0:09

Welcome to the Intuitive Eating

0:09

and Body Positivity podcast.

0:13

I'm Terri and I'll be talking

0:13

about all things intuitive

0:16

eating, body positivity and

0:16

health at every size and

0:20

shaking off weight stigma, diet

0:20

culture, and food rules so that

0:24

we can all have a better

0:24

relationship with food and our

0:26

bodies. Hello hi happy Thursday.

0:43

I know Thursday. This is not my usual Monday

0:46

release day, is it?

0:46

Things have gone a little bit

0:50

crazy with the bank holiday. I don't know where I am.

0:53

I don't know what day it is. I don't know what's going on,

0:57

but I made sure that I didn't

0:57

work over Easter, so that's why

1:02

there was no recording over the

1:02

weekend, no release on Monday,

1:08

so here we are on a Thursday,

1:08

but you know, there you go.

1:11

That's what you got to do, right? How are you?

1:14

How was your Easter?

1:17

Was it good?

1:17

Was there loads of chocolate?

1:22

Were there loads of Easter eggs

1:22

or did you completely shy away

1:25

from it? How was it for you? It was good for me.

1:29

I had a couple of Easter eggs. Yeah, as a grown woman, my dad

1:30

still buys me an Easter egg at

1:35

Christmas. A Christmas? For goodness sake, at Easter.

1:41

Which is cute, right? Isn't that sweet?

1:43

But yeah, i had a nice Easter.

1:48

It was good yeah it was a nice long weekend. Hope you're not feeling too

1:51

stressed after it.

1:54

There's no need. Everything is cool.

1:57

You had some chocolate. You might have had a lot of

2:00

chocolate. You might have had a lot of other food, but you know what?

2:01

It's Sound Quality Weekend and

2:06

that's what it's there for. To have a nice time to have

2:09

some down, time to have some

2:09

food, have some drinks, however

2:13

you took it, whatever happened

2:13

for you, it's absolutely fine.

2:18

And you just have to remember

2:18

Easter eggs are just chocolate

2:23

bars in a different shape,

2:23

right?

2:27

That's all they are. And actually I think you get

2:30

less chocolate in an Easter egg

2:30

than you get in a bar of

2:33

chocolate. Maybe I need to go and Google

2:36

this, but don't panic because

2:36

all it is a different shaped

2:40

chocolate bar.

2:40

It's fine.

2:43

And by that, by that logic, it

2:43

means that it's OK that they're

2:50

not there anymore, because

2:50

sometimes we can feel like we

2:52

have to eat them and eat them

2:52

quickly and eat loads of them

2:55

and get rid of them and things

2:55

like that, because then they're

3:00

gone. Or maybe you miss them because

3:04

they're not there anymore, but

3:04

it's fine because you can pop

3:08

to the shop and get some more

3:08

chocolate.

3:11

Because maybe you are a grown

3:11

up with your own money and you

3:17

can just pop to the shop. That's fine, so don't worry

3:23

about what happened to Easter. Easiest something done for some

3:25

people I know, but honestly

3:25

it's all good.

3:30

All good. So let's talk about fat

3:35

friends. Are you watching it?

3:39

It popped up on Netflix and I

3:39

was like, what is this show

3:44

from the early two and, i mean

3:44

early 2000s.

3:48

2004, something like that,

3:48

which I didn't think was that

3:52

long ago.

3:52

And then I thought about it and

3:54

I thought, no, that's 20 years

3:54

ago, it started.

4:01

Anyway. It popped up on

4:01

Netflix.

4:05

I've never seen it before. I've never heard of it before.

4:08

Didn't have a clue what it was about. Now all of a sudden there's all

4:10

this hype about it.

4:13

It's being talked about on social media. My friends are asking me if

4:15

I've seen it and i was like,

4:20

this is massive, this is

4:20

clearly a big deal.

4:25

Anyway, I'm in it and I'm in it

4:25

deep.

4:28

I love it.

4:31

Just love it.

4:34

Now, for those of you who don't

4:34

know what it is, here's the

4:38

premise. It's all about a group of

4:40

people that go to and a diet

4:40

club.

4:45

Basically it's just about this

4:45

group of people that go to a

4:49

diet club.

4:49

But it does end up being much

4:52

more than that. It's about the story of their lives, you know, their

4:54

families, their social

4:57

interactions, things that

4:57

happen to them in general,

5:02

everyday life.

5:02

So it's not just about the Diet

5:05

Club but it is heavily centered

5:05

around it.

5:09

So a lot of the conversation on

5:09

social media has been, should I

5:12

watch it?

5:12

I don't know if I can handle

5:15

it. It's really triggering and I

5:18

can understand the worry around it. I can understand the worry for

5:20

somebody who is trying to let

5:22

go of dieting to see this

5:22

program come up.

5:28

That is all about dieting. It's all about the diet club,

5:31

what you get there, the friends

5:31

you make there, that sort of

5:33

thing. So I get it.

5:37

If you're watching it, how does

5:37

it make you feel?

5:41

Or if you're not watching it

5:41

does, what does the thought of

5:44

it feel like? How does it make you feel? Does it feel like you can watch

5:45

it? Does it make you feel like

5:47

you'd be really uncomfortable

5:50

and it would be triggering you?

5:50

Are you watching it?

5:54

Do you find it just funny?

5:54

Do you find it just hilarious?

6:00

There's lots of ways to view

6:00

this and if it feels difficult,

6:05

let me help you to see this differently. I'm going to tell you how I see

6:08

it and then hopefully if you

6:11

wanna watch it, you can see it

6:11

through the same eyes as me.

6:14

Well, not through my eyes,

6:14

because they're my eyes.

6:18

That's, you know, through the

6:18

same lens, shall we say.

6:23

So here's how I see it. It's satire, right?

6:27

It's meant to be funny.

6:29

It's meant to be ironic.

6:32

It is meant to take the

6:32

absolute Mick out of diets and

6:40

that it does. They just spend the whole time

6:44

taking the Mick out of the

6:44

dieting crowd.

6:49

But here is what else I see in

6:49

that program right i see a

6:54

really sympathetic approach to

6:54

all of the characters.

7:00

They're not, as show writers,

7:00

making anybody in that group

7:06

out to be stupid or a fool for

7:06

doing the Diet.

7:14

Well, hang on, I'll come on to

7:14

this in a minute.

7:16

But you know, they're not

7:16

outwardly saying what a stupid

7:19

person you are for dieting. They are sympathetic to their

7:25

characters, their situations,

7:25

the things that happen as fat

7:32

folk or as people who are not

7:32

fat but are on a diet.

7:38

They are sympathetic to the

7:38

consultant as well of the group

7:44

they are. They've taken a really nice

7:47

approach, actually, to making

7:47

you really love the characters

7:50

and to treating them kindly.

7:56

They do, I was gonna say, promote.

8:00

It's not promote. They do highlight very

8:01

disordered eating.

8:05

And by that I mean all the

8:05

things that we do when we're on

8:10

a diet, the not eating with

8:10

your family or eating with your

8:16

family, but not eating the same

8:16

food as your family.

8:20

So there will be somebody who

8:20

just has slices of ham and a

8:27

massive player salad. We've all been there, right?

8:30

We've all been to a diet club. I thought, I'll just have some

8:33

ham and salad and God, that is

8:33

actually something that I

8:38

remember from my mum dieting as

8:38

well.

8:41

Just some sliced ham and some

8:41

salad.

8:45

No, Mum, that ain't gonna fill

8:45

me up.

8:47

Do you not know me?

8:47

Do you not know my appetite?

8:49

That is not filling me up, but

8:49

it does highlight the foods

8:54

that you eat. One person had cottage cheese,

9:00

for example, and a plate of

9:00

salad, and it just highlights

9:06

the different foods that you

9:06

choose above others when you're

9:11

on a diet. By the way, there might be some

9:15

spoiler alerts here, so I'm

9:15

going to try and not talk about

9:17

the actual storylines. But if you're going to watch

9:21

it, just know that I'm going to

9:21

give you some insight into a

9:23

few different situations. So Soz, not Soz.

9:27

Here for the education, right?

9:27

Yeah so the eating habits.

9:34

And it's about, you know, if

9:34

you go out to eat what you eat

9:40

instead of other people. There is an episode where this

9:45

one couple.

9:45

Has food, has these big plates

9:51

of food, and there's a standing

9:51

joke about cabbage.

9:53

He's like, how many times in

9:53

one day do we have to eat

9:55

cabbage?

9:55

And then she's got his wife has

9:59

got the plate absolutely piled

9:59

high and she says to her

10:04

daughter, who are both on a

10:04

diet, by the way, it's fine

10:09

because it's all vegetables,

10:09

it's all free food.

10:13

Well, do you resonate with

10:13

that?

10:15

Do you remember piling your

10:15

plate up massively high with

10:19

all this food that are

10:19

supposedly free foods on a

10:22

diet, so it's fine to eat them

10:22

all?

10:25

So there's no actual gauge of

10:25

whether you're hungry or not,

10:28

It's just a case of eat all the

10:28

free food you can, cause that's

10:32

what you're told on a diet, isn't it? Go ahead, have as much of that

10:34

free food as you like.

10:39

But the reality is we don't

10:39

need a mountain of food because

10:47

you might be able to eat a

10:47

really good, healthy amount of

10:50

food. And by healthy, I mean, you know, a considerable amount of

10:51

food.

10:56

That doesn't mean that you need

10:56

to pile your plate up more than

11:00

what is good for you, but this

11:00

is what was being depicted in

11:04

that scene.

11:04

So it was highlighting the

11:08

differences. In that one scene you had the girl with the cottage cheese

11:10

and the salad versus her mum

11:15

and her dad who are eating this

11:15

mountain of vegetables.

11:22

Both of those things are

11:22

advocated for on diets.

11:26

Neither of those things are OK

11:26

unless that's exactly what you

11:30

need and want to eat at that

11:30

time.

11:32

It also showed the loss of

11:32

control around food when you're

11:36

on a diet. So you know when you get

11:38

stressed, when you're upset,

11:38

that sort of thing.

11:41

It shows.

11:41

The way you just go, right?

11:45

That's it. I'm just gonna eat everything in my sight.

11:48

Now I'm gonna have, I think in

11:50

the one scene the girl has

11:50

something like 3 bags of

11:53

crisps, 2 bags of pork

11:53

scratchings and a pint of

11:55

Guinness. And I was like, Yep, yeah, I

12:00

recognize. That not all of those things,

12:02

because I don't like cheese and

12:02

onion crisps, I don't really

12:04

like pork scratchings, and I

12:04

definitely don't like Guinness.

12:08

But I knew what she was going

12:08

through.

12:12

She was stressed. She'd done so well on her diet.

12:16

She'd been praised by lots of people. But she was upset about

12:17

something, and her go to was to

12:23

binge on all these foods that

12:23

she doesn't usually get access

12:25

to. Interesting, right? And that's

12:29

not the only time that happens

12:29

in the four seasons that I've

12:33

watched. Because yes, I have been binge

12:35

watched it all. Then there are, what other

12:43

examples are there?

12:43

So there is an example of how

12:46

it is knocked on to people

12:46

around us.

12:49

So when you're dieting and you

12:49

make your family diet with you,

12:53

how they react to food when

12:53

you're not around?

12:56

So in this one example, the

12:56

consultants son just really

13:01

wants some food. Some decent, you know, hearty

13:06

meals. This is a teenage boy. He wants to eat more than a

13:08

plate of salad.

13:12

And you see him kind of

13:12

sneaking bars of chocolate,

13:16

that sort of thing, or eating

13:16

different foods when he goes to

13:20

his dad's you know, that sort

13:20

of thing.

13:23

So there are all the different

13:23

kind of aspects of the

13:26

disordered eating patterns in

13:26

there is actually.

13:31

Let me just say there is an

13:31

actual eating disorder

13:37

highlighted in there. It's relatively brief, but if

13:40

you are triggered by actual

13:40

eating disorder behaviours,

13:47

specifically binge eating,

13:47

bulimia, that sort of thing,

13:53

then I would stay away from it

13:53

actually.

13:56

But it's a very small part of a

13:56

very big series.

14:01

But it is there. But it does show that as the

14:05

consultant, this woman is

14:05

really feeling the pressure to

14:10

stay thin and the pressure to

14:10

be this person that is worthy

14:16

of standing up in front of a

14:16

group of people preaching her

14:19

diet and her messages. So that's quite sad really, but

14:25

it's part and parcel. You know, there's an awful lot

14:27

of people who go from dieting

14:27

to disordered eating, and then

14:33

from disordered eating to

14:33

actually eating disorders.

14:36

So the figures around that are

14:36

actually really quite scary.

14:40

So it's no surprise it also

14:40

highlights a terrible

14:46

relationship with exercise. Yeah, earning your food, doing

14:53

classes to lose weight, and

14:53

then being able to eat more.

14:58

You've done an exercise class,

14:58

therefore you are now entitled

15:00

to a pint or some crisps or

15:00

some chocolate or, you know,

15:04

whatever it is. But there is a definite link in

15:07

this program between exercise

15:07

and food.

15:12

They talk about clothes and

15:12

actually that's done very

15:17

steadily, but in a nice way. You know the clothes that you

15:20

can and can't wear, the clothes

15:20

that are available to you as a

15:24

bigger person, the clothes that

15:24

come into play when you are put

15:30

in a position where you're going to feel very self-conscious So being a

15:31

bridesmaid and having to

15:36

contend with buying

15:36

bridesmaids, dresses, that sort

15:39

of thing. The relationship with each

15:42

other as well. Competitive nature of diet.

15:46

Clubs that's in there talks

15:46

about prioritizing the diet

15:51

over other things. You know, when we wanna diet,

15:55

everything becomes the centre

15:55

of focus, doesn't it?

15:58

And other things go by the wayside. I really liked as well that the

16:02

thin people in this programme

16:09

are also portrayed as having

16:09

their own issues.

16:13

Not just the disordered eating,

16:13

not just the eating disorder,

16:16

But they are not made out to be

16:16

people who are thin and happy.

16:22

They're not made out to have

16:22

these perfect lives because

16:25

they've lost weight. The people that you see in

16:28

there that are naturally quite

16:28

thin have their issues.

16:32

The people in there that have

16:32

gone through a journey of

16:35

losing a lot of weight and are

16:35

being celebrated for it also

16:39

have issues.

16:39

Nobody in that show is

16:42

portrayed as without their

16:42

problems because they are thin.

16:48

So I really like that. Real credit to the show

16:51

writers. They're actually for making

16:53

everybody. Very real, very real.

16:59

They're also very sympathetic

16:59

to the problems that come with

17:02

being in a bigger body.

17:05

They did a really nice job of highlighting lots of areas of

17:06

life where and where your

17:13

weight comes into play, where

17:13

you're criticised for it or

17:17

made fun of for it. You know there's cases of bad

17:22

bosses in there or coworkers

17:22

and how they have an impact or

17:28

how they explicitly are cruel

17:28

to people with bigger bodies.

17:35

There are stories in there of

17:35

how the taunting at school

17:41

still has an impact. As sure as you're older, you

17:44

know there is a storyline right

17:44

at the beginning about how a

17:50

lady is bullied at school and

17:50

his issues with things like

17:55

playing football and getting

17:55

changed in the changing rooms,

17:58

that sort of thing. So that was really nice to see.

18:03

They do a really good job of

18:03

highlighting where people are

18:07

cruel to people in bigger

18:07

bodies, people that society

18:13

deems to be fat. They do a really good job of

18:17

highlighting that as an issue,

18:17

and there are a couple of

18:21

instances where people do stand

18:21

up for themselves, but they are

18:28

very sympathetic to the fact

18:28

that a lot of people can't

18:31

stand up for themselves and

18:31

don't stand up for themselves

18:34

because it's such an oppressive

18:34

thing.

18:39

They also do a very good job of

18:39

showing how people are

18:44

ridiculed in a diet club class

18:44

and it is what I would say is

18:52

that it's, how can I put this?

18:52

They have taken it to the

18:58

extreme, so not to the point

18:58

where it's absolutely stupid

19:01

and it's not believable, but

19:01

things like the consultant will

19:08

say, well what did you do?

19:08

You must have eaten everything

19:12

in your path this week for you

19:12

to have gained that amount of

19:16

weight. Or I'm trying to think of some

19:20

examples on the hop. Well, I'm not gonna read out

19:25

the list of gains and losses

19:25

this week, because that would

19:28

just be depressing, You know,

19:28

That sort of thing.

19:31

And all the things that are

19:31

said by a consultant to you as

19:36

a member in class. Like, what did you do?

19:39

What went wrong?

19:39

What did you eat?

19:43

You haven't stuck to your plan. You can't have stuck to plan.

19:46

You say you have, but you can't

19:46

have done because if you had,

19:49

you wouldn't have lost, you

19:49

wouldn't have gained weight,

19:52

that sort of thing. Can't think of any real

19:54

examples now because they did a

19:54

really good job of showing just

19:57

how much in a class you are

19:57

ridiculed.

20:02

For not staying on plan, not

20:02

losing weight, that sort of

20:07

thing. They show the They show how

20:11

humiliating it is standing on

20:11

the scales in front of

20:14

everybody. They show the City awards that

20:20

you get.

20:20

So Carol gives out silver

20:23

stones. There are actual stones wrapped

20:27

in silver foil.

20:30

I know right now at a club, I

20:34

wanted the awards, I wanted my

20:34

stone pins or certificates or

20:41

whatever it was that I was getting. I couldn't have cared less if

20:44

it was a stone wrapped in foil.

20:46

I don't think it's the

20:46

recognition.

20:49

So that was in there. Really funny.

20:53

There is also the reaction from

20:53

the people in class to the

20:58

consultant making jokes about

20:58

their behaviour through the

21:02

week. You know what happened? Well, I did this, You know,

21:04

just making jokes at their own

21:07

expense, almost like so. Nobody else can, if you know

21:11

what I mean. It's really well done.

21:16

How they show the relationship

21:16

between the consultant and the

21:20

members. How the consultant shames

21:23

people in class and the jokes

21:23

we make of ourselves as people

21:28

in a class. There are, oh god, it's

21:32

obviously set in a in a you

21:32

know in a hall somewhere with

21:37

lots of chairs in lines. It was a very good mock up of a

21:41

of a diet club at one point

21:41

there's this board and the

21:45

members have got their faces

21:45

stuck on this board and it's

21:50

like the rainbow. No, it's not like a rainbow.

21:52

You know what a typical BMI

21:52

chart looks like?

21:57

Yeah, we got the coloured bands

21:57

going from one side to the

21:59

other. It looks a bit like that.

22:02

And it's got the BMI levels on

22:02

it, so, you know, normal,

22:07

overweight, obese, and every

22:07

member has got their face stuck

22:14

in the band that they are in. And at one point she picks up

22:19

this woman's face off the board

22:19

and she was like, if you're not

22:21

careful, you're gonna be moving

22:21

up through these fans here and

22:25

you know, makes out like she's

22:25

working her way up the bands.

22:29

Like it was supposed to scare her. It was just humiliating, just

22:32

humiliating.

22:36

And then I thought, hang on a

22:36

minute, We had one of those

22:40

boards in our club. In fact one of one of my girls

22:43

said to me, did you have that

22:43

in your swimming club, Mum?

22:46

I was like actually something similar. Yeah, I did.

22:50

Not with the BMI bands on, but

22:53

it was, it was supposed to be

22:53

more motivating than that.

22:56

I think it was the amount of

22:56

weight that you'd lost, you

22:59

know how many stones you'd

22:59

lost.

23:02

So the more stones you'd lost,

23:02

the further up the board you

23:06

were. That kind of thing. Think that's it.

23:10

I can't remember Dial, but it

23:12

was supposed to be motivating. But yeah, the show just did a

23:17

really good job of taking the

23:17

mick out of that sort of thing

23:20

and all the cliched sayings in

23:20

all the land.

23:24

A moment on the lips and then

23:24

the whole class goes.

23:27

Her lifetime on their hips is

23:27

and loads she she's just got

23:33

loads of these sayings that she

23:33

spanks at them all the time.

23:39

One is need to is greed, all

23:39

these kind of things that as a

23:45

consultant, you know, we're

23:45

going to come out of your mouth

23:50

As a member, you know you're

23:50

going to hear on a regular

23:52

basis, you know, that sort of thing. And what else, Intimacy issues.

23:57

There's some really nice stuff in there on how it feels to be

23:59

intimate with somebody when

24:03

you're in a bigger body and how

24:03

actually other people have also

24:08

got their own insecurities,

24:08

that sort of thing.

24:12

I think it was really well

24:12

done.

24:15

Even though it was made in 2004

24:15

when diets were very prevalent,

24:25

shall we say, diet clubs were

24:25

the thing to do, the place to

24:28

go. If you were

24:32

Overweight,

24:32

Even though it was made then I

24:38

think it was very well done.

24:43

Overall, what it does is it shows you all the stereotyping

24:44

of being in a fat person's

24:48

body, all the stereotyping of a

24:48

diet club, all the problems

24:54

with diets, all the problems

24:54

with diet clubs, and it doesn't

25:00

glorify clubs or weight loss.

25:05

It really doesn't. So if that's what you're

25:06

worried about, if that's what

25:10

you're concerned about, if you

25:10

think it's going to make you

25:14

feel like dieting is a good

25:14

thing to do and that you need

25:17

to go back to your diet club, I

25:17

think you can really take away

25:20

that worry because that is not,

25:20

it's clearly not the intention

25:26

of this program. That's how I see it through my

25:30

eyes. So should you watch it?

25:33

Well, that's your choice. It's absolutely your choice.

25:38

I do not want you to take what

25:38

I've said and gone, Terry says.

25:42

It's absolutely fine. No harm shall be done.

25:48

This is your choice. It depends on your mental

25:53

capacity at the time. Depends how you feel about

25:55

dieting. If you, I think if you go into

26:00

it and you go into it with a

26:00

view of laughing at diets,

26:06

laughing at diet clubs,

26:06

laughing at the things you used

26:10

to do when you were on a diet,

26:10

if you can go in and watch it

26:13

with a really critical eye,

26:13

you're going to see it funny.

26:18

You're going to see it as one

26:18

big joke, but it is your

26:23

choice. This is my view on it.

26:26

This is how I see it. So make your decision based on

26:31

how you feel and what I've said

26:31

to you.

26:33

But it is funny. I'm really enjoying it.

26:37

I'm really enjoying it. I really love to know what you

26:40

think about it as well. So I'm going to put a post in

26:45

my Facebook group right now. You can come and comment on

26:49

that if you want to tell me.

26:51

Have you watched it? Are you watching it?

26:53

Are you not going to watch it?

26:56

If you are watching it, what do

26:56

you think of it?

26:59

Let me let me know. Go post in there and if you

27:04

want to send me a voice note on

27:04

WhatsApp, do that.

27:08

And yeah, let me know what you

27:08

think.

27:13

Normal service shall resume

27:13

next week.

27:16

Monday episodes are back

27:16

Monday.

27:19

I've got a really good episode

27:19

for you.

27:23

It is about how your personal

27:23

human design can affect how you

27:29

are an intuitive eater. So good.

27:32

It's a guest episode and I've

27:32

already recorded it, so I know

27:36

it's. But come and have a listen.

27:38

It's really interesting. If you don't know anything

27:41

about human design, this could

27:41

pique your interest.

27:45

If you do know about human

27:45

design, this might put a

27:48

different kind of tool in your

27:48

toolbox there.

27:52

It's really good. So come and join me and Charlie

27:54

when the episode is released on

27:54

Monday and I hope you enjoy it.

27:59

Until then, have a lovely rest

27:59

of the week, enjoy your weekend

28:03

and I will speak to you. Really soon.