Episode 112: Alexis Conason - The Diet-Free Revolution

"Diets don’t work—and it’s not your fault. As a culture, we’re told (and tell ourselves) that if we just lost the weight—tried a little harder, had a little more willpower, or deprived ourselves for a little bit longer—we’d be happier, healthier, and more desirable. But it’s just not true."

I loved this conversation with Dr. Alexis Conason, who sheds light on diet culture to help us understand some of the myths that we have been taught about weight, health, value, and self-worth.

The Diet-Free Revolution debunks the myths we’ve been sold about food, nutrition, health, and weight loss and offers an antidote to the pain and suffering caused by yo-yo diets, untenable food regimens, and quick-fixes. Clinical psychologist and eating disorder specialist Alexis Conason shows that finding health, happiness, and real nourishment is about more than changing what, how, or when we eat: it’s about radically shifting our relationship with food by healing our relationship to ourselves. She helps us discover what really nourishes us while teaching us how we can listen to and love our bodies. Enriched with case studies, meditations, stories, lessons, and activities—her 10-step program is a revelation!

In this episode, she tells us about her journey with dieting and the revelation that diets don’t work and that the whole industry is aware of this.

• Learn about her book The Diet-Free Revolution and its impact on people, especially women.
• Reframing dieting and diet “failure” as pervasive aspects of our culture—not individual failures—The Diet-Free Revolution offers an empowering roadmap to healing, self-acceptance, and radical new ways of relating to and loving our bodies
• She shares her WHY in helping women bust the myth about their bodies being “the problem”
• Why mindful eating is key to a weight-inclusive framework
• What motivated her to create her online mindful eating course with The Anti-Diet Plan
• She also shares the number one thing that people can do if they want to heal their relationship with food, including:
• Challenge your assumptions about weight and health
• Find fullness and manage emotional eating
• Embrace your “yum” and tune into taste with mindful eating
• Trust your body to be your guide

Dr. Alexis Conason is a clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist in private practice in New York City. She is the author of The Diet-Free Revolution: 10 Steps to Free Yourself from the Diet Cycle with Mindful Eating and Radical Self-Acceptance (North Atlantic Books, 2021). Alexis is the founder of The Anti-Diet Plan, a weight-inclusive online mindful eating program available worldwide. She was previously a research associate at the New York Nutrition Obesity Research Center affiliated with Columbia University. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, she is a frequent speaker at conferences, and she has been featured widely as an expert on the topics of mindful eating, body image, and diet culture in the media.

A lifelong New Yorker, Conason lives in Manhattan with her husband and two daughters. She loves all things related to food, including cooking, grocery shopping, watching food shows, and of course, eating! But most rewarding is helping her clients transform their relationship with food and experience the joys of eating. She is a fierce advocate for helping people recognize and question the societal norms that encourage their feeling not good enough about themselves to stop fixating on shrinking their bodies and reclaim the space they deserve in the world. You can find her on social media @theantidietplan.

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Links:

• Website: Dr. Conason Psy.D. – Psychologist – Author – Speaker
• Book: The Diet-Free Revolution by Alexis Conason, Psy.D.:PenguinRandomHouse.com:
• The Health at Every Size® (HAES®) Approach - ASDAH
• Facebook: Alexis Conason, Psy.D.
• Instagram: Alexis Conason, Psy.D. (@theantidietplan)