Author Archive

Last Call for our: Transformative Weekend Workshop

If you’ve been planning to sign up or thinking you’d really like to come, now’s the time to call. To reserve your space at our Transformative Weekend Workshop Friday and Saturday event (July 24th and 25th) call Michelle @ 250-383-0797 or email @ mmorand@cedriccentre.com Your life is waiting. Transform your relationship with food and with yourself now! So register now at

Transformative Weekend Workshop!

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre

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Traveling with an Eating Disorder, Part 1 of 3

Traveling with an eating disorder packs a triple whammy for the already beleaguered spirit in desperate need of true rest and relaxation. Whether you struggle with dieting, overeating, purging or a general dissatisfaction with your physical form that prevents you from settling peacefully into the moment, a vacation can be a stress-filled experience that makes you want to just stay at home instead with the covers pulled high. In this 3-part article, I will not deal with the obvious stress of the obligatory attempts at dieting in anticipation of any vacation that requires the baring of any skin above the elbow or knee. That is a topic for another day. Instead, I will address the 3 key ways in which traveling can challenge the tenuous grip most disordered eaters have on their relationship with food and weight: limitations/abundance of choice; change in routine; and the emotional impact of traveling. As I explore each of these confounding circumstances I will provide you with some suggestions on how to approach them in the most simple and life-enhancing way so you can relax and enjoy your well-earned vacation. (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Self

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First Comes Love, Then Comes Obesity

So reads the heading from an article in the July 6th issue of Time Magazine. Even though my skin was bristling at the glib headline, I felt obligated as a professional and specialist in the field of eating disorders and overeating to read it and find out what they had to say. I was not impressed with the simplicity and surface level of the conclusions they drew but I did find the statistics interesting. I’m going to share their conclusions with you and then take them a step further and explain, on a deeper level, why their results were so. (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others

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The Main Barrier to Freedom

Your rate of recovery from your stressful relationship with food depends on your readiness for change.  For example, I have worked with many people who have struggled for years, even decades with overeating, restricting and/or purging, and within 5 or 6 sessions, they are transformed, feeling clear, purposeful and trusting in their ability to no longer use food to cope.  Yet others may take a few months or a year or two to get to the same place.  And that’s perfectly fine. There is no right or wrong way to move through the healing process.  It’s a completely personal experience and the length of the healing journey depends on many factors but the most important thing for us all is this: (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Self, workshops

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Thoughts on Natural Eating

Many people hear the term Natural Eating and immediately assume it’s about eating whole grains and non-processed foods or has something to do with organics or locally grown produce, etc. Well, those are all great ideas and your body will love you for eating as unprocessed as possible, but….that’s not what we mean when we say “natural eating.” Natural Eating, also more recently dubbed “Intuitive Eating,” refers to the simple process of eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full. As a natural eater you are conscious of your body’s signals of hunger, fullness, lightness, energy, or bloating, lethargy, fatigue and heaviness. These are your cues about what your body likes and needs vs. what it doesn’t. In a natural eating approach, you honor those cues and are drawn to choose foods that allow you to feel light, full, and energized after eating rather than heavy, bloated, and pooped out. (more…)

Posted in: Relationship with Self, Tips for Natural Eating

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One of the Things I Know for Sure about Body Image

One of the things I know for sure about body image, from my own recovery experience and from hundreds of conversations with clients, is that your negative self-talk and feelings of loathing, disgust and heaviness in your body can change to peaceful acceptance in 24 hours, even when nothing has physically changed in your body.

Yuppers, that’s what I said, your Drill Sgt. can be happily on vacation in Mexico in 24 hours, leaving you at home to peacefully and contentedly practice life-enhancing coping strategies and self-care. And I’m not talking about trying to talk yourself into loving yourself as you are or about settling for being the weight and shape that you are now.

So, what am I talking about? I’m talking about integrity. Integrity means that your words and actions are in alignment. You want to know the secret to happiness? It’s integrity. You want to know the secret to feeling peaceful and content in your body; in your relationships; in your career; etc?

It’s integrity: Words and Actions Aligning.

You do what you say you will. And not just to others, but first and foremost to yourself. That’s where most of us who feel controlled by food and loathing of our bodies stumble; integrity with ourselves. We’re all over taking care of others and honoring our commitments outwardly at all costs. (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Self, The Law of Attraction, Uncategorized

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Body Image – summer’s coming!

Body Imageby Michelle Morand

Hello out there in the CEDRIC community! Has spring sprung fully where you live? It definitely has here. There’s a quality of warmth to the air that is unique to this time of year; Something with an aftertaste of cool but not at all chilling, that allows me to relax and trust that the warm weather is finally here and that thus, I can begin the glorious task of setting aside the winter boots, coats, sweaters and warmer wear and explore the lighter shirts, pants, dresses, even…..dare I say it… shorts and tank tops.

Yes, I used to hate this time of year. I dreaded it, feared it, prayed to god that it wouldn’t come – some asteroid impacting the earth and leading to a short term ice age would have suited me just fine at that time in my life. Anything to stay bundled up and covered up from the myriad prying eyes that I believed were constantly assessing my frame for it’s acceptability and finding me excruciatingly lacking every time.

For me, this time of year represents rebirth… freedom… and expansion. I get excited at the thought of wearing less and of days at the beach with my son. The ability to engage with life without first having to wade through the heavy shroud of body image insecurities and food crap every moment of every day makes me feel like I’m living in heaven. I know I’m not the only one who experiences heaven on earth with the release of the use of food to cope. (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Self

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Feeling Resentful

Feeling ResentfulFeeling Resentful Anyone?

Hello out there!

What you’ve got in front of you is a fairly lengthy, but I trust, extremely helpful and informative article on how your feelings of frustration, resentment and insecurity in your relationships with others are really stemming from unconscious assumptions that you have made about the other person or about relationships on the whole.

I then share with you some concrete suggestions for what to do when you realize you’ve made assumptions and how to get to a place of peace within yourself and within the relationship. And, when you feel more peaceful and secure in yourself and in your relationships you will feel less inclination to use food to cope, guaranteed.

I hope you enjoy it and benefit from the tools!

P.S. Dn’t forget to email me and share your thoughts / experiences with these tools. And if you want more tools and articles make sure you’re signed up for our free bi-weekly newsletter: Food is not the Problem: Find out what is!

Have a great read.

Love Michelle

The problem with assumptions is not that we make them – although that does often cause resentment and confusion in our relationships with others – no, the real problem with assumptions is that most of the time we don’t even know we’ve made them – or that someone else has made some about us – until something happens in the relationship, contrary to our unconscious assumptions, and we feel the sting of perceived betrayal or the pain and grief of conflict where we thought we had unspoken agreement.

We typically just assume that others share our values and that their definition for, say, reliability, is the same as ours. We assume others think like us, feel like us, and will act like us in similar circumstances and when they don’t – and they won’t –we feel betrayed, misled, and start to question who this imposter is and what happened to the person we though we were in a relationship with!

This is a key step in the relationship process; seeing the person as they really are and not as we assume, and therefore expect, them to be. It’s the point at which we have the opportunity to step into true, adult love. Or, it could be the point at which we realize we really don’t like who this person really is now that the blinders are off. Either way it’s a very significant point in life. But this key moment of true seeing that comes to all relationships in time, is also limited by any other assumptions we’ve made about who this person is that we haven’t yet uncovered. In other words, often, at the same time as we’re seeing that we’ve made some erroneous assumptions (ie. reliability doesn’t mean the same thing to you as it does to me), we’re often still being unconsciously driven by other assumptions (ie. that you will surely see that my definition of reliability is the “right” one and you will change your behaviour to coincide with my definition) that have not yet been revealed to us.  Sound like Greek?

(more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Others, Relationship with Self

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Being Who You’ve Always Been

Hello out there! Michelle here. There’s a card I have had up in my bedroom for I don’t know how long and this morning as I was looking at it for the thousandth time I thought you might find it relevant as well. The quote is this: “She realized this transition was not about becoming someone new but about finally allowing herself to be who she’d always been.” Each of you has an amazing, talented, warm and loving presence inside of her. Perhaps you even let others see that side of you. If you’re using food to cope you can bet that you’re not allowing yourself to really recognize and embrace that amazing person who is you. You’re stifling her for all you’re worth. It’s her desire to express herself fully in the face of old beliefs you carry about your right to exist; to take up space; your deservedness of success and happiness and contentment; and of healthy, loving relationships, that makes you feel fragmented, fraudulent, inauthentic and anxious. And it is that anxiety that leads you to focus on food and body image in harmful ways and to miss out on all that you, and that life have to offer. What if you took a moment today and just got still and quiet and asked yourself, “What are the people/situations in my life currently where I feel I cannot be fully authentic – fully myself?” If you’re honest with yourself you will come up with a list of people and situations that currently trigger you to feel like you will be rejected and judged negatively if you say or do what really feels right for you. Now it’s time to take steps to develop the tools and awareness within yourself to create connections with those people/situations where you feel safe being fully authentic. As you begin on this path you will notice your focus on food and body image lessens and your sense of self strengthens, and your relationships with others become better than they’ve ever been. Being who you’ve always been is not a disastrous concept certain to ruin your precarious grasp on life. Being who you’ve always been will bring you a sense of strength and confidence, as sense of “being somebody” that no one can take away no matter how much they disagree with your choices or behaviours. I guarantee it! Love Michelle

Being Who You’ve Always Been

If you’d like to begin to change your relationship with food and your sense of your self today – give me a call or send me an email mmorand@cedriccentre.com. And if you’re not already registered, sign up for our free newsletter to stay tuned for more articles and tips for recovery <a href=”http://www.cedriccentre.com/free-newsletter”>Sign up for our free newsletter</a>. M.

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Finding Peace ~ Michelle Morand

Finding PeaceForgive me for being macabre for a moment but…I am going to die. One day.

Could be 5 minutes from now, 5 days, one year, 20, 50, 75 years…..

I have very little control over when that happens or how. I may have lots of notice and have time to fulfill my own, personal “bucket list” or it may be sudden death – my death.

Despite the drama with which I’m putting this notion forth, these thoughts don’t depress or overwhelm me or trigger mortal dread: Unlike when, as a child, I first realized with abject terror that my parents were going to die one day – that their continued presence in my life was beyond my control – and was then also struck by the realization that I too would one day cease to exist.

No, these thoughts do not create distress for me, or sadness, or longing. Rather, they motivate me to live this moment as best I can. These thoughts motivate me to grow and to be the best that I can be in every moment. I know that in being the best that I can be in every moment I am doing my best to make the world a better place for however long I have the privilege of being able to contribute in mortal form.

Being the best I can be does not in any way mean perfect. I am far from that, as my son, friends, family and ex-boyfriends will attest to. It means honoring my values to the very best of my physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological ability every moment of every day. (more…)

Posted in: CEDRIC Centre, Relationship with Self

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