I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Ohebshalom of Radiant Living Wellness, a New York-based wellness center that offers a variety of programs, including nutritional counseling and yoga. One of the things that I liked about Nicole’s philosophy is her focus on living a healthy, pleasurable life, where we truly listen to our bodies. It’s a life without restrictive diets and punishing exercise.

On her website, she says, “Instead of following a rigid diet that you would be a slave to, begin to experiment and experience so that you can become the master of your own body.”

Below, she talks about healthy eating, self-acceptance and practical ways to “feel alive.”

1. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

I have an international wellness practice for women that consists of group programs and private practice.  It is a unique wellness program designed for women with a feminine approach towards ancient wisdom with modern technology.  It’s an integrative healing approach to wellness that encompasses the transformation of body, mind and spirit through the mind-set, communication, nutrition, yoga/meditation, lifestyle and more.

2. What are some common misconceptions you run into about food, healthy eating and/or wellness?

Many people are unrealistic when they desire to eat healthy, lose weight or create a more balanced lifestyle. One misconception is that many people believe once they can control their diet by a very restrictive eating habit mentality then they can go out to enjoy life and fulfill their desires.

As a society, we hold a linear mentality by using terms of “good” and “bad.” I believe this holds people back from radiating who they truly are and all they want to experience in life.  Simply, a mindset of good and bad creates a diet with eating habits that causes people to go overboard, restrict, or worry about every morsel.

3. It seems that as a society we’ve gotten healthy eating confused with dieting. Can you explain the differences between the two and what healthy eating truly is?

Healthy eating is to go beyond physical hunger and meet the hunger that resides within, listening to your body and taking care of …

Body image goes beyond your weight, size and silhouette. “Body image can change based on what you do each day and how your body functions. It’s important to widen your definition to include more than just your appearance,” writes Ann Kearney-Cooke in her book, Change Your Mind, Change Your Body.

Self-care is important to having a healthy body image (and leading a healthy life). According to Kearney-Cooke, “engaging in activities every day to comfort, soothe, relax, pamper and strengthen your body will help you create a lifestyle that supports and insists on acceptance of your body.”

But, oftentimes, we don’t know where to start, especially if we’ve spent years hating our bodies and feeling that our figures (and we, in general) are unworthy of good care. Kearney-Cooke has an excellent exercise in her book that can slowly help lift even the most deep-seated body dissatisfaction. (We’ve already talked about another unique exercise from Kearney-Cooke that helps you empathize with your body.)

The Exercise

To nurture and promote a positive body image, create a log of your daily self-care activities. You may be saying to yourself that you’re too busy for such an exercise, but it doesn’t have to be time-consuming and it plants the seed for nourishing yourself.

So how does it work?

Either throughout the day or once a day (maybe you carve out 10 minutes every evening), write down in a notebook specific moments when you’ve done something good for yourself and felt good about your body. Your activities don’t have to be grand gestures. Big or small, every moment counts and helps toward improving your body image.

In the book, Kearney-Cooke includes the following examples of activities to log in:

“I taught my husband how to touch my body in a more nurturing way.”

“I bought a form-fitting dress that made me feel sexy.”

“I turned off the TV when a comedian made fun of fat women.”

“I used a creamy lotion on my dry legs. Instead of itching, they felt nourished, sleek and smooth.”

“I looked in the mirror this morning and thought, ‘You look so good today.’”

“I got up and danced at the party. What fun!”

Also, record moments when you’ve listened to …

I’ve already had the great opportunity to speak with several women about their recovery from eating disorders and emotional eating (you can find the interviews here). I hope to regularly feature Q&As with individuals who’ve recovered from eating disorders, binge eating, negative body image or any kind of disordered eating. If you’d like to share your story of recovery, I’d love to hear from you! You can email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com.

5. What were the toughest parts of your recovery and how did you get through them?

I think some of the hardest parts were when I had began eating normally again and my friends and family stopped paying attention. When I was sick (and at the beginning of recovery) my friends would watch me like a hawk when I ate (and when I was finished).  When they figured that I was “okay,” I struggled with the temptations of indulging my ED behaviors.  In recovery I learned that I was going to be on my own with these temptations for the rest of my life and it was up to ME to make the choice to stay healthy.

I also struggled a lot at my grad school job (at a bar), which was a very triggering place.  Not only was I surrounded by terrible (albeit delicious) food all day, but everyone drank a TON after shifts.  It was a very unhealthy place for me to be, but I had few employment options while in school full time, so I had to stick it out.  It wasn’t until I finally quit that I truly got well again.

6. Do you still struggle with eating disordered thoughts and behaviors? If so, how do you overcome them?

Absolutely.  There is no “cure” for an eating disorder.  Successful recovery is about making the choice every …

I’ve already had the great opportunity to speak with several women about their recovery from eating disorders and emotional eating (you can find the interviews here). I hope to regularly feature Q&As with individuals who’ve recovered from eating disorders, binge eating, negative body image or any kind of disordered eating. If you’d like to share your story of recovery, I’d love to hear from you! You can email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com.

Today, I’m thrilled to include an interview with Becky Oot, who blogs at Delicious Ambiguity. Becky originally contacted me about a great idea for a blog post for Weightless, and mentioned her recovery from an eating disorder. I asked if she’d be willing to share her story, and she graciously said yes. Below is Part 1 of the interview, where Becky talks candidly about her struggles, the keys to her recovery and what inspired her to get better.

1. How and when did your eating disorder start? What do you think contributed to it?

My eating disorder has a long and twisted history, so I am not specific on the actual date of it beginning.  My therapists have generally marked the beginning of it as when I used my allowance to buy diet pills at age 13.  But it would be years before the actual fasting, bingeing and purging began.

My mom always had weird eating habits (skipping meals, bingeing in her room, never eating dessert) and I think her example certainly put some ideas in my head.  She always served us healthy, well balanced meals, but it was her eating that seemed to throw it all off. At that point, my eating wasn’t “disordered” so to speak, but my body image and my relationship to food definitely was.  I snuck food into my room and hid it. I was too self conscious to exercise.  I got made fun of in school for being overweight.  I was overwhelmed with shame and, like many others, I used food for comfort.  I went on like this through middle and high school.

In college, I was on the crew team and for the first three years, I was so healthy …

What would your body parts say if they could talk?

What would they reveal about how you’ve treated them, about what you’ve said to them?

These may seem like silly or strange questions, but they’re part of an important exercise that may help you see your body in a different way. You may gain some much-needed insight and improve your body image.

In Change Your Mind, Change Your Body, co-author Ann Kearney-Cooke, Ph.D, the director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute, asks women to pretend to be the body part they’re most dissatisfied with and let it do the talking.

Here’s what one woman’s stomach said:

“My stomach told me, ‘Listen, I have held three of your children and they are one of the joys of your life. You’ve been divorced, but you have a great relationship with your children and their life started inside of me. I’m getting tired of being criticized and put down. You can’t have the stomach you used to have, but without your stomach now, you wouldn’t have those children either.’ I never looked at it this way before.”

“Participants tell me that this exercise helps target ways to be more loving and kind to their bodies,” writes Kearney-Cooke.

Give it a try:

Think of the body part you’re most dissatisfied with. Is it your belly? Your thighs? Your arms? Your hips? Then, pretend to be that part. Take a piece of paper and write down the answers to these questions:

“What is it like to be a body part in Sally’s body?

How does Sally treat me?

What would I want to tell Sally? What do I need from her at this point in my life?”

If you’d like, share your answers below! Feel free to do the exercise for several body parts.

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Today, I’m happy to feature a book review by reader Kate Thieda, who shared her story of eating disorder recovery with us last month here and here. Below, she’s written an excellent review of Goodbye Ed, Hello Me by Jenni Schaefer. Thanks so much, Kate, for your review!! Oh, Marsha Hudnall over at the fantastic blog A Weight Lifted has included an interview with me today. I was thrilled to answer Marsha’s questions (I interviewed Marsha for Weightless in November). Please check it out and comment, if you like. Thanks!

For those who struggle with eating disorders, recovery can seem impossible and even unimaginable—how could life be any different than it is now? Stories of those who have triumphed and gone on to be happy, healthy and successful can be hard to come by.

Enter Jenni Schaefer, author of Life Without Ed, and her new book, Goodbye Ed, Hello Me, sharing her story of full recovery and successful “divorce” from “Ed,” her eating disorder.

Goodbye Ed, Hello Me is written in the same friendly, easy-to-read, short-chaptered format as Life Without Ed. Schaefer chose the premise of describing the stages of building a new, loving relationship with herself—as opposed to life during her “marriage” to Ed—as her structure for the book.

Part 1 is “Happily Divorced: Life Without Ed.” An important distinction Schaefer makes in this book is the difference between being “in recovery” and being “recovered” from an eating disorder. She acknowledges that life is always in flux, and therefore being “in recovery” can signify a process, but has chosen to declare she is “recovered” in order to permanently evict Ed from her life. Schafer also challenges readers to separate themselves from the voice of their eating disorders, saying the “missing piece” from her first book was this advice: “Don’t blame Ed for anything.” Ultimately, the choice of whether to listen to what Ed says is your responsibility. To have a successful “divorce,” you need to take charge.

Part 2 is “Being Single: Making It on Your Own.” One of the most confusing, and at …