If you’re struggling with your body image or know someone who is, please consider reading my recent article on Catholic Exchange. This one has been around a bit (it was originally published in Canticle), but it remains near and dear to my heart. I wish I could say all the relics of my unhealthy past have been forgotten, but my eating disorder, while “recovered,” remains a part of me that I constantly have to be aware of, lest I want to revert to old habits and a dangerous way of thinking.
In her book Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, Aimee Liu writes: “I’ve changed the way I think about recovery. I no longer define it in relation to illness but as an ongoing process of restoration and discovery.”
Praying to God and recognizing my body is on loan from him helps me with this ongoing process.
Thank you for your beautifully- written article on Catholic Exchange: Making Peace with my body.
I, too, struggled with anorexia and bulimia and also have a daughter named Madeline. I tell her that her beauty comes from within and to always remember she is pretty because she has Jesus in her heart.
Many of your thoughts during and after pregnancy mirror mine.
Jesus Christ was my true peace and healer. No matter how many attempts to “give up” that old controlling life I tried, the only one that worked was getting on my knees crying out to the Lord.
Like you, I had stopped the eating madness but still had to put complete trust in the Lord.
If my family read that article that would think I had written it under a fake name!
It’s amazing that food was my method of control and now the food I seek is His Body in the Eucharist and letting Him be in control.
I pray for strong and faithfilled mothers and fathers to raise healthy girls who get their self worth from the Lord.
I will also pray your article touches many lives.
God bless,
Amy
Once again, Kate, we are on the same page!
I am still on the front lines of the body image battle.
Yesterday I started a new blog (In God’s Image) dedicated to examining the relationship between faith and fitness (templeofthespirit.blogspot.com)
It’s my goal to share my own struggles with weight and how I perceive myself while learning from others.
Look for a link to your awesome article!
It’s so wonderful that you can address this problem with such grace and healthiness. (Especially being mommy to little girls!) We all struggle with image and it’s so good to get a dose of reality. Great article, too, Kate.
Heather
Well, I did it! The new blog — In God’s Image — is up and running! I mention your wonderful article in the inaugural post. Thanks, Kate!
A wonderful prayerful way to look at beauty and body! Thank you! Its so hard to accept our bodies some times, but we should always our body, no matter how ‘imperfect’ was given to us as a gift from God! Thank you for the reminder!