A friend asked me recently if I’d written anything on this topic because she had a friend who wanted to know the answer. I told her I hadn’t but that I would. I like the idea of spelling out everything I know about raising healthy kids without a messed up body image, regardless of their […]
This is important – it’s moving and it could be any of us. Last week in Auckland I got to talk at two schools to two bunches of incredible parents. And after one of those talks a mum, with tears in her eyes, a shake in her hands and a wobble in her voice […]
What if your kid’s teacher told them they could/should lose a little weight? Or inspected everyone’s lunchbox telling the class which lunches were bad and which were good? Or made everyone keep a food diary that had to be shared with the class? Or lined everyone up from lightest to heaviest and then did a section on the obesity […]
My daughter got told her teeth were weird. Right in front of me. On the way to school. By one of her closest friends. Stones fell in my heart. Her teeth are extremely crooked and large and her ‘fangs’ are growing up above the rest of her teeth. I could see her hurt. I could […]
One of the most common questions I get from Parents and my Body Image Talks is – How do I handle sugar? I get that restriction isn’t great but it’s EVERYWHERE and if I just let them go wild, they won’t ever want to eat anything else! Here are three practical things you can […]
Mama Bears – I have hard stuff to share today. Last week was brutal. So much goodness in my life – my kids, my work, my friends, the apple tree outside my office window, and yet – a big stinky turd was hurled at me and it’s taken everything I’ve got to stay present and […]
Ask just about anyone these days, and they’ll say tell you emotional eating is ‘a problem’. Tones get hushed. Voices drop. Sadness and frustration etch the face. I’m an ‘emotional eater’ the owner of one of these faces might confess — like they’ve been afflicted by a curse. That might even be you. And it […]
Everyone knows the difference between healthy and unhealthy food right? It’s obvious. But is it really? When you start to look a bit closer, the clarity starts to fade, and the harm starts to show. And that’s a problem for our kids. Here’s why. Because we’re teaching them to be black and white about something […]
In all the years I lived under my parents’ roof I was the ‘picture’ of health. Slimish, glowing skin, sparkling eyes. When I told them I had bulimia, they told me I was gorgeous, asked if “I was over all that now” and then we carried on as usual. The illness almost killed me, but […]
I hear all the time about the massive pressure parents feel to feed their kids healthy. It’s relentless. The shame is, by only focusing on ‘health and nutrition’ when it comes to food, it’s brutally easy for your child to become distanced from his or her natural food preferences. And when a child becomes distanced […]