Thanksgiving! The Eating Disorder Video by Kati Morton - Healthy Mind, Healthy Body!

Hey everyone!

Thanks for checking back.

This week's video is about the holidays, thanksgiving

all those stupid things that we hate that revolve around food.

So hang on, I'm going to talk to you about it.

So, here in the States,

cause I know many of you are all over the world watching this,

but here in the states,

it's november.

It's creeping up on the end of november

Thanksgiving is coming! AHH!

Everybody is freaking out.

And I've been hearing from many of you

I'm already worried.

Isn't it too early to be worried already?

About thanksgiving? But I've been thinking about it!

AHH!

Right?

We're all freaking out.

And I know that Canada, all my Canadians

whut?

You already had Thanksgiving.

and I'm sorry that I missed that.

But I do have my coping with the holidays video.

And I hope you checked that out.

And for many of you, you can go back and check that out now.

But this is a time of the year,

right? We're into fall, and then to december, and then we're into Christmas,

it's Hanukkah, it's all sorts of holidays, all revolving around food.

Ugh!

Not only is it food, but it's family.

Urgh!

Even more stressful, right?

So, no, it's not too early to start freaking out.

I understand.

This is probably the two worst combinations that we can have

right?

Also, everybody's kind of on edge in general.

Holidays make people a little nervous.

Family can make everybody a little nervous.

Not to mention Christmas and the shopping and the gifts and, you know.

So it's stressful.

[sighs]

I even get stressed out just talking about it right now.

Right?

So. Something that I want to talk to you a little about as far as Thanksgiving,

and for those of you who don't have Thanksgiving or you've already had your Thanksgiving,

just keep this in mind for this time of year.

Because this is something that I need to work on.

Something we should all constantly be thinking about and doing.

This is reflecting.

Okay?

You know how I tell you guys, you know,

"Oh that is so exciting!"

"Good job!"

"I am so proud of you!"

"Yes!"

You know when I'm getting comments and getting excited about all the progress you're making?

And you think, "Kati, that was just... that was just little."

"I barely did anything. Eurgh."

Your ED tries to take it back from you, like,

"That wasn't that good"

"Kati's lying."

I'm not lying, your ED's lying.

And we need to look back and see how far we've come.

Often we don't look back.

Because we're too focused.

It's so hard and we're working all the time, and "I messed up this day"

"But I did okay this day"

and, you know, we're in it.

Sometimes, even those of us who don't have an eating disorder

we just need to [sigh]

just need to take a breath.

I need to sit back. I need to look, where was I a year ago?

You know where I was a year ago?

I was just deciding to start doing this.

Can you believe it's already been a year?

HOLY MOLEY!

I remember, I was having Christmas, and I was in California, and I was so excited.

I was like, "Mom, you're never going to believe it"

"I have eleven views."

Given, it was probably me, my fianceé, my mom and his parents watching. Right? Those were my eleven views.

But I've never been so excited.

Now we're like at 83,000 or something. Right?

That's a huge change!

Holy moley!

And all of you have things like that going on in your life.

And I want you to look back. Where was I a year ago?

How far have I come?

What's changed?

What stressed me out?

What did I struggle with?

What did I do?

Think about it.

Take some time.

Okay?

And that's really what I want to talk to you about.

Today is just taking time to reflect.

You know those recovery journals I told you to make?

Might be a good thing to grab it, open it up, you know.

It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving, you can just say "giving thanks."

We should all be giving thanks every day, right?

I have a roof over my head.

I have clothes on my back.

I have people in my life that I can call, I can count on.

There's a lot of things going for us.

Even the small things.

So let's say, maybe I have friends who I've isolated, maybe I have friends who aren't very close,

but we still have a roof over our head.

We still have some way to get help, whether it's contacting the treatment team or anything like that,

you have me.

You have my community.

You have each other, right?

Let's give it a thumbs up. I think it's down here somewhere.

Thumbs up! Right?

We're here to support one another.

[thumbs up] That's a good thing.

Sometimes we just need that little boost.

So take some time out.

Grab your journal.

What am I thankful for?

Start small.

I'm thankful that I had a shower today.

You know? I live in LA and there's a lot of homeless people.

And that's kind of sad, if you can't shower.

You know how nice it is to put on a new pair of socks, like a clean fluffy new pair of socks?

Ooo! I love that feeling.

Simple things. Start writing little things down.

You know?

I can watch TV! Not everybody has electricity or television. Right?

I have you guys. I get to communicate with you all day!

What a joy, right?

I'm thankful for you!

And so, take the time to let people know.

I think it can make us feel really good to give to other people as well.

So other people in your life know, "hey I'm thankful for you"

"Thanks for being there for me and I know things have been a little rough, but you've really stuck it out, and I love you."

You know, let people know.

We used to have this thing we did in my family, in our Thanksgiving, growing up, in the morning of thanksgiving

before we went to my grandma's, we'd go around the table and talk about our number one thing we're thankful for this year.

What's happened?

What are we thankful for?

Right?

I used to think about it days in advance, cause I'm like, "I only get one thing!"

You know? We're so fortunate.

So take time. Grab that journal.

Tell people around you that you love them, that you're thankful for them,

because that's really what this holiday season is about.

We're going to try and stay focussed on that.

In Healthy mind, Healthy Body, we're focussing on what we're thankful for.

We're not focussing on the food, and all that shenanigans,

we'll deal with that later, in another video,

but right now, today,

grab that journal!

Write it down!

You know, "thankful".

What am I thankful for?

Start with something small.

And you can say, I'm thankful for Kati, Kati's thankful for me,

I'm thankful that I have people in this community to talk to,

There's quite a few right there.

So let's get started.