disordered eating

Warning signs and symptoms of an eating disorder
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How to Support Your Child Through An Eating Disorder

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Why Awareness Matters Learning how to support your child through an eating disorder starts with a deep understanding of what eating disorders are. It is helpful to learn how they develop, and the best ways to provide compassionate support. Eating disorders are not not just about food. They are often rooted in deeper emotional, social, and psychological factors. Early intervention, compassionate conversations, and informed support can make all the difference. As parents and caregivers, it’s natural to worry about your child’s relationship with food. But how we approach these conversations matters. Supporting Your Child Through An Eating Disorder: What You Can do ✅ Listen without judgment – Create a safe space for open dialogue.✅ Avoid comments about weight or appearance – Focus on well-being over body size.✅ Encourage professional support – Seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness.✅ Educate yourself – Understanding eating disorders helps us support our loved ones more effectively. Need Guidance: Support Your Child Through An Eating Disorder If you’re feeling unsure about how to support your child, you’re not alone. I’ve created a free resource to help parents start these sensitive conversations with confidence and care. Download my 4 step guide called “Four Steps: How to Talk to Your Teen about Their Eating Habits….without making it worse”. This week, let’s commit to awareness, understanding, and support. Together, we can create a world where healing is possible. As a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, I bring 30 years of experience in public health. My background includes 17 years as a health and nutrition professor and 4 years as a high school health teacher. My passion for supporting individuals with eating disorders comes from both professional expertise and personal experience. Eating disorders have had profound impacts on many of my loved ones. Learning firsthand what is truly helpful in fostering healing and what can unintentionally cause harm has inspired me to support parents. My clients include parents who have struggled with an eating disorder themselves and those guiding their child through similar challenges. Eating disorders often stem from generational patterns, but the cycle can stop with you. If you’re ready to create a healthier future for yourself and your family, please  schedule a free call to explore how we can work together. An excellent resource on eating disorders is The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). According to their website, “NEDA works to advance research, build community, and raise awareness to support the nearly 30 million Americans who will experience an eating disorder in their lifetimes. Whether you have been personally affected, by an eating disorder or care about someone who has,NEDA is here to help!”

Eating Disorder Awareness Week
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Raising Awareness about Eating Disorders is Important to Me

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Raising awareness about eating disorders is important to me because various forms of eating disorders have impacted numerous people in my life. Seeing many loved ones struggle with different aspects of this disease has inspired me to support parents—both those who have faced it themselves and those guiding their child through it. An important aspect of my coaching is to guide my clients in recognizing that “eating disorder” is an umbrella term encompassing various conditions—such as disordered eating, ARFID, bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. Understanding that eating disorders exist on a spectrum empowers my clients to approach recovery with clarity and self-compassion, paving the way for a healthier relationship with food and their bodies. Breaking the Silence: National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (Feb 24 – Mar 2) Every 52 minutes, 1 person dies due to direct causes of an eating disorder (NEDA). Eating disorders thrive in silence. Too often, those struggling feel alone, ashamed, or misunderstood. But no one should have to face an eating disorder in isolation. This National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (February 24th–March 2nd), we join the movement to break the stigma, raise awareness about eating disorders, and ensure that everyone impacted gets the support they need. Why Eating Disorder Awareness Matters to Me Eating disorders affect millions of individuals and families, yet misconceptions and lack of understanding can make it difficult for those suffering to reach out for help. Raising awareness helps: How You Can Help You Are Not Alone Recovery is possible, and support is available. Let’s work together to ensure that no one faces an eating disorder in silence. Join us and NEDA this week in spreading the message that everyone deserves help, healing, and hope. Learn more and get involved: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/edaw Coaching for Eating Disorders Raising awareness about eating disorders is deeply important to me. I’m grateful to do this through my coaching practice. I provide support for parents who have personally experienced or are currently struggling with an eating disorder. I also support parents’ navigating their child’s challenges with eating disorders or body image concerns. One of my clients chose me as her parent coach specifically because of my personal and professional experience in this area. Having battled an eating disorder as a teenager, she sought guidance to ensure she wouldn’t unintentionally pass down disordered habits or mindsets to her daughter. Together, we worked to foster a healthier approach to food and body image. As a result, we created a more positive foundation for her family’s well-being. Client testimonial, “I originally chose Siah because of her work and understanding of eating disorders which I had previously struggled with and didn’t want to pass on to my daughter. But our parent coaching quickly went beyond that to cover all sorts of topics, and I have been so grateful to have Siah as an objective resource and coach in a world where parenting for the first time can be so difficult. She has made me more confident as a mom and truly helped to transform my husband and my’s parenting approach for the better. I would recommend her to anyone!” Normalizing conversations about eating disorders is crucial to me I help my clients uncover the root causes of their eating disorder. We explore the biological, psychological, environmental, and social factors that contribute to their thoughts and behaviors. This deeper understanding reduces stigma and self-blame, fostering the healing mindset necessary to overcome this complex and debilitating illness. Click this link to book a free call and explore how I can support you! Find out more about my coaching programs at https://siahfriedcoach.com/.

Break free from diet culture: How to foster a healthy body image for your kids
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How to save teens from bully for being overweight

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As a health educator for over 30 years, I have spent my career promoting healthy behaviors, to prevent chronic disease. A majority of chronic disease is caused by overweight and obesity thus, I have spent years teaching about its dangers and promoting prevention behaviors as well. However, when it comes to helping teens, we need to be especially considerate of the words we choose. As a parent or health care provider, what you say matters. If you are concerned about a teen’s weight, please choose your words carefully. Here is some advice on how to handle weight and foods concerns with a kid. WHY WORDS MATTER Avoid any mention of their weight or eating behaviors. Any comments about a kid’s weight can trigger unhealthy behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, obsessing about calories, purging, and overexercising. Model positive body talk yourself. Be mindful about what you say about your body and weight. Make “fat” and “diet” bad words in your own vocabulary. Be mindful of mental health. Have you noticed your child being overly concerned with food, calories, or fat consumption? Have you noticed any emotional eating or negative body talk? Is it something you can help turn around or is it bigger? If your child needs a therapist, think of it as a strong tool for them to have in their ever growing tool box. It isn’t a weakness. If you notice any of these behaviors, reach out to a health professional to help your child find healthy coping techniques. Avoid teasing about what or how much they are eating. Teasing during adolescence is associated with unhealthy weight-control behaviors and binge-eating in adults. Talk about portion sizes on food labels in a positive and conversational way. Avoid lecturing or criticizing your child’s food choices. Encourage kids to listen to their body and eat when hungry and stop when full. Always encourage three meals a day. Skipping meals often leads to overeating later. TIPS FOR POSITIVE CONVERSATIONS F is the “F word” for “fat”. No need to say “obese” either. “Fat shaming” — weight bias and discrimination — is all too prevalent in our world. Discuss your effort to avoid these labels with other family members, friends and your child’s doctor and ask that they also avoid these labels. Ditch the scale. The focus should be on health, not on the number on the scale. Increased frequency of self-weighing during high school may damage a teen’s self-esteem and mental health. Frequently remind your child of their strengths and unique qualities which can help with self-esteem and even resilience when they have a challenge in their life. It will reinforce the importance of knowing our strengths so we can connect to them to help power through tough times. PROMOTING HEALTHY EATING HABITS Avoid the “D” word. Half of all teenage girls and 1 in 4 teenage boys have tried dieting. Teens who diet have lower self-esteem, feel less connected to their families and schools, and feel less in control of their lives. Dieting is a risk factor for both obesity and eating disorders. Making changes in food choices is not the same as dieting. Take your child grocery shopping to teach them how to choose foods for well-balanced meals. Demonstrate healthy food talk. No foods are bad vs. good. Rather, there are “growing foods” and “sometimes foods.” I have found kids really relate well to these categories. If you need help explaining to kids how important “growing foods” are in helping their bodies stay healthy and how they actually make kids grow, please email me for a consult Siah_fried@yahoo.com. Promoting healthy habits in teensBody Image in teensTalking to teens about healthy weightAvoiding diet talk with kidsSupporting teen mental healthHow to discuss food with teensHealthy eating habits for teensRisks of fat shaming and dieting in teensTips for positive food conversations siah fried I am a Parent Health Coach. I support parents of children working through eating disorders, disordered eating, body image & nutrition challenges. With 30 years as a clinical health educator as well as 17 years as a health, nutrition, and women’s health professor, author, researcher, and family member of eating disorder survivors, I am here to help.

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The Power of Coaching: Creating Lasting Change for Health and Parenting

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The Power of Coaching: Creating Lasting Change for Health and Parenting

Research shows that people are more likely to succeed when they make changes for their own reasons, rather than following directives that often lead to resistance. Coaching empowers individuals to take charge, fostering lasting change on their terms.

Coaching is a goal-driven process designed to help individuals achieve positive outcomes in health, parenting, or personal growth. While life and career coaching are well-established, health and parent coaching are emerging specialties. As a certified health and parent coach, I use evidence-based strategies to help clients align their strengths and values with their goals, creating sustainable success.

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Body Image and Self-Care: How They Impact Mental and Physical Health

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Body Image and Self-Care: How They Impact Mental and Physical Health

Your feelings about your body significantly affect how you care for it, influencing both mental and physical health. Negative body image can lead to poor self-care habits and health complications.

Body image combines how you see yourself and what you wish to look like, ranging from realistic to distorted ideals. When your body image is realistic and attainable, self-care improves, promoting overall well-being. However, dissatisfaction with appearance may push people toward unhealthy behaviors, such as excessive exercise or restrictive eating, in pursuit of unrealistic goals.

In severe cases like body dysmorphia, no amount of dieting, exercise, or surgery satisfies the desired image, often resulting in dangerous habits and conditions like eating disorders, nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, and heart issues. Promoting a healthy body image is key to fostering balanced mental and physical health.

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It’s about balanced eating-forget clean eating

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Undernourished teenage girls need saturated fats for essential body functions like hormone regulation and menstruation, as a pediatric endocrinologist once emphasized while I worked with a client battling a severe eating disorder. This insight shifted my perspective on nutrition, underscoring the importance of balance for both those with eating disorders and individuals managing weight issues.

Over-restricting “fun foods” like quick-digesting carbs or labeling foods as “good” or “bad” can lead to under-fueling, harming both physical and mental health. Promoting balanced eating habits is essential to preventing malnutrition and supporting overall well-being at any age.

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Balanced Eating: A Healthier Approach to Nutrition and Well-Being

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My philosophy toward nutrition aligns with creating a balanced approach to eating. By refraining from categorizing foods as strictly “good” or “bad,” we foster a healthier relationship with food. Instead, we can refer to less nutrient-dense foods as “sometimes foods.” This shift in language helps to normalize all food choices and lessens the emotional weight associated with them. It encourages individuals to view eating as a source of nourishment and enjoyment rather than a source of guilt or anxiety. By developing this mindset, we can significantly reduce the risk of disordered eating and support a more positive body image. Ultimately, it’s about cultivating resilience and understanding that nutrition is just one aspect of our overall well-being.

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