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.

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.

Guest contributor Nicole DiGrazia shares how messaging from the fitness and fad diet industries contributed to her eating disorder and how she learned to allow love in to help her heal and live an addiction-free life.

Happy 2019! Without fail, the focus on working out and changing our bodies intensifies in the beginning months of the New Year, with marketers convincing us we need to lose weight, join a gym, and eat less. The repetition of these messages can cause us to question if we “fit” in and flare up body image concerns. Can you relate? If so, I promise you aren’t alone. In this blog post, I share an excerpt from my book, Body Mindful Yoga, on the combat language of fitness culture and offer new, more affirming language to embrace movement in your life.

I had the pleasure of interviewing David Howell, a UK-based physical trainer "in training." David shares his inspiring vision to bring body positivity to the fitness world.