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Full of Ourselves

FULL OF OURSELVES
Over the last few years, our children are battling too often and too early with disordered eating and hating their bodies. Anorexia, bulimia, and obesity are all rapidly on the increase. With the dieting industry grabbing $50 Billion dollars annually out of our pockets, teaching people to hate their bodies has become BIG business!

This serious scenario makes evident the need for large-scale health education and eating disorders prevention. Full of Ourselves is an upbeat prevention program created by some of the best in the field of prevention of eating disorders and body disturbances including obesity prevention. It is an educational program aimed to sustain girls in their mental, physical and social health.

As a PRIMARY prevention program, FOO's goal is to decrease the vulnerability to develop body preoccupation, eating disorders and obesity. Additionally, FOO implements many of the recent recommendations from the Institute of Medicine on how to stem the growing obesity problem. The program targets a mixture of both a healthy and unhealthy population of girls. However, no one needs to be at risk for an eating disorder to participate. The goal is to target all girls so that the preoccupation with negative body image is something that they do not battle with as they go through high school and college. Currently, 1 out of 3 girls in college has some form of an eating disorder and the roots of this horrendous illness start in middle school.

FOO is the brainchild of Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair from Harvard Medical School and Lisa Sjostrom from Mclean Hospital. The program has been piloted with more than 1000 GIRLS in five states and been proven feasible and effective. Steiner-Adair (2002) study on FOO showed significant differences between participants and controls on measures of knowledge and weight-related body esteem. These effects were shown to have maintained at the 6 month follow-up!! FOO is a nationally acclaimed and recognized prevention program. Healthy Within is the first to take this amazing program off the ground here in Southern California!!!

FOO has been successfully implemented by schools, after-school programs, town libraries, summer camps, churches and synagogues. All that is needed is a supportive community and one or two women to facilitate weekly program sessions. Our Healthy Within staff are willing to get the first two to three sets of the module started in your community and we will provide the staff and the resources to run it!!

This is the first prevention program of its kind to effectively sustain positive changes in girls' body image, body satisfaction, and body-esteem. These are all important risk factors in the development of eating disorders. The program also results in sustained positive changes in girls' knowledge about health, nutrition, weightism, and puberty. The three main concepts that are incorporated in all lessons are power, health and leadership. Girls learn how to tune into their bodies as sources of strength and practice the radical act of body acceptance. They gain tools to build and sustain the well-being of body, mind, and spirit. Additionally, throughout the program girls have the chance to experience themselves as leaders and agents of change. Imagine being able to create this within 8 weeks of a program!

For more information click on 'Contact' in the navigation menu. Send a message to Danielle Beck-Ellsworth.