A New Way of Thinking...

I want to introduce myself before I get going on this online journey. I am most importantly a mom of one young daughter, a step-mom of two boys and a wife. That makes me sound very traditional however I only recently acquired all three at an age past what most would consider conventional...I turned 40 this year! Not a hard transition for me...but a transition that gave me pause and required me to reflect.

Secondly, past the family stuff, I'm a Licensed Mental Health Therapist and have been working for 15 years, the last nine have been in my own private practice. So...I am also a business woman and a woman who has worked extensively with people who are grappling with depression, anxiety, eating disorders, weight loss, body image issues, family problems, transition problems, grief, etc... I could go on and on, as 15 years has a way of stacking up the breadth and depth of experiences. On a personal level in my journey as a woman I've taken a close look at (and sometimes ran from) issues of body image, love/hate relationship with food, depression, perfectionism, finding balance, over-scheduling, learning to say "no" and not feeling bad, etc..

As a therapist I have a unique and privileged position of being allowed into the innermost parts of a person. The parts that are usually carefully concealed by a glossy and culturally acceptable exterior. I have been honored to work with the most amazing women in my career. Women who are accomplished, intelligent, sensitive and talented. Given all of that you would think these women would escape the "diet trap"...but your thinking would be wrong. None of us are spared the "prowling Lion" called body image discontent. This discontent is what leads us to negative thinking about our bodies and appearance and results in a vast array of behaviors that at best are not effective and worse harmful both physically and emotionally. There has to be a better way to move through life.

That is the goal of my blog...I've never blogged before but I have always been very verbal about my beliefs regarding diet and real women's bodies. I have a few "soap boxes" but this one towers above most of the others. I feel that we women keep ourselves hobbled by the faulty beliefs and behaviors that ensnare our minds, time, energy and motivations. Ask yourself...if I could harness all of the time, money, energy I have invested in my attempts to change my body and appearance what could I really accomplish in this world? That is my challenge to you today...take out a pencil or your keyboard and on one page write a list of things you have invested in the "weight loss/appearance changing" monster. After you are done, ponder this list for awhile and then on a second page use your imagination and write about the things you feel you could accomplish with those assets if they were re-directed to other areas.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my blog...this is an exciting journey and to borrow a well used phrase, "every journey starts with a single step." This is the first step in what I hope to be many steps we take together in revamping women's outlook and behaviors regarding their bodies and weight loss.