Thank you so much for all your thoughtful comments on the post introducing Karen’s book about weight loss, weight gain and weightlessness! Remember you can still comment and be eligible to win a copy of her book until this Sunday, 12 a.m. EST.

Today, we not only have another giveaway, but a fantastic interview with Katie from Health for the Whole Self. Katie is also a good friend and a blogger I’ve admired for a long time! She always writes eloquently and honestly about issues like body image, the culture of thinness and intuitive eating.

Recently, Katie has written an e-book that provides 30 strategies to overcome emotional eating. I purchased the e-book, and absolutely loved it. Not only is it well written, relatable and thoughtful, but it’s packed with valuable tools. It’s a book that you’ll return to regularly. You can learn more about the book and how to get it here.

Below, Katie talks about her own struggles, what helped her to overcome emotional eating, her favorite tools and more. Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!

The details on the giveaway: Katie is giving one e-copy away! Just comment below on today’s post or tomorrow’s post (for part two). You have ’til next Monday at 12 a.m. EST to comment. I’ll pick the winner randomly and let you know who won next week. I’ll also email the winner.

Here’s part two of my interview with Sunny Sea Gold, author of the blog HealthyGirl.org and the newly released book Food: The Good Girl’s Drug: How to Stop Using Food to Control Your Feelings.

Like I said yesterday, I highly recommend this book, because it provides accurate info about binge eating disorder (BED), shatters the stigma, debunks common myths, features interviews with women who’ve recovered and experts in the eating disorder field and offers recovery tools. It’s also very honest and hopeful.

Yesterday, in part one, we talked about BED myths, what helped Sunny recover and the hardest thing about writing Food: The Good Girl’s Drug. (Check it out here!)

In part two below, Sunny discusses how she was able to overcome her insecurities and perfectionism, her take on working in the magazine industry, what recovery means to her and more!

Binge eating disorder (BED) is a topic that’s rarely talked about. Not only that, but there are so many myths and so much stigma attached to this serious disorder.

That’s why I’m thrilled to present today’s interview with Sunny Sea Gold. Sunny is the author of the recently published (just yesterday!) book Food: The Good Girl’s Drug: How to Stop Using Food to Control Your Feelings. She’s not only written a fantastic book, but she also shatters the stigma surrounding BED.

The book is half memoir, half self help. In it, Sunny shares her struggles with and recovery from binge eating disorder. Plus, she busts a lot of pervasive myths, provides accurate info about BED and offers a variety of tools for recovery.

She also features interviews with other women who’ve struggled with BED and experts who provide insight into the disorder.

I’ve read the book and highly recommend it. (Check out my review of it here.) It’s powerful, accurate, well-written, incredibly relatable and inspiring.

Sunny also writes the blog Healthy Girl, which has become an entire website with resources on disordered eating and body image; and serves as deputy editor at Redbook magazine.

In part one of our interview, Sunny talks about BED myths, what helped her recover, the toughest thing about writing Food: The Good Girl’s Drug and more!

If you’d like to learn more about Sunny’s story, check out her video. Also, check out the trailer for her book. (It’s powerful.)

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This is the last part of my interview with the amazing Ellen Shuman. Ellen is an emotional eating and binge eating recovery coach. She’s also the vice president of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA).

Ellen already shared her insight on myths about BED and her own struggles and recovery from the disorder.

Below, she discusses how BED is treated, how you can find reputable help, what coaching is and when it’s appropriate for BED and more much.

Yesterday, Ellen Shuman, an emotional eating and binge eating disorder recovery coach, talked about the many myths surrounding BED.

Today, she talks honestly about her own struggles and recovery from the disorder. Ellen also explains how she helps clients overcome similar issues to become emotionally, physically and spiritually healthy.

By the way, Ellen offers a free informational telephone seminar about emotional eating issues and binge eating disorder. If you’re interested, you can register at www.aweighout.com.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the last part on treatment.

Binge eating disorder (BED) is common. According to a 2007 Harvard University and McLean Hospital Study, 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men suffer from the disorder at some point in their lives.

In fact, more people have BED than bulimia and anorexia combined.

Still, BED is very misunderstood, and many people are ashamed to seek help.

But BED is highly treatable.

I’m honored to present my interview with BED and emotional eating expert Ellen Shuman. Below, in part one of our interview, Ellen dispels common myths about BED and discusses the causes.

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!

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In college, I used to overeat on the weekends. You know, because during the week, I had to be “good.”

And being good meant a whole lot of restricting, and ignoring my body’s hunger cues.

So during the weekends, I felt like I had to pack in all the foods I really liked. The foods I feared during the week. The foods that I was convinced would make me fat. And somehow ugly.

After a while, though, I stopped tasting the food. I became a robot with food traveling down the conveyor belt of my esophagus.

Because bingeing is one of the consequences that typically happens when we don’t give ourselves unconditional permission to eat. When we restrict. When we diet.

I’m still reading Geneen Roth’s Women, Food and God*, and seriously think that I could create posts from just this book for a year. I love it, and think it’s a must-read. If you’re not familiar with Roth’s work, I highly suggest visiting her Web site. You can watch a video of her reading from Women, Food and God here.

I used to think that preoccupation with food stemmed from liking food too much or as a consequence of manipulating your diet to be thinner.

But like perfectionism, which I talked about yesterday, obsession, according to Geneen Roth, is a mask. It’s also avoidance of the tough stuff. (Oddly enough, right now, instead of writing this post, I’m too focused on italicizing the book title and Internet surfing…hmm…)

And this mask and avoidance, this incessant obsession with food, actually serves various feel-good functions.

Today, I’m thrilled to share with you a guest post by Kate Thieda that explores Geneen Roth’s book, Women, Food and God. You might remember Kate shared her story about recovering from an eating disorder (part 1 and part 2), and wrote a guest post about seeking treatment at 28 years old. She’s also written about her experiences as a student therapist for our World of Psychology blog (you can see all the posts here). I’m incredibly grateful for the below beautifully written post. I seriously got teary-eyed toward the end. I hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend!

Geneen Roth’s latest book, Women, Food and God, was on the bestseller list the day it hit the shelves, and for good reason. It’s a rare woman in this country who doesn’t struggle with issues around food and eating, and her book connects those struggles to our beliefs about ourselves, the world around us, and aspects of existence that are bigger than us, namely our spirits and beliefs about God, whatever those may be.

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.