We're asking for your help! Do you know of a great Doctor who might be interested in meeting with Michelle Morand of The CEDRIC Centre for a brief consult about eating disorders and our services in person, or over the phone?

Whether you live in B.C. or Illinois, and you're a current or past client, we'd be happy to connect with your Doctor.

Right now, there's someone out there wishing they knew about The CEDRIC Centre, and with your help, we can reach them. Click here to refer your medical doctor to The CEDRIC Centre today!

Health means many things to many people. It can mean energy and vitality, lack of disease, and strength and endurance. But to most people, what health often boils down to is thinness.

In our culture, we firmly believe that thin equals healthy.

And it's no wonder we've come to that conclusion! Every week a new study comes out linking dire consequences with fatness. So we go on more diets, we limit carbs and restrict trans fats, but as a nation, we continue to get fatter.

Chances are, if you're reading this, you have years of experience on the dieting merry go-around and have long since figured out that diets don't work. They make us fatter and they make us downright obsessed with food, which directly leads to overeating. In fact, 80% of people who eat compulsively started with a diet.

And for many of us, our compulsive overeating leads to a body larger than its natural set point.

That is where The Health At Every Size Paradigm comes in.

The reality is up to 60% of N. America is "overweight." Some of us may be overweight due to a sedentary lifestyle, a diet high in processed foods, an illness. Some people are just born to be a size 18-- and that's okay! And, some of us diet our way to a size 18. But no matter what your size, or how you got there, you deserve quality health care.

The physicians who started The Health At Every Size Paradigm did so to ensure people of every size have access to information that improves their health. They encourage intuitive eating, (known as Natural Eating at The CEDRIC Centre), and physical movement for the sake of pleasure.

Over the next few issues, we'll be bringing you more information about The Health at Every Size Paradigm and how you can benefit from it, no matter what your size!

By, Michelle Morand, Founder and Director of The CEDRIC Centre.

New Years Wish

My wish has always been to create a sense of community among Compulsive Eaters and those who feel they are low on self-esteem, who would like to come out of their shells, and begin to live life fully. To that end I would like to begin by sharing something of my experience with Compulsive Eating.

I believe Compulsive Eating can be overcome and left behind for good.

I am living proof of this philosophy. A Compulsive Eater for many years I finally gave up on dieting and obsessive exercise and started instead to believe in me. The nagging feelings of anxiety and doubt that had plagued me for over a decade had kept me stuck in fear and denial. Not because of the feelings themselves but because of the debilitating message I had taught myself: that I was weak, unimportant and could never successfully take care of myself. Therefore, when I felt overwhelmed I never even tried to solve the problem at hand. I already believed that I would fail. Rather, I frantically squashed that negative or scary feeling with food.

This behaviour allowed me to comfort and nurture myself on one hand yes, but ultimately I was only digging a deeper and deeper pit of despair. I never solved the real problem with food so it still sat there waiting to be resolved. I had added to that unpleasant feeling, the terrible experience of all the negative thoughts I then felt about my body and myself for being so "weak" and unable to resist food once more.

Every profession has its very own unique and mostly indecipherable jargon, and the counselling community is no different.

But if you're a client of a counsellor in British Columbia Canada, especially a client at The CEDRIC Centre, RCC is one abbreviation you want to know about!

RCC stands for Registered Clinical Counsellor. When a counsellor has this designation it means they've met rigorous academic training, (Masters-level equivalency), have clinical experience and have undergone supervision requirements. Prospective members are also reviewed through a criminal record check and must submit references from recognized mental health practitioners.

For mental health consumers in B.C., working with a counsellor who has their Registered Clinical Counsellor designation is an assurance of the quality of the counsellor's training and standing.

At The CEDRIC Centre, our counsellors have met the training and supervision required for an RCC designation.

An added perk to working with a Registered Clinical Counsellor is that the designation is recognized by most insurance carriers and if you have extended health care, a portion of your counselling fees can be reimbursed.

If you have extended health insurance and want to work with an RCC at The CEDRIC Centre or elsewhere, all you have to do is call your insurance provider to find out their fee reimbursement schedule.

From there, you can make an appointment with an RCC counsellor, but after the appointment, don't forget to ask for a receipt with the RCC stamp/number! The receipts are then submitted to your insurance carrier, as proof of purchase.

Welcome to Beth

Greetings!

I am excited to be joining the counselling team at The CEDRIC Centre. I recently completed my MA in counselling from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. I also hold membership with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors.

I think it is beneficial to share with you a bit about my own journey.

I grew up in a family where alcohol abuse prevailed. I learned this pattern of behavior as a "solution" to my own problems. I drank to numb my feelings and to experience relief from the stresses of life. Unfortunately, the solution to my problems eventually became a problem itself. I recognized this, and I am happy to report, I am celebrating 10 years of sobriety and recovery. With alcohol abuse out of the way, I was able to begin to recover from the devastating effects that growing up in an alcoholic home environment had on my emotional development.

I used alcohol in the same way others use food, as a solution to the deep pain we don't want to experience.

It is with gratitude that I join The CEDRIC Centre.

With the rapid pace of life, it's easy to forget to slow down and take a moment to reflect.

But with ConsciousOne.com it's easy to get back in touch with yourself, especially if you use their fun and interactive flash cards.

The flash cards are written by some of today's leading self help authors, Louise Hay, Doreen Virtue, and Wayne Dyer.

Each card has a unique message and is beautiful to look at.

Try one today!

Do we have your current contact information on file?

If not, please feel free to use the form provided to submit your most recent contatc information, and please feel free to include any notes about your preferences for contact!

Thanks, we look forward to hearing from you!

CDC says its study inflated number of obesity deaths

The government, acknowledging a mistake in a highly publicized health report, is expected to significantly reduce its estimate of the number of Americans who die because of obesity.

But a statistical error in a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't change the fact that obesity is the second leading cause of preventable deaths in this country, says a CDC official and leading weight-loss researchers.

The much-touted study, reported in the March 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicated that diet and physical inactivity accounted for 400,000 deaths in 2000, compared with 435,000 from tobacco. A CDC researcher predicted that obesity would overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death by next year.

The reason the CDC examined the number of deaths cited in the original study was due to pressure from independent researchers all over the world that questioned the research methods used to obtain the original 400,000 figure. Another caveat for the study was that some independent researchers felt that powerful lobbyists and plain old prejudice colored the results of the study.

The CDC re-examining the figures and finding them flawed represents a small victory for critics of the original study. According to them, the CDC lumps diseases associated with inactivity and poor diet with obesity, despite, the widely cited research that shows that individuals can be fit and fat, and a sedentary lifestyle increases risks for disease, whether a person is thin, or obese.

Study finds link between early anxiety, eating disorders

Anxiety disorders in childhood may be a prelude to eating disorders that often strike young women in their teens and 20s, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that two thirds of people with eating disorders had experienced some sort of clinical anxiety, such as social phobia, panic attacks or obsessive compulsive disorder, at some point in their lives.

A significant number of them - 42 percent - developed an anxiety disorder when they were children, long before their eating disorders appeared. After they had recovered from an eating disorder, anxiety remained more common among the women than in the general population. Twenty percent to 30 percent typically experience anxiety over the course of a lifetime.

Confessions of a Shopaholic, written by Sophie Kinsella

Okay, so you're probably thinking Sophie Kinsella's Book, Confessions of a Shopaholic has absolutely nothing at all to do with our work at The Centre.

On first glance, it doesn't. It looks like a light, fun read, the epitome of chick-lit.

Becky is a modern gal in her mid-twenties with a so- so job, living in the big city of London, dreaming big dreams. The book is all about her search for identity, her friendships, and relationships with the opposite sex, family, and--- her obsessive compulsive disorder.

You see, Becky is in big doo-doo because even though she's a financial writer for a boring financial magazine, she is clueless when it comes to her own finances. Basically, Becky uses purchasing things, pretty much any thing, as a coping mechanism. When Becky is feeling anxious, she buys little knick- knackish do-dads. Bored, coffee. Happy, clothes. Sad, clothes.

And like most of us, Becky has expensive taste, so by the time the book starts Becky is in serious debt, and denial.

Reviewed by Brooke Finnigan

How Meditation Helped Me Recover from Food Obsession

Written By Alison M.

Two years ago, I started breathing and stopped bingeing. Through an acquaintance, I met someone who introduced me to the power of the breath. Since then, I have been on an incredible journey of healing and growing that has let me learn to live life without bingeing or dieting and accept myself and others unconditionally.

Recently, meditation has been attracting a lot of attention on the internet and in alternative health circles, but it has been used by many cultures for centuries.

Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, and Muslims use meditation and prayer to connect with God and overcome inner obstacles to peace and serenity. Today, we are discovering that meditation has more than spiritual or religious uses.

Many studies have shown that the potential health benefits range from enhancing the immune system by increasing the activity of "natural-killer cells" which kill bacteria and cancer cells and reducing the activity of viruses, to lowering blood pressure by increasing blood flow and slowing heart rate.

But, more importantly, meditation actually helps to calm the body and heal the soul. Research has also shown that, by lowering the levels of blood lactate, increasing serotonin production (low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches), and shifting brain activity from the stress-prone right frontal cortex to the calmer left frontal cortex, meditation decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. It also diminishes activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.