How To Know if You Have an Eating Disorder with Annyck Besso, MS, RD

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Episode 50. Today I bring back my first ever second time guest! Annyck Besso’s interview in Episode 16 on Health at Every Size remains one of the most downloaded episodes to date.

Annyck is a Registered Dietitian and the Founder of Sööma, a private practice that specializes in the treatment of eating disorders and sports nutrition located in Montreal, Canada, but serving clients in the United States virtually. Annyck has developed an expertise in the treatment of eating disorders in both private and academic medical center settings. After completing a Bachelors in nutrition and dietetics, Annyck received her Masters in dietetics at McGill University. Annyck recently moved back to Canada after practicing at Mind Body Health in Washington, DC for the past three years. During her time there, Annyck worked in private practice and collaborated closely with medical doctors and mental health professionals. She also developed and directed a day program where people of all ages were admitted and treated 20h per week.

In this interview, Annyck and I cover:

Her experiences with her pregnancy (she is due in a month from the interview!) and a discussion about both of our experiences with miscarriage and how it relates to size privilege
What are eating disorders? What do they look like?
How can you tell if you have an eating disorder versus just disordered eating?
What should you do if you think you have an eating disorder?

In Part 2 of this two part series (coming out next week!), we cover:

How to create a health promoting home environment for parents, partners, and kids and why it’s simpler than we often make it
Sports Nutrition 101: Relative Energy Deficiency in sport, what is it and what is the impact on mental health, physical health and performance?

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Are You New Here?

Welcome! I’m so glad to have you. You might be wondering what this blog and podcast are all about.

We relate everything in this podcast back to motivation, but not the hustle and grind kind. Truly sustainable motivation that keeps you feeling energetic and engaged in your life for the long haul. We talk about why “I’m just not motivated” is a myth, and why the TYPE of motivation you have is so important to fully understand. If you are ready to learn about motivation and respecting your body in an effective way so that you can live a life you truly love, you are in the right place.

Check out the Foundational Episodes of the Motivation Made Easy Podcast here!

Introduction: What is this podcast all about?
Episode 1: Want to Get & Stay Motivated? A Crash Course on Motivation, Weight Loss, and Health
Episode 2: How Dieting Steals Our Motivation
Episode 3: How To Get Motivated To Improve Your Health (Motivation 101)
Episode 4: How to Transform Health Fears Into Forward Progress

Do you ever worry that you are wasting your life?

I definitely did. In fact, I wrote that in my journal many years ago when I was in the middle of the diet-binge roller coaster ride.

I woke up every day thinking about food, my body, and what I would eat that day to “be healthy”
The notebooks I had filled with calories and points could fill up a spare bedroom
Social events and vacations immediately prompted the thought “they will notice I gained weight” or “I need to lose weight by then”
Deep down I knew I wasn’t living life the way I wanted to, but I didn’t know how to pull myself out of it.

If this is you, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to feel empowered in your body and proud of your choices on a consistent basis. I promise you, it isn’t too late.

Dieting steals our motivation. It makes us ineffective. It keeps us spinning our wheels in a system that was never built to work.

If you are ready take the first step to motivating yourself with what matters to you, download my free Create Powerful Motivation guide (which is quite beautifully designed if I do say so myself), and walk through the 3 simple steps to create motivation that works for YOU in 15 minutes or less. You will get a simple formula to write ONE SENTENCE you can use to motivate yourself on a daily basis.

You can write it on your bathroom mirror, put on the background of your phone, or just read it and repeat it in your mind.

Look, I know how much it hurts to live a life worrying you are missing out, not stepping into the person you were truly meant to be, vibrant, passionate, curious, vulnerable, and brave.

You can listen to the podcast all day, but taking that first step, putting pen the paper (or typing on your phone) is required for true lasing change. It’s time to start living my friend.

It’s 100% free, so what are you waiting for? Grab your free copy of the guide today at DrHondorp.com/Motivate

“One of my clients actually reflected this to me the other day saying you have such a privilege to be connected with your body and think if this as a nice experience.” [referring to the pregnancy experience]
– Annyck Besso, MSc, RD

Main Takeaways from This Conversation

Being able to be connected with your body and respect and appreciate it is a privilege, and everyone deserves it. This doesn’t come naturally for many people, particularly women due to diet culture, and it’s hurting us in ways we likely aren’t event aware of.
Trying to conceive and pregnancy are incredibly vulnerable times. Body respect and appreciation can enhance the experience with greater appreciation and flexibility. Every woman deserves this. But many factors in our culture make this incredibly hard to achieve.
Eating disorders range in diagnosis but many eating disorders have a lot of similarities across diagnoses. Although each requires expertise from a mental health professional with weight inclusive training in this area, there are often more similarities than differences (particularly related to shame and guilt, and over-evaluation of self worth based on weight and shape). Be sure to not minimize your experience due to not technically meeting a certain set of criteria.
Eating disorders and disordered eating can be thought of on a continuum. A good question to ask is how much are thoughts about eating and my body impacting my life, and/or causing me distress. Often, the answer is a lot, even if symptoms don’t meet full criteria for bulimia, anorexia, or binge eating. This means there’s likely something important to take a look at.

Support Independent Bookstores Near You!

Did you know that that if nothing slows their momentum, Amazon will have almost 80% of the book market by the end of 2025?

Look, I love the convenience of Amazon, but I’ve got a super cool way that you can support local bookstores and my blog and podcast simply by buying books like you already do! You can choose any bookstore on the list in the US and Canada (they plan to expand to other counties in the future) OR you can just let the donation get split between all stores. As of this recording, they have raised 15 million dollars for local bookstores. On my bookshop, you will see my absolute favorite books related to health and wellness, courage and vulnerability, and even my favorite fiction and kids books!

My recent favorite related to improving the quality of our lives was Digital Minimalism. Our family actually has decided to do an optional screen free August to re-evaluate the role of screen time in our lives.

So if you believe in supporting local businesses, please consider buying your books through Bookshop from now on!

The Psychology of Wellness Bookshop Link.

Disclaimer: This blog and podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual professional advice or treatment, including medical or mental health advice. It does not constitute a provider patient relationship.

Disclosure: Using the Bookshop.org links in this post means that I would get an affiliate fee if you purchase from the online bookshop (this supports my business, and local bookstores too!).

Credit: This blog post was co-written and edited by Sarah Grace Rapoport, podcast and blog manager and Psychology of Wellness Intern, and Dr. Shawn Hondorp.