Here’s part two of my interview with Julie Parker, a counselor who works with people with eating disorders and author of the recently published must-read My Recovery: Inspiring Stories, Recovery Tips and Messages of Hope from Eating Disorder Survivors. It’s a hopeful and inspiring book filled with valuable insights for recovery.

Below, Julie reveals the biggest myths about eating disorders, how family members can help, the one thing that surprised even her while creating the book and much more.

(Here’s part one of our interview.)

In America, today, we’re celebrating Labor Day.

So here’s a repost of one of my favorite tips for reconnecting with your body from one of my favorite people: Susannah Conway.

Hope everyone, everywhere, is having a wonderful day!

I’ve already written about Susannah Conway‘s beautiful book, This I Know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart. (See here for that post.) It’s a book about healing after tragedy strikes and essentially finding your way back to yourself.

In it, Conway also features a variety of valuable activities readers can try to explore themselves and their worlds.

What we wear can have a big impact on our body image. That’s why I’m excited to share my interview with Sally McGraw, a style consultant and freelance writer who authors the blog “Already Pretty.” (One of my favorites!)

Sally recently published an incredibly helpful and inspiring book by the same name: Already Pretty: Learning to Love Your Body By Learning to Dress It Well. The book is packed with practical tips and wise words. It gives readers a fun, very personal and thoughtful approach for exploring our style.

I love how Sally defines style: It’s “personal, emotional, unique. Style is created by an individual with tastes, needs, and a specific set of curves and angles.”

Below, Sally reveals how exploring her personal style helped to heal her body image issues. She also shares her top three style tips, her inspirations and what self-love means to her — and much more!

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!

Lately, I’ve been talking a lot about self-care on Mondays. That’s because part of building a more positive body image is taking good, kind care of ourselves.

I’m currently reading Jennifer Louden‘s book The Woman’s Comfort Book, a treasure trove of tools and insights on self-care. I love what Jen has to say about self-care. She writes:

Today,  I’m super excited to share my interview with the wise and awesome Mara Glatzel, a self-love coach who writes the blog Medicinal Marzipan and holds a masters in clinical social work.

I love Mara’s positive approach and work. She empowers and challenges her readers and provides us with practical and concrete tools to boost our body image and cultivate self-love.

Mara has created a powerful e-book called Body Loving Homework, which features 100 writing prompts to help you heal your heart and start leading a fulfilling life. She includes chapters on everything from our bodies to relationships to money to forgiving yourself and others.

The book is beautifully written, and the prompts are creative and thoughtful. In short, it’s a must-read.

Below, in part one of our interview, Mara shares what inspired her to write the book, how writing helped her heal her body image issues and cultivate self-love and much, much more.

And be sure to enter the giveaway at the end!

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 Shira Sela}

One of the things I love about the Internet is the opportunity to read an array of beautiful work. I’m not only inspired by other bloggers, but I’m reminded that I’m not alone. I’m reminded that others have struggled like I have, and understand where I’ve been.

I’m reminded of what’s most important. I’m reminded of my own beauty and the beauty of others.

And I gain so much wisdom about the process of healing my own body-bashing and self-image issues.

{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.)

{via pinterest}

Ever since I started writing Weightless, I’ve learned so much about building a positive body image, ditching dieting, genuinely accepting myself and embracing true health.

While every day is a process, I’m light years away from where I was: deeply dissatisfied with my body, not knowing who I was, thinking thinness would make me a better and happier person and afraid of relinquishing dieting, because left to my own devices, I’d surely devour everything in sight. (Magazines love to make us think this, but it’s so far from reality.)

Every week, I try to feature a woman’s story of recovery from anorexia, bulimia, emotional eating or any other kind of disordered eating (BTW, if you’re interested in sharing yours, email me at mtartakovsky@gmail.com). Recently, I’ve started asking about everyone’s favorite resources, including books and websites. So today I wanted to compile a list of all these resources in hopes that you might find them informative and inspiring.