Wisdom Tips for Overcoming Eating Disorders and the Healing Power of Growing Your Own Food

You often hear me speak about the joy of food. The love, healing, and wellness it brings to our lives. What you don’t often hear me refer to are the self image issues and pain that many have created around food.

Have you ever felt not skinny enough? Not good enough? Do you carry around a secret shame related to food? Do you hide your eating habits? Binge? Purge? If you answered yes, you are like many who are dealing with the hidden pain of eating disorders.

I spoke to a wonderful woman who knows the challenges of anorexia and bulimia first hand. Introducing Kate Daigle. Kate spent many years dealing with the pain of an eating disorder. Like many of LoveSelf’s inspiring people, she has overcome significant challenges. It is often those challenges that turn into our life calling. “I wanted to help people the way I have been helped“, she told me.

“I felt this need to be perfect”, Kate said. She told me about not feeling worthy and the anxiety that brings. For many years she wouldn’t talk about her eating disorder. After her first year of college, she went to France and describes having a “sort of spiritual crisis”. She was very much struggling and knew that she needed help. She began seeing a counselor, attended an evening intensive outpatient program, and describes, “doing a huge amount of reading, journaling, and soul searching”. She continued her healing process in counseling for several years.

Kate has not only healed from her eating disorder, she refers to food as a “source of joy” and has become an avid gardener and cook. Kate now counsels others to view their bodies as “beautiful, healthy, and powerful.” Kate openly spoke with me about the challenges of dealing with eating disorders, her new garden, and the joy of living life with full appreciation for healing foods.  

Kate’s garden has become her sanctuary. As she felt the power of her spirit return, Kate found herself fascinated by the process of growing her own fruits, herbs, and vegetables. She started slowly and soon realized that her garden had become her sanctuary. Her “perfectionism and anxiety” didn’t follow her to her the soil. She began to understand the nourishment that springs from our symbiotic relationship with the earth and our food. She now grows multitudes of vegetables ranging from carrots and cucumbers to peas, squash, herbs, and eggplant. Speaking of eggplant, Kate desires one section of her lovely land to become “an all purple” garden. Fun!

What has growing her own food taught Kate about healing? She sums it up beautifully… “Nurture, bloom, grow, and persevere”. Life just like our garden!

Kate’s garden has also inspired a love of cooking! She has shared with us her Root Vegetable Baked Squash recipe. Kate and her husband Jeff are expecting their first child and live in Denver, Colorado.

To learn more from those dealing with body image disorders check out Melanie’s approach to Paleo.

The post A Woman’s Story of Healing an Eating Disorder by Growing Her Own Food appeared first on LoveSelf.

For the love of a mom and her baby. Healing from the pain of body image issues.

Some love stories begin in the most unorthodox of ways. This is a story of self-love, relationships, and the child that inspired healing. Introducing Melanie Martinez. If you view only the surface you will see a stunningly fit woman with a family and fitness career. You would guess her life to be easy and you would guess wrong. Like many of us, what is beneath the surface is the truth to be honored.

Melanie has struggled her entire life with what she describes as “food and body image issues”. I am sure you are wondering with that physique how is such a thing possible? It is possible because it is our perception of ourselves that change our lives.

Everyday is a new opportunity and our journey can change in an instant. Or in Melanie’s case… two weeks. Melanie tells me about meeting a kind man named AJ. They fell for each other instantly. So instantly that within two weeks of meeting they were pregnant! They knew right away they wanted to get married. Not out of obligation, out of loving commitment they choose to make everyday.

After her son Harlan was born, Melanie’s emotional and physical challenges increased. She found herself with postpartum depression, unhappy with her body, unable to sleep, skin issues. IBS type symptoms and a plethora of other issues. Melanie tells me that her husband was “brave enough to get me to talk to someone”. Melanie began the hard road of dealing with the emotional pain yet hadn’t solved the physical symptoms until she was introduced to healing foods. She was intrigued and also confessed that she didn’t expect her focus to last. Yet, it has lasted and she began to learn that food is both medicine and delight.

Melanie began focusing on lean meats, healthy fats, and organic fruits and vegetables. She gave up gluten, refined sugar, and processed foods. She discovered that she was no longer on an endless diet. She wasn’t craving unhealthy foods. “It is so incredible what your body can tell you”, she states. Her depression lifted. Her digestion improved and her skin cleared up. She was sleeping through the night. Melanie began to realize for the first time that her focus “wasn’t about looks”. It was “feeling good about myself”. She began to love creating in the kitchen and even gave us her amazing recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake!

I asked Melanie what advice she would give to those battling the pain of self-image concerns. Her thoughts are clearly from the wisdom of a person that has been there.

• Reach out. Don’t hide. Talk to someone.
• Move everyday. Take a walk or a yoga class.
• Journal about gratitude. Start with three things everyday.

Melanie is proud to be an example to her son. She knows that she is a good mom and can live by example of self worth and healing. She looks forward to cooking with Harlan, teaching him the value of healthy food, and joyously exercising together. 

At the time of this writing, Melanie and AJ have another baby on the way. You can find her at Next Level Fitness Chicago or baking for her growing family.

The post A Mom’s Journey to Heal Her Body Image appeared first on LoveSelf.