#maintenance phase

Aubrey Gordon

If you are concerned about something, if you want to solve a problem, we all kind of know what that looks like, right? You approach it with a great deal of tenderness, you approach it with a great deal of curiosity, you test your own assumptions.

The ways that we talk about fat people's perceived health risks, the ways that we talk about diabetes and hypertension and heart disease are not those ways. 'These kids are all gonna get diabetes and it's gonna cost us $90 billion!' That's not solutions-oriented, that's not loving, it's not caring. Fat people deserve better than that. Diabetic people deserve better than that. It is such shitty lipservice that does the opposite of what it says it's doing."

Hi, thanks for the ask! Honestly, I'm not prepared to try and combat the main arguments of the podcast in this post. I'm not a researcher and there are probably other people on this site who are better equipped to do that.

However, I will say that Maintenance Phase was particularly damaging to me while I was stuck in the BED mindset. I found it because at the time I was consuming a lot of anti-diet content and spotify recommended it to me. In a relatively short amount of time, I consumed years worth of Maintenance Phase episodes.

Episodes of maintenance phase usually take some health or diet concept and try to expose some truth about it. Either they'll tell you about the dubious history of some fad diet or dedicate a whole episode to undermining health indicators like the BMI. The podcast has some good points, but it supports these points with cherry picked or misrepresented studies quite often. Previously on this blog, I discussed how the "95% of diets fail" statistic irks me. This is one claim often cited on the Maintenance Phase podcast. If you are interested in seeing this debunked, I recommend you check out SamAtEverySize's video on the subject. When I was listening to the podcast while stuck in BED, I didn't realize how fragile some of their main arguments are. It wasn't until I saw content that critiqued the podcast that I realized I'd been forming my own echo chamber and had placed the podcast hosts on a pedestal. In general, the content is aimed at making people who are currently rejecting healthy eating and exercise habits feel better about their decision to do so.

It's my personal opinion that one of the hosts, Aubrey Gorden, is too close to the problem she is trying to critique. As a self-proclaimed victim of diet-culture, she has an obsession with collecting vintage diet books, and frequently discusses how her differences of opinion on health have distanced her from friends and family members. She is still very stuck in the ED problem and should not be speaking on matters of health, especially to her vulnerable podcast listeners who have their own issues with ED and body image.

At least im aware my eating is disordered and im working on it. Meanwhile the cis are inventing all new types of brainworms

I'm not the right user, but I'm also not necessarily to wrong user. Cis people (and cis men specifically) really are out here inventing new and innovative forms of disordered eating in the name of gender conformity.

Anyway people should go listen to Maintenance Phase

My posts are either being eaten up as I hit send or they're late to the party. Being posted three hours later. It's spooky season and someone is playing a prank on me I guess.

Has everyone reported that vile account?

I heard there were two women in the area visiting ZM cafe who were more than happy to take care of whatever vile pictures that leech had left and so it was all taken care of. They reported the incident to the staff.

Still, it's important to report that pumpkin faced monster as they are still in SK and will most likely go to Seoul to attend the Run Seokjin encore. Let's hope someone trips them face first into the road.

Aren't sasaengs usually banned from attending events? Surely someone has put her on the Hybe persona non grata list by now.

I really hope so as these lunatics are capable of anything just as long as they get attention to support their delusions. The cult attracts only flies, like shit.

As to the matter of members being made responsible for these people, tbh my first instinct is to be swayed by the hate he's getting. He's very odd, I can't deny he's the one I least connect to. It could be the propaganda doing it's job but I've always felt this way. And recently, giving his undivided attention to anything that includes a bunny and a bear is rather suspicious.

Yet, I still feel like he is the wacky uncle of the bunch and while they might make crazy turns, you can hardly blame them when idiots follow in his footsteps. I think it's rather pointless to hate a member when hes still part of a group I love. What a waste of energy.

There is an interesting conversation to be had about taking responsibility when you're that famous and that wealthy.

Yet, I don't feel like the members live in the real world as most of us do. Can they? Sure, they are online, but they're also living in a bubble of sorts. Money shields a lot of reality from their gaze. It's naive rather. You could say they ought to be more mindful of stepping off their given pedestal from time to time in order to not lose perspective.

They ought to make sure they surround themselves with good people, that too. Good advice given can go a long way to ensuring you're not catching all these strays.

Jimin might have hesitated when he answered the question of surrounding himself with good people. He might have because of what happened recently, or maybe because he felt like army was minding business that wasn't their business to mind in the first place! He's an adult and we keep harping about that when it suits us, but we should mind our own business a little bit more.

Yet Jimin is the perfect example of someone who does stay off that pedestal. He rarely even steps on it. He's good of heart and he does surround himself with good people. I feel like he has made it his priority. Whenever someone proves him wrong, I bet he feels especially hurt, because it means he let his judgment slip. And he's proud of his gut leading him the right way. He should, but he is only human.

Jungkook once said he knew he was better off for knowing the members. People who never let him go astray. If he'd has worse friends he wouldn't get out of this business unscathed.

And we all know which two people have each other's back the most.

Good morning from my house! The power went out overnight around 1am but came back on by the time we woke up at 5am. The roads are still icy and unsafe to drive on so I’m working out at home.

Trying an arm workout video and getting steps in around the house.

After not weighing all week, I stepped on the scale this morning and was surprised to see a new LW. My goal as I move towards maintenance is to stay between 140-145 so that just reaffirms that my food and exercise levels are right where I want them to be. I actually lost weight in my first week of adding calories back towards maintenance.

This week I’ll be adding 100-150 to my overall calories per day and then next week will be another 100-150 depending on my weekly weigh in results. It feels so good to be in this next phase and be affirmed that my body is reacting well to moving towards maintenance. I know I’m not going to gain all the weight back as soon as I start eating more but it’s a hard thought process to break away from.