Eve Ensler has inspired women worldwide to love their vaginas and their whole selves, so you'd think the award-winning playwright of The Vagina Monologues was one of those rare women who's felt comfortable in her skin. You'd think wrong. Until recently, the award-winning playwright has felt...

Ever since I read The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath's autobiographical novel, I've wondered if Plath had an eating disorder. Apparently, I'm not the only one. There's much discussion on the Internet about the link between Plath's dark moods and her suspected eating issues.

One chat...

You don't have to be a fan of the The Biggest Loser to believe that punishing criticism is a great way to slim down and shape up. On the tele-battle of the bulge, harsh words are not only expected, they're almost welcomed. The reality weight-loss show makes it...

One perk of blogging about women, food and body image is interviewing inspirational women, then sharing that inspiration with you, dear reader. Recently, I was lucky enough to take inspiration from one of my all-time favorite writers: Natalie Goldberg, who writes about writing and has interesting views on...

In case you haven't noticed, health care providers rarely treat themselves as compassionately as their patients. The rare provider who practices self-compassion is a living, breathing inspiration. Since I started blogging about women, food and body image two years ago, I've made it a point of interviewing self-compassionate psychologists, among...

If you're worrying about how to resist temptation at the next holiday party, you are not alone. Sadly, too many party goers are more focused on their ever-spreading mid section than spreading holiday cheer. If all you really want for Christmas is the secret to overcoming overeating, you're in luck....

Recently, I heard that ABC was renewing the contract for Wheel of Fortune through 2016. Vanna White was signing on to help contestants puzzle over the iconic puzzle-board for three more years. So I was curious: What happened to Vanna?

Whether you're interested in changing or accepting your body image, you need look no further than Hollywood to find a role model. This month, Hollywood superstars Jennifer Hudson and Jennifer Lawrence are modeling two opposite ways to build a better body image. Follow in Hudson's footsteps...

'Tis the season for all but the most dedicated dieters to engage in emotional eating. No dieter plans on eating emotionally from Halloween to New Year's Eve, and yet, that's what the overwhelmed majority end up doing year after year after year. If anyone is equipped to reverse this unhealthy...

You know when you're thinking about someone, and suddenly there they are. Well, that's what happened with me thinking about Geneen Roth. You know, the author of Women, Food and God, who inspired Oprah to ditch dieting a few years back. Last we spoke, Roth and...

If you've got a back-to-school, back-to-diet mentality, now is the time to review your dieting history. Remember floating on cloud nine when you've dieted down to size? Never happened? How about plummeting to the pits of despair after regaining whatever you lost and then some. Remember that?

You're hoping...

Walk into a psychotherapist's office complaining of bad body image and you're likely to get a short course of cognitive-behavioral therapy. That's because CBT, the goal-oriented psychotherapy that counters counter-productive thoughts, feelings and behaviors, is the only clinically-proven treatment for body-image issues.

When I heard word of a self-help workbook...

"How do you feel about your body?" That is the question research psychologist Tiffany Stewart asked women and girls in launching a new website designed to prevent eating disorders and other health problems. To give voice to all those who suffer silently with bad body image, Stewart, the director of...

Ashley Johnston's story sounds like the American dream. Girl meets weight-loss challenge and her dream boy on NBC's The Biggest Loser. After losing almost half her body weight on the reality game show, girl moves to sunny California to live happily ever after with dream boy....

When people talk about body image, they're usually talking about how satisfied they are with their looks. Unless you're a research psychologist specializing in body-image issues, you probably don't realize that body satisfaction is only one aspect of the human experience of embodiment that is body image.

In fact,...

Since day one of this body image series, I've been on a mission. I've been searching for those rare women who love their bodies. Whether they've always felt comfortable in their own skin or they've had to work to achieve comfort doesn't matter to me. What really matters is what,...

I'm finally tackling a subject I've been consciously avoiding: fat acceptance. For those unfamiliar with the subject, fat acceptance is all about treating fat people with dignity and respect. Activists argue that the disrespect and discrimination that fat people face day in, day out is hazardous to their physical and...

It ain't necessarily so what so many dieters say -- that when they lose weight, they'll gain body confidence. So concludes a new study about the lingering stigma of obesity in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. While overweight black girls did feel better about themselves when...

Every now and then, you meet someone who changes your world. For me, that most recent someone is a remarkably wise and compassionate colleague, Christopher Germer. Germer is a Harvard Medical School Clinical Instructor in Psychology and a founding member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, a...

When I read who was coming to Harvard's public forum, "Health Is Beauty: Defining Ourselves," I knew I was going. The Harris Center's 15th annual forum offered a rare insider's view of an issue near and dear my professional heart -- body image and the media.

Just...