Tag: disordered eating

by Libby

Exploring Reactionary Gaps in Compulsive Eating

One concept that I find it can be helpful to explore when it comes to compulsive eating is this idea of a “reactionary gap.”

(Note: this is a term I’ve adopted from the Binge Eating Therapist. Explore her YouTube channel and podcast if you haven’t already!! I love her material.)

A reactionary gap is a bit of emotional/mental space created by any tool, situation, check-in, physical distancing, environmental set-up, or other strategy. Its purpose is to help you take a mindful pause, with the goal of making at least a slightly more present, less compulsive food choice.

It is NOT about whether you say “yes” or “no” to a food, but about making a food decision from a more grounded, more peaceful, less conflicted, and less compulsive place.

You likely already use a variety of “reactionary gaps” without really thinking about it or labeling it as such.

A few everyday examples might be:

  • Keeping most of your snack-type food in the pantry instead of all out on the table or counter
  • Pausing after an initial serving of dinner to decide if you want more before automatically going for seconds
  • Eating seated at the table instead of standing
  • Not keeping a box of chocolates on your work desk

IMPORTANT NOTE! There is nothing “inherently wrong” with any of my so-called everyday examples. They may or may not resonate with how you prefer to go about eating / what works for you. Maybe you like to keep a box of chocolates on your desk and that works well for you, it doesn’t feel compulsive, and it is something you enjoy. That is perfectly fine! What we are talking about here is managing compulsivity in eating. Feeling compulsive with food looks different for everyone and is going to be triggered by different dynamics and different situations for each of us.

So, before we get to thinking about how you might benefit from thinking about this idea of a reactionary gap to help with any compulsive eating in your own life, let’s first chat about my three main reactionary gap caveats!

My Main Reactionary Gap Caveats:  (more…)

by Libby

The Compulsive Eating Triangle

One of the main reasons many of my clients reach out to me is because they are feeling chaotic and out-of-control around food. Feeling like it’s hard or impossible to stop eating at a comfortable level of fullness, feeling like they constantly bounce between not eating enough and eating way too much, binge eating and feeling extreme physical distress…

Maybe you relate on some level?

Whether you resonate with full-blown binge eating or occasionally feel like you spiral “out-of-control” with food, I’m sure most or all of us can relate on some level to this dynamic, myself included!

While feeling calm and centered around food is something healthy to strive for most of the time (and a key goal we might have in client work together), it’s also not realistic to be “perfectly centered” around food all the time.

How does one get to a more calm and centered place with food? What are some of the key factors to consider?

I’m always thinking of ways to conceptualize these ideas, and one tool I have started using in sessions is what I’m calling the “Compulsive Eating Triangle.”

This tool helps us form a big picture outlook as far as what may be driving your chaotic/compulsive eating. While experiencing greater calmness with food is generally a long-term process that takes lots of untangling and healing, having a framework for thinking about this can be helpful.

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by Libby

Some Thoughts on Gut Health (& a new exciting tool for my practice!)

Hi everyone! I hope your week is going well so far. Happy you are here! 🙂

How great has the sunshine / warmer weather been for those of you who live in Michigan?? Such an instant upgrade to the week!

I wanted to do a post today sharing some of my general thoughts on gut health AND share about a tool that I’ve been excited to be incorporating more in my practice over the past few months.

First things first! Some random gut health and candid dietetics processing:

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by Libby

6 Tips for Managing Anorexia Recovery in College

For many people, college can be a time of increased stress and anxiety. If you are a college student who is ALSO walking through anorexia recovery, it can certainly be a lot to manage.

In today’s blog post, I’m sharing 6 tips for managing anorexia recovery in college. College can be a time of GROWTH and HEALING in your anorexia recovery journey. With some additional intentionality and the right support in place, heading away for school doesn’t have to be a setback in your relationship with food and your body.

While a difficult stat to accurately quantify, according to this website, the average age of anorexia onset is 18.9 years — exactly the age of most college freshmen! While the vast majority of college students won’t ever end up meeting the strict diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, it is still a population at increased risk for the development of an eating disorder. And, formal eating disorders aside, many/most college women do wrestle with at least some degree of disordered eating. You can read more about what I mean by an eating disorder versus disordered eating here.

6 Tips for Managing Anorexia Recovery in College:

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by Libby

Navigating Food & Body Image at the Holidays

I can’t believe we are already well into December! As the end of the year draws near, I am looking forward to more time to rest, lots of walks outside, and getting to all the books I want to read that are piling up!

Since the holidays tend to be more challenging for most people when it comes to food and body image, I wanted to do a brief post on some tips and strategies for navigating food and body image this time of year.

First, I will provide some examples of what disordered eating could look like at the holidays. Then we will get to 5 strategies for experiencing a life-giving and truly healthy approach to food and your body during the holiday season.

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by Libby

10 Common Thought Patterns Perpetuating Your Disordered Eating

Our thought patterns have a tremendous impact on our behaviors and our ability to grow and make changes.

Thinking about a non-food example — let’s say I am trying to have a productive work day (intended behavior). BUT, as life would have it, I slept miserably and have a terrible headache. I got out of bed later than I wanted and have barely crossed anything off my to-do list by the time early afternoon rolls around. Some common thought patterns here might be for me to start catastrophizing the day (Now my entire day is ruined! My whole week is going to be thrown off!), viewing the day as overly black-and white (I have gotten NOTHING done that I wanted… this day is an absolute failure) and continually judging myself for struggling to get done wanted I had planned and hoped.

Mentally reacting to my day in this way would likely cause me to continue spiraling throughout the day and week, veering even further from my original intentions.

Instead, a much more helpful response would be to recognize these unhelpful thought patterns, approach my day with flexibility and adjust as needed, show myself understanding and compassion, and live in the reality that I didn’t sleep well / am not feeling well instead of fighting reality by trying to plow ahead.

Like areas of our lives such as time/task management, habit-building, and health routines, many of us may have experience reacting to food with similar unhelpful thought patterns.

How we think about food has a great impact on how we engage with food.

In today’s blog post, I’m going to identify 10 common thought patterns that may be perpetuating any disordered eating you are struggling with.

For each thought pattern, I will provide an example as well as a way to reframe/look at the situation differently. I’ll also provide some additional tips and notes to consider. I hope you find this post helpful and something you can bookmark/come back to repeatedly!

10 Common Thought Patterns Perpetuating Your Disordered Eating:

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by Libby

Guide to Debriefing & Intervening in Binge/Compulsive Eating Experiences

If you are wrestling with a compulsive-like behavior, such as binge eating or compulsive eating, it may currently feel like it is hard or next to impossible to change this frustrating pattern. When this happens, maybe you feel like you are on autopilot, somewhat akin to having an out-of-body experience, and feel like all your typical values, health goals, and intentions have gone flying out the window..

Whenever an eating episode like this occurs (whether it is once in a while, every day, or multiple times a day), you likely feel some sort of combination of discouragement, disgust, and embarrassment regarding yourself and the eating behaviors. You may vow to change your ways, possibly restricting the next day or meal, yet the pattern continues.

UGH!

Maybe you even fear feeling hungry, you avoid social situations, and you are confused about what body size might be healthy for you. I can imagine that if you are dealing with something like this it is likely affecting your work, relationships, and overall self-care. You may be feeling alone and isolated, with no one knowing about your struggle.

If so, this post is for you!

When dealing with compulsive eating behaviors, it can be helpful to have tools and strategies for debriefing (or looking back on) the behavior, in order to identify patterns, triggers, and possible avenues for intervention and (ultimately) healing.  

In today’s post, we will think about 4 areas to debrief when it comes to binge/compulsive eating experiences.

  • Overall context/situation
  • Nutritional/physical factors
  • Psychological factors
  • Emotional factors 

We will then consider a few ideas for intervention and healing. Because, if you’re like me, when it comes to frustrating, negative and unwanted dynamics, I’m guessing you are wanting this to eventually be a thing of the past! Which it can be!!

Guide to Debriefing & Intervening in Binge/Compulsive Eating Experiences:

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by Libby

Different Factors to Consider in Eating Decisions (Beyond Hunger/Fullness)

Sometimes intuitive eating can get overly simplified to “eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are full.”

I think it’s super important to listen to your hunger/fullness signals. At the same time, I also think there are other key factors to take into consideration when deciding what/when/how much to eat.

If feeling biological signals of hunger –> a clear sign to eat!!

BUT there are other “signs” or things to think about that may also indicate a need to eat.

We may think we are doing something “wrong” if we are eating when we aren’t technically feeling hungry, yet this may be just what our bodies need! If you *only* eat when you are feeling physically hungry, I’d bet you most likely aren’t eating enough.

In this post we will explore…

  • A few personal examples of me taking into account “other factors beyond hunger/fullness” when it comes to eating
  • Different factors to consider when making food decisions, including:
    • Tuning into your bodily signals
    • Thinking about your daily life situation / overall life circumstances
    • Trusting your overall intuition
  • Some closing thoughts and questions

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by Libby

Trade-Offs in the Pursuit of “Perfect” Food Choices

Lately I have been thinking about this idea of “trade-offs” in making food choices.

I think a lot of us find making trade-offs or compromises to be a natural/intuitive way to navigate health/wellness decisions in a number of areas of our lives.

A common example might be sleep. If you’re like me, maybe you value getting good-quality sleep, but from time to time you sacrifice your sleep in order to have a fun/later night hanging out with friends because you also see this as important for your emotional health and overall experience of fun/joy in life. Or maybe at other times you sacrifice sleep to travel, to provide emotional support to a friend or family member, or to get some sort of urgent/important task done.

Part of one of my key health values (good sleep) is sacrificed to some extent to support my some of my other health values (good relationships, fun, spontaneity from time to time, travel, etc.).

Another example that comes to mind is with toxic exposures. I do my best to limit my exposure to certain toxins and take a number of actions to do so. In my life this looks like using a water filter, running an air purifier in our home, buying products without certain chemicals or fragrances in them, avoiding moldy/musty buildings whenever possible, and buying mostly organic food. At the same time, I know I could go crazy trying to avoid toxic exposures at all costs, so I accept that I will do my best within my limitations/reality of the world we live in and not overly stress about it. I sacrifice some of my desire to  totally avoid toxins in order to exist/function in the world!

What is interesting to me about this idea is how many of us struggle with this idea of trade-offs or compromises when it comes to food and nutrition.

You may feel like…

  • You have to eat the “healthiest” food at every opportunity
  • You are harming your health whenever each food choice isn’t “perfect”
  • You feel anxious eating foods from a restaurant or that a friend made when you don’t know exactly what’s in it
  • The only or “best” way to make a food decision should always be based purely on nutrition factors

What I’ve found in working with clients and in my own personal experience is that whenever we so overly fixate on “nutrition in the name of health,” our overall health (physical health included) suffers.

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by Libby

Improving Your Relationship with Food, Exercise & Body Image While in College

It’s hard to believe that over 10 years ago I headed off to Ann Arbor to begin my freshman year at the University of Michigan!

I’m sure like many people, reflecting back on it, college was for me a mix of fun/positive times and (many!) hard/stressful times.

Thankfully, I was mostly fully recovered from my eating disorder which had started/mostly been a thing in high school. I was doing well mentally and emotionally in regard to food, but was still working on some physical healing (hormones, GI, etc.).

I say “thankfully” because I know from my experience in college (via observing others, talking to friends, etc.) and from talking to clients/students still in college, how hard it can be to grow in having a healthy relationship with food, exercise, and body image during these pivotal years.

It seems to me that most people tend to experience more disorder and dysfunction on these fronts throughout college. There can be so much pressure to exercise a certain a way (queue the endless elliptical usage at the gym…), look a certain way, and eat certain foods and quantities deemed “healthy” or intended to lead to the “ideal body size.”

Given the pressures and challenges of the typical college environment, it can take some intentionality to grow positively in your relationship with food (and exercise + body image) during this time. Note: this intentionality is also true of “regular” life beyond or before college!!

As we (as a culture/society) enter the back-to-school season, I wanted to provide some thoughts and reflections on ways you might consider going about improving your relationship with food/exercise/body image during the school year in particular.

Hopefully you will find the following thoughts especially helpful/relevant if you are a college student, and, for everyone else, also helpful for everyday living in our diet/body size-obsessed culture!

Thoughts on Improving Your Relationship with Food, Exercise, & Body Image While in College (or beyond for that matter!): 

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