We Did It So You Don’t Have To: Three-Day Cleanse
The end of the year is a notorious time for over-taxing your system – overeating, eating poorly (dips, cheeseballs, cookies, eggnogs, anyone?) and over-imbibing. Between friends’ outings, family...
View ArticleBad Romance: Getting Over Your Messy Break Up with Exercise
I travel around the country giving talks about body positivity, size acceptance, and Health at Every Size. In many of my talks, either in my introduction or during the talk, the fact that I am and have...
View ArticleCancer is Bullshit
Talking to Allison Gruber about Not Surviving Cancer and Her New Book, You’re Not Edith Two months after moving to Milwaukee for a job with benefits, and three days after her new health insurance...
View ArticleI Did It: I Connected with a Community of Survivors and Hiked the Grand Canyon
By Vanessa Spiller, as told to Rachel Friedman It was a Tuesday. I was shaving in the shower when I felt a lump under my arm; it was hard and small, no bigger than a pea. After the doctor told me I had...
View ArticleEmpowerment Self-Defense is Kicking Ass – and Much More
The first time I drove my fist through a pine board I learned something about physical power that is almost indescribable. It stood stark against two decades of socialization telling me that, as a...
View ArticleFive Ways to Say I Love You… To Yourself.
It’s February, so that can only mean one thing: there’s a lot of romantic love stuff in your face. Romantic love can be great, but let’s get real — no one else can actually look inside your soul and...
View ArticleDIY Make Your Own Kimchi
Kimchi is Korea’s national dish and considered to be one of the world’s healthiest foods. Low in calories and with loads of vitamins and dietary fiber, Kimchi is an ideal food to kick off the New...
View ArticleD.I.Y.: Grow Your Own Sprouts!
You Don’t Need to Have a Green Thumb to Make Your Own Healthy, Delicious Sprouts Sprouts, the tasty, crunchy garnish of many a sandwich, salad or stir-fry, are not only bright and refreshing, they’re...
View ArticleSurvivor on the Mat: Trauma-Aware Training for Survivors of Sexual Violence
Halfway through our personal training session my client became disoriented, unfocused, and weepy. Before we began working together she told me that she was a trauma survivor. We were stretching in a...
View ArticleRespond!
Speak Up to Hate Speech and Become a Master of Verbal Self-Defense Early in our relationship my future wife and I realized we needed to pack more than undies and a toothbrush for a visit to the folks....
View ArticleWe Are Fine
Healing the Body Begins With Words Four years ago, I leaned over the bathtub to pick up my then one-year-old son and something in my lower back snapped. It happened so fast: one second I’m bent right-...
View ArticleStir-Fry
In Ching-In and Cassie’s Family, Cultural Differences are Navigated in the Kitchen by Ching-In Chen and Cassie Nicholson 1. Making Dumplings (Ching-In) We began our relationship by eating together....
View ArticleYou Can’t Yell at a Flower to Grow: Cultivating Self-Compassion
Each week at my Unitarian Universalist church, the minister shares a “Story for All Ages.” This is the time that my daughter and the other children move to the front of the Great Hall to see the...
View ArticleStretch Marks: Learning to Love My Post-Baby Body
During the past eight years, my body has stretched, shape-shifted, deflated, and rearranged itself with dramatic flair. I love that I can contemplate my changing body with fondness and humor now. It...
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