Non-Diet Yogi

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

Casey Conroy, MNutrDiet, APD, YT Episode 10

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

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