{the awesome More of Me to Love logo}

Yesterday, I introduced you to Jay Solomon, co-founder of the fantastic website More of Me to Love, a positive place that helps people of all shapes and sizes live healthier, more fulfilling lives.

Solomon regularly writes about size acceptance and Health At Every Size. He also writes about religion and popular culture — such as his book The Zen of South Park.

Below, in the second part of our interview, Solomon talks more about weight stigma — and how you can help to fight it! — changing our society’s damaging standards and much more.

I’ve loved the website More of Me to Love for a long time. It’s a positive and inspiring space that provides valuable insight on building a healthier body image and life — for everyone. Its blogs are written by experts who offer tons of helpful tools on everything from nourishing your body to finding movement you love.

So today I’m thrilled to present my interview with its co-founder Jay Solomon. As Solomon says, More of Me to Love is “a place for people of all sizes to learn to love their bodies and themselves.” Along with his wife and team, Solomon has spent three years building this valuable site.

Solomon has studied and written about the importance of rights, respect and acceptance for all people. In addition to writing about religion and popular culture, including his first book, The Zen of South Park, Solomon writes and blogs about Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size to stop discrimination however he can.

Below, he reveals why he started More of Me to Love and clears up the many myths behind Health At Every Size.

(By the way, here’s more info about that picture up top.)

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Yesterday, Julie Norman, a registered dietician, yoga instructor and Health At Every Size Supporter, talked about how women can heal their body image and food issues.

Today, in part two of our interview, Norman offers insight into the biggest nutrition myths, how to eat mindfully and why yoga helps to heal a negative body image. She also lists some of her favorite yoga resources. (By the way, I’d like to add Anna’s Curvy Yoga to the list. She’s amazing!)

Check out Norman’s website to learn more about the great work she’s doing.

Weeks ago, I was browsing the excellent More of Me to Love blog and came across Julie Norman. As soon as I read her website, I knew that I had to interview her for Weightless.

Norman is a registered dietician, yoga teacher and Health At Every Size supporter. She helps women heal both their body image insecurities and negative relationships with food.

Below, Norman discusses how readers can improve how they experience their bodies, make peace with food and interpret nutritional info.

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two!

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It’s hard enough being an adult in today’s world, filled with weight-loss and diet commercials, airbrushed images, a relentless emphasis on appearance and an obsession with dieting and shame around eating.

Being a girl? Probably even more confusing and potentially damaging and demoralizing.

As I wrote in an older post on Weightless, tween and teen girls are just starting to form to their identities and figure out the world. They’re trying to make friends, yearning to belong and fit in, maybe even being bullied, dealing with a changing body, dealing with academic and other social pressures and trying to make sense of an often contradictory and damaging culture.

So what can parents and caregivers do to help girls grow up with a healthy sense of self?

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Last week was “Fat Talk Free Week.” Today I wanted to continue the conversation because it’s so common for people to bash their bodies. And now it’s become common for kids and teens to do so, too…and at younger and younger ages.

Below, Elizabeth Easton, PsyD, clinical director of child and adolescent services at the Eating Recovery Center, discusses whether fat talk is a new phenomenon, its effect on kids, how parents can help and much more.

This is the last part of my interview with eating disorder expert Ellen Frankel. Frankel is the co-author of The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care and Beyond a Shadow of a Diet: The Therapist’s Guide to Treating Compulsive Eating.

Recently, she published the novel Syd Arthur about one woman’s search for true contentment after years of living by diet rules, calorie counts and scale results.

Below, we talked more about her novel, how readers have reacted and what she’d like people to take away from her book.

What really struck me in this interview was Frankel’s emphasis on how we spend our days (in the second question). Years ago, I spent my days being miserable, bashing my body, feeling guilty about eating, consuming tasteless foods (and still feeling bad) and feeling stressed-out and tense — with a very shaky self-worth.

While I know these thoughts and behaviors aren’t entirely under our control (there’s that complicated combo of genetics, parenting, environment, certain stressors, etc.), we can choose to do something about them. We can toss our scales, stop buying diet foods and cookbooks, engage in physical activities we truly enjoy, learn about healthy ways to alleviate anxiety, and focus our attention on bigger and better things (like our passions, loved ones and the beauty of nature).

If you haven’t read them yet, here’s part one and part two of our interview. I’m incredibly grateful to Frankel for taking the time to share her book and insight with readers!

You can learn more about Ellen Frankel and her work at her website.

Today, I’m sharing part two of my interview with the amazing and always insightful Ellen Frankel, LCSW, who’s specialized in the treatment and prevention of eating disorders for over 15 years. She’s also author of the recently published novel Syd Arthur (see the synopsis below).

Here, Frankel talks about the common belief that weight loss will complete a person’s life, how to cultivate a healthier relationship with food and the meaning of true contentment – something that the main character, Syd, searches for in Frankel’s book.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the last part of our interview. (Check out part one if you haven’t already!)

I’m incredibly honored to present my interview with Ellen Frankel, LCSW, who’s specialized in the treatment and prevention of eating disorders for over 15 years. Now a full-time writer, Frankel is author of the recently published novel Syd Arthur about a woman entrenched in the diet and thinness-equals-happiness mentality who finally starts searching for something more meaningful in her life.

If you remember, Frankel is also co-author of the excellent book The Diet Survivor’s Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care. I interviewed Frankel and her co-author and sister Judith Matz for Weightless (Part 1, 2 and 3).

Today, in part one of our interview, Frankel talks about what inspired her to write a novel, the impact of fat-talking and how we can stop. In Syd Arthur, the main character Syd along with her closest friends regularly complain about their supposed flaws and vow to diet together. This week is actually Fat Talk Free Week, so the topic couldn’t be more relevant.

Plus, so many of us can relate to bashing our bodies, whether out loud or in our minds. We also make fat-talking a friendly affair.

(By the way, like my friend and fellow blogger Anna Guest-Jelley, I wish that “fat” was used in a neutral way.)

Also, at the end of the Q&A, there’s a fun synopsis of Syd Arthur. Stay tuned for part two of our interview tomorrow, where Frankel talks more about dieting, weight and our culture.

Carolyn Costin and Gwen Schubert Grabb have written a fantastic book called 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience. Not only are both women psychotherapists, but they’ve also been there. Costin began struggling with an eating disorder in her teens. Grabb was Costin’s client, who recovered and then became a therapist herself.

In their book, they write: “This book is about getting over an eating disorder, how we did it, how we helped thousands of others do it, and how we hope to help you do it, too.” Below are several excerpts from the book and my interview with Costin, who discussed everything from obstacles to recovery to strengthening your “healthy self.”

The 8 Keys

The eight keys are based on scientific research, both authors’ personal recovery and their work with people with eating disorders. The book includes stories from Costin’s work with Grabb and other clients of both authors. The eight keys are: