I'll be attending a workshop put on by Scott Abel in Kelowna, BC, in October. The topic is pretty interesting to me. Here's an excerpt from the workbook Scott's preparing for the workshop (http://www.facebook.com/notes/coach-scott-abel/from-the-upcoming-workshop-workbook-i-am-preparing-for-oct-workshop/232412123441527):
I’ve seen competitors/extreme dieters who are thin or lean only a few weeks per year, and then they torture themselves mentally and emotionally by believing their starved selves are their real selves. For many of these types of individuals, food becomes the enemy because it is now directly tied to body image and nothing else. Food becomes a right/wrong, or good/bad- absolute. Therefore so does the way the person feels about herself. Food is the enemy that becomes this thing to fight against, rail against, fear, and understand and conquer. And yet it’s this exact mentality that only further feeds and fuels the food/eating issues. And food instruments, weight scales, food scales etc. now are part of the ammunition used on the self-judgment of good or bad, in the war being waged against yourself in the feeling brain – sometimes described aptly as “the battlefield of the mind” in regards to food issues. But common sense tells anyone that you don’t really need to weigh yourself to know if you are sticking to your healthy eating regimen or not. This process becomes a vicious emotional battle where what you eat, eats you up as well. And as I have said often, even if you are not acting on your food impulses behaviourally - if food and eating and resisting both occupy your mind constantly, then you still have food/eating issues. The act of eating or not eating just separates the type of the food/eating disorder is all.
