by Libby

Some Thoughts on What to Do After a Binge (or Overeating in General)

Experiencing the aftermath of a binge eating episode is typically incredibly uncomfortable both from a physical and emotional/psychological standpoint. Not only are you likely working through feelings of guilt, disgust, and possible shame/embarrassment, but you also have the physical sensations of over-fullness and bloating to tolerate. NOT FUN.

In this post, I want to provide some tips on what to do if you find yourself in this scenario. This could be post-binge OR after any sort of uncomfortable degree of overeating.

To review, an actual binge eating episode is defined as eating (within a 2-hr window) significantly more than most people would eat under similar circumstances. It is also accompanied by feeling out-of-control.

Even if you don’t struggle with “technical binge eating,” regularly experiencing chaotic eating and/or regularly reaching the point of unpleasant fullness is also quite distressing. You may feel a sense of shame, wondering why do I find eating so hard when others seem totally fine??

You are not a uniquely flawed human being if this is something you are wrestling with. There are legitimate physical and emotional/psychological reasons why you may experience your eating spiraling out-of-control at times.

Next time you find yourself feeling overly full or struggling with the aftermath of a binge, I hope you find the following ideas useful!

(Note: a lot of the following ideas/thoughts can be applied to other eating disorder behaviors, including restriction and purging).

Thoughts on What to Do After a Binge (or Overeating in General): 

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by Libby

Intuitive Eating Behind the Scenes {Typical Day}

Hi everyone! Today I wanted to post a new type of post sharing some “behind the scenes” as far as what thoughts/considerations might go into a typical day of my daily eats. This is NOT meant to be a comparison or a “you should eat like me” type of post —  HECK NO. More meant to encourage you as far as what it might look like to have a normal relationship with food!

Everyone’s nutrition needs and food preferences are different. In my work with clients, I consider myself to be the nutrition professional and the client to be the expert on herself/her goals/what she likes/what might work best for her. Not everyone’s eating looks the same, so no cookie cutter approaches here! I am all about helping others work towards an intuitive eating way of eating where you grow in listening to your body’s inner signals, considering your thoughts/feelings about food, and trusting your overall intuition, as we are born knowing how to intuitively eat. I hope these types of posts help you grow in your own journey of peace with food and joyful nourishment of your body!

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by Libby

4 Changes to Make Today to Jumpstart Your Period Recovery Journey

If you are someone who has lost your period due to inadequate nutrition and/or excessive exercise, it can be hard to know what changes to start making and how aggressively you might need to make them in order for your hormones to recover and your period to come back. Any change can be hard, especially when working on your hormones, as you don’t know for sure to what extent you might need to make changes and for how long.

All of this can feel overwhelming and anxiety-inducing! –> Not knowing how your body might change, what exercise might look like in the future, what eating changes you might need to make, or even how much weight you might need to gain.

What was most helpful for me in my own journey was continually returning my thoughts to the idea that whatever changes I would need to make and for however long I would need to sustain them would be worth it for the sake of my overall health and ability to exercise in a healthy way in the future. I needed to trust that my period would return given enough time and commitment to nutrition/stress/exercise changes. 

In my experience, how long it takes for someone’s period to return generally depends on (1) how long it has been gone to begin with, (2) how “aggressively” someone is making changes on the nutrition/exercise/stress front, and (3) what other underlying factors may be going on.

If you are wrestling with hormonal / missing period challenges, here are 4 key changes to consider TODAY to jumpstart your period recovery journey!

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by Libby

Everyday Eats 6.7.23

Happy Wednesday! We’ve made it to the middle of the work week!

Last week felt like the LONGEST week to me, even with the extra day off! Hopefully this week finishes out more smoothly / less exhausting. I also have been sleeping terribly which never helps anything! The perpetual challenge of sleeping on the top floor of a 3-story townhouse…  my weeks have felt so thrown off and less than optimal with all that!

In FUN news, Alec and I went kayaking down the Huron River over the weekend. Such a perfect day to be on the water!

We also got breakfast at Stray Hen, a newish breakfast/lunch restaurant in Ann Arbor near campus. (more…)

by Libby

5 Nutrition & Exercise Goals to Consider (Other than Directly Pursuing Weight Loss)

Something I talk about with clients a lot is the idea that we can’t DIRECTLY control our weight or body size… however difficult that may be to accept, we can’t go out and magically choose to automatically be our perfectly desired size.

That doesn’t mean throwing all care about our health and wellness out the window… far from it!! On the contrary, I see pursuing life-giving healthy behaviors (which we can generally control) as the best path to improved health, not first and foremost fixating on weight loss or changing your body size.

Letting go of fixating on weight is not the same as letting go of caring about your health!

Actually, I see fixating on weight as generally being detrimental to health. You can read some more about my thoughts on weight here.

“Weight loss” or “body change” are not actions we can go out and directly “do” or make happen. Nor do those things necessarily mean improved health! When we instead choose to focus on caring for ourselves well physically through behaviors we can actually do and control, we can trust we are on the path to improved health. When combining this approach with addressing any underlying root issues (such as environmental toxins, hormonal imbalances, gut issues, etc.) that are preventing our bodies from being in balance despite healthy behavior changes, our actions are likely to lead our bodies to the sizes at which they are the healthiest. This could mean losing weight, gaining weight, or staying roughly the same. I see the point as better health, not a specific weight or size goal.

I am all about self-improvement and setting intentions. Not focusing on weight does NOT mean “giving up on health progress.” Instead of pursuing weight loss as a goal, here are 5 behavior-oriented nutrition & exercise goals to consider! Maybe one or two will resonate with you depending on where you are currently at in your own health and wellness journey.

5 Nutrition & Exercise Goals to Consider (Other than Directly Pursuing Weight Loss):

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by Libby

Everyday Eats 5.24.23

Hello everyone! How is your May going? I can’t believe it is almost Memorial Weekend!

Aside from usual work routines, I have been getting outside on walks/runs/hikes whenever I can, spending time with friends + family, and, of course, having fun baking + cooking in the kitchen!

I hope these recent eats posts inspire you to regularly enjoy creative, satisfying, flavorful food as often as possible. In my opinion, nutritious, well-balanced eating is full of foods from all food groups, from veggie-heavy salads to chocolate frosted cupcakes! Nutrition & enjoyment for a truly healthy, freeing, sustainable approach.

Onto recent eats from the past couple of weeks! 

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by Libby

Chamomile Lavender Iced Tea

Refreshing chamomile lavender iced tea featuring a lightly-sweetened homemade lavender simple syrup. The perfect summer drink to enjoy anytime of day!

After making a blackberry lavender cake recently, I figured I needed to find other ways to use my lavender buds. Upon first thought, I made a note to grab some chamomile tea bags at the store and later on this delicious iced tea was born!

Naturally caffeine-free, I recommend enjoying this refreshing drink sitting outside with lunch or while working throughout the afternoon.

Life is that much more exciting when you have a tasty, good-for-you drink to look forward to!

All you need to make this quick & easy tea are 3 simple ingredients (+ water!) and a bit of patience to let it all cool.

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by Libby

Everyday Eats 5.10.23

Hello everyone! How is your week going so far? It has been a weird few weeks over here. We ended up getting a terrible stomach/flu sickness (or we suspect food poisoning??) that pretty much knocked us out for the end of April. So we have been catching up from that and are finally getting back into more regular rhythms. It was one of the sickest experiences I have ever had. Not fun!!

Hopefully your start to spring has been going more smoothly than that and you are getting out to enjoy the nicer weather!

Some unusual eats from the past few weeks!

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by Libby

4 Indicators of a Healthy Relationship with Exercise

Sports, exercise, and less-structured general activity are all aspects of life I have enjoyed and been passionate about for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I loved running around outside playing various games and sports with my brothers, neighbors, and friends. I tried a number of different sports throughout elementary school and eventually ended up focusing primarily on soccer and basketball throughout late elementary school, middle school, and the start of high school.

This was mostly fun for me, but as time went on, I started to experience more and more pressure internally when it came to sports and athletic performance. I felt I had to be as good as I could be and increasingly feared any sort of self-perceived failure.

Once I started high school, this fear of failure + internalized pressure led me to train even more obsessively for sports, particularly basketball. The girls basketball culture at my high school was also relatively intense, which didn’t help my fears + obsessive tendencies.

The fall of my freshman year I would go to basketball shooting practice before school a couple of times a week, participate in (mandatory) gym class daily, and go to weightlifting or other basketball skills/conditioning training after school a few times a week. I was also still playing travel soccer (practices + games) on top of all this!

This increase in activity at the start of high school (combined with not seriously increasing my nutrition, which was more ignorance at the time rather than an intentional restrictive decision) significantly contributed to my spiral into an eating disorder. While this aspect of my story isn’t the main focus of this particular blog post, I mention all this to highlight how obsessive and unhealthy my relationship with exercise had become by the time I was finishing my first year of high school. As my weight started to decrease, I increasingly felt addicted to and compelled to exercise more and more.

[Side note on this which I hope to explore further in a future blog post: researchers have discovered a similar neurobiological phenomenon (the urge to exercise increasingly more when eating less) in animal models. From Carrie Arnold’s book, Decoding Anorexia: “In the 1960s, researchers discovered that if you limited a rat’s access to food and simultaneously allowed it to run on its wheel as much as it wanted, the rat would rapidly run itself to death, a phenomenon that looked eerily similar to what psychologists diagnosed as anorexia nervosa. The researchers called this behavior activity-based anorexia.“]

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