Health Isn’t About Working Harder
Improving Health is About Naming What’s Really Holding Us Back
Being the one who’s not nodding your head in agreement can feel awkward. When you hear common misconceptions about health, like “organic food is healthier,” or that “exercise cancels out a ‘bad’ diet,” you cringe inside knowing there is so much nuance missing.
So you bite your tongue to avoid offending your bestie whose on their latest “health” kick. Or, you shy away from saying what you really think at work (especially if you’re in the health field), because you’re not trying to get fired.
While your silence might be keeping you safe, it is also keeping you from having meaningful dialogue about health inequities. Dialogue that would be beneficial during times like National Nutrition Month, where themes like “Discovering the Power of Nutrition” often ignore the lived realities of Black women and historically marginalized communities.
These realities leave us to wonder:
How can we talk about eating everything organic when we have friends and neighbors who have been out of work for over a year? Despite them applying for hundreds of jobs, they’re either told they’re overqualified for the role or they’re simply ghosted by recruiters.
How can we tell someone to just “exercise more” to make up for their “bad diet” when we know they’ve spent years trying to heal from food restriction and overexercise? There is nothing more frustrating than being told to go back to doing the very thing that once harmed your relationship with food and your body.
These realities are often tied to the narrative that people are unhealthy because they aren’t “disciplined” enough. If they just tried harder to eat “better,” they’d be healthy. Or, if they found the “perfect” workout routine, they’d be fit.
Blaming the individual for health inequities ignores the fact that “personal responsibility” cannot account for the myriad of factors that contribute to our health outcomes.
The thing that is often left unsaid, that we should name out loud, is that every time we allow these narratives to go unchallenged, they grow stronger.
Being silent about what’s really at the core of health inequities allows those with the “loud and wrong” take to oversimplify the message. As a result, “discipline” and “personal responsibility” shape how health is defined, taught, and funded.
That silence doesn’t just keep us misinformed, but it keeps entire communities underserved. Hence why we’re continuing to see Black women and other marginalized groups being blamed for the consequences of a system it refuses to fix.
Thus, health inequities aren’t a matter of personal responsibility, but the result of systemic inequities that have yet to be addressed.
This is why I built a community where we can have these deeper, richer, and real conversations called The Roundable. The Roundtable is the community I wish had existed when I was first learning that addressing health inequities isn’t about my clients taking personal responsibility. It’s about systemic change.
Inside The Roundtable, we do what most conversations about “wellness” won’t: we don’t focus on theory. Instead, we focus on taking action through unpacking the historical roots of health inequities, challenging mainstream health narratives, and exploring what equity looks like in real life.
In other words, it’s not about debating who’s right about nutrition or fitness. Rather, we are building the language, confidence, and community you need to talk about health differently. We don’t need to do this work on our own when we have a community that can offer a different perspective we might not have considered before.
Chantal offered that for me during our February Roundtable discussion when she brought up the importance of feeling “comfortable,” not just safe, in our neighborhoods and the environments where we work.
That really struck me. It brought back my own memories of feeling “safe,” but not always comfortable, in the spaces where I have lived and worked. For many of us who spend the majority of our time between home and work, that matters.
For instance, there was a time when I (as a young coach) would recommend that my clients get outside and get in daily movement. While that advice might work for some, it failed to acknowledge that not everyone can comfortably do that.
What happens when going outside means that we’re interacting with “neighbors” who question whether we actually live there? Or, while walking during our afternoon lunch break, we notice other pedestrians cross the street when they see us coming? Or, when broken pavement and narrow sidewalks make it difficult for us to navigate in a wheelchair?
Those experiences might not happen to you daily, but when they do, they can leave you feeling “othered” in the places where you should feel comfortable. Creating space to have conversations like that is why I created The Roundtable.
Because it gives community members the opportunity to bring to the table experiences that affect our health and well-being, which we might not feel comfortable sharing outside the community.
When you’re in community with others who truly “get you,” it becomes so much easier to take off the masks and be unapologetically honest. The reason is that we know that when we are at The Roundtable, what is said there will stay there, but what is learned there will leave there.
The next live Roundtable happens this Saturday at noon EDT. It will be a deep-dive discussion on what happens when “eating well” doesn’t account for social determinants of health, such as economic stability.
It’s one hour. It’s focused on a recent case study on nutrition and food insecurity among Black households in Georgia.
And, it’s one conversation you don’t want to miss live.
Upgrade today → https://www.ebwhcommunity.com/subscribe
Join us live to be part of the conversation. Or catch the replay anytime inside The Roundtable.
See you Saturday,
Tomesha