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In This Issue:
Featured Wellness Message: Love Is in the Air!
Recommended Resource: Stephanie Kolsrud, RDN
My Psychology Today Article: Emotional Eating Is All About Emotions, or Is It?
My Featured Post: 30 Truths About Diet Culture, Eating Disorders, and the Process of Healing
Love Is in the Air!
Yes, Valentine’s Day marketing may be over-the-top, but I fully support any opportunity that encourages us to communicate messages of love, friendship, care, and kindness. I fondly recall feelings of delight during my childhood when giving cards to and receiving cards from classmates. When such traditions are inclusive, they are a time for children to explicitly honor the love and care that connects us all, even those who are not our closest friends or family members. It’s hard to imagine a more important lesson.
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There is no limit to our capacity for love and kindness. A quick greeting between neighbors, long lunch with a colleague, chat with strangers during a morning run, breakfast with a partner, or silly text exchange among friends—these are interpersonal ties that shape us and give meaning to our days.
This month, how about sending a loving message to someone you care about? For every note of appreciation, be sure to write a loving affirmation to yourself. Since we are on this Intentional Living journey together, I promise to write one too.
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I wish you a month of spreading and receiving an abundance of love.
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XOXO,
Dr. Gia
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P.S. You make this community sweet! Thank you from the bottom of my heart. To show my gratitude, starting next month, we will be launching our rewards program. That means that when you share the Intentional Living newsletter, you can earn points to receive XXX. Stay tuned for details in our March issue.
“Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.”​
― Louise L. Hay
Stephanie Kolsrud
"Spreading sweetness" is our theme for this month, and the work of our featured collaborator, Stephanie Kolsrud, RDN, does just that. A registered dietitian and intuitive eating counselor, Stephanie helps women ditch restrictive diets and pursue nourishment while practicing body positivity. She advocates for women to escape perfectionism and toxic hustle culture, practice radical self-acceptance, and redefine health promotion as an act of self-love.
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"You deserve to be nourished," says Stephanie, "and that means never depriving yourself of foods you enjoy and the life experiences attached to them. Healthful eating habits are about the big picture and your ability to sustain them for the entirety of your life."
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Healing one's relationship with food and body image is hard but important work. And because support can lessen the load, Stephanie has started a private Facebook group, "Nourished Nourished Girls," for women looking for a free, inclusive, supportive, and inspiring community interested in ditching diet culture and finding food freedom through intuitive eating. You can also find Stephanie on Instagram, @the_intuition_dietitian.
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If you are needing one-on-one, targeted support, Stephanie also offers a six-month Intuitive Eating program. You can lean more about this program on her website, IntuitionDietitian.com.
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If you are struggling with eating or body image, asking for help is a great first step. Love yourself enough to reach out. You are worth it!​
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Emotional Eating Is All About Emotions, or Is It?
Binge eating and emotional eating have many contributors and healing strategies.
Food is central to life and an important facet of any society. It is not only a vital source of nutrition, it’s a way to engage and connect with others–a way of celebrating, comforting, mourning, bonding, and socializing.
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Because our eating habits are woven into the fabric of our daily lives and traditions, it’s likely that disordered eating–such as binge eating and emotional eating–is influenced by a combination of strong emotions, our environment, and our relationships with others, among other factors. A new study supports this theory.
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Fortunately, the science of habit formation, along with proven-effective coping skills, may be the two keys to decreasing disordered eating behaviors. To learn more about habits—and to get specific tips on strengthening emotion regulation, reducing the impact of environmental stress, and increasing social support, all of which are shown to curb disordered eating behaviors—read the full Psychology Today article.
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30 Truths About Diet Culture, Eating Disorders, and the Process of Healing
Learn the facts about about dieting and disordered eating
If you are struggling with food or an eating disorder, these helpful points may offer you the nudge you need to change your relationship to food.
Many people with eating disorders look healthy.Eating disorders in boys and men continue to be under-recognized, even though they experience higher mortality rates. 1 death every 52 minutes—that’s the average rate of mortality from eating disorders. At least 9% of the U.S. population (or 28 million people) will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.Historical, systemic, and individual trauma may negatively impact physical health, mental health, and eating habits.Rigid eating can negatively impact the gut-brain connection.Diet culture often interferes with the timely diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. Unyielding self-criticism can contribute to dieting, emotional eating, or binge eating, and compassionate self-talk is associated with intuitive eating.When nourishing yourself is no longer rooted in fear, you can begin to find freedom with food. Every person’s recovery from an eating disorder is personal and unique.
For 20 more truths about eating, diet, coping, and healing, read my full blog post.
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