What recovering from an eating disorder looks like? Well… It’s not always the pretty picture that you hoped for. Like… I wish I could tell you right now, right here, that it was all sunshine and rainbows, puppies and ice-cream-whenever-you-feel-like-it, but that would be a terrible misrepresentation. Recovering from an eating disorder can get really messy. And it can switch from sunshine and rainbows to messy and stormy within minutes – so being prepared for this is essential. These five recovery habits will have your back when things get wild.
Your eating disorder is not part of your personality
Make it a recovery habit to not label yourself as anorexic or bulimic, cause that´s not how you were born. How you can mention that you´re having an eating disorder instead
- struggling with an eating disorder
- having an eating disorder
- and my favourite: recovering from an eating disorder
Sounds manageable, right?
You´re RECOVERING from an eating disorder
So, since you´re not an anorexic or bulimic person anymore, you are taking active steps towards recovery. But there´s a slight difference between “trying to recovery” and “recovering”. Saying, you´re trying to recover from an eating disorder implizites, that you´re having serious doubts about how successful you´re going to be with it.
You´re already recovering from your eating disorder. FACTS!
Watch the social media contents you´re consuming
You´re not seriously expecting that watching diet full day of eatings, seeing all these perfectly shaped and toned fitness influencer and calorie charts on your explore page will make your recovery easier?
You can tell instagram and co. what kind of content you want to see. Use the “not interested” function, follow people with a diverse range of body shapes, intuitive eating coaches, empowering recovery accounts, period recovery coaches, …
- Liveasyouwellness : intuitive eating and health at every size
- Hannah: body image mastery
- Jennifer Rollin : eating disorder recovery therapist
- Anna Sweeney: Certified eating disorder RD and Supervisor
- Emily: Intuitive Eating RD
- flowwithchlo: Amenorrhea Recovery
most difficult but also important recovery habit
That´s a life long task. Yes, life-long. Skipping a meal is not a choice. When the eating disorder is too loud – or when you´re already more advanced in your recovery and you´re not hungry, have at least something. Something small. Something you might feel safe with. But don´t let the eating disorder voice win. Make it a recovery habit to never skip a meal.
I know it´s tough. But it´s really important to stick with it.
make becoming an intuitive eating your goal
the goal is not only to recover from an eating disorder. The goal is to live a life besides worries about food, your body or health. Becoming an intuitive eater includes all of this. When recovering from an eating disorder is your goal, you probably don´t even know what you´re working towards. What does “recovered” even mean?
All of these recovery habits are small. They are not life-changing. But after all I promise you, that every single step, every small habit will compound into great results. And remember: the only way out, is through!
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