One of the original ideals of feminism was that we were supposed to stop evaluating women on the basis of their physical appearance. Instead, society has continually upped the ante. This can lead to eating disorders.
Perfectionism can be strongly related to eating disorders because the drive to be (or appear) perfect can trigger disordered eating patterns at various points along the spectrum. This could mean anything from occasional emotional/stress/comfort eating to orthorexia to full-fledged eating disorders.
I don't have kids, but I feel super strongly that parents, doctors, teachers and other adults should not comment on children's weight. Here are the many reasons why.
There are a billion reasons to exercise. When weight and appearance is your prime exercise motivation, what happens might not be what you wished for.
There’s a lot of interest in Intuitive Eating, and while learning to become an intuitive eater again can be hard work, it’s unnecessarily hard, not to mention frustrating, when would-be intuitive eaters fall into one of these three common traps.
I'm thrilled to appear in the current episode of the Food Psych podcast, hosted by fellow Intuitive Eating and anti-diet dietitian Christy Harrison. In this interview, I talk about the origins of my own food and body issues that began in early childhood, my history of chronic dieting, and my movement to a Health At Every Size philosophy.
If not dieting, then what? That question tends to loom heavy in your mind when you've decided it's time to get off the diet rollercoaster, but aren't sure what life after dieting would look like. And there are many reasons for saying goodbye to dieting, a.k.a. the intentional pursuit of weight loss.
Self-esteem isn’t new, but a “self-esteem movement” of sorts started back in the 1970s, predicated on the idea that many of society's problems were due to individuals’ low self-esteem. Well, this was a failed experiment, and there are a few reasons why.
I'm heading to sunny San Diego to attend the Be Body Positive facilitator training. But what does it mean to be "Body Positive" and is that realistic for everyone?
I have a mantra when I exercise: “Exercise to be strong, not smaller.” It’s what gets me through on those days when body image is not exactly in peak form, as I dare say is the case for everyone, at least from time to time. It’s also a way of continuing to deprogram myself from decades of believing that the primary benefit of exercise was weight loss.
I attended the Association for Size Diversity and Health conference a few weekends ago. I've been processing ever since. My thinking about sizeism and how it intersects with racism, sexism, classism and a whole lot of other -isms certainly evolved in this weekend, in part because of the words of Linda Bacon.
I'm in Portland this weekend at the Association for Size Diversity and Health conference, which I'm totally excited about, and not just because the speakers include Linda Bacon, author of Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, and Christy Harrison, host of the "Food Psych" podcast.
Are you pregnant or the mother of a young child? Consider participating in some research my dietitian friend Rebecca Scritchfield, author of Body Kindness, is doing regarding body image healing after pregnancy. If those parameters don't apply to you? I recommend reading her book, anyway!
To state the obvious, I have not been blogging regularly, and that's largely because I
Addressing some comments about my latest On Nutrition column in The Seattle Times, which took aim at Weight Watchers' targeting of teens but also carried the broader (and somewhat overlooked) message that wellness should be promoted for everyone, at every weight.
Weight Watchers announced last week that it would offer free memberships to teens ages 13 to 17. Yeah...I have a few thoughts on that.
So, I was minding my beeswax the other night when an angry email from a researcher popped into my inbox. He did not appreciate the vague reference (I did not mention the title, the publication, or the researchers names) to one of his studies in my Seattle Times column that had JUST been posted to the Times website that day. Dude must be part bloodhound.
I recently had a rather heated discussion with someone near and dear to me about the alleged association between higher body weights (body mass indexes, or BMIs, in the "overweight" or "obese" ranges) and health problems. Let's just say that if our walking route had taken us a little closer to Lake Washington, I might have tossed him in.
I want to talk about something that I've been thinking about—a lot—and that's been bothering me...a lot. Namely, the idea that you (or anyone else) needs to change your body to meet someone else's ideals.
Do you sometimes feel that you are pulled between two choices: one that satisfies an immediate impulse and one that you know in your heart of hearts will bring you greater benefits, even if you don't feel the effects immediately? When you feel that internal tug-of-war, ask yourself "What would be the kindest choice?"
I don't remember exactly when I first heard of hygge (HOO-geh)...sometime last year I think. My first thought was that this was the next trend to replace the "life-changing magic of tidying up." My second thought was that I was intrigued.
One of the things I love about spending time on a beach in Hawaii is the bodies on display. All kinds of bodies. It's a really good reality check about your own body...namely, the fact that, yes, you have one and it's carried you this far in life. I kind of got that Hawaii feeling when I watched Embrace. We all have bodies, and those bodies are not one-size-fits-all.
Humans come in all shapes and sizes, and I dream of a day when we collectively become more accepting body diversity. If we don't expect everyone to have brown eyes or a wear a size-7 shoe, why would we expect everyone to have the same body size?
I confess that I subscribed to Julie Duffy Dillon's "Love, Food" podcast months before I started listening to it. But once I started listening, I couldn't stop, and I recommend it to anyone who feels like their relationship with food could use a little (or a lot of) healing. Here's a Q&A with Julie herself.
If you have any food fears about what is arguably the most food-focused holiday of the year, I'll tell you four things I've been telling many of my patients the past few weeks. Plus, some bonus links to help you enjoy the holiday on your terms.
It’s a refrain I hear a little too often: “I just need someone to tell me what to eat.” In today’s age of rampant nutrition confusion, I sort of get it—but on another level I don’t get it, not at all. I'm not your boss, I'm not your mother, and I'm definitely not the food police. As adults, we need to be able to make decisions about the things that are important to our health and happiness.
Last week, I was sitting with a group of my Menu for Change patients at an event, and one of my long-time patients said that whenever she tells someone about Menu for Change, they ask her, "So, what's the diet like?" She looked at me, and we laughed, and I said, "I would rather die than put someone on a diet." And that's the truth. Because diets don't work.
I lead an every-other-month book club at Menu for Change, and our most recent book pick was Russ Harris' The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living. I originally bought the book based on recommendations from colleagues who work with patients who struggle with emotional eating, anxiety, eating disorders, and so on. Their recommendations were spot-on.
My husband doesn’t always like to take our golden retriever running with him, because even
In Part 1, I talked about the analysis in the medical journal The Lancet about
On Tuesday I talked a bit about the analysis in the medical journal The Lancet
Last month, the medical journal The Lancet published its second series on obesity. It's first
This is my third post about last weekend's Renfrew Conference for eating disorder professionals. If
Happy Monday! I'm home from the Renfrew Conference, which was just as amazing as it
Yesterday, I “attended” a Center for Mindful Eating teleseminar on “Using Mindfulness to Calm Anxiety,”
Last week was Weight Stigma Awareness Week, and I had intended to post about it
This week is the second annual Eating Psychology Online Conference, and I absorbed as much
One concern about our culture’s preoccupation with weight in general, and some of the anti-fat messages that are coming out of the “war on obesity” specifically, is that they may trigger the development of eating disorders in children, adolescents, teens and adults who are predisposed to them.
Have you ever done a “body project”? To some extent, any diet is a body project, but I did an “official” body project four summers ago, dedicating four months of my life to an online fat loss competition. Like, one of those competitions where you post before-and-after photos of yourself wearing not a lot of clothing, with the chance of winning a trip to Hawaii dangled in front of you as a carrot.
In yesterday’s post, I presented observations from Lucy Aphramor, PhD, RD, about how society-wide weight stigma and social disparities contribute to obesity. Social determinants of health, which include income and education level, among other things, are a major focus of public health. Linda Bacon, her co-author on the upcoming book Body Respect, said she has observed a failure to turn words into actions in the spheres of health education and public health.
Talk to Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor for an hour in a coffee shop, as I did for The Seattle Times, and you walk away quite clear that the root causes of obesity go much deeper than individual choice and responsibility. Weight stigma and social disparities are profound contributors to the so-called obesity epidemic.
With this post, I've finally fully shared the great info I gathered when working on
It’s no secret that in today’s society, many people feel quite free to offer their
Today I had the good fortune to listen to a most excellent teleseminar sponsored by
I have a post I'm hoping to get written for (later) today, but just in
Think you can "spot" someone with an eating disorder just by looking at them? Think
It's National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, so for the rest of this week I plan
Whenever I bring up the concept of "health at every size" with someone who has
I'll admit that I am moved when advertising uses its forces (read: ability to manipulate)
While there are some legit reasons for doing a strict detox diet (which I'll get
I was at the library the other day, and there was a copy of Love
Do you like to make New Year's resolutions? I do, too, even though I know
I recently had the opportunity to review the new book Wellness, Not Weight: Health at
I almost titled this post, "Oh, here we go again." That's exactly how I felt
As I've mentioned, last weekend I attended the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders annual
Diets may not lead to eating disorders in most people (because most people, fortunately, are
One reason that diets don't work is that they promote all-or-nothing thinking. If you're "on
So what do you do if you suspect you might be struggling with orthorexia? Maybe
For my column on orthorexia in Sunday's Seattle Times, I spoke with Colorado CrossFit trainer
I mentioned yesterday that I attended an education session on diabulimia last week. If you
If you hear the term "obesity epidemic" enough times (which most of us have) you
