Unhealthy Relationships

Toxic Body Image: 7 Non-Toxic Ways To Stop Hating Your Body and Start Loving Yourself Again

| Gayle Katz

Toxic Body Image: 7 Non-Toxic Ways To Stop Hating Your Body and Start Loving Yourself Again

non-toxic-ways-to-better-body-image

Does this skirt make me look fat?

I’m a pizza face.

Why did I do that? I’m so stupid.

Yeah. I’ve said those things about myself too. And it’s not pretty. Why do we feel compelled to say such nasty things about ourselves? It only reinforces our toxic body image. If someone else were saying those things to himself or herself, what would we say? That’s right. We’d say, “Cut it out!”

So why do we still insist on saying these toxic things to ourselves? I’m not a psychologist, but I feel like this self-deprecation is a habit. A habit we’ve learned based on how the toxic people in our lives treat us. And I call it a habit because, even long after we kick the toxic people to the curb, we’re still saying hurtful and demeaning things to ourselves that only continue to reinforce our toxic body image.

How do we fix this self-deprecation habit that is slowly – and not so silently – stealing our energy, confidence, and self-esteem?

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Listening: What We Learned From Our Date With The Chick-fil-A Cow

| Gayle Katz

Listening: What We Learned From Our Date With The Chick-fil-A Cow

Chick-fil-A Cow Listening

Ever since I got married my husband and I started a tradition of going food shopping on weeknights instead of leaving it for the weekend.

For starters, we don’t like going food shopping in the first place and, more importantly, it’s less crowded on weeknights than on the weekend.

On these nights it’s often difficult to cook dinner at home because time is of the essence. With that in mind, we started going out for dinner prior to our food shopping adventures.

Some nights we go out for Chinese food, other nights it’s Mediterranean, and sometimes we go to Chick-fil-A.

Last Monday night we happened to stop there and – to our surprise – we saw the Chick-fil-A cow. Even though I’m fortysomething, I still get excited when funny things like this happen.

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Name Calling: How Toxic People Use It As An Emotional Weapon (And What You Can Do About It!)

| Gayle Katz

Name Calling: How Toxic People Use It As An Emotional Weapon (And What You Can Do About It!)

Name Calling: How Toxic People Use It As An Emotional Weapon (And What You Can Do About It!)

Name calling is a disease that infects us all. All you have to do is turn on the television or get online to see it in action.

Let’s face it. There are no lack of words and phrases to call out the fact we’re not perfect.

Over the past few months, I can recall at least 10 to 20 different insults, just off the top of my head, that talk about women in a negative light, such as crazy b*tch, butter face, fattie, and others.

While women bear the biggest brunt of the insult game, men have been called their fair share too, such as sissy, pervert, douchebag, and more.

I know there are a lot of other raunchier names I could have listed, but I’d like to keep it clean, or as clean as I can keep it having already mentioned a few insults that make me want to vomit. Okay, let’s keep this article moving…

For decades it bothered me when people called me names. I didn’t understand WHY people felt the need to fling insults. And, for a time, I was using them too, mostly out of being called them myself as well as sheer frustration and anger. It wasn’t until recently that I learned all this name calling had nothing really to do with me after all.

Here are the 4 reasons I discovered why people call other people nasty names:

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6 Toxic Behaviors I Stopped By Doing The Opposite – Confessions of a Seinfeld Junkie

| Gayle Katz

toxic-behaviors-stopped-seinfeld

6 Toxic Behaviors I Stopped By Doing The Opposite – Confessions of a Seinfeld Junkie

Seinfeld has got to be the best comedy ever aired on television… at least in my lifetime.

If you haven’t watched the show, stop reading this post immediately and go watch a few episodes. You should be able to find reruns on cable or, if you’re more of an on-demand kind of person, Hulu may be your best bet. Don’t worry. I’ll wait. (Caution: Spoilers Below)

On the other hand, if you’ve watched a couple episodes or you’re already a Seinfeld junkie like me, let’s continue.

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3 Festering Reasons You’re Still Dating A Jerk

| Gayle Katz

3 Festering Reasons You’re Still Dating A Jerk

sad-girl-toxic-people

Psst. It might be because of your toxic parents.

I was reading this article on mindbodygreen about why we date the wrong people and it got me thinking about my dating history.  I’m married now, but I won’t lie – it was a bitch to get here.

[If you’re a little unclear on what I mean when I say the word jerk.  Here’s how dictionary.com defines jerk.  (Pay attention to definition #4.)  Also, here’s what urbandictionary.com has to say about the word jerk.]

Okay.  Okay.  Let’s get on with it already.

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3 Surprising Back-to-School Essentials You Can’t Buy in a Store

| Gayle Katz

3 Surprising Back-to-School Essentials You Can’t Buy in a Store

3-back-to-school-essentials-you-cant-buy-instore

If You Grew Up With Toxic Parents, You’re Probably Missing These Basics

You’ve picked up the new laptop, printer, three-ring binder, and anything else you think you needed in order to start a new year.  So why do you still feel bad?

Maybe it’s just butterflies or nerves.  Whatever it is, you just can’t shake it.  It’s an uncomfortable feeling.

It might be that you’re actually missing the MOST important back-to-school supplies.  Contrary to what TV tells us, these school supplies can’t be found in-stores or bought online.

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Writing My First Book

| Gayle Katz

Writing My First Book

3 Reasons I Wrote A Self-Help Book

Are you wondering why at the age of forty-something I decided to publish my first book?

Well, let me explain.  I was bullied since as far back as I can remember.

Dealing with these toxic people and their venomous comments on a daily basis bred my propensity for low self-esteem and bad body image.  And, it cost me years – decades – of unhappiness.  Life was difficult enough without their taunts.  It was a struggle just to get through the day.

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