SeaWaves

09/08/2026

September SEA WAVES Book Club Feature: Intuitive Eating, Fourth Edition by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

Recovery can involve learning to relate to food, movement, and the body in ways that are less driven by fear, shame, or rigid rules.

Through ten principles, Intuitive Eating explores making peace with food, challenging diet culture, respecting the body, recognizing internal needs, and approaching nutrition and movement with greater flexibility and compassion.

While this book is not specific to military life, the conversation is especially relevant when we consider military environments.

During National Recovery Month, SEA WAVES is making space for a different conversation.

Recovery can include rebuilding trust with the body.

It can mean challenging rigid rules, reducing shame, learning flexibility, recognizing physical and emotional needs, and allowing informed support to become part of the process.

There is no single path to recovery, and no book can provide an individualized roadmap.

Intuitive Eating can offer language, reflection, and a starting point for conversation, but it does not replace care from an eating-disorder-informed treatment team that understands each person's individual needs.

🌊 Read with us this September.

💬 Of the ten principles of Intuitive Eating, which one would you like to explore more deeply?

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light.

09/08/2026

🌊 Tomorrow is the day!

Connection creates community. Community creates change.

Tomorrow, SEA WAVES Founder & CEO Leah Stiles joins the Veteran Social Summit 2026 as a featured speaker for this two-day virtual gathering of veterans, leaders, entrepreneurs, and advocates.

During her keynote, “So You Want to Start a Nonprofit: Purpose, Pain, and the Responsibility to Get It Right,” Leah will share lessons from building the nation’s first and only nonprofit dedicated exclusively to eating disorders in the military community—and why meaningful impact requires collaboration rather than competition.

At SEA WAVES, we know we cannot create lasting change alone.

Every partnership strengthens our mission.
Every conversation expands our reach.
Every connection creates another opportunity to serve those who served.

When organizations share knowledge, connect resources, and lift one another up, we create stronger communities—and stronger pathways to support.

💙 When we connect our lights, we illuminate a stronger path forward together.

📅 September 9–10, 2026
💻 Virtual Event
🔗 Register: https://2026.veteransocialsummit.com/checkout/select-tickets/

🌊 Need a Light; Be a Light.

09/07/2026

🌊 Help us bring Beneath the Surface to life.

SEA WAVES is currently seeking sponsors and auction contributions for our 1st Annual Military Eating Disorder Awareness Gala, Beneath the Surface, happening November 7 at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

This evening is more than a gathering. It is an opportunity to bring greater visibility to eating disorders within our military and veteran communities, elevate lived experience, strengthen connection, and help move conversations that have too often remained hidden into the light.

We welcome businesses, organizations, community partners, and individuals who believe in this mission to stand alongside SEA WAVES.

💙 Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Your partnership helps make this mission-centered evening possible while demonstrating your commitment to service members, veterans, and military families.

🎁 We are also accepting items for our gala auction. Contributions may include experiences, gift certificates, services, self-care items, products, packages, or other meaningful donations that can help make the evening memorable for our guests.

Every sponsorship. Every contribution. Every partnership helps create another wave of awareness, education, connection, and hope.

📅 Saturday, November 7, 2026
📍 The Florida Aquarium | Tampa, Florida
⏰ 6:00–9:00 PM

Interested in sponsoring or contributing an auction item?
Connect with SEA WAVES to be part of Beneath the Surface.
or visit this link: https://givebutter.com/c/BeneathTheSurface

Together, we can bring military eating disorders out from beneath the surface and into the light.

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light. 🌊

09/04/2026

🌊 A hidden crisis deserves a visible response.

Eating disorders within our military community can exist beneath the surface behind discipline, fitness, achievement, leadership, and the expectation to remain ready.

The numbers remind us why this conversation matters: 1 in 3 military women and 1 in 5 military men experience disordered eating. Yet too many individuals may struggle without recognition, informed resources, or a clear path toward support.

That is why SEA WAVES exists and why we are gathering for Beneath the Surface, our 1st Annual Military Eating Disorder Awareness Gala.

On November 7, we will bring together service members, veterans, military families, healthcare professionals, leaders, advocates, partners, and supporters at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa to shine a light on an issue that has remained hidden for far too long.

This evening is about more than awareness. It is about strengthening the connections that help people recognize eating disorders, navigate treatment, access resources, and know they do not have to face recovery alone.

There are many ways to become part of this mission:

🎟️ Attend the Gala
💙 Become a Sponsor
🎁 Contribute an Auction Item
🌊 Support SEA WAVES and help keep our programs free for the military community

Every ticket creates connection. Every partnership expands our reach.

Every contribution helps us continue supporting, educating, advocating, and connecting across the military-connected community.

📅 Saturday, November 7, 2026
🕕 6:00–9:00 PM
📍 The Florida Aquarium | Tampa, Florida

A hidden crisis. A deadly reality. A community ready to bring it into the light.

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light.

Join us for an unforgettable evening at The Florida Aquarium as we illuminate the hidden crisis of eating disorders in our military community—and raise $75,000 to fund recovery, hope, and healing.

09/03/2026

Sometimes a light doesn't have to be big to make a difference.

It can be a conversation.

A check-in.

A reminder.

A small act of kindness that tells another person:

I see you.
You matter.
You don't have to carry everything alone.

That spirit is at the heart of SEA WAVES' Need a Light; Be a Light movement—and now it can be carried with you through the Need a Light; Be a Light Bracelet.

Designed with amethyst, charoite, turquoise, and gold accents, each element carries a message of calm, transformation, protection, balance, warmth, positivity, and connection.

But the most important meaning comes from the person wearing it.

Let it remind you to check on your people.

Let it remind you that asking for support is allowed.

Let it remind you that sometimes we need someone else's light—and sometimes we have enough light to share.

When you light up for others, you light up the world.

Shine bright. You matter. 💜🌊

Scan the QR code in the graphic or visit the link shown to learn more.

09/03/2026

Sometimes strength is what everyone sees.

The achievements.
The discipline.
The ability to keep going.
The person everyone believes has it together.

But sometimes, beneath that strength, there is a struggle no one knows about.

Dr. Theresa Larson, DPT, CSCS, USMC Veteran, shares this powerful truth in Battle Scars & Body Wars:

“On the outside, I was functioning, achieving, and being praised for my toughness… on the inside, I was struggling.”

Her words are an important reminder that functioning is not the same as being well.

Military culture teaches us to endure, adapt, lead, and continue the mission. Those qualities can be incredible strengths—but they can also make it easier for pain to remain hidden.

Someone can be successful and struggling.

Someone can be dependable and need support.

Someone can appear strong while fighting an invisible battle.

This is why we share Letters from the Lighthouse.

Every person who courageously shares their experience creates a little more light for the person who is still trying to understand their own.

May we become better at looking beyond performance and asking the deeper question:

How are you really doing?

📖 Read Theresa’s story and other powerful lived experiences in Battle Scars & Body Wars by Leah Stiles.

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light. 🌊

09/02/2026

Meet Our Board Members! 🌊

Behind every mission is a team of people committed to making meaningful change.

Today, we're proud to introduce Andrew Newby, SEA WAVES Board Member-at-Large.

Andrew brings decades of experience in public policy, strategic communications, nonprofit leadership, and veteran advocacy. As a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Emmy Award-winning storyteller, his passion for collaboration and systems-level change strengthens SEA WAVES as we continue expanding awareness, education, and advocacy for military communities.

Andrew, thank you for helping us create lasting impact.

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light.

09/01/2026

🌊 What is impacting military readiness and the well-being of our military communities beneath the surface?

Eating disorders do not affect only those currently serving. They can affect active-duty service members, members of the Guard and Reserve, veterans, spouses, caregivers, children, and families across the military-connected community.

And they are not always easy to recognize.

They can remain hidden behind discipline and achievement. Behind strength and self-reliance. Behind major transitions and caregiving responsibilities. Behind the expectation to adapt, stay strong, and keep going. Behind a life that appears, from the outside, to be under control.

A service member can continue meeting every standard.

A veteran can carry struggles long after leaving service.

A spouse or caregiver can support everyone around them while quietly needing support of their own.

A military child can be struggling without yet having the words—or the opportunity—to explain what they are experiencing.

This is what can exist beneath the surface.

Too often, signs of an eating disorder are mistaken for discipline, stress, commitment, physical fitness, a phase, or simply part of military life. When those signs go unrecognized, opportunities for earlier understanding and support can be missed.

The effects reach beyond one individual. They can touch health, relationships, families, careers, unit readiness, and the strength of entire communities.

That is why we gather.

Beneath the Surface is more than the theme of our inaugural gala. It is an invitation to look more closely at an issue affecting military readiness and military-connected lives—and to bring overlooked experiences into the light.

On Saturday, November 7, 2026, the SEA WAVES Military Eating Disorder Awareness Gala: Beneath the Surface will bring together service members, veterans, military children and families, leaders, healthcare professionals, advocates, partners, and supporters at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa.

Together, we will raise awareness, strengthen connections, and help create a military community in which no one’s struggle has to remain hidden.

📅 Saturday, November 7, 2026
🕕 6:00 PM–9:00 PM
📍 The Florida Aquarium | Tampa, Florida

🎟️ Learn more about attending, supporting, or getting involved:
https://givebutter.com/c/BeneathTheSurface

Every conversation matters.
Every connection matters.
Every person deserves to be seen.

💙 Need a Light; Be a Light. 🌊

09/01/2026

💜💙 September is National Su***de Prevention Month and eating disorders must be part of this conversation.

At SEA WAVES, we believe eating disorder prevention is su***de prevention.
Su***de is the number one cause of death for someone with an eating disorder. That reality makes awareness, early recognition, informed treatment, and connection especially important within military and veteran communities.

The impact of eating disorders across our military-connected community is significant. SEA WAVES’ educational data highlights that 1 in 3 military women and 1 in 5 military men experience disordered eating, while military dependents are approximately three times more likely to develop an eating disorder than their civilian peers.

Yet these struggles can remain hidden.

Eating disorders can exist beneath discipline, fitness, achievement, strength, self-reliance, and readiness.
That is why su***de prevention within military-connected communities must make room for conversations about eating disorders, too.

We need support. Education. Awareness. Wellness. Validation.

We need to recognize what may be happening beneath the surface, listen without judgment, take concerns seriously, and connect people with informed care before they reach a crisis.

This September, SEA WAVES will continue bringing these interconnected conversations into the light—because no one should have to reach their breaking point before their struggle is recognized.

💙 If you need support, text WAVES to 741741 to connect with Crisis Text Line.
Every conversation matters. Every connection matters. Every person deserves to be seen.

🌊 Need a Light; Be a Light.

***dePreventionMonth ***dePrevention

09/01/2026

🌊 September is National Recovery Month.
Recovery deserves more than recognition. It deserves visibility, understanding, informed support, and hope.

Whether you are recovering from substance use, gambling-related harm, an eating disorder, or more than one struggle at the same time, your recovery matters and your story is not over.

Recovery is real but it is not one-size-fits-all.

There is no perfect timeline and no single way healing has to look. Someone can still be struggling while appearing strong, capable, disciplined, or high-performing on the outside.

Throughout September, SEA WAVES will share education, recovery resources, lived-experience perspectives, military-informed conversations, and visible hope for the struggles that too often remain beneath the surface.

💙 You are not alone. There is a light. We heal through connection and together, we can help bring hidden struggles into the light.

Recovery is real. Hope is real.

🌊 Need a Light; Be a Light.