Knowledge drop day 7 for National Eating Disorder Awareness week! As someone who struggled with anorexia for years, and who is currently happily in recovery (shout out to my therapist), the discussion around eating disorders and our compassion for those fighting them is something that is near and dear to my heart.
First, I’d like to thank all the people that read these lengthy posts instead of scrolling past to see a video from the DoDo about rescued pit bulls. My goal for this week of soliloquies was to bring awareness to the rampant misinformation that is present in our society about eating disorders, with the hope that it motivates at least one person to improve their relationship with food and body. I’ve received some feedback from beautiful people asking about the resources I allude to, as well as my own advice as someone on the path of recovery. I’ll take a shot at it below:
Cass’ Recipe for Recovery:
– Educate yourself on what’s real. I’m a learner, I need to understand the why of things in order to be convinced. Unlearning bullshit and replacing it with peer reviewed, meta analyzed, science was critical in my recovery. If you’re like me, I got a helluva resource list below. But again, Health At Every Size informed professionals are the bees knees and I sing their praise every day, so if you can find a therapist it is worth it.
– Purge your social media. Get rid of any account that causes you to self-objectify or compare your body/life to others. A massive take away lesson from “More Than A Body” is how absolutely terrible Instagram is for your brain and mental health. If you were able to restrict your food despite your body screaming for it, you can restrict your time spent on social media. I use my iphone app control settings to restrict me to 60 mins a day max, and if I hit that max a few days in a row then I take a social media detox and avoid it for days at a time. Life changing.
– Get rid of your calorie and activity trackers. Your body is not a Honda. You are more complex than an algorithm in My Fitness Pal, and those calculators are incredibly addictive and dangerous. Logging each bite is a slippery slope to fearing food.
– Wear clothes that are comfortable and reduce the amount of adjustments and reminders of how your body looks. Yes, rigid jeans look hella dope. However, if you need to suck in, or feel that stiff waist band all day long while you sit at your office desk, are you present? Are you enjoying your life? Or are you waiting to take these damn pants off. Think of the dudes in your life, who get to wear comfortable efficient clothes with pockets every day. He isn’t thinking about how his “Wedgie Levi’s” are one with his internal organs. He’s thinking about burritos. You can too.
– If you were weight suppressed outside of your individual body’s set point range, you can anticipate gaining weight and retaining water for a while in recovery. If your body gains weight when you are nourishing it thru intuitive eating, THEN YOU NEEDED TO GAIN SOME FUCKING WEIGHT. Each body has a genetic set point within 5-20 lbs that you will fluctuate throughout your life. It is based on 108 variables, many of which are outside of your control (think socio-economic status, genetics, culture, food availability etc.) In recovery, water retention is very common, and that inflammation is your body healing itself. Give yourself grace and just fucking recover already. The fear of gaining weight in recovery was/is my biggest hurdle, and I am sending you all the support in facing it in your own.
– Learn the signs of hunger. It is very common to have messed up hunger cues after periods of restriction or disordered eating. Hunger is not always felt in the belly. Think sweaty hands, headaches, fatigue, moodiness. I get all those before my belly rumbles, and had no idea how to identify hunger in the beginning.
– Surround yourself with supportive loving people, and focus on those relationships. My closest people don’t care what size my pants are, and I remind myself of that when I beat myself up about some body issue I have dreamed up that day.
I’m here to give the people what they want. A massive reading list lol. I don’t care if you think I’m a book worm. I’m happy 🙂
Resource List:
Peer Reviewed Science
1. Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift
2. The Physical Effect of Weight Gain After Starvation.
3. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment. (I would highly advise that everyone read this, and all of this, since the conclusion at the end is especially important. It references extreme hunger, tapering, overshooting, and the effects of starvation, and the research supports weight set point theory. It is a famous study so many of you may already have heard of it).
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/10/hunger – sciency
https://letsrecover.tumblr.com/post/93484939160/the-minnesota-starvaton-study-you-are-still-not-a – easier to read.
Books:
The Fuck It Diet – by Caroline Dooner.
*Great Journaling exercises, life changing. Cannot recommend this book enough.
More Than a Body – by Drs. Lindsay and Leslie Kite.
*Opened my eyes to self-objectification and how it ruins everything.
Beauty Sick – by Renee Elgeln.
*The fascination with beauty and how women are valued in our society.
Food Isn’t Medicine – by Dr. Joshua Woolrich.
*Combats more bullshit you have learned about eating and health.
Eastern Body, Western Mind – by Anodea Judith.
*This book helped me learn how to find peace, and not just weight restoration.
Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating – by Christie Harrison.
*Mindblowing read on the racist and sexist roots of our body obsessed culture.
If you want Instagram accounts, add me and let me know. It is easier to share on the actual platform, and frankly I’m tired.
Thanks for reading along this past week! I appreciate it more than you know. I hope my openness saves someone a moment of suffering, or provides a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel you’re facing. I believe in you 🙂 xo