Archive for CEDRIC Centre
Posted by Cedric on November 9, 2010
When we think about someone having an eating disorder, we typically imagine an 80lb waif starving herself to death in pursuit of the perfect figure. What we rarely envision is the man or woman who is overweight and engaging in compulsive eating. “That person doesn’t have an eating disorder,” we say, “They just need to try dieting/lose some weight/exercise some willpower.” Well, I’m here to tell you that the overweight person often has just as much of an obsession with weight loss and body image as the underweight one.
What we need to understand is that compulsive eating is not about a lack of willpower. It is not about being lazy or unconcerned with one’s own well being. It is about a person who turns to food to fulfill their need for comfort and nurturing. Now, having said that, I must clarify that everyone who is at a high or low weight according to society’s standards, is not necessarily suffering from an eating disorder. The need for love, the need for acceptance and the need to feel secure in who they are and their importance in the world is what drives one to disordered eating in the first place.
Posted by Cedric on November 8, 2010
Challenge yourself to ask yourself, once a day, “Am I using food to cope?” (i.e. Am I wanting to eat when I’m not hungry? Am I not allowing myself to eat when I know my body needs nourishing?). If the answer is yes, ask yourself “Would I be willing to take a moment right now and identify what might be going on in my life to trigger me to use food to cope?”
Is there any part of you that’s a little scared of being in the position to truly choose not to use food to cope? If so, write down your objection and look for the all-or-nothing thinking in the story you are telling yourself about what will happen if you overcome your resistance to looking deeper than food and body image.
Posted by mmorand on September 25, 2010
Step 1:
Notice when:
You’re eating when you’re not hungry;
You’re not allowing yourself to eat when you’ve noticed that you are hungry;
You’re feeling anxious;
You’re wanting to isolate or withdraw from a person or situation;
You’re feeling angry/resentful/frustrated/annoyed/impatient; and/or
You’re feeling listless, drained, depressed.
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Posted by mmorand on September 18, 2010
Q
… I loathe looking in the mirror, gross out at changing my clothes. Can’t stand being around people. Hate even being touched!
My eating disorder looms, waiting to pounce at any given moment. I think I’m calm but then the moment I walk in the door (usually after work), I binge on whatever I see even though I’m not hungry!!!
I have been trying ‘natural eating’ and hate it. Instead of having an easy & calm relationship with food, I spiral into extremes. Without food ‘rules’ I rebelliously indulge in foods just to prove that I am free. I end up eating food that makes my PLA rise to a 10 on my stress scale. I know my diet mentality is controlling me and I guess I just don’t believe I will be ‘slim’ eating this way.
I am unmotivated and depressed. I feel trapped inside my room looking out on everyone living life normally but I just cannot join in. Too scary!
I am back to the beginning again and wonder if I’ve made any progress at all!
Sorry to be such a downer. This has taken everything in me just to express this much. But I am drowning and have nowhere else to express it. The people closest to me don’t ‘get it’ and just want the nice me. Can’t give it to them and I feel horrible.
I’m supposed to be together right? I’m a mom and a wife and have a respectable job and even teach Sunday school…. but I just want to scream swear words at everyone, especially my Drill Sergeant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted by mmorand on September 11, 2010
Time for you to do a little writing yourself:
This week I am taking a departure from my usual newsletter article and instead am posing a few questions for to you ponder about your relationship with eating.
If you would like to really take advantage of this opportunity, I suggest that each of you take the 10-20 minutes or so that you would normally take to read one of my articles and instead jot down some notes about what automatically comes to mind when you reflect on the questions below.
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Posted by mmorand on September 4, 2010
Last week’s article: Stop Sleeping Through the Alarm generated an amazing amount of heartfelt sharing which touched me deeply. I think we all intuitively know that we’re meant to listen to our emotions rather than tune them out. But ironically, the whole reason that we struggle with our emotions and with food at all is that we’ve been forced, due to life circumstances and by the mentoring we received from key people in our lives, to tune our own intuition out and to ignore our own authentic and appropriate reactions to situations. We are forced into, or talk ourselves into, buying the opinions, needs and perspectives of our primary caregivers. Our survival depended on it at one point, at least our emotional survival did, and for many others their physical and sexual integrity did as well.
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Posted by mmorand on August 28, 2010
What sense would it make if every time your alarm went off to wake you in the morning, you said “Oh, there’s my alarm. I guess that means I’ll go back to sleep?”
Not much sense in that at all.
Well, every time you notice you’re feeling anxious or depressed or starting to think about using food to cope and then actually restrict, binge, or purge, you are doing exactly that. You are, in essence, noticing the alarm (your anxiety, your depressed feelings, your thoughts of using a coping strategy) and then going back to sleep through numbing out and focusing on food.
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Posted by mmorand on August 22, 2010
Overcoming Jealousy and Insecurity (Podcast)
If you’ve ever wondered why certain people or situations trigger you to feel so insecure or jealous at times, this recording will give you the answer. Listen to Michelle Morand’s Overcoming Jealousy and Insecurity (Podcast)
Our insecurities often lead us to use food to cope, whether through dieting or restriction, overeating, or through full disordered eating such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder.
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to understand why you feel insecure and to be able to take action to start feeling stronger and more confident in yourself today? Imagine how likely you’d be to reach for food to cope if you felt confident and secure in yourself overall? Listen in to this week’s podcast and learn what’s at the root of your jealousy and insecurity and some simple things you can do to change that pattern today.
Posted by mmorand on August 21, 2010
I’m going to do 100 push ups when I exercise today! All at once, too!
Forget the fact that I was only able to do 10 yesterday, or any other day before, for that matter! I think 15 was my best day. Maybe 2 sets of 15 once or twice….
But today I’m going to do 100! Guaranteed! And you know why? Because I’m tired of having weak arms. I’m tired of wishing I could do 100 and only ever doing 10 and then feeling crappy about myself for not being able to do 100 and then going days and days without doing a single one. Something’s got to change. I’m tired of this measly little 10-push-up self. No pain no gain, right!?
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Posted by mmorand on August 14, 2010
One of the most obvious forms of all-or-nothing thinking that we humans engage in is a little thing we call the green-eyed monster, a.k.a. good, old-fashioned jealousy.
On the surface jealousy appears to be a simple thought, one that has you wanting something or someone that someone else “has”. But that thought has very deep roots and is itself rampant with all-or-nothing thinking which only makes you feel stuck, hopeless, and diminished. Anger is a response to a threat. We only ever feel angry when we truly feel sad and scared about something. Jealousy has a strong element of anger, a sense of judgement and injustice that belies our underlying fear and sadness. And why are we sad and scared? Well because when we’re aware of feeling jealous of someone it means we must have had the following thought just a second before:
“They” have something you not only want but believe you “should” have, and by virtue of “Them” having that thing, you are less likely to have it yourself, and not having that thing makes you less valuable, less worthy than they are. Therefore, your worth / okay-ness as a person is dependent on that person.
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