Alexis Conason, Psy.D.

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Alexis Conason, Psy.D.

Clinical psychologist, researcher, and founder of The Anti-Diet Plan. Radically changing the way we think about food, health, and our bodies. Post.

Alexis Conason, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in the Midtown East neighborhood of New York City. Her practice specializes in the treatment of overeating disorders, body image, sexual functioning, and psychological issues related to weight loss surgery. She is a Research Associate at The New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center (NYONRC) at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in

affiliation with Columbia University. She earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Long Island University, C.W. Following completion of her doctorate, Dr. Conason completed post-doctoral training at The Karen Horney Clinic and the NYONRC. She also earned a certificate in Eating Disorders, Compulsions, and Addictions from the William Alanson White Institute and a certificate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Conason’s research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and she has presented at numerous scientific conferences. She is on the editorial board of Frontiers in Eating Behavior and has served as a peer reviewer for numerous scientific journals, including Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases and Obesity Surgery. She serves on the Board of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals-NY Chapter as their Research Chair and serves as the Advocacy and Outreach subcommittee chair of the Bariatric Surgery Section of The Obesity Society. She is an adjunct clinical supervisor at the Ferkauf School of Graduate Psychology. She is the author of the “Eating Mindfully” blog hosted by Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eating-mindfully. She has been featured in the popular press including The Wall Street Journal/ Market Watch, Men's Health, Ladies' Home Journal, USA Today, The Huffington Post, Weight Watchers, Reuters, ABC News, Prevention, WebMD, EveryDay Health, US News & World Report Health Day, and Fox News.For more information, please visit www.drconason.com

07/28/2026

Dieting is one of the biggest risk factors for developing an eating disorder.
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Not everyone who diets will develop an eating disorder. But many people who do can trace it back to a history of dieting in some form.
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Dieting is often presented as a harmless way to “improve health.” But what follows can be anything but healthy: food rules, body dissatisfaction, obsessive thoughts about eating, and a growing mistrust of your body.
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In a culture that celebrates restriction and self-denial, it can be hard to recognize when it’s time to get help.
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If your diet has become rigid or all-consuming… if you avoid dinners out because they don’t fit your plan… if you spend a lot of time thinking about food… if you feel like you have to earn your food or make up for eating… if you feel out of control around food… or if eating is causing you significant distress, those are all signs it’s worth reaching out for support.
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What often begins as an attempt to change your body can slowly shrink your life.
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Food, body size, and shame take up more and more space.
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Joy, connection, and freedom take up less and less.
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💬 What do you wish more people understood about the connection between dieting and eating disorders?
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❤️ If this feels familiar, you don’t have to figure it out alone. DM or visit www.conasonpsychologicalservices.com to schedule a free 15-minute consultation call to see if Conason Psychological Services can help.

07/21/2026

Sometimes the diet culture parodies just write themselves.

It cracks me up that someone looked at a python—a creature that can go weeks between meals, swallows its prey whole, spends days digesting it, and poops a week or two later—and said, how can we make humans more like that? 😂

The lengths we will go to in order to avoid listening to hunger never cease to amaze me.

Hunger isn’t a character flaw. It’s not a lack of willpower. It’s not evidence that you’re doing something wrong.

It’s a biological signal that quite literally keeps us alive.

In a world that profits from teaching us to distrust our bodies, sometimes the most radical thing we can do is listen to them.

Am I the only one who finds this absolutely wild?

07/17/2026

While some things might get easier in a world that treats smaller bodies better, many of the things we’re actually searching for were never about weight in the first place.
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We are taught that weight loss will fix everything.
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That it will quiet the noise.
That it will finally make food feel easy.
That we’ll get relief from body hatred.
That we’ll be healthier.
That we’ll get some peace.
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We find ourselves chasing an ever-moving goalpost because weight loss was never going to deliver everything it promised.
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You deserve so much more than a smaller body.
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🌱 If you are struggling, you are not alone. DM to schedule a free consultation call to see if one of our therapists at Conason Psychological Services can help you.

07/15/2026

“Almond moms” have become the subject of countless memes and comedy reels.
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And it makes sense. So many of us can relate to growing up in households where our moms ate 10 almonds for a snack, “junk food” was nowhere to be found, fat-free ice cream was a special treat, and we rarely saw our moms actually eat.
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But those memes can also hide something much more serious.
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For many people, “almond mom” is the softer language we use for growing up with a parent who had an eating disorder or a home that was disordered around food.
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It was an environment where we learned that bodies are only worthy if they’re thin. That women should strive for thinness at all costs. That being desirable meant being skinny and being desirable was of utmost importance.
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The phrase “almond mom” can make it feel funny, relatable, even nostalgic.
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But it can also mask the reality of what it was like to grow up in the shadow of an eating disorder.
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Naming that isn’t about blaming our parents. Many of them were struggling too.
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It’s about understanding what shaped us so we can heal—and so we don’t pass those messages on to the next generation.
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I’m curious what you think. Does “almond mom” fit your experience, or does “growing up in an eating disordered home” better capture what it actually felt like?

07/10/2026

What has diet culture cost you?
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This receipt is only the beginning. I know I missed a few charges.
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What would you add? 👇🏻

07/07/2026

One of my least favorite phrases used in eating disorder work is “let’s put weight loss on the back burner.”

As you shared in the comments on Part 1, this means different things to different people. But many clients hear it as:

“I’ll be able to focus on losing weight again after I treat my eating disorder.”

And many professionals believe this too, especially for clients in larger bodies.

After all, it’s what many of us were taught.

Despite the recognition that restriction is a driving force in the binge eating cycle, some eating disorder treatment models (ahem, CBT-E 👀) have historically framed weight loss as something that should be “put on the back burner” during treatment for clients in larger bodies, and they can focus on losing weight again after treatment.

And that is a problem.

If you are telling fat clients that weight loss is a worthy endeavor and recommending they engage in a behavior known to increase the risk of relapse after treatment, but you are not recommending the same to your thin clients, that is fatphobia.

If you are working to improve body image, unpacking the desire to lose weight, and focusing on body acceptance with your thin clients, but telling your fat clients to “put weight loss on the back burner” until they finish treatment and then they’ll be able to focus on losing weight again, that is fatphobia.

Because, to paraphrase Deb Burgard:

If you are prescribing to fat people what you treat in thin people, that is fatphobia.

I loved hearing everyone’s thoughts in the comments on Part 1. Let’s keep the conversation going 👇🏻

05/19/2026

Diet fads come and go so fast it can make your head spin. Macros. High protein everything. Biohacking. Powders and supplements.
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As an eating disorder psychologist, I could not care less about any of that.
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What I do care about is your relationship with food and redefining what health means, not in terms of macros or calorie deficits, but in terms of emotional and physical wellbeing.
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I care about whether food rules are running your life.
Whether your body thoughts are stealing your time and energy.
Whether you feel anxious, ashamed, or trapped around eating.
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Because you deserve a life that feels bigger than tracking, optimizing, shrinking, and constantly trying to fix yourself.
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🌱 If you are looking for support healing your relationship with food, DM or visit conasonpsychologicalservices.com to schedule a free consultation to see if one of our therapists can help you

05/13/2026

What if the problem was never your body?
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So many of us have been conditioned to override hunger, ignore fullness, and mistrust our bodies in the name of “control.”
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But your body isn’t the enemy—it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do.
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Fighting against our biology is usually a losing battle.
But when we approach our bodies with curiosity and acceptance, things start to shift.
It’s not always easy, but healing is so worth it.
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💬 What would it look like to approach your body with curiosity instead of criticism today?
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If you’re feeling stuck in the cycle of fighting your body, you don’t have to figure it out alone. At we offer weight-inclusive therapy to help you build a more peaceful relationship with food and your body.
✨ Link in bio to learn more or book a free consultation.

05/06/2026

Today is , but every day is a no diet day around here. We don’t need just one day off from diet culture. We deserve a life free from it.
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Dieting promises control, confidence, happiness, and all the things we’re told will finally make us feel like enough. But more often than not, it keeps us stuck in cycles of restriction, shame, and self-doubt.
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The problem isn’t your body. It’s a culture that teaches us we have to be thin to be desired, valued, healthy, and respected.
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That belief keeps us stuck hating our bodies, trying to shrink ourselves, and becoming smaller in ways we don’t always realize—insecure, quiet, and hesitant to take up space.
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We deserve so much more than that. And the world needs our voices.
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If you’re ready to step off the diet cycle, this is exactly what I share in my book, The Diet-Free Revolution. It’s a compassionate, research-backed path to healing your relationship with food and your body. Available now wherever books are sold or at drconason.com
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You don’t need another diet. You need a radically different way forward.

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http://www.drconason.com/, http://www.theantidietplan.com/

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