Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

{via etsy by Rocky Top Studio}

Jenn Gibson of Roots of She wrote a powerful post last week about holding onto things that don’t serve us. (Thanks to Mara for linking to it!)

As Jenn writes, “We hold on to a lot of shit that doesn’t serve us, doesn’t lift or light us up, that color our days with a feeling of loss or regret or scarcity.”

She gives the following examples: “Ideas, beliefs, misconceptions, old hurts and aches, values that have evolved, feelings that have changed, the thought that unless things are a certain way it’s not right or good, the idea of perfection.”

{via etsy by Tracey Capone}

I’ve written before on Weightless about the importance of not waiting to live your life until you’ve lost a certain amount of weight and gotten back into your skinny jeans. (By the way, I hate when commercials say that.)

The beauty about life is that you can start living it. Right now. With zero prerequisites.

I was reminded of this yesterday when Mara, one of my favorite bloggers, published  this incredibly powerful and practical piece. In it, she helps readers identify what it is you want and actually start living that way. It really struck a cord with me, and I knew that I had to talk about it.

As clinical psychologist Jennifer L. Taitz, Psy.D, writes in her book, End Emotional Eating, enjoying food during a difficult time is perfectly OK.

However, when we start to regularly depend on food to manage our feelings it becomes a problem. Distracting yourself with food basically tells you that “You can’t cope,” she writes. And this can kick-start and maintain your cycle of emotional eating.

Food doesn’t help you honor your feelings or figure out what those feelings even mean in the first place, according to Taitz. So you miss the valuable information your feelings are trying to give you.

And, over time, as many of us know all-too well, emotional eating also leads to confusion and shame, Taitz writes. (A whole lot of shame.)

{via etsy by Patricia Henderson}

Today I’m honored to present an inspiring and empowering guest post by Shaye Boddington, a 26-year-old woman who’s recovered from bulimia after a 12-year struggle. Below, she shares how she finally found help, overcame the shame of the disorder, and the two important steps that contributed to her recovery.

My bulimia recovery. Wow, it was a roller coaster for sure – such a learning experience! In many ways, I was learning a whole new way of living – so there is much to tell.

My bulimia recovery started off with a realization that there was no way in hell I could do it alone. I had tried that for over 5 years with promises to myself every night  “Tomorrow I will not binge and purge.” The next morning by 8 a.m., I would be zoned out plowing through the pantry.

Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts the week on a positive note!

Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy to feature it. I’d love to hear from you!

According to Deborah Putnoi, in her book, The Drawing Mind: Silence Your Inner Critic and Release Your Creative Spirit, “…by engaging a part of yourself — part of your brain — through drawing, you will discover new things about yourself, your connection with yourself, and your world.”

The Drawing Mind is open, curious and nonjudgemental. Connecting to that part of ourselves can help to improve a negative body image, which lives in judgement, rigidity and narrow thinking.

Today is International No Diet Day. To celebrate, I’m reposting last year’s piece on everything from the cons of dieting to my experiences with dieting to how you can spend the day. I hope you find it helpful, and celebrate along with me!

Dieting is not only unhealthy, but it makes us deeply distrust ourselves. Which I think is one of the saddest consequences.

That’s why I’m thrilled to highlight International No Diet Day – which is today!  It was started in 1992 by Mary Evans Young in England. And now is celebrated all over the world.

Sharon Haywood, co-editor of Adios Barbie, has a fantastic post on the site about this day. It gives readers more details about the day and what it means – and why dieting is damaging.

She writes:

Since 1992, May 6th has been designated International No Diet Day (INDD). This body-loving campaign is associated with combating eating disorders and honoring the people who have suffered because of one. For this day, we can thank Mary Evans Young, a UK feminist, the founder of the British anti-diet movement, Diet Breakers, and author of the best-selling book, Diet Breaking: Having It All Without Having To Diet (Hodder & Stoughton, 1995).  She started INDD after recovering from anorexia, although the day isn’t just about eating disorders. This movement draws attention to the fact that a great many of us suffer from disordered thinking regarding food and our bodies, not just those afflicted with anorexia and bulimia.

INDD is more about not depriving yourself for a 24-hour period. It beckons you to make peace with your body and your relationship with food. And not only for your mental health. Various studies show that yo-yo dieting has been found to be damaging to one’s physical health in conditions such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, and clogged arteries.[1] What’s more is that investigators have evidence that illustrate a significant correlation between thinness and shorter lives.[2]

Interesting how we rarely hear about this research. How we rarely hear that dieting has a failure rate of about 98 percent. That people tend to gain the weight back and …

We’re a fast-paced culture that tends to rush through our days in the name of productivity. We also have different types of technology at our disposal most minutes of the day, so we’re usually tuned in while we do everything.

Eating is a common activity that gets rushed. Or even if we take our time, we eat while doing everything else, including watching TV, talking on the phone, reading or working. (When I’m eating lunch, you can find me right by my laptop, working away.)

That’s why I’m excited to announce that Psych Central is hosting a Slow Eating Challenge. We’re encouraging readers to experience — truly experience — just one meal in the next few days — and then tell us about it! You can learn more here.

{via etsy by Katerina}

Yesterday, Deb Burgard shared her eye-opening insight on dieting and the idea that ditching dieting leads to out-of-control eating. (It doesn’t.)

Often, the hardest part about giving up dieting is its allure (even though many of us realize that it’s a false and fake one). The allure of attractiveness, happiness, health, success. The allure of a better and more exciting life.

Today, Burgard talks about the cons of dieting (which are many and quite profound) and how to finally stop dieting. She shatters the allure, and shatters the myths that dieting is something you do because you truly care about yourself and want a healthier life — both pervasive ideas perpetuated by weight-loss commercials.

Her response is truly thought-provoking, and provides some great ideas, too.

Again, Burgard, PhD, is a psychologist specializing in eating and body image concerns across the weight spectrum, and one of the founders of the Health at Every Size(r) model.

You can learn more about Burgard at her website, and check out her must-read posts at the Health At Every Size blog.

{Deb Burgard; love this picture!}

There’s a common myth in our society that if we don’t diet, we’ll pillage our pantries and eat everything in sight.

We’re taught that dieting is a must. That it’s the only way to truly be healthy. That it’s vital in order to keep ourselves in line. That we’ll become good girls and boys who eat good things.

We’re taught that food rules are important, and even mandatory. We need them. If we don’t have them, then we’re rolling the dice with our health, appearance and even happiness.

Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. But it’s a myth that’s everywhere — on TV, on magazine covers and even in our own homes. And it’s a myth that keeps many of us stuck in the inevitable cycle of yo-yo dieting, a cycle that’s truly unhealthy.

That’s why I’m beyond thrilled to introduce you to the wise and wonderful Deb Burgard, PhD, a psychologist specializing in eating and body image concerns across the weight spectrum, and one of the founders of the Health at Every Size(r) model.

Below, she reveals the truth behind this pervasive and insidious myth, along with what it means to eat intuitively.

Tomorrow Burgard talks about the consequences of dieting and how people can finally stop dieting.

You can learn more about Burgard at her website, and read her thought-provoking, powerful posts at the Health At Every Size blog.