My Favorite Recovery Inspiration Posts
In order to recover from your disordered eating, it’s important to keep your mindset in a good place (as best you can).
In a journey full of so many ups and downs, without adequate mindset work it can be tempting to give up and to dwell in the feelings of “this will never get better.”
To support you in your own eating disorder recovery work, today I have a collection of my favorite posts for recovery inspiration. 💫
As we head into the holiday season, I invite you to consider devoting some extra time to slowing down, paying attention to your thoughts and feelings, and refocusing on the reasons why recovering from your disordered eating is important to you.
When I was recovering from an eating disorder, it was really helpful for me to utilize various resources to help me stay inspired and motivated each day, whether that was a recovery book I was reading or blog post by someone a few years (or even decades) ahead of me.
Hopefully a few (or all!) of the posts below resonate with you in this way!
My Favorite Recovery Inspiration Posts
Ways to Increase Motivation in Anorexia Recovery
While written from the perspective of anorexia recovery, the strategies in this post can be applied to any form or degree of disordered eating.
How does one eat an elephant?? One bite at a time! The same thing is true for recovery.
The more you focus on the “all the work you have left to do,” and “how much more time all of this might take,” the more discouraged you are likely to be. When we are able to “micro-down” our mindset, by focusing on JUST TODAY, it is amazing the progress that will accumulate over time.
“Nelson Mandela said, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’ Eating disorder recovery is like that. Having patience was so important. I needed to have patience with the recovery process and with myself. There were days where everything was going great and things were looking up. Then other days I just wanted to give up and give in to the voice inside that said it would never get easier and I should stop trying. It is so important to not give in to that voice. If you have the patience and courage to hold on to the small healthy voice inside, the bigger that voice will get and the eating disorder voice will get smaller. One day when you look back, you will realize you won’t even hear the voice that tells you it is impossible. You will already have proved that it is.”
// Client reflection from 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder Workbook
Why 1200 Calories is Not Enough
Trying to eat at or around 1200 calories / day is an absurdly low amount of intake for pretty much any woman. This post aims to increase your motivation to NOT restrict intake and to eat appropriately!! 🥑🌮🥓
When we eat below our bodies’ needs, we are…
- Sacrificing whole-body health, including our muscle, bone, brain, heart, hormonal, and digestive health
- Increasing the likelihood that we will be preoccupied and obsessed with food
- Increasing the likelihood that we will experience compulsive / chaotic eating
A MUCH better approach is eating enough for your body and eating in a way that is actually satisfying. (Such as by eating enough, eating foods you genuinely enjoy, and eating foods prepared in ways that actually taste good).
Recovery Mindset Shifts I’m Embracing
When I was working on getting my period back a few months ago, I returned to some key recovery mindset shifts that helped me in my anorexia recovery back in high school and that I also regularly encourage clients in.
These mindset shifts included:
- Pursuing health as my north star 🌟
- Focusing on all that my body can do 🤸🏼♀️
- Leaning into a more well-rounded version of health
This post also has some good recovery reflection questions that I encourage you to check out! Perfect for an hour of journaling as we head into the colder months. ❄️
5 Recovery Challenges to Consider This Summer
While I wrote this post during summer, the recovery challenges I recommend can be applied to any period of time. The upcoming holidays would be a great time to challenge yourself in your recovery in these ways! 🎄
One of my suggestions is to reach out to an eating disorder RD or therapist. If you are struggling in your relationship with food and don’t have a support team in place, consider taking some time over the next month to research and reach out to a dietitian and therapist to journey alongside you.
Some thoughts to keep in mind:
Both a dietitian and a therapist can be invaluable to your healing. If you are only working with one of the two, maybe adding on an RD or therapist is a key missing piece in your recovery.
When looking for or trying out a therapist, I recommend finding someone who is able to help you dig beneath the surface. In other words, not focusing *just* on the symptoms and compulsive behaviors, but helping you explore why you’ve developed these behaviors, what purpose they are serving you, and how you can get to the root of what is really driving you emotionally. Oftentimes this involves exploring core wounds/fears, family dynamics, and core reasons for the emotional avoidance strategies.
When looking for or trying out a dietitian, I recommend finding someone who will go beyond *just* meal planning and snack ideas. In my work with clients, I seek to also help clients explore the thoughts, feelings, and fears behind their disordered eating and exercise behaviors. Most of us “know” what to do (or if we don’t, learning what to do is the relatively easy part). It is removing the emotional and psychological barriers to actually changing our behaviors that is the real work/challenge.
5 Tips for When Anorexia Recovery Feels Overwhelming
Again, while written primarily from the perspective of anorexia recovery, the suggestions here can be applied to other forms of disordered eating as well.
Recovery can feel so overwhelming, hence the importance of being proactive to work on your mindset and motivation!
5 strategies for recovery overwhelm include:
- Focus on one day (or one meal or snack) at a time.
- Keep your vision and reasons for recovery in mind as much as possible.
- View recovery as a “puzzle” you are working on getting the “pieces in place” for (i.e., just because there isn’t always “tangible progress” does NOT mean you aren’t making progress).
- Focus each day on the person you are becoming.
- Know that you can and will recover if you are committed to doing whatever it takes for as long as it takes.
Often, with a challenging goal such as recovery, there can be months of “seemingly little to no visible progress.” Clients may tell me they feel like they are “failing” in recovery if they aren’t gaining weight as fast as they’d like, if they are struggling to follow their meal plans, or if they lost a few pounds.
THIS IS NOT FAILURE.
So much of the “progress” of recovery is working through all of the challenges that will then actually enable your weight restoration and long-term mental/emotional healing.
🌟 For more on how to navigate recovery overwhelm, also see this post!
10 Thoughts About Anorexia Recovery (From Personal Experience)
Sharing some reflections from my anorexia recovery journey on topics including the challenges of weight restoration, how worth it it is to recover, and some practical food strategies! 💫
Even when in a place of severe malnourishment, the body can largely/if not fully bounce back!! This is SUCH encouraging news if you are currently in the grips of an eating disorder! All the more reason to take action TODAY.
True Health & Recovery are NOT Mutually Exclusive
A lot of clients I work with have this fear that choosing recovery means “throwing in the towel” and not caring at all about their health, nutrition, and fitness.
This couldn’t be further from the truth and does not at all need to be the case!!
It’s a classic example of black and white thinking to think there are only two options: (1) to stay in disordered eating food/exercise obsession land and (2) to “pursue recovery” which in my black/white thinking mind means not caring at all about what I eat, gaining an unhealthy amount of weight, and never stepping outside to exercise again.
In reality, there is another option, another way forward that is much better.
When you choose to recover, you’re building a foundation of a healthy relationship with food, exercise and your body.
Having this healthy foundation is what will enable you to pursue nutrition, health, and fitness in a way that is truly healthy. ✨
Choosing to recover and heal your body is what will actually allow you to be healthy and to build strength over time.
Being overly obsessed with food and exercise to the point that it is harming your overall health is NOT healthy.
Envisioning a truly healthy approach to all things food and exercise is one key way to stay inspired on your road to recovery.
✨ What are you needing this week to keep your motivation for recovery slightly higher than where it might be right now?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
December 3, 2025
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