As I said in my book, Transformation After Trauma, "My greatest power struggle is with food. It’s my one great love and my preferred form of self-destruction. Food has always been my go-to pseudo-remedy to relieve any kind of uncomfortable feelings. I use food to celebrate and to push away difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions."

Between struggling with an eating disorder for many years and using food as a coping mechanism for any difficult circumstance for most of my life, I've had to use a variety of strategies to reach and maintain a healthy weight. In this video, I discuss the most important strategies I've used, particularly mindful eating and intermittent fasting.

If you want to learn more about how to incorporate mindful eating and other self-care practices into your life, I recommend that you read or listen to my book, Transformation After Trauma: Embracing Post-Traumatic Growth, where I detail the tools I used in my healing journey. Sign up here to begin reading...

I'm on a mission to have my health span match my lifespan, but that can be super challenging when remnants of my past eating disorder start rearing their ugly head.

I always end up being filled with a mixture of feelings when I experience this internal battle. Part of me gets so frustrated that there's this constant battle of wills happening inside of me. Part of me wants to be healthy, but one part of me continues to want to use food to push away all my discomfort and to also fill me with happiness. Part of me also feels ashamed that I'm not strong enough at times to resist the temptations and shame over the fact that sometimes I just don't want to resist the temptations.

Then there's the part of me that wants to practice compassion for me doing the very best I can to survive in the moment. Thankfully, this part usually wins out in the long run.

If you struggle with similar internal battles, I encourage you to watch this video:

If you're looking for alternate ways to cope, I...