"far too many of us see exercise as a punishment for something we ate or how we feel about our bodies"
Q&A with Kira Onysko, an anti-diet fitness trainer
tonight is the night!
To celebrate the launch of weightless, I am teaming up with my friend and favorite food blogger Tessa Trach (@allthecheeseplz on Instagram) for a virtual happy hour cooking demo TONIGHT at 6:30pm ET. We are asking for a suggested $5 donation to Martha’s Table to participate. We’ll send a Zoom link this afternoon to everyone who signed up.
Join us on Zoom as Tessa guides everyone through making an orange crush cocktail and a whipped ricotta appetizer. Below is a list of ingredients and kitchen tools you’ll need.
Prefer to sip or snack on something else, but don’t want to miss out on all the fun? Don’t worry. We’d still love for you to celebrate with us!
whipped ricotta ingredients
1 cup whole milk ricotta
1 tbsp fresh mint or fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp honey
salt and pepper
bread, crackers or veggies (whatever you want to put the whipped ricotta on!)
whipped ricotta kitchen tools
1 hand mixer or whisk
2 mixing bowls
1 knife
1 cutting board
serving bowl and/or plate
orange crush ingredients
1 orange
1-2 oz vodka
1 oz triple sec
3 oz lemon-lime soda or sparkling water
orange wedges or maraschino cherry for garnish
orange crush kitchen tools
juicer (hand-held is fine)
a shot glass
a pint glass
let’s talk about intuitive movement
For this week’s edition of weightless, I invited anti-diet personal fitness trainer Kira Onysko to do a Q&A. I hope you find what Kira has to say about rejecting diet culture, practicing intuitive movement and carving out her own space in the fitness world as helpful as I did:
What has been your journey with fitness, and specifically becoming an anti-diet trainer? When I first started getting into fitness, the idea of what is a "fit, healthy body" was much more narrow than it is today. I looked up to and followed what I was seeing in the fitness space on social media and at that time (early 2010s), fitness meant being extremely lean and muscular, with a very restrictive diet to follow. Bodybuilders and bikini competitors ruled the fitness space, and I thought I needed to follow their lifestyles in order to get fit - I had no idea that all of these things I was doing that I thought were supposed to make me feel better and be healthier (and were praised and celebrated by the people around me!) were actually doing the exact opposite. It's taken me years to get to a place where I don't have fear around food or pressure to look a certain way, and now I'm so happy to carry those values over to my career as an anti-diet trainer, so others don't have to go down the same path I did.
Can you explain what "intuitive movement" means and how someone can practice that? To me, intuitive movement means doing movement I actually enjoy. Far too many of us see exercise as a punishment for something we ate or how we feel about our bodies. Intuitive movement reinforces the true meaning of movement - that it should be a celebration, not a punishment! Like intuitive eating, where we reject external sources that tell us how we should be eating, with intuitive movement we also reject the ideas of how we should be moving. So doing what feels good in the moment rather than what is the "hot workout trend" of the week, or what we are being told will burn the most calories, give us the most results, etc. Intuitive movement helps us tap into what our bodies are telling us, to listen to them when it is begging for rest, rather than trying to get all the workouts from a rigid exercise routine in just because we think we should. While we may feel like we are being dedicated by pushing through a workout when we aren't feeling it, it can actually lead us to feel resentful of exercise!
What is your favorite form of movement or exercise? By far my favorite form of movement is lifting weights. It makes me feel powerful and capable, and knowing that I can do hard things in a workout has an amazing trickle down effect to knowing I can do hard things in life. Lifting weights also made me learn what my body is capable of, which took the pressure of what I felt it should look like. I also really like exercises that remind me of my days as a competitive gymnast. If anyone is struggling to find joyful movement, think back to what your favorite activities were as a kid were and try to incorporate them into your life now!
This may be a little obvious, but what are other reasons for exercising that don't have to do with controlling the size of your body? How can people start and maintain a fitness routine focused on those values or reasons? SO many reasons! What I always try to reiterate is that you can improve your health through exercise without experiencing outward physical change - meaning, you can see improvements in health markers like bone density, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc. without having to lose weight. It is the lifestyle behavior change, not the weight loss, that makes the biggest improvement to your health. Other benefits include improved mental health, reduced risk of injury as you age, better quality of life and less chance of developing chronic disease. Again, none of these measures are dependent on weight changes. To start and maintain a routine based on these values I suggest incorporating exercise you actually enjoy into your life - no type of exercise is better than another, what is more important is your adherence to it. I also recommend ditching diet culture metrics such as calories burned, weight loss, and other outward physical measurements, and focus more on seeing what your body is capable over what it can look like by trying to do more reps, lift more weight, etc. (if you are in a place where that feels good!). These performance goals, rather than aesthetic goals, give you so much more of an appreciation for your amazing body.
What is your advice for someone who has only ever exercised as a means to control or change the size of their body? Firstly, anticipate that you may need to take a step away from exercise for a period of time to relearn what movement means to you without a diet mentality. It will likely be difficult at first to do the types of exercise you typically participated in for purely aesthetic reasons. Ask yourself, ‘would I still enjoy this movement if it made absolutely no difference to what my body looks like?’ If your answer is yes, that is your joyful movement! If you're unsure, use this transitional time to experiment with different types of exercise and see what feels best for you in this new season of your life. And like I mentioned before, think back to your favorite activates as a kid. Typically, this was a time where you truly enjoyed movement without thoughts of what it would do to your body - try to incorporate that activity into your life now and see how that feels!
Have you ever received any blowback or criticism from other personal trainers or fitness professionals for being anti-diet and HAES-informed? What is your response? The most common type of criticism I'll receive is that "anti-diet" is synonymous with "anti-health", and that by telling people they don't need to diet or lose weight, we are harming them and preventing them from achieving a healthy lifestyle. This is an archaic mentality rooted in fatphobia that couldn't be further from the truth! But it's also not solely the fault of that individual for believing this - the majority of the world grew up with certain beliefs around health and weight, and most fitness professionals begin their careers with a weight-centric model. It is a huge paradigm shift! I relay the facts, point them toward the research, and plant the seeds for a non-diet mentality to blossom. Having them reflect on their own experiences with dieting and pursuing intentional weight loss can be helpful, but it's something they need to come to terms with at their own time, as we all did!
You were my virtual trainer for a while. How did you approach building a workout plan for me, knowing my history of having an eating disorder? Did you tailor your methods at all? What sort of things did you keep in mind? While I want to be careful of how a workout routine will affect any new client, knowing that someone has struggled with an eating disorder comes with an added level of caution and more communication may be needed to ensure that the routine isn't resulting in disordered thoughts or behaviors that have been experienced in the past. This means regular check-ins and conversation around what types of movement are going well, what types may be triggering, and giving the client permission and support to back off the workouts if they feel themselves slipping into a negative headspace. I think it is so powerful for a trainer to say, "it's okay not to workout.” Overall, we want to validate and support our client. And this is the protocol for all of my clients, and especially important to those who have history of an eating disorder, but there are no weight check-ins, progress photos, tracking of meals or calories, etc. as all of these behaviors can be detrimental to the client's recovery. Even if the client doesn't have a history of an eating disorder, these behaviors can contribute to one, which is why they should be avoided!
There has been so much pressure recently on social media to lose weight gained during the pandemic, now that the world is re-opening. Any tips for navigating and/or avoiding that? I think it's important to keep in mind who benefits and profits from the fear of weight-gain. The diet industry is a 72 billion dollar industry that directly benefits from making people feel like they need to lose weight to be healthy and worthy - it's in their best interest to make you believe that the weight you've gained throughout the pandemic is a "problem" that you need their help "fixing.” Your body is not the problem - this industry is! If anybody touting promises to help you "lose the quarantine 15" actually cared about your health, they'd acknowledge the harm that dieting and pursuing intentional weight loss can inflict.
If readers are interested in learning more about what you do, how can they get in touch with you? What social platforms are you on? You can find me on Instagram, @kiraonysko. I'd love to connect with you and answer any questions you might have about non-diet fitness!
Anything else you think is important for the readers of weightless to know, keep in mind, or think about? I know at the beginning of your journey to reject diet culture, it can feel like there is no world outside of it and like you will never not obsess over what you're eating or what your body looks like. But there is life outside of diet culture that is waiting for you, and you can absolutely get to a place where restrictive thoughts no longer rule your life. Keep going and continue doing the work - it will be more worth it than you could ever imagine!
what nourished me this past week
what nourished my mind: I loved reading this weekend’s edition of Anne Helen Peterson’s newsletter, Culture Study. She writes about “familect,” and how you develop very specific vocabulary and expressions with the people (and pets!) you are closest to.
what nourished my recovery: This TikTok. It’s OK to gain weight. PERIOD.
what nourished my belly: I went out to dinner with one of my friend’s from high school while visiting NJ this weekend. We got this burrata pizza. So cheesy and delicious!!
