By Gabrielle Morreale M.A. LPC. C-DBT.
After a long summer filled with ups and downs, we made it to fall my friends!
Fall for me represents a season of change as I’m sure it does for many. As the leaves change maybe this is where we try to make some small changes as we navigate recovery.
As an eating disorder therapist, one of the biggest aspects of recovery I often emphasize is reconstructing the narrative we have around food. You deserve to make peace with food. You deserve to have fun with food. You deserve to enjoy food. For those struggling with an eating disorder, the idea of enjoying food may feel foreign and even disconnected. If this resonates with you, know that I’m sending you so much compassion. There is hope and recovery is possible - healing can happen, even if the idea of enjoying food feels hard right now.
Tip #1: It’s ok to start small
My first tip for allowing yourself to enjoy food again would be to start small. If it was as simple as just liking food again, goodness wouldn’t that be amazing, but I know it is not. Start by identifying foods that feel safe and that you genuinely enjoy not that you feel like you should enjoy but that you look forward to eating. Once you identified these foods, let’s build on that.
Let’s say you hypothetically allow yourself to enjoy peanut butter. Awesome. Peanut butter is delicious! Now, what can we add to the peanut butter? Now, what can we add to the peanut butter? A banana? A sandwich? A smoothie? These are just some ideas and always consult with your registered dietitian or your team if you have the privilege to have one. Slowly adding variety to foods you already feel comfortable with can make your journey with food more flexible and enjoyable.
Tip #2: Stop Labeling Food as Good or Bad
As an eating disorder therapist, I often discuss with clients the importance of removing the morality from food. Unless your donut is robbing a bank, it is not bad! How can an inanimate object like food be moral? Let’s take the morality out of food. Much easier said than done. Trust me I know! We live in a culture that refers to food in a moral way. However, in recovery sometimes we have to shut out the noise of society or others and do what is in the best interest of ourselves and our well-being. Shaming yourself for eating food you consider “bad” can’t feel good? Probably not right! Labeling food as good and bad only creates cycles of judgment and shame. This shame cycle only fules our disorders.
Let’s work to be nonjudgmental and curious with food. Some questions that I know helped me as I navigated my relationship with food were:
Do I like this?
Do I want something hot or something cold?
Have I eaten enough today?
Was that meal satisfying?
Is this something that makes my body feel good?
Is my team or registered dietitian recommending I try this?
These are just some questions to ask yourself as you try to work to break away from using judgmental language around food. The more we can speak about and treat food neutrally in recovery the more we can work towards healing and peace.
Tip #3: Let Go of the Compensation Game
You do not and have never needed to earn food. The concept of earning food is disordered and only will keep you stuck. This idea is deeply engrained in diet culture but we don’t have to accept it. Food is something we need to survive and thrive. Again food can be joyful not something that needs to be worked for. By just waking up and being alive we need and are worth and deserving of food.
Working to undo this mindset can be transformative in recovery. One way to start letting go of the concept of earning food is to let yourself have food or foods that you previously felt needed to compensate for, and instead of compensating doing something you love with someone you love. It may take time to work up to this, and that’s okay. Healing is a process, and as an eating disorder therapist, these are tips I share with my clients to help them navigate recovery.
As we head into this beautiful fall season and this season of change, I hope you find these tips helpful. Navigating recovery can bring about many changes just know you don’t have to face them alone. Wherever you are in recovery, please know you can heal. Let’s start with some little changes and see what happens next.
Additional Resources to help aid your recovery:
Other Mental Health Services Offered in PA, NJ, DE, SC, MD, CT, and FL
We offer a wide variety of services related to eating disorder recovery including trauma therapy! We offer Weekly Support Groups, Nutrition Services, and Family and Parent Therapy as well as Coaching, all tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual. We offer our services for Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge Eating, and Orthorexia as well as Maternal Mental Health, and eating disorder therapy for athletes online in New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Maryland, Florida, and Connecticut! We are here to offer our support and understanding in a safe and non-judgmental environment.
We have immediate openings right now for eating disorder therapy in:
Delaware, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland South Carolina, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
And recovery coaching worldwide.
Recovered and Restored is an eating disorder therapy center founded by Gabrielle Morreale, LPC. We specialize in helping teens and young women heal from eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, orthorexia, and binge eating disorder and treat disordered eating, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. We provide eating disorder therapy in the towns of Horsham, Upper Gwynedd, Lower Gwynedd, North Wales, Lansdale, Hatfield, Blue Bell, Doylestown, and nearby towns with eating disorder therapy. Also providing virtual eating disorder therapy in New Jersey, Delaware, and Florida. Some towns served virtually but are not limited to Pittsburg, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Center City, Cherry Hill, Haddonfield, Mount Laurel, Cape May, Avalon, Brick, Dover, New Castle, Bethany Beach, Marydel, and Oceanview.
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