Kristina here, CEO of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating. 

Recently, I had an interesting experience on social media, after coming across a headline from NPR warning about a potential asteroid hitting Earth in 2032. (Scientists estimate there’s just a 1% chance of it hitting, so nothing to worry too much about.)

What was surprising for me was to read a couple hundred of the over 3,000 comments posted in response to the headline, the vast majority sharing sentiments like, “Can’t come soon enough,” or “Good riddance, people deserve this fate,” or “We won’t be here by then.” 

As I scrolled through the comments, I looked for a single neutral comment – or any comment that deviated from the rather bleak and hopeless sentiment so many people shared. 

I couldn’t find a single one.

So I decided to contribute a comment of my own, if for no other reason than to be a small voice of positive dissension in a sea of apparent collective despair. I wrote about how much we have to be thankful for in life, no matter who our political leaders are, or what is going on in the world. And how what’s so very needed at this time is noticing all the good in this world, and all the beauty and wonder constantly available to us. 

I was sadly not surprised to receive a few mocking and ridiculing responses to my comments. All of this, along with the backdrop of an increasing number of personal friends and colleagues I’ve noticed lamenting the world’s fate – even to the point of damning us to it – has had me in deep reflection.

I wondered, just when had the world become so sad and cynical? 

And then I remembered that it has long been this way, this is nothing new. But it does seem that the intensity of it all, and our anxieties around the state of the world, are growing. 

Cynicism & How It Gets In The Way of Our Emotional Well-Being

Instead of cataloging the “when’s” and “how’s” of the way things are, let’s explore for a moment what we sacrifice when we buy into the world’s cynicism, and how to begin forging a healthier and more positive emotional path for ourselves.

Let’s first start with a few concepts that Marc David and I teach:

1. We are all here on a learning and growing journey on Planet Earth. This is true for everyone, regardless of your gender, ethnicity, political affiliation, personal circumstances, or socioeconomic background. 
   
2. Therefore, everything we go through in life, including the choices that we and others make – even our mistakes – are a chance to evolve and grow as a human being.
   
3. Our ultimate responsibility is to ourselves and our own personal growth. Many people have a problem with this, as we’ve been taught that we’re responsible for other people’s lives, emotions, and experiences – or that it’s selfish to focus on ourselves. We also often hold the belief that we feel a certain way because of our circumstances or other people’s behavior towards us. But who else can possibly be responsible for ourselves than us?
   
4. While each of us has a different life path and purpose, at a fundamental level, we’re all here to remember the true nature of our soul. And from this place, to enjoy life, love deeply, and celebrate the beauty of this miraculous world we live in.

These are not the beliefs that the masses hold, I am well aware. To the degree that you hold these beliefs, or at least want to believe this way, make no mistake – you’re a bit of a rebel to society.

The consequence of becoming aware of our personal responsibility to our own journey, and for claiming ownership of our mind and emotions is that we can no longer blame the “other.” We come to recognize that everything in life can ultimately serve us, and is an opportunity to transform at the highest levels. 

How incredibly inspiring it is to know that no matter how difficult life may get, we can grow beyond our circumstances … and into the most actualized, fulfilled, joyful and contented person we can possibly be.

This is the potential available to every human – and yet, so many of us find ourselves caught in the deep cynicism that’s currently plaguing the world. 

And listen, I’m well aware of how easy it is to hear the news and have a negative reaction to it. Or polarize against others who have made choices that are reprehensible to us. Or join in the echo chamber of like-minded people who seem to corroborate just how unfair, ugly, selfish, disastrous, or {fill in with your own adjective}, everything has become.

It’s far harder to acknowledge the nuances in life … the “gray” areas that can feel so uncomfortable. Or to recognize the validity of different life experiences and perspectives, which, let’s be real, sometimes contradict each other in ways that are hard to bridge with the human mind.

It’s much more challenging to hold our minds open, or to recognize that we may not be seeing the whole picture, when everything within us is moving us to condemn. 

It’s even more difficult to release our judgments or our outrage, to maintain a gracious attitude, and to learn to forgive the world – particularly those we perceive as causing such suffering and pain for others.

And it’s perhaps most excruciating, or even unthinkable, to forgive ourselves, which is perhaps why the faults and misdeeds of others seem so very unforgivable. 

But this is the spiritual path laid out in front of every human, whether we recognize it or not. 

At every moment, the choice to love, to empathize, and to forgive, is available to us. 

This is the example set for us by every great humanitarian leader in history, from Jesus to Gandhi to Mother Theresa to Martin Luther King, Jr. Each of these leaders made the choice to see the humanity in each and every person on the planet, and act with love, forgiveness, and compassion.

So many will ask themselves, “how could I possibly forgive THIS? Because to forgive would be to condone, to allow this, and I simply cannot abide what I see around me.” 

But the reason to forgive and to bring grace to others is not simply for them – it’s as much for ourselves as anyone else.

Because so long as we allow ourselves to be caught in the collective disgust, outrage, and bitterness, we will always find our personal peace and fulfillment to be disturbed, or even wholly unavailable to us.

And there is truly nothing more important than your own inner peace and joy.

If you struggle with this, it’s worth taking a look at the beliefs you hold around where your responsibility starts and stops – and for whom, and why.

Why Your Own Personal Growth Journey is a Civic Responsibility

Many of us have the rather unfortunate notion that we’re reneging on our civic duty or checking out from the world by not following every news story – or speaking out against the injustices we read about. This is just one of many aspects of the conditioning we receive, and in my observation, has little positive effect on the world and comes at a high cost to us personally.

It’s natural and commendable to ask ourselves what more we can be doing for the world. What a beautiful and loving response to the suffering, pain, and needs of the world. 

But sometimes, this impulse isn’t entirely conscious. It can be born from our own pain, traumas, or difficult past. We may feel a deep need to “fix” the world, and our own pleasure or joy may seem irrelevant in the face of such profound injustice or suffering. 

When we give from a place of personal woundedness, we can’t help but be attached to the outcome. 

And that’s because we’re not just fighting for the rights or well-being of others; we’re unconsciously fighting against the wrongs and injustices that we’ve endured in the past and haven’t yet resolved within us.

Many of us feel a deep desperation for the world to be equitable, kind, and considerate of the needs of others. But until we discover that within ourselves, we’ll never be able to be the kind of positive force in the world that can truly change the world. 

Which is why it’s so vital to do our inner work, and make our own well-being and fulfillment paramount. This is the antidote to the world’s cynicism, including our own.

If you’re worried about not doing your part, then please keep this in mind:

The world has never truly been transformed through righteousness, outrage, or worry. We don’t turn on the news and effect change through our anxiety, no matter how important or compelling it may all seem.

What changes the world are the people unwavering in their belief of the goodness of life, and committed to standing for it. Those who understand the human condition, and bring love to themselves and those around them. People with the power of mind to meet unconsciousness with consciousness. Those who notice beauty and add to it. People who remain grateful for the incredible opportunity to be alive and part of this great mystery of Life. People who are willing to let go and forgive.

4 Questions for Finding the Good in Ourselves & The World

Here are four key questions you might ask yourself as you navigate life’s challenges:

• How can this situation serve me or others? What positives can come from this?
• What perspectives or aspects of this circumstance might I be missing? 
• Why is this situation upsetting me so much? What might it be bringing up from my past that needs my care and attention?
• What am I needing in this moment – emotionally, physically, or spiritually – and how can I best give this to myself?

By directing our attention with curiosity, positivity, and self-regard, we can cultivate a far healthier inner world and lead others by example.

You are of course welcome to disagree with any and all of this. We all have the right to experience the world in our own unique way, and hold the perspectives that we find most important. 

But it is my hope that we can all find ways to remember the beauty and glory of the world we live in, which invariably must include all of the things we wish were different. Because in so doing, we can remember how extraordinarily fortunate we are to live on this planet, at this time, in this body, and in this life. 

Our willingness to see all that is good in our world, and to stand firmly in our appreciation of it all, allows us to be a beacon of hope for others who truly need it.

Which positively changes the world, one small ripple at a time.

So please take heart, friend. The world is a far better and more beautiful place than many believe, and your place within it is so very important.

Transform Emotional Eating

Are you struggling with overeating, stress eating, or emotional eating?

Discover how to drop the shame, guilt, and struggle from your relationship with food.

Learn more about our new course, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough.

Tell me more!

The post Transforming the Cynicism of the World appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

If you’re of a certain age, you’ve probably noticed that young people – teenagers, especially – have a strong need for approval from others. 

Young adults want to fit in and feel accepted, a natural desire that is part of our normal developmental process at this stage of life. Feeling that we belong helps us to grow and expand, and gives us the confidence to explore our world. 

As we grow older, however, people can become unknowingly stuck at this developmental stage. And when this happens – life can get miserable pretty quick.

Left unchecked, we may never outgrow our desire for acceptance. In fact, this need may even increase, creating intense worry as we obsess over whether others like and approve of us. This can take many forms, but frequently shows up in our relationship with our weight and appearance.

When we continue to solicit outside approval into middle-age and beyond, we find ourselves unable to find the gifts that are available to us at this stage of life – gifts that are discovered when we defer to the one opinion that truly matters: our own.

When we reach our 40s and beyond, life is calling on us to once and for all love and value ourselves, to know our true beauty, and to stand in our power. 

Sadly, in today’s world, women especially have gotten the message that their value comes from their youthful appearance and slim figure. It can therefore be really hard to tune those messages out, and allow a deeper wisdom to come through. 

These concepts are explored beautifully in this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast – which you’ll want to be sure to tune in to.

Maggie, 68, is a culinary and baking teacher who is so afraid of gaining weight that she won’t eat her own cookies. She’s fearful that gaining weight would almost certainly mean being rejected by others –  even though she admits this has never happened to her before. Her caring husband and family have always loved and accepted her, no matter what. 

Even so, Maggie has been dieting for 50 years – and continues to be caught in an internal weight loss conversation where her efforts are never enough, and where she doesn’t feel good about herself, unless she has lost weight.

As you’ll hear, Maggie’s fear of rejection points her to an important realization, one that can forever change her relationship with herself and her body.

Episode highlights:

• How staying trapped in the need for “other” approval limits our potential and joy in life.
• How to take your personal power back from the collective voices around weight.
• Why the temporary high of reaching your goal weight doesn’t last – and what really satisfies instead.
• Developing a daily practice to kick unwanted negative self-talk.
• And much more!

Don’t miss this wonderful episode!

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

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Jill, 44, wants a new relationship with food – one where she can enjoy a more easygoing, intuitive way of eating. She’d like eating to be fun and lighthearted, and feel satiated after a great meal. 

But her dreamy new relationship with food seems so very far away.

Jill has an intense desire for food – so deep that it feels like her desire can never be quenched. No matter what or how much Jil eats, she doesn’t really feel like she ever finds true pleasure and contentment with food. It just never feels like enough – and Jill has a lot of anxiety that she’ll end up overeating and gaining weight in her pursuit of pleasure.

Jill’s experience is one that many of us can relate to. 

We secretly – or not so secretly – love food. But we don’t trust ourselves with it. 

We’re afraid of our own pleasure, and what it might mean if we actually allowed ourselves to fully enjoy food.

In this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast, Marc David helps Jill and the rest of us understand why our desire for pleasure isn’t something to be afraid of. Instead, Marc argues that our love of food and pleasure is something that should be fully owned and celebrated. When we honor pleasure, we not only enjoy life so much more – but often find that weight loss is ironically much easier and more sustainable. 

Because when we own our love of food, we’re in our power. 

In this episode, you’ll hear Marc share:

• What trusting yourself with food actually requires. Hint: it’s not having a perfect track record with food, or never making a mistake!
• How to invoke your inner voice of wisdom when making food choices.
• The connection between trust and relaxation.
• How to honor our body’s animal nature amidst the very unnatural modern times we live in.
• How to eat from your body instead of your brain.
• And much more!

Pleasure is a beautiful aspect of being alive on this planet, but not very many of us have a healthy relationship with it. Instead of fighting desire, we can make it a powerful ally as we learn to live a radiant, embodied life. 

So tune in to learn how to deepen your own relationship with food and pleasure!

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

Discover Your Eating Archetype

Ever wondered why it's so hard to eat what you know you "should" eat?

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Food is intended to be our source of nourishment, but all too often it can feel like a losing battle. 

Perhaps you’ve been struggling with your weight, and why it’s so hard to lose it – or keep it off. Or maybe you binge or emotionally eat, and are frustrated that you can’t stop these behaviors. 

Whatever your unique challenge with food may be, after a while it’s hard to not come to a particular conclusion…

Food has a POWER over you.

It must – otherwise, you’d have been able to put an end to your unwanted habits a long time ago, right?!

But is it really possible for food to hold power over you? 

In this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast, we explore what’s going on when we feel we’ve lost our power to food – and how to navigate the very real feeling of powerlessness that many of us experience when it comes to food.  

Paulien, 58, has been maintaining her weight loss for the past decade, but she still doesn’t feel at peace with food. She wants to be free of food fear, and instead embrace being a natural eater.

But Paulien feels like food holds a certain power over her that she can’t overcome. She gets lost in food, and ends up binge eating a couple of nights a week – provoking her fear that she’ll gain weight back.

Marc David, founder of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, helps Paulien discover a vital new truth about owning our personal power with food, as well as:

• How to identify your inner eating archetypes or “voices,”  and why every voice must have a seat at the table.
• Embracing the parts of ourselves we’re ashamed about, and how that strengthens a healthy relationship with food.
• How to transform nightly binges into conscious food rituals.
• Opening up our throat chakra and speaking from our authentic self as a way of healing our eating challenges.
• Why becoming the most natural YOU will lead to becoming a natural eater.

This deeply spiritual conversation will provide an important reframe on the belief that food holds power over us. You’ll come away inspired and feeling more compassion for yourself on this human journey. So be sure to tune in!

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

Discover Your Eating Archetype

Ever wondered why it's so hard to eat what you know you "should" eat?

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Negative body image is something that so many of us struggle with – regardless of our nationality, age, or background. It almost seems to be part of the human condition, something that is innate to our journey here on Earth.

But is it, really? 

While not liking our body – or constantly trying to achieve a certain weight or shape – is ubiquitous around the world, the truth is that is NOT a natural, normal part of being alive.

Our beliefs around body image and beauty are instead ingrained from us at a young age. We were, quite literally, taught to believe that beauty looks a certain way, and that we must do everything we can to attain this beauty … or else. 

Depending on our culture, family, and childhood, the beauty ideals we grew up with might be different from other people. But regardless, these ideals have a very similar effect on us: they cause massive low self-esteem throughout adulthood, until we recognize and release them.

That’s what we explore in this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast, where we meet Sharon, 32, who has been trying to lose about 15 pounds – but can’t figure out why she’s unable to fully commit to her diet and exercise. 

Growing up in Chinese culture, Sharon learned from watching Chinese beauty pageants on TV that to be thin and light was beautiful. She was mesmerized by the beauty contestants, and imagined herself one day being as pretty and elegant as they were. 

Her parents and community also echoed this value, and her weight fluctuations were frequently a topic of conversation. Sharon’s family so frequently commented on her body that she became used to questions about her weight being the first form of greeting – even before, “hello,” or “how have you been.” 

All of this was even more confusing to Sharon because, in Chinese culture, sharing food is a way of sharing love. Her dad was an amazing chef and made delicious food – and she was encouraged to relish it, just not too much of it.

Now as an adult, Sharon understandably has a lot of conflicted feelings about food and her body. She finds herself still wanting to achieve the ideal body, the one she dreamed of as a little girl. 

But that thin, lythe body always feels just out of reach – no matter how hard she tries to diet or get to the gym. Sharon just can’t quite get herself to consistently do the things that she thinks would help her lose weight – and she’s wondering what to do. 

So in this episode, Marc David explores:

• The keys to recognizing childhood conditioning around body image – and how to begin to let it go.
• Why the belief, “I’m not good enough,” will almost always derail our weight loss efforts. 
• Weight loss as an emotional, non-linear type of goal, and why this matters in the weight loss journey.
• Learning to approach weight loss from a place of inspiration and self-love.

No matter where we’re from or what our background is, almost all of us have been taught certain beliefs around weight and beauty. But as this episode demonstrates, we don’t have to keep feeding these beliefs. 

We get to choose which beliefs we want to embrace – and one of the most important beliefs about ourselves we can ever choose is, “I love myself. I am enough.” 

Enjoy this powerful episode…

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

Transform Emotional Eating

Are you struggling with overeating, stress eating, or emotional eating?

Discover how to drop the shame, guilt, and struggle from your relationship with food.

Learn more about our new course, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough.

Tell me more!

The post Healing a Negative Body Image by Embracing Your “Enoughness” – In Session with Marc David appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Perhaps more than any other food group, carbohydrates can really freak people out. You might say, carbs are one of the world’s great nutritional “hang-ups.” 

And a big reason for this is we’ve been told carbohydrates will make us … fat.

Eat the wrong kinds, too much, and too often, and you’ll be popping the buttons off your jeans in no time. 

So many of us then try to avoid or limit carbohydrates, but find ourselves struggling to sustain that. 

We end up wrestling with the could’s, should’s and would’s of carbohydrates:

• Could I lose the last 10 lbs if I just stop eating carbs altogether?
• Shouldn’t I be able to find the willpower to stick with my no-carb diet … forever?
• Would avoiding carbs help me be healthier and live longer?

Part of what makes carbohydrates so confusing is that we’ve come to believe they’re not only problematic to both our weight and health – but that they’re also somehow OPTIONAL.

Like we can just skip them and be A-OK.

But the trouble is, we need carbs. They’re 1 of our 3 key macronutrients – the others being fat and protein – and the body absolutely requires them for its functioning. 

Now, we’re not suggesting that you must eat every kind of carbohydrate known to mankind – or that you have to gorge on them at every meal.

Want to skip bread? Fine. 

Prefer to avoid grains? We’re cool with that, too. 

But no science-loving human can earnestly argue that we can altogether avoid carbohydrates and be healthy.

Which is why examining and releasing our negative beliefs about carbohydrates, weight, and health is so vital. Otherwise, we’re at risk for staying in strife and confusion around carbs, needing them for our body’s well-being but feeling like they’re also somehow bad for us.

In this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast, Marc David, founder of the Institute, will explore our collective beliefs around carbohydrates, weight and health – and how to put an end to the fears so many of us hold around this food group. 

You’ll meet 34-year old guest coaching client, Jessica, who holds some confusing beliefs about carbohydrates and their potential negative impact on her health and weight. 

Jessica has been going through a lot in her personal life, and wants to believe that it can be okay to allow herself to enjoy food as a way of relaxing and letting go. 

She’d like those foods to include carbs, but the podcasts and experts she listens to say they’re detrimental and she’d be best to avoid them. Plus, she has lost a bunch of weight and doesn’t want to risk gaining it back. Carbs seem to encourage her weight gain.

The problem is, whenever she’s stricter with carbohydrates – she inevitably boomerangs back, and eats even more. It seems she can never find peace and clarity when it comes to carbs.

So what the heck is Jessica to do?!

For Jessica and the rest of us in a similar place, we need to first recognize that carbohydrates are benign. They’re not an evil villain waiting to make you fat and unhappy.

Carbohydrates are simply food, here to help you live and be healthy.

Like any food, carbohydrates are asking you to be in relationship with them. And like any good relationship, you must first be in relationship with you and your body.

Reading all the books and knowing all the information, that’s helpful. That’s being an educated consumer.

But at some point, we must release the nutritional noise in our heads, and listen to our own body. Learning how to do this is one of the great challenges we face – a sort of lost art in this increasing digital age. 

So if you’re like Jessica – a bit fraught over carbs, and whether to welcome them in or ward them off – don’t miss this episode!

Marc will explore:

• The common false beliefs we hold around carbs, including that eating carbs causes weight gain.
• Why and how to find a “middle ground” with carbs.
• Finding the willingness to experiment with carbohydrates, and learning what works and doesn’t work for your unique body.
• Noticing negative self-talk and weight hate, and how they can fuel the fear of carbs.

This session is a great reminder that finding our healthy natural weight means not only eating the right foods, but also thinking the right thoughts and listening thoughtfully to what your body is asking of you.

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

Discover Your Eating Archetype

Ever wondered why it's so hard to eat what you know you "should" eat?

This free self-discovery tool will review the hidden psychology of your eating archetypes - giving you the power to understand what really drives your eating choices.

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The post Our Beliefs About Carbohydrates: How They Freak Us Out & Make Us Fat appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Many of us struggle with emotional eating. And that’s because food is a reliable way to manage our unwanted emotions. Think: Bored. Stressed. Lonely. Angry. Anxious. 

When we’re experiencing difficult emotions, it’s natural to turn to food. 

But here’s something that’s also common: some of us label ourselves as emotional eaters, when that’s not actually the case. 

For some of us, something else altogether is going on:

We just LOVE food. A lot.

The truth is, some of us love food so much that we don’t know how to contain ourselves. 

We overdo it because we love it so much. In the midst of our food love affair, it seems we can lose our ability to manage how much food we eat. 

So it’s not so much that we have a “problem” with food – instead, we love it so much that we can easily go overboard.

If this sounds familiar, this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast will really hit home.

Marc David coaches 35-year old guest client, Romana, who has long assumed that she’s an emotional eater. In an effort to put an end to her ‘emotional eating,’ Romana wonders: how can she only eat when she’s hungry? What does she need to do to control herself? And why does she go against her own wishes when it comes to how much she eats?

But in the course of their session, Marc helps Romana recognize that her challenge is a bit different from what she imagines it to be. 

What Romana believes is her “food issue” is actually just a deep love and excitement for food.  

So how does Romana and the rest of us love food, without overdoing it? 

By owning, honoring, and embracing that love.

And also learning that loving food in a good way – in a way that supports our body, mind, and soul – means we must cultivate some real SKILL. The truth is, most of us who struggle with emotional eating and overeating simply haven’t learned key skills around eating and pleasure.

So in this episode, you’ll hear Marc explore:

• Why embracing our inner Hedonist archetype is hard for so many of us to do – but why it’s so important to overcome emotional eating and overeating.
• How to experience pleasure wisely.
• Learning to “embody” with food – and recognize the signs of “checking out” when eating.
• Training yourself to slow down with food and allow the nervous system to register pleasure.
• Transforming excitement with food into fulfillment with food.
• How to ground yourself when you eat.

This positive and uplifting episode is a powerful reminder that our love for food is both natural and beautiful. Through embracing that love, we can find the nourishment and connection with food that is our human birthright. 

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

Transform Emotional Eating

Are you struggling with overeating, stress eating, or emotional eating?

Discover how to drop the shame, guilt, and struggle from your relationship with food.

Learn more about our new course, The Emotional Eating Breakthrough.

Tell me more!

The post How To (Skillfully) Love Food  – In Session with Marc David appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

For those of us who struggle with weight, are in a battle with food, or who have ongoing anxiety around eating, it’s no secret that these unwanted food and body challenges can have a myriad of possible causes.

Well, one of the more overlooked causes is something that many of us experienced when we were young:

Having an absentee parent.

This can mean:

• A parent who was never there, or was seldom there, or who came into and out of life in an erratic way.
• A parent who was around, but was emotionally absent and didn’t really show up for us in a meaningful way. 
• Spending time in foster care, or being under the care of different relatives or friends because our parents were somehow unable to consistently parent us.

So how can having an absentee parent impact our relationship with food, body and weight?

When a child has an absentee parent, they experience that absence as a lack of love.

The child thinks, “If my mother or father isn’t communicating love and acceptance in a way that really lands for me, then something must be truly wrong with me. So I have to do something to be more lovable.”

The child might become a people pleaser, or become obsessed with winning approval. And for many young people, they eventually turn to their body to win that approval.

“If I can weigh the right amount and eat the right food and have the ideal body, then I will be lovable.”

And so begins a life of dieting, food restriction, binge eating, emotional eating, and a constant battle with food.

This is exactly what Marc David’s guest coaching client, Maxine, has been experiencing for decades – and that she explores with Marc in this episode of The Psychology of Eating Podcast.

Maxine, age 58, was placed in foster care for 5 years at a young age. She loved her mother deeply, and couldn’t understand why her mother gave her away. She wondered how she could possibly be lovable if her own mother gave her away?

How does a child make sense of their world when the person who brought them into it has abandoned them?

That’s what Maxine has been grappling with throughout her adulthood, even as she’s raised 4 amazing kids of her own. 

What Maxine hasn’t quite connected is how her mother’s abandonment has affected her relentless battle with food – including daily binge eating, weight, food anxiety, and harsh judgment towards her body. 

So how ARE they connected? Is there something Maxine can uncover in the relationship with her mother that will shine light on why she’s struggled with food and body for so long? 

And if so, how can Maxine begin to find healing from absentee parenting syndrome – and allow that to transform her relationship with herself and her body?

Episode highlights:

• How our relationship – or lack thereof – with our parents can mirror our relationship with food and body.
• The ways that absentee parent syndrome can cause us to reject and abandon ourselves later in life.
• How to spark self-love when we never got that from our parents.
• Healing our relationship with our parents when they’re no longer alive.
• Why letting go of “longing for” a different body is so important to maturing into our Royal Archetype, and how we can begin to embrace ourselves, as we are.

For those of us whose parents were not able to be there for us, Marc has an important message – and one we hope you won’t miss!

Be sure to tune into this heartwarming, life-affirming episode…

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

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The post Does Your Body Suffer From Absentee Parent Syndrome? – In Session with Marc David appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Ever hear the phrase “health is wealth?” 

For many people, we don’t quite recognize how valuable our health is until we find illness or injury knocking.

Enjoying robust health is truly the foundation of a happy, fulfilled, and connected life.

But it’s also true that worrying about our health, or being vigilant about every aspect of our diet and lifestyle, can actually take us in the opposite direction of vitality – as Marc David, host of the Psychology of Eating Podcast, explores with 53-year old Daniela. 

Daniela’s health anxieties – like many people – were born at a young age. 

As a child, Daniela had always thought she was pretty – gorgeous, even. But at the age of 15, her father told her she was overweight, and in that single instant, her whole world flipped. She began to have constant intrusive thoughts that she was fat, and that something was wrong with her – something that she just had to figure out how to fix.

Now almost 40 years later, Daniela has endured a series of serious health challenges: a pituitary tumor, thyroid dysfunction, knee surgery, and more. 

The more health challenges that develop, the more she worries. 

And her doctors do little to alleviate her concerns – with all their talk of visceral fat, and cholesterol, and how important it is to lose weight.

Daniela’s life feels like it’s constricting around her. 

She’s tired of the decades of yo-yo dieting. She just wants to eat food that nourishes her, be at a moderate weight, and enjoy a healthy life. 

But she can’t escape the feeling that her body is against her. 

So in this session, Marc helps Daniela see her story and her relationship with her body from a different perspective: that of her soul.

Because it’s Daniela’s soul that is calling out for a different kind of life: one where she can stop fighting herself and instead embrace the precious life she has the opportunity to live. 

If you’re like Daniela, caught in worries about whether your health and weight is on the right track, be sure to tune into this episode! 

You’ll hear:

A much-needed wake up call for why it’s time to surrender and let go.

5 key steps Marc shares for how we can release our health anxieties.

How our metabolic capacity is connected to our personal power. 

A soulful exploration of our collective beliefs around weight and livability.

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

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The post The Soul’s Call to Release Our Health Anxieties – In Session with Marc David appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

A suprising fact about the weight loss universe is that despite so many built-in difficulties, plenty of people have success. So often, we do actually lose the weight, we hit our target number – or come close to it, we celebrate, we feel good, we fit into our clothes, and life is finally great. We did it.

But then, something happens.

Somehow, the weight we lost finds its way back home. 

Our efforts worked, but only for a brief time.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, you’ve probably asked the question, “Why does the weight come back on? And what can I do to ensure that this unwanted result never happens again?”

This is exactly what you’ll find answers to in this episode of In Session with Marc David on The Psychology of Eating Podcast. 

Marc works with Liz, age 54, a mother of four who’s looking to lose about 40 pounds. The good news is, Liz has lost the weight before. The bad news is, it came back. 

So on the one hand, Liz knows what to do, but on the other hand, she knows that what she does doesn’t last.

Marc helps Liz see that the weight comes back on for one very common reason:

She forced her body into weight loss.

If we have to go to extremes to lose weight, if we need to artificially push the body, deny it any pleasure, demand that it go hungry, follow a super strict diet, and devote all of our mental, emotional and physical energy into weight loss – then, well… we’re going to rebound.

In fact, it’s predictable.

So, the key to making sure that the weight we lose doesn’t come back on is to make sure that the way we lose it isn’t forced. 

Tune in as Marc helps Liz see that success with sustainable weight loss means:

• Practicing mindful eating rather than willful eating.
• Listening to her body rather than overriding it.
• Finding the middle ground with food instead of being “all or nothing.”
• And nourishing her body rather than punishing it.  

If you’re interested in the kind of weight loss that’s more relaxed and truly lifelong, then you won’t want to miss this session!

We’d love to hear your own experience or thoughts about this episode – please drop us a comment below!

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The post Why You Gain Weight After Losing It & What To Do  – In Session with Marc David appeared first on Institute for the Psychology of Eating.