Cues to Eat Healthy
Most of my blogs are on the
psychology of eating—the why and how of it. However, there’s a different
set of whys and hows that are based on perceptions regarding food—how it’s
presented or served and why our appetites react as they do. In addition to
changing our brains, we can change our environment to eat more healthfully.
According to author Brian Wansink, a
professor in the fields of consumer behavior and nutritional science (“Fooled
by Food,” Nutrition Action Healthletter,
4/13, pp. 3-7), people overeat or choose non-nutritious over nutritious foods
for many reasons, some of which are outside of...
Source: Normal Eating - August 2, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Current versus Memory-Triggered Emotions
Clients sometimes get confused when
I encourage them to experience all their emotions, yet unconsciously discourage them from
dwelling on feelings that trickle up unbidden from the past. This advice is a
bit confusing, I admit. So, let me explain.
There’s a difference, at times
obvious and at times subtle, between emotions that spring from a current event
or interaction and those that are triggered by memory. For instance, if a
friend is often late and, because of this, you end up entering a movie after it
has started, you may have appropriate feelings of annoyance or anger. You’d
want to connect to these ...
Source: Normal Eating - July 29, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Feeling versus Being
Here’s a mistaken belief I hear all
the time from clients and Food and Feelings message
board members: Because I feel a certain way, it must be true. I feel fat, I feel unlovable, I
feel unsuccessful, I feel inadequate, I feel defective. Hello,
feeling isn’t being.
I’m all for connecting with emotions
and skillfully using them to navigate life, but when you say I’m feeling any of the above, what does
that really mean? Do the preceding statements equal I am fat, I am unlovable, I am unsuccessful, I
am inadequate, I am defective? Because that’s what you’re
telling yourself. Where’s the proof? When pe...
Source: Normal Eating - July 26, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Koenig Event Tonight!
Space is still available. Register now for this free event!
FREE
CALL How Nice Girls Finish Fat: Put Yourself First and Change Your Eating
Forever!Angela Minelli International | Emotional Eating Coaching | Enzyme
Nutrition Therapy
Free Call: How nice girls finish fat--and how not to! (Source: Normal Eating)
Source: Normal Eating - July 24, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
We're Always Faking It Til We Make It
A debate that comes up frequently on my Food and Feelings
message board is whether telling ourselves things we don’t believe—that
we’re lovable or deserving—is foolish self-deception or the way to encourage
change in thinking or behavior. This is another way of asking if, as the AA
saying goes, it works to fake it til we make it.
Truth is, all learning is through "faking it til you make it.” Do you
think I told my initial psychotherapy clients how uncertain I was that I could
help them because I lacked clinical experience and often felt as if I had no
clue what I was doing? As you were acquiring your...
Source: Normal Eating - July 22, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Doctors Visits and Weight Talk
Many disregulated eaters who are
heavy have had difficulty talking with medical professionals due to their
treatment of “overweight” patients. We know from anecdotal experience that this
is true, and now a study in the journal Obesity
gives us proof. But don’t despair, you can
learn to get the most out of medical visits.
Says Dr. Kimberly A. Gudzune of
John Hopkins School of Medicine where the study was done (Sarasota Herald-Tribune (5/7/13), “The bedside manner may improve
with slimmer patients. Doctors seemed just a bit nicer to their normal-weight
patients, showing more empathy and warmth in their c...
Source: Normal Eating - July 19, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Koenig Interview on How to SuperChange Your LIfe
Here's an interview I did today in which I talk a bit about my eating and weight history and also about the approach of eating "normally": Koenig SuperChangeYour Life Interview.
Best,
Karen R. Koenig (Source: Normal Eating)
Source: Normal Eating - July 15, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Cultivating Indifference
You may believe that hate is the
opposite of love and that there’s no alternative but to love or dislike someone
or something, like food. What if there’s another affective state you could
cultivate, an underrated, not often talked about alternative which would bring
you peace of mind? There is and it’s called indifference.
When I talk with clients about
cultivating indifference, they generally have little idea whatI mean. We so often think of indifference as a negative emotion, one to be
avoided like apathy. We want to have passions and strong feelings. It’s so easy
to fall into love or into hate becaus...
Source: Normal Eating - July 15, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Koenig interview on how to stop being overly nice and love yourself to change your eating
Here's the link to the upcoming interview on Wednesday,
July 24th,
2013 @8pm EST/5pm PST on how to stop being a nice girl and love yourself: Koenig interview. Or paste this-- http://angelaminelli.com/nice-girls-finish-fat-put-change-eating/--in your browser. I hope you can join me. Men are welcome too!Best,Karen R. Koenig (Source: Normal Eating)
Source: Normal Eating - July 15, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Being Guided by Your Appetite Wherever You Go
Many disregulated eaters are wildly influenced by how folks
around them eat. If people eat healthfully, they do too. If folks eat carelessly,
they struggle with how to eat or give up and go with the mindless flow. Fact is,
we carry our appetite with us wherever
we go to always guide our eating.
I was reminded of this truth when
we had friends staying with us who were about to visit other friends and
remarked on the difference in eating experiences in both places. My husband and
I generally eat healthfully by choosing foods which nourish our bodies and we focus
on satisfying food experiences. In contrast, my ...
Source: Normal Eating - July 12, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Changing Beauty Standards
I was lunching with a friend who
mentioned having read a biography of Lucrezia Borgia, an Italian femme fatale, which
described the extreme lengths women went to in order to have a ghostly white
complexion, the epitome of beauty back in the 1400 and 1500s. Frankly, they make as much sense as what women do nowadays to be thin.
Here’s the skin beautifying
description that Sarah Bradford provides in LUCREZIA BORGIA—LIFE, LOVE AND
DEATH IN RENAISSANCE ITALY (page 146). “Foreheads were to be kept high, white
and serene by hair removal, by applying a past of mastic overnight. Perhaps the
most revolting beauty...
Source: Normal Eating - July 8, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
When People Tell You What You "Need" To Do
I’ve written
often on the dangers of disregulated eaters insisting they “must, should, ought,
need, etc.” to do things. These words are prone to kick up a backlash and only
start you fighting with yourself, exactly the wrong strategy when you’re trying
to make healthful food choices. Likewise when people insist you “need” to do
something. Learning how to handle others’ demands will help you make wiser
decisions.
This subject came
up with a client whose dietician—a helpful, caring, woman—told her that she “needed”
to cut back on portion size, stay away from high-sugar and –fat foods,...
Source: Normal Eating - June 28, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Vacation notice
I will be on vacation and not blogging the week of July first. If you're itching for something to read to keep you focused on healing your food problems, I encourage you to browse through my nearly 700 blogs.
Best,
Karen R. Koenig (Source: Normal Eating)
Source: Normal Eating - June 28, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Breaking News--There is No Child Within
I hate to break it to you, but
there is no “child within you" or “inner child.” The term has been around for decades,
and I hear it often when talking with clients. If you’re willing to give up
this concept, you can replace it with one that is more constructive and
healing.
If you’re an adult, you can’t be a
child. You have the brain and other body components of an adult. Sure, you may
act like a child, think immaturely, feel childish, or be totally in touch with
and affected by your positive or negative memories from childhood—but you can’t
do this as anything but the adult you are. There is no ...
Source: Normal Eating - June 24, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
Confidence versus Discernment in Making Eating Decisions
Many disregulated
eaters insist they can’t possibly resolve their eating problems without being
confident that they will. Although confidence is touted in generating success,
it can be a red herring. Truth is, you can be confident and still make poor decisions,
as you well know when you consider the times you’ve felt absolutely certain that
you’ll never binge or diet again. So, agreed, confidence is not the key to
recovery?
Instead, how
about the quality of discernment
which is synonymous with judgment, clear-sightedness, discrimination, and
insight? Now there are some useful qualities. Your poor track re...
Source: Normal Eating - June 21, 2013 Category: Eating Disorders Authors: eatnormalnow Source Type: blogs
