Eating Disorders News and Views: February 7, 2012

Integrative Medicine to Treat Eating Disorders
By Carolyn Coker Ross, MD
psychcentral.com

Integrative medicine can be defined as “a healing-oriented discipline that takes into account the whole person — body, mind and spirit — including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of both conventional and alternative therapies.”
Complementary and alternative therapies used in integrative medicine can include acupuncture, chiropractic, herbal medicine, dietary supplements and others that give the clinician a wide array of treatments for difficult conditions. This is particularly true in the integrative medicine approach to eating disorders.
Read Integrated Medicine in full


Council ‘Pleased’ at Action Against Bullying Teacher
 hestar.co.uk

 A COUNCIL has said it is ‘pleased’ action was taken in a case of a teacher found to have bullied a bulimic colleague who later died at school.
Moira Ogilvie, former acting deputy headteacher at Rotherham’s High Greave Junior School, was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and sanctioned by the General Teaching Council this week.
The committee found she had ‘bullied, intimidated, undermined and victimised’ Britt Pilton, who collapsed and died at the school, aged 29, in February 2009.
Her inquest ruled her stress and bulimia had been worsened by issues at work.
Read Bullying Teacher in full


Vancouver Media Maven Ralks About Her Eating Disorder
 vancourier.com

Rachel McHollister has suffered from anorexia since she was 14 years old. Now an owner of a boutique public relations firm, she first started restricting what she ate. As she got older, she binged and purged. She’s been fighting the disease for 13 years and continues to wage war against it on a daily basis.

McHollister recently participated in a UBC panel discussion on body image and related issues such as self-esteem, social pressure, and media messages that can contribute to eating disorders to raise awareness of the issue.
Read Media Maven in full


La Scala Fires Ballerina Over Frank Talk of Anorexia 
 latimes.com

An act of whistle blowing has landed a ballerina at La Scala in Milan, Italy, in big trouble. The famed company has reportedly told her to hand in her pink tutu in exchange for a pink slip.
Mariafrancesca Garritano, who has danced with the company for about 17 years, has  been fired following an interview with a British weekly in which she said that one in five dancers at La Scala Theatre Ballet suffers from anorexia. The interview, which ran in Britain's Observer, contains an unflattering account of how the company pressures its dancers to lose weight.
Read La Scala Fire Ballerina in full


Children Under 10 in Northern Ireland Treated for Eating Disorders
 bbc.co.uk

 A number of children under 10 have been treated in hospitals in Northern Ireland for eating disorders.

The Department of Health has not published the exact number, but up to 12 children were hospitalised in the three years between 2007 and 2010.
Nearly 80 teenagers have received hospital treatment for conditions such as anorexia in the past five years.
It is understood up to £4m is spent each year on adults and teenagers who travel to England for treatment.
Ann McCann from the Eating Disorders Association said the organisation had dealt with a girl as young as eight, who had been bullied for being a "little bit overweight".
She said the numbers of children affected are growing - the vast majority are girls, but one in ten are boys.
 Read Children Under 10 in full


Openness About Eating Disorders Overdue
 therepublic.com

 Although we don’t exactly shout it from the rooftop, my family never has hidden the experience of our middle daughter’s struggle with anorexia nervosa, the eating disorder that leads some people — and especially smart and pretty young women — to starve themselves.
Very often, the conversation produces a flash of understanding.
There was the baseball executive. The City Council member back in Wisconsin. The fellow parishioner. The neighbor. The casual professional acquaintance.
All had firsthand experiences with eating disorders.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.After all, the theme of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, to be held Feb. 26 to March 3, is “Everybody Knows Somebody.”
Read Openness in full


The Realities of Living With Eating Disorders
With support and therapy, sufferers can still live a fulfilling, normal life
Sally Chaster / timescolonist.com

am in my early 50s, and I have struggled with a severe and debilitating eating disorder since I was six.
I suffer from anorexia, but there are many other serious, debilitating eating disorders, including bulimia, binge eating and others.
People with these disorder may be underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese, and may die at any size from any of the disorders. They can be young or old, male or female, any colour, nationality or religion.
How can people help? The answer to that is "nothing" and "everything."
Eating disorders are mental illnesses which often result in medical problems. There is increasing evidence of a genetic predisposition to eating disorders, and the trigger for activating a disorder may be any number of things.
Read The Realities in full 


Crystal Renn Reveals The Truth About Her Recent Weight Loss 
 huffingtonpost.com

With her background in plus-size modeling, Crystal Renn always finds herself on the hot seat about her weight. Is she gaining? Losing? What size is she? It's all a bit ridic, if you ask us.

But Renn herself has been vocal about her struggles with anorexia -- she once confessed to surviving on Diet Coke and sugar-free Jello -- and in a new interview with "Entertainment Tonight," she rebuts rumors that she's recently slipped back into unhealthy eating habits.

The model defended her weight loss back in February 2011, saying:
Read Crystal Renn in full 


EveryBODY’s Beautiful Shines the Light on Eating Disorders
 kingstonthisweek.com

When you look in the mirror what do you see? Do you see someone confident staring back, who looks great, flaws and all? Or do you see someone who never quite looks good enough?

In today’s world, where society is inundated with images of what is deemed to be perfection, many people are often plagued with feelings of doubt when it comes to their own body and body image. And sometimes those doubts can lead to more serious issues, including eating disorders.
“These are issues that directly or indirectly affects everybody,” says Pam Fountas, founder and host of EveryBODY’s Beautiful, a fundraising event Friday, Feb. 10, in support of local eating disorder clinics.
“I’d argue that 99.9 per cent of the population knows what it’s like to not feel comfortable in their own skin at one point or another in their lives.
Read Shines in full

Possibilities: Inspirational Recovery Quotes

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!
Audry Hepburn

Think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited. You can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to be. You can set large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively toward their realization. There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the obstacles that you create in your mind.
Brian Tracy

I dwell in possibility…
Emily Dickinson

Whether you believe you can or not, you're right.
Henry Ford

Faith makes things possible, not easy.
Unknown

Our aspirations are our possibilities.
Samuel Johnson

You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to an infinity of choices.
Deepak Chopra

What is now proved was once only imagined.
William Blake

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll be able to see farther.
Thomas Carlyle

The future is simply infinite possibility waiting to happen. What it waits on is human imagination to crystallize its possibility.
Leland Kaiser

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
St. Francis of Assisi

There is no planet, sun, or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.
Gloria Anzaldua

The Wright brother flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.
Charles F. Kettering

In our efforts to be human, God does not leave us to fend for ourselves… In community - communion - we are reminded that everything is possible.
Dolores R. Leckey

Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything's possible again.
Marie Lu

Believing in fate produces fate. Believing in freedom will create infinite possibilities.
Ayn Rand

Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Lewis Carroll

In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility.
Victoria Moran

Impossible situations can become possible miracles.
Robert H. Schuller

When everything is lost, anything is possible.
Robert Inman

Alleged ‘impossibilities’ are opportunities for our capacities to be stretched.
Charles R. Swindoll

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible!
Walt Disney

I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist.
Max Lerner

Every man is an impossibility until he is born.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.
Robert Collier

The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.
Air Force motto

Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.
John Keywood

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!
Soren Kierkegaard

It's the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.
Nicholas Sparks/The Notebook

A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.
Friedrich Nietzsche

If everyone woke up tomorrow morning and said, "It's possible; whatever it is, it's possible," and spent a whole day having an "it's possible" day, then we would be going down the kind of road I'm interested in--because I do believe it is possible.
John Bird

So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.
Marian Wright Edelman

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Gloria Steinem

Your range of available choices -- right now -- is limitless.
Frederick Frieseke

I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then, absolutely anything is possible. And from that moment, my life changed.
Shirley Maclaine

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.
Thomas Merton

All things are possible until they are proved impossible. Even the impossible may only be so, as of now.
Pearl S. Buck

The impossible is often the untried..
Jim Goodwin

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Pablo Picasso

Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities.
Robert H. Schuller

Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities - always see them, for they're always there.
Norman Vincent Peale

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.
Jamie Paolinetti

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

If you only look at what is, you might never attain what could be.
Unknown

Man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out of the impossible.
Max Weber

My mother gave me a bumblebee pin when I started work. She said: "Aerodynamically, bees shouldn't be able to fly. But they do. Remember that."
Jill E. Barad

We all have possibilities we don't know about. We can do things we don't even dream we can do.
Dale Carnegie

Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world--making the most of one's best.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.
Kahlil Gibran

Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities.
Orison Swett

Most people are not really free; they are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.
V.S. Naipaul

You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt 

It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it.
Soren Kierkegaard

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke

Stop thinking in terms of limitations and start thinking in terms of possibilities.
Terry Josephson

The purpose of life for man is growth, just as the purpose of life for trees and plants is growth. Trees and plants grow automatically and along fixed lines; man can grow as he will. Trees and plants can only develop certain possibilities and characteristics; man can develop any power which is or has been shown by any person anywhere. Nothing that is possible in spirit is impossible in flesh and blood. Nothing that man can think is impossible. Nothing that man can imagine is impossible of realization.
Wallace D. Wattles

I'm in my prime. There's no goal too far, no mountain too high.
Wilma Rudolph

Every one's got it in him, if he'll only make up his mind and stick at it. None of us is born with a stop-valve on his powers or with a set limit to his capacities, There's no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us.
Charles Schwab

What great things would you attempt if you knew you could not fail.
Robert H Schuller

You never know what you can do until you try.
Unknown

No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potential than you can ever develop in a lifetime.
James T. Mccay


 *See sidebar menu for more Inspirational Recovery Quotes and Quotes of the Week

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Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 26, 2012

If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door. 
Robert Brault




picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/snugglepup/4544140905/in/photostream/

Raising Eating Disorders Awareness In Memory of Sarah Fasano

Eve Simonetti is on a mission to raise awareness for eating disorders in memory of her friend, Sarah Fasano.

Eve says, "Over the past 8 years i have been suffering from an eating disorder that has nearly killed me and taken my life. Not many people realize just how powerful this disorder is. I have been to over a dozen treatment facilities and have met hundreds of girls/women who are fighting for their life with this as well but we have very limited resources. Recently i have lost a friend from my most recent treatment center, The Renfrew Center. My roommate Sarah Fasano. Not just for her but for all of my friends silently suffering, i would like to raise awareness of this vicious disease and just how many women it affects. Sarah was very passionate about NEDA and recovery, so i would like to pay a tribute to her and the other soldiers we have lost along the way in the battle against the body."


 Statistics show:

• 70 million individuals are affected by eating disorders worldwide, with 24 million being American.
• 10 to 15 percent are male.
• 90 percent of women with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
• Currently approximately 11 percent of high school students have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
• 15 percent of young women in the US who are not diagnosed with an eating disorder exhibit substantially disordered eating behavior and attitude.

Eve added, "Sarah was active and passionate about NEDA and I really cant think of anything else that would serve as more of a testimony than this."

All donations raised in honor of Sarah Fasano will go to NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association). Please consider making a donation and help Eve raise awareness about eating disorders.
Donations can be made here. 

Sarah Fasano Music on YouTube

See more Eating Disorders Statistics


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This Week's R.I.S.E. :What Would You Say To A Friend?

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is What would you say to a friend?

Have you ever noticed that when someone you care about is hurting that you're able to give support, comfort, and advice from a place of love that seems reserved just for them? Do you ever hear what you're saying and think, "why can I say this to someone else and not to myself?"

For many of us, we see other people's problems and solutions much clearer than we see our own. Sometimes the solution seems so obvious and uncomplicated. Even complicated solutions still seem doable. Why is that? The reasons range from complicated to down right simple.

We're just too close to the problem.

Everything seems harder to accomplish when it's personal. It gets bogged down in the muck of our personal "stuff."

We're dealing with things like:

• Our past experiences/history
• How we feel about ourselves
• Fear of change 
• Fear of failure
• Feeling undeserving

.... and the list could go on and on.

So this week take a problem you're dealing with and pretend you're advising, comforting, and supporting a friend. Writing it down in letter form will help you reach your true "friend" voice (Dear insert your name here ). Don't read it when you're done writing it. Put it away for a day... or three. When you have a few moments to be all alone, grab yourself a cup of warm tea, settle into a comfy spot, and read it, slowly. Then read it again, out loud.

Now, follow your own advice.

You are deserving, and worthy of it.

©Weighing The Facts



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Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 14, 2011

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
Helen Keller


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Eating Disorders News and Views: January 10, 2012

Binge Eating Disorder May Be Added to DSM-5

The DSM-5 Feeding and Eating Disorders Work Group is proposing a number of diagnostic changes. Here’s an overview.
Criteria for “binge eating disorder,” the fruit of an explosion of research on the subject since publication of DSM-IV, are being proposed for inclusion in DSM-5. The addition of the disorder, defined as recurrent eating of “an amount of food that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances,” is among the major changes proposed for the chapter on feeding and eating disorders. Virtually identical criteria for binge eating disorder were listed in the appendix to the chapter in DSM-IV but it was not included as an official diagnosis.
Read Binge Eating Disorder DSM-5 in full.


Women with Anorexia May Have Categorical Learning Deficiencies

Recent research has focused on examining the cognitive abilities of people with eating issues and in particular, of women with anorexia nervosa (AN). “These studies are important for a better understanding of AN given the possibility that cognitive deficits may (a) contribute to the development and persistence of AN, (b) result from neurological changes associated with the disease, or (c) influence the choice of treatment approaches,” said Megan E. Shott of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado. More recent studies have discovered that although individuals with AN may have deficits in cognitive functioning, many of them also have very high IQs.
Read Categorical Learning Disabilities in full.


When Eating Healthy Turns Obsessive

In a vegan café in New York City, Nisha Moodley pushes a glass crusted with the remnants of a berry-açai-almond milk smoothie across the table and begins listing the foods she excised from her diet six years ago.

"Factory-farmed meats; hormone-laden dairy; conventional non-organic fruits and vegetables; anything hydrogenated; anything microwaved," the slender 32-year-old health coach says. "I would not eat irradiated food; charred or blackened foods; artificial coloring, flavoring, or sweetener; MSG; white rice; sugar; table salt; or anything canned.

Back then, a typical breakfast for Moodley consisted of buckwheat mixed with seaweed, raw cacao powder, flax oil, and flax seeds. Lunch was usually homemade brown rice with lentils, fresh vegetables, and kale, followed by a mid-afternoon snack of homemade flax-seed-and-buckwheat crackers. And for dinner, a salad with garbanzo beans, avocado, carrots, beets, and mushrooms.

Moodley initially adopted this diet to address recurring bad digestion. But her commitment to healthy eating -- something to be commended, ordinarily -- turned into an obsession that took over her life. "I was terrified of food that didn't fit within my idea of what was healthy," Moodley says. "I was terrified of cancer, of dying."
Read Healthy Turns Obsessive in full


Is Binge Eating a Mental Disorder?

According to the latest draft of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM) in the American Psychiatric Association (APA), binge eating is a mental disorder.

Health professionals refer to this document to conclude whether an individual is suffering from a mental disorder or not. In the manual, binge eating shares place with grave medical conditions such as substance-related disorders, sleep disorders and anxiety disorders. But does this mean that if you chug cheese burgers, you are suffering from a clinical eating disorder? Let's find out...

Binge eating depicts a lack of control over one's eating habits, a feeling where one has no control over how much or how many times one is eating.

The top characteristics which distinguish binge eating from normal eating are:
- Eating food much more quickly than normal.
- Eating food until feeling awkwardly full.
- Consuming large amounts of food when not feeling hungry.
- Consuming food in a separate room, or in isolation so as not to feel embarrassed by the quantity or style of eating.
- A binge eater tends to feel very appalled with oneself. A deep feeling of depression or guilt lingers on after the completion of an eating spree.

Here are a few tried and tested ways to avoid binge eating:
- Distract yourself from the food and indulge in an activity you love. Rush for a warm water bath when you think food is overpowering you. Go for a nice chocolate pedicure session or may be light some nice scented candles in your room and play some light music rather than eating.
- In other times, you might find this a tad bit boring, but sip small amounts of water whenever you feel you are in the mood to indulge.
Read Binge Eating/Mental Disorder in full



Emirati Woman Recounts How She Chose Life Over Anorexia

Sitting in the lounge of a Dubai hotel, Samira Murshid Al Romaithi could be any other 28-year-old woman. Clear-skinned and bright-eyed, she smiles as she greets me, exposing a set of pearly white teeth and a long mane of dark hair that falls over a pretty, sensitive face.

Confident without being overbearing, articulate and charming, this is a woman who holds a senior position with the Government in Abu Dhabi; who is the vice president of the UAE Jiu-Jitsu committee and a blue-belt competitor; who is about to launch her own business selling health food snacks; and who not only has a BA and a master's but also is halfway through another master's, in diplomacy and international relations. Her zest for life is obvious.

It's almost impossible to imagine she once suffered from anorexia.

Anorexia - a word that conjures up images of skeletal-like young women and that many presume is vanity in the extreme, an attempt to achieve the perfect body gone terribly wrong and an example of just how askew our priorities have become in the complicated modern world.

But there is, of course, more to this insidious disease that (along with other eating disorders such as bulimia) is still a taboo subject in many parts of the world and especially so in the UAE.
Read Emirati Woman in full


People With Eating Disorders Still suffering on Sidelines

BY THE time she was finally admitted to hospital, Noelle Graham's heart was on the point of giving out. Years of extreme dieting, purging and vomiting had ravaged the very substance of her body, leaving her blood so low in potassium it could no longer sustain a regular pulse.

That four-month admission, in 2009, was the culmination of nearly a decade of disordered eating that began when Ms Graham was only 12 - starting benignly enough as a decision to become a vegan and escalating through compulsive exercise, deliberate vomiting and long periods of starvation.

Still battling not to relapse, Ms Graham sees a psychiatrist and has had to return many times to hospital, where she said doctors typically, ''stick me on a drip and rehydrate me, then send me home''.
Read People With Eating Disorders in full



New Approach to Diagnosing Anorexia Nervosa
January 9, 2012
A new approach for diagnosing patients with anorexia nervosa has been developed at the University of Sydney. The approach could have a significant impact on the treatment and recovery of sufferers, as well as reducing the strain on public health.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, Professor Stephen Touyz, of the University of Sydney's Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders, advocates a move to diagnosing anorexia nervosa in stages of severity, similar to the method used for diagnosing cancer.

"At the moment, you can only diagnose anorexia nervosa if you have the illness quite severely already," says Professor Touyz.

"By the time you have anorexia nervosa, and people can see that you've got it, you're an extremely ill person. This is an illness where 20 percent of people who are diagnosed could potentially die."

Professor Touyz's proposed system of stages would introduce the diagnosis of stage one anorexia nervosa for patients who clearly already suffer from the illness but do not yet meet its official diagnostic criteria.

Read New Approach in full

15 Quotes For Recovery In This Brand New Year

Celebrate what you want to see more of.
Tom Peters

A new year is unfolding ... like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within.
Anonymous

For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.
T.S. Eliot

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce

We spend January (1) walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws but for potential.""
Ellen Goodman

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.
Einstein

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
Hal Borland

Why shed tears on failures long forgotten when hope looms on the horizon?
Charles Casha

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.
Irish saying

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.
Oprah Winfrey

The old year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!
Edward Payson Powell

I don’t really have a New Year’s resolution to go on a diet or anything like that. I am who I am, and I don’t want to be somebody else.
Karolina Kurkova

One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: To rise above the little things.
John Burroughs


If it didn’t Bring you Joy,
Just Leave it Behind.

Let’s Ring in the New Year
With Good Things in Mind.

Let Every Bad Memory Go
That Brought Heartache and Pain.

And let’s Turn a New Leaf
With the Smell of New Rain.

Let’s Forget Past Mistakes
Making Amends for This Year.

Sending You These Greetings
To Bring you Hope and Cheer

Happy New Year!
Unknown


See also 10 Self-Nurturing New Year's Resolutions

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Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 6, 2011

It doesn’t matter how long we may have been stuck in a sense of our limitations. If we go into a darkened room and turn on the light, it doesn’t matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week, or ten thousand years – we turn on the light and it is illuminated.
Sharon Salzberg


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This Week's R.I.S.E. : Kisses In Your Pocket

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is Kisses In Your Pocket.

Years ago, when my now grown son was little, I gave him something to help buffer the insecurity he was feeling at the thought of the unknown ... being away from me for part of the day while he attended preschool. Each day I put on some lipstick and covered a piece of paper with kisses for him to keep in his pocket. Each time he felt he needed it, he could pull out that little slip of paper and take a kiss of encouragement. It was enough to see him through those days he felt unsure or anxious.

Years earlier my husband was in a horrible accident.  Surviving it was a miracle. The road ahead was uncertain. One night, while I was spending the night in the hospital solarium, I met a patient who couldn't sleep. We got to talking. He told me his story, and I told him my husband's. He took a necklace from around his neck, removed the old, worn medal of St. Michael and asked me to give it to my husband. He told me how it had seen him through so much and he wanted him to have it. My husband kept that medal with him at all times, switching it his wallet when he was released. It reminded him to stay strong, to hang in there, he could do this.
 
Sometimes, all we need is a little something that says to us "you can do this, you're going to be okay, this moment of struggle is going to pass."

 So this week put some kisses in your pocket. Choose something easily carried with you. Break it out whenever it's needed and draw strength from what it symbolizes. You CAN do this! 


See sidebar menu for more Weekly R.I.S.E.
©Weighing The Facts

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Eating Disorders Recovery: In Recovery ...

click image to enlarge

In recovery I'm learning to love myself again. I'm discovering that I can trust myself and take care of myself. I'm finding out that what I really need is to nurture my body and my spirit. Believing in myself and working my recovery is the most important step in achieving the life I desire for myself, the life that I am worthy of... the life I deserve. 

Recovery!

The New Year: Eating Disorders Poll

What emotions are you feeling with the arrival of the New Year?

Please take a moment to participate in the poll in the sidebar.
Thank you.
MrsM

This poll is now closed.
You can find the results here: Previous Poll Results

Happy New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year's Eve!

Another fresh new year is here... another year to live! To banish worry, doubt, and fear, to love and laugh and give! This bright new year is given me to live each day with zest ... to daily grow and try to be my highest and my best! I have the opportunity once more to right some wrongs, to pray for peace, to plant a tree, and sing more joyful songs. 
William Arthur Ward

Recovery Quote Of The Week: December 31, 2011

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.
Dolly Parton

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10 Self-Nurturing New Year's Resolutions

I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions. More often than not, we set up lofty goals that are near impossible to stick to or are just unhealthy for us. When we don't manage to accomplish them we then feel guilty, frustrated, and defeated. If you're considering making resolutions for the new year why not make them something that nurtures your being and changes how you feel about yourself? 


10 Self-Nurturing New Year's Resolutions
 
I resolve to:

1. love myself more (flaws and all)
2. be more grateful for my body and what it allows me to do every day
3. make more healthy choices for both my mind and my body
4. respect myself and others more
5. surround myself with more positive and supportive people
6. stop comparing myself to others and instead celebrate my unique individuality more
7. replace negative self-talk with more positive, loving statements
8. let go of past shame, regrets, and fear and live in the present more
9. speak up, reach out, and ask for more help when I need it
10. laugh more, love more, and enjoy the life I have been blessed with

Notice the word, "more," slipped in there? "More" is important for two reasons.

1.  you may already be doing these things and so now are resolving to build on them. 
2. "more" allows forward movement without the preconceived notion of failure when you don't accomplish something fully.

Remember, it's not about perfecting anything. It's about learning to nurture yourself. It takes time and practice.

Make this year the year that you choose to take care of you. Make yourself a priority.


Happy New Year! 
MrsM

©Weighing The Facts



picsource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aschultz/3700307982/

This Week's R.I.S.E. : Don't Hang Around Waiting For Perfection

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is Don't Hang Around Waiting For Perfection.

Are you waiting for perfection before you participate? Have there been events, gatherings, classes you'd like to take, a career move you'd like to make, or anything else that you've put on hold because you're waiting for the perfect time, perfect weight, perfect outfit, perfect conditions?

The problem with perfection is that it's practically unattainable and, in my opinion, boring (said with a long, drawn out, sing songy type inflection). When I think back on some of my favorite memories, it's the imperfections that made them so extraordinary, so memorable. The imperfect friends and family, and the imperfect situations led to unexpected turns of events that left me belly laughing with glee, or happily surprised by an outcome I couldn't have even imagined. Even when I wasn't thrilled by the end results, I came away from it with a life lesson that I wouldn't have learned otherwise and that I was (if not immediately, at least down the road) grateful to learn.

Putting your life on hold because you don't feel thin enough, good enough, pretty enough, worthy enough (and the list goes on and on) is one of the biggest life cheats there is.

The hard, cold fact is that we only have right now, this very moment, for certain. Everything else is a gamble and a gift. Keep hanging around waiting for perfection and you could find you've missed a huge hunk of life.

We hold ourselves back by worrying what others will think of us when, in reality, they're really not giving us much thought. Not in the sense that we worry they are. Have you ever noticed that the people who go out and meet life head on don't seem the least bit concerned with how you feel about it? They're not worried that you don't approve, or don't think they look the right way,  or think they're good enough to do whatever it is they're choosing to do. They're too busy living their lives. 

This is no dress rehearsal (paraphrasing Rose Tremain) so stop waiting and start participating.

For this week do something you've been wanting to do. Attend or host a gathering of friends you've been eager to see, go somewhere new, do something... just don't hang around waiting for perfection.

Jump in without weight, appearance, or any other self-limiting thoughts holding you back. Let go of the self-negativity and worry. Take your-self with you. The real you. The one that matters.  Enjoy! Laugh! Live it fully! And if it doesn't turn out the way you had hoped, go with the flow and make the best of it.

There's a whole lot of living to be done out there and it's waiting for your wonderfully imperfect self!

* See sidebar menu for more Weekly R.I.S.E.

©Weighing The Facts

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangaroo/1280739738/

Today I Smile: Eating Disorders Poetry

Today I Smile

wind blowing
peacefully
music playing
beautifully
this content feeling …
make it last, eternally

slow breaths in and out
any feeling of uneasiness
has flown away with the breeze
going far away
and I’ll do anything to make it stay that way

there have been times when I didn’t care to stay
but with THIS day …
I can’t see it any other way

Finally
It’s been a while
Finally
I can feel the smile

No worries, no anxiety
The sun beating down on me
Mirrors the light
That has just been turned on inside myself
Positively affecting my emotional health

Happy people passing by
Smiles on their faces, helping to erase all the “whys”

Its.time.
To let go
Its.time.
To finally say .. no

No
To the emotions that force themselves upon me
Because today, I am happy … as happy as can be.


by: Life Is Sweet



picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanuiop/4499445972/in/photostream/

Links to Help See You Through This Holiday Season

I hope you find yourself surrounded by people who love and support you this holiday season and that you all have a wonderful Holiday!

Below are some links to help if you find yourself struggling:

Surviving the Holidays: Links

Eating Disorders Help Hotlines, Organizations, Websites

Eating Disorders Christmas Survival Guide from Cambridge University (PDF download)

Coping with Christmas SWEDA Somerset &  Wessex Eating Disorders Association

Holiday Survival Kit Eating Disorder Hope

FEAST Holiday Survival Tips 

Eating Disorder Recovery: I Refuse To Be

I refuse to be defined by my past, the size of my jeans, the number on a scale, or the opinion of others. I am an amazing, unique, and worthwhile person just as I am, here, now, as I stand before you today. I am a work in progress; ever growing, ever changing, ever moving forward. I am an amazing individual worthy of respect, love, and joy. My journey is no less important than your own. I do not seek your approval or permission to be who I choose to be. I am walking my own path at my own pace. 

©Weighing The Facts

picsource:weighinthefacts.blogspot.com

Eating Disorders Poetry: My Declaration of Independence

This is my declaration of independence...

from the voice that never lets me rest or says what I do or who I am is never good enough.

from the sickness that takes doing anything productive as an "opportunity" NOT to eat.

from the disease that tricks, not just my mind, but my body into pushing beyond the line of healthy, sane excersize.

from the disorder that brings my turmoil unto my family unnecessarily and forces it's rules onto those I live with; to waste money on food I will inevitably abuse or deprive them of foods they enjoy because they trigger binges for me.

from the idea that I can't deal with the downfalls, relationships, rejections, or losses in my life.

from the voice that distorts the real image of my body, my thoughts, and my soul,

or says I need to eat more then physically refuse it,

eat less and then abuse it,

or eat nothing until hunger and fullness are one in the same.

No more will I feel bad, guilty, or trapped for nourishing my body.

No more will I let it distort who I am or what I see with my eyes.

No more will I let it suck the life from me, the freedom to live how I want to.

No more will I let it take my confidence, what makes me truly beautiful, MY beliefs.

No more will I be afraid to simply go grocery shopping for my family or myself.

No more will I let it destroy me, mentally and physically.

No more will I believe that no one could ever love me or that I could never LOVE MYSELF.

No more will I listen to the negative spin on a compliment.

No more will I surround myself with people who fuel this abusive boyfriend in my head.

No more will I feel bad for eating "too much".

No more will I be afraid to eat.
No more.

by: Alex Buchwald




Share your eating disorders and body image poetry/writings on Weighing The Facts


picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulin-a/3941549009/in/photostream/

This Week's R.I.S.E. : Tidy Up Your Inner House

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise): Tidy Up Your Inner House.

We all carry around with us emotions, thoughts, and memories from our past. Some are positive, encouraging, and emotionally comforting. Some, on the other hand, only serve to feed our negativity, fears, and anxiety. 

Not all that we feel and think is rooted in reality. We may see ourselves through our past and allow thoughts that spring from that to influence our present. Things that happened to us as children are remembered from a child's point of view and so may carry a heavier weight. Maybe the scarring words of someone we looked up to whispers in our ear, making us feel less than, unsure, scared, or helpless. Maybe a past event has altered how we see ourselves and carries with it feelings of shame that, in turn, make us feel unworthy of the good we deserve. 

How do you know if your thoughts or feelings need tidying up? 

• How do they make you feel?
• Are your feelings about it outdated?
• Do they derail your positive progress? 
• Are they attached to an event that you had no control over? 
• Do they serve to help you on your new path? 

Tidying up and cleaning out isn't a simple task. Not all the negative things we feel and think are so easily gotten rid of and require a professional to guide us to understanding the whys and the why nots so we can move past them. There are, though, things we can do on our own to make a big difference in how our thoughts, and even memories, affect us. 

Start small. Stay positive. Be patient. Be repetitive.

Forgive your past self of past mistakes. You, today, are not that person. You are allowed to change. You are capable of change. You are deserving of change. 

Let go of negative narratives. Those old tapes that play in your head, telling you you're not worthy, that you can't accomplish something, that you don't deserve anything good ... toss them! Replace them with positive, encouraging ones. Start a new inner dialogue that's supportive, and forgiving.

Be patient with yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be loving to yourself. 

Tidying up is a bit more involved than past R.I.S.E. but the idea isn't to tackle it all. The idea is to pick one emotional negative that's dragging you down and chip away at it until you can rid yourself of it, then move on to another and do the same.

So this week, tidy up just one small corner of your inner house. Let the old stuff go and start anew. Your inner talk is a powerful cleaning tool. Make good use of it. 

Throw out that old set of emotional baggage and make room for a more positive set. Fill the new set up with only good things. Visualize the process. 

*See sidebar menu for more Weekly R.I.S.E.  

©Weighing The Facts
 

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mildlydiverting/9033447/in/photostream/

Inspirational Recovery Quotes: Moving Forward

Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer.
Denis Waitley

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.
George Whitefield

You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted.
Kevin Costner

Time doesn't stop and wait for anyone. Move on.
Unknown

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.
Julia Cameron

Life is an operation which is done in a forward direction. One lives toward the future, because to live consists inexorably in doing, in each individual life making itself.
Jose Ortega y Gasset

Stride forward with a firm, steady step knowing with a deep, certain inner knowing that you will reach every goal you set yourselves, that you will achieve every aim .
Eileen Caddy

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard

It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.
Helen Keller

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.
Brian Tracy

I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward.
David Livingstone

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

As long as you as an individual... can convince yourself that in order to move forward as best you can you have to be optimistic, you can be described as 'one of the faithful,' one of those people who can say, 'Well, look, something's going to happen! Let's just keep trying. Let's not give up.
Tom Hanks

Man maintains his balance, poise, and sense of security only as he is moving forward.
Maxwell Maltz

Sometimes looking back on what you had motivates you to keep moving forward...there's a reason why you left, keep going.
Unknown

There is no finer sensation in life that which comes with victory over one's self. Go forward to a goal of inward achievement, brushing aside all your old internal enemies as you advance.
Vash Young

I think that the power is the principle. The principle of moving forward, as though you have the confidence to move forward, eventually gives you confidence when you look back and see what you've done.
Robert Downey, Jr.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Life is a series of adjustments; You can make changes along the way, but if you didn’t start moving forward you'll never get anywhere!
Kimora Lee Simmons

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
Ellen Glasgow

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
Walt Disney

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.
Victor Kiam

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it... Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
Marcus Aurelius

We face neither East nor West: we face forward.
Kwame Nkrumah

My trust in a higher power that wants me to survive and have love in my life, is what keeps me moving forward.
Kenny Loggins

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.
Mikhail Bakunin

When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective.
George C. Marshall

There is no standing still because time is moving forward.
Greg Lake

You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.
Conrad Hall

One fails forward toward success.
Charles Kettering

I demolish my bridges behind me - then there is no choice but forward.
Fridtjof Nansen

We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.
Phil McGraw

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.
Winston Churchill

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.
Anton Chekhov

I definitely feel we're moving forward. There's a lot more understanding... there's less fear and we're working on there being less hatred.
Melissa Etheridge

I find that the best way to do things is to constantly move forward and to never doubt anything and keep moving forward, if you make a mistake say you made a mistake.
John Frusciante

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
Henry Ford

You've got to bumble forward into the unknown.
Frank Gehry

What helps me go forward is that I stay receptive; I feel that anything can happen.
Anouk Aimee

Sometimes you have to take a half step back to take two forward.
Vince McMahon

There is trust in there being a Spirit who loves me and wants me to have love in my life. I trust in this higher power, it is what keeps me moving forward no matter what happens.
Kenny Loggins

Things can fall apart, or threaten to, for many reasons, and then there's got to be a leap of faith. Ultimately, when you're at the edge, you have to go forward or backward; if you go forward, you have to jump together.
Yo-Yo Ma

If you cry 'forward', you must without fail make plain in what direction to go.
Anton Chekhov

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.
James Thurber

We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.
Jeremy Irons

We are all afraid for our confidence, for the future, for the world. That is the nature of the human imagination. Yet every man, every civilization, has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do.
Jacob Bronowski

It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.
Enrico Fermi

I haven't found anywhere in the world where I want to be all the time. The best of my life is the moving. I look forward to going.
Sean Connery

I'm really looking forward to, not more of the same, but a continual growth.
Ben Harper

Everyone who's serious about what they're doing must be in constant motion forward.
Ed O'Brien

I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things.
Herbie Hanc

So it's like starting over again, but I look forward to the challenge.
Lee Majors

A man of courage flees forward, in the midst of new things.
Jacques Maritain


*See sidebar menu for more Inspirational Recovery Quotes and Recovery Quotes of the Week 


picsource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lincolnian/152396707/in/photostream/

Recovery Quote Of The Week: December 16, 2011

One of these mornings you're going to rise up singing and you'll spread your wings and take to the sky...
Summertime lyrics


See sidebar menu for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes

This Week's R.I.S.E. : Be Silly, Laugh, Have Fun!

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise): Be Silly, Laugh, Have Fun.

Laughter isn't just fun, it's good for your health and improves your quality of life!
It's free, fun, can happen just about anywhere, and it doesn't require any special equipment or membership fees. 

When we're acting silly, enjoying ourselves, and laughing we actually change physiologically. Though studies are less than abundant and results are debated by many, there's no arguing that a bit of silliness and a good dose of laughter sure can make a person feel good.

Some of the physiological benefits include:

• releases endorphins (make us feel good and help decrease pain)
• facial muscles stretch
• blood flow is increased
• breath is increased and oxygenates our tissues
• immune cells increased 
• blood sugar lowers
• better sleep
• increased energy

Some of the emotional benefits include:

• decreased stress
• reduced anxiety
• increased feelings of hope
• increased creativity

ps. faking a laugh is beneficial to our health, just like faking a smile is.  


Try these to add a little silliness, fun, and laughter to your life:

• Watch a favorite (or new to you) funny movie
• Watch a funny sitcom with a friend or loved one
• Hang out with your funny friends
• Fake it. Really. Try out different laughs, be goofy, make funny faces.
• Sign up for a joke a day email. There are several online you can sign up for
• Go to a comedy show
• Play comedy charades with friends. All categories must relate to something humorous 
• Don't forget to laugh at yourself. Find the humor in mishaps, etc. 

Here's a little something to help get you started. :)





See sidebar menu for more weekly R.I.S.E.

©Weighing The Facts


sources:http://women.webmd.com/guide/give-your-body-boost-with-laughter?page=2 
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/topic/humor/benefits-humor
picsource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alinieri/3687736037/in/photostream/

Girl Standing In Front Of The Mirror: Eating Disorder Poetry

*warning: poem may be triggering

Girl Standing in Front of the Mirror

Collarbones jutted out,
Every rib defined against the starving flesh
Eyes hollow, bloodshot
Wrists cocked, trying to defy the laws of nature,
To put her fingers around her waist
Hipbones sharp as a raven’s beak
Legs thin as twigs, ready to snap
Her arms never small enough
Her cheekbones never prominent enough
Girl standing in front of the mirror,
Inching her hollow eyes over ever flaw, every imperfection
No matter the countless gags, the starvation, the exercise,
She is never perfect
Girl standing in front of the mirror,
Her hollow eyes tell it all:
Insecurity, Distortion, Desperation
Girl standing in front of the mirror,
Slowly dying in her perception of beauty and perfection

Written by: SC

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picsource: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cloudninex/4140647605/sizes/l/in/photostream/

This Week's R.I.S.E. :Self-Love Jar

This week's R.I.S.E. (Recovery Inspiration Strength Exercise) is to start a Self-Love Jar. 

Materials Needed:
*empty jar
*slips of paper (be creative or simply grab a piece of scrap paper)
*pen, pencil, or colored markers


Each day, grab a slip of paper and take a moment to:
*write one positive thing about yourself
*or words of encouragement 
*place it in the jar
Keep it positive. No negativity allowed.

Consider the jar your personal bank of self-love and encouragement. You make deposits into it that you later can withdraw as needed.

Feeling down, struggling, or using negative self-talk? Take a slip of paper out of the jar and read it. Take another. Dump it upside down on your bed, get comfy and read them all. Whatever you need, whenever you need it. 

 See sidebar menu for more R.I.S.E. from previous weeks.

©Weighing The Facts

 picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliehoffpauirphotography/5516279404/in/photostream/

Recovery Quote Of The Week: November 29, 2011

click image to enlarge
The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette.
Henry S. Hoskins


*see sidebar for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes 


picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/marlon-bunday-mmx/4753351428/in/photostream/