Author: frivvy89
My partner and I are lying in bed. He’s got his arms around me and we are a tangle of limbs beneath the sheets. Then he speaks.“You’re so soft,” he says.He says this a lot. He also says things like “you’re so huggable” and “you’re so squeezable”. I wonder what your reaction was reading those words. Imagine hearing them said to you. How would you feel? What would you hear? I know what my reaction would have been a few years ago. I know that I would have heard “you’re fat”. The thing is, we listen to what people are…
Well…I finally did it. I’m there. As of Thursday, June 29th, 2017, I am officially, 100% weight restored. I have never restored this much weight without re-entering inpatient treatment, and I am so proud of myself. To celebrate, that night my mom, brother, and I went to a Brad Paisley concert. I’d actually purchased the tickets for us a while ago (it was a birthday present for my mom), but it was quite convenient that it fell on the same day as one we wanted to celebrate! We planned on eating dinner there, but didn’t know what would be available.…
Almost 14 years ago I was standing in my friend’s kitchen when she looked at me and said, “I think you might be anorexic.” This was one year after I had started starving myself. I was 80-something pounds, bruising from anemia, and fainting in the bathroom after cross-country practice. I didn’t know then what the future held: years of denial, frustration, bulimia, weight fluctuations, therapy, and dozens of misguided, painful comments from friends and family, until an eventual recovery. Videos by VICE So now that Netflix is putting out its new movie To the Bone, I pay attention. In the…
Individuals of all sizes may struggle with accepting their bodies; however, it is only those who live in fat bodies who also confront weight stigma. If you have a thin body – despite how much you might dislike it – you live with thin privilege. Want to know what thin privilege looks like?In a restaurant, you order what you want, unafraid that others will judge or stare if you don’t pick the “healthy choice.” You work out at the gym or go for a walk or run outside without fear that others will mock you. You walk into a doctor’s…
I’m pleased to share my article in this month’s issue of Masters Of Health Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to health and wellness. Many of us yearn to have a different body, while ignoring the one we have. Social media is filled with photos of people on fad diets, starving themselves, or going to extreme measures, desperate to change their weight and appearance. All too often, we hold ourselves up to an ideal of physical perfection and find fault with ourselves when we inevitably fail to meet their goals. This is true of men as well as women. As one of…
Guest article by Meera Watts, founder of Siddhi Yoga (bio at end of article). When you decide with your heart in life, it becomes the kind of life that is full of bliss. The most devout Buddhists and deeply spiritual people will attest to living life with your heart. It is the place of honesty and pure love that negates all the fear you have. The mind is where the fear lives. It is where you go when you live in the past or worry about the future. The heart is the here and now. Meditation helps you live more with…
I know exactly what it feels like to try and gain weight when you are underweight and have an unhealthy anorexic mind. Even if you know you need to gain weight in order to get better, that doesn’t mean you actually want to go through the process of weight restoration. These are the sorts of thoughts that I was having for the majority of my recovery (just for the record, they were all untrue)…… ‘If I get any bigger I will hate myself even more’ ‘I will never be able to accept my body at a healthy weight’ ‘If I go back to the…
Lorraine Pascale, a chef and regular guest on the BBC’s cooking programme, Saturday Kitchen, recently admitted that she struggled with an eating disorder. For many, it would seem counter-intuitive that a person with an eating disorder would spend so much time around food. But an obsession with food is often linked with eating disorders, highlighting the complexity of effects that go beyond eating itself. Many of us have dieted at some point in our lives. Whether this is to lose weight, maintain weight or be healthier, what they have in common is restriction. This restriction is not merely behavioural –…
Recently, a reader contacted me to weigh in on physical activity among those with compulsive exercising and/or disordered-eating tendencies. I figured my thoughts might be useful to others: 1) Usually, if someone can’t do something without it becoming obsessive/addictive, it’s time to stop it for a while and regroup. 2) Those in recovery who begin or resume an exercise program will need to increase their intake to fuel their bodies. Dietitians can help with this. 3) I’ve found that some people have to cut out exercise as they know it and define things in a different way – i.e., choosing something…
At some point, most people would have indulged in some kind of emotional eating. Maybe a tub of ice cream or a big slice of cake at the end of a stressful day, or a pack of chips or a medium-size pizza along with a pint of beer, as reward for a job well done. “Whether we are anxious, sad, stressed, or celebrating a special occasion, food is always there to comfort us, to give us pleasure. Have you ever seen anyone celebrate or drown their sorrows with a fresh green salad?” asks Kamna Chhibber, a psychologist at the Fortis…