Blog
Eating for Two
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a woman, a counselor and fitness instructor from California, about the harrowing experience of recovering from anorexia nervosa. Her unhealthy relationship with food started at the heartbreaking age of eight, and she suffered for more than four decades before finding true respite. What finally worked? An eating disorder recovery coach. Thanks to the establishment of a rigorous and credible certification program four years ago, coaching is a growing trend in eating disorder recovery. The practice is designed…
I Was a Bad Dog Owner…
Pet adoptions famously spiked during the first year of the pandemic. After watching a couple of my friends' dogs chase a hare, likely to its death, I got to wondering: As more people adopt, what is our responsibility as dog owners—to our fellow humans, other dogs, wildlife and our communities? These are questions I had never pondered as an actual dog owner myself, to my current chagrin. The bar for good dog behavior in my town, admittedly, is pretty low. Dogs are all over the…
Nature, The Self and Healing
Some stories have a long incubation period. Sometime in 2019, I pitched an essay to Outside about how immersion in nature was crucial to my recovery from an eating disorder. Not long after that, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Needless to say, plans changed. Throughout the year of subsequent treatment, I couldn't fathom writing about my body when it was going through such a different process of devastation. And yet, on some wordless level, the processes of recovering from cancer and recovering from anorexia…