91. Body Trust, Weight-Inclusive Fitness, and Intersectionality with Ashantis Jones

In this episode of The Body GrieversⓇ Club, Bri interviews Ashantis Jones, a counselor and ASM-certified personal trainer, about healing body image and movement through an intersectional, weight-inclusive lens. Ashantis shares how her eating disorder recovery, later neurodivergence diagnoses (ADHD/autism traits and ARFID), and experience with fibromyalgia shaped her approach to care, emphasizing that diagnoses can be useful but aren’t always required to provide support. They discuss body positivity as a social justice movement, how privilege and systemic oppression—including racism, fatphobia, ableism, and capitalism—shape access to care and eating disorder treatment, and why decolonizing mental health matters. Ashantis explains that weight-inclusive fitness can look the same as weight-centric training, but focuses on functional goals, accommodations, rest, and building body trust rather than weight loss.

06:38 Recovery Origin Story

11:47 Eating Disorder Realizations 

13:19 ARFID ADHD Nuance 

15:58 Diagnoses And Shame 

19:34 Intersectionality Basics 24:10 Decolonizing Mental Health 

31:02 Defensiveness And Learning 

32:26 Learning Beyond Your Bubble 

33:12 Pandemic Backlash and Diet Culture 

40:12 Movement as Body Trust 

42:45 Chronic Illness and Ableism Realities 

56:13 Read Books Not Hot Takes

WANT MORE OF ASHANTIS?

https://www.ashantisjones.com/ 

https://www.patreon.com/bodykindnutrition/about 

WANT MORE OF BRI?

*Instagram: @bodyimagewithbri


*Website: https://bodyimagewithbri.com/

*Bri’s Free Resource: 7-Step Guide to Shift Body Grief to Radical Body Acceptance