What is flab?

A newsletter that unpacks my tangled relationship between wellness + self-perception. Sharing what’s helped, and what hasn’t along the way — with some no-bull-shit thoughts on what life is like in the aftermath of ED recovery.

Hint: it’s harder than I thought it’d be.

Why should I subscribe to flab?

To be part of a community of people who are choosing to be kind to their minds.

What won’t I get?

There are NO photos of others’ bodies.

That’s because photos of others take a sneaky toll on those of us who have to work extra hard to protect our body image. Research backs this up, with a 2021 study of 15 to 35-year-olds that found that the more people compared themselves to images of others, the more they increased their body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness.

You also won’t get medical/therapeutic advice. I’m not a healthcare provider — I’m a mother, wellness publicist, and person who survived ED.

I’m sharing my experience overcoming my body image dissatisfaction and eating disorder, and the resources that helped me, but those aren’t meant to be a substitute for medical or therapeutic advice.

My “Why”

You don’t need a label or diagnosis to want to boost your body image, but I did have an unusually tough relationship with my body and mind growing up that manifested in eating disorders (plural!), depression, anxiety, AUD, and more. I threw the kitchen sink at all of it — from crystals to Prozac — and am writing about life on the other side. To my surprise, recovery is not all roses and sunshine. It’s raw, exposed, and tough. But it’s real. It’s an authentic, full life. It’s so, so worth it.

Part personal reflection as someone who’s been there before, part insights from experts, my ultimate goal with flab is to uncover a road map for boosting my body image through real wellness.

Love for flab

In our first six months, flab has grown into a sizable community of body activists, with hundreds of subscribers and posts that have been read more than 15K times — that’s a lot of people looking to boost their body image. Together we will figure out a way.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being part of this project!

✌️🤟

Jen S.