“I’ve been dieting since I was 8,” said my new weight loss client. She is now 50-something. “The doctor looked at a chart and told me I was on the high end of normal, but with a little luck I might grow into my weight. I remember feeling like something was wrong with me.” Sadly, this[…]
“My husband tells me he loves the way I look. I wish he wouldn’t.” Yes, in fact I hear this more often than you might think. When a significant other is so comfortable with their partner’s weight, it is tempting to think, ‘I wish he/she were not so accepting of me at my current weight.[…]
This is a question that one of my group participants e-mailed recently, with the subject line “Nosey question.” Since I’m an open book, especially when it can help someone, I am answering the question not only for her, but for all of you as well. I believe the answer is important. Thank you for asking Ms.[…]
I started a new session of my 7-week “Get Real” program last night. Week 1 focuses on attitudes and beliefs about eating and body image. We talked about weight loss beliefs (often confusing) as well as how important it is to notice judgmental thoughts many of us hold about our bodies and why this makes progress difficult. I explained how[…]
Here’s another guest post from my mystery blogger. Many of us can relate to her story of secrecy. Understanding why we treat ourselves unkindly is a key to coming out from underneath the emotional weight. There is always a reason we start an unsupportive habit, and it usually starts with judgmental thoughts. Then the patterns[…]
I’m preparing for my yoga final exam class this weekend. My class will be grounding, with a focus on body image (feeling grounded in one’s own body). Some thoughts for a short meditation offer another outlook on the topic. Another way of looking at things is often helpful. Imagine that you hate the house you[…]
Someone once said to me, “Kim, the doctor just told me that I am obese.” She sounded devastated . . . and desperate. “Obese” is such an emotional term for many people. It is technically defined by a certain body mass index (BMI). Defined in this way, it is very mathematical, very exact, and simply factual. It is[…]
I had a very interesting experience I would like to share with you. This morning, I walked into an exercise class 5 minutes late, grabbed my equipment, and looked for a place to set up. As I scanned the room for an empty spot, I thought, “Oh, weird, it looks like the class is being[…]
Narrow standards of beauty are so limiting. I rarely meet a woman who loves how she looks, and when I do – again, RARELY – it is unpredictable. She is as likely to weigh 225 as 125. On the flip side, the level of suffering with body image has nothing to with size either, at[…]
I love treasure hunting for clothes. I never know what I will find at T.J. Maxx or my favorite resale shop. On a recent visit to good old T.J.’s, my “find” was a hooded exercise shirt – certainly something a person who works at a gym can use! I headed to the dressing room, closed[…]