What Is Kegel Exercise? (And Why Both Men & Women Need a Strong Pelvic Floor)

You might be doing stretching, resistance training, and aerobic activity on a regular basis… but are you doing critical exercises for your pelvic floor health? We’re talking about “Kegel Exercises,” which are designed to strengthen the pelvic floor in both men and women.

Not only can these exercises help prevent embarrassing and sometimes dangerous pelvic floor disorders (i.e., incontinence and prolapse after pregnancy), they can be a boost in the bedroom too.

What Is Kegel Exercise?

Kegel exercises (or “Kegels”) were created by American gynecologist Arnold Henry Kegel [1] back in the late 1940s. He also invented the “Kegel Perineometer,” which is an instrument used for measuring the muscle strength of pelvic floor muscles.

The “pelvic floor” consists of a group of muscles and tissues that hold up the organs near the pelvic opening. These include the:

Through a series of relaxation and contraction movements (more on this below), Kegel exercises are designed to gently and naturally strengthen the genital and pelvic floor region.

Pelvic floor muscles form a sort of “hammock” inside the body that runs from either side of the pelvic bones. These muscles help keep all these lower body organs intact and in place.

Avoiding Pelvic Floor Disorders

Sometimes the pelvic floor muscles begin to grow weak or the tissues in that area can become compromised. This can lead to pelvic floor disorders [2] which are most often caused by:

Pelvic Floor Prolapse [3] is one of the most common manifestations of weakened and out-of-balance pelvic floor muscles. This is when the muscles are so weakened, or the tissues in the area are so disturbed that organs in that area begin to droop.

Some common symptoms of prolapse include:

Many women may begin to experience some symptoms of prolapse in their mid-50s. According to a report for the Washington Post[4], roughly half of all women over age 80 will have at least one and often more than one symptom of the disorder. In 2007, $66 billion was spent on prolapse surgeries with that number expected to rise to $83 billion by 2020.

Men can also suffer from pelvic floor disorders. In fact, the condition is common in men who have had removal of the prostate (radical prostatectomy) and in men who have diabetes.

Symptoms of pelvic floor disorders in men include:

Males who have had radiation treatment for prostate cancer may also experience temporary and sometimes permanent pelvic floor disorder, especially incontinence.

How Kegel Exercise Can Help Maintain a Strong Pelvic Floor

If you want to prevent pelvic floor prolapse, performing Kegel exercises on a regular basis may be the best thing you can do. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Kegel exercises for men can help improve bladder control and possibly improve sexual performance [5].”

For women, there are numerous studies which point to an improved quality of life and a lessening of symptoms with regular Kegel exercise practice. An Iranian study [6] published in the European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology compared the results of two groups of incontinent women.

The first group practiced Kegel exercises (also called pelvic floor muscle training or PFMT) twice daily for 15 minutes for a total of 12 weeks. The other group did Kegels for the same amount of time but also used a progressive resistance device as a support for the Kegels. Both groups saw great results in lessening their symptoms of incontinence using Kegels.

Pelvic Floor Exercises Can Improve Sexual Function

Finally, doing Kegel exercise can be a great libido boost for both men and women. A report by the Wellington School of Medicine [7] recommends Kegel-like muscle contraction and relaxation both during intercourse and throughout the day as a way to encourage orgasm in women who have trouble experiencing orgasm due to chronic disease or other factors.

According to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center [8], Kegel exercises can also help women who experience pain during intercourse. This is because of Kegels:

happy mature couple in bed looking at each otherAlso, studies have also shown that pelvic floor muscles play a key part in male erection [9]. Some experts, such as well-known physiotherapist and author Dr. Grace Dorsey, make the connection between Kegels and improvement in male erectile dysfunction.

A 2005 study [10] conducted by Dorsey and others at the University of the West in the U.K. found that pelvic exercises helped 33% of the men in the study improve their condition significantly and 40% regained normal erectile function completely.

An Easy Way to Get Started with Kegel Exercises

Now that you know about all the benefits of Kegels, are you ready to begin? Here are three easy steps to get you started, no matter what your gender:

#1. Identify Your Pelvic Floor.

The pelvic floor muscles attach to the pelvic bone in both men and women [11]. They are attached underneath the bladder and bowel in men and the bladder, bowel, and uterus in women. In men, they are located behind the prostate.

There are two ways you can help find these muscles. One is to use the same muscles that stop the flow of urine if you needed to stop mid-stream. The other is to use the same squeezing technique you use to stop a gas bubble (i.e., flatulence) from escaping.

#2. Contract and release the muscles.

Once you have located the muscles, contract them (squeeze them) for three seconds. Then relax them for three seconds. Do this rotation ten times [12].

Start slowly at first. Keep in mind that this is a specific muscle group, just like the abs or the biceps. It will take time to build them up and make them strong, so don’t overdo it. You can do Kegels while sitting, standing, or even while lying down.

#3. Repeat daily.

Just like with any workout, Kegels are most effective when you do them every day. If you can eventually work in 15 minutes of Kegel exercise rotations throughout your day, you will be more likely to see the results – especially if you currently have prolapse or incontinence issues.

Be creative when fitting in your Kegels. You can do them before or after a workout, during yoga, while you are standing in front of the sink doing dishes, while waiting in line, or brushing your teeth, end even while you are driving in a car. Get into a routine and keep it going!

Why You Need to Keep Up With Your Kegels

Pelvic floor prolapse, incontinence, and especially sexual dysfunction may not be issues that you are accustomed to discussing – even with your doctor.

“This is a stigmatized condition,” said pioneering University of Michigan professor Dr. John DeLancey for an interview for the Washington Post. “It’s nothing people would talk about in polite company… And because nobody talks about it, everyone thinks they’re the only one.”

Fortunately, that mindset is changing as more individuals embrace a holistic way of looking at their health. There are now lots of videos on YouTube providing pointers on how to do Kegels, as well as demonstrations for additional pelvic floor exercise.

Just in case you need a little added incentive to keep doing your Kegels… consider that incontinence is one of the primary reasons that seniors end up in nursing homes.

Doing your Kegel exercises is an excellent anti-aging practice to help ward off incontinence issues while improving sexual function. Definitely, a win-win when it comes to your health and well-being!


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4 Telltale Signs You Might Be Suffering From "Inflammaging"

Growing older. It’s one of the few things that all human beings have in common – regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, or education level. There’s not a person on the planet who (while living), can escape its inevitable, youth-robbing clutches… or is there?

While it’s impossible for any individual to stay young forever, growing old doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. Some people seem to have been blessed with the joy of a more “graceful” transition into old age, while others tend to wear the physical evidence of a life long-lived far more prominently.

So, what’s to account for this apparent dichotomy in what it means to grow old? Is it all just a matter of random chance? Or are there identifiable factors at play that impact whether an aging person ends up looking eternally youthful for their age, or more like a character from The Walking Dead?

Inflammation Gone Awry: The Sworn Enemy of Healthy Aging

At a fundamental level, the human body is made up of trillions of tiny cells that are genetically programmed to keep a person as healthy and functional as possible. They’re able to do this by undergoing routine maintenance, meaning some cells reproduce to replace old, defunct ones, while others undergo varying degrees and cycles of restoration and overhaul on an as-needed basis.

The human body also has an innate immune system that oversees the maintenance of this system of cellular health. One of your immune system’s core responsibilities is to send out repair crews to take care of any problems that might arise.

This critical immune response is better known as inflammation – and without it, you wouldn’t live very long.

Whenever you injure yourself or contract an infection, for instance, inflammation rises to the occasion and takes care of it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Its effects might manifest as swelling or redness at the site of a wound, or perhaps a fever if the damage is internal and systemic.

Acute Inflammation: The “Good” Kind of Inflammation

This short-term, or acute, response by the immune system to an invading threat is completely normal and necessary to maintain life.

It’s a natural biological response by the body to any harmful stimuli that it encounters. It often involves repairing or removing old and damaged cells, clearing out disease-causing pathogens, or simply restoring balance to the immune system itself [1].

In other words, the purpose of inflammation is to heal the body, not to harm it.

This type of acute, or transient, inflammation is often called “good” inflammation because it’s merely a temporary response to an invading threat. Because it only sticks around for a short time, healthy tissue is protected, and the body remains in an optimally functional state.

But what happens when inflammation goes rogue and doesn’t stop inflaming?

The “Bad” Kind of Inflammation (aka Chronic Inflammation)

This persistent type of inflammation is generally referred to as chronic inflammation, and it encompasses any type of inflammation that lingers around indefinitely.

Chronic inflammation is a dire situation regarding human health and longevity that quite literally adds insult to injury – turning what the body originally intended as constructive and health-promoting into something that’s profoundly destructive.

Chronic inflammation not only makes an already bad situation worse, but it can also cause even more health problems for the body – including by rapidly aging it!

How “Inflammaging” Causes Premature Aging

Dr. Claudio Franceschi, MD, from the University of Bologna in Italy, is credited with coining a term to describe this type of out-of-control, chronic inflammation that leads to premature aging: inflammaging.

In a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences journal back in 2000, Dr. Franceschi explained how inflammaging results from a systemic breakdown in the body’s ability to adequately cope with, and respond to, some type of pro-inflammatory onslaught [2].

In many cases, it’s a situation in which the immune system bombards a given threat with leukocytes, plasma proteins, antibodies, and various other inflammatory “soldiers,” only to have that threat persist. Sometimes this chronic inflammatory blitz continues even after a particular threat or trigger has subsided, representing another facet of inflammatory malfunction.

Symptoms Are Often Not Noticeable At First

Regardless of the scenario, runaway inflammation in all of its forms is harmful just the same. It will always result in the same prolific damage to the body that is a primary cause of inflammaging in our world today. Perhaps the worst part about it is that it often goes unnoticed until serious health problems suddenly arise.doctor checking heart rate of male patient in hospital bed

The reason for this is that inflammaging, like other forms of chronic inflammation, is typically low-impact when it first starts… wreaking havoc slowly and quietly over an extended period. By the time noticeable symptoms start to appear, in other words, it’s often already too late.

In a best-case scenario, the damaging effects of inflammaging will manifest in somewhat “minor” ways like random mood swings and cognitive decline. The reason these conditions can be described as minor is that, in a worst-case scenario, inflammaging can rear its ugly head in the form of life-threatening illnesses like cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Inflammation Is Connected to Almost All Major Disease

Believe it or not, the type of chronic inflammation that’s characteristic of inflammaging is widely believed by many in the scientific community to be the cause of pretty much all major diseases – the direct consequence of persistent, low-level inflammatory activity that never fully “shuts off” like it was designed to do.

So instead of repairing and rejuvenating cell tissue for the benefit of human health, inflammaging systematically destroys it. It’s part of the reason why the blanket term “inflammation” generally has a bad name in the modern medical lexicon – even though it’s chronic inflammation that’s technically the bad guy.

Molecular and epidemiological research alike is congruent in linking chronic inflammation to “a broad range of non-infectious diseases, perhaps even all of them [3].” One of these diseases, broadly categorized, is premature aging.

As explained in another study published in The Journals of Gerontology, inflammaging represents: “…a highly significant risk factor for both morbidity and mortality in … elderly people, as most if not all age-related diseases, share inflammatory pathogenesis [4].”

In other words, inflammaging is a certifiable death sentence if it isn’t properly addressed. Persistent, low-level inflammation that never stops inflaming can, and typically will, spiral into one or more of a host of very serious diseases later on in a person’s life. Not to mention its direct impact on aging in terms of how it makes a person suffering from it look and feel.

The Negative Impacts of Inflammaging on DNA and the Body’s Cellular “Blueprint”

Getting back to the trillions of cells in the body that we talked about earlier, every individual is equipped with a unique genetic blueprint that contains instructions about how to keep every bodily system in tip-top shape. This includes cellular “guidelines” about the proper upkeep of the immune system, which is where inflammation (both healthy and unhealthy) begins.

But like with everything in life, this blueprint can get frayed throughout a person’s life. As individual cells undergo their normal process of routine maintenance, disposal, or regeneration, depending on their unique type and purpose, they don’t always live up to their predecessors in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.
This degenerative process, also known as entropic decline, is described in one study as the body’s “slow, inexorable slide into non-functionality caused by stochastic degradation of its parts.”

This is basically just a fancy way of saying that, with each new cycle of repair or replacement that occurs within a person’s cellular matrix, that person’s body as a whole loses some of its functionality.

Again, how this manifests will vary from person to person. For some, it might look like a slow deterioration in physical ability, or the swapping out of firm, glowing skin with wrinkles and sagging skin. For others in more dire straits, it might look like the development of a debilitating autoimmune disease, or worse: a terminal illness leading to early death.

Inflammaging Speeds Up the Aging Process

While this progressive breakdown is a natural part of the human condition, it’s important to note that inflammaging only accelerates this damaging process. It actively chips away at the structural and functional integrity of cells and other molecular components that the body relies on to prolong youthfulness for as long as it possibly can.

Researchers from the United Kingdom who took a closer look at this biological phenomenon found that not only does inflammaging have a profoundly damaging effect on otherwise healthy cells, but it also fights against the very systems that are intended to protect them, including vital DNA strands that are programmed to keep the body biologically young [5].

How Aging Actually Impairs Healthy Inflammation

What we can conclude from all of this thus far is that one of the major hallmarks of aging is an increase in “bad” inflammation. But why is this the case? On the one hand, growing old naturally leads to more health problems, which necessitate the immune system reacting with an inflammatory response for corrective measure.

But the other side of the coin is that the aging process itself actually inhibits the body’s natural ability to use inflammation for good rather than bad. With age comes a natural decline in immune function, which means it’s less able to utilize the inflammatory mechanism as a way to heal rather than cause more harm.

An immune system that’s beleaguered due to being old and worn out simply has a harder time fighting off invading threats than aman sick with cold or flu healthy, younger immune system.

This, combined with ever-decreasing cellular function as a result of old age, is a surefire recipe for out-of-control inflammation, which basically goes haywire trying to bring everything back into balance.

When cells become rickety and diseased as result, their mitochondrial “engines” rapidly lose their ability to properly utilize oxygen for energy production purposes.

This can lead to systemic mitochondrial dysfunction, which we now know is yet another cause of impaired inflammatory function [6].

The Destructive Inflammation/Aging Cycle

In many ways, it’s an exponentially compounding situation of immune and inflammatory breakdown that leads to even more bad inflammation, which contributes to more aging, which in turn causes more bad inflammation, and so on. And unless something is done to throw a wrench into this destructive spiral, it will only continue to worsen at an ever-accelerating rate.

4 Telltale Signs That Inflammaging May Be Taking a Toll On Your Body

Given its often undetectable nature early on, inflammaging tends to be a ticking time bomb, of sorts, with no audible tick until it finally explodes – often unexpectedly.

Even so, there are some early warnings signs that could suggest it might be lingering in the wings, just waiting for an opportunity to make its move.

Here are four signs your body may be giving you:

  1. Chronic pain with no apparent cause is one prominent indicator that something isn’t quite right in the inflammation department. If you’re one of the more than 100 million Americans who suffer from persistent body aches that have no apparent cause – and that never really seem to go away – inflammaging could be the culprit.
  2. Frequent illness, even of the minor variety, might be another potential indicator. If you’re the guy or gal who has always got the sniffles or who always succumbs to the debilitating sway of flu season, chances are your immune system is struggling due to an underlying inflammatory overload.
  3. If you’re easily agitated or have a hard time keeping your cool, or suffer from persistent brain “fog,” these could be additional signs of a chronic inflammatory threat – especially if such temperament symptoms would seem to have popped up out of nowhere.
  4. Though a slightly tougher one to pinpoint, yet another potential sign of inflammaging is a noticeable disparity between your chronological age and your internal biological age (in other words, you look older than you are). If the number assigned to you based on your birth year seems to be far lower than the number you would associate with how you think you should look and feel for your age, your body could be under attack by chronic inflammation.

The good news is there are countless ways to prevent inflammaging from gaining a foothold, and even helping to reverse some of the damaging effects, through lifestyle and supporting the body with supplementation.

We have many articles in our INSPIRED Living Library that address issues of inflammation, immune support, and an overall healthy lifestyle to help you counter the effects of inflammaging.


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Enzymes: Often Overlooked, but Critically Important

One might argue that one of the most amazing feats of human engineering is the automobile. Consider everything that goes into making one… from the advanced assembly lines to the precise robotics, to the human ingenuity behind it all. Those human beings were able to come up with a way to harness energy from the earth and basically infuse it into a boxy metallic structure on wheels that can take us wherever we desire is nothing short of awe-inspiring when you really stop and think about it.

As incredible as they are, though, cars would be entirely worthless if not for the human brainpower behind their build and daily operation. What makes a car a useful machine, in other words, are the regular refuelings, oil changes, tire rotations, and maintenance that keep it running smoothly – all human-body-scanthings that are entirely impossible without human involvement, willingness, and know-how into what it takes to keep a car going.

Where we’re going with all of this is that the human body functions similarly to a car in that it’s a finely-tuned creation that requires its own special inputs for proper function and maintenance.

Our bodies are obviously much more impressive “machines,” in that they’re uniquely equipped to perform self-maintenance and self-regenerate without the need for a driver. At the same time, they still require outside help – primarily in the form of proper nutrition − in order to thrive.

Why Your Body Needs Enzymes

But what is proper nutrition, and more importantly, how is your body able to benefit from it? Every time you eat, your body produces saliva, bile, and other digestive catalysts that break down the foods and converts them into smaller molecules.

These molecules are used to build muscle tissue, regenerate cells, strengthen immunity, and produce energy. Proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals all get broken down during this process in order to fuel your body.

Going back to our car analogy… if our physical bodies are like the raw materials from which a car is made, and the food is our fuel, then digestive catalysts are the drivers that make sure our bodies are operating as they should and are properly maintained at all times.happy African American woman eating salad

Among the most important of these catalysts are enzymes, the biochemical catalysts found in food and inside our bodies that facilitate the necessary chemical reactions needed to keep the whole process going as normal.

“Enzymes are substances that make life possible,” says Dr. Edward Howell, MD, pioneer of Enzyme Therapy and author of Enzyme Nutrition: The Food Enzyme Concept.

“They are needed for every chemical reaction that takes place in the human body. No mineral, vitamin, or hormone can do any work without enzymes. They are the manual workers that build our body from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, just as construction workers build our homes. You may have all the raw materials with which to build, but without the workers (enzymes) you cannot even begin.”

Symptoms of Enzyme Deficiency

Enzymes are obviously very important for life, so where you one find them? Raw foods naturally contain enzymes, which act as digestive co-factors every time you eat. Your body also makes some of its own enzymes, though it primarily relies on enzymes in food to digest and assimilate nutrients.

young-man-lying-on-couch-with-upset-stomachWhen these enzymes are lacking as a result of cooking, pasteurization, or some other form of processing, then the body has to work overtime to make up for it.

This is a taxing process that, over time, can leave the body enzyme-deficient. Some of the more common symptoms of enzyme deficiency include:

If you feel like food is just taking its sweet time moving through your system, or if you feel constipated or experience irregular bowel movements on a regular basis, you could be lacking in enzymes, and thus your body is incapable of fully digesting your food in a timely manner.
Other signs of an enzyme deficiency can include:

When your body isn’t able to extract the nutrients it needs from food, then it can’t provide you with energy or vitality, nor can it effectively engage in any of the reparation processes by which your body stays healthy and in tip-top shape.

Which Enzymes Do You Need?

So what types of enzymes does your body need, and where can you find them? Let’s start with the basics:

  1. Metabolic Enzymes

    Metabolic enzymes are necessary for the proper function of every system of the body – including every tissue, cell, and organ. Metabolic enzymes facilitate both the production of energy and detoxification within the body’s 100 trillion-plus cells, and they’re manufactured by the body for this purpose.

  2. Digestive Enzymes

    Digestive enzymes are secreted within the digestive tract to help break down food and extract nutrients. Examples of digestive enzymes include pepsin, trypsin, lipase, protease, and amylase. The body is capable of producing some of these itself, but it also relies upon the natural enzymes found in raw foods to help with the process.

  3. Food Enzymes

    Food enzymes occur naturally in food and pair perfectly with the digestive enzymes manufactured by the body. Raw foods contain only enough food enzymes for that particular food, however, which is why supplemental food enzymes are often recommended. Supplemental enzymes also offer systemic support to help clean up the blood, neutralize and eliminate toxins, and repair cell tissue.

In a perfect world, we would get all the food enzymes we need from food, and our bodies would take care of the rest. But in our imperfect world, food is often lacking in enzymes due to processing, pasteurization, and everyday cooking.mature-men-and-women-eating-healthy-food-together-at-table

When our food is deficient in enzymes, our bodies have to make up for it. After a while, however, our bodies become depleted of enzymes, and that’s when health problems start.
Aside from eating more raw food, the best remedy for enzyme deficiency is to take enzyme supplements.

The best digestive enzyme supplements include enzymes such as:

Every single one of these food enzymes is essential for life, and chances are you’re not getting enough of them as part of your daily diet. In fact, unless you’re eating a high-quality 100 percent raw food diet all the time, you’re probably not getting enough food enzymes, which is why supplementation can be beneficial.

Not only will supplemental enzymes help you get more nutrition from the foods you eat, but your body will also get the support it needs systemically to grow healthier, stronger, and more robust.


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If you’re not getting all the nutrients and antioxidants you need from food, your best source is whole food vitamins. Organixx Multi-Vita-Maxx contains 21 uniquely fermented vitamins and enzyme-activated minerals that are more “bioavailable” and easily absorbed by your body than the synthetic compounds found in most supplements.

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Healing Your “Disordered” Relationship With Food

There are those lucky few folks who never seem to think about food and are naturally drawn to eat what their body needs for optimal health. For many others, however, food is a complicated issue.

If you struggle with your weight or body image and spend hours agonizing about what to eat, what not to eat, whether or not to eat, or beating yourself up over what you ate at the last meal… this article is for you.

“Disordered” eating behaviors are exceedingly common, but to truly heal your relationship with food, the newest fad diet is just not going to help. The truth is that disordered eating (not to be confused with clinical eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia) is not actually about food at all.

Instead, it has everything to do with the way we feel about ourselves.
It’s important, therefore, to examine why you eat the way you do, how you treat yourself, your thoughts surrounding food, and your body image to ensure these behaviors don’t get out of hand and develop into full-blown eating disorders.

Disordered Eating vs. Eating Disorders: What’s the Difference?

So, how do you know if you have disordered eating or an eating disorder?
According to Psychology Today, research suggests that up to 50% of the population demonstrate problematic or disordered relationships with food, body, and exercise. Rates of clinical eating disorders are much lower and are estimated at only 1% to 3% of the general population [1].

The difference between the two often comes down to a matter of degree and intensity and how much your behaviors affect your life and your health.

Society’s perceptions play a big role, as well as disordered eating behaviors, are often encouraged and even praised in our society. As a result, these health-harming behaviors are often not addressed. Consider this scenario…

A 100-pound woman frequently skips meals and works out obsessively seven days a week with a goal of losing weight. In this case, people will generally be concerned that she’s developing an eating disorder. If a 350-pound woman does the same thing; she’s often praised for her diligence in trying to lose weight – even if these exact same behaviors are ultimately harming her health!

Depending on where you are on the spectrum of disordered eating, you may need to seek professional help to recover. But getting to a place of being able to nourish your body appropriately without drama and guilt is vitally important for lasting health and happiness. (Important note: If you know you have an actual eating disorder, please seek professional help immediately.)

Are You a Disordered Eater?

To figure out if your eating might be “disordered,” start by asking yourself some key questions:

If any (or several) of those statements ring true, you may have disordered eating tendencies.

To truly heal your relationship with food, it will require you to take a good, long look at yourself. Dig deep and be honest. Pay attention to your thoughts a little more. See what emotions are coming up for you when you think about food (and there will be some, guaranteed).

The first step is to start a journal and write down everything that comes up when you think about why you eat or don’t eat. Once you’re aware of your thoughts and feelings around food and eating, here are some further steps you can take.

9 Steps That Can Help Heal Disordered Eating

Here are some helpful steps to assist you on your healing journey with food…

1. Eat When You Feel Hungry

Whether you’re the sort who finds yourself rummaging around in the food pantry when you’re not actually hungry, or denying yourself food because you think you’re too fat, ask yourself “Am I actually hungry?” If your tummy is rumbling and you have actual hunger pangs, you are hungry. Eat something that will nourish your body. If not, try the next step.

2. Invite Those Feelings to Come Out

In cases of emotional eating – eating to avoid unpleasant emotions or situations – this serves a purpose by providing a momentary sense of pleasure and distraction from painful thoughts that make us feel uncomfortable.

Overeating can help to numb these unwanted thoughts and feelings and distract our attention away from them. In order to end this pattern, rather than eating too much and pushing those feelings away, invite them in.

Allow yourself to feel what these feelings have to tell you. It might not feel nice to be angry or sad or blue or cheated (or whatever it is). Approach your feelings with kindness and love; this is a good first step in the healing process. Stuffing your feelings down somewhere inside of you is only doing you harm.

Get help with expressing your feelings if you need to. You might seek out a therapist trained to help people deal with recurring emotions that are hard to deal with. It doesn’t mean you’re weak; it actually means you’re learning how to be stronger.

3. Do Something Nice For You

By giving yourself other ways to experience feeling good besides eating, overeating becomes less of a priority. Bodywork like massage therapy (especially with essential oils), Reiki, and reflexology can be a great help. Not only do these modalities help to relax you, but they also help release those emotions that might be stuck in your body.

Massage therapists have a saying: “The issues are in the tissues,” which refers to the fact that their clients often become aware of old emotional baggage they are carrying around when the therapist is massaging them.

Make time for other pleasures too. Have that relaxing aromatherapy bath. Spend an hour just sitting and thinking. Get a pedicure. Take the day off from life and wear your pajamas all day. Spend an afternoon reading your book in a hammock. Many times emotional eating is caused by a deep-seated desire to just experience something pleasurable.infographic list of tips for healing disordered eating

4. Make Time For Healthy Meals

Plan for being hungry. Be well prepared so that when you do feel hunger, you are eating real, healthy, and nourishing foods. This avoids the “I’m- too-hungry-to-wait-and-eat-something-healthy” binge. If you wait until you’re starving the chances, you will pick something healthy to diminish radically.

Create a weekly menu including healthy recipes that are quick and easy to prepare. Go out and buy the ingredients so when you come home hungry and tired, you have everything you need to whip up a nutritious meal.

5. Don’t Starve Yourself

If your body isn’t receiving high-quality nutrients on a consistent basis, it can go into fat-storing mode. Weight-loss guru and author of The Gabriel Method, Jon Gabriel, calls this “starvation mode.” [2] Our bodies become very efficient at storing fat when they don’t know when the next meal will be.

It’s a method of self-preservation and it can result in weight gain, widespread inflammation, and many associated health complications. By eating regular meals, you keep the nutrient level high, hormone and blood sugar levels balanced, and the body is less likely to store those calories as fat.

6. Recognize What Triggers Disordered Eating and Be Prepared

By knowing what triggers the desire to overeat or binge, you can strategize your own intervention. Does it happen when you’re feeling depressed? Lonely? Stressed? Whatever the trigger, write yourself a plan and post it somewhere visible.

Some of the things on your list could be:

7. Begin to Understand That You Are Beautiful Just As You Are

This is probably the most difficult step of all. If you feel ugly or too thin or too fat, and your feelings about this are affecting your eating habits, please seek some additional help in the form of counseling.

Self-love is the most important step of all and often the missing piece in addressing disordered eating. It is deeply vital to care and love your beautiful self. If you feel the need to argue with that statement, please seek some help. You are not damaged; it only means that you care enough about yourself to delve a little deeper into why you feel the way you do.

These feelings may go all the way back to your childhood when someone made an offhand comment that you were ugly or fat or skinny or had too many freckles or (fill-in-the-blank). Now is the time to unload that negative thought pattern and understand that you are perfect just as you are.

8. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Help

In many cases, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be extremely beneficial. CBT is an evidence-based therapy and considered to be one of the most efficacious therapies for eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa [3]. It can help with disordered eating by addressing behaviors now to ensure they don’t progress into an eating disorder.

CBT works on the basis that a person’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors are interconnected and can be restructured in such a way as to support healthier thoughts and actions.

Guided by a trained therapist, CBT focuses on educating patients, helps them observe the factors that are maintaining their disorder, set personalized goals, and offers skills that help patients gain a thorough understanding of themselves and their eating disorder – allowing healing to occur.

9. Helpful Phone Apps

Turning your smartphone into a personal trainer can be of great assistance too. There are some phone applications devoted to helping people heal their relationship with food. Just a few examples include:

If You or A Loved One Has an Eating Disorder

Eating disorders can cause a lot of suffering, both for the individual with the disorder and for the people who care about them. Those with eating disorders will often do their best to hide or disguise the problem from loved ones, thus delaying detection, necessary treatment, and recovery.

If you have a friend or loved one whom you suspect may have an eating disorder, educate yourself first. Be aware of the signs and symptoms, and help them to get appropriate counseling.

It’s important to understand that eating disorders are a type of illness. They are not simply someone making bad decisions. No matter which type of eating disorder a person struggles with, it’s important for loved ones to understand that the disorder has become the person’s way of coping with intense emotions and often trauma. The eating disorder temporarily provides the person with a feeling of being in control, so it can be difficult for them to stop the behavior without treatment. If this is you, please seek help.


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