Freedom, Joy, & Body Liberation with Jenn Radke

Episode 8. Today's episode is a conversation with Jenn Radke and it's a great one. Jennifer Radke is a certified body image coach, podcast host and fat activist. Her story includes decades on a diet cycle, two bodybuilding shows and a diagnosed eating disorder.  In her coaching practice, her focus is on giving chronic dieters practical tips to being able to improve the relationship they have with their bodies and get off the diet rollercoaster.  Her podcast, Fat Girl Book Club talks to people doing cool things in body acceptance spaces about a body acceptance book.  You can find her under her business name, I Wish I Were Me on Facebook and Instagram. Jenn's Body Liberation Journey She shares her journey of extreme weight loss cycling for 20 years and arguably having a diet-type mentality dating back to age 5 or 6. She ended this 3 years ago and started on her body liberation journey. I didn't know her back then but she is a happy, healthy, vibrant human doing work she loves. Important work in the body acceptance space. She reflects with us on the 2 decades of intense dieting, 18 formal diets (including Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and many more), 2 body building shows and an eating disorder diagnosis. What Motivates Change? Emotions, not Information. She talks about what made her eventually stop. Jenn and I reflected on the fact that although she loves books, research and information, that alone was not enough to get her to change. She had to have what she calls a "rock bottom moment" where her weight loss coach questioned her commitment to her "self-care" when she took two weeks to care for her uncle who was in hospice. She had read Health at Every Size by Dr. Lindo Bacon, but it was that moment that really made the difference for her. Deconstructing and Redefining "Health" I can decide what does the value of health mean for me.Jenn Radke Jenn gives us the insider's view of what it was like to try to reframe and reconstruct what health meant to her. She talked about practica