Addiction

Loving Lovely : Body Shame, No More

October 17, 2018 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

Let’s talk. Body Shame No More in the #Sisterhood. Photo by Brandi Ibrao on Unsplash

How do we Love Lovely?

Lovely is the daughter that looks up into your eyes and asks you quizzically, “Why did that little girl call me fat, Mommy? Am I really fat?”

Lovely is the friend who subtly nudges you at dinner and asks, “Hey, can we talk for a few minutes after dinner? I’m feeling weak, losing weight, and I’m kind of scared about what is happening to my body. I heard Jody telling another mom that she thinks I’m anorexic.”

Lovely is the young woman in your workplace who, obviously, has had plastic surgery, and she keeps to herself. You’ve considered asking her to join you for lunch, but there’s this voice whispering in your head, “Is she fake?” and so you leave it alone.

You leave her alone. We leave her alone.

We don’t really mean to leave her alone. We want to Love Lovely. But we struggle. [Read more…] about Loving Lovely : Body Shame, No More

Symptoms, Early Intervention, and Treatment: Licensed Dietician, Kristin Williams, Speaks Up

July 10, 2018 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

How stunning is this mother-daughter pair as walk the length of the dock together? Even with deep waters ahead, we join together in faith, trusting He desires us to seek healing where there is hurt.

Readers and Friends,

After a bit of a hiatus, I bring you a gem — an interview with eating disorder specialist and licensed dietician, Kristin Williams, RDN. In her very gentle approach, Kristin shares with us a wealth of information concerning Symptoms, Early Intervention, and Treatment of Eating Disorders. Conversations about mental illnesses are at an all-time high, and patients meeting criteria on the DSM 5 for such illnesses as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, and Orthorexia need help! I sincerely hope this interview guides us into more fact based conversations that equip women to see themselves as God ‘s beautiful children – valuable, powerful, and completely lovely.

Juleeta: Hi, Kristin. Thank you for taking time to meet with me today. Readers, Kristin just gave a birth to a beautiful baby boy, Kipton, just over two months ago! Besides being a mom, she is also a licensed dietician who works part-time in her own practice and part-time in a local eating disorder treatment facility. Kristin, thanks for finding time to meet here.

Kristin Williams: Of course. I’m honored to answer some of the questions your readers have about body image and disordered eating. Ask me anything, and I’ll answer as best I can.

J: So, here it goes. My first question is about how it looks when parents approach you if they are concerned about eating disorders in their children. For example, when parents are concerned about the weight of their child, what steps do you take in guiding them?

KW: When parents approach me with weight concerns about their child, I first offer them a listening ear and validate their concerns. A lot of parents of children with eating disorders are overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and shame, believing that they have somehow caused the problem. [Read more…] about Symptoms, Early Intervention, and Treatment: Licensed Dietician, Kristin Williams, Speaks Up

An Invitation

March 2, 2018 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

This exquisite image of piercing light is captured by photographer, Andrew Bui.

My fingers tremble as I click the keyboard. I can’t believe I am doing this, but I’m sending out the invitation.

On Thursday nights, Northwest Bible Church hosts Recovery for Life, 6:45 pm. It’s a gathering of believers that unite for the purpose of connecting and sharing about how the biblically-rooted 12 Steps invites individuals to seek healing over hiding.

Next week, March 8, I am speaking to the group about body image distortion and disordered eating. The discussion will include factual information about different stages of body image distortion and the role that the body of Christ plays in helping people heal from the wounds that negative body image incurs. I am inviting you. [Read more…] about An Invitation

Crazy Hungry: Seeking Sanity

February 15, 2018 By Juleeta 1 Comment

This image speaks to our longing…for something better. Father, help us see how to seek sanity this morning. Photo by Caleb George on Unsplash

It is a hard day to reconcile. We hurt for those who are living and grieving yesterday’s shooting. Come in close as you take the next few minutes to read.

Your desire for sanity and sound mental health, and everything in you that desires the fruit of loving the Lord with your heart, mind, soul, and strength – I’m inviting you to seek and pray for it today. Because the prayers of His people wield a mighty force in the battle against depravity that sometimes leads to insanity.

As we pray and grieve, we forge ahead in the 12 Steps, lingering for a few weeks in Step 2: We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

I was reading the definition of sanity this morning, and it reads this vaguely: “the quality or state of being sane.”

But before I moved on to looking up the root word, sane, I read how the dictionary’s authors used sanity in a sentence. After all, any English teacher worth her weight in words seeks clarification from the sample sentences. They read as follows:

People have begun to doubt his sanity.
She is the mother of six children but somehow keeps her sanity.
The sanity of the decision was never in question.

Crazy Hungry: Let the Adventure Begin

February 1, 2018 By Juleeta 3 Comments

“Crazy Hungry” came to me after listening to my friend, Sue, tell hilarious and sometimes, crazy stories.

Over the years, I’ve heard the wild and crazy details of my dearest friends’ lives, particularly wonderful stories about their families. We all have so many stories to tell, but Sue’s stories are somehow the most hilarious to me because she has this amazing way of remaining present in a situation, picking up each person’s responses in that particular moment, and then retelling the details with fluidity. She can tell you, from beginning to end, what face this woman was making in her living room while this child was screaming bloody murder upstairs while her husband continued baking an apple pie in the kitchen while she just stayed present, in the crazy of it all.

For years, my hunger made me crazy. Absolutely, hands down, borderline insane. And somehow I was able to appear that I was managing just fine. I was able to maintain high achiever status : excellent grades, a desirable weight, relationships with family and friends, and sometimes an ability to serve others that was regarded as strong or brave.

Finally, after living that way for twenty-ish years, one mercy-filled husband and five children later, I couldn’t hide the crazy any more or the hunger. I needed a new way. I look back and am so thankful. The Lord was good to intervene, and I started Recovery for Life.

But let me add this… [Read more…] about Crazy Hungry: Let the Adventure Begin

Crazy Hungry: Our Starving Generation of Young Women Need TRUTH to Combat Negative Body Image (and we’re going to do something about it)

December 23, 2017 By Juleeta Leave a Comment

Thanks to photographer, Kawin Harasai, for this captivating image.

2017 offered me a life-giving opportunity to write, and with that came the unique privilege to listen. From an audience of strong, vulnerable, truth-seeking, transparent women, I have heard stories; some are hope-filled, some are heavy with desperate longing, and some stories are just now coming up for air after years of being silenced. Each story is as unique as the individual sharing, but one thread seams together the experiences that each woman shares.

Each woman wants to know: How do I teach my daughter, my niece, my god-daughter, not to believe lies about her body? [Read more…] about Crazy Hungry: Our Starving Generation of Young Women Need TRUTH to Combat Negative Body Image (and we’re going to do something about it)