I’ll be sharing tips and advice as part of Your GPS for Parenting Success, a free 12-week teleseminar designed to give parents the tools to help their families thrive, not just survive. The series is produced Jacqueline Green, a sought after parenting educator who is working to put the top parenting experts in reach of all parents. Her mission is to help you find the right expert for your unique parenting situation and concerns.

This teleseminar gives you direct access to bestselling authors, psychologists, and experts like Michele Borba (The Big Book of Parenting Solutions), Josh Shipp (The Teens Guide to World Domination), Nancy Gruver (founder of New Moon Girl Media), and 23 others–including yours truly. I’ll be speaking on September 28th, but sign up today so you can catch all the speakers! After you register, keep an eye out for Jacqueline’s email with your details for listening in on the calls.

If you can’t make the LIVE CALLS Every Tuesday & Thursday 1:00 PM Eastern (12:00 PM Central, 10:00 AM Pacific) starting Tuesday August 31st, the interviews will be recorded and will be available after each show for a limited time so you won’t miss a thing. Make sure you sign up now to get these recordings.

Now is the perfect time to assess your family’s approach to eating healthy and promoting positive body image. What’s your game plan for the school year? Here are a few tips to get you started…

Make after-school snacks into DIY projects
Remember this guy?

Yeah, the whole “wagon wheel” idea made plain ol’ cheese and crackers seem like a super exciting wild west adventure, but I can tell you that when I watched these ads as a kid (I also have fond memories of the fruit juice popsicles how-to in this series), the real appeal was that I could make something all by Little Miss Independent self. Experimenting with nutritious food preparation is a great way to give kids agency and responsibility when it comes to what they eat. If you’re feeling especially ambitious, try planting some of your own vegetables or get involved with a community garden. This will not only help your children understand where food comes from, it will also get them more meaningfully invested in healthy eating.

*Unfortunately, basic access to fresh food is an uphill battle for many low-income communities, where fast food is plentiful but produce is scarce. Watch this video to learn more about these “food deserts” and support the initiatives aimed at eliminating them.

Advocate for health–not weight loss–at your child’s school
Between Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (both of which have some great ideas and momentum behind them), there’s been quite a lot of talk about the role schools can play in preventing childhood obesity. But rather than focusing on how we can make some kids thinner, let’s acknowledge that ALL kids will benefit from fresh, healthy meals and opportunities to exercise. We don’t need shaming BMI “report cards” to tell us that. As parents, let’s hold schools accountable for the food they serve and the programs they put in place to educate our kids about health and fitness. And for goodness sake, let’s make sure they aren’t teaching them to obsess over numbers on a chart or a scale.

Do your best to eat family dinners together
I know, I know. When school starts, schedules go haywire–especially if you have older kids who are juggling extracurricular sports and clubs, not to mention social lives. It takes wrangling, persistence, and probably some compromise to make it happen, but your efforts will pay off. Kids who sit down with their parents for dinner on a regular basis are healthier and happier. Research also shows that teen girls who eat meals with their families are less likely to develop eating disorders or resort to extreme dieting behavior. Family dinners are a time to reconnect and listen to what’s on your child’s mind that day. These meals also teach the important lesson that food is not just something to be consumed  on the run when it’s most convenient, but that taking the time to share food with people you love is a ritual that nourishes the body and the soul.

Make clothes shopping a lesson in positive body image
Brands and trends are being marketed to kids at earlier and earlier ages, which means that your children probably aren’t worrying about having all the school supplies on their list as much as they’re stressing about having all the right clothes. It’s important for girls–and boys–to learn that every style isn’t made to fit every body–and it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with them if they can’t wear the item they think everyone else will be wearing. One of the best ways to pass along this lesson is to live it ourselves. If you do your own share of body bashing, put a stop to it now so you can help your daughters and sons get through their moments of dressing room panic. Turn  “Ugh, I’m too fat for these jeans” into “These jeans don’t work for your body type–let’s look for a different cut.” Pay attention if you hear your daughter or son consistently make disparaging comments about her/his body. Ask questions about where the pressure is coming from and find support if you need it. Don’t dismiss diet talk as a fad or a phase. While not every diet leads to disordered eating, almost all eating disorders start with a diet.

I’ve been hooked on ABC Family’s “Huge” from the first episode.  The show was co-created by Winnie Holzman, who has another classic angsty TV masterpiece under her belt. Angela Chase, anyone? Jordan Catalano? The other creator is Holzman’s daughter, Savannah Dooley. I love the mother-daughter element at work here, and I love that they have successfully developed a range of characters who deal with emotional eating, but aren’t defined by it. These are teens who face the kinds of challenges all teens can relate to: insecurity, unrequited crushes, bullying, and break-ups (of the romantic and friendship varieties). And they do it all at fat camp.

One of my favorite parts of “Huge” is the ongoing show-within-a-show called “Love Handles,” a reality TV train wreck that spoofs an actual 2009 FOX dating show called “More to Love.” The writers completely nailed the ridiculous mixed messages in a show that claimed to celebrate curves, then played up every tired stereotype about fat people with gratuitous food references and close-up shots of women eating at every turn. Last night’s episode of “Love Handles” included the “bacon challenge,” in which plus-sized contestants had to compete for the love of the plus-sized bachelor by carrying heaping trays of bacon. Sadly, this is not so far off from the, er, heavy-handed editing on “More to Love.” Campers watching “Love Handles” were also subjected to a commercial for a designer gym, featuring the impossibly rock hard abs of a bikini-clad model frolicking on the beach. I can’t recall who advertised during “More to Love,” but I would be willing to bet that there were some companies in the Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers family.

With humor and smarts, “Huge” manages to point out the absurdity of reality television, the unsavory relationship between advertising and content, and how these relationships can fuel poor body image. It’s media literacy done right.

• For more on how you can use “Huge” as a teaching tool, Jess Weiner has weekly discussion guides for each episode.
• You can also pre-order Jennifer Pozner’s forthcoming book, Reality Bites Back, which offers an extensive critique of how body image is treated in reality television.

I attended my third BlogHer conference this weekend (my first as a mom with new mommy mush brain, so I’m proud to have simply made it through three days without breaking out into baby talk or serenading fellow conference goers with my rousing rendition of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”). Let me tell you, it’s hard not to be inspired by the sheer force of more than 2,000 women bloggers in one space. And power was really the undeniable theme of this conference. Here are my top three takeaways:

1. Leverage Your Online Power Into Offline Action.
Marie Wilson’s motto is “don’t get mad, get elected.” As the president and founder of The White House Project, she’s encouraging women to do just that. Speaking to a room full of bloggers on Thursday, she wasn’t just hoping that we would write about her organization’s mission, she challenged all of us to take on leadership roles in our communities and, more specifically, to run for office. There’s no denying that the gender disparity in American politics and in corporate board rooms is bleak. Sure, blogging about issues of work/life policy, women’s health, and social justice raises awareness. However, the recipe for true change is to get more women at the decision-making tables. There are all kinds of reasons why women don’t run, including deeply-rooted perfectionism and a fear of failure (that’s a separate blog post, which is coming soon), but the benefits of progressive women’s leadership overshadow all the excuses.

Jill Miller Zimon, a blogger-turned-city council member from Pepper Pike, Ohio drove this point home in her keynote address at The White House Project/BlogHer workshop. When she recognized that her blog had become like a “sponge that mopped up frustrations” and a place to “dispose of compulsions,” she decided it was time to listen to what compelled her and launch her own campaign. Bloggers, she pointed out, already have an edge when it comes to jumping into politics. We are uniquely prepared to weather some of the toughest aspects of running for office. We’re used to fielding comments. We’re all too familiar with criticism and negative B.S. And as Melissa Silverstein of Women & Hollywood noted in her “Creating Tangible Social Change” session, “if you don’t have haters, you’re doing it wrong.”

Also speaking Thursday was Lea Webb, who, at the age of twenty-six, became the youngest and the first African-American city council member in Binghamton, NY. With a grassroots campaign, she beat the incumbent and took up the cause of getting a grocery store in her town, where low-income residents had been forced to take the bus to other towns for their food, or pay for overpriced, unhealthy food at gas stations and mini-marts. As she proudly announced, a grocery store will finally be opening in Binghamton this fall. There’s even a documentary–“A Store of Our Own”–about it. You can check out the trailer here.

Worried that some of what you’ve posted online will come back to haunt you on the campaign trail? Yeah, it might. But that doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. Women can transform the way elections are run. We can run differently–with transparency and authenticity. But the only way to find out what happens when we do is to, well, run.

If you know that elected office isn’t for you, take the initiative and ask another woman to run. Follow your passion and get appointed to a commission. Use your blog to inspire people to take some action that will translate into results offline. Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish rallied her readers to get Brita to recycle its water filters. Gina McCauley of What About Our Daughters got Al Sharpton to issue a statement when comedian D.L. Hughley made disparaging remarks about the women on the Rutgers basketball team. Melissa Silverstein is organizing the Athena Film Festival this winter to highlight films about women’s leadership. How will you leverage your power?

2. Seize Your Opportunity as Publishing Power Dynamics Shift
I sat in on “The Evolving Publishing Ecosystem” session on Saturday, moderated by She Writes co-founder Kamy Wickoff. As an author, I found myself nodding in agreement at pretty much everything Carleen Brice (who runs the very awesome White Readers Meet Black Authors blog) had to say about the amount of promotion and marketing we are expected to do in support of our books, with very little financial gain. But there are also some interesting success stories emerging from the world of self-publishing.

Penny Sansevieri acknowledged that while self-published authors do face a certain stigma, some of them are actually making a lot more money than authors who are published by traditional houses. She pointed to J.A. Konrath, who banks thousands of dollars a month selling his e-books on Kindle. Big publishers still have the upper hand when it comes to getting books into the bookstores, but as readers increasingly turn to blogs for recommendations and buy their books with one click, all bets are off. Authors will always need a platform in order to sell books; they might not always need a traditional publisher. This is not to say that publishing houses are obsolete–they just need to evolve. Wickoff and Sansevieri pushed for publishers to do more consumer research and move toward specialization. In other words, if you happen to write a book about cars, your publisher would assign you a publicist who knows more than just the basics about your genre.

For authors and aspiring authors (heck, for anyone who considers herself a writer), there is tremendous opportunity in this evolution–whatever publishing path you choose.

3. See The Power in Your Swag
It was clear from the two full floors of corporate exhibits at BlogHer that companies know how powerful women are. But as Gloria Feldt asked in the closing keynote, do WE know how powerful we are? All those free samples (believe me, I grabbed my share) and that logo-emblazoned merchandise represent how much marketers want to reach us, how much they value the fact that we are big influencers. If women were to own that influence and wield it confidently, we could succeed in getting healthier, safer, and more ethical products on the shelves. Collectively, we could completely transform the marketplace. Companies are showering us with free stuff because they want our business and the business of our friends, our families, and our readers. So what do we have to say about that?

Take the swag, but do it with a sense of responsibility. Talk back. Tell these companies what you want to see, what they’re doing right, and where they can do better. Hold them accountable. To that end, I hereby offer my own special boo hiss shout out to Wrigley’s for the Extra “Dessert Delights” gum that was in my conference bag. Their tagline, “Have Your Dessert & Chew It Too!” doesn’t sit well with me (nor does their “3PM Snackdown” campaign aimed at replacing your afternoon snack with gum. If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for disordered eating, I don’t know what does). Newsflash: Gum is not dessert. On the flip side, I was happy to see an on-site “lactation lounge” sponsored by Lansinoh and I’ll be making good use of their samples and passing them along to the other breastfeeding moms I know.

Vote with your purchasing power and your blog posts. Be a change agent by using your voice. Gloria Feldt summed it up profoundly: “Power unused is power useless.”

So if you’re itching to read it right this second, zap away!

I’ve been invited to take part in The Body Image Revolution Telesummit, which brings together some pretty kick ass body image experts and activists including Wendy Shanker (author of The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life and the forthcoming Are You My Guru?), Nancy Gruver (founder of New Moon magazine and its web community for girls), Elizabeth Patch (author and illustrator of More to Love–not to be confused with the ridiculous reality show of the same name), Sarah Maria (author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life), and many others. Here’s how it works:

Register for FREE and get access to live interviews with all of the invited speakers. The telesummit takes place from July 17th-29th and you can join each session by phone (hey, wear your bathrobe if you want). I’ll be speaking on July 26th, but sign up now to catch the first call on July 17th with Jill Zimmerman Rutledge. She’ll offer some great tools to help mothers talk to their daughters about body image issues. Enjoy–and don’t forget to submit your comments and questions for speakers on the Body Image Revolution website.

If you or any of your nearest and dearest happen to be sitting in an obstetrician’s waiting room this month, flip to page 54 in the June issue of Pregnancy magazine to check out an excerpt from Does This Pregnancy Make Me Look Fat?

You can also read it online here.

“The Big Lies of the Bump Watch: How Hollywood’s ‘preggo patrol’ has twisted the reality of today’s expectant women and new moms” [Pregnancy magazine]

The tracking of pounds gained during pregnancy and weight lost after childbirth can be a stressful experience–especially for those with a history of poor body image and/or disordered eating. There are some practical rules I followed during my own pregnancy (and I’m continuing to stick to as a new mom!). I’ve shared them in this guest post for Eatingdisorders.org. I would love to get your comments over there. Do you have any of your own tips to add?

Oprah interviewed Women Food and God author Geneen Roth on her show this week and admitted that she sees last January’s “How Did I Let This Happen Again?” cover of O Magazine in a new light after reading Roth’s book. Women Food and God is an extension of what Roth has been preaching for years: disordered eating isn’t about food. Whether it’s overeating, restriction, or something in between, food abuse is how we try to cope with deeper pain. And bemoaning the fact that we keep losing and regaining the same ten, twenty, or however many pounds isn’t going to bring us any closer to unearthing all the messy stuff we need to deal with. I for one am glad Oprah is finally getting it.

Like many other advocates for healthy body image and mindful eating, I was disappointed to see the queen of all media flagellating herself on the cover of her own magazine for her weight gain. The before/after setup was especially cringe-worthy for exactly the reason Oprah was able to articulate herself in retrospect:

“What I realize when I look at that cover is that I publicly shamed myself. And in that cover, what I was saying is that the thin me deserves all the praise and the accolades. The thin me deserves to be loved, but the fat me does not…It’s your own self-loathing that does that.”

Oprah also identified an important root of her problems with weight. As a child, she was beaten by her grandmother. The beatings themselves were traumatic, but perhaps even more scarring was the fact that she was never allowed to express herself, to say that she was hurt after being whipped. Now she suffers from an acute fear that if she somehow lets others down, they will “annilhilate” her–a fear she has forced down with food.

The show was a parade of weepy confessionals. There was the mother whose seven-year-old daughter asked her to drive home so she could change into an outfit that didn’t make her thighs look fat. There were two cousins who can only be friends when they are both fat because one of them is too jealous to bear the other’s weight loss. And there were many other emotionally fragile women hunched over their web cams as they ate cake, pie dough, and cookies.

Throughout the hour, they were all told that they need to stop obsessing about weight and look at WHY they abuse food. Essentially the message of the show was refreshingly anti-diet. If there is anyone who can, and should, speak to the ineffectiveness of dieting, it’s Oprah. I’ve been waiting for this a-ha! moment for a long time. And while Oprah does make it clear that overcoming food issues takes work, I wanted her to be more explicit. Like with any other addiction, the most effective work is counseling.

It has always frustrated me that someone who created an entire empire out of self-exploration and “living your best life” has long perpetuated the idea that you can do it on your own. She has gone so far as to say that her show is her therapy, which is a pretty unsettling statement coming from someone who has been so open about her past history of physical and sexual abuse. Looking inward is an important step to getting healthy. Reaching out for help is what makes for lasting change. Granted, therapy isn’t cheap (although Miss O could certainly afford it), and with the dismal state of health care in this country it’s not accessible to many Americans. But it should be.

I wish that Oprah would champion the idea that disordered eating (or food addiction, emotional eating, whatever you choose to name it) is a public health issue that deserves comprehensive treatment. Programs to confront obesity are popping up everywhere with widespread government and public support. Sure, planting organic vegetable gardens and teaching kids how to cook healthy meals are noble projects. But if those children grow up with parents, grandparents and teachers who are locking themselves in the closet to sneak brownies, yo-yo dieting to the point where they don’t trust their own appetites, or constantly making comments about how much they hate their bodies, how can we expect that the next generation will have a chance to develop healthy relationships with food?

After hearing Biggest Loser star Jillian Michaels say that she probably will adopt because she “can’t handle” what pregnancy might do to her body, Gwynnie and Madonna’s trainer Tracy Anderson wants to give hope to women whose body image fears might have them thinking twice about getting pregnant (while she conveniently plugs her fitness program). She’s laid out her plan in this Huffington Post piece. Take heart, dear readers. Anderson understands what you’re going through because she’s a mom too! Her workout advice is predictable–it involves a lot of “discipline,” “focus,” “dedication” and “patience.” She also says it’s okay for moms to take time for themselves and that children will benefit from healthy moms. That’s all well and good, except for the fact that when she talks about her own approach to postpartum fitness, she doesn’t sound all that healthy.

Even though I was tired and could hardly catch a shower as a new mom, I found myself with a new power and belief that I could achieve anything…As soon as my OB-GYN gave me the green light to work out again, I started experimenting with my workouts whenever my son Sam was sleeping or with his Nana.

Six weeks after having Sam, I was smaller and more fit than I had been in my entire life. It took a lot of work, but I am a testament to the fact that pregnancy is not the end to your dreams of a perfect body.

Hmmm…I gave birth to my daughter seven weeks ago. I just got the okay to exercise from my doctor at my six-week check-up. For Anderson to have been her smallest and most fit at six weeks postpartum means that she must have been hitting the gym pretty hard at a point when most new moms are still physically healing and coping with serious sleep deprivation, hormone crashes and the general OMFG factor of caring for a newborn. As for that sage wisdom about napping when the baby naps? Apparently in Anderson’s world, there is no rest for the weary.

I absolutely get what she means when she says that she came to appreciate her power after giving birth. Bringing a baby into the world does make you feel like you can achieve anything. It also makes you very tired. And sore. And in desperate need of any tiny bit of shut-eye you can grab in between feedings, diaper changes, and the madness of managing baby meltdowns. Anderson sculpts and molds bodies for a living–I suppose it makes sense that she would want to immediately channel her new mommy power into her quest for the “perfect” body. That doesn’t mean the rest of us should follow her lead.

Obsessing about baby weight is the opposite of empowering. It prevents women from giving ourselves a break at a time when we need it most, and it keeps us disconnected from the amazing feats our bodies have just accomplished. Anderson’s timeline for getting her “best body ever” is unrealistic at best and it could be downright dangerous for some new moms.

Exercise is important, but sometimes the best thing we can do to take care of ourselves is to take it slow. You wouldn’t run a marathon and then wake up the next day and try to run another one. Hopefully you would pat yourself on the back and give yourself permission to relax for a while. So why should mothers put pressure on ourselves to work out six days a week (per Anderson’s recommendation) when we’ve just been through the biggest workout of our lives?

Related: The Healthy Beauty Pledge for Mothers and Mothers-to-be