"Normal" Eating by Karen R. Koenig

Why Can't Our Bodies Be Okay?

Before you start to read my blog, let me tell you some exciting news. Today's blog is part of a host of blogs on beauty which can be found at Beauty BlogFest. Read my blog, then read them all.  Visit the BlogFest on Friday, February 10th to read many more inspiring takes on beauty--and bodies--as well as giving yourself a chance to win awesome prizes, including a Kindle Touch or $99 Amazon gift card, a body image coaching session (from yours truly), BOAW mugs and more. By the way, look for my new, free, private eating app on Facebook, APPetite, coming out this month!

Often times I run into women—in my practice, in my life—who have everything going for them. They seem fit, look great, are brimming with vim and vigor, yet are stuck on losing weight (they insist) in order to be happy. Maybe it’s three pounds or 15 or 100 they’d like to shed. Sometimes it’s enough that people would notice and sometimes no one ever would. Believe me, I recognize that it’s no fun being fat in this society, but it’s also no fun feeling badly about your body.

Part of the Problem or the Solution

I’m giving you fair warning that I’m on a bit of a rant here about body image. How is it that so many of you bright, capable, clever, terrific folks won’t stop obsessing about your weight and keep choosing to make it the arbiter of your worth and lovability? If you must focus on weight, studies show that folks who shed pounds that stay shed do so through having fitness and health, not weight, as their goals.

Gut Bacteria and Weight

As someone who suffers from occasional, mild irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and takes the probiotic Align to keep me virtually symptom free, I was surprised to learn that imbalanced gut bacteria may also affect how much you weigh. Here’s what Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, MDs, have to say on the subject (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Health and Fitness, 8/9/11).

Love Your Body Day is October 19th!

Although every day could be Love Your Body Day, for many disregulated eaters, this is far from the case. Sadly, one of the myths that pervades our society and keeps us shackled to food problems and weight obsessions is that our bodies are imperfect, contemptible, ugly, and mercilessly uncooperative in looking the way we wish them to look. To counter this mindset, I propose that for 24 hours on Wednesday, October 19, Love Your Body Day, all of you give loving your body your full attention and affection.

Health at Every Size

If you haven’t heard about the Health at Every Size (aka HAES) movement, you’re missing out on a critical approach to working through food and body issues. Described by Dr. Linda Bacon in HEALTH AT EVERY SIZE (in her new 2010 edition), this well-documented and enlightening guide to living healthfully at any and every size is guaranteed to make you feel better about yourself and your body.

Appearance and Weight

Not a week goes by when I don’t hear a client, message board member, or friend lamenting her appearance. The truth is that there are folks who center their lives around how they look, others whose goal is to be presentable, and still others who barely put any time and effort into what constitutes their appearance. Which type of person you are will likely predict how you feel about your weight.

Don't Buy Into Fat Hatred

It’s very hard in this society not to hate fat. I don’t mean the saturated or unsaturated kind, but body fat. Much as it’s nearly impossible due to institutional racism to be White and non-racist in this society, it’s difficult not to get sucked into the cultural and institutional bias that condemns fat as one of humanity’s worst transgressions. You have a choice, however, to buy into this absurdity or opt out.

Weight and Menopause

An article on weight gain during and after menopause in Environmental Nutrition (April 2011, vol. 34, no. 4) caught my attention because it contains important—and surprising—information for all women, whether they’ve reached menopause or not.

Dissatisfaction About Weight

A few months ago, a client and I had a discussion about her changing feelings about the largeness of her body. For years, her reflection in the mirror didn’t even register; then one day she realized that she couldn’t stand to look at herself. She’d gone from one extreme to the other: from denial about her growing size to being disgusted by it.

Protein and Fat Burning

As I’ve said a gazillion times, I’m fascinated by research on eating and weight. We’ve come so far scientifically since I had my food struggles decades ago and all we knew about how to fix them was based on the simplistic theory of calories in and energy out. Now we recognize how complex and complicated this subject really is.