Can I Get Fries with That?

Recently, I saw a woman wearing a t-shirt that read, "Will Work Out for Fries." Is it only funny because, for so many, it rings true? How many share this food/exercise philosophy?

I'd do a lot for a good order of fries - drive in traffic, wait on a long line, possibly even forsake ketchup - but I don't want to have to exercise to earn my right to eat them.

The moment we start pairing food with physical activity is the moment we take that first step down what could be a slippery slope, a slope toward counting and comparing, obsessing and overdoing, a slope that overlaps with disorder.

How many miles do you have to run to burn off an order of medium fries? Don't learn this! Data like this, especially for certain brains, can be difficult to unlearn.*

Instead, learn how you feel when you run. Notice your state of mind following those laps in the pool. Focus on gratitude for being able-bodied (if you are) and capable of climbing mountains (if you can). Understand what it means to feel strong and accomplished.

This has absolutely nothing to do with an order of fries.


*If you do know the answer, you can still practice uncoupling food and exercise by keeping exercise patterns constant, regardless of spikes in intake.

You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Healthline's 2016 Best Eating Disorder Blogs

I'm a little late to post this, but I wanted to celebrate another blogging win, plus honor a number of other fabulous blogs. If you haven't seen Healthline's 2016 list of "Best Eating Disorder Blogs," check it out here. Congrats to all the winners!

You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Why Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse So Commonly Co-Occur

Curious about the relationship between eating disorders and alcohol/substance misuse? Check out my latest blog for Oliver-Pyatt Centers!


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Movement Manifesto

It's been just about 20 years since I was first certified as a personal trainer. I was completing my graduate work at the time, and this certification allowed me to teach fitness classes, helping me pay for school. Fast forward 20 years, and I've kept up the certification and acquired a couple of other fitness certificates along the way.

Now, along with my work in therapy, I teach two group cycling classes each week. My rides are challenging but body-positive. We set intentions, I bring in inspirational quotes, we visualize and engage in mindfulness exercises, and there isn't a word ever about calories or weight. I love this marriage of my two interests - how my work in eating disorders and body image can so seamlessly merge with my background in fitness. Sometimes, when my patients who struggle with eating disorders find out that I teach group cycling classes, they respond with discomfort or disbelief. Isn't spinning just a symptom? It can be. But, movement can also be joyful, healthy, and recovery-based. Unfortunately, the fitness industry has corrupted fitness with messages, images, and goals that reek of disorder. Here's the message that I want to share:

~I believe that movement is naturally rewarding, sometimes challenging, and often disordered.

~Pairing movement with the food we eat or with body dislike robs it of its natural joy and value. Physical activity becomes a tool that we use to attack ourselves.

~Capitalizing on motivations like "calories in, calories out" is woefully reductive. Instead, exercise is a health behavior that has a significant, positive impact on our mental health and overall well-being.

~Engaging in physical activity to burn calories, compensate for meals, or lose weight can be toxic, addictive, and can ultimately, create a pathway to disorder.

~Exercise is not punishment, payback, or compensation.

~Let's disentangle food, weight, and exercise, allowing movement to resume its inherently joyful and rewarding place in our lives.

~Let's run and jump and dance because we want to, not because we have to.

~Let's move our bodies, motivated by self-love, not self-attack.

~And let's band together to challenge the stereotypical, limited, and disordered cultural messages we're exposed to regarding physical fitness. Be part of the movement that demands change in this arena.


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Why Is Everyone a Nutrition Expert?

If you're recovering from an eating disorder, sometimes scrolling through social media can be a recipe for disaster.

I've noticed recently that my Facebook feed is filled with women advertising (on groups I've joined) their multi-level marketing businesses. They're selling shakes, body wraps, and beach body programs, touting their own success and before-and-after pictures as proof.

When I joined a group of local vegetarians, it wasn't long before the posts devolved from restaurant recommendations and meetup opportunities to members' advertisements for boot camps and diet shakes. Why must we conflate a lifestyle choice with a drive to lose weight?

Health and nutrition coaches abound. Pilates instructors are offering pre- and post-natal nutrition coaching. Personal trainers are serving up meal plans and chefs are counseling people on the "psychology of eating."

For those in recovery, the barrage of weight-loss/thin-ideal material is triggering and hard to ignore. For the general population, this practice turns out potentially dangerous misinformation. The fact that nutritional counseling is largely unregulated creates a bunch of pseudo-experts advising on a topic that can have significant negative consequences. Diets don't cause eating disorders, but they can trigger someone who is susceptible. I've had a number of patients through the years report that their symptoms began - or intensified - when they sought out the services of a personal trainer who prescribed them a rigid meal plan.

We need to leave nutrition to the experts, the registered dietitians who have the education, training, and certification to stand behind their recommendations. Even within this group, there can be great variability regarding an understanding of disordered eating, the emotional connection to food, and sensitivity to weight stigma.

Let's educate the public to seek out properly trained individuals on matters of physical and mental health. Nutrition is a science, and while it might be a hobby for some, imposing this hobby on others can have often harmful effects.


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Fitness at Every Size

Did you hear about The University of Washington's advice for prospective cheerleaders? The infographic, published last week by the university, suggested that coeds show up for tryouts with "curled or straight hair," false eyelashes, and bare midriffs - and created quite a stir in the body image community.

It's clear that the university - and likely not the only one but maybe one of the only to advertise - was looking for a female prototype to populate its squad. Might women of color have a shot? Would women of diverse body types or varying degrees of femininity have any chance of nailing an audition? Unlikely.

While we might take aim at any one of the stereotypically confining pointers they recommend, the one that jumps out most to me is the hint, "Be physically fit, with an athletic physique." What might happen, as I'm sure will be the case, if a woman shows up for tryouts who is physically fit but who doesn't have the "athletic physique" that the squad requires? Might she have a shot to dazzle the captains with her fitness and skill? Doubtful.

What exactly is an "athletic physique," anyway? One word connotes function, the other form. In reality, athleticism has no look. It's possible to be perfectly athletic without sporting the "athletic physique" most of us are brainwashed to prefer.

The Health at Every Size^® movement proposes that healthy behaviors be considered independent of body size. I'd add a special emphasis on fitness, as indices of fitness (e.g., strength, endurance, flexibility) can be accomplished regardless of shape or size. A thin body is not, by definition, fit. 

So, might the cheer captains at the University of Washington take note of a truly athletic woman, who can tumble and jump but who has a bulky midriff? Fat chance.

But, there's a lesson in this for all of us.


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

News Bites

1) Have you heard about the ANGI? Here's their latest:

The Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI) will be coming to a close in the following months and we need your help! We are still recruiting individuals with a history of anorexia and individuals without a history of an eating disorder to participate. But hurry, the deadline to participate is June 30, 2016. All that is required is a brief online questionnaire and a blood sample. To make it easier for you, we’ll even send the phlebotomist to wherever you are, nationwide!  

Participants will receive a $25 Amazon gift card to say thanks. We can’t do this important research without you! 

To find out if you are eligible to participate, visit this link and fill out the survey: https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_b7KDMDd8SuM1o 

For more information call 1-855-746-2547, email ANGI@unc.edu or visit www.unceatingdisorders.org/angi.

2)  Would you have any interest in an Intervention-style show on eating/body image issues? Here's a blurb from production:

A new documentary style TV program about people with body image issues: We are looking to conduct a 30 minute Skype/FaceTime interview with someone who is currently battling anorexia. The project is in the development stages so the interview would never air/broadcast but will hopefully help us help others. If interested please email us (@jessicamelz@gmail.com) directly. All information will be kept strictly confidential. Thanks so much.

3)  Check out my latest interview on Refinery29 on the snarkiness/gossip around friends with eating disorders.


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

Kick the Scale Interview

Remember my interview with Erin Konheim Mandras?

Well, she also interviewed me! You can check out our conversation here.


You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com. 

How Weight Information Can Increase Overeating/Binge Eating - Four Pathways

Recently, I found myself explaining to someone’s mother how encouraging her daughter to weigh herself was exacerbating her eating disorder symptoms (binge eating, in this case). As I did so, it occurred to me that there are four pathways to this relationship. They might seem intuitive, but it helped to spell out the matrix of consequences for this family.

If someone (let’s call her Veronica) steps on the scale and sees a number that’s higher than she anticipated, she might experience distress. For many who struggle with binge eating disorder, food is the most convenient and effective coping mechanism. So, the urge to binge can increase.

If she weighs herself and sees a number that’s higher than predicted, she could also have an urge to restrict her intake in an attempt to suppress her weight. As it typically does, restricted intake will likely result in future binge episodes.

Now, if Veronica steps on the scale and sees a number that “passes the test,” or one that is lower than expected, she could similarly restrict her intake as a way to continue this weight-loss trend. Again, binge eating is a likely consequence.

And if she weighs herself and sees a number that’s equally satisfying, it’s possible she might choose to celebrate by overeating or might feel that she is entitled to eat past fullness as a reward for her success.

Many will endorse one or more of these possibilities as potential outcomes of weighing themselves in early recovery. While some professionals believe that access to weight information in eating disorder treatment is always contraindicated, I think that there are certain benefits to learning this information.

Often, those who struggle with binge eating eat sporadically and infrequently – and avoid certain foods – setting themselves up for future binges. When encouraged to eat more intuitively, they might have fears about excessive weight gain. Witnessing weight trends can provide evidence that a more regular meal plan, which reduces the frequency of binge episodes over time, will not result in significant weight gain. Here, weight information serves as an evidence-based cognitive challenge. But, patients in early recovery might still be triggered by weight information, and it’s important to determine where individuals are in their recovery and to provide space to process and learn from concerns that arise as the result of weight information.

You can find Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder? Challenging Our Nation's Fixation with Food and Weight on Amazon (as a paperback and Kindle) and at BarnesandNoble.com.