Declare Your Independence From Eating Disorders!

This is the July 4^th Holiday weekend in the United States, when we celebrate American independence.  

Let’s take the opportunity to declare independence from the oppressive ideas, thoughts, and beliefs about yourself that hold you hostage and keep you from the freedom of self acceptance.

Ideas, thoughts and beliefs lead to feelings, which lead to behavior.  

If you think negative thoughts about yourself, you will feel bad, and be vulnerable to using food (whether turning to it or from it) to comfort, numb and distract yourself from those painful and upsetting emotions.  

When your ideas shift, you feel better, and you won’t need comfort or distraction.

Let's challenge those negative ideas about yourself.  List some of the things you think about yourself: (i.e., "I have no willpower... there's something wrong with me... I'm a freak... nobody else does this stuff with food... if people knew the truth, they wouldn't like me"...)

Where do these ideas come from?  Family?  Culture?  Friends?

What qualities about you do you imagine need to change?   Why?

Do you have to be perfect to be lovable and acceptable?

What does “perfect” mean to you?

When you think about self-acceptance, what do you imagine?

Now, imagine that a good friend or loved one has the same "negative" qualities that you attribute to yourself.  Would you think differently of your friends if you found out they were struggling with food?  Or would you have compassion and want to help?)

Declare your independence and liberate yourself from self-doubt, self-criticism, anxiety, fear and anything else that makes you feel bad about yourself or feel unsafe around people.

Practice responding to yourself as you would treat a friend.  You will feel better, and when that happens, you'll be less focused on food, weight and body image.

That's how you declare independence from self-hate and make peace with food!

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Want help declaring independence from binge eating, stress eating and emotional eating?
Join the Binge-Free Babes Project and get started on a path of freedom: https://bingefreebabes.com/

Diet Like a Dog

What if you took care of yourself as well as you do your dog? In this episode Dr. Nina gives suggestions on how to feel doggone better and train yourself to have a healthier, happier relationship to food."

Check out this episode!

What if you took care of yourself as well as you do your dog?  In this episode Dr. Nina gives suggestions on how to feel doggone better and train yourself to have a healthier, happier relationship to food.

If you have a dog, or know someone who does, think of how much better life would be if you treated yourself as well as you treat your dog - or the way your friends treat their dogs - assuming they take good care of them.

If you have a bone to pick with yourself about your weight, you can train yourself to think differently about your physical and emotional needs, wants, feelings and conflicts.

Dr. Nina offers specific suggestions on how to change your mind, which shifts the way you feel, and changes your behavior with food.  When you feel better, you don’t need food for comfort or distraction – and that’s how you make peace with food!

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https://winthedietwar.com/kick-the-diet-habit-now/

How To Calm Down

Do you eat when you’re stressed? In this episode, Dr. Nina teaches you four ways to relax your body and your mind. When you’re relaxed, you’re less likely to use food to calm down.

Check out this episode!


Here are some of the techniques that Dr. Nina discusses in the podcast episode.  For more details, listen to the episode. 

HOW TO CALM DOWN 

“I know it’s important to identify and process my feelings so that when I'm upset I don't turn to (or from) food.  Sometimes I’m too stressed out to deal with what’s going on inside.  What else can I do when I feel that way?”

Sound familiar?  If so, you may be accustomed to using disordered eating to numb, distract or comfort yourself and don’t know how else to calm down.   

Here are some ways to alleviate stress and anxiety by calming your body, centering your mind and stopping the escalation of stress.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise:  First, tighten your legs, then your stomach, and next your arms.  Make fists and keep your muscles really, really tight.  HOLD that tension as long as possible, a minimum of fifteen seconds but ideally as long as possible.  Then release. 

Feel that?  You’re probably feeling more relaxed.. The idea of this exercise is that without muscle tension, you can’t access muscle release.  When your body is relaxed, your mind will follow. 

The Four Senses Exercise:  As you know, we have five senses, but if you turn to food when you’re stressed, you’re familiar with the sense of taste and probably use taste – food – as the primary way you self-soothe.  The Four Senses exercise puts you in touch with the other four senses and helps you center yourself.

Wherever you are, look around and say one thing that you can:

Touch:_________________________________________________________________

See:____________________________________________________________________

Hear:___________________________________________________________________

Smell:__________________________________________________________________

Visualization. There are two ways to use visualization:  the first is to imagine a happy place where you feel safe and calm; the second is to think about something you’re afraid of, and imagine a positive outcome.  Keep in mind those four senses

Visualization #1: Visualize a place where you feel happy.  Where are you?  Who else is there?  Don’t limit yourself to reality; you can go anywhere your mind takes you.  In your imagination, what are you touching, seeing, hearing, and smelling?

Visualization #2:  Imagine a situation that makes you nervous, thinking about the best outcome possible.  Again, use the four senses to bring this to life.  What upcoming situation is causing you anxiety?  Whether it’s a job interview, a personal challenge, a blind date or anything else, imagine the very best outcome, visualizing and imaging the four senses.

Using these methods to calm down, along with learning to identify and process painful, difficult and upsetting emotions, will help you comfort yourself and find peace with words, instead of with restricting, bingeing and purging, or bingeing.  

When you are calm, you don't need food to cope.  And that's how you make peace with food!

https://winthedietwar.com/kick-the-diet-habit-now/

New Year, New You?

New Year, New You?

It’s that time of year again, when people start making New Years resolutions.  Lots of people intend to make changes next year:  they're going to try to lose weight, go to the gym more often, eat healthier – stop bingeing, stop being bulimic, stop smoking.

Does this sound familiar?   Do you end up starting off strong and disciplined, but somewhere along the line your resolve fizzles and you're back to where you started?

Stop Trying So Hard.  Resolutions are often phrased in terms of “trying” to make changes.  I’m going to try to lose weight.  I’m going to try be healthier.  Keep in mind there is no trying; there is either doing or not doing.  If you’re trying (and failing) at your attempts to change, there is a reason.  Perhaps you’re afraid, not of failure, but of success.  Fear of success usually involves anxieties about expectations, impulsivity, or objectification.

Expectations: You may think that by changing your body, you’ll change your life. But, what if it doesn’t?  What if everything in your life stays exactly the same?  Maybe that’s too much to risk.

Impulsivity:  Maybe you’re afraid you’ll act in an impulsive manner if you are happy with yourself – leave your husband, cheat on your wife, take risks at work, that kind of thing.  If so, dealing with the wish to do those things – and most importantly, why - is a crucial step towards change. 

Objectification: What are your associations to intimacy?  What do you fear will happen if you’re perceived as more attractive to others?

A Different Kind of Resolution:  New Years Resolutions are often only about behavior.   But, what if they were about changing your relationship to yourself, instead of changing your behavior? 

Would you be kinder to yourself, listen to your needs and wants, and be curious (not critical!),

It’s Not About Willpower.  If you don’t address the underlying reasons for why you’re bingeing, restricting or purging, it is difficult to stop.   You must identify and process the underlying emotions and conflicts that are leading to the disordered eating, instead of addressing the behavior itself.

Focusing on food, weight and body image issues takes you away from what you’re feeling and thinking and serves to distract, numb or express what’s going on inside.

What emotions are you protecting yourself from feeling?  Anger? Sadness?  Fear?  Anxiety?

What are your conflicts?  In what areas of your life are you torn?  Job?  Family?  Relationships?

Disordered eating is a way of coping with painful and upsetting emotions and situations.  When you identify those underlying conflicts and find new ways to respond to yourself, you are much more likely to make peace with food for good.

https://winthedietwar.com/kick-the-diet-habit-now/