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!

How many of you mainly experience your body on the outside, striving to improve various physical attributes but rarely feeling your body?

If this were a classroom, I feel like tons of hands would shoot up.

Now, how many of you truly experience your body from within?

Perhaps only a few of you would keep your hands raised, right?

It’s been a while since I’ve written a “Minding the Magazines” post, where we examine the damaging messages that women’s magazines perpetuate. And, with all the usual suspects – articles on bikini bods and hawk-like watching of your diet this summer – it’s certainly about time.

Here’s part two of my interview with Cheryl Kerrigan, eating disorder survivor and author of Telling ED NO! and Other Practical Tools to Conquer Your Eating Disorder and Find Freedom.

Below, Cheryl reveals how she deals with her emotions in healthy ways, her advice for loved ones, what to do if you’re losing hope and more. Her words aren’t just wise and insightful but very inspiring. Always, always, always remember, not to give up hope.

Today, I’m thrilled to present part one of my interview with author, speaker and eating disorder survivor Cheryl Kerrigan. Cheryl is the author of Telling ED NO! and Other Practical Tools to Conquer Your Eating Disorder and Find Freedom.

Below, we talked about her book and road to recovery. Cheryl began struggling with eating disorder symptoms at five years old, and, for about 20 years, viewed ED as her world. Her story is another inspiring one that shows it doesn’t matter how long you’ve struggled, you can recover. No matter how strong it seems ED is, you are stronger. I’m grateful to Cheryl for sharing her story.

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!

Having a positive body image also means respecting your body. So what does respecting your body look like?

“Respecting your body means treating it with dignity, and meeting its basic needs,” write registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in their book, Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works. “Many of our clients treat their pets with more respect than their own bodies – they feed them, take them out for walks, and are kind to them.” Wow, that’s a powerful statement, and, unfortunately, one that’s true for so many of us.

Today, I’m featuring part two of my interview with Alexis, who writes the wonderful blog Surfacing After Silence. I’m really grateful that Alexis was willing to share her story with us, and I truly appreciate her honesty.

Below, Alexis talks about the ups and downs of her recovery, what she’s learned, how families can help, what recovery means to her and more.

I regularly feature Q&As with individuals who’ve recovered from eating disorders, binge eating, negative body image and 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 want to share with you another story of recovery. This story comes from Alexis, who writes the eloquent blog Surfacing After Silence.

Below, Alexis talks about why she started her blog, what precipitated her eating disorder and what propelled and finally led to her recovery. What I find especially inspiring — just one of the things — is that Alexis went through several hospitalizations and outpatient treatments, but she didn’t give up. And she recovered.

Since we haven’t had a body image tip for a few Mondays now, I wanted to kick-start this post with a bang — and obviously on a Tuesday.

So here are 40 ways to help you improve your body image from Weightless. Look at this as your body image arsenal. Some of these are things you can do instantly to feel better, while others will help you boost your body image over time.