Category: weight-related shame

When Talking About Weight Loss Keeps You From Accomplishing It

As we near the end of the year, I have been looking back at some Ladies in Weighting. In my book, I write about the women who start blogs to document their weight loss attempts. The blogs go on, often for years and years, but the weight loss does not. Oh there are plenty of …

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The Powerful Hunger Weight Advocacy Elevator Pitch

In marketing you learn about the elevator pitch—condensing your message down to something you could communicate in the brief amount of time you might have with someone in an elevator. People who have struggled with a significant weight problem for all or most of their lives are not out of control addicts, they are not …

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It’s Time to Forgive Yourself for Your Weight and Move Forward

This time of year tends to stir up memories, reminding people of events and experiences in their past, particularly those that involve treatment by family members. This week I came upon three blog posts that were essentially laundry lists of pain. Bloggers wrote out in excruciating detail the torment they’ve endured at the hands of abusers, …

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How Have Experiences Shaped the Way You Feel about Your Weight?

Last night I attended a film screening in a space with vintage theater seats that must have come from one of Chicago’s former movie palaces. Seats from that era are smaller than the seats we’re used to today, even the plain flip down stadium-style chairs you might find in some older movie theaters. A very large woman …

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Fad Diet Friday: The Biggest Loser Weight Loss Program

This week I take a look at a book written by Dr. Rob Huizenga, the doctor you’ve seen on the competition weight loss reality show, Biggest Loser. It’s not actually a “fad diet” but I do consider the program to be a FLAWED diet. We are exposed to a barrage of weight-related messages, admonishing us …

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The Double Standards of Body Image and Weight Judgment

I was out last night with my wonderful friend, Lena. We share a passion for social justice and enjoy discussing the political issues of the day, so we certainly have much to talk about! Lena is taller than I am and weighs about 110 lbs. on a good day. She loves eating a good breakfast …

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Releasing the Weight of Shame

Do you believe you struggle with your weight because of stress eating? Emotional eating? Do you believe you “struggle with demons” or that you “self-medicate”? I believe that it is society’s own prejudices that have made you see yourself this way. I want you to know it’s not who you are. Click to watch “Release …

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You have never been a slave to food!

In Powerful Hunger, I write about the social influences that manipulate us and how they negatively affect our view of ourselves. A commercial I find particularly insulting is for a low-calorie brownie. A woman is sitting alone in a diner, looking resentfully down at her salad when she sees other patrons enjoying a brownie. She …

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Weight loss: What “clicks” for YOU?

Each of us is unique in every way so it stands to reason when it comes to taking control of our weight and managing it for a lifetime, we’ll each need to discover the unique ways in which our bodies will respond. For those of us who find weight management a bit tougher, it can …

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