In a recent post, I urged you not to diet. In this week’s post, I wanted to share with you a story from one of my clients about ‘body shaming’- a major factor in what leads many of us to go on diets in the first place. In our work together, she is focusing on learning to love and appreciate the body she has, regardless of what size/weight she happens to be at any given moment. Overcoming Body Shame I was fourteen years old the first time I ever looked at my body in the mirror and frowned. Being a tomboy all of my life I didn’t care about “My Look”, I just wanted to go out, get […]
What Can Grandparents Teach Us About Global Crises?
During this long-term COVID-related isolation phase, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on how to best cope with all of the restrictions we’re currently having to navigate. It seems that all of the things we used to do in order to find joy and satisfaction in our lives are temporarily on hold. Here is a list of things my clients are mourning the loss of at the moment: Seeing close family and friends in person Celebrating holidays with loved ones Going into another environment other than their homes to work Socializing with colleagues/Meet and Greets Going to self-help and support groups in person and feeling the comfort that only comes from being physically […]
Take Dieting Off of Your New Year’s Resolution List
Congratulations! You’ve survived the holidays, rung in the New Year-albeit in an entirely bizarre and isolated way- and perhaps now you find yourself standing naked in front of a full-length mirror disgusted at the reflection staring back at you. The majority of us tend to overdo the festivities over the holidays and loosen our reign on eating healthful foods in reasonable portions, and often let exercise go out the window as well. While this year, you did not have to endure less-than-enjoyable family get-togethers and endless obligatory holiday parties, you were probably bummed about actually missing those things and perhaps tried drowning your sorrows by overeating and relying a little too heavily on booze to get you through. As you […]
Esther’s Recommended Read: Untamed
I recently read a wonderful book one of my clients told me about: Untamed by Glennon Doyle. While I found it slow-going at first, it quickly ramped up and had me on the edge of my seat screaming, “You go girl!”. It’s basically a personal transformation story of one woman’s healing from a traditional patriarchal upbringing to her eventual emergence into a wild, bold and fierce feminist warrior woman on a mission to change the world. Three Take-Aways From Untamed While I got a lot out of reading Untamed, there are three main take-aways I use and love which I feel can benefit us all: #1-Fear is big but courage is bigger- WE CAN DO HARD THINGS From page 85 of […]
A client’s story: Managing Grief of Pregnancy Loss
October 15th marked Pregnancy Loss and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, so on that day, I wrote about my experience with pregnancy loss and my work to understand my grief and myself. I experienced four recurrent early miscarriages before I found the help I needed to create my family. My first miscarriage came as a shock. I was very sad, but I took some comfort in the statistic that tells us how common it is: according to the Mayo Clinic, miscarriage occurs in 10-20% of known pregnancies. My second through fourth miscarriages devastated me. I felt hopeless, broken, and alone. I felt invisible and as though my grief was not valid. My body was working against me to reject the life I […]
Mindfulness for Anxiety – Powerful Practices to Recharge
Recently, a colleague of mine, Cassi Starc, an Occupational Therapist and a trauma-informed yoga teacher at Tall Tree Integrated Health Centre in Victoria, BC reached out to me to let me know about a six-week series she’s facilitating called Rise Up | Root Down: Mindfulness for Anxiety, set to begin in January 2021. Here’s more about Cassi and her upcoming series: I became a yoga teacher because mindfulness practices profoundly impacted my mental health for the better, and I wanted to share these tools as widely as I could. In my clinical work as an OT, I support people who struggle with things like brain injuries, chronic pain, or mental health concerns to get back to doing what they need or […]
Mindful Eating Roadblock #5: Sneaking Food
This is a very important area to address, as there is a huge correlation between the phenomenon of sneak-eating and problematic relationships with food and body image. In the 20+ years that I’ve been working as a therapist specializing in disordered eating, I have not yet met one client who has made peace with food and their body without stopping the “sneak-eating” habit. I liken this habit to cheating on one’s partner with a morally-challenged person: food becomes your ‘secret lover’ and you regularly steal away to feel embraced in its seductive yet dangerous arms. You know its bad for you and leading you down a dark path, but you find its pull impossible to resist. Your hidden eating habits […]
Mindful Eating Roadblock #4: Eating When You’re Not Hungry
I’m guessing that this roadblock frequently trips you up. I believe that so many of us eat when we’re not hungry because we are no longer tuned into our basic physiology, our body and its needs. Unlike many animals, we eat for many other reasons besides our body’s signaling to us that it needs fuel. Sometimes we eat simply because the food is there. It’s there so why not eat it? How many parties have you gone to where you weren’t hungry but ate stuff on the buffet table just because it looked good or simply because it was there and eating it seemed the thing to do? I’d like to introduce you to a tool that I often use […]
Mindful Eating Roadblocks #2: Eating Without Enjoyment
Roadblock #2: Eating Without Enjoyment This is a topic that is dear to my heart. You see, my mother, Marion Kane, is a food writer. In fact, she was the Food Editor of two major Canadian newspapers for a total of 20 years. So while most kids spent their evenings playing outside, I was busy dining in the finest restaurants of Toronto ordering lots of dishes to help my mum in her “tasting” ceremony which would either make said restaurant into the latest “hot spot” or else put it out of business within two weeks. My mother, unlike me, doesn’t appear to struggle with what to eat, how much to eat, or knowing when she’s full. But still, I have […]
Mindful Eating Roadblocks #1: Distracted Eating
Time to face the music people- the winter holidays are creeping up on us and you know what happens every year: we overeat and regret it come the New Year and end up going on another bloody diet that ends up in disaster. To prevent you from doing this in January 2021, read this article I wrote last year. To give you a head-start on finding peace with food and your body for 2021, I’ve decided to dedicate the entire month of November to the roadblocks which get in the way of eating mindfully. I have taken these from my book, It’s Not About the Food. I promote and teach mindful eating to my clients because it is one of […]
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