Ep. 78 Aging w/ Vitality & Letting go of Body Shame w/ Deb Benfield

Your body is your life’s partner, not your life’s project. 

What if you could focus on nourishing yourself for vitality and worry less about your body’s size and shape? What if you could step over the threshold of midlife and see elder hood as a time to emerge as your truest self? What if you could approach midlife and beyond as a time to break free from old beliefs about your body? Few things will bring more empowerment and ease into your life than learning to trust yourself and your body.

Debra Benfield, or Deb as we know her, has helped hundreds of women heal their relationship with food, eating, and their bodies in her 35-year career as a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist specializing in preventing and treating disordered eating. She brings her research, training, passion, clinical and lived experience to the intersection of pro-aging and body liberation.

Deb’s work is rooted in helping her clients: shifting their body relationship from their life’s project to their life’s partner, recognizing internalized ageism and ending it, Untangling from diet/wellness culture, nourishing their bodies in midlife and beyond to support growing older in alignment with their values, and seeing midlife and beyond as a time of Emergence

Last week, in part one of our conversation with Deb Benfield we explored diet culture and the hold it has over our society and how we can learn to look out for it and fight it for ourselves and our loved ones. We also discussed the power of midlife to emerge as our truest most authentic self. 

This week, in part two of our conversation we are exploring Deb’s recipe for aging with vitality and body liberation and exploring the power our “body stories” have over us and how the body shame memories from our youth can directly impact embodiment as an adult. 

This is an episode you won’t want to miss! 

Our discussion today included:

• Deb’s recipe for aging with vitality and body liberation

• Recognizing internalized beliefs about “shoulds”

• Self care and the power of internal dialogue w/ your inner child

• Shifting into caring instead of controlling

• Aligning your choices with your values

• Exploring our body story and body shame memories

• Intuitive movement and the necessity of rest

• Vitality as we age

• Embracing the inevitability of death

• Listening to your body to determine what is healthy

• Understanding how our body receives data 

Thank you to our sponsor:

HER Patreon

Resources Mentioned in Episode:

DebraBenfield.com

Jessica DeFino, The Unpublishable

Christy Harrison, The Wellness Trap

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