January 2010 Archive
Shame on Whole Foods
01.28.10
How disappointing.
Whole Foods just offered employees a new incentive program attempting to reward employees for good health and subsequently cut health care costs. For employees who do not smoke, have lower blood pressure, and lower BMI Whole Foods will offer a 30% discount as opposed to the 20% discount employees typically receive.
What’s wrong with this picture?????
A lower BMI DOES NOT EQUATE WITH HEALTH. There is no indicator that a lower BMI means better health. People should not be rewarded (or punished) for being a certain size. Furthermore, this employee incentive program falsely pushes propaganda that discriminates against a healthy size and colludes with discrimination against those who are overweight.
To learn more about health at every size and size discrimination, visit http://haescommunity.org/.
What is in your coping toolbox?
01.25.10
A common theme with any type of eating disorder, disordered eating or body image difficulty is using food as a way of coping (stuffing down the feelings) or NOT coping (numbing the feelings). While embarking on the journey of recovery an important skill is learning to delay the disordered eating and using new techniques to better address feelings. Feelings never disappear–as much as we may occasionally want them to! When we do not address them they find ways to pop up, often in unhealthy and disturbing forms.
We have talked about coping skills in previous blog posts, but it is always helpful to add new techniques to your coping skills tool box. Remember, when thinking of ways to help yourself, ask “What can make this situation better?” Or “What can I do to make myself feel better?”
Here are a few ideas, feel free to add your ideas by sharing your mind!
* Knitting
* Playing a favorite playlist on your iPod
* Curling up in a fuzzy blanket
* Taking a hot bath or shower
* Burning a scented candle
* Calling a friend
* JOURNAL JOURNAL JOURNAL
* Reading a favorite book
* Painting or sketching
* Write a letter to your eating disorder
* Reading favorite affirmations or quotes
Hungry? Full?
01.18.10
One of the most important parts of recovery from an eating disorder is learning to eat in response to your body. This means eating when you are hungry and stopping when you feel full. It sounds like a simple concept. However, when you have been eating in response to external stimuli and signals (numbing or soothing feelings, fear or gaining weight, body dissatisfaction) for so long, the concept of feeling hungry and full can quickly feel pretty confusing.
The role of therapy in eating disorder recovery is to provide a new outlet for all those other reasons you have been eating, not eating, or purging. For example, if you binge to alleviate stress or anxiety, therapy provides a safe place to talk about that stress and anxiety while also teaching new ways to cope. Therefore, the need to eat is replaced with new ways of coping. You are then free to listen to your body and respond to its internal signals.
Take a few moments and try to think about what hunger feels like for you. Does your stomach growl? Do you get a slight headache? Do you feel a little dizzy? These are your body’s ways of saying “I need fuel.”
Now, think about what feeling full feels like. The easiest way to describe fullness (and the place when you may want to stop eating) is to think about feeling satisfied. When you feel satisfied, no longer hungry but not uncomfortably stuffed (that Thanksgiving full feeling) it is time to stop eating.
Our bodies are wise. They won’t lead us astray. If we truly listen to what they need and want we will end up at a healthy weight that is right for our very own body. Try listening to your body today, I bet it has a lot to tell you!
Staying in the Moment…One Minute at a Time…
01.11.10
Mindfulness suggests we stay in the present, in the right now. We should refrain from looking back at what has been as well as from looking forward at what may be. One of life’s universal truths is that it just keeps happening. No matter how much we may want to prevent things from happening or control them (or as much as our eating disorder tells us we SHOULD control things) there is no stopping what is to come. Getting lost in the past or worrying over the future does not change our time right now. What can you learn from staying present? What can you gain from living in your right now?