Tag Archives: Body Image

Is Denial Your Friend and Food Your Enemy?

Article by Michelle Drake, mental health therapist Do you ever wonder if you have ever really felt your emotions for the duration they needed to truly be felt? Do you find yourself stuffing bad feelings down so you can keep a smile on your face and pretend to move on just fine through life? If […]

Recovery Is Possible

Lately, I have had a few clients ask me what recovery from disordered eating is. Interestingly, I don’t often hear this question yet it seems that those who struggle with food and body image challenges would want to know. So I started thinking about it, wondering why more people don’t ask. In my curiosity, I […]

Your Mission Should You Choose to Accept It

I lead a group for women who struggle with food and body image issues. We meet once a week for an hour and a half. The group members skillfully support each other in learning how their struggles are not about food but about other underlying issues and feelings. I love being a part of this […]

You Didn’t Fail the Diet, the Diet Failed You

The New Year has passed, your resolution to lose weight has run its course once again. You did your best to diet, perhaps you lost some weight, but you couldn’t keep it up. Eventually, you ate those forbidden foods and couldn’t stop. Once again, you ate everything you shouldn’t have and you are starting to […]

The Number on the Scale is Just a Number

The number on the scale is not who you are! Maybe that should be obvious, but is it? Our culture is so messed up about weight. We are told that unless you are in the “normal” range on the BMI scale, you are unhealthy. We are judged by our weight, there is no doubt about […]

Mind versus Body

Healing from a disordered relationship with food comes in two parts, the behavioral and the emotional. Working on your behaviors around food is important for learning to have a healthy relationship with food. Your behaviors are also the way your emotions manifest themselves. In other words, you are obsessing about food and your to avoid […]

Understand Yourself and Your Eating Disorder

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a social psychology theory developed by Eric Berne, MD. I was taught this theory when I attended a counseling skills class before beginning graduate school. I found TA to be a very helpful tool in understanding myself, others and underlying emotions. When I teach it to clients, they also share a […]

How to Make Your Eating Disorder Obsolete

Feel Your Feelings In June’s Newsletter “Throwing Up Your Feelings” I talked about various ways of coping with binging using purging behaviors. (click on the newsletter title to read more). Being caught in this binge purge cycle to any degree will not help you have a good relationship with food. When you purge, the binge […]

Throwing Up Your Feelings

You just ate too much. You can feel it in your belly. It feels large, extra large, and is starting to hurt. You yell at yourself for eating too much. “I can’t believe I did that again”; “You are a fat pig, pathetic, gross.” You begin to panic and think up a way to get […]

Your Eating Disorder Wants to Tell You Something

Your Eating Disorder Voice is communicating something. Your Healthy Voice is communicating something. Often, these “Voices” are competing with each other, but what are they really trying to say? I often talk to clients about the “Eating Disorder Voice” and the “Healthy Voice.” Part of the treatment for an eating disorder is to make the […]

Shame is the enemy

Happy New Year! This time a year is usually a time to create a New Year’s Resolution. I think this is a great way to focus your energy and attention on areas in your life you want to change. However, in my line of work, doing so often leads to feeling more like a failure. […]

Emily’s Story

This month’s Food Is Not The Enemy Newsletter has a special treat enclosed. Emily’s story. Emily is in the process of understanding her eating disorder. She has recognized that it isn’t about food, and is currently wrestling with the underlying issues. In her story, she talks about her struggles with her body image and learning […]

Shame is the Enemy, Part 2

Today you are reading Part 2 of Shame is the Enemy. Last month, I talked about shame and eating disorders.(If you missed it and want to correct that, or to just read it again, click here). This month, I continue the discussion. Because, shame really is the enemy… not food. Although some shame (aka: guilt) […]

A New Year: Time for a New Resolution

Happy New Year! Ah, the time of year for a New Year’s resolution. “This year, I really will lose weight and get fit! I promise, I swear! This year is the year – for real this time.” How many times have you said that before? The New Year seems to give us a sense of […]

Have a Different Kind of New Year

Last year, right around this time, my friend Tina suggested we spend the year focusing on learning about a topic to which we were unfamiliar or just wanted to explore more. We each chose our topic and decided that the full year would be dedicated to learning about this topic any way we chose. My […]

Surviving Thanksgiving

I have always affectionately named Thanksgiving as National Overeater’s Day. I consider this affectionate because it seems to be a day that overeating is accepted and even expected. Finally, overeaters get a day all for themselves, without the judgments of being “out of control” or “bad” for eating too much. Overeating is not bad. Everyone […]

“Fat!” Say it Loud, Say it Proud

My intern Tina and I were recently discussing the word FAT. She couldn’t imagine herself saying the word, believing it to be filled with shame, stereotypes and disgust. For me, it is merely a description, such as tall, brown hair, or big feet. (It wasn’t always this way for me and Tina is now changing […]

The Eating Disorder Whack-a-Mole Game

Let’s face it – sometimes when you’re dealing with an eating disorder, dealing with the behaviors is a lot like trying to smack those moles that pop up in carnival games. *BAM!* Got that one… but there’s another one over there and you can’t quite get him in time. And, while you’re mad at yourself […]

Fat Clothes

I was listening to the radio one day and caught the beginning of a commercial talking about again having to wear his “fat clothes.” He then said glumly “does this sound familiar?” I imagined that it did sound familiar to many people listening and that “fat clothes” is a term many use. Well, my first […]

Are You a Control Freak

Many people who suffer with disordered eating also suffer with a fear of being out of control. The two go hand in hand. Dieting and attempting to control your body’s size and shape are all ways to pretend to be in control of something. However, what is so often forgotten is that these attempts are […]

When comments about your body trigger you

Living in a weight obsessed society is no picnic. You don’t need to have an eating disorder to feel the effects of it. It is very difficult to escape talk about dieting and weight, even if you don’t participate. It is familiar and common to talk about “my big butt” or to hear others chat […]

Body Image and Mirrors

Mirror, Mirror When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Where do you focus your attention? If you are like most people who feel dissatisfied with their body, you look straight to the places you hate the most. You probably look only at these places and do so with a critical eye. What […]

How to change to non-diet thinking… for your health

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi Many who come in to work with me are interested in losing weight. It is no surprise. After all, our society tends to judge us based on the size of our body. Size discrimination is rampant and perceived as acceptable. If you […]

Health at Every Size is Possible

In this newsletter edition, I will attempt to challenge your view of fat as being equal to unhealthy. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that all the information I had been fed about weight research was only one side of the coin. I didn’t even recognize that the coin fell on the side of […]

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