Do you feel like you’re always thinking about your next meal? Do thoughts about what you “should” and “shouldn’t” eat play on repeat in your mind? Or, perhaps, it’s your fear of “once I start I’ll never stop!” In this article, we’re unraveling food addiction.
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Journaling for Dancers: Getting Started
Guided journaling is fundamental to The Healthy Dancer®, particularly in understanding how our bodies respond to different foods (and our relationship with food). But with so many types of journals, it’s tricky knowing which can be right for you. In this blog post, we’ll explore two guided journaling practices I utilize with dancers and how each can support you.
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How to compliment a dancer
Complimenting a dancer on their body’s weight, shape, or size not only reinforces harmful stereotypes but also, reduces a dancer’s worth to their weight. This undermines the years of training and hard work invested. In this blog post, we delve into why it is crucial to refrain from complimenting a dancer on their weight.
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What Is A Ballet Body?
For dancers, a presumed “ideal body” formulates what many know to be the “aesthetic” of ballet. It often ignores what is healthy, and rather, embodies a cluster of privileges surrounding diet and weight— those rooted in white elitism. It has taken me years to find peace and neutrality with my body, let alone continue to dance with it. So when I hear from dancers who continue to experience weight stigma, “fat” talks, and comments in the studio, alarm bells sound. In this blog post, we’ll explore the impact of weight comments in the studio and on social media, and provide practical strategies to navigate these challenges.
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Weight Loss for Dancers
A dancer’s desire to lose weight is the reality of an industry saturated with aesthetic ideals. But here’s the deal: as a clinician, it’s my ethical duty to educate dancers about the hard facts of not only dieting, but also, systemic fatphobia. Therefore, weight loss isn’t a priority for The Healthy Dancer®. Now, despite weight loss not being a priority for The Healthy Dancer®, it could be a symptom as you build a supportive relationship with food.
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Dancers and Food Rules: A Guide to Breaking Free
For dancers especially, maintaining supportive mealtime habits means breaking free from these strict food rules as part of a larger initiative to dismantle dancer diet culture and make peace with food (the first two fundamental values of The Healthy Dancer®. This blog post aims to explore the origins of food rules and offers practical strategies for dancers to break free from restrictive food rules.
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Understanding Hunger—Your Cues to Eat
What happens when you ignore hunger cues? Learning how to reconnect with your innate feelings of hunger (and fullness), is an important component to a balanced lifestyle. Though not always practical, especially if you’re recovering from a history of eating disorders or simply navigating a hectic schedule, listening to your body’s mealtime cues is a critical skill. Therefore, let’s discuss 3 ways to reconnect with your innate hunger and fullness.
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Body Image Support for Dancers
How can dancers build a supportive body image? This article deconstruct various tools like body neutrality and body image resilience to help dancers build a supportive body image and lifelong body confidence.
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Dancers and Perfectionism: Tackle An All-or-Nothing Mindset
With body ideals at the forefront of the industry, dancers are especially vulnerable to perfectionistic behaviors surrounding both food and body. High expectations and striving to perfect the imperfect create an environment prone to obsessive tendencies and comparative behaviors. As a recovering perfectionist, I’ve learned to utilize a proactive effort to shift superhuman ideals into sustainable (and realistic) goals. For this blog post, I’ve teamed up with licensed psychotherapist Amy Pope-Lantham to explore five strategies that can help dancers tackle the all-or-nothing mindset and find a healthier balance in their dance journey.
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Can Dancers Strive for Body Goals in a Healthy Way?
Weight loss, muscle gains, and fat loss make up the most common desires for dancers looking to construct body goals. While we know that restrictive dieting isn’t a sustainable path toward these goals, it’s still a tempting route when wanting to look different. This is especially true in a culture that fixates on specific body ideals. Regardless, is it okay for dancers to have body goals? And can they strive for those goals healthfully? Or do these goals require some bit of restrictive control over food and exercise?
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How to support a friend through disordered eating
When you suspect that a dance friend is struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder, it can be challenging to know how to offer effective support. Fears of “saying the wrong thing” leaves many dancers at a loss for words. And while the conversation is one to tread lightly, avoidance can drive even the closest of friends further apart. If you suspect a dance friend is struggling with disordered eating or an eating disorder, here’s what to do.
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Comparisons in dance: your ultimate guide
Comparisons in the studio are, unfortunately, a common obstacle facing many dancers. Constantly comparing their skills, progress, and achievements to fellow dance peers— it can feel like an uphill battle for dancers to not compare themselves to others. This mindset isn’t just detrimental to a dancer’s self-esteem, it can also impede their creativity and overall performance potential. In this article, we explore why dancers are vulnerable to the comparative mindset, along with practical strategies to overcome it. The goal is to not strive for what feels impossible, but rather, to foster productive behaviors and a more fulfilling experience both in the studio and at mealtimes.
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A Dancer’s Guide to Stress, Fatigue, & Overwhelm
It’s common for dancers to find themselves exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally. Balancing a packed dance schedule with academic coursework is hard enough. Chronic fatigue can be detrimental to your health, well-being, and your ability to perform to your greatest potential. While a dancer’s schedule is notoriously difficult to manage, you owe it to your mind, body, and soul to find moments to breathe.
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How To Stop Feeling Guilty After Eating- Overcoming Food Guilt
There was a time in my life when I avoided dessert because I believed, “the guilt just wasn’t worth the bite.” My food guilt was so severe that thoughts about eating the bag of M&Ms consumed me for DAYS after eating them. And while this mental parade of guilt was exhausting, it always made its way into my brain, especially after another bout of “failed willpower” from an otherwise “clean” diet. But in my pursuit away from restrictive eating behaviors I overcame this food guilt, and today, I’m going to teach you how to do the same.
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Dancers & Disordered Eating
Has your interest in healthy eating become more of an obsession? Dancers are at risk to perfectionism, which can drive rates of disordered eating and eating disorders. Orthorexia describes the unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. Learn more about orthorexia and disordered eating among dancers.
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Dancers, Fear of Weight Gain isn’t helping
During a layoff or time spent not dancing, it is possible that you’ll gain weight. It’s also possible that you’ll lose weight and maybe even maintain your weight. If you’re coming from a place of extreme food restriction, it’s likely that you’ll experience weight gain upon healing your relationship with food. Coming to terms with a few truths is often part of the puzzle. Here are 10+ truths about dancer weight gain.
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Overcoming The Orthorexic Identity
What is The Orthorexic Identity? Dancers who experience a history of disordered eating, including orthorexia, commonly face the struggle of overcoming the orthorexic identity. Perhaps family members have labeled you as “the healthy one”. Or friends consider you the “good dancer” for eating “right” and keeping up with your demanding cross-training schedule. For dancers who […]
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How To Build New Years Resolutions That Last
Intentions encompass habit-building steps that work into your day-to-day life. Here are my top 3 tips to start the year with actionable intentions to reach your biggest resolutions.
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Should dancers eat less when not dancing?
Rest days provide your body with the time needed to recover; this means your muscles heal from intense training, your energy replenishes to prevent chronic fatigue, your mindset resets to prevent the onset of burnout, and ultimately, you reduce your risk for injuries (especially chronic overuse injuries). Here are key strategies to effortlessly navigate time away from the studio.
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Understanding RED-S in Dancers
With at least 10-12 percent of dancers weighing below ideal body weight for health, it’s critical to take steps to reduce your risk of RED-S and thus, your risk of injury. Here are 3 effortless strategies to ensure your meal plan supports energy balance.
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