Guest contributor Minh-Hai Alex, MS, RDN, RYT, helps understand why food guilt, which feels so personal, is an internalized response to eating because we are “a society that’s so inundated with dieting propaganda, often times imperceptibly, that it affects how we relate to ourselves and each other.”

Guest contributor Isabelle Gillibrand admits that she started practicing yoga to lose weight. Now, looking back on her own journey as well as how yoga is often marketed for weight loss, Isabelle is calling out why this is a problem and reminds us that, “Yoga is meant to celebrate you and your journey - not be a punisher.”

Guest contributor Isabelle Gillibrand shares how embracing an anti-diet mindset is a practice of the yoga concept of ahimsa, which means nonviolence or kindness. By including aspects of her own story as well as current research, Isabelle discusses components of the wellness industry that are harmful and seeks to help people live their yoga in all aspects of their lives, including in their relationship with their body, food, and health.

For guest contributor Maria Scrimenti, her body was her project. She counted every calorie, did all the HIIT workouts, and “made it” in the Nashville fitness scene. She left all the popularity and her obsession with fitness behind to find her true worth and is now on a mission to help women do the same. Read Maria’s inspiring story.

Meet Cameron, a a 20-year-old college student finishing his undergraduate degree in public health and pursuing graduate studies in human nutrition. At 16, he was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease with associated Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Here, Cameron shares how these health challenges impacted his relationship with food and have since sent him on a journey to learn how to deeply listen to his body and tune out the mixed messages of the wellness and diet cultures.

Writer and yoga teacher Ashley Paige shares how she sees diet culture and competition showing up in yoga spaces, and reminds us of the true purpose of yoga, which is compassionate self-awareness.

Guest contributor Maria Scrimenti believed that if she could make her body perfect, then she would score revenge on the boy that broke her heart. This mindset led her to an obsession with exercise and fitness, and later binge eating disorder and body dysmorphia. Here, Maria shares how, with the help of yoga and a commitment to living her values, she made peace with her body and resolved to respect herself.