10 Tips to Eat Healthier and Lose Weight Faster

Nowadays people have more concerns for healthy food. However, food choices alone cannot help you in effectively losing weight or avoiding obesity. The more important aspect in weight loss and diet that people tend to ignore is: the way you eat. These are 9 tips to eat healthier, to help your weight loss program, and your healthy digestion.

Eat in Peaceful Surrounding

Obese people tend to eat without paying much attention of the activity, while in fact, eating condition is as important as the food you eat. Find a peaceful surrounding while you are eating out. Small café is better than fast food restaurant, where people used to eat in quickly and briskly manner. When you eat, you must pay much attention to the food, to the richness of the taste, and how delicious it is. When you eat at home, do not watch TV or read newspaper while eating. Focus only on the eating!

Don't Eat When You're Stressed

Eating while you feel depressed or angry, will disturb your digestion, and you tend to eat without paying attention during those conditions. Wait until you feel more relaxed.

Sit Down While You Are Eating

You are more relaxed when you sit down. Eating while sitting down will make you more focused to the eating, and prevent you from eating quickly, like when you eat while standing. It will also help you preparing your digestion and strengthening your consciousness of the food and your hunger level.

Eat Moderately

To help you keeping your moderate eating speed, do not put any food on your spoon or fork until you are finished in chewing and swallowing existing food in your mouth.

Don't Talk Much While Chewing

While chewing and swallowing food, you should stick all your senses into the food, how it tastes, how it looks and how it smells. Light conversation is still allowed, as long as it won't make you get emotional and disturbed.

Eat Cooked Food

While raw food is becoming more famous lately, cooked food is still easier for digesting and causing less stomach problems. Eating deliciously cooked food will quickly cause a calm and satisfaction feeling, that will prevent you from another cravings. Freshly cooked food always provide the best meal.

Avoid Too Cold Food/Drink

Having too cold food and drink will reduce the burning function of your digestion. Pick healthy drinks without ice, or you can put your smoothie in refrigerator for a while just to make it more fresh.

Eat Until You Are 75% Full

Eat until you can't eat anymore? That is how obese people gained their overweight.

How do you know that your stomach has reached its 75% capacity?

This is another proof that paying attention to your eating activity is very important if you want to eat healthier. You have reach the 75% capacity, which are the maximum point of your satisfaction, when you:

· Have felt satisfied

· Do not feel any hunger

· Do not feel uncomfortable de to over eating

· Do not feel sick when seeing foods.

Stop your eating right at this point, no matter how delicious the rest of the foods seem to be, or how expensive they are to be left off.

Don't Eat Again Too Soon

After you have finished your meal, do not eat anything else until your previous food has been digested perfectly, which will take around 3-6 hours. If you want to have dessert, choose something light like small portion of fruits or a small glass of fruit juice.

Sit For A While After Eating

Now it's time to back to work, or return home from a dinner at restaurant. However, don't immediately leave after eating. Spend several more minutes on your table to give your digestion enough time to do its job well and easily.

Perfect and successful diet is when you choose your food carefully and eat healthier. Combine it with routine exercises, then you will lose your weight faster and healthier.

My name is Fanda Amnesiana, an exercise lover. I have written many articles related to exercise, weight loss, and diet at my website: http://www.myexercise-for-woman.com If you are in weight loss program or if you want to tone your muscles, you will find many fun exercises for woman that you are going to love! To succeed your weight loss, support your metabolism by consuming probiotics. Learn more about it in: http://www.1stprobiotics.com

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How to Stop Binge Eating - Simple Ways to Deal With Emotional Eating

If you are one of those who are eating because they are bored, depressed or stressed then you are binge eating engaging in emotional eating. Why is it important to stop binge eating? The number one reason why you must stop emotional eating is that it leads to weight gain overtime. A binge can last for short as hours, days or even as long as weeks and months at a time. Binge eating is not good for any one who has lost weight and trying to maintain their current weight or those who are still trying to lose weight. This article will help you know how to stop binge eating.

The first most important thing to do if you must stop binge eating is to get rid of unhealthy junks from your home. One thing you should know is that there is no way you can eat those unhealthy junks if you don't have them handy therefore fill your home with healthy and nutritious foods such as fruits and vegetables. But if you are one of those who are depressed and find solution to depression through binge eating, then eat healthy foods only in order to avoid gain more unwanted extra pounds.

Another way to stop emotional eating is keeping all foods in the kitchen and out of sight. The point is, the more you see foods, the more likely you are to feel hungry. Many people binge eat mainly because they don't pay close attention to know when they are truly hungry or not. Many people who find fun in keeping a bag of chips on their laps or close by while eating will find out that before they know it, the whole bag is gone. The simple reason is that their mind was occupied by the television program which is why it is very important to always keep all foods out of reach if you must stop emotional eating.

Another powerful way to stop emotional eating is drinking more water. It is important that you drink between 8-12 glasses of water daily. Drinking say 10 glasses of water daily will help fill you stomach and also help you deal with false hunger - which leads to binge eating. You don't have to drink 8-12 glasses at once, just spread it throughout the day. Drink more plenty of water between and after meals. One thing you should take note of is that you can not replace water with soda, water is got to be water. Drink water only and not soda.

Boredom or depression leads to binge eating. My suggestion is, whenever you find yourself idle and suddenly feel hungry ( false hunger), find something to get yourself busy and before you know it the false hunger will disappear thereby saving you from binge eating. You can walk out with a friend, play games or read - point is, get busy and the false hunger will disappear.

If you are one of those who find themselves in stressed or emotional state, then find something better and healthier than eating to deal with your pain. You may also talk to a counselor in order to identify the main problem and design a way to solve the problem. Binge eating anytime you are stressed or emotionally disturbed, then you are forming an habit that will at the end become more deadly than you can ever imagine. Don't be one of those who whenever they find themselves binge eating tell themselves, I will stop binge eating when I am no longer stressed or emotional.

People who binge are those who lack self control - do you have to be one of them? Always know that it is only you and you alone that can tell yourself to eat and it is also you and you alone that can stop yourself from binge eating. If you are seriously concerning about putting your weight under control then you must develop a serious mindset, a will power to stop binge eating.

Visit http://onlineweightlossexpert.com to discover how a former food addict overcame binge eating and lost as much as 35 pounds in no time.

http://onlineweightlossexpert.com

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Eat Stop Eat Review

Eat Stop Eat is a weight loss plan by nutritionist Brad Pilon. I was given a copy of this ebook and talked with Brad Pilon myself and I'm now ready to review this product so you can see what it includes. Can you lose weight with this plan? What is the method it is based on?

Eat Stop Eat is a 78 pages ebook which is written in a fluid and easy manner. There is not fluff in this ebook so it's an easy and fast read. You could probably get through it in about 2 hours and start applying what you learn. And what Brad Pilon teaches in Eat Stop Eat is pretty different than what most other weight loss plans I've read suggest.

Eat Stop Eat is based on two pillars:

1. Intermittent fasting to lose weight

2. Strength exercises to gain muscle tissue which in turn helps to burn more calories.

I want to deal with the first pillar as the second one is pretty well known. Brad Pilon believes (and he researched this topic academically) that one of the best ways to lose weight and control your eating habits is to use flexible fasting as part of your eating routine.

Now, this is where Eat Stop Eat differs from other diet plans. Most people associate fasting with metabolic slowdown, and this indeed happens. When we eat too little over too much time, are metabolism slows down and we find it harder to lose weight. But, what Brad Pilon discovered is that when you fast for short periods, around a day, this doesn't happen. It takes longer period of fasting for metabolic slowdown to occur. What does happen is that you immediately get a calorie deficit which is necessary to lose weight, and you also cleanse you body. Intermittent Fasting also helps to control eating habits far better as it's the very essence of self discipline.

In Eat Stop Eat you fast for a day once or twice a week (not a full fast, you can still drink low calorie beverages) and eat normally during the other days so it's not as hard to stick to it as it may seem at first glance.

Eat Stop Eat has a lot of highly positive reviews from people who lose weight with it. I first heard about it when it was recommended to me by an expert trainer which I highly respect. If you're looking for a way to lose weight which is different than what you may have tried before, check out this program. I also believe that the support Brad Pilon gives is great. I emailed him a couple of times and he responded within a day.

To read a more in depth review of this program, visit this webpage:
Eat Stop Eat Review

John Davenport lost over 30 pounds in his twenties after being overweight most of his life. To read more about fast weight loss, click here: Fasting To Lose Weight

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How Thin People Think and Eat - The Secret

Are you ready for the big secret? Are you ready to find out how thin people can eat whatever and whenever they want without gaining weight? It's going to sound deceptively simple, but don't be fooled. It's the simplest and yet the most difficult thing in the world.

What makes it difficult is that it involves some basic, fundamental shifts in how you approach food, eating, yourself, and your life. As you read, imagine yourself behind that thin person's eyes, and notice how you feel.

Thin people do four fundamental things that fat people don't.

1. They hardly ever eat unless their body is hungry.

2. They eat exactly what their body wants to eat.

3. They don't eat unconsciously; they stay conscious of what they're eating and the effect it's having on their body.

4. They stop eating when their body's hunger goes away.

It's as simple as that. I couldn't believe it at first and tried to make it more complicated. It had to be the kind of food they ate or their metabolism. But I found that some thin people eat junk food, and some eat health food. Some eat an early dinner, and some eat late at night. Some eat quickly, others eat slowly. The only things they all have in common are that they eat when their body gets hungry, they eat exactly what their body wants, they're aware of every bite they take and the effect it's having on their body, and they stop when their body's hunger goes away.

If you stop and think about it, that's how children and animals eat. It's the natural approach to eating. Let's take those four characteristics one at a time.

1.THIN PEOPLE EAT BECAUSE THEY'RE HUNGRY. It doesn't occur to naturally thin people to combine donuts and sadness, as fat people often do. Their days don't revolve around food. Sometimes they say, "Oh, I forgot to eat today." The only time we forget to eat is when we're asleep or unconscious, but if thin people aren't hungry, they don't think about food. It isn't an issue in their lives, since they give themselves permission to eat exactly what they want. It wouldn't occur to them to eat for any of the reasons we do-they eat because their body is hungry, and that's it! They don't waste food by eating more than their body needs. Food is just food, not love, comfort, sex, companionship, etc.

2.THIN PEOPLE EAT EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT TO EAT. Thin people do a funny thing-before they sit down to a meal, they usually take the time to ask themselves what they want to eat. They don't ask themselves what they should eat; they ask themselves what they want to eat. They know that if they want French fries, a head of lettuce isn't going to satisfy them. If they want a baked potato, cottage cheese isn't going to do it. If you want rocky road ice cream, a thousand carrot sticks aren't going to satisfy you! And there's one thing naturally thin people never do-they never go on a diet.

3.THIN PEOPLE EAT CONSCIOUSLY. They stay conscious of what they're eating and the effects it's having on their body. They would never find themselves with their hand at the bottom of the box, wondering who at all the popcorn. Since they pay attention to what they're eating, they're satisfied with less and enjoy their food more. Because thin people are awake and conscious when they're eating, they know when their body has had enough. Most fat people have no idea how full they are before, while, or after they eat. Naturally thin people are ignorant about food. They don't know anything about diets, and the process of counting calories baffles them. They only know four things: when they're hungry, what they want to eat, what each bite of food they put in their mouth is doing there, and when their body has had enough.

4.THIN PEOPLE STOP EATING WHEN THEIR BODY IS NO LONGER HUNGRY. Did you ever have someone try to press more food on you, even when you told them, "I'm on a diet?" Thin people have two words that stop people dead. They say, "I'm full," and if pressed, they just keep repeating it. I've seen thin people stop eating right in the middle of an expensive meal and feel no guilt whatsoever. I've seen them wrap up and save one bite of food, or take all but two sips of a soft drink and put it back in the refrigerator. When you ask them why they don't finish it, they say, "I'm full. I'll eat it later." Doggie bags were invented for thin people. Fat people eat everything that lands on the table.

When you think about it, these are all you really need to know in order to transform yourself into a naturally thin person.

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Overcoming Emotional Eating - How to Stop Emotional Eating For Good

We all partake in emotional eating. Whether we are celebrating someone's birthday or mourning the loss of a loved one - food is rarely ever uninvolved. Comfort foods remind us of when we were young and even just the smell can make us feel safe and secure because it is a reminder of our childhood. We often crave these comfort foods most when life gets challenging or stressful.

For most of us we don't realize we are an emotional eater or we don't think it is that serious. For some of us emotional eating doesn't lead to feelings of guilt or weight gain. For some of us we can comfort eat and think its no big deal, but it really is. For others, emotional eating is out of control and something that can rule our lives on a daily basis. This can seem like overwhelming cravings or hunger, but really it is the emotions that we feel making us feel hunger, desperate and adding to our weight.

Comfort food gives us instant gratification and takes away our ability to feel. Digestion and feeling both take up a lot of energy and therefore the body cannot do both. Comfort eating allows us to not have to deal with the emotion as we overload our digestive system with toxic rubbish.

When we feel emotional, it can be normal for us to feel a big empty hole inside of us like we are hungry. Instead of facing what this means - i.e. our emotions, we stuff it down. In society it seems as though we have become scared to feel so much so we don't even realize that we are hiding from our emotions most of the time.

When we don't allow ourselves to feel, we repress it. When you learn and begin to allow yourself to feel the emotion or emotions that arise and stop stuffing down you can feel very overwhelmed. This is because your body will be releasing past pent up emotions and thus it can hit you very hard. This is why it can be hard to let go of emotional eating, because we have to get past that first initial "scare" in order to move on and start learning to appreciate emotions for what they are. Being in the present moment, allowing a feeling to wash over us is wonderful and should be appreciated. The more you allow yourself to be in the present moment and feel, the less emotions will consume you and the less scared you will be of them. The intensity of the emotion will also drop. You will become stronger mentally and physically. You will feel so much better once it's off your chest, instead of suppressing it with food.

Of course getting to this point isn't necessarily simple. Some people can break their emotional eating by nourishing their body properly to get rid of physical cravings and getting support from others when they feel stress or emotional. Essentially replacing the comfort with a person instead of using food.

If you want to break emotional eating, you need to become aware of how and why you eat. Take a day out to observe yourself and what triggers you to eat. Are you eating out of true hunger? Most people don't even have an understanding of true hunger!

If you find yourself eating for emotional reasons, can you stop yourself? Instead of eating can you sit and allow the emotion to wash over you - give yourself time to feel it and move pass it? Or can you turn to someone to talk about how you are feeling?

Don't be hard on yourself. Emotional eating is probably something you have done from a very early age and so is a part of your make up. It is a learnt habit and it is how you have learnt to cope with the world. To undo something so ingrained in you will take time, so if you find yourself eating out of emotion - if you slip up - learn from it, don't feel bad about it just move on. The first step is recognition. Once you know that you are eating out of comfort, you are able to overcome it.

Journaling can also help you pinpoint patterns in your eating. Write down how you feel before, during and after a meal. What triggered your eating - was it genuine hunger?

If you start doing this, you should, within time, be able to overcome your emotional eating and be able to feel and look after yourself properly. If you find it too hard or daunting to battle emotional eating yourself, you could try seeing a counsellor or there is a great program online that can help.

Kelly Aziz is an expert in the field of nutrition and addiction psychology. She is the author of the acclaimed "Free to Eat" Combat Your Cravings Ebook & Natural Weight Loss Program that helps you eat well and combat cravings for good. For more information please visit: Cravings

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Weight Loss - Do You Eat Enough?

The headlines make it clear that Americans eat too much. Yet in my practice, I often find that people don't eat enough - at the right times. Sometime it's just habit and sometimes it's an attempt to lose weight: skipping meals or eating small meals seems like an obvious way to cut calories. It sounds logical but it doesn't work. In an ironic twist, eating too little can ultimately lead to eating too much.

Larry came to see me because of high blood sugar. I found out that he skipped breakfast, was inconsistent with lunch, and ate a big dinner. He wasn't hungry in the morning, so he saw no reason to eat. He had lunch when his schedule allowed, but often it just didn't fit in and he wasn't very hungry anyway. He'd finally get hungry in the late afternoon, and then he would eat. He figured he was saving calories all day, so he could afford big portions at dinner and snacks in the evening.

Larry has several things going on here. He doesn't feel hungry until he's ravenous. His one-large-meal-a-day habit lowers his metabolic rate, and it places big demands on his body to metabolize it all at once. Then he ends up overeating. All of these affect both his weight and his blood sugar.

It is wise to eat breakfast whether you are hungry or not. Breaking the fast keeps up our metabolism; we are hardwired to conserve calories and fat if there is a risk of starvation. Missing an occasional meal probably doesn't make much difference, but missing meals regularly can slow down the rate at which you burn energy.

Eating your day's worth of calories all at once swamps body systems. When we space out calories in three meals, it makes it easier to produce the hormones and enzymes that are part of the digestive process. Large meals require extra insulin -which over time can wear out the pancreas, reduce the effectiveness of insulin and cause insulin resistance. No wonder Larry's blood sugars were rising. His body was no longer able to produce enough insulin to keep up with his eating pattern and food choices.

Another problem with meal-skipping is the tendency to overeat later. I initially noticed this effect in my own home. When my husband Bill worked late and ate dinner at 9:00 pm, he ate twice as much as when he ate at 6:00. To his credit, he stopped overeating once I pointed it out to him - which is surprising since it is hard to stop eating once we reach that intensity of hunger. At that point our biology takes over and our cells are screaming "eat"! When it happens to me, I can watch myself eat too much, knowing what I am doing, and still do it anyway.

While Larry also needed to make some adjustments in the types of food he was choosing, just developing a three-meal-a-day habit made a big difference. This practical way of eating supports body functions. Spreading out calories throughout the day allowed Larry to eat less overall and to manage his blood sugar better.

Betty provides another example of not eating enough. Betty ate three meals every day, made healthy food choices, and yet she still overate late in the day. Her most challenging food time was the period right before dinner; once she started eating she couldn't stop. She described herself as starting off well each morning with good intentions, and then falling apart by the end of the day.

While there can be other reasons, most often this pattern is triggered by hunger. My guess was that Betty didn't eat enough at breakfast or lunch, so that by dinner time she was starving. By the time she realized she was hungry it was already taking over her good intentions.

It turned out that Betty's breakfast worked well for her - she was satisfied until lunch. Lunch was the problem. The salads or low calorie frozen entrée that she ate satisfied her at the time, but by dinner she was out of fuel. They just didn't have enough calories to last. Once she was over-hungry, it was hard to make wise food choices and to stop eating when she was full; biology takes over will power.

Because Betty was so hungry, she snacked while she fixed dinner. By time dinner was ready she was no longer hungry, but she ate it anyway. Then, feeling angry with herself for eating so much, she'd keep on snacking through the evening. Once she started it felt like there was no stopping.

We were able to shift Betty's eating pattern by adding food to her lunch that kept her full for longer and a planned snack earlier in the afternoon. Now Betty is only mildly hungry while she prepares dinner. Because she isn't eating right before dinner, she enjoys her meal more and finds it easier to keep her portion sizes reasonable. She rarely is hungry in the evening, but we came up with a planned snack for the occasional times when she is.

Before the healthy habits remake, Betty thought the problem was that she craved carbohydrates. She was amazed that just by eating enough at lunch, most of her cravings went away. Eating enough at the right time allowed her to eat less overall.

Do you get enough to eat - at the right times? It seems counter-intuitive, but eating enough at your meals can prevent overeating later in the day or excessive snacking. Experiment to find the right size for your meals: not too big, but not too small either. You'll be surprised at the difference it can make.

Kathy Nichols is the Healthy Habits Coach. As a registered dietitian and certified life coach, Kathy helps people who are tired of diets and feeling guilty find a way of eating that is sustainable, healthy and enjoyable.

website: http://healthyhabitscoach.com
blog: http://healthyhabitscoach.wordpress.com

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Sexual Abuse-Trauma and Eating Disorders - Examining the Relationship

Deborah was fourteen years old when she entered a residential treatment facility for bulimia with anorexic symptoms, along with drug dependency. During her initial phase of treatment, she remembered a traumatic memory that had been repressed for years. When Deborah was on a family vacation with her family at age 11 years, she was sexually assaulted by a group of unknown predators. As she had repressed this memory, she had told no one about the event, and had received no social support or an outlet to express and heal her pain resulting from the trauma.

After four years in the residential facility, Deborah came to us for treatment still plagued with body shame, self-blame and bulimic symptoms. She blamed herself for the sexual trauma, feeling she was responsible as she was without adult supervision at the time, and perceiving she had led the abusers on by being too nice. The self blame was not surprising considering her early mistaken decisions or interpretations about herself . From an early age Deborah believed that everything was always "her fault." By the age of eighteen she had completely dissociated from her body, denying her femininity and unwilling to embrace her womanly sexuality. She had severe issues in her interpersonal relationships and achieving intimacy, particularly in romantic relationships, and was unable to feel deserving or derive pleasure from these interactions. In treatment, we first helped Deborah to reframe her negative self image and alter distorted perceptions surrounding the traumatic event, helping her to counteract shameful thoughts about her body and to cease self-blame. Her binging behaviour was a way to metaphorically 'fill herself up' emotionally and subsequently push out and occlude some of her feelings of disgust and self-loathing. To counteract this behaviour, therapy included generating positive self affirmations to combat her negative feelings towards herself and her body.

To deal with the emotional aspects of the trauma and eating disorder, we also engaged in a variety of experiential and body-oriented techniques with Deborah. The therapeutic technique of psychodrama was utilized to give her a sense of power over her abuser and the abusive scenario. Through yoga and movement exercises, she learned to better connect with her body and learn that it was okay to move and "feel" her body. Finally, after a few years, therapeutic touch was used to show Deborah that she could accept and be touched lovingly in a non-abusive way, and that being touched was not something to be feared.

At the end of our work together, Deborah was able to be rid of her bulimic symptoms and reported feeling a greater sense of love and acceptance towards her body. By working through issues surrounding her traumatic sexual experience, Deborah was able to better understand and ameliorate much of her eating disordered behaviour and to learn how to deal with her emotions in a healthier way. This case study is only one example of the impact of sexual assault or trauma that resulted in an eating disorder.

The presence of sexual abuse among women is of an epidemic proportion, with prevalence estimates of lifetime sexual abuse varying between 15 and 25% among the general female population (Lesserman, 2005). Sexual abuse and trauma can occur across the lifespan, and despite variable definitions, is typically defined as unwanted sexual contact, ranging from exposure and fondling to rape (Bagley, 1990). Certain circumstances relating to sexual trauma have been associated with heightened eating disorder symptoms in particular, including if the sexual trauma involved parents or if it occurred more than once, (Murray and Waller, 2002). The consequences of sexual abuse may not be immediate, for when the abuse ends, the emotional trauma may remain. The effects of such abuse can be seen rather overtly in one's social relationships, as abused individuals are likely to express discomfort and fears relating to love and sexual intimacy with others. Other consequences of abuse or trauma may remain more covert and hidden, but be equally unhealthy and destructive.

This includes the development of an ingrained disgust and hate for the body, as well as an overwhelming sense that events in one's life are uncontrollable. Essentially, past occurrences of sexual abuse or trauma may affect how one experiences living in their body, and ultimately existing and interacting in the world. It appears that a previous history of sexual abuse or trauma is a risk factor for a wide range of physical illnesses and psychopathology, including depression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, as well as low self-esteem (Carter, Bewell, Blackmore, & Woodside, 2006). Importantly, both researchers and clinicians on the whole agree that trauma resulting from a history of sexual abuse can play a role in body image disturbance and eating disordered symptoms

Sexual trauma in relation to eating disorders

Prevalence estimates of sexual abuse among individuals experiencing eating disorders is variable, and reported more in females, seeming to fall around approximately 30% (Connors and Morse, 1993; Woodside, Garfinkel et al., 2001). This estimate is likely disturbingly underestimated due to the personal nature of sexual trauma and the associated secrecy, guilt, and embarrassment that often accompanies such. Research has found that patients presenting with an eating disorder and a past history of sexual abuse and trauma are more likely to report engaging in self-destructive behaviour and impulsivity (Wonderlich, et al., 2001. However, for some individuals, the experience of sexual abuse may be consciously inaccessible, that is, it may not be expressible or available to one's memory, highlighting the importance of a therapeutic relationship that can bring forth and address these memories in a safe environment.

Another contributing factor that could account for the abuse-eating disorder link is the perception that one lacks control. According to Peterson and Seligman (1983), humans have a need to perceive control over their lives, specifically in relation to aversive events, and feel distressed otherwise. Due to the coercive nature in most cases of sexual abuse, survivors of sexual trauma may experience feelings of powerlessness and feel little control over their own bodies. As the desire for self-control is evident in many individuals with eating disorders, when coupled with a history of sexual trauma, an increased need to gain control over the body can result. By restricting one's food intake, the abused individual may feel that their body is, at least for a limited time, under their own control.

Body dissatisfaction and lack of acceptance of one's own sexuality and femininity is prevalent in women with eating disorders and a history of sexual trauma or abuse. Some may believe that their bodies were too attractive and seductive/provocative to their abuser and thus blame their bodies for bringing on the traumatic experience, associating feminine sexuality with negative consequences. Starving the body may become a way to express one's anger towards the experience itself, and or punish the body. The low levels of sexual desire and lack of menses that are symptoms of anorexia may appear to the client as a way to regress to a child-like state in which they don't have to deal with issues of sexuality and femininity that cause them emotional and psychological distress. Essentially, eating disorders and the destruction of the body may be a way to deny sexuality and avoid the painful feelings and memories connecting to abusive and traumatic violation.

The strongest association between sexual abuse and eating disorders has been found amongst individuals with bulimia. When combined with other psychiatric comorbidity, particularly substance abuse, bulimia has been linked with higher frequency and more severe history of sexual abuse (Deep, Lilenfeld, Plotnicov, Pollice, & Kaye, 1999).

Why bulimia? Purging behaviours may serve as a way to 'purify' or cleanse the self, and serve as a metaphor for expelling uncomfortable or "dirty" feelings and experiences from the body. For example, an individual may feel that vomiting is the only way to rid herself of the feelings and memories of the unwanted sexual encounter she experienced and to feel relief.

Healing Sexual Abuse and Eating Disorders in Therapy

What are some key elements that should be involved in therapy to treat this specific population? Like any therapeutic relationship, supportive empathy, and the development of a trusting, safe and nurturing therapist-client dyad is of the utmost importance. Previous traumatic experience may have left the client with a lack of trust in others and the perception of the world as a threatening place. For survivors of sexual abuse who have issues surrounding intimacy, boundaries within the therapeutic relationship must be clearly set in order to ensure that the client is not intimidated or confused and feels they are in a safe place to explore and heal their emotions and suffering.

In therapy, it is important to acknowledge the purpose or goals behind eating disordered behaviours and to eventually help the client to understand that that those behaviours were a necessary survival mechanism until they were able to live in a more positive and emotionally healthy way. Eventually it is helpful for the client to recognize that their eating disorder was an actual gift for growth and learning in all aspects of life. The therapist should supportively explore the reason for a client's bingeing behaviours that likely emanate from an attempt to cope with one's feelings relating to abuse or to cleanse the body of feelings of disgust. Also, since issues of control are a central theme in this population, a focus on perceived control should explored in therapy, for example, by letting clients actively make choices about their therapy and giving them the opportunity to choose to stop if the discussion becomes too uncomfortable. Finally, as encouragement is the antithesis of discouragement, the therapist can help the client accept that they are not to blame and can not change the past, and instead can actively choose to move forward and work to recover from their trauma, regaining a sense of personal power, femininity, and learning to nurture and love their body again.

Other specific techniques to explore with abused-eating disordered clients including body- oriented exercises that enhance awareness, control, and ownership of one's own body are suggested. Verbal therapies may be less effective for some survivors of sexual abuse or trauma, particularly if the trauma occurred early in development, as it likely that the memories were encoded non-verbally. For these clients, Psychodrama, Art, Movement, Yoga and other body oriented therapies may be more effective, as they can help the individual to learn to connect and love their body again, and to re-awaken their sexuality. Relaxation training may also be used to develop awareness of the many interconnected, lovable and worthy aspects of one's own body and to help attain feelings of inner peace. Similarly, guided imagery can be used during therapy to help clients reacquaint themselves with a safe place that provides them feelings of safety and comfort, Anger and fear release techniques in particular, such as using a tackle dummy in a safe place of healing, can also augment a sense of empowerment, instead of the feeling that one is a victim. Which strategy to use in conjunction with the above mentioned therapeutic goals will depend on the specific experiences of the individual, the stage of their recovery process, and their openness to change and their current perception of safety.

References

Bagley, C. (1990). Development of a measure of unwanted sexual contact in childhood for use in community mental health surveys. Psychological Reports, 66, 401-402.

Carter, J.C., Bewell, C., Blackmore, E., & Woodside, D.B. (2006). The impact of childhood sexual abuse in anorexia nervosa. Child Abuse and Neglect, 30, 257-269.

Connors, M.E., & Morse, W. Sexual abuse and eating disorders: A review. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 13, 1-11.

Deep, A.L., Lilenfeld, L.R., Plotnicov K.H, Pollice, C, & Kaye, W.H. (1999). Sexual abuse in eating disorder subtypes and control women: The role of comorbid substance dependence in bulimia nervosa. The International Journal of Eating Disorders, 25, 1-10.

Lesserman, J. (2005). Sexual abuse history: Prevalence, health effects, mediators, and psychological treatment. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 906-915.

Murray, C. & Waller, G. (2002). Reported sexual abuse and bulimic psychopathology among nonclinical women: The mediating role of shame. International Journal of Eating Disorers, 32, 186-191.

Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E. (1983). Learned helplessness and victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 39, 103-116.

Wonderlich, S.A., Crosby, R.D., Mitchell, J.E., Thomspon, K.M, Redlin, J., Demuth, G., Smyth, J., & Haseltine, B. (2001). Eating disturbance and sexual trauma in childhood and adulthood. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 30, 401-412.

Woodside, B.D, Garfinkel, P.E., Lin, E., Goering, P., Kaplan, A.S., Goldbloom, D.S., & Kennedy, S.H. (2001). Comparisons of men with full or partial eating disorders, men without eating disorders, and women with eating disorders in the community. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 570-574.

Orit is a psychotherpist with over 22 years of counseling experience currently focusing on recovery from eating disorders. Orit has completed an M.A. degree in Counselling Psychology at the Adler School of Professional Psychology. She is a member in good standing with the Academy of Eating Disorders (AED) and the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology (NASAP) as well as a Certified Clinical Member of the Ontario Association of Consultants, Counsellors, Psychometrists and Psychotherapists. (OACCPP). She was a student of psychodrama as well as other body-oriented therapies.

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