“She just doesn’t understand that she can’t be like her friends. They all go out and get chocolate bars and junk food and I just need someone to make her understand that she’s not a normal teenager. Dancers can’t do those things.” The woman on the phone kept up her diatribe, hardly drawing breath. “I’dContinue reading “No, I won’t weigh your daughter”
Category Archives: Disordered Eating
Stop praising weight loss
Weight loss is a hard thing to achieve. Period. So when you see someone who’s transformed their body I understand there’s a pull there to say, “Wow, you look great, that’s amazing that you’ve lost 10 kilos!” But I think we’re dangerously missing the mark by praising weight loss. I personally know of a coupleContinue reading “Stop praising weight loss”
An explosion of eating disorders
I’ve worked in the grey area of disordered eating for a while, often seeing young athletes who reluctantly come to see me with their concerned parent. It’s an area that I love, because seeing these teens get better is so rewarding. It used to be that occasionally a parent would drag their teen along forContinue reading “An explosion of eating disorders”
There’s vegan and there’s vegan
Many years ago, I visited a friend of mine for a few days while she was staying at her parent’s place over summer. Her mother had recently gone back to Weight Watchers, and her father was enthusiastically supporting his wife. They were the most welcoming, delightful family, but I was devastatingly hungry the entire timeContinue reading “There’s vegan and there’s vegan”
Does Action Man have bigorexia?
Barbie gets a lot of shit for having a body that’s simply impossible to reconcile with good health. Since she came onto toy shelves in 1959, Barbie’s gotten thinner and thinner and her boobs have gotten bigger and bigger. I think it’s pretty well known that if Barbie were human-sized she’d be a freak. She’dContinue reading “Does Action Man have bigorexia?”
Mindful eating and hypocrisy
I dipped my spoon into my soup and slurped the creamy goodness noisily. I crunched my piece of toast, delighting at the way it broke into chunks in my mouth… And then crumbs spilled all over my keyboard and I very nearly knocked the bowl of soup over trying to clean it up. I eatContinue reading “Mindful eating and hypocrisy”
Healing your relationship with food
No matter what my clients come to see me about, more often than not we end up talking about their relationship with food. I liken it to a scale: a perfectly healthy relationship with food is at one end and a full-blown eating disorder at the other. I work in the grey area in theContinue reading “Healing your relationship with food”