Psychologist — Researcher — Author
Have you failed your diet? Or has your diet failed you?The simple fact is: diets don’t work. Diets do not lead to sustainable weight loss. They do not lead to health improvements. And they most certainly don’t lead to happiness. You may be convinced that this diet will be the one to work. This one will be different. A wise man (Albert Einstein) once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Are you ready to try something different?
Join the Mindful Eating (ME) Revolution to stop dieting and start living with peace and wellness. Become a part of a rapidly growing movement to end shame, guilt, and poor self-esteem related to the failures of dieting. Learn a new way to develop a permanent, individualized approach to ending your struggle with food.
As we enter the start of 2016, millions of people will think not of the wonderful accomplishments of the past year, but of the improvements they hope to make in the year to come. Rather than gratitude and appreciation for all that we have, we see the New Year as a time to “start fresh” …
“Inside every overweight woman is the woman she knows she can become” This is what Oprah Winfrey tells us in her new commercial for Weight Watchers. I find it enraging. It implies that every overweight woman is just waiting to become someone else because who she is now is unacceptable. Weight Watchers is a company …
The holidays can be a time of stress and turmoil, especially when it comes to our eating. Some people cope by battening down the hatches on their diet plan while others give themselves permission to go off course. Neither of these strategies are particularly effective and they can even contribute to patterns of disordered eating. …
The diet made him do it. This was the argument that Jared Fogel’s attorney made in court to defend his having sex with minors. Forensic psychiatrist John Bradford testified that Fogel’s rapid weight loss and restricted diet led to hyperactive sexual drives that resulted in his “mild pedophilia.” First of all, I never knew that …
It is hard to toss a stone into cyberspace without hitting a healthy living blog. Topics range from reviews of low calorie snacks to bloggers documenting their fitness journeys. Just about anyone with internet access can start a blog and become a healthy living “expert.” But often these experts aren’t really experts at all and …
It is estimated that Facebook had nearly 1.3 billion users in 2013. That translates to 1/6 of the world population. In North America, just under half of the population is on Facebook and 71% of adults who are online are on Facebook. A 2010 study revealed that teens spend more than 7 ½ hours per …
Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the onset of body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Many adolescents misperceive their body size; it is not uncommon for normal weight* adolescents to categorize themselves as overweight. What is the effect of this misperception of body size? Compared with normal weight teens who accurately perceive their weight, those …
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in the Goldilocks fable. This one is too fat…that one is too thin…is anyone just right? “Just right” is a narrowly defined precarious space in which women teeter on the brink of falling into “too fat” or “dangerously thin” territory. For celebrities, it barely takes an indulgence at In-N-Out …
Two years ago, Stella Boonshoft posted a photograph online that started a national conversation about body image. In the third installment of our Fat Shame series, Kim Buesser sat down with Stella to see what she’s been up to since a picture in her underwear made her an overnight celebrity. Read on for Stella’s thoughts …
Traditional weight loss dieting programs are typically ineffective in producing consistent long-term weight loss and maintenance. In addition to being ineffective, dieting often results in psychological distress and disordered eating behaviors. Are mindful and intuitive eating non-dieting approaches more effective?
There are striking similarities between food addiction, dieting, and binge eating. Are food addicts stuck in the diet-binge cycle?
Approximately 50-70% of adolescent girls report feeling dissatisfied with their body. Media representations of the thin-ideal of beauty have emerged as a cause of body dissatisfaction. This post explores a recent research study which investigated an intervention aimed at helping young girls improve body image
Research suggests that dieting has negative consequences for our emotional and physical health. Despite this scientific evidence, dieting continues to be seen as a normal and even “healthy” behavior. In this post, I ponder whether dieting should continue to be portrayed in this light, or perhaps be better characterized as an eating disorder.
The media promotes contradictory messages about positive body image while also reinforcing the ideas that we are not good enough. These confusing messages pray on our insecurities and sucker punch us when we are least expecting it.