If weight loss could make us happy, our happiness would increase in direct proportion to weight loss. As you are well aware, no weight loss program ever promised that if you lost 50% of the weight you want to lose, you will be 50% happier.

But it doesn’t work that way. You will only be happy when you reach that weight goal. But how many of you reach that goal, and then lower the goal? Because they still feel comfortable, and they will continue to worry and fret about what they eat and their weight.

Disordered eating occurs when a person's attitudes about food, eating, exercise, weight and body size or shape causes them to have rigid eating and/or exercise habits that interfere with their health, happiness or safety. Learn about the different forms of disordered eating.

Somatic therapy can help calm and heal emotional eating, compulsive eating, and even when you feel like you just can’t quit eating. Karin is trained in a highly specialized form of somatic therapy called Somatic Experiencing, which focuses on becoming attuned to and understanding subtle body sensation in a way that the body can release stress and even past traumas.

There are two forms of eating that can feel out-of-control: deprivation-driven eating and emotional eating. Most people think that out-of-control eating is mostly emotional. Actually, it is far more likely that ‘over’eating is deprivation-driven.

Do you try to change your eating, and then feel like a failure when you don’t succeed beyond the initial enthusiasm? If you make plans about your food and eating that are actually out of reach, those plans will eventually become a source of frustration.

In January, I wrote about the importance of connection. But disconnection is also necessary for creating a healthy, happy life, and to be able to successfully manage food and weight. Check out these real life tips on how to disconnect.

Our culture encourages us to believe that if we get enough, we will be enough. So we keep trying to get more-- more love, more attention, more success, more weight loss. But it never seems to be enough to make us feel better.

Do you ever have the sense that you just can't quit eating? That there is never enough? That you are a bottomless pit? These experiences are an opportunity to look deeper, to find out what may be going on behind it. 

Mindful, intuitive eating guidelines encourage us to truly enjoy our food. "That's crazy," you might think, "If I really enjoy my food, I will eat way too much of it." But how often do you truly enjoy eating?