Many of us have trouble when it comes to pushing away from the dinner table or resisting foods we know aren’t good for us. This week a study published in the science and medicine journal Nature implicates that there’s a key signaling hormone that tells the brain when the stomach is full and communicates with cognitive reward areas of the brain. The study is the first physiological demonstration that pleasure circuits play a key role in driving eating habits.
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Please see our newly-added presentation,"Recognizing and Preventing Eating Disorders"

What is normal eating?

• Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied.  It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it-not just stop because you think you should.

• Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint in your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. 

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• Not eating at all, usually in attempt to stay thin.

• Eating way too much and then possibly getting rid of the food by throwing up, engaging in excessive exercise or taking laxatives.

DO YOU?

• Feel guilty after eating?
• Weigh yourself several times a day?
• Skip meals or count calories?
• Constantly think about body image, food, weight, or calories?
• Eat large amounts of food and feel unable to stop until you feel sick?
• Have irregular menstrual periods or none at all due to no known medical cause?
• If you answered yes to some of these, you may have an eating disorder or may be developing one.  Please contact the counseling center at (970)491-6053 to talk to a therapist.

What is an Eating Disorder?

Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues.

They are serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for females and males.
ANOREXIA NERVOSA is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.

Symptoms include:

• Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for height, body type, age, and activity level
• Intense fear of weight gain or being “fat”
• Feeling “fat” or overweight despite dramatic weight loss
• Loss of menstrual periods
• Extreme concern with body weight and shape

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One list cannot automatically tell you how to turn negative body thoughts into positive body image, but it can help you think about new ways of looking more healthfully and happily at yourself and your body. The more you do that, the more likely you are to feel good about who you are and the body you naturally have.

1. Appreciate all that your body can do. Every day your body carries you closer to your dreams. Celebrate all of the amazing things your body does for you --running, dancing, breathing, laughing, dreaming, etc.
2. Keep a top-10 list of things you like about yourself -- things that aren’t related to how much you weigh or what you look like. Read your list often. Add to it as you become aware of more things to like about you.
3. Remind yourself that “true beauty” is not simply skin-deep. When you feel good about yourself and who you are, you carry yourself with a sense of confidence, self-acceptance, and openness that makes you beautiful regardless of whether you physically look like a supermodel. Beauty is a state of mind, not a state of your body.

4. Look at yourself as a whole person. When you see yourself in a mirror or in your mind, choose not to focus on specific body parts. See yourself as you want others to see you -- as a whole person.
5. Surround yourself with positive people. It is easier to feel good about yourself and your body when you are around others who are supportive and who recognize the importance of liking yourself just as you naturally are.
6. Shut down those voices in your head that tell you your body is not “right” or that you are a “bad” person. You can overpower those negative thoughts with positive ones. The next time you start to tear yourself down, build yourself back up with a few quick affirmations that work for you.
7. Wear clothes that are comfortable and that make you feel good about your body. Work with your body, not against it.
8. Become a critical viewer of social and media messages. Pay attention to images, slogans, or attitudes that make you feel bad about yourself or your body. Protest these messages: write a letter to the advertiser or talk back to the image or message.
9. Do something nice for yourself -- something that lets your body know you appreciate it. Take a bubble bath, make time for a nap, find a peaceful place outside to relax.
10. Use the time and energy that you might have spent worrying about food, calories, and your weight to do something to help others. Sometimes reaching out to other people can help you feel better about yourself and can make a positive change in our world.

Material reproduced from Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, Inc.www.edap.org

Body Image Questionnaire

• Have you avoided sports or working out because you didn’t want to be seen in gym clothes? Yes___ No ___
• Does eating even a small amount of food make you feel fat? Yes___ No ___
• Do you worry or obsess about your body not being small, thin or good enough? Yes___ No ___
• Are you concerned your body is not muscular or strong enough? Yes___ No ___
• Do you avoid wearing certain clothes because they make you feel fat? Yes___ No ___
• Do you feel badly about yourself because you don’t like your body? Yes___ No ___
• Have you ever disliked your body? Yes___ No ___
• Do you want to change something about your body? Yes___ No ___
• Do you compare yourself to others and "come up short?" Yes___ No ___

If you answered "Yes" to 3 or more questions, you may have a negative body image. See guidelines under "Tips" for help in changing your perception to a more positive one.

Tips

When you look in the mirror, make yourself find at least one good point for every demerit you give. Become aware of your positives.

Decide which of the cultural pressures - glamour, fitness, thinness, media, peer group - prevent you from feeling good about yourself. How about not buying fashion magazines which promote unrealistic body images?

Exercise gets high marks when it comes to breeding positive body feelings. It makes us feel better about our appearance, and improves our health and mood.

Emphasize your assets. You’ve got lots. Give yourself credit for positive qualities. If there are some things you want to change, remember self-discovery is a lifelong process.

Make friends with the person you see in the mirror. Say, "I like what I see. I like me." Do it until you believe it.

Question ads. Instead of saying, "What’s wrong with me," say, "What’s wrong with this ad?" Write the company. Set your own standards instead of letting the media set them for you.

Ditch dieting and bail on the scale. These are two great ways to develop a healthy relationship with your body and weight.

Challenge size-bigotry and fight size discrimination whenever you can. Don’t speak of yourself or others with phrases like "fat slob," "pig out," or "thunder thighs."

Be an example to others by taking people seriously for what they say, feel, and do rather than how they look.

Accept the fact your body’s changing. In teen years, your body is a work in progress. Don’t let every new inch or curve throw you off the deep end.

Negative Body Image

• A distorted perception of your shape ---- you perceive parts of your body unlike they really are
• You are convinced that only other people are attractive and that your body size or shape is a sign of personal failure.
• You feel ashamed, self-conscious and anxious about your body.
• You feel uncomfortable and awkward in your body.

Positive Body Image

• You celebrate and appreciate your natural body shape and you understand that a person's physical appearance says very little about their character and value as a person.
• You feel proud and accepting of your unique body and refuse to spend an unreasonable amount of time worrying about food, weight and calories.
• You feel comfortable and confident in your body.

• 10% of people seeking eating disorder treatment are male
• Eating and body image disorders typically develop in the teen years and early 20s
• Eating disorders are a way to cope with conflicts, pressures and stresses of life
• An eating disorder may be an attempt to experience some control when life seems out of control

Risk Factors

• Participating in weight-related sports such as running, body building, swimming and gymnastics
• Childhood obesity
• Having been teased or bullied as a child
• Alcohol and substance abuse
• Gay and bi-sexual men and transgendered individuals

The Adonis Complex

The Adonis Complex is a collection of male body image problems that can include compulsive weight-lifting and exercise, steroid abuse, eating disorders, and full-blown body dysmorphic disorder. The Adonis Complex can contribute to a crippled masculine identity, chronic depression, compulsive behaviors, and can result in seriously impaired relationships with family members and loved ones.

Body Dysmorphia

Body dysmorphia is the development of potentially health-threatening worries that something is terribly wrong with how one looks, when in fact, they look fine to others -- a preoccupation with some imagined defect in appearance.

Muscle Dysmorphia

A subtype of body dysmorphic disorder, muscle dysmorphia is a preoccupation or belief that some part of one's musculature looks unattractive, is too small, lacks sufficient definition, or is disproportionate. Muscle dysmorphia is associated with shame and embarrassment about physical appearance.

Adonis Complex:
A Body Image Problem Facing Men and Boys

The term "Adonis Complex" is not a medical term. It is being utilized to describe a variety of body image concerns which have been plaguing boys and men especially through the last decade. It does not describe any one body image problem of men, rather all the distortions collectively.

The term was extracted from Greek mythology which depicted Adonis as half man and half god who was considered the ultimate in masculine beauty. Adonis' body, according to sixteenth-century perspectives, was representative of the ultimate in male physique. According to mythology so beautiful was his body that he won the love of Aphrodite, queen of all gods.

One of the most famous renderings of Adonis was depicted by the Renaissance painter Titian. His painting shows Adonis with Aphrodite clutching his body with her arms. In Titan's painting Adonis looks heavy and out of shape in comparison to the men's physiques today which are seen splashed on the covers of magazines, in advertisements, and at gyms. (It could also be noted that Aphrodite, queen of the gods for the sixteenth century, appears quite full figured in comparison to what is considered the "ideal body" women today are striving for.)

This painting dramatically illustrates the fluidity of society over the ages with respect to its varying thoughts of the "ideal" or the "beautiful" human body. The development of the "Adonis Complex" shows that men are being targeted as vigorously as women have been for decades creating destructive obsessional disturbances concerning their own bodies. Men's body image concerns range from minor annoyances to serious and sometimes even life-threatening obsessions. They can present as manageable dissatisfaction at one end of the spectrum to extreme psychiatric body image disorders.

In the past decade the "Adonis Complex" has been seen in increasing numbers of boys and men who have become fixated on achieving a perfect, Adonis-like type body. The authors of The Adonis Complex, The Secret Crises of Male Body Obsession, term this fixation "Muscle Dysmorphia" as an excessive preoccupation with body size and muscularity. Men who find themselves caught up in these obsessions soon discover their lives can begin spiraling out of control. Their lives often are dramatically affected by these obsessions jeopardizing careers as well as relationships with friends and loved ones.

Body Image

• About-Face (www.about-face.org), a media literacy organization focused on the impact mass media has on the physical, mental and emotional well being of women and girls.
• BIBRI or Body Image Betrayal & Related Issues (www.bibri.com/index.html)
• HUGS INTERNATIONAL (www.hugs.com), the center for information and resources about NON DIETING.
• BODY PEACE (www.bodypeace.com), a site for women promoting self-awareness, self-acceptance, body tolerance, size diversity, and the courage to grow.

National Advocacy Groups for Eating Disorders

• National Eating Disorders Association:www.edap.org
• Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action:www.eatingdisorderscoalition.org
• Anorexa Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders (ANRED):www.anred.com
• National Association of Anorexia Nervosa & Associated Disorders (ANAD):www.anad.org
• Council on Size & Weight Discrimination (www.cswd.org), a not-for-profit group which works to change people's attitudes about weight.
• International Association for Eating Disorders Professionals (IAEDP), (www.iaedp.com), specializing in treating eating disorders (for professionals in the field)
• Overeaters Anonymous (www.overeatersanonymous.org), a fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating

Eating Disorders

• SOMETHING FISHY, non-profit website dedicated to raising awareness and providing information on eating disorders (www.something-fishy.org)
• MIRROR-MIRROR, website dedicated to raising awareness and providing information on eating disorders (www.mirror-mirror.org)
• University of California-Davis: website providing information and links on eating disorders (www.eating.ucdavis.edu)
• Gurze Books on bulimia (www.bulimia.com)
• Harvard Eating Disorders Clinic: conducts research, provides a newsletter and information (www.hedc.org)
• Eating Disorders Referral & Information Center (www.edreferral.com.Note that the referral options on this site are listed for your benefit. The University Counseling Center at CSU does not endorse any of the resources listed here. Potential consumers are encouraged to investigate the resources they plan to utilize.

For Men

• Dads & Daughters (for men/fathers): see the Health & Body Image section (www.dadsanddaughters.org)
• HEED Foundation (www.eatingdis.com), dedicated to providing specialized services to those battling eating disorders and includes information on men.
• ANRED. Anorexa Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders information for men (www.anred.com/males.html)

For Athletes

• MIRROR-MIRROR site¹s information on athletes and eating disorders (www.mirror-mirror.org/athlete.htm)
• ANRED¹s website section (www.anred.com/ath.html) with information on athletes and eating disorders

Health

• Caring On Line (www.caringonline.com), dedicated to those who are looking to recover from the curse of eating disorders, and to their friends and family.
• Black Women¹s Health (www.blackwomenshealth.com)
• National Asian Women¹s Health Organization (www.nawho.org)