Instead of worrying about weight gain and calories this season, Victoria , B.C. eating disorder expert Michelle Morand encourages people to enjoy the holidays guilt free.

"There's a perception that a little overindulging during the holidays is some how dangerous. The truth is people have used food as a focal point for celebration since the dawn of time and a balanced relationship with food includes some social feasting," says Michelle Morand, director and founder of The CEDRIC Centre.

"When we truly allow ourselves to eat as much as we'd like, of whatever we'd like, invariably, we end up eating less. So if you're feeling especially out of control around food during the holidays, chances are food is an issue the rest of the year, too."

Ten minutes into her new one-woman play, Eve Ensler plants herself center stage and yanks up her top. Behind her, filling the entire stage, looms the blown-up image of a naked female midriff, perfectly flat and tan. And there, in marked contrast for everyone to see, is Ms. Ensler's all too human belly: a pale, round, intractable protuberance, the cause of undying - and yet artistically fruitful - shame.

After seven years of talking about her genitalia in "The Vagina Monologues," her consciousness- raising global blockbuster, Ms. Ensler is back on Broadway this month with "The Good Body," an 85-minute morality play inspired by her stomach.

"It has become my tormentor, my distractor," she laments. "It's my most serious committed relationship. It has protruded through my clothes , my confidence and my ability to work."

"My stomach," Ms. Ensler glumly intones, "is chicken wings, dipping butter, fried shrimp, fried zucchini, fried ice cream, fried dumplings, fried anything, fried right. My stomach is America."

For Ms. Ensler, a self-described "radical feminist," to devote an entire play to the loaded connotations of excess female flesh may not seem all that surprising. But in this endeavor she has a most unlikely ally: the bad-boy playwright Neil LaBute. Famous for male characters so rage-filled and callow that critics have accused him of misogyny, Mr. LaBute has a new play this fall about the brutal social price exacted by female fat.

(Excerpted from a The New York Times, to continue reading you must register at thier site).

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

The Whole Picture (of Recovery)

As I read over the feedback sheets from a recent weekend workshop held at The CEDRIC Centre, one comment struck me as deserving further exploration.

One attendee shared that she had struggled in the past with binge eating and that she had tried to overcome her issue by giving herself permission to eat. She expressed that she found herself eating and eating and not stopping, gaining weight and feeling even more overwhelmed and out of control. She shared that she had put a stop to that process of being out of control around food by learning healthy limits and allowing herself to make choices with some flexibility but with a sense of structure as well. Her statement was made to articulate her point that she was concerned that we would be telling people with serious weight concerns to just eat what they wanted and that they too might feel out of control and gain even more weight rather than coming to a natural and healthy relationship with their bodies and with food.

I appreciated hearing this feedback. It let me know that when I present a workshop, I need to make sure that I speak to the whole process of natural eating and recovery from food addiction and not just to what the beginning stages look like. Often I make a conscious choice not to focus on the latter stages at the beginning of someone's process because at that point the diet mentality is rampant and when we are immersed in the diet-binge-guilt cycle that symbolizes the diet mentality, any thoughts of moderating food intake or making "healthy" choices can feel like restriction.

It's not that I'm being deceitful - if you asked me what the process looks like I would tell you right off the bat. And I know that the drill seargent (the internal critic) that is alive in you at the beginning of this process can not imagine that self-acceptance could ever be anything other than an invitation to laziness and a giant cop out.

I am enough, Just me alone, With no one's approval, Only my own.

I am complete, With no need for more, Containing within me, An infinite store.

I am abundance, I am magic and light, I am creation, I am joy and delight.

I am Source of it all, I am boundless, and yet, Being still human, Sometimes I forget.

"A Reminder" was written by Dan Coopersmith.

The mannequins coming to a mall near you are more J-Lo than Kate Moss, more Anna Nicole than Nicole Kidman.

With more high-end designers creating profitable lines for larger women, department stores are ordering bigger dummies to replace the skinny manis that traditionally modeled clothes of all sizes.

"Can't relate to that tall, willowy, perky-breasted model in your favorite store? Fortunately, manufacturers are breaking the mold with fiberglass forms more representative of our curvier proportions and diverse skin tones," writes A.J. Hanley in this month's issue of Fitness magazine.

"They have ample derrieres modeled after J-Lo and Beyonce. They're sexy. The mannequins of before were like Barbie dolls - they do make people feel bad about themselves," she said. "The goal is healthy- looking mannequins."

Standard mannequin size is size 4, with measurements copied from models like Christy Turlington - a fraction of the average American woman's size 14. Given this disparity, the newer sizes - 6 to 16 - are "really not all that big," Hanley said.

This delicious and oh so tasty recipe is that special something that takes Christmas dinner from ho-hum to ho-ho-hot!

Mashed Potato Layer Bake

Ingredients:

• 4 large white potatoes, peeled, chopped and cooked
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped and cooked
• 1 tub (8 oz.) Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread, divided
• 1/2 cup Sour Cream, divided
• 1/4 tsp. each salt and black pepper
• 1/4 cup Shredded or 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
• /4 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese, divided

Preparation: Preheat oven to 375°F. Place potatoes in separate bowls. Add half each of the cream cheese and sour cream to each bowl; season with salt and pepper. Mash with potato masher or fork until creamy.

Stir half of the Parmesan cheese into white potatoes. Stir half of the cheddar cheese into sweet potatoes. Alternately layer half each of the white potato and sweet potato mixture in 2-qt. clear glass casserole. Repeat layers.

Bake 15 min. Sprinkle with remaining cheeses; bake 5 more min. or until cheeses are melted.

Starting in the New Year, we'll be offering groups for art therapy with local artist April Caverhill.

April's groups are all about experiencing the joy of art as a tool for self-discovery. In her groups, you'll use a wide variety of media and technologies to create personal works of art that reflect your healing process. April's groups are open to all, no art background required!

April Caverhill is a happy, healthy artist who has been a successful illustrator, textile designer and teacher for over twenty years. With additional skills gleaned from her own teenage struggle with disordered eating, she now assists those with body challenges in developing a powerful, resilient core of loving self- acceptance. (Pictured is a recent quilt April was commissioned to create.)

Contact us to register for one of April's groups.

Michelle, Karen, Brooke, and Runkie wish you and yours a happy, healthy Holiday Season!