Eat Without Guilt » Body Image

Book Review: Beautiful You — and a Giveaway!

Dinneen — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:03:46 +0000

Have you ever started reading a book, only to find you can’t put it down? Before you know it, you’ve read a ton of pages. It’s late at night, so you tell yourself, “just 5 more minutes…” as you’ve got to get up early the next day. Yet 30 minutes go by and you’re still reading? That was me when I picked up a copy of “Beautiful You: A Daily Guide to Radical Self-Acceptance” by Rosie Molinary. Beautiful you is just like it’s title, beautifully written. It’s like sitting down with a best friend who only has the best advice, says the most insightful things, and gives you a whole new outlook and perspective of you, your life, and your body. Unlike most body image type books I’ve read before, Beautiful You is unique. Unique in the way it’s presented, written, outlined, and organized. The voice of the book is… Read more

Stop ‘Weighting’ and Start Living

Dinneen — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:55:16 +0000

(I originally wrote this article for The Beauty Message Challenge website, but wanted to share it all with you too. I hope you find some insights & inspiration from it. Enjoy!) For the past couple of years I have had the chance to help women around the world with find peace with food and their body. They come to me out of frustration, stuck, and wanting to have a better relationship with food…and with themselves. Many of the women I work with email me or tell me their stories and asking for help and guidance in trying to be and feel better around food and with their weight. All of them at some point have dieted – most of them dieting for years. Going on and off diets so many times they’ve lost track. Or maybe they’ve tried every diet and self-help book out there, yet can’t lose those last… Read more

When Food Becomes the Enemy

Dinneen — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:11:11 +0000

Note: This article I originally wrote for the blog of Miz Fit Online as a guest post last year (you can read the original post here). But it’s message and usefulness has not changed, so I wanted to share it with you this week. -Dinneen As a weight loss coach and mentor, I help many women lose weight, look better AND feel better, and I’m constantly meeting women who struggle with food and their weight. And I get it, as I’ve been there myself. For years I struggled to lose weight, and even when I was finally “thin,” I spent many more years eating low-fat, low-calorie, and low-tasting foods. Food and eating was not an enjoyment for me. Any food I ate that was remotely decadent or a “bad” food, left me feeling guilty and eventually lead me to overeat. And so started a vicious cycle of dieting, losing weight,… Read more

What Does Valentine’s Day have to do with Weight-Loss?

Dinneen — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:09:29 +0000

This is a post I wrote last year, but it’s message still holds true . Hoping you will find some wisdom and inspiration from it this year. For Valentine’s Day, instead of looking for love from others, this year do something different – decide to love yourself and give something wonderful to YOU. Don’t wait for someone else. Love you and all that you are, AS IS. Don’t wait until you are 100, 50, 25 or even 5 pounds lighter. Realize that who you are inside is what counts, not the number on the scale. That number is not a reflection of who you are, but rather of how you treat yourself. It’s great to want to eat better, get exercise, and lose some weight to be healthier and FEEL better so you can live a full life. But you can’t do that until you love yourself. You see, when you… Read more

A Powerful Tool to Keep You Motivated

Dinneen — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:23:56 +0000

When I start talking to people about what I do, or when I start working with clients, the first thing they think about is a number. A number of pounds they want to lose, a number they’d like to achieve on their bathroom scale, or a size jeans or dress they’d like to fit into. That’s all and good, as hey, I’m all about helping people shed some extra weight! But they’re often forgetting about the REAL results of weight loss. And it has nothing to do with a number. Talk to anyone who has lost weight and they’ll tell you so much more in their lives was affected, and not just a number they had in their head. What do I mean? Well, if you happen to watch the successful TV. show The Biggest Loser, you get an inside look into their lives. Especially once they’ve left the camp… Read more

Kelly Clarkson’s “Self” Magazine Cover: A Weighty Issue

Dinneen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:49:04 +0000

It’s all the buzz today, and I just couldn’t help but discuss it. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new controversy over the cover photo of Kelly Clarkson in September’s issue of SELF magazine. She’s looking slimmer than ever. But it’s not due to a new fad diet or hectic workout schedule, but because she’s been photoshopped. But noticeably photoshopped — she’s been dramatically and artificially slimmed down due to all the retouching. And it’s causing a big debate. The big debate is because Kelly looks a lot thinner on the magazine cover than she does in recent photos. At this point in her life she is not as thin as the cover photo portrays. And to make it even more interesting, the theme for the September issue is all about “Total Body Confidence.” Both the magazine and Kelly Clarkson admit the photo was retouched — and let’s be honest… Read more

Interview with Dara Chadwick, author of “You’d Be So Pretty If…”

Dinneen — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:15:17 +0000

I‘m so happy to share with you my interview with Dara Chadwick, author of You’d Be So Pretty If…: Teaching Our Daughters to Love Their Bodies — Even When We Don’t Love Our Own. In 2007 Dara was the Weight-Loss Diary columnist for Shape magazine, where more than a million readers followed her weight loss journey as she attempted to not only shed pounds, but also old attitudes. In one column Dara reflected how her body image had been shaped in part by her mother’s feelings about her own body. A mom herself, Dara realized the huge impact she could have on her own daughter’s body image. This led her to write her book where through numerous interviews with women and girls, as well as her own experiences with her daughter, Dara explains the powerful effect that a mother’s body image has on her daughter and how parents can break… Read more

Should You Hold on to Your Skinny Jeans?

Dinneen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:30:21 +0000

This past weekend I did some Spring cleaning, and part of that was going through my closet and getting rid of clothes that didn’t fit. This is something I do every year, getting rid of clothes I no longer wear or don’t fit me very well anymore. (I give my clothes to charity, in case you were wondering) But it can be hard, tough to let go of the clothes I once fit into. Sometimes the clothes no longer fit due to age, as my body has changed. Or it could be due to the exercise (or lack of) I’ve done over the year, again changing my shape. Years ago, it was due to the constant dieting, re-gaining, dieting again syndrome. And I used to hold on to my skinny clothes for YEARS. Like 10 years. But as I’ve healed my relationship with food and my body, I… Read more

Stop Worrying About Food…and Lose Weight

Dinneen — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:06:58 +0000

Can you imagine a life without the chains of dieting and constantly trying to control your weight? A life without rules, restrictions, and being told to eat the right foods? Image just how wonderful it would feel to wake up every morning without having to face the scale, without having to count calories, without having to eat foods you don’t like that leave you unsatisfied. Imagine…. being able to wear clothes you love and feel good in thinking of food only when you’re hungry finding real pleasure in eating eating your favorite foods without constantly counting calories or fat grams… and not feeling guilty – ever again! Think of how liberating it would be to feel truly nourished. Of being able to eat and stop when you’re full — and KNOWING when you’re full. You CAN eat and not have to settle for the “healthy option” all of the… Read more

Are You Ready for Your Weight-Loss?

Dinneen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:04:16 +0000

The past few weeks have been all about change. Whether you live in America or not, and regardless of your political views, one word has been talked about a lot: change. Now I’d like to ask this question: Are YOU ready for change? Are you ready to move towards a life of more energy, happiness, success and better health? Look at where YOU stand. Do you want stay with the status quo in your life, and keep making excuses why you can’t change and lose weight? But it’s not just about unwanted pounds. It’s about having a strong body, mind, and attitude towards life. In order to lose weight successfully, and keep it off long-term, you need to adjust the way you look at food. New behaviors must come into play. It’s only through a systematic shaping of everyday common behaviors and attitudes that you will… Read more