Right now we are being asked to change and it isn’t our choice. Your feelings will come in waves or come and stay, but ultimately, you need to figure out how you’ll adjust and adapt to this forced change.   You’re being challenged to step out of your comfort zone.

If some of your intentions have something to do with your eating patterns and relationship with food, I wanted to lay out a few possible categories to help you identify where you think you might land.

When you approach your life in extremes, it either all works out, or it’s a horrible failure.  But even if it all works out, it’s fleeting and temporary.  You still fall back into the pattern of aiming for the “all” and fearing the “nothing.”  This is an exhausting

Whether it be the voices of diet culture feeling a lot more vicious and louder to you, or your own inner vicious and critical voices swirling around, or your family giving you caring concern about your “health,” or feeling fed up, scared, and uncomfortable in your body, these doubts and fears can be normal stumbling blocks along the way. I decided to compile a blend of the most common themes my clients have struggled with

If your eating feels out of control to you, it could be a sign that there is something you are avoiding feeling, experiencing or doing. Getting to know the true hungers at the root of emotional eating and disordered eating can give you a new way to heal.

All the efforts you make to change or “perfect” yourself only deepen your feelings of shame.  You are constantly in a state of “I’m not ok, unless....

You may have been battling binge eating, chronic dieting, and body image issues for years!  Each new hope and intention to make this effort THE ONE that will work often gets met with a feeling of another failed attempt. Here’s the good news!  You CAN find freedom from the hopeless cycle of binge eating and body shame, and actually have a healthy relationship with food and your body!  

You may wonder how Shame shows up in your own life, or you may already have a good sense of that.  Usually shame is so deeply rooted that only what is noticed on the surface is your first clue. (The first 2 parts of the series will help you understand how it developed in the first place)

Since shame usually develops slowly over time, from early experiences with caretakers and family dynamics, Shame develops as a sense of self.  

Shame is a tricky emotion.  I call it insidious because it really creeps in slowly and subtly, almost stealth.  It doesn’t rise up quickly like rage, panic, or excitement.  It holds on tight just beneath the surface and colors one’s perception of themselves in their world and in their relationships. 

What struck me was the attraction of the warm and creamy texture of this delectable food.  It made me think about how often mac and cheese serves the function of a comfort food.  The kind that will be soothing, calming, nurturing, and just all around feel good.  I also started thinking about the need this type of food meets for anyone indulging for emotional reasons.

You will get to a point when you are free from these food and body tortures.  An eating disorder is like being in a prison.  I know you are stuck there and hate it but you also feel like you can’t live without it.  It’s the worst kind of dilemma you can find yourself in. 

If I look at a typical week in my work with clients I must comment on someone finding and using their voice several times a week.  But what does that even mean? 

However, if we take a close look at all the ins and outs of our lives and our relationships, Surrender is really present as a constant possibility for us. 

Allowing change is about breaking out of what we know and allowing something completely different to take shape.  We don’t know yet what that will be and what the road will look like, but we begin down the path.

Do you spend your late evening hours eating, drinking, watching more TV than you’d like, wasting hours on the computer….?  What’s your vice in the late night hours? 

Re-connecting with that natural ability to be in tune with your body’s needs is not simple.  The concepts are simple, but putting them into play and going against entrenched patterns of emotional eating or mindless eating takes time. 

You know life has gotten extraordinarily busy and fast paced when there is an emerging movement spreading like wildfire to slow down life‘s pace. The Slow Movement is a cultural shift to slow down everything from eating to parenting to traveling.

I am used to helping others navigate the “too muchness” of how our lives shape up these days.  And I have often talked about having “balance” in life — not letting one thing take up all the space.