On Thursday, February 27 at 7:05pm at our Appleton location and Monday, March 23 at 7:05pm at our Green Bay area location we have partnered with Evolve to bring you a member seminar entitled “Wellness OVER Weight”. At Aerial Dance we do not talk about diets, we do not measure how many inches you’ve lost and we don’t sell gimmick-y supplements. We focus on one thing, improving your overall health. A BIG tenent of this is giving you a safe space to improve your relationships with yourself. And do you know one the main areas I see as a concern for women? How she views her body and interacts with food. We are mean to our bodies. For this reason, we are bringing you “Wellness OVER Weight”.
One of the reasons we partnered with Evolve is that when speaking to them they shared the Aerial Dance view on body love. Dismantling diet culture and promoting a positive relationship with your body is a mission at Aerial Dance. We work on dismantling diet culture by empowering our women to love themselves. Diet culture is everywhere. Teaching you to hate your body or hate part of your body and to be at war with food is a multi-billion (that is billion, with a B) industry. You are taught this from an early age to hate your body and people are profiting off of your struggle. Aerial Dance rejects this, we instead focus on: what your body can do, making healthy choices, and preaching body love and body kindness.
When speaking with Evolve about the presentation topics, considered subjects that may be included in the seminar include:
- eating disorder signs and symptoms
- dismantling diet culture
- fatphobia
- media influences on body image
- tips for improving body image
- mindful movement
- relationship between food and mental health
Titles we considered for the presentation included:
- Cultivating Health and Self-Acceptance through Nutrition and Movement
- Managing Food, Mood, and Body Image: A Woman’s Guide
I chose “Wellness OVER Weight” because wellness is a mission at Aerial Dance.
Not sure if you should attend? Ask yourself this: “what is healthy?” If weight is in that description; that you need to be a specific size to be healthy; or you don’t know where to even start answering that, attend. In the book “Health At Every Size” by Linda Bacon we learn that the research regarding obesity and longevity is not what we have been told. We learn that we have been sold a lot of misinformation about weight so companies can profit. We learn that restrictive eating is normal for women and doesn’t need to be; restrictive eating is actually unhealthy. Are you a restrictive eater? Do you follow a set meal plan that someone else created, like keto or paleo or I only eat things that are purple? Do you have a piece of cake only to feel guilty with the bite? Do you even know what YOUR body is asking you for? Can you hear your body?
Most of us can’t. We don’t know how to eat in a healthy unrestricted way because we’ve been bombarded with messages that we can’t trust our bodies. Here at Aerial Dance we believe you CAN trust your body. And we’ve partnered with Evolve to bring you a seminar that will talk about habits, health, and body image. The presenter will explore sociocultural influences that divide women rather than bringing them together, and how misinformation about health negatively influences self-care (diet culture in particular). Evidence based recommendations will be discussed for improving one’s relationship with food and her body. The group will discuss common internal and external barriers to health and wellness promoting activities while exploring solutions together to empower one another.
Though this is a topic I have read a LOT about and am VERY passionate it about. I am not an expert. I am not qualified to lead this discussion. I feel strongly that we need to have open communication about the diet culture and societal impacts on our body image to hopefully start you on journey with a new perspective on your body. For this reason, we partnered with Evolve to bring in an expert. Our presenter is: Emily Gaber MS, LPC, CEDS. She is an Eating Disorder Counselor and Outreach Coordinator for Evolve. She is also Vice President at Emily Klopotek Angel Foundation (raises $ for eating disorder treatment scholarships).
Join us on Thursday for a different perspective about Wellness that just may be what you’ve been needing to hear.