Two nights ago he was out with his dad for dinner while my daughter went to work and he was sitting [...]]]> More stress, more anxiety and more tension.  That’s what this week has been.  My daughter’s fiancé has a skull fracture from playing softball and slight bleeding in the head.  Now he is experiencing mild seizures. 

Two nights ago he was out with his dad for dinner while my daughter went to work and he was sitting having dinner and he suddenly couldn’t get any words out of his mouth.  He got up and went outside to try to get some air and he was having trouble reading the business signs.  He said it was like there was smoke in front of his eyes and then after a while it cleared.  SCARY.  What I don’t understand though is that he isn’t taking control of his own situation and following up with his primary care physician.  The guy should now about this.

So of course he is freaked out.  His dad on the other hand just stayed inside the whole time he was outside trying to feel better.  Who does that?  Leave your food at the table and go check on your kid for Pete’s sake.  (Yeah, I really want to use some strong language here but I am trying to clean up my gutter mouth.)

My poor daughter is in tears half the time.  She is trying to make him comfortable, get him food, get his meds filled, call the doctors, clean their apartment and work.  Plus worry.  Plus not sleep.  Plus cry.  He is very mean and grumpy on this medication too which is sending her over the edge. 

I am doing everything possible to use my coping skills to help her.  She doesn’t know it but I am teaching them to her.  Let’s just hope his head starts healing quickly.

In the new saga with my daughter being engaged I thought I would share with you that she still has NOT told her grandparents on my ex-husband’s side.  Although this week, she has a good excuse.  There was an accident.

Her fiancé was playing softball on Sunday and he was up at bat.  He [...]]]> August 25, 2010

In the new saga with my daughter being engaged I thought I would share with you that she still has NOT told her grandparents on my ex-husband’s side.  Although this week, she has a good excuse.  There was an accident.

Her fiancé was playing softball on Sunday and he was up at bat.  He hit the ball and started running for first plate.  He was almost there when something hit him and he went down.  He went down hard and was out cold.  When he regained consciousness he was very dizzy, weak and it took him a minute to figure out where he was.  He thought two fingers being held up was one.  He had been hit in the side of the head with a line drive to first to get him out.  Well, they succeeded in more ways than one.

He was taken to the hospital where we was diagnosed with a mild concussion and was sent home two hours later.  No CT scan, no x-rays, no nothing.  They said to take Tylenol for the pain since he was too nauseated to keep stronger medicine down.  So off to home he went.

The next morning I was speaking to my daughter and she was saying that he wasn’t getting the words out of his mouth the way he thought they were coming out.  Like he was trying to say the word frustrated but couldn’t get all the syllables out.  And he said to her that he just didn’t feel right.

WARNING!  WARNING! WARNING!

I strongly suggested (just shy of insisting) that she get him to another hospital for a CT scan.  His actions were not normal.  People should be able to get the words out like they mean them and not be thinking one thing and saying another.  Not right!  So she banged out of work and took him to the hospital.  They were going to release him without a scan and she insisted that they do one.  Well shame on them because he has a skull fracture with bleeding.  He spent the whole next day in the hospital on heavy duty pain meds and being closely monitored. 

When are hospitals going to take people seriously instead of worrying about the bottom line of everything?  2 hospitals almost missed this.  One actually did.  He should have had the CT scan the day it happened. 

He is going to be fine.  She never visited her grandparents because for the past 4 days she has been taking care of him.  One more week passes and they still don’t know.  Wonder if she’ll tell them BEFORE she gets married? 

So tonight we are going dress shopping because her fiancé is okay and she needs some spirit lifting!   Plus she has been binge eating a bit due to stress and she said it might help her focus on what she wants and to start exercising so she can fit into her dream dress.  Not that I think she has binge eating disorder but there are times when people can fall into the traps of it.  This is one of them.  She is very happy but very stressed out and is having a hard time dealing with some of it so she eats. 

So much drama in a little girl’s world

Binge eating disorder basically involves the person going through episodes of compulsive overeating. The disease can come in two forms…one where the person eats non-stop for 1-2 hours, and one where the person eats smaller portions more or less non-stop. According to the National Institutes of Health binge eating statistics, it [...]]]> By Guest Author Jason Mesnic

Binge eating disorder basically involves the person going through episodes of compulsive overeating. The disease can come in two forms…one where the person eats non-stop for 1-2 hours, and one where the person eats smaller portions more or less non-stop. According to the National Institutes of Health binge eating statistics, it affects about 2% of the American population. Since this is a mental disorder, you can’t really do a binge eating self help program or cure yourself by following some binge eating tips guidelines, so binge eating treatments usually involve clinics or binge eating rehab that teach the person how to eat properly and that can make sure that the person sticks to the program.

However, before you send the person off to one of those binge eating treatment centers it is important to know that there are a number of dangers of compulsive overeating, but the biggest danger is increased risk of suicide attempts. The reason this often leads to suicide is because binge eaters tend to be very upset after going through one of their overeating episodes. They struggle with guilt, disgust and massive depression. Usually this is just a way for the person to try to eat their problems away. When they eat, that is the only time when they feel happy.

If you think suicide is nothing to worry about… consider this. 1 out of 14 Americans knows someone who committed suicide during the last year. In fact, during that time, there were more than 1.1 million suicide attempts. More people die from suicide in United States, than they do from homicide! It’s important to note that you need to pay special attention if the person’s binge eating is a new occurrence, since drastic changes in behavior like that are a huge red flag for suicide.

Unfortunately binge eaters aren’t the only potential victims for suicide, their families are also at risk(especially younger children). The main reason for this is due to the fact that binge eaters tend to be abusive(verbally or even physically)… especially when family members try to help them…which in turn leads to depression in the people affected, which can in turn lead to a suicide attempt.

Make sure to pay extra attention if the person is going through a binge eating treatment… since they’ll have withdrawal symptoms that will make them an even higher threat for suicide attempts. Also pay extra attention if the medicine the person is using has suicide or suicidal thoughts as a potential side effect.

So if you know someone who is overeating(especially if it’s a woman), it is important to learn all the potential suicide warning signs, so that you can stop a person you love from taking their own life. If you yourself are a binge eater, you need to provide a suicide warning signs guide to people around you, so that they can step in and save your life when you become suicidal.

Click here to get the most comprehensive guide on suicide prevention with 200+ suicide warning signs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Mesnic 
http://EzineArticles.com/?Binge-Eating-Disorder-Carries-an-Increased-Risk-of-a-Suicide-Attempt&id=4565954

There sure is a lot of happiness on engagement night.  My daughter Melissa just got engaged about 4 weeks ago to her boyfriend of a year and a half and we are so excited for them.  They are starting on a wonderful new journey together.  I really do believe that they will have [...]]]> August 17, 2010

There sure is a lot of happiness on engagement night.  My daughter Melissa just got engaged about 4 weeks ago to her boyfriend of a year and a half and we are so excited for them.  They are starting on a wonderful new journey together.  I really do believe that they will have a good marriage and now is one of those special times in their lives and unique times where they are beyond happy but stressed out to the max!

You know what I mean?  How can you feel so euphoric and yet so stressed out that you become a full fledged binge eater?  Crazy huh.  Nope, not so crazy after all. 

Right now Melissa is trying to figure out how we are all going to pay for this wedding and she is trying to set a reasonable budget for 150 people wedding.  She wants it to be next year.  She wants to get married outside at a gazebo type of setting and then move her reception inside directly afterwards.  She wants everything to be perfect as she sees it in her head but it is so overwhelming. 

I’ve noticed her stress level increase  and her body language change when we start to talk about the touchy subjects…like her jackass of a biological father, her soon to be mother-in-law from hell, money, school and so on.  The poor thing is going to have a nervous breakdown if she doesn’t grow a backbone and stand up for her rights and what she wants.  This stuff happens all the time. 

She is scared to tell her grandparents that she is engaged because she has this pre-conceived notion of how they are going to react.  They are going to tell her she is too young to get married.  They are going to ask her about her father and if she has told him yet.  They will want to know who is walking her down the aisle.  She refuses to have her father do that as he has been gone her whole life.  I think she has talked to him maybe 5 times in the past 10 years but her grandparents seem to think they have this wonderful father-daughter relationship.  Talk about believing what you really want to have happen. 

The truth is she wants her step-father (my husband of 10 years) to walk her down the aisle.  He has been there for her as a dad and she considers him her “father”.  What a blow to her grandparents if they ever heard that!  Well its coming!!!!  Provided she can muster the courage to tell them.

So here is a prime example of a strong woman who knows what she wants but doesn’t feel as though she can tell them how she really feels.  She is afraid they will become so upset they will spite her and not go to the wedding.  She is a peacekeeper here.  She is just like me.  Never want to rock the boat.  But it means we give up our right to also have wants and needs and this is, after all, HER wedding.  She has the right to say what she would like in a respectful way but she is entitled to her needs.  She doesn’t need to binge eat, she needs assertiveness training. 

We’ve been practicing assertiveness and her fiancé will be with her when she meets them.  I’ll let you know what happens next.  I’ve been told tomorrow is the day she is planning on getting together with them.  Everyone pray for her strength!

After completing an exhausting update of The BreakAway Program, the new Step-by-Step Binge Eating Disorder Treatment Program is now done.

The entire 425 plus page program has been printed in color and is now in 5 hardcover binders (one for each module) so that our clients can make notes, highlight paragraphs, use the journal [...]]]> August 16, 2010

After completing an exhausting update of The BreakAway Program, the new Step-by-Step Binge Eating Disorder Treatment Program is now done.

The entire 425 plus page program has been printed in color and is now in 5 hardcover binders (one for each module) so that our clients can make notes, highlight paragraphs, use the journal in each module easier and go back to review the program easier. It’s wonderful! The eating disorder treatment program now covers more ground with more examples and lessons.

The website is updated for new clients but existing clients can still use the member login area to view the workbooks.

Best wishes for healing!
Nadine

1. Firm up this saggy body using weights. 2. Make a huge amount of money and eliminate debt. (yeah right…) 3. Exercise more. 4. [...]]]> I’ve been thinking about what New Years Resolutions I might want to make and so far I have the same list as I always have every year! Which by the way I never keep.

1. Firm up this saggy body using weights.
2. Make a huge amount of money and eliminate debt. (yeah right…)
3. Exercise more.
4. Love more.
5. Spend less money.

Yup that should just about do it. I would love to say that I will keep these resolutions but really it’s just like starting any other goal. I have set it WAY too big and never bother to break it down. Maybe I am just not that serious about it then or I am overwhelmed with it so I discard them and say it’s too difficult.

So let’s do this together and set small goals that we can accomplish. Take my first resolution to “Firm up this saggy body using weights”. I could break this down and set my goal to be “I will do 3 arm curls on each arm today” and do that for 4 days. Now really, how simple is that! I can do THAT.

Then I would make the goal be “I will do 6 arm curls on each arm today”. Easy.

Do this with me friends…take your resolutions and break them down into tiny goals. We might actually have a shot of ACHIEVING them!

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Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve problems [...]]]> Let’s first talk about what Diabetes is because I know for me when I was studying nutrition it was rather confusing.  There are two types (type 1 and type 2).  We are going to focus on type 2.  The following is from webmd.com

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Causes of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is a number of diseases that involve problems with the hormone insulin. While not everyone with type 2 diabetes is overweight, obesity and lack of physical activity are two of the most common causes of this form of diabetes. It is also responsible for nearly 95% of diabetes cases in the United States, according to the CDC.

In a healthy person, the pancreas (an organ behind the stomach) releases insulin to help your body store and use the sugar from the food you eat. Diabetes happens when one of the following occurs:

• When the pancreas does not produce any insulin.
• When the pancreas produces very little insulin.
• When the body does not respond appropriately to insulin, a condition called “insulin resistance.”

Unlike people with type 1 diabetes, people with type 2 diabetes produce insulin; however, the insulin their pancreas secretes is either not enough or the body is unable to recognize the insulin and use it properly. This is called insulin-resistance. When there isn’t enough insulin or the insulin is not used as it should be, glucose (sugar) can’t get into the body’s cells. When glucose builds up in the blood instead of going into cells, the body’s cells are unable to function properly.

The Role of Insulin in the Cause of Type 2 Diabetes

To understand why insulin is important, it helps to know more about how the body uses food for energy. Your body is made up of millions of cells. To make energy, these cells need food in a very simple form. When you eat or drink, much of your food is broken down into a simple sugar called “glucose.” Then, glucose is transported through the bloodstream to the cells of your body where it can be used to provide the energy your body needs for daily activities.

The amount of glucose in your bloodstream is tightly regulated by the hormone insulin. Insulin is always being released in small amounts by the pancreas. When the amount of glucose in your blood rises to a certain level, the pancreas will release more insulin to push more glucose into the cells. This causes the glucose levels in your blood (blood glucose levels) to drop.

To keep your blood glucose levels from getting too low (hypoglycemia or low blood sugar), your body signals you to eat and releases some glucose from the stores kept in the liver.

People with diabetes either don’t make insulin or their body’s cells no longer are able to recognize insulin, leading to high blood sugars. By definition, diabetes is having a blood glucose level of 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more after an overnight fast (not eating anything).

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Okay – now that we’ve discussed diabetes let’s talk about the correlation between that and binge eating disorder.  People who binge eat consume sometimes thousands of calories per binge which means the body just simply cannot process that amount of sugar.  Things start to fall apart internally. Your pancreas is producing an insane amount of insulin to break down all the food you’ve eaten.  Your body just simply can’t keep up that pace!

My brother has type 2 diabetes and he is in danger of losing his job because he drives huge freight trucks for a living.  You can’t have a job like that and be insulin dependent.  The DOT will not renew his truck license if he does not control his diet and stay on his pills.   Right now he is okay but it could easily change.

My brother-in-law who works for Massport in Boston was put on a supervisors desk job for the exact same reasons except he became insulin dependent and lost his commercial license.

This is real life.  This happens.  This is what happens when the body is abused with food/drink.

So as you can see binge eating disorder can harm your body in different ways.  You may think you are soothing your soul but in reality you would soothe your soul much better by treating your body well and understanding what happens when you binge eat.

You could easily find yourself in a hospital ER with a possible heart attack, kidney stones, gall stones, or be put on insulin for the rest of your life because you just didn’t realize at the time that you were in deed NOT getting the love and support you thought you were getting from food.  Food cannot love you.  Food cannot laugh with you or cry with you or cheer you on.  That you must do with yourself and the ones who are close to you that you feel love from.  If there is no one you can think of that fills this role then it is time to find a friend. It is time to find a caring supportive person and there are plenty of those people, as professionals, waiting to be there for you.

I am one of them.

I used to have binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia so I truly understand what you are feeling.

Today I am living proof that you can absolutely move past this.  It is why I dedicated years to working with people just like you so that you don’t have to continue your life in an unhappy way.

I know you may be trying to find comfort from food or may be using food because you are hurting from something else but please understand that by using food in a way it was not intended (to sustain life) can truly harm your body forever.

And when you do heal your binge eating disorder and are getting on with your life you certainly don’t want to have these horrible lasting side effects of food abuse hanging over your head.  Binge eating is curable but some of the side effects are not.

Get to the root cause of your binge eating disorder so you are not faced with greater disabilities later in your life.

The weird thing is that the day would start out decent like it was going to surprise you and be sunny later on but then this [...]]]> My daughter was at Girl Scout Camp all last week and the weather was less than cooperative. We had thunder storms, tornado watches and flooding most of the week.

The weird thing is that the day would start out decent like it was going to surprise you and be sunny later on but then this weird Dorothy of Kansas weather would kick in around noon and would literally spiral downward until the kids got off the bus from camp.

One day Jess got off the bus looking like she had seen a ghost. Apparently it isn’t much fun being in a thunderstorm in a mess hall in the woods.

Needless to say, I have been completely stressing about the weather for this week because sure enough she is back at camp!

So I need a mass prayer for my daughter please!!!!!!!

-Nadine Ann

photo credit: Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes

The secret [...]]]> In Thursday’s post from the study USA Today did on Binge Eating Disorders, there was a sentence that read, “estimates of eating-disorder cases are probably low because people are very ashamed of these and tend to under-report them”. I can only imagine what the true number of cases would be if everyone reported it.

The secret shame the study mentioned is so very real. I had incredible shame and hid my binge eating from everyone including my husband. What’s funny (not in a haha way though) is that I hid my disorder from the people I knew would NOT judge me! But there is this secret feeling a binge eater has inside that tells her to hide because if people saw what she really ate they would be repulsed and lose respect for her instantly.

Now I know if you are reading this and you are a family member of a binge eater you are shaking your head saying, “I would never do that!”

I know.

But if you have never walked in the shoes of a binge eater you simply can’t know the secret shame.

Now I ask you if you are a binge eater why you think we can’t admit this to the people we love? Is it because we are not ready to begin healing? Or that we think they will kick us in the ass instead of help us? Are the relationships we are in that bad for us that we feel we cannot speak of a food disorder that affects millions of people around the world? Are we just not educated enough about the disorder?

I think in the end it is up to each one of us to decide on WHAT we want to feel, WHEN we want to feel it and HOW long we want to feel it for.

Think of what your life would be like if you did not have an eating disorder or secret shame.

-Nadine Ann, C.N., H.H.P.

I talk about dieting all the [...]]]> What do you think happened to Kirstie Alley and her 83 pound weight gain after losing it for Jenny Craig Weight Loss Center? Do you think the pressure just got to her and once she had gotten to her goal and left the public eye she just caved in?

I talk about dieting all the time and how it doesn’t work but her weight gain of 83 pounds was incredibly fast. She has admitted to binge eating.

I think she was doomed from the start.

Here’s 3 quick reasons why:

• She never dealt with her underlying issues behind her eating disorder which she definitely had for years (just look at her past few years of binging)
• She was in the public eye and felt fear about not reaching the goal which is the ONLY reason why she made it.  Money talks but when the contract was done, so was she.
• She made drastic changes to her diet instead of very slow and tiny changes that her brain could “digest”!

So now she is back to being obese, unhappy and binging more than ever.  She has promised to lose the weight AGAIN!  Shall we watch her journey to self destruction one more time?  Think anyone will ever figure out that if something didn’t work in the past that it won’t work in the future?