It's Not About Food

The recovery process is not linear, but rather like a spiral. As we begin our journey of recovery around the spiral we meet many layers of life experiences that trigger disordered eating and body hatred behaviors. Even though we are once again doing these behaviors, we are not at the same starting point in the spiral. As we take each experience and use it as a building block in our healing, we move ourselves along the spiral. When we are consciously working on our recovery, every experience teaches us, giving us more strength and wisdom. Eventually we develop more effective coping tools to deal with these life experiences and the  disorder eating and body hatred behaviors are no longer necessary.   Chevese Turner is the founder and former CEO of the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) which merged with the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) in 2018. As part of NEDA’s executive leadership team, she developed the organization’s key policy initiatives and strategy, and directs its partnerships, programming and communications programs. Turner currently is working as a consultant guiding advocacy organizations and corporations in the mental health space to make their environments and policies discrimination-free for higher weight individuals. Turner is passionate about changing the conversation around weight and body size. She is dedicated to moving beyond the current dominant weight-focused paradigm to one that is weight inclusive and promotes well-being free from weight stigma and discrimination. She carries these messages to audiences around the US and abroad in schools, healthcare settings, trade organizations, associations, professional conferences, corporations, and governmental agencies. Turner is also the co-author of the recently published book: Binge Eating Disorder: The Journey to Recovery & Beyond and contributes regularly to podcasts and the media. [email protected], insta@turninder:FB:facebook.com/chevese-turner

Body talk is how we communicate with our bodies. Communications with our bodies are often full of negative, critical comments which are not only unproductive, but make us feel worse and lead to destructive behaviors. When we are aware of how we talk to ourselves, we can learn to stop the mean body talk, or at least, slow it down and create room for more positive, loving, nurturing and inspirational communication with our bodes. Christine Isotalo  Christine Isotalo is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology emphasizing in Pediatric Behavioral Health Care. Volunteering as a Peer Educator with Beyond Hunger with Laurelee Roark ignited her passion for the prevention and intervention of disordered eating.  In addition to her work with Eating Disorders, she has since expanded her interests to Autism Spectrum Disorder and neurodiversity in the realms of both research and her clinical practice. Although she takes an integrated approach to her practice, she highlights the benefits of mindfulness for her clients. In her spare time, she has been working toward the completion of a Certificate in Yoga for Mental Health Care providers.  www.linkedin.com/in/christine-isotalo

Sarah Hijjeh is a Registered Nurse of 12 years, a whitewater rafting guide, and a host of Wining With Nurses podcast.  Facebook.com/winingwnurses [email protected] Instagram.com/winingwithnurses  Boundaries When we stop dieting and obsessing about food and weight, we set a boundary that allows us to start living our lives and meeting our own needs. Setting boundaries is a way to protect our integrity. By setting limits or saying no we are able to make choices based upon our own unique truth, instead of what we believe we “should” do, “should” eat, or “should” weigh.

Truth is our own internal wisdom that defines who we are. Finding our own truth means figuring out the difference between what we’ve been told we should be verses who we really are. Often times in the past our true feelings, passions, opinions and experiences were ignored, rejected, or just not encouraged. When we can relearn to identify what our own truth is, we are able to put into action what our heart and soul desires.  "Kimberly Adamis is an LA-based Photographer/Artist whose work spans over multiple medias. During the recent summers she's been traveling with the band HEART as their tour photographer. Once she's home she spends her time exploring other aspects of the art world. If she's not photographing other musical artists or shooting art portraiture you can find her tucked away in her studio painting, drawing or exploring new mediums. Her work has been displayed at "LOS ANGELES CENTER FOR DIGITAL ART" where she had a Solo Show as well as other showings throughout the years. Many of her pieces are currently on her website: kimberlyadamis.com as well as the major social media platforms.”

How to use your recovery from an eating disorders to help others with Alexis McIsaac This program with one of our long time Peer Educators goes over the idea that when we help others with our struggles and tryumpts we change and grow in a deeper way.  U