Bucking the system to bring more pleasure and spirituality into your life
Is emotional eating inherently bad? (Spoiler alert: no)
In this week's video, I offer some thoughts about why an emotional relationship with food and eating can be a wonderful thing and how subtle investigation and internal work can help you create an emotional relationship with food that feels nurturing rather than distressing. LMK your thoughts!
The relationship between restriction and "loss of control eating"
A confusing thing about any type of "loss of control eating" - whether emotional eating, binging, consistently eating past fullness, stress eating, eating mindlessly or out of boredom - is how connected it is to some form of restriction. This restriction could be restriction of the quantity or type of food or it could be unmet emotional needs. What is important to understand here is that "over" eating is almost always a reaction to some form of "under" eating or not getting "enough" elsewhere in your life.
Here's what I'm thinking when people tell me what they eat
Most people I speak with - both professionally AND personally - are afraid of what I think when they tell me what they eat. They assume - often because this has been true of RDs they've spoken with in the past - that I'm judging their choices and imagining "healthy swaps" to replace what they are eating with what they "should" be eating. In fact, I'm thinking about very different things and I realized it might be useful to you to know what they are:
Sharing some of my coping techniques for when life feels hard
A warm hug and a gentle shout out to anyone sensitive to what's going on in the world and feeling that bubble up in their personal lives, including in their relationship with food and body. I wanted to share a few of the tools I use in my own life to work with the inevitable disheartenment that sometimes arises.
What if it comes down to us?
No video this week, my loves. My eyeballs have been leaking too much in the last week to try to get through this topic on camera. What I can do, however, is write it out, or at least try.
My heart is broken for this country. For people dying trying to celebrate a joyous holiday, driving to their mom's house, and just going about their lives. We are so clearly not ok.
The Intuitive Eating for Life Community is almost here!
Happy New Year, in case I haven't said that already! I'm so excited to announce that the Intuitive Eating for Life Community is launching next Tuesday morning with live events starting that very day. This community will initially be limited to 100 participants and only offered to newsletter subscribers, ie, you!
Could we look at Intuitive Eating as an ecosystem?
Lately I've been contemplating the HOW of Intuitive Eating, as in how does this actually come together? HOW does one DO Intuitive Eating? We know it's not a linear process and that there is significant overlap between the "stages of Intuitive Eating." We know that there are some universal truths we all experience in approaching Intuitive Eating and there are a lot of unique experiences based on our personal histories.
What if Intuitive Eating were a "practice?"
Happy holidays to everyone. This week's video is a bit grainy because I recorded it behind my in-laws' house in Sicily as the sun was going down. In it, I ponder what might change if we could look at our Intuitive Eating practice as just that: a practice. With other practices like meditation and yoga to compare to, Intuitive Eating can be something that we do over and over again, though different physical and emotional states, as a means of "staying with" ourselves.
Musings from my sick bed
No video this week, unfortunately. I'm fighting off a cold or flu or false-negative COVID, but wanted to be in touch nevertheless to share some thoughts.
One of my favorite teachings in Buddhist philosophy is that all experiences can be approached as opportunities to wake up to the nature of reality. Or, alternatively, they can be a route to go further to sleep. I try to remember this teaching whenever I deal with difficulty, big or small.
The Emerging Aspects of Mindfulness in Intuitive Eating
I’m so excited to invite you to join me for this conversation with Intuitive Eating co-creators and co-authors Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole. We discussed the emerging aspects of mindfulness over the course of more than 25 years and four editions!
Let's talk about movement!
This week we start talking about the topic of movement. It's a big topic and not unlike fullness, fraught for many. Please send me any thoughts, questions, and challenges you're facing with movement so I can weave them into upcoming videos. And thank you, as always, for being part of this community!
My new book has arrived!
My new book Intuitive Eating for Life: How Mindfulness Can Deepen and Sustain Your Intuitive Eating Practice is officially here!
I'm not a fan of self promotion but I take some solace in the fact that promoting this book - and anything that is anti-diet - helps us all. I so hope that this book is a positive force in your life and that you will stay connected so that we can find more and more community together. More goodness coming in 2023!
How we fight with reality...and what to do about it
This week we're talking about working with things as they are. Sounds easy, right? WRONG!!!! It may be a simple concept but there are so many reasons we fight with reality. I hope you'll take a deep breath, rouse self-compassion, and consider some of these words as we head into the holiday weekend.
Working with strong feelings around fullness
This week we're talking more about the feelings/emotions that arise with fullness. I also share this image, which is how I'm currently thinking about the overall Intuitive Eating process (thanks Lisa for making this!) and might be helpful in supporting yourself to work with fullness.
Also, check out my Insta this week for some thoughts on how to respond to diet talk at Thanksgiving (or whenever)!
More fullness & satisfaction and a silly offer for Turkey Day
This week we're talking more about fullness and satisfaction as we prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday, specifically how can we support ourselves to feel both comfortably full and satisfied on this once-a-year holiday.
I also introduce a silly idea I got from working with clients that might just complete your Thanksgiving table (or decorate your kitchen table, stuff your Christmas stockings, etc.). Get your 3-pack of table tents here :)