I do an online workshop on the fourth Wednesday of every month. You can always check out the current workshop here. You can also purchase a video of any of the previous workshops at either the full price of $20 or with a pay-what-you-can option. Just click the links below to be taken to a description of a workshop with links for purchase!
Available Workshop Videos
Beyond the Hype: Understanding the Research On The New GLP-1 Agonist Weight Loss Drugs
The Good Fat Fight
Weight Loss Surgery and Diet Drugs – The Research and the Reality
Weight Stigma and Capitalism
Understanding the Research About Weight and Health
Weight-Neutral Blood Sugar Management
Creating A Weight-Neutral Body-Affirming Health Journey
Living Your Best Fat Life
Overcoming Internalized Fatphobia
The Role of Size Acceptance in Eating Disorders Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery
The Truth About Weight And Health
Talking Back To Fatphobia
Dealing With Fatphobia At The Doctors Office
Getting Jiggly With It – Movement In A Fat Body
Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays
Using Activism As A Self-Care Practice
When Good Friends Do Bad Diets
Dealing With Fatphobia At Work
Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office with Shelby Gordon
Reproductive Care for Fat Patients
Note: You will receive an email with the video link within 24 hours of your order. Videos are for personal use only, if you’d like to use them for a group presentation, email me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org for options!
Beyond the Hype: Understanding the Research On The New GLP-1 Agonist Weight Loss Drugs
Novo Nordisk promised their shareholders that their weight loss drug Wegovy would receive their fastest-ever launch and wow have they delivered. From PSAs to medical drama plotlines to hundreds of millions paid to doctors, researchers, and “advocacy” groups, Wegovy and its copycats including Eli Lilly’s Zepbound are everywhere, promising almost everything (and co-opting anti-weight stigma and anti-diet language to do it!) In this workshop we’ll go behind all the marketing hype and dig into what the research actually says about these drugs including long-term outcomes and side effects. We’ll also explore what we don’t know and how we can discuss these drugs with others including healthcare providers.
Topics will include:
- The differences between Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound
- The differences between the diabetes and weight loss applications of these drugs
- What the research tells us about short and long-term weight loss (and regain)
- What the research tells us about side effects
- What FDA approval of this drug tells us about its safety
- Issues with compounded versions
- Options for talking to your healthcare provider about these drugs
- How to spot an attempt to trick you into marketing/lobbying these weight loss drugs
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all the questions are answered so you’re sure to get the information you came for!)
PURCHASE:
Note: Link will be emailed to you within 24 hours
PayPal:
Pay with Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please inc
The Good Fat Fight
The Good Fat Fight Workshop. We are never obligated to debate our right to exist. Still, we can find ourselves in the position of wanting, or needing, to make a case/debate/argue for size acceptance or the weight-neutral health paradigm with family, friends, teachers, healthcare providers, people on the internet, and more. In this workshop, you’ll learn response options for common arguments against size acceptance and weight-neutral health, as well as techniques for crafting, framing, and delivering arguments, and for protecting yourself from the weight stigma that these conversations can generate..
Topics will include:
- Options for starting conversations
- Answers to common arguments against fat acceptance and weight-neutral health/Health at Every Size™
- Options for bringing these topics up with friends and family
- Techniques for having these discussions with healthcare providers, employers, and insurance companies
- Strategies for having these discussions/debates on social media
- Methods to prepare for these discussions
- Ways to protect ourselves from the weight stigma and other harm that these conversations can create
PURCHASE:
NOTE: Link will be emailed to you within 24 hours
Pay with Paypal
Click here to pay the $20 Full price fee for The Good Fat Fight video workshop
Click Here For The Pay-What-You-Can Option for The Good Fat Fight video workshop
Pay with Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to purchase the video workshop for The Good Fat Fight
Weight Loss Surgery and Diet Drugs – The Research and the Reality
More and more, healthcare practitioners are pushing their fat patients to try weight loss drugs and/or weight loss (bariatric) surgery. But is this really healthcare, or just medical weight stigma and diet culture in a more dangerous (and expensive) form? In this workshop we’ll dive into the research around these “healthcare interventions” to look at the data (and expose the lack thereof) around efficacy and risks.
Topics Include:
• Breakdown of the research around common weight loss drugs, including Wegovy
• Breakdown of the research around bariatric surgery, including as a “treatment” for health issues
• Who and what is behind the research
• What led to the widespread use of these risky interventions
• What does true informed consent for these interventions include
• How to navigate discussions about these interventions with your family, friends, and healthcare provider
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all the questions are answered so you are guaranteed to get the information you came for!)
PURCHASE (Login details will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchase.)
PayPal:
Click Here to pay the $20 registration for the Weight Loss Surgery and Diet Drugs Workshop Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for the Weight Loss Surgery and Diet Drugs Workshop Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the Weight Loss Surgery and Diet Drugs Workshop Video )
Weight Stigma and Capitalism
In the Fatphobia and Capitalism workshop, we’ll talk about how they intersect to create harm in the lives of fat people in everything from fashion to healthcare. In this talk we’ll take an introductory look at the ways that capitalism and fatphobia (intersecting with other forms of oppression) combine to create marginalization and harm, and we’ll take a deep dive into the ways that the diet industry has put their profits over fat people’s health and lives, including by hijacking the concepts of health and healthcare. Finally, we’ll discuss ways to mitigate that harm, and create change.
Topics will include:
- How industries, from fashion to travel and more, align with fatphobia for profit
- Impacts of capitalism and fatphobia on employment, pay and promotion
- How the diet industry manipulates the concept of health/healthcare funding
- How the diet industry infiltrates the healthcare industry, harming fat people for profit
- How we can spot these issues when they are happening
- Realistic strategies to cope now and to create long-term change.
Plus there will be an unlimited Q&A so that you make sure to get with the information you came for!
Register:
Note: You will receive login information within 24 hours of your registration
Paypal:
Click here to pay the full price option for the Fatphobia and Capitalism workshop video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can-afford option for the Fatphobia and Capitalism workshop video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Fatphobia and Capitalism video
Understanding the Research About Weight and Health
In the Understanding the Research About Weight and Health, you’ll learn about existing research, tips and tricks for breaking down research, and reading media articles. Research around weight and health can be daunting, dense, confusing, and downright misleading. A mix of diet industry involvement and weight bias (from methodology to media reporting) has created a world where what “everybody knows” about weight and health is often not supported by the actual research.
In this workshop we’ll talk about the existing research around weight and health, learn techniques to evaluate media articles and studies to see past the weight bias and diet industry smoke screen and get to the truth. This workshop will deal with concepts in plain language and is for research nerds and non-research nerds alike, including those with no experience at all in research methods.
Topics will include:
- An overview of the existing research around weight and health
- A discussion of the most common errors in the research, and the ways that they mislead
- Tips and tricks to spot issues in media articles and research
- Options for discussing the research with friends, family, and healthcare practitioners
Register:
Note: You will receive login information within 24 hours of your registration
Paypal:
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Understanding the Research about Weight and Health Workshop Video
Weight Neutral Blood Sugar Management
When it comes to blood sugar management, medical weight stigma often puts higher weight people at a serious disadvantage by focusing on trying to change their body size rather than actually managing their blood sugar. In the weight-neutral blood sugar management workshop we’ll discuss weight-neutral options for managing blood sugar without diet or weight-loss talk, without restriction, without shame, and on your own terms.
PURCHASE Weight Neutral Blood Sugar Management
(Login details will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchase.)
PayPal:
Click Here to pay the $20 registration for the Weight-Neutral Blood Sugar Management workshop video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Weight Neutral Blood Sugar Management Workshop!)
Creating A Weight-Neutral Body-Affirming Health Journey
In the Creating A Weight-Neutral Body Affirming Health Journey video, knowing that the weight loss industry works hard to conflate weight loss with the concept of health, so even when we realize that diets don’t work and we get off the diet roller coaster, it can be difficult to separate our diet culture past from our desire to support our body moving forward. Health is an amorphous, multifactorial concept and it’s not an obligation, barometer of worthiness, or entirely within our control. Understanding that, in this workshop we’ll discuss how we can come to our personal health journey entirely on our own terms and leave diet culture behind for good.
Topics will include:
- Defining “health” for ourselves
- Identifying and eradicating diet culture concepts from our choices around supporting our bodies
- Conceptualizing health while living with health issues and chronic conditions
- Setting weight-neutral, body affirming health goals and priorities (or choosing not to)
- Options to deal with setbacks, difficulties, and changes on the journey (body image struggles, health diagnoses, life changes etc.)
- Finding qualified, size-affirming professionals to support us on our journey.
- Talking about our decisions with others (or choosing not to.)
Register:
Note: You will receive login information within 24 hours of your registration
Paypal:
Click here to pay the full price option for the Creating a Weight Neutral Health Journey workshop video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Weight Neutral Health Journeys Workshop video
Living Your Best Fat Life
In the Living Your Best Fat Life workshop, I’ll share realistic strategies, tools, tips, and tricks I’ve learned for dealing with weight stigma – including our own internalized body issues, and the fatphobia that the world throws at us. This talk will focus on ways that we can stop making ourselves small to satisfy our bullies and the weight stigma that drives them, and start living life large.
Topics will include:
- Improving our body image and self-concept
- Options for dealing with past trauma around weight stigma
- Dating and romantic relationships
- Wellness and Healthcare
- How to advocate for the treatment we want and need from friends and family
- How to talk about our fat positive journey and choices
- Dealing with fatphobia from friends, family, and strangers
- Options for activism to improve our world and the world
Register
*Note: You’ll receive an email with login details within 24 hours of your purchase
Paypal
Click here to pay the full price $20 registration for Living Our Best Fat Life Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for Living Your Best Fat Life Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your email and that you are purchasing the Living Your Best Fat Life Video
Dealing with Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office
In this workshop we discuss tips, tricks, and techniques for getting competent, evidence-based, weight-neutral (and sometimes even fat-positive!) care from doctors and other healthcare practitioners, even in a fatphobic healthcare system
Topics include:
- Finding a fat-friendly healthcare practitioner
- Options for handling the weigh-in
- Asking for accommodations
- What to do when a healthcare professional “prescribes” weight loss
- Getting diagnostic tests (CT Scan, MRI etc.) when the machine isn’t built to accommodate fat bodies
- Dealing with surgery denials (including joint replacement surgeries)
- Strategies to discuss research about weight and health with your provider
- Strategies for when a fatphobic practitioner is the only option
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all questions are answered to make sure that you get the information you came for!)
PURCHASE
Click here to pay the $20 full price registration for the April 28th 5:30pm Pacific Time workshop
Click here to pay what you can afford for the April 28th 5:30pm Pacific Time workshop
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your email and that you are purchasing the April 28th Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office workshop.
The Role of Size Acceptance in Eating Disorders Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery
In the Size Acceptance and Eating Disorders workshop, we’ll discuss the role of Size Acceptance, including Fat Acceptance specifically, in eating disorders prevention, treatment, and recovery.
We’ll begin by examining the messages that come to us about beauty, our bodies, and health, and how they create an environment that perpetuates disordered eating and eating disorders. We’ll discuss how using a framework of Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size prevents eating disorders and provides practical, realistic options to help those dealing with disordered eating and eating disorders, as well as anyone affected by these negative messages, to repair the damage these messages have done, and create strategies that support dealing with them moving forward including through recovery journeys and beyond.
This workshop is for anyone interested in eating disorders prevention, treatment, and recovery and is based on keynotes and workshops that I’ve presented at state and national eating disorders conferences..
Full price $20:
https://py.pl/6K2g5sda6OX
Pay What You Can:
https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=C4KYYLTVHUSVQ
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the Size Acceptance and Eating Disorders workshop video)
The Truth About Weight And Health
The Truth About Weight and Health
There are a lot of beliefs, myths, and misconceptions that float around when it comes to the relationship between weight and health. In this workshop we’ll discuss them from science and social justice perspectives.
Topics will include:
- What the research says about weight and health
- Why do so many people, including doctors, say that weight loss will make you healthier? (And why are they wrong?)
- Common issues with the research around weight and health, and how to spot them
- How to discuss the research with skeptics
- Answers to the questions
- But what about fat people’s effect on my tax dollars?
- Can you be fat and healthy?
- Shouldn’t we treat fat people like we treat smokers?
- Does being fat cause health issues?
Purchase the video:
PayPal:
Click Here to pay the $20 full-price option for The Truth About Weight And Health Workshop Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for the The Truth About Weight And Health Workshop Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order The Truth About Weight And Health workshop
Talking Back To Fatphobia
In the Talking Back To Faphobia workshop, we discuss options for dealing with the fatphobia we face as we navigate the world – from responses that encourage dialog, to responses that encourage people to leave us TF alone.
Scenarios include:
- Family and friends
- Work
- Doctors and healthcare providers
- Random fatphobes we meet online and in-person
Click here to pay the $20 Registration to get the Talking Back to Fatphobia Workshop Video
Click Here For The Pay-What-You-Can Option to get the Talking Back to Fatphobia Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Talking Back to Fatphobia video.)
Dealing With Fatphobia At The Doctor’s Office
In the Dealing With Fatphobia At The Doctor’s Office workshop, we discuss tips, tricks, and techniques for getting competent, evidence-based, weight-neutral (and sometimes even fat-positive!) care from doctors and other healthcare practitioners, even in a fatphobic healthcare system
Topics include:
- Finding a fat-friendly healthcare practitioner
- Options for handling the weigh-in
- Asking for accommodations
- What to do when a healthcare professional “prescribes” weight loss
- Getting diagnostic tests (CT Scan, MRI etc.) when the machine isn’t built to accommodate fat bodies
- Dealing with surgery denials (including joint replacement surgeries)
- Strategies to discuss research about weight and health with your provider
- Strategies for when a fatphobic practitioner is the only option
Click here to pay the $20 Registration for the Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office Workshop Video
Click Here For The Pay-What-You-Can Option for the Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office Workshop Video
Pay with Venmo: @Ragen-Chastain (please make sure to include your e-mail address and that you want to purchase the Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office Video)
Pay with Venmo: @Ragen-Chastain (please make sure to include your e-mail address and the workshop you are registering for Fatphobia at the Doctor’s Office!)
Getting Jiggly With it – Movement In A Fat Body
Movement/fitness/exercise by any definition is never an obligation or barometer of worthiness. But for fat people who want to move our bodies within a fat positive, Health at Every Size framework – whether it’s because we enjoy it, or because of the benefit(s) we get from it (even if we don’t enjoy it,) whatever our reasons, a fatphobic culture can create barriers, misinformation, and other difficulties for us. In this workshop we’ll explore tips, tricks, and information to help us move our bodies for our own reasons, within a fat positive framework. (This workshop can also be helpful to fitness pros who want to create a fat-positive practice!)
Topics will include:
- Exploring the options for movement (including doing it on the cheap, and options for those with chronic pain, illness and/or disability)
- When you want to move, but can’t seem to find the motivation
- Busting myths about moving in a fat body
- Finding clothes and gear
- Finding a fat-affirming gym/studio/instructor/trainer/coach
- Dealing with fatphobia in the fitness world
- Strategies for embracing and/or managing sweat, chub rub, and jiggle
- Resources for finding support
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all the questions are answered!) so you are guaranteed to get the information you came for!
PURCHASE:
Pay with Paypal
Click here to pay the $20 Registration for Getting Jiggly With It – Movement In A Fat Body Video
Pay with Venmo: @Ragen-Chastain (please make sure to include your e-mail address and the workshop you are registering for Getting Jiggly With It)
Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays
In Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays we’ll talk about how with Halloween candy and costumes, family gatherings, work parties, New Years bashes, New Years Resolution, and a ton of diet ads… the holiday season can be a perfect storm of fatphobia. This year the pandemic adds another layer of stress. All that diet culture can really get you down. In this workshop we’ll talk about tips, tricks, and techniques to help us deal and have a happy holiday season on our own terms – whether we celebrate any holidays or not.
Remember – fatphobia (at the holidays or any other time) is never our fault, even when it becomes our problem.
Topics will include:
- Things we can do now to decrease fatphobic nonsense at the holidays
- Handling the “Family and Friends Food Police”
- Dealing with holiday diet talk at work, events etc. (in person or virtual)
- Fat-friendly events – creating events that are fat accommodating (in person or on Zoom!) and what to do when you’re attending one that isn’t
- What to do about all those frickin’ diet ads
- Dealing with passive aggressive holiday fat shaming (gift membership to a diet club, I’m looking at you…)
- Keeping diet culture out of our news years resolutions
PURCHASE:
Pay with Paypal
Click here to pay the $20 Registration for Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays Video
Click Here For The Pay-What-You-Can Option for the Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays Video
Pay with Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to purchase the video for Dealing With Fatphobia At The Holidays)
Using Activism As A Self-Care Practice
There’s a lot of work to be done in the world, in order to do that work we need to remain resilient and avoid burnout. Activism can create needed change, but it can also create overwhelm, especially when we’re fighting against our own oppression. In this workshop we’ll discuss philosophies and real world strategies to turn some of that work from draining and potentially harmful, into a self-care practice that supports us and helps protect us from the effects of oppression.
Topics include:
- Concepts/philosophies of self-care activism
- Techniques for low-risk activism
- Techniques for low-energy-consumption activism
- Strategies for dealing with trolls, sea lions, and other unpleasant creatures
- Strategies to use activism to increase resilience
- Combining activism and self-expression to create self-care
Pay with Paypal
Click here to pay the $20 registration for Making Activism a Self-Care Practice
Click here for the Pay What You Can Option for the Making Activism A Self-Care Practice Workshop
Pay with Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to register for the Activism As Self-Care workshop.)
When Good Friends Do Bad Diets
In the When Good Friends Do Bad Diets workshop, we talk about how the diet industry is doing everything it can to convince all of us to make another (ultimately doomed) weight loss attempt. Even when we aren’t fooled, often our nearest and dearest are still riding the diet roller coaster. And typically that means that they want to talk about it – anywhere and everywhere – in ways that can be anything from annoying to harmful. In this workshop we’ll talk about options for dealing with this in all the scenarios that we may find ourselves in.
Topics Include:
- Workplace diet talk
- Workplace weight loss challenges
- When you want to keep the friendship but need to lose the diet talk
- Dealing with diet talk within your family
- What if my partner decides to diet?
- Diet talk and before/after pictures on social media
- How to handle heroes and celebrities we’re fans of going on diets
- How/when to tell people the truth about diets
- How/when to talk about Health At Every Size
- Protecting ourselves when we can’t avoid diet talk
Plus an unlimited Q&A (I stay until all the questions are answered so you are guaranteed to get the information you came for!)
PURCHASE:
PayPal:
Click Here to pay the $20 registration for the When Good Friends Do Bad Diets Workshop Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for the When Good Friends Do Bad Diets Workshop Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the When Good Friends Do Bad Diets Workshop Video)
Overcoming Internalized Fatphobia
In the Overcoming Internalized Fatphobia workshop we’ll learn how to uncover the fatphobic beliefs that we’ve internalized from our fatphobic society, understand how they are affecting us, apply practical options for dealing with them and, finally, learn how to make sure we don’t internalize new fatphobia in the future. We’ll learn how to stop fighting our bodies on behalf of weight stigma, and start fighting weight stigma on behalf of our bodies.
PURCHASE:
Paypal
Click here to pay the $20 registration for the Overcoming Internalized Fatphobia Workshop Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for the Internalized Fatphobia Workshop Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the Overcoming Internalized Fatphobia Workshop Video)
Dealing with Fatphobia At Work
In the Dealing with Fatphobia at Work Workshop, we’ll talk about how fatphobia can create all kinds of challenges and difficulties in the workplace that fat people are left to navigate in order to simply make a living. These things aren’t our fault, but do become our problem so we’ll discuss options for navigating fatphobia at work.
Topics will include:
- Interview process
- Negotiating salary and raises
- Asking for accommodation – from chairs to uniforms and more
- Accommodation in work-related travel
- Accommodation in work-related events
- Fatphobic workplace “wellness” programs
- Dealing with fatphobic co-workers and office diet talk
- Options to make your workplace more fat-friendly for employees and customers
Plus there will be an unlimited Q&A so that you make sure to get with the information you came for!
Register
Note: You’ll receive an email with the login information within 24 hours of your purchase
Paypal
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for Video for the Dealing with Fatphobia at Work Workshop
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail and that you want to order the Dealing with Fatphobia at Work workshop
Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office with Shelby Gordon
In this workshop Shelby and Ragen will discuss the intersectionality of weight stigma in healthcare with other marginalizations including racism, healthism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and more, the research around weight and health, and tips, tricks, and strategies for getting competent, evidence-based, care from healthcare practitioners, even when they, and the system they are working in, are mired in weight stigma.
Plus an unlimited Q&A, so you make sure to leave with the information you came for.
A video of the talk will be provided for those who can’t make the event live
PURCHASE Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office
(Login details will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchase.)
PayPal:
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor’s Office workshop video)
Reproductive Care for Fat Patients With Nicola Salmon
In this workshop Nicola and Ragen will discuss all aspects of reproductive care for fat patients, including dealing with weight stigma at the ob/gyn, debunking myths about fat pregnancy, the basics of getting pregnant in a fat body, and information about IUI and IVF, and birth control including emergency contraception and abortion care. This talk will be both weight and gender inclusive.
Plus an unlimited Q&A, so you make sure to leave with the information you came for.
A video of the talk will be provided for those who can’t make the event live
PURCHASE Reproductive Care for Fat Patients
(Login details will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchase.)
PayPal:
Click Here to pay the $20 registration for the Reproductive Care for Fat Patients workshop Video
Click here for the pay-what-you-can option for the Reproductive Care for Fat Patients workshop Video
Venmo:
Send payment to @Ragen-Chastain (please include your e-mail address and that you want to order the Reproductive Care for Fat Patients workshop video)
Dances With Fat 