What was your relationship to food and body image like in college? Many clients report their disordered eating behaviors began or worsened during the college years. And many did not receive care or support during this time which is why, in part, they still struggle with food and body image today.
What is the impact of diet culture on college students? In what ways does the college environment impact students from marginalized communities differently? Especially for those in bigger bodies who were routinely prescribed and praised for their (often harmful) weight loss efforts during the college years: what are ways you can heal from disordered eating, even years after you’ve graduated?
In today’s episode, Melissa interviews Dr. Hortencia Jimenéz, professor, sociologist, and health coach to discuss her perspectives on:
- What it means to consider eating disorders and anti-diet work from an anti-oppressive lens
- How generational diet trauma gets tangled up with college educational systems and environments
- How to make meaning of your own disordered eating behaviors during your college years so you can experience healing today
- 3 ways community care can impact and support individuals at risk for eating disorders and disordered eating in the college setting
Episode Resources:
Follow Dr. Hortencia Jimenéz on Instagram: @drhortencajimenez
Support Hortencia’s work on Venmo with a donation: https://account.venmo.com/u/Hortencia-Jimenez-4
Read about White Supremacy Culture: https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_culture.pdf
Join the Break the Diet Cycle Podcast Community in Instagram: @break.the.diet.pod
Connect with Melissa on Instagram: @no.more.guilt
Follow Break the Diet Cycle on Apple Podcasts
Follow Break the Diet Cycle on Spotify
This episode was sponsored by No More Guilt with Melissa Landry. Reminder that though we are dietitians, we’re not *YOUR* dietitian. Podcasts don’t constitute treatment. If you have concerns about your dieting behaviors, seek out guidance from a medical or mental health professional. And if you’re looking for the process, support, and focus you need to live life without food guilt apply for a coaching program from today’s sponsor. No More Guilt with Melissa Landry is currently enrolling clients into 1:1 programs, group programs, and, recently added a do-it-yourself learning format: the Ex-Dieter’s Guide to No More Guilt.
how does diet culture impact you during the college years? with Dr. Hortencia Jimenéz transcript
Melissa Landry 0:02 Hi there, I'm Melissa, a registered dietitian specialize in intuitive eating for on again off again, chronic dieters, and I'm here to help you take the guilt and stress out of eating so you can be the first in your family to break the diet cycle. I'm interested in helping you unlearn generational diet trauma, so you can be who you are without food guilt. Be sure to follow on Instagram at no more guilt for more support between these episodes. Are you ready? Let's jump in. don't usually do this before we start, I want to give a wee bit of a content warning. I'm doing this because many people I talked to experienced lots of difficult things in their college years that maybe they still haven't addressed or talked about. So I want you to know that this episode will cover experiences of oppression inside College, classroom and educational spaces, as well as make mention of things like date rape, and domestic violence. And so if this is something that you're just not up for at the moment, today or ever, it's okay. You're welcome to skip this out, come back to at a time that's better. And to let you know, if you do choose to move forward. This is a really powerful episode that hopefully helps you make meaning of any experiences you've gone through, go through, or someone in your life may go through. So let's hop in and get on with this episode. Okay, see, I'm so excited to have you today. I became aware of you on the socials, I have always been really drawn to your way of speaking your story. You have an anti oppressive lens, which I always use so much from before we jump in talking about we're talking about college students, yes. In part, college students in the college experience, in part because you're a professor. So tell the folks a little bit about you. And then let's talk about those college years and how they impact food and body image. Hortencia 2:00 Yes, well, thank you so much for inviting me, I'm very excited to share this space with you and your audience. I am a sociology professor, I teach at the community college. I'm a Mexican immigrant from Utah ancestry. And that really informs how I see the world and how I teach. I have an anti oppressive lens and intersectional lens that informs everything that I do and my own lived experience going through the educational system in this country. Melissa Landry 2:30 What lights you up as an anti diet professional, what is the thing that you really love about our space? Hortencia 2:35 Wow, a lot of things. I think healing is one of them that I know that, you know, many people can say that they have healed their relationship with food with their body. And then from my own personal experience. I think that will always be a journey for me. Because I'm still peeling off layers of oppression and experiences that I continue to face that continue to shape how I how I view food and my body. So for me, it is not a start and end but but a journey and a growth. Melissa Landry 3:11 Would it be okay to define this word oppression? I feel like it's thrown around, you know, like, oppression, I feel oppressed. And maybe there's like the feeling of oppression and capital O oppression which are like systems that can impact us. Can you tell us a little bit about what it means to have an anti oppressive lens so that we go into this conversation thinking about this topic through that perspective? Hortencia 3:36 Absolutely, yes, as a sociologist, so sociology is a study of people in society, at the micro at the individual and then institutional lens. And if we think about oppression or internalized oppression that is at the individual level, I think about the institution of the family and the values and ideologies that have been transmitted to me, specifically as a Mexican immigrant woman, coming from a very traditional Catholic household very oppressive, where I felt controlled, surveilled, monitor restricted, feeling a sense of powerlessness because of your identities, because you're a woman because you're Mexican, because you're an immigrant. We have different marginalized identities. And when we have messages that do not allow us to flourish, to grow, on the contrary, we feel marginalized. We feel like we don't have power and agency. That's how I would say, how oppression operates at the individual level. at the institutional level. It's the systems and structures and our systems and our institutions, the policies And how I mean, these policies and systems are in place by people. So people create these systems. And so one way to dismantle them is to challenge the ideas and to change the policies. So I hope that helps. Melissa Landry 5:16 And you're making me think I talk a lot about generational diet trauma, of course, that's coming from a white lens. And one of the things that I can already hear might be different between my perspective going through that or maybe my clients and yours are some of the definitions about what body should look like against a white supremacist, the lens where maybe thinness European feature, straight hair, there's different things that can move you closer to that. And so it sounds like the farther you get from that the more weight can really exist on that generational diet trauma that Hortencia 5:54 yeah, yes, yeah. So we have the intergenerational trauma. And then we also have the intergenerational trauma, the violence, the oppression that my ancestors have, have gone through, and understanding the impact of that. And if I can elaborate a little bit more and allow myself to be vulnerable for the audience to really understand the perspective as a woman of color as a Latina and immigrant and indigenous. My grandmother was back in Mexico in Rancho in the little village very common back and I don't know, when she was robbed, she was basically kidnapped, very common, she was 15. So she was violently taken away from her family, you know, my grandfather that is violent, that is traumatic, you know, so she had, you know, three children in one of them was my father, my grandma endured a lot of violence, you know domestic violence, a lot of patriarchy, a lot of sexism. And what my grandmother do, she transmitted that to her children. So if we're looking at, you know, intergenerational trauma, well, it wasn't my grandmother's fault, like I have learned to be. It took me a long time as a as a young adult, I couldn't understand I was very mad at her I just had, you know, a lot of different feelings, but through an Education And Spirituality and everything I've learned to heal and, and be compassionate with her and it wasn't my grandmother's fault. She just enforce patriarchy, she enforced oppression. She thought that was what a woman needed to do. That's how she was raised. So was it healthy? No. Do I blame her? No, I need to understand the situation and the context and the systems that were in place that were reinforced by everyone in her family and that she reinforced Melissa Landry 7:59 and her town and her community like yes, Aeon the family, and you're so right about that. Hortencia 8:05 And that is a direct connection. Right? So that's why I'm so when you said what moves me why am I so passionate. I am so passionate about anti dieting and anti with an anti oppressive lens. Because it fucked me up. It really damaged me. And I have watery eyes because I still, I'm still peeling those layers of oppression. And I'm passionate to dismantle those mental ideologies and bring healing in my classroom. It's everything's interconnected. And in my community, I need to be an advocate for myself heal so that I can help my community heals, I can give the language to my college students so I can let other Latinos other women of color now like you're not alone, let me help you understand why you feel this way why you don't like your body, why you have self hatred, why you don't the way that you're you're pronouncing your name or all this different. Let me help you understand where this comes from. And in a loving way, in a in a classroom setting where you're not gonna get this anywhere else. So I am I am privileged to be in a classroom setting and to have so much power about what books I use and how I teach that I am going to use everything that I have in my my disposability, to bring that awareness consciousness to my students, and also healing and transformation and that's what sociology is. Melissa Landry 9:35 It's a gift and I love how you brought like the the your you have an academics heart you told me before she's like, I'm a researcher, I research things before did you have this heart of an academic but you also have this really raw lived experience that I can see elegantly weaving, I can't that must be such a gift to your students to be able to be around someone like you to guide that that. That's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, Hortencia 10:01 thank you. Thank you. And I know that one of your questions was, you know, what do I see in my college students, and you said, you know, what is impacting their relationship with food and their body. And speaking from a college professor at the community college I live, I think that you know, demographics matter where you teach, you know, and so I live in California and the Central Coast, predominantly Latinx, community, agriculture, working class, first generation, many undocumented immigrants. So just to give you a little bit of context, and so that's why I teach where I'm in my dream job, this is what I've been called to be at. So having said that, then I know my student population, and I have a responsibility as a professor, part of decolonizing education, is being aware of who your students are, and seeing your students holistically, bringing in content and material that can resonate with their lives, I lacked that growing up and, and I'm still and I'm mad, and I tell my students, you're getting the best education, you're getting the education that I did not receive, and it's not fair. And they're like, you'll remember me when you go to the university. And they do. They're like, I'll talk to him. And as you prepare me X, Y, and Z, and like I told you so, because knowing Melissa Landry 11:19 like, or your experience is in college, was it within that same population? What was upon? No? Hortencia 11:25 And yeah, so I grew up in a Latinx, immigrant community, Watsonville, California, I grew up actually working in the field, so that that's why I'm so passionate about education, and so passionate about everything I do is just because of my lived experience. So I went to some of the State University Bay Area, here in California, very diverse, it was only an hour away from home, Melissa, it was just only an hour, but it was like, I felt like I was in a different country. Because, you know, we're gonna be talking about, you know, what impacts college students. You know, I had noted that, you know, growing up in a very traditional home really impacted, impacted my body impacted my body image and my food and going off to the university. It's like, I'm free. I'm like, tech, quote, unquote, I'm like, so I have a lot of freedom. And it was very diverse. But I only had one Latina professor who had a PhD, and she was from Stanford, one Latina, and I'm like, Oh, wow, I can, I can, one in all my education, I was an undergrad, like, I want to be like her, I want to have a PhD. And I didn't even know what I didn't even know what a master's was. Imagine that. And so there was a lack of representation of women of color, especially Latina with PhDs. I have to thank my white professors who my angel guardians who saw something in me and said, you know, you need to continue on with your education. And, and I want to be really honest, and tell you that oftentimes, we think that it's going to be other people that look like us women of color are the professors of color that are going to guide you along your educational journey. That was not my case. It wasn't. So I always bring that up to my students, we you always have to be open, you will have to support from people that you didn't think you would have it. And it was her name is Amy best. She is an amazing sociologist. She got me through my master's program, and she told me go for your PhD, I went to UT UT Austin in Texas, again, like a representation, I thought that the woman of color there were going to be supportive. They were surviving, and they were oppressing me. So I was like, this ain't working. This is very toxic. And who did I have, I had a white Jewish professor who became my mentor and my friend. And if it wasn't for him, who believed in my work, and my immigrant, immigrant rights work and gender, I would not have been able to get a PhD, Melissa, because of a lack of representation, the lack of support in the education system. So I'm proud that I had these two amazing white professors who caught me through school. And it wasn't the woman that I thought would be there for me, and that's okay. Um, I have a lot of compassion. It was painful. It was painful. But I understand. Melissa Landry 14:20 I hear that and I can imagine, you know, at that time, like there's this freedom, right, you're, you're away from your home. And depending on what your home was, like, many of us listening, we had families that were maybe more restrictive around food or critical of body. Now you're out in the world, and you're looking around you and with that freedom, we all need a template, we all need something to guide us, right? Because that's what the how brains work and how Yes, stimulate our futures is by models. And so for you, I can hear that impact of looking around and like saying, Well, how does my body not just to the degree of the fitness and the fat Notice with the color of your skin, yes. But how does my body fit here? What people in my body do or not do? These are questions college age students are asking. And so depending on Yes, you know, what you look like and your age and who's around you that's going to create all sorts of different types of mutations of experiences for college students that yes, body image and food. It's Yes, Hortencia 15:24 absolutely, yes. And to just expound on this, it is very important to recognize our different identities that we may have privilege that we all have privileges, and we can also have marginalized identities. So I have recognized that I am taught and I'm thin that has always so I have thin privilege. I have privileged based on my immigration status. Now I'm a US citizen, I was undocumented growing up, I have language, privilege, I speak English. So I recognize all these privileges. But at the same time, I recognize that I'm a brown woman thinking about the academic climate where there's academic stress. So now I'm going to talk about the different pointers here. So there's academic stress to you know, academic performance. That's one thing, right and the other is part of the academic stress. And as a person of color could also be feeling like an imposter and imposter is this phenomenon where you doubt your skills, your abilities, your intent, your you know, your gifts, your talents, like how bad as you are you you've done bad, and you feel like a fraud or you feel like you're not good enough, or, you know, you it's it's it's devastating to have the imposter syndrome. So you're navigating that, in addition to how you occupy space in the classroom, how you occupy, how you use your voice in class. So there's a lot of negotiation, there's a lot, there's a lot for, for for a student of color. And now add in that stress and the imposter syndrome, feeling lonely, feeling isolated, feeling out of place, being homesick. So then there's a cultural components to where there's academic climate, if there aren't support systems in place. And these higher institutions, if they're the student is not going to a you know, the diversity center or whatever clubs they have, the student feels lonely and isolated, the student who feels out of place is going to impact their relationship with food is going to impact their body image, especially if they're one of the few students of color their body is so visible, their body is visible, it is marked visible, yet they're invisible in the classroom. You're hyper visible yet you're invisible in silence. Melissa Landry 17:44 Yeah, and there's not always support or modeling to help you through. And so in some ways, when doors disordered eating develops, is it healthy? Is it ideal? Maybe not? Is it resilient? Is it coping, that can work for a little while? Yeah. And so anyone who shares her tendencies background or if you develop disordered eating in college, I want to say that to you. It was coping for a while. And that is there is no shame in surviving and going through Yes, things when you were not given a frickin tool or a point in the right direction. And so I want to actually pause here and invite anyone listening because this, this is really important that I don't know if the intuitive eating space does enough, you know, or intends to sharing doesn't want this to really make explicit the way these forces are the heartbeat of quote, diet culture, the diet culture is a palatable word we use to describe everything that Hortensia just described, and went through herself. And so I want anyone listening to just reflect for a moment. What are your identities? What were the identities of the people around you in your college or university experience? You didn't go to college? That's okay. Maybe think about your 20s, who was around you during that formative time when you're developing your eating behaviors independently for the first time away from family? Observe that what was that like for you? Because I betcha we could come up with hundreds of different examples of of that. And I think that's important to name as you heal your relationship with food. Now, I don't know that it can happen fully without looking back at that time. So everyone, just think of that note, in your mind as we continue, what do you think of the idea to just pick give some breathing room to that because I think it's too important to just say we really have to reflect and process that. Hortencia 19:39 Absolutely. And to be compassionate with yourself in this journey. This is not your fault. You are not to blame. If you have an eating disorder. If you did things to your body. It's not your fault. It's the systems in place. It is diet, culture, and So there needs to be a lot of compassion for yourself. And releasing that is part of the healing process. And it's it's a journey, and it is very painful. Not a lot of people, you know, it's easy to be in those diets, it's in this, it's not easy to be in a cycle. I mean, Nothing's easy, but it is hard to leave diet culture, because you want to heal, and it's scary to heal, because you have to address a lot of things that you can eat the best food, and you still might feel oppressed. So you know, Melissa Landry 20:33 yeah, they're not the same thing. Really. And but they're not the same thing. Hortencia 20:37 Yeah, part of, you know, the academic setting, and the climate and cow campus is going to impact you know, gaining weight, even losing weight, not sleeping enough. Like, that's, that's part of the college, your college, you know, experience, but it's, we can't normalize it. So institutions can do better, especially like the wellness centers, the Counseling Center, like all these different resources in college campuses, the courses on nutrition, like there's a lot of work to be done, because that further enforces these oppressive ideas. And then the negative views about your body that we weren't born hating our bodies, you know, the institution of the family, the social, social media plays a big role. So we get to college and and if you've been oppressed, if you were marginalized, growing up, and you have all this freedom, and then maybe you think that the way that you're treating your body is liberating, but maybe you're hurting your body, right? And you don't know. So, again, I think compassion is we need a lot of compassion, like people need to be compassionate with their with us, but we need to be compassionate with ourselves. And that's the hardest part with ourselves. Melissa Landry 21:50 Yeah, you sometimes don't know to be compassionate with yourself, I certainly did it in my 20s. I was very, like, be the best do the best fasces there's all this stuff about white supremacy culture, by the way. Why? Absolutely those traits within I'll put it we did a link to that document in a previous episode, I'll put it back. If you're like, What the hell was the white supremacy culture, essentially, an academic, I don't remember the author identified traits and qualities that linked to white supremacy. And they are tools used by white folks, in some instance, on purpose and sometimes implicitly, not on purpose, just because it's a habitual learned habit and behavior, to maintain these systems of oppression that we're talking about. And so my perspective and dietetics, and as it as a function of that, like the college years, when they're training you to be a dietitian, when I read that list of behaviors, I was like, like, it's describing my early managers, here's everybody. And I remember, I'm feeling even, even as a white woman feeling like, yuck, I didn't feel safe. I was highly anxious, being trained during that time. Again, I cannot imagine if I weren't in the dominant, a presentation like so. These things that, you know, impacted us personally, in different ways through our training are happening no matter the discipline, it's it's absolutely everywhere. So Hortencia 23:23 yeah, and like you said, for you having that language and finding the literature gave validation to your experience, that's powerful. Melissa Landry 23:32 Well, that's what you kind of keep saying here is like, having the language is really key because that imposter syndrome, or I don't know if that's the label, but that that whisper of like, you don't know, Hortencia 23:44 like, Oh, you're not good enough. Yes, Melissa Landry 23:48 that that's shame, right? Like, and that can come about when we are gaslit are made to believe that our experiences aren't what we think they are. So yeah, at the root, if we can label some of these behaviors we're doing or others are doing that's, that takes your diet, culture, anti diet, work to the next level, like that's the, that's the boss battle, if you can start to these behaviors from that lens are viewed as powerful for changing the world around you. I think that's what we would both like to see is maybe not having to have these conversations in the future. Hortencia 24:25 Absolutely. And to get there is another word, it's a journey. It's also a journey to get there to how we have been conditioned to think about diet culture, how it has been, also define my why, dietitians and nutritionists and the dominant definition of diet culture Melissa Landry 24:50 discussion list, but can we talk about this for a second? Hortencia 24:52 Yes, I have my own definition. I will share it with you. It will eventually be copyrighted and Melissa Landry 24:59 our upcoming, but could I just I want to play what you're holding right now. So yes, Hortencia just took her copy of anti diet by Christy Harrison. I personally have no qualms with Christie, I think she's fabulous as an entry level. But yeah, however, I think you're alluding to the fact that when we look at a lot of the predominant books have authority on what is Health at Every Size, what is anti diet, the most popular visible books are 1,000%, written by thin, white Yes. And so I'm gonna let you take it from here. So what has been your, your thoughts on that? Hortencia 25:36 Frustration, and I am not being apologetic about my feelings because they're valid. As a woman of color and higher education, I have always feel like I've been in an upstream battle for everything to just be visible to have my research be approved for everything you know, and, and so when I am in the anti diet space and learning more about it, and I'm reading these books, I start feeling very frustrated, very upset and angry, because I feel like, I love the books, they're amazing. But they lack our voices, they lack our experiences. And you get to a point where you're like, I'm tired. And I want to cry right now. Why is 2022 And you know, thank goodness for amazing woman of color in tight space on social media, the black nutritionist, Dalina, Shauna, there's so many women of color black woman and queer woman doing rewriting the anti diet space, but but it has been, and they can really, you know, I speak for myself, but they're also frustrated. That's why they're writing books. That's why they're writing from those experiences. And so as much as I love all these books that I read, I get to a point, I think the last book I purchased by a woman, I'm like, Okay, I'm done. This is affecting my mental health. Actually, I'm not gonna say the title of that book, I bought it. And then like, why did I buy this book? It's the same narrative. Yeah, it's exclusionary already. Melissa Landry 27:20 We already talked about this from this perspective. Yes. Again, like pause point for those listening, like, if you don't share, even non receipt, if you don't share, even if you are a white person seeking out and finding books on anti diet, particularly on body image, especially around body image, because there is a nuance that I can never, I can't speak to. Yes. Hortencia 27:48 And I want to yes, no, sorry to interrupt before I forget. decolonizing wellness by Delina can see is a great book for anyone to read who wants to have an intersectional lens. It's, it's, it's amazing. This is bring so much hope. And I know that more books will be written. And I hope that one day I will also write one. Melissa Landry 28:11 You got it. You're like effusive, the words are just spilling out of you. I can't imagine how it wouldn't become a book for you. Hortencia 28:20 But you know, how do I so as a health coach, as a mother as a community member, and as an academic, I have privilege. And I have some I have some power and what I can do. So currently, there's a an edited book that I'm working with a colleague, I'd love the next studies. It's an academic undergraduate course book for students on Latino Studies. And I wrote a chapter about food and borders. And so you know, making those interventions. So adding to this wealth of knowledge, you know, this amazing book by Christie Harrison. So adding to these conversations, and the other woman of color, and queer folks are going to be adding because these perspectives are so important if you want to really bring healing to the different communities that we are part of. We need to be part of these publishing spaces. We need to be in social media and push push, we're pushing like we're pushing the way we're thinking about AI anti dieting in ways that may not resonate with everyone might feel threatening my feel both loud, really visionary Melissa Landry 29:34 hitting on it because I'm going okay, because I won't deny that I have had this within me before. Well, it's like, that's I really want to read all the stories and perspectives but it's not really my you know, it's not really my that's a very, I think that's a normal reaction. As adult learners. Relevance is important. Like if you don't have relevance for the material you're learning, it's hard to want to learn it. That's that is not learning principles. And so, to work within that principle for For anyone who is white and goes, you know, these all the all these other stories, I just need to read what's important to me and I need to move on. Anyone listening this podcast, you know, the mission is for us to break the diet cycle. I really believe that individuals healing and labeling and doing this work means that they have an ability. And you've inspired me with your story. Because sometimes you are the white women in the room, where there is one bipoc person who is going to ask you for your mentorship and support. And if you don't understand their story, or you don't know that you don't understand their story, and you don't know how to listen and ask questions, you're gonna fuck it up, you're gonna fuck it up. And that is a difference between someone like Hortencia, who has this amazing, inspired, successful story where she's able to help more people like her and communities they are. That's the ripple effect that you miss out on when you don't read the story of another person. So that's me telling all y'all it's normal to not want to read the stories that aren't your own sometimes. But without it, what are you missing out on? What are we missing out on by not listening? Just that listen, listen to someone else's example. So I don't know how you feel about that? Hortencia. But that is my thoughts. Hortencia 31:13 No, and I appreciate your saying that. And I'm going to kind of be a little bit bold here to say that we have always had to learn and listen to white perspectives, your life in our educational system. And we continue to do that in the anti diet space. So as a professor, I have a responsibility to my community, to my students, to my white students, to all of my students, that they all understand systems of oppression, that they understand what my white students understand, and the most loving way that I can for them to understand what privilege is what white fragility is, what what is that my job is not to tell them what it is to be an ally, you know, but to give them the tools so that they can have these courageous conversations because a K through 12 system did not give them and they get to my college class. And they're expected to come talk about inequality and race and immigration. It's just because they're scared because they haven't been able to use. Both stories haven't been told, but tours or stories and our experiences are part of history, we just haven't been given that opportunity. So again, we don't learn about these stories, because they're not in our college textbooks. They're not in our elementary school. Right? So we read about white people all the time. We know, we understand. But they don't have to, it's a choice. We don't have a choice, because it's part of the curriculum. Melissa Landry 32:48 Right? Right. This was way more powerful and helpful than I hoped it would be. The College Years was something I wanted to talk about just listening to clients knowing that that is a time where these disorder behaviors can really take root. And sometimes it's when they flare up at their worst. And so there's probably a couple of different listeners right now, there's maybe someone who knows a college student, and who's thinking of them, maybe someone who experienced challenges during their college years. You know, when we think about some takeaways for listeners, like what we believe or you believe, especially from your lens being among college students, so often I'm not Hypno more, I don't know what's happening in the classroom, what would be maybe one or two things that you wish were status quo, common place to help protect, folks during that very vulnerable time when disordered eating can take root? What do you think would be helpful? Hortencia 33:47 Protection. Another topic that is so important is date rape. I'm a graduate from college a long time ago, but this is very common, you know, women getting raped by their boyfriends and your you know, going to a party and drinking and we need to have institutions, we need to hold institutions accountable to protect women to protect individuals from marginalized identities, especially from the LGBTQ community. So that's one like feeling safe in your college is important in your institution, university, one, to having a safe place in the institution. So is there a professor that you can talk to is there a counselor? Can you go to the Wellness Center or the mental health? You know, they have different names in these institutions? Number three, is there a center for for students of color for queer students, for Muslim students? You know, there are so you need to look for those resources. So I think those are like, key things. Key things. And other one I know we didn't talk I know we didn't talk about it too much. But like food insecurity as a college student is a huge one your struggling and might not have enough financial aid. There's just so many challenges and barriers to getting a good education and then to having housing and food. So food pantries, the making, I think that again, going back to the institution, having institutions that can provide students with food, or I work at the community college, we have a food pantry. There's a lot of where we can do on other things, too, which I'm going to advocate for. But I know that college campuses have food pantries, so also tapping into that tapping into the community food pantries, I think that's all part of helping, you know, it is difficult, right? Especially if you are gonna begin to have a bad relationship with food or you know, you might have an eating disorder, and then you have an abusive partner, you know, there's just a lot of other added factors. But ultimately, if anything, please find your support. Find people that you trust as a professor, your friends, build community, it is very important, especially for those who come from marginalized identities. To succeed in these academic settings, you need a support system. And if if it's just one person, it is one person, and you have me here so they can reach always can reach out to me. That's beautiful. Melissa Landry 36:21 Yeah. So for individuals remembering to reach out to community, especially if you can find those safe spaces, that can be a real lifeline of connection to help protect you from disordered eating and body image issues from really flaring up in a way that holds you back. Hortencia 36:38 You know, I did I have, I have so many examples. But I do want to share this one. It was many years ago, it was I was teaching around a different community college and I had a, we were talking about body image, see, I just have freedom, I'm able to talk about all these topics in class. And I remember this student who came up to me and said, You know what she was started crying. And she said, Now I understand why my boyfriend says Why can't you have that body because also unrealistic bodies. And she was crying. And she said, I need to do something about this. And I was like, I'm here if you need me. So she missed class for like, two weeks, she came back, she told me she broke up with her boyfriend because her body image, you know, part of it was because of this abusive boyfriend she was with who was you know, shaming her and everything else. So I didn't know. I mean, I know that my class brings healing and causes it triggers. But the fact that this student was excellent willing, Melissa Landry 37:41 I can see where people might have a hard time connecting, like how is date rape related to body image or services about healthy relationships and things like that, like that. That's an example like, if you have someone in your life, who is making it difficult for you to change your body. No self help book is going to help work through that we have to change the structure. So that's I'm so glad you gave that that example, because it helps to color in and you know, if you didn't go through that you might be like what, that is an example of what can happen to young people working through things in an environment where there aren't a lot of connections. So beautiful example, when one question I guess I have, because we talked about, like what individuals can do to protect themselves and then maybe what we as parents, aunties, uncles, community members can hold institutions accountable for like, we want our colleges to have these things. I'm thinking particularly of community colleges, you know, I think for the four year private universities, there's a whole other conversation about cost. I wonder about these smaller colleges or community colleges and ways that people can? Is there ways for like community members to support their community college? Because I would imagine there's fewer resources in your type of a setting compared to like, a state university or the private universities? Hortencia 39:01 Yes, yeah. Yeah, I've, you know, I've worked I had the privilege and honor to work at the University of the four California state institution, a level one, my heart was at the community college, but building partnerships, that's why I live in the community. I work at the community college and I contribute to my community. So organizations, nonprofits, even businesses, you know, to collaborate with, with, with these educational entities with different programs. Collaboration is key and, and bringing awareness to different sorts of issues and that can happen across the board from your community to stay to private university sense. And we do see that happening. Just for example. We are having undocumented action week, next month and I, a couple of all institutions of higher ed have reached out to me to talk about health and wellness and I'm going then link it to immigration and link it to you to our college students. And so that's exactly what we need to do, right. So if I can say like, I'm kind of like an example of what needs to happen in our in our community is bringing people from the camp who are from the community, even though they hold privileges, but that we understand that we've been through those experiences, and that we can navigate the word, the bridge between our students and the community. And we have many of those. So I think that's, that's, that's what we are doing already, you know, and all over California and other other states to Melissa Landry 40:38 It's exciting to hear. And ultimately, like, if you, maybe you own your own business, or maybe you're in a position in your organization where you can influence philanthropy or community connections, that's a cool thing to consider, like you might have been successful in your individual body image work. And one way you can pay it forward brought beyond your children, the humans you make, yes, is create communities that are just safer for bodies to be in all about, yes, Hortencia 41:06 yes, financially, you know, what's your time with whatever resources you're able to do? Everyone can contribute? Everyone makes a difference. Melissa Landry 41:14 Just make it safe? Wouldn't that wouldn't that slow, a lot of these issues are just for everyone, and that I cannot thank you enough for opening your heart. And all these things are challenging to talk about, and we appreciate your time and your willingness to share them with us today. Where can people find and support your work? Or maybe find your book when it publishes? How do we keep up with all that you're doing? Hortencia 41:39 I currently only have Instagram. I don't know how people do it with other platforms. I just don't know. It's Dr. Hortencia Jimenez is h o r t e n c i IAJI. Me and easy human Melissa Landry 41:52 is for everybody to write. Yes. Hortencia 41:58 Yeah, that's my social media. Follow me support my work. You can also reach out to me I'm sure you'll link my email. If you have any questions. I'm here. I'm here because I, I love what I what I do. I'm passionate, and I want to help. Melissa Landry 42:14 You can see that and you do help. I am just so impressed and amazed and inspired. I hope we'll be able to keep in touch outside of our podcast Convos here, and I just thank you so much for being on the pod. Appreciate you. Hortencia 42:27 Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it, too. Melissa Landry 42:29 I like to snack when editing these podcast episodes. And before I summarize and close us out here today, I have to tell you, I have discovered cherry flavor Craisins Have you had them. They're delicious. I think it's important that we put dried fruit on the radar, we're often told that dried fruit is not it? Well, I'm here to tell you, dried fruit is very in nutritionally different than whole fruit. And an excellent choice. Particularly if you're you're doing some close focus tasking like I was just doing so you heard it here first. This episode was super powerful. I am including so much in show notes for you. The decolonizing wellness book that Hortensia mentioned, a link to her Instagram, a definition of white supremacy characteristics that we talked about. And importantly, I'd like to share our tendency is Venmo because she is actively doing community work. This is not something she asked me to do. But if you really feel inspired by her and supportive of her work, head on over to the Venmo buy her coffee, give her a little donation to support the work that she is doing out in her community because it's incredible. The college years, I don't know what your story was. But it is such a time for so many people. And often when I'm talking to clients, you know, I'm working with them 30s 40s, sometimes up to their 60s. And in these sessions, often for the first time, they're telling me about the origins of their disordered eating or eating disorder. And so many people received no help at all through that time. They didn't have access or even know to go talk to a counselor or a dietitian and Lord knows at that time. I don't know how many of them would have been healthy at Every Size, intuitive eating anti diet informed. Many of us grew up in the heyday of diet culture where problems of eating, you know, if you didn't have the body type that people linked to disordered eating, which for many is that thin, thin trope. There's a lot of who was on an empathy or understanding and I think in a lot of ways that is something that my mother faced in her bigger body where, you know, if you didn't look the part, your struggle with food was not seen as in the same ways that other eating disorders are just ordered eating or seen. I'd love to change that. I'd like to let you know that. If you are, you know, this episode made some connections for you like, oh yeah, no, I was struggling with my relationship to body and food during those college years, and I never really had a chance to address that. It's never too late to reframe and explore that time to learn new skills. Many of my clients who have these realizations later in life, it can feel really cathartic and freeing to say, you know, almost talk to their younger selves and say, you know, I see you, I see what you went through back then. And I see how resilient you were. You got yourself to this moment, and now you get to use entirely new skills and so just so appreciative potensi could give us such a masterclass a breadth of knowledge, a bigger picture lens on this syntax, a lot of people because of the social forces at play. So whatever way you need to reclaim that time in your life, maybe it's by buying Craisins that formerly were forbidden, off limits food, maybe it's by finding language for that time, like Hortensia kept saying, you know, is it purchasing a book, or like you're doing here hanging out on a podcast to help yourself, understand yourself, give yourself credit for all those things that you're doing. Many of us were not given a role model or a template in our families or in our communities for what it means to break the diet cycle is hard work. A lot of it is mental work within ourselves that nobody can see. Give yourself credit for that. Show yourself compassion, and know that these podcast episodes are going to continue to support you in your work out there. I'm just so so glad you're here. If you haven't yet, I would love for you to leave a rating of the podcast wherever you are listening. That's exactly how other people can find this work. If you want to do me the ultimate honor. Share your favorite episode with a friend. Let someone in your life know that it's okay to break the diet cycle to they want to. We'll be back next week with more episodes. You have had the cherry flavored Craisins let me know the waitlist for the group coaching program is growing and I'm going to email those of you on the list a little later this week. Just to say hi and let you know that the waitlist is still open that I've received your name and I will let you know when my groups open back up but for now it is one to one coaching so if you would like help sooner than later you definitely know you're the kind of person who benefits from one Dawn work that is my bread and butter. It is the mainstay in the signature program that I offer. I would love to get to know you hear what you've been working on and see if this program would be a fit you can apply and Melissa Landry nutrition.com where you can find a whole bunch of other resources beyond the podcast as well. Until next time, be good to your good body. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
