Warning: This post contains discussions of eating disorders.
For a lot of people in recovery from an eating disorder, it becomes difficult to distinguish between healthy eating and restriction and/or orthorexia. Often, disordered eating habits have seeped so deeply into our minds that it’s hard to discern what is a healthy choice and what is a remnant of the voice of our eating disorder. It is a conversation I’ve had with my therapist and doctor repeatedly. Here are my tips on how to eat healthily and intuitively whilst in recovery.
To begin, the most important thing is to recognise that health is not linear. There is no perfect diet to go on to be healthy and there is no recipe that works for everyone. With that, take the following tips and tricks as mere pointers on how you can eat and live intuitively in recovery and make sure to speak to a healthcare professional as you continue your progress!
- Supplements and Nutrition
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In recovery, an incredibly important step to regaining autonomy over your health is regaining the nutrition you may have lost throughout disordered eating patterns. Though this differs with each person, the most common deficiencies as a result of eating disorders are Vitamin D and Zinc, and so these supplements, alongside fatty acids, calcium, and Vitamin B are highly recommended. Healthcare professionals will often prescribe more specific nutritional supplements but it is always useful to ask your doctor about over-the-counter supplements that can be taken to help your body heal. For many, eating disorders can lead to hair loss or weak hair and nails. For many women, collagen supplements help with the regrowth of skin and nail cells and my personal recommendation is rice bran powder for healthy hair growth. As I lost significant amounts of hair during my eating disorder, I found that rice bran (and often rice water) which can be put in coffee or on top of food helped with replenishing my hair.
- Consistent Meal Times but without limitation
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It’s important to get your body used to eating 3 full meals every day (with large enough portion sizes AND with a good number of calories, because calories are our friends!) but it’s also crucial to learn to listen to the cues that your body gives you. The human body is so highly adept at signaling and acknowledging its own needs, and our job is to see to those needs. So, if your body is telling you that it’s hungry at 1 am, then eat something! It doesn’t matter if you already had 3 full meals and snacks. It doesn’t matter if you feel like it’s not a ‘suitable’ time to eat, because no such thing exists. As hard as it can be to drown the voice telling us to limit and restrict and follow these made-up rules about eating, it’s so important to remember that our bodies know what they want and when they want it. With it, it’s good to note that for a lot of people, recovery means that their bodies are just getting used to larger and healthier eating habits, and so it makes perfect sense to have cravings at seemingly “unsuitable times.”
- patience is a virtue
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Recovery is a long process that you can’t rush through in a day, and that is okay. It’s perfectly natural to want to get the uncomfortable process over and done with, but you have to be willing to work with your mind and body. To be able to reconnect with them, you have to learn to be patient. An eating disorder is a turbulent and incredibly difficult thing to overcome, so you shouldn’t be aiming to increase your food and calorie intake by 100% in a single day. A step-by-step plan outlining an average food intake that you build up throughout recovery is a good step to start. A nutritionist will provide you with the specific numbers of calories or food types (in terms of healthy fats, high density in fiber or carbohydrates meals, etc.) and you should remind yourself that slow progress is still progress! Be patient with your body and with your mind and you’ll find that it becomes much easier to understand them both.
- Open all doors
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Fear foods are a very common part of eating disorders. Many of us feel we must avoid certain foods at all costs. Oftentimes, fear foods are rooted in the narrative of restriction and limitation that encompasses so much of modern diet culture. In recovery, we have to be able to deconstruct these narratives and allow ourselves to indulge in satisfaction and variety. There is no such thing as “bad” food or a “cheat meal.” All food is good and all food is necessary! My first tip for bringing this process of deconstruction and distancing from diet culture is to steer clear of restricted and toxic social media. Instagram accounts and Twitter platforms that post “body inspiration” are nothing but mentally abusive and I encourage you all to unfollow and block them. Your body is not a trend nor a determination of your worth. Neither are your eating habits! “What I eat in a day” videos are not representations of perpetual eating habits and even if they are, you do not have to replicate them. Each body is different and that’s okay!