Holiday movies and social media show us that the holiday season needs to be a certain level of perfect: everyone must be happy, your house must be spotless but also have decorations everywhere, and key memories have to be made. This is what is considered holiday perfectionism, when everything must be done to a certain level or else you feel stressed out, disappointed in yourself, or like a failure.

Women are especially susceptible to falling into the trap of holiday perfectionism because they constantly get messages from childhood to be everything to everyone. They are the ones to make the gift lists, do the shopping, the baking, coordinate the social calendars of spouses and kids. Plus, there is a gender stereotype that women need to be pleasant in the face of any scenario. It is exhausting!

Give yourself a break this year with these 4 tips to feel less stressed about achieving perfection this season:

• Take stock of what you can let go of. Consider what you think is expected of yo
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Going to the doctor can feel like more than just a chore. It might make your anxiety sky rocket as you face explaining your symptoms and feelings to someone you only see a handful of times a year.  

If you exist in a body that doesn’t ‘fit’ into narrow definitions, like BMI, there might be added anxiety that you won’t be heard by those treating you because they can’t see past your body shape or weight. This is called weight bias in medicine. It is when a practitioner believes they know everything they need to know about you because you are classified as “overweight” or “obese” by their standards. They will often highlight or even pressure you to lose weight as a miracle cure-all to any and all issues.

That is simply not true.

Many people with higher body fat percentages live healthy lives with clean bills of health from blood work to digestion. And you deserve the same treatment from a practitioner that everyone else gets—to be seen, to be heard, to be understood.

Knowing all this...

It can be so easy to get obsessed with the numbers on your bathroom scale and hop on/hop off every day or sometimes multiple times a day. You might be telling yourself that it’s “just to check in” but let’s look at your motivation a bit more closely:

If the number on the scale is higher than yesterday, do you have a bad day? End up picking yourself apart and vow to restrict what you eat?

Are you stepping on the scale more than once a day? Do you have set ‘rules’ for when you weigh yourself (for example, must be after using the washroom, must be without clothing, etc.)?

If you find yourself letting the number on the scale dictate your mood and actions, here are four reminders you need to hear. Feel free to print these out to read them when you need to, or even tape them on your bathroom mirror!

1. It is normal for your weight to fluctuate during the day depending on what you’ve had to eat, drink, or if you’ve had a bowel movement. And if you’re a woman, you can expect your weight to
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Have you ever noticed that when you wipe down the kitchen you immediately feel a sense of calm? Or maybe you love to light a candle during the cold, dark winter months. These are great examples of how small alterations to your environment can boost your mood in seconds. And we recommend finding more ways to add these things to your every day! It is a great way to tailor your environment, stack the deck if you will, to bring more joy and relaxation into your daily life.

You might think: “I don’t have the budget to upgrade my house!” While of course we’d all love to decorate or renovate our homes to fit our ideal dreams, you don’t have to go all out (and drop a lot of money) to see mental health benefits. You can try:

1. Sparkle and shine. Let’s face it: cleaning the entire house feels overwhelming! Instead, shift your focus and make it your goal to clean only one room in your house. We suggest choosing the one you spend the most time in, so you get the most recharging bang for your buc
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It might feel normal to pass by a store window and check out your reflection. But if you’re noticing more than simply adjusting your scarf or hat, you might be falling into body checking.

Body checking is any way you monitor your body’s appearance. This might look like:

• Pinching or pulling at skin to temporarily manipulate how your body looks.
• Examining your stomach in the mirror while trying to “suck in” as much as possible.
• Stepping on the scale often.
• Taking photos of your body constantly, swearing they will be your “before” photos.
• Comparing your body now to one you had as a teenager or to others around you.

You might even notice that these habits become even more frequent when you are stressed, feeling sad, or even just about to go on vacation! The issue with body checking is that you’ll never feel like you are measuring up to whatever you’re hoping for because it is a way of constantly critiquing your body. The diet industry doesn’t help us at all! Even if it changes i...

The holiday season often feels like it is an emotional minefield. It can bring up memories of our childhood or longer hours at work. It can exacerbate anxiety with the increase in social situations or kick perfectionist into high gear when we decorate, plan, and host.

But one of the most painful emotions to come up during the holidays can be loneliness.  We’re reminded of family we’ve cut ties with or loved ones who have passed away. Maybe even friends you once would have celebrated with are no longer close by. And it isn’t always a physical distance, sometimes we may feel like we’re not relating to our community as they manage their own holiday stressors and expectations. For a season that is about connecting with others, it can really hit home that our family and friends’ groups have gotten smaller or busier.

While feeling lonely during the holidays might not be entirely avoided, there are ways to plan and manage it, so it feels less like a rollercoaster you can’t get off until Jan...

Let’s talk about the messaging about food we absorb. While the concept is simple—what we hear and how it affects us—breaking down where we get these messages from, and if we should listen to them, is a bit more complicated.

There’s what your parents taught you. This might sound like “finish your plate”, “no dessert until you eat your vegetables”, “don’t be such a couch potato.”

There’s what the diet and food industries are repeating. “Lose 50 lbs in a month”, “workout only 20 minutes to blast fat”, “you too can have a celebrity body!” They’ll have us believe that bread is terrible for us, but a lab-made protein powder is the answer to our weight loss visions.

These two examples may be ones you’ve come to be more aware of as you’ve gotten older, read more, or even worked with a therapist on. But one area you may not know you’re getting messaging about is the medical sphere, like your doctor. It might show up in beliefs like you’re too overweight to get quality medical care (and may h...

Now that you’ve settle a little into the fall routine—kids are back in school, summer getaways have ended—you may find yourself refreshed and feeling ready to tackle whatever it is that’s coming up at work. That is a sign of a summer well spent!

Feeling so good might have you taking on more projects at work or overscheduling your time. In order to try and keep a balance (at least most of the time), it is important to notice any signs of burnout early on. While that term can feel scary and so serious that you think “nah, I’d notice if anything was off”, burnout can creep in in ways that you might think are normal. Unfortunately, many workplaces have made these symptoms acceptable and even encourage competition around the water cooler.

Here are five signs to watch out for:

1. Poor performance. Usually, you find you can start and finish projects to your own set of standards, but lately you feel like you can’t keep up or give the level you want at work.
2. Reduced creativity. This is a sne
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Going in to see your doctor might be something that fills you with dread. While you may be all-too familiar with this feeling, there is a name for what you might be experiencing when you step into a clinic: weight bias.

This is defined as negative views, usually based on serotypes or misconceptions, towards people who are overweight or obese.

Everyday people who are overweight face discrimination, from the size of seats on a plane to critical looks and comments from others. There are prominent beliefs that plus size or obese individuals are somehow lesser than, aren’t considered beautiful, and should be blamed (and shamed) for the size of their waistline. This bias also exists in healthcare. 

While there have been strides made in providing training to nurses and doctors that provide primary care, it can still be daunting to go to the doctor for something that *seems* simple like an annual checkup. Here are five things to keep in mind that might help you feel empowered when gathering...

As emotional eaters we often think about (and fear) weight gain being noticed by those around us. Even worse: we stress over if they will say anything about it! But emotional eating can also mean a loss of appetite too: stress, anxiety, and depression can feel so all-encompassing that our natural hunger signals are lost in the chaos.

Often, losing a pant size or two can lead to positive comments from family, friends, and even your doctor. But these comments can be just as problematic as ones on weight gain. As a society we uphold thin bodies as the ideal standard for beauty and health, but what is often missing from the discussion is the emotion or illness that can be behind the weight loss. We become torn between the positive comments and the negative feelings that have led to our body’s changes.

While we’ve got some tips for when someone says something about your weight, the added layer of social conditioning—of acceptance of thinness—can create a very different impact. You might f...