Truly my favorite time of year…I love the lights, the music, the evergreen garland, the parties and, let us not forget, the array of beautifully decorated cookies that only emerge for this tiny window in our calendar year. I couldn’t always easily include cookies in my list of holiday loves. For many years it was a complicated relationship. … Continue reading
Just under four weeks ago the man who loved me first and loved me longest left. At the age of 80, my father, (who had walked 5 miles 10 days prior) died in hospital due to complications from what was supposed to be a rather simple surgery. For years in my early career I counseled people through … Continue reading
I remember the rush of excitement as the cascade of shiny color spilled out of my pillowcase sack on to my bedroom floor. I would methodically separate the loot into its categorical piles: chocolate, suckers, hard candies, chewy cadies, chips, gum and then the miscellaneous pile of disappointment that usually included a toothbrush (we had a … Continue reading
“Thin”, “Pretty”, “Nice”. According to Brene Brown these are the 3 adjectives that top the list when research participants are asked to describe what makes for a feminine woman. As a young overweight child I was pretty convinced that I couldn’t ever attain the attribute of ‘thin’, and as I watched Charlie’s Angels and played … Continue reading
I’ve been hearing about ‘Biggest Loser’ competitions, inspired by the popular reality show, popping up all over the place, at fitness centers, schools and workplaces and I can’t help but think that these competitions offered under the guise of motivation and support just take us another step away from what most of us really crave; … Continue reading
There is a common expression in therapy circles “what you resist persists” and never have I found that more true than in the realm of food. This is why, for me, dieting is so dangerous and so ineffective. The constant restriction keeps us locked in a constant battle with the object of our obsession…food. We move between periods … Continue reading
There was my hand reaching (for the fifth time) into the bag of M&Ms that was leftover from decorating my son’s birthday cake. It was that same mindless emotional eating experience that I have had many times before where the food feels like both an alluring comfort and an all-powerful adversary …and I don’t even … Continue reading
It’s an itchy sensation…boredom. We don’t like it, we resist it, we want more, we feel we deserve MORE…sometimes this leads, quite frankly, to more in the way of calories…calories our body isn’t asking for in the moment…but there can be something very powerful about learning to allow ourselves to sit with the experience of boredom … Continue reading
Most of us have been there. We find ourselves standing in front of an open refrigerator, late at night in search of the next snack to fill the void…only we aren’t physically hungry. We are hungry however, but it is a different sort of hunger. We are hungry for validation, procrastination, approval, excitement, companionship and … Continue reading
At our youngest age we are fed solely by others in every way. We rely on others to nourish us, feed us, love us, guide us. As adults this role falls primarily on us but so often our focus is pulled to how we can love and nourish everyone around us that we forget to … Continue reading
