Eating and Body Image Concerns
Have you found yourself obsessing over how many calories you eat in a day? Or isolating from social engagements for fear of eating too much?
Is your 10 year old commenting about how “fat” they are, or you notice that they have been missing at mealtimes, or complaining that they had a big lunch so aren’t hungry at dinner?
Do you spend a lot of time in front of the mirror checking your body, pinching parts of your body, or criticizing yourself because of how you look? Do you ever exercise to the point of exhaustion, or use exercise as a form of punishment?
These might be passing concerns but they are also signs of what we can see with budding eating disorders, so it could be useful to explore in a conversation with one of our team.
FOOD AND DISORDERED EATING
We all have days where we might not feel terrific in a certain outfit, or feel we didn't fuel our bodies according to hunger and fullness or feed it what it truly wants and then move on to the next part of our day.
However, worry about the way we appear, the way we feel in our bodies, the way we treat our bodies and the way we feed ourselves may not seem like a big deal but they can be signs of greater struggles. If our mind or actions tends to gravitate to one or more of the signs below, these can be signs that our relationship with food and our body is not as healthy and content as it could be!
Do you ever find yourself restricting food?
Do you ever purge? (make yourself throw up, use laxatives or diuretics?)
Do you every exercise to the point of extreme exhaustion or injury or use exercise as a way to punish yourself?
Do you ever eat to the point where you are uncomfortably full?
Do you ever eat to numb your emotions?
Do you ever find yourself obsessing over how many calories you eat during the day?
Have you ever found yourself isolating yourself from social engagements for fear of eating too much?
If any of these sound familiar, or someone you care about shows some of these signs, GBWC can help.