Binge Eating Therapy

That Day After Christmas Juice Fast

All they give you is juice? NO THANKS! Now that it’s the day after Christmas you will no doubt be starting to get trolled by instagram, television, facebook, your friends… everyone who wants to start a 2022 weight loss challenge. It’s so difficult to avoid the allure of these juice fasts, quick starts, all keto all the time fads…. There are so many reasons that diets are so seductive. They take away our choice- we don’t have to make decisions-

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If You Binged On Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a hard day for everyone. Family, lack of family, plans, lack of plans… Most people don’t actually binge at Thanksgiving dinner. They usually eat until they are comfortably full or even uncomfortably full. The binge comes when they get home or later that night. Because for people with eating issues, being full is NEVER comfortable. Usually the binge comes when you’re in the kitchen cleaning up, or after you get home, or after everyone has gone to sleep.

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Fall is Scary for Binge Eating Disorder

Today is the first day of Autumn- which means- disordered eating season is upon us. There are so many reasons for it, especially now after a year and a half of lock-down- when people have become obsessed with their Covid weight gain and ads for diets and workout plans are popping up everywhere. It starts on October 1st, the day that Starbucks introduces its pumpkin spice latte and other limited edition coffee drinks. They begin to tempt us with warnings

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How To Do Your Best

How To Do Your Best

Your Best is No One Else’s Best I was at a Yoga class the other day when the teacher made this off-hand comment: “Don’t worry about what other people in the class is doing, everyone is doing their best, just like you…” I thought it was a brilliant comment. I often see people afraid to start something because they base their goals on what other people are doing. For instance, “I can’t go to that yoga class because I won’t

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Covid Weight Gain

Covid Weight Gain

COVID WEIGHT GAIN – WHY IS THIS A THING???? WHY MUST WE TALK ABOUT IT SO DAMN MUCH? STOP SHAMING PEOPLE FOR GAINING WEIGHT DURING COVID This past weekend, one of my girlfriends, whom I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, came over to my house with her husband and kids. When I went to hug her, instead of reaching out to hug me, she pulled up her shirt and grabbed two handfuls of her tattoo clad belly and said,

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How To Love Your Body Even If You Completely Hate It

How to Love Your Body Even When You Hate the Way It Looks I was speaking with one of my wonderful and beautiful clients about all her body has been through. Between childhood abuse, chronic illness, fertility treatments, multiple children and a life-long eating disorder- her body has been through a lot. I was sitting there in total awe of her, thinking how damn strong she was and how amazing it was that she was still alive. I was overcome

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People Like Me More

Why Don’t People Like Me? How Can I Make People Like Me More?

How can I make people like me? Why Don’t People Like Me? And What Can I Do About it? What has always been generally accepted in the thinking about eating disorders is that they are about “control.” But what does that mean? Is it about controlling food? Not really, food is just the symptom. What control means at its core in eating disorders, is trying to control what other people think about you. We stop focusing on the people who

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Thanksgiving

So You Binged on Thanksgiving. Now What?

Well… most people don’t binge at Thanksgiving dinner… It’s usually after. Thanksgiving Binge? It’s okay. most people don’t binge at Thanksgiving dinner. They usually eat until they are comfortably full or even uncomfortably full. The binge comes when they get home. Because for people with eating issues, being full is NEVER comfortable. Usually the binge comes when you’re in the kitchen cleaning up, or after you get home, or after everyone has gone to sleep. And it’s pretty much always

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Not Binge Eat on Thanksgiving

How To Not Binge Eat on Thanksgiving

A long, long time ago, in a lifetime that is so far from the one I’m currently in, I had one of my first major, major forays into deeply disordered eating on Thanksgiving. It was 1986, I was twelve years old (12 YEARS OLD!!!!) and we were having our Thanksgiving dinner at my Grandmother’s boyfriend’s daughter’s house. Said boyfriend’s daughter also had a daughter who was about the same age as I was, only she was a much better person

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Binge Eating

Is it Binge Eating or is It Something Else?

There are many people who come to me with a desire to stop binge eating. They tell me that they have tried for years to get over their binge eating disorder, but that they have no willpower, no ability to stop overeating. For most it’s a ritual that happens when they are all alone, a letting go, a release. A time to be alone, to not be bothered, to totally shut their minds down. Upon further investigation, we usually find

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Binge Eating Help

Free Coaching Call For Binge Eating Help FRIDAY OCTOBER 30TH REGISTER NOW!

                      2pm Pacific 5pm Eastern 9pm UK 8am Saturday October 31st in Australia. TO REGISTER CLICK HERE. SPOTS ARE LIMITED SO REGISTER NOW!!! Will you come? We will be discussing how to keep yourself safe on and after Halloween with all the candy and leftovers, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and how to keep yourself feeling safe and comfortable. I will be answering all your questions about binge eating, intuitive eating,

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Skin Picking and Disordered

Compulsive Shopping, Skin Picking and Disordered Eating…

Several people have emailed me to ask about why they seem to have some issues with compulsive shopping since the shelter-in-place has begun. The Eating Disorder brain is multi-faceted, but in my many years of treating people with many different kinds of disordered eating patterns, I’ve noticed a consistent set of traits across the board. Those traits are: #1. A brain that doesn’t stop moving, thinks too much, moves too quickly and tends to obsess. #2. A deep seated belief

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Coronavirus and Weight Gain

Can We Please Stop Talking about Coronavirus and Weight Gain???

In a Global Pandemic, you don’t have to stress yourself out more over weight gain Many, many people are finding that in addition to everything they are scared of right now (a global pandemic, the demise of our economy, loss, etc…) they are really, really, really scared of gaining weight during this lockdown. It says something about diet culture and society’s expectations and pressure on women to be thin that in the midst of this whole world crisis, women are

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Eating Without Gaining Weight

Friday Q&A – Can I Recover from Binge Eating Without Gaining Weight?

Midsection of mid adult Asian woman adjusting balance weight scale Dear Leora, Is it possible to recover from binge eating without putting on too much weight. If you’ve starved yourself for a while and lost weight but now bingeing and slowly starting to put it back on, how can I stop the binge cycle without putting on all the hard work I’ve lost? Dieting in Denver Dear Dieting, I understand why you are confused. On one hand, the whole world

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Food Addict

Am I a Food Addict?

Dear Leora, I’ve been in a 12 step group for food addiction for many years. I lose lots of weight, then I relapse and I gain it all back and then I drop out of program and then I go back again and lose the weight. This cycle is exhausting. I’ve been up 70 pounds and down 70 pounds for years. Every time I go back, my sponsor and the program people tell me that I’m an addict and that

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The Whole New Me Syndrome

The Whole New Me Syndrome

Look at me! It’s a whole new me! I’m better, smarter, faster, thinner, I can play guitar, surf, play the piano, I learned how to dance like Britney Spears, and man I loved Corona Quarantine! I’m Going To Emerge From This Quarantine as a Whole New Me!!! This quarantine has a special way of holding a mirror up to each of us. What is reflected back is what we need to work on. For me, it’s learning how to get

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Food and Body Image Issues

Help you Get Through Coronavirus Lockdown When You Have Food and Body Image Issues

Coronavirus mental health issues are very real. UPDATED ON OCTOBER 26TH. I originally wrote this article right after the United States went into lockdown in early March. Although things have gotten better many people after the initial shock, there are still many people suffering with depression, grief, anxiety, election stress, arguments with family and friends over politics, grieving the death of loved ones due to COVID19 and lots and lots of loss and disappointment and pain. Mental health is definetly

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If You Think that You Overate at Thanksgiving Please Read This

Overeating on Thanksgiving Does NOT make you a failure! I have been getting emails all day from people telling me that they overate or binged on Thanksgiving and that they hate themselves, that they are failures, that they are worthless, that they are defective, that they will never be like their cousins look or the way the women in their office look, or the way that that their mother thinks that they should look like, that they can’t stick to

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Binge on Halloween Candy

How Not to Binge on Halloween Candy

So all of you living in the United States are undoubtedly being bombarded by Halloween candy. There are giant, larger than life displays at every store you walk into, and most likely, it’s sitting in giant bowls in your house as you get ready to pass it out to little ghouls and goblins and witches and Batmans and Wonderwomans, Trumps and Melanias… (and maybe some Stormies, who knows!)  And, if you have kids, you will have bags and bags of

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Eating Disorders and Anxious Attachment – What’s the Relationship?

Have you ever been “that girl” who was so in love with “that boy…” the one who you were going to marry and make babies with? You loved him so much that you thought of him all the time.  You couldn’t stop talking about him… you checked your phone constantly to see if he’d texted you. And when he didn’t you became anxious, scared and depressed. You stressed over it with all your friends, analyzing every text, every word he ever said

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