Do you ever wonder about how the fitness industry works?
Have you ever thought about gyms, health clubs, and gyms as an industry?
Living in the Soul-less Cycle
Soul-less Cycle: Take your Journey, Find your Soul
In my last blog (SoullessCycle: The Pack and The Pact), I wrote about my mixed experiences at a SoulCycle fitness studio. Over the last two years, I’ve done lots of embodied/somatic research for the book I’m writing about exercise addiction and the fitness industry.
Today’s blog describes my latest SoulCycle visit.
Soul-less Cycle: The Pack and The Pact
Ten years ago, I tried SoulCycle in New York City. In a dark studio with loud music, I got lost in the crowd for a rhythmic, freeing, and sweaty workout.
I liked the no metrics/no screens method and choreographed workouts, but was less fond of the cliques. I didn't like how SoulCycle promoted their instructors like products–or used celebrities to manufacture a reputation as the newest and coolest place to “trendercise.” Turned off after a few classes, I didn’t go back.
To Screen or Not to Screen…
In our past blogs we have voiced our clinical opinions regarding the need for increased screening for disordered eating. Who should be screening? Primary providers such as pediatricians, therapists and dietitians come to mind. In the news this past week it was reported that there is no clear evidence at this time to recommend specific guidelines for or against screening for eating disorders (HealthDay, 2022).
5 Ways that Having Celiac can Change your Relationship to Food
A celiac diagnosis can turn your world upside down and totally change your relationship with food. Whether you were diagnosed as a child or later in life, it can take a toll on the way you interact with food. Feelings of scarcity, hypervigilance, and even greif are normal - but this doesn’t mean you can't have a healthy and enjoyable relationship with food!
The Vegan Diet and Health; What Are We Missing?
What is HAES®?
HAES® is the acronym for a movement that has been around since the 1960s, otherwise known as Health at Every Size®. HAES® is a weight-neutral approach to health, emphasizing healthy behavior changes to promote health rather than weight loss. It encourages individuals to appreciate their bodies for what they can do and provide rather than for how they look.
The Brain & ED Connection
New Study Shows Eating Disorder and Bullying Connection Across Demographic Groups
Often, as eating disorder specialists we get asked WHY eating disorders surface. Parents, providers and those dealing with eating issues wonder what factors contribute to disordered eating. The answer remains complex. Eating disorders involve many different layers and variables. Genetics, trauma and life transitions have been studied and reported as contributors to disordered eating. An article just this week out of healthday.com, highlighted another factor to consider, especially in younger people dealing with disordered eating. Bullying.
Eating Disorders & Stress; What’s the Connection?
A new study was recently published addressing stress and eating disorders. This study was unique in that it had the controlled variables of a residential setting. Both clients and clinicians perceive on some level that binge eating symptoms often come as a result of stress. This study highlights the contrary. These “hot off the press” findings came out last month in the Journal of Neuroscience
ARFID and Sensory Processing Issues
Like many eating disorder nutrition practices, this year we’ve seen an influx of complex, complicated and even atypical cases come to our virtual doorsteps. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to work with a more robust and complete picture of eating disorders that span the spectrum of age, gender, race and symptom presentation.
Has COVID messed with your relationship with food?
Has being diagnosed with COVID messed with your relationship with food? You aren’t alone. Many people who have suffered from COVID experience smell and taste changes. Parosmia (a distortion of smell) and anosmia (a diminished sense of smell) can cause previously enjoyable aromas, like a warm cup of coffee or fresh flowers, to become unpleasant, intolerable, and even disappear altogether.
ARFID - More Info on the New ED In Town
As a practice dedicated to eating disorders, it’s common for clients, families and colleagues to assume we treat the more known disorders of Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating Disorder, and OSFED. Although Integrated Eating does work with clients with these diagnoses, more and more we are referred clients reporting ARFID symptoms. New to the term? Join the club.
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2021
It’s NEDAW! What’s that you ask? The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) promotes National Eating Disorders Awareness Week every year. This year NEDAW falls on February 22nd through February 28th. Their mission is to take this week to educate the public, spread hope for those in recovery and their families, and provide resources that can help save lives.
Eating Fat makes you Fat
The macronutrient, Fat, has a bad reputation in diet culture and especially in the eating disorder world. It doesn’t help that society’s views on body image further create a PR nightmare for the macronutrient. The common misnomer that eating fat will make you fat is understandable as the name itself, gives off that impression. In addition, scientifically there is some logic behind that myth:
Recipes for Recovery 12: The Perfect Breakfast Smoothie
Eating Disorders In Children: New Guidelines for the New Year
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has officially released a new clinical report on guidance in identifying and managing eating disorders in both childrens and adolescents. Published in Pediatrics, these guidelines are a positive step in helping frontline providers in identifying and referring younger patients with the disorder early on.
Myth: When it comes to weight loss: The faster, the better...
Weight and weight loss can be tricky subjects, especially when it comes to eating disorder treatment and recovery. At times, our patients have inquired about needing a “jump start” to weight loss. For some, the idea of “jump starting” can symbolize a beginning of something dramatic and different. When it comes to weight, this usually involves a drastic change that can include some degree of restriction, cutting calories, limiting food groups, or meals all together.
Recipes for Recovery 11: Stomach Soothing Soup
ED recovery is tough! Not only mentally, but also on our physical bodies. Gastro-intestinal upset is incredibly common in eating disorder recovery because our bodies are re-learning how to properly tolerate and digest foods. This often results in bloating, gas, diarrhea and constipation. And as abnormal as it feels it is normal in parts of the treatment and recovery journey!