{via etsy by Amanda Keaton}

Today in America it’s Thanksgiving! Here are a few ways you might enjoy the holiday. If you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you can use these tips for your other celebrations. Whatever you do today, I hope it’s wonderful!

When many of us think of the holidays, the last thing that comes to mind is nourishing or well-fed. Instead it’s more like stress, stuffed and sinking mood.

I know the holidays can be a tough time for many of us for many reasons. For instance there’s the stress of hosting dinners, interacting with difficult family members, traveling, getting gifts and running around trying to check off lots more responsibilities.

That’s why I’m honored to present today’s interview with Rachel Cole, a life coach and retreat leader who always inspires me.

Below, she shares what it means to have a well-fed holiday along with how to cope with your emotions, eat in an attuned away and much more.

She also shares tidbits about “Wisdom Notes for a Well-Fed Holiday,” which she created to support individuals in having a nourishing holiday.  (I signed up, and I can’t wait.)

{via etsy by Joy}

One of the most powerful realizations I’ve had about our relationship with food is that many of us use food to fulfill a variety of needs.

I definitely used to. I ate when I was bored. When I was lonely. When I was excited. When I craved comfort. When I felt achingly disappointed.

When food clearly couldn’t give me what I truly needed or yearned for.

In part two of my interview with Christie Inge, the creator of The Peaceful Eating Kit – The Tools You Need to End the War with Food, she talks eloquently about fulfilling our needs and truly, truly nourishing ourselves.

Also, don’t forget that Christie is generously offering Weightless readers 25 percent off the The Peaceful Eating Kit. Just enter the word “weightless” for the discount code when you’re checking out.

{via etsy by Sandra Proudman}

For many of us our relationship with food is a complicated one, characterized by a kind of push and pull. We either restrict what we eat and count calories, for example. Or we say the heck with it, and we eat the foods that we once deemed forbidden — without taking our body’s cues into account or paying attention to pleasure.

Either way, we end up at war with ourselves. And we end up with very little nourishment.

Today, I’m honored to present my interview with Christie Inge, who’s recently created The Peaceful Eating Kit – The Tools You Need to End the War with Food. Throughout the years I’ve learned a lot from Christie and her work and this toolkit is no exception.

Below, in part one of our interview, Christie explains what peaceful eating entails and why diets just don’t work.

Also, Christie is generously offering Weightless readers 25 percent off the The Peaceful Eating Kit. Just enter the word “weightless” for the discount code when you’re checking out.

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two!

Many of us worry that enjoying food will somehow open Pandora’s box, and lead to out-of-control eating. But it’s OK — and important — to like eating.

Eating foods we don’t like very much leaves us feeling unsatisfied and wanting more. In fact, for many people it leads to overeating and then guilt.

Not enjoying eating can also negatively affect your nutrition. As nutritionist Michelle Allison explained in our interview:

Ellyn Satter, the dietitian and therapist who developed the eating competence model, says “When the pleasure goes out of eating, nutrition suffers.”

It means that, when you’re not enjoying food and the process of eating it – and also if you don’t like your body enough to take care of yourself with food – your health and the nutritional quality of your diet, over the long run, will be poorer.

In their book Intuitive Eating, authors and registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch feature a valuable 5-step process to regain the enjoyment of eating.

{via etsy by Anita Waters}

A while ago when I asked you guys what people you’d like me to interview, there are were many requests for Michelle Allison, aka The Fat Nutritionist. I’ve been a big fan of Allison’s blog and work for a long time now. Her approach to eating is sensible, flexible, fun and truly nourishing. She also supports Health At Every Size.

I’m really honored to present my interview with Allison, who, again, I think, is doing incredible and very necessary work. We live in a very restrictive culture when it comes to eating, and it’s so refreshing (and a relief!) to know that people like Allison are helping individuals mend their relationships with food and their bodies.

Below, Allison reveals the biggest myths about healthy eating, what inspired her to become a nutritionist and why she picked the name “The Fat Nutritionist.”

This will be a three-part series, so stay tuned tomorrow and Thursday for the rest.

{via etsy by Tsuki}

Do you find that you’ve eaten a few bites or even an entire meal without actually tasting it?

Maybe it’s because you’re busy and constantly eating on the go. Maybe it’s because you get sucked into distractions like the TV, phone or computer. Or maybe it’s because you’ve spent years dieting, which has blunted your taste buds.

Mindful eating helps us to slow down and actually savor the foods we’re eating.

When we slow down, we can enjoy our food. We can determine if we even like the food we’re eating in the first place. When we pay closer attention to what we’re eating, we can make conscious choices that nourish our bodies.

{via etsy by April}

Sometimes focusing on food — such as undereating or overeating — or our bodies — such as pursuing thinness — is easier than dealing with negative emotions, particularly sadness.

But we can learn to release and cope with sadness. Feeling our feelings is actually a skill, not a talent that only some of us are born with.

Here are a few ways to deal with sadness.

{via etsy by LianXiang}

Something I often hear from readers (and have experienced myself) is the feeling of guilt around eating certain foods. The gnawing, palpable, feel-it-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach unease that arrives after you’ve eaten something you thought you weren’t supposed to.

It’s a guilt that can linger even after you’ve decided to ditch the diet mentality. For instance, it might pop up after having a piece of cake, a plate of pasta or a bowl of chips and dip.

What I’ve realized is that we don’t deserve to feel guilty. (Umm, we haven’t done anything wrong!) We deserve to feel peace around food and our choices — and to enjoy eating.

“The dieting lifestyle is akin to taking a knife and cutting the connection that is your body’s only line of communication with your head,” writes clinical psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD, in her book Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food. 

In other words, “Diets can inhibit your ability to accurately decode your body’s messages and feedback,” she says. (Like your hunger and satiety signals.) Diets are also detrimental to our emotional, mental and physical well-being, she says.

But even if you know that dieting is destructive, giving it up, especially in a culture that extols and advertises restriction, can be really hard.