Debra Benfield, CEDRD, RYT

12/29/2025

12/23/2025

The holidays can be loud and a time of noisy body shame.

I created a gentle invitation to take five minutes and offer your body one more drop of kindness.

No fixing.
No trying to get it right.
Just a soft pause to ground, connect, and let your nervous system and body criticism settle.

I’ve shared this practice over on my Substack, and made it free for everyone.

And if this hits the spot, my book Unapologetic Aging: How to Mend and Nourish Your Relationship with Your Body, holds many practices like this offered simply as companions, wherever you might need them.

Link to my Substack and my book are in my bio.

Joy, Peace and much Love,
Deb

12/22/2025

Wow, what a week it has been.

Seeing Unapologetic Aging in your hands, reading your reviews, and watching this book move out into the world felt deeply moving and a little surreal.

This book exists because of community.

Thank you for showing up, sharing, and helping challenge ageism and diet culture in ways both big and small.

If you’re local, I would love to see you. Book talks are coming soon-

📍Winston-Salem, NC on January 7th at 6:30

📍Raleigh, NC on January 9th at 6:00

📍Asheville, NC date and time TBD

And if you’ve started or read the book, reviews on
Amazon
storygraph
make a real difference.

Looking ahead to 2026, I’d love to keep gathering around this work.

If you’re interested in hosting a book event, or inviting me to join your book club virtually, drop a comment or send a DM.

More details in my post on . Links in my bio

Joy, Peace and so much gratitude,
Deb

12/22/2025

May your light shine ever brighter.

12/17/2025

What if body liberation is the legacy we leave?

Not a smaller body.
Not a body that passes for younger.
Not a life spent managing, fixing, or apologizing for our imperfect, and very human, body.

The final chapter of my book Unapologetic Aging is an invitation to imagine something different:
A legacy where our children, grandchildren, clients, and communities inherit less body shame, less fear, and more permission to live fully and with pleasure in their bodies as they age.

Every time we question diet culture.
Every time we soften toward our changing bodies.
Every time we choose satisfying nourishment,
rest, and respecting our bodies over punishing-
We interrupt a lineage of body control and containment.

That matters and has an impact more than you realize.

If this message resonates, I hope you’ll read the book, share it with those in your lineage and community, and help these ideas ripple out and take root.

Link to order is in my bio.

As always, thank you for being here.
Love,
Deb💕

12/17/2025

In "Unapologetic Aging," registered dietitian nutritionist Deb Benfield explores how diet and wellness culture is deeply entangled with anti-aging culture.

12/16/2025

Pub Day feels especially tender and especially urgent.

I wrote Unapologetic Aging for you, the one who’s spent years trying to be “good”.

Good with food.
Good with movement.
Now good with “managing”menopause and aging too.

I wrote it for you if you’re tired of managing yourself, tired of being told your body is your project, tired of feeling like your must earn being seen and worthy by following the body ideal rules.

This book was shaped by my four decades sitting with clients and listening to the quiet grief, the body shame they inherited, the exhaustion and disempowerment of diet/wellness culture and now anti-aging rules, and the deep longing to feel at home in one’s own body.

I didn’t write it to tell you what to do.
I wrote it to walk alongside you as you break free.

To offer language when yours has been taken.
To offer practices when thinking harder hasn’t helped.
To offer permission to relate to your body with more compassion, curiosity, and respect right now, not “after”.

Yes, this moment is challenging. Diet culture is back even louder and the skinny apocalypse is upon us. The anti-aging dogma is everywhere.

And still, there is a crack.

More people are also questioning the rules.
More people are opting out.
More people are choosing connection over control.

This book is me putting my foot into the crack and inviting you to join me.

Unapologetic Aging is out today.

Order it here-https://www.debrabenfield.com/book

share it with someone who needs it, and if it supports you, please leave a review-it truly helps this work reach the people it was written for.

As always, thank you for being here.

Love,
Deb💕

12/15/2025

If you’re tired of the talk about the “skinny apocalypse” and fear mongering about menopause and aging, I’ve curated a list of companion books for Unapologetic Aging.

These books offer research, personal narratives, unlearning old and harmful frameworks, and compassionate practices to help you mend your relationship with food, movement, rest and your changing body.

Check out and follow the work of these authors:

.nutritionist


.nutritionist
Julie Dillon

And it’s not too late to preorder my book-link is in my bio!

✨ save this post to keep these resources handy

✨ share with a friend who might need it

✨ please tell me in the comments which book has shaped your journey, or which one you’re adding to the list so we can keep building this list.

Here’s to aging unapologetically and nourishing ourselves with more freedom than ever before.

I’m so glad you’re here.

Love,
Deb💕

12/12/2025

Today was a pinch me moment.

I spent the afternoon signing pre-ordered copies of Unapologetic Aging at , and I can’t tell you how surreal and heart-expanding it felt.

Knowing these books are going into your hands and homes, reminded me why I dedicated these last two years to writing this in the first place:

To support you in pushing back on the anti-aging and diet culture rhetoric pressuring us in midlife and beyond
And
To mend and nourish your relationship with your changing body- on your own terms.

If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, there’s still time-and every single one makes a difference for a first-time author.

Link is in my bio.

Here’s to a more liberated and unapologetic chapter for all of us!

12/11/2025

Body image and intimacy are deeply intertwined, and can be more complicated in midlife and beyond.

After 40 years of working with clients, I’ve witnessed how body image struggles don’t just live in our heads.

They shape how safe we feel in our bodies.
How present we can be.
And how accessible intimacy feels, solo or partnered.

In this week’s newsletter, I’m sharing an excerpt from Chapter 9 of Unapologetic Aging: Intimacy, Body Image, and Embodiment in Midlife and Beyond.

THIS ISN’T ABOUT FIXING YOUR BODY TO “FEEL SEXY AGAIN”-
it’s about shifting your gaze from managing and judging your body to presence and connection with your body.

Link in bio as usual.

I’m so glad you’re here.
Love,
Deb💕