The Unclad Soul

Body Image and Self-Respect Learn a fascinating, new way of approaching food and find a healthy balance in mindful eating. By: Pamela Milam I recently read a book called  Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight  by nutrition professor and researcher  Linda Bacon . Before reading it, I looked at the website and thought I knew what to expect. I assumed the book would remind me to love myself, to put less emphasis on physical beauty and to focus instead on healthy living. I was partly right, but ultimately I was surprised and impressed by how much more the book taught me. Think about the concept of Alliesthesia. Alliesthesia refers to the idea that a body’s inner state determines whether an external experience is pleasurable. One example is that it feels better to get into a hot tub when your body feels cold. If you’re a menopausal woman in the middle of a hot flash, the last thing you want to do is step into a hot tub. In regard to food...

“My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird— equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the calm deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” ~ Mary Oliver

Indulge me if you will to be a little revealing and vulnerable with you. It’s a big world out there and sometimes it seems to be getting away from me. As I age I cannot help but wonder what it all has meant and means and where I might have taken different steps along the way. When I was a boy I wanted to be a doctor. I thought it would be the neatest thing ever to be able to walk into a room wearing a starched white lab coat and look into someone’s throat or ears or listen to their heart with a stethoscope and say, I know what’s wrong. And then I’d help them get well. It was a boyhood dream I suppose but as I moved through school I didn’t think I had the brains to do all of the science and math and physiology and chemistry that was required. And I didn’t really have anyone to convince me otherwise. I had other dreams: becoming a professional baseball player running the bases in Yankee Stadium; a lawyer successfully defending the innocent wrongly accused; a teacher fill...