Here is part two of my interview with Mara, who writes one of my favorite blogs, Medicinal Marzipan. It’s a blog about body image, healthy living and learning to love our bodies. Mara is always honest and insightful, and I’m so grateful to share her wise and inspiring words with readers.

Below, Mara talks about the hardest parts of overcoming disordered eating, the anger that once consumed her, refusing to wish for something she doesn’t have and so much more.

I’m super thrilled to feature a three-part interview series with Mara from the powerful blog Medicinal Marzipan, which has become a fast favorite. I’m so thankful to Mara for sharing her struggles, triumphs and wisdom with Weightless readers. She’s truly an inspiration!

Here’s an excerpt from a recent guest post she did about blogging and growing:

Mistakes are endearing. Mistakes are honest. Within my own life, and my blog, I value honesty above all else. When I look at myself and my life, I no longer demand perfection, but I do demand honesty. That is why I work my hardest to blog about all of the off days too – the days where I don’t love myself very much or feel very good about my body, the days when I am depressed, the days when I think mean and hateful thoughts – because those days are all a part of learning to love myself more and grow into a better person. No one person has it all figured out, so don’t forget that we are all human and all doing the best that we can.

Every Monday features a tip, exercise, inspiring quote or other tidbit to help boost your body image. For many of us, Mondays are tough. We may feel anxious and stressed out, anticipating an arduous week, especially if we didn’t get much rest and relaxation during the weekend. These kinds of feelings don’t create the best environment for improving one’s body image. In fact, you might be harder on yourself and easily frustrated. You might even feel like you’re walking on egg shells – with yourself! With these posts, I hope you’ll have a healthier and happier body image day, that’ll last throughout the week.

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. It can be anything you do that’s healthy and helps boost your body image. I’d love to hear from you!

A few weeks ago, I posted my notes from Golda Poretsky’s free teleclass on healing from emotional eating; today, I wanted to share with you more insight from another teleclass on body image and feeling sexy at any size. Below are Golda’s tips.

I’m incredibly thankful to the blog The Binge Diary for giving me the Beautiful Blogger Award! It’s such an awesome surprise. I really appreciate the award, and am seriously honored.

To claim this wonderful award, I need to:

• Tell you seven things about myself that you might not know.
• And pass on the award to seven beautiful bloggers.

I have a confession to make: I feel like I’ve had a mini-relapse, or maybe a small setback.

Therese Borchard’s editor Holly Lebowitz Rossi tells her to write from wherever she is, not from where she wants to be. This is authentic and most helpful to readers, she says. So that’s what I’ll try to do today.

I’m a huge fan of Sally Mcgraw and her blog, Already Pretty. It may have something to do with the fact that we both have a mild obsession with fashion.

But Already Pretty isn’t just a fantastic style blog, it’s also a blog about body image and body diversity. Sally’s tag line truly says it all: “helping you recognize your own beauty one post at a time.”

Every Monday features a tip, exercise, inspiring quote or other tidbit to help boost your body image. For many of us, Mondays are tough. We may feel anxious and stressed out, anticipating an arduous week, especially if we didn’t get much rest and relaxation during the weekend. These kinds of feelings don’t create the best environment for improving one’s body image. In fact, you might be harder on yourself and easily frustrated. You might even feel like you’re walking on egg shells – with yourself! With these posts, I hope you’ll have a healthier and happier body image day, that’ll last throughout the week.

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. It can be anything you do that’s healthy and helps boost your body image. I’d love to hear from you!

Journaling has a variety of benefits. In 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food, clinical psychologist Susan Albers, Psy.D, talks about how journaling can help with emotional eating. She includes this quote from a woman named Olivia.

I’m clueless when it comes to my emotions. Journaling helps me understand my true motives for stress eating. When I write about my struggles, I often discover that I overeat because I am anxious about something. Eating calms my nerves. As I write, I don’t judge myself. I just try to understand why I fell, hook, line, and sinker for emotional eating again. I find clues for how I can be better prepared next time.

Last week, I had the great pleasure of listening to a free teleclass by Golda Poretsky, one of my favorite people and really a Jill of all trades when it comes to helping men and women eat intuitively, love their bodies and lead healthy lives. She owns and operates a wellness company aptly called Body Love Wellness, and has a great blog by the same name. Golda offers many free teleclasses (and other great things), so if you’d like to learn more, sign up to receive her newsletter here.

Today, I wanted to share with you some of my notes from the teleclass. Golda covered tons of important insights and advice but I’ll just share several snippets, including one of her favorite techniques for connecting with your body and the essential vitamin many of us are missing – and how to get it.

Here’s part two of my interview with Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, award-winning dietitian and co-author of the must-read Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works.

Again, I’m a huge fan of Evelyn and her pioneering work. I think we’re in desperate need of positive professionals who teach us how to have a health relationship with food, instead of furthering the idea that food is the enemy, that there are good or bad foods and that we must focus on weight loss.

Evelyn’s work focuses on listening to our bodies and respecting them, on accepting ourselves and finally ditching the ever-damaging diet mentality. I love that!

Below, Evelyn talks more about intuitive eating and the practical ways to start incorporating this way of eating into your life.

Today, I’m really excited to feature my interview with Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD, award-winning dietitian and co-author of Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works. I absolutely love this book and think it’s a must-read for everyone.

Nowadays, I think we’ve really gotten away from true healthy eating, and moved to being obsessed with food, fearing food or seeing it as a necessary evil. We’ve equated dieting with healthy eating, even though it’s ineffective and causes us to develop an unhealthy relationship with food in the first place – and to ignore our bodies’ true needs.