause non-fiction reading.
My hope is that folks can lean into fiction, festive crafts, and movies a little more and pause "learning" or any tasks that are primarily "productive" feeling, which I find most non-fiction (outside of memoirs) tends to be. I loveee learning and also, its important to pause and take breaks and it is extremely important to me/my values that I practice what I preach.
It's a bit of an ambitious schedule, but I also think this book will offer some really valuable support throughout the holiday season. I'm super excited to dig in! And if we all love this author, we can jump into her follow-up book, The Wellness Trap, in time to help combat the New Year's resolutions diet garbage that is oh so loud every January 🫠
💛 I’m really excited to read this with you.
No pressure, no perfection—just thoughtful reading to fight back against diet culture and anti fat bias!
Talk soon! xx
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