Ep 10. Gym Culture without Weight Loss Challenges: Bringing HAES®, Intuitive Eating and Body Positivity into Fitness with Monique Jephcote

Non-Diet Yogi

Gym culture can be incredibly toxic for people struggling with body image and eating concerns. Monique Jephcote, APD, PT and Intuitive Eating Counsellor, is infusing weight-neutral principles into the fitness world with compassion, respect and gusto.
In this episode:

• How and why Monique opened her non-diet private practice soon after graduating
• HAES just makes sense: “Every single body deserves dignity and respect” (and weight loss dietetics is SO boring!)
• Monique’s lived experience of disordered eating recovery from her days as a competitive bodybuilder (including the fun, sassy “Beyonce” side of things)
• “We get obsessed with food when we’re under-eating”
• How Monique never disliked her body as much as she did when she was closest to society’s ideal body shape
• The contrast in body diversity and body acceptance between the bodybuilding VS powerlifting scenes
• The myriad ways diet culture manifests in the gym setting
• On being a non-diet dietitian in a gym, and dealing respectfully with weight-centric fitness professionals: “We don’t know what we don’t know”
• The way Monique is challenging perspectives on weight and health in the gym world
• The importance of informed consent, body autonomy and compassion regardless of whether clients take a weight-centric or weight-neutral approach
• Low energy availability or RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), Hypothalamic Amenorrhoea in female athletes, and the problem with dismissing menstrual disturbances as “just what happens to active women”
• Monique’s experiences with Vipassana meditation, and where this fits in with her work as a dietitian and fitness professional

Links:

• Monique's Instagram
• The Intuitive Dietitian on Facebook
• Monique's website

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