Girls to Women
Health and Wellness offers a family-based, customized, flexible approach to
re-training families about nutrition
and body
image combining the best of Intuitive Eating principles with evidence-based
guidelines for eating disorder and obesity prevention and treatment.
iLEAP teaches families to support each other in developing
lifelong eating behaviors and positive body image without “dieting.” We
recommend this approach for obesity treatment and prevention as well as for
learning and maintaining healthy weight and nutrition.
BASIC PHILOSOPHY AND PRINCIPLES
Human bodies need appropriate nutrition for optimal health
and wellness.
·
Feeding oneself should be as intuitive as
breathing.
·
Modern culture makes eating well for good
health complicated at best and often very difficult.
·
“Dieting” for health or weight loss rarely
works over the long term.
·
Chronic dieting leads to weight gain and poor
self-esteem
·
Negative feelings about eating and food and
body image backfire and cause more dangerous behaviors, including long term
self-esteem problems, obesity, and eating disorders.
·
Learning to feed yourself well leads to long
term health and stabilization of body weight in a range consistent with your
genetic predisposition.
Fitness and physical movement is an important part of
long-term mental and physical health.
·
Physical exercise builds strength, flexibility,
and stamina; it is important for cardiovascular and bone health..
·
Healthful fitness activities burn stress
hormones and can be important ways to maintain and improve mental health.
·
Skill in a fitness activity is far less
important than the enjoyment it provides; people who participate in fitness
activities they enjoy are more likely to engage in more of those activities
and to do them more often.
People are supposed to come in all shapes and sizes.
·
All people deserve to love themselves and the
bodies they live in.
·
Body self-acceptance key to ability to focus on
appropriate developmental tasks (identity devp, etc)
·
Children and adults exposed to unrealistic
expectations on daily basis, challenging body self-acceptance and causing
significant body image anxiety.
·
Understanding yourself, emphasizing and using
your strengths while acknowledging your “weaknesses” leads to
self-acceptance and self-love.
·
When people love themselves, they are motivated
to take care of themselves.
