eating disorder Archives - Everyday Chocolate

September 3, 2024August 26, 2024 by Libby

Question to Challenge Your Disordered Eating: What Would Make This Better?

When it comes to experiencing any degree of disordered eating, often we might feel this urge or need to cut anything out of our daily eats that feels “unnecessary” or “extra.” This tendency to “do without whenever possible” can become more and more extreme over time.

Salad on my dressing? No thanks.

Dessert after dinner? Definitely not.

Cream in my coffee? Nope.

While the focus of today’s post is on a question to ask yourself to challenge this facet of your disordered eating, it is important to point out that there are MANY and varied benefits to NOT cutting out every last thing… from needing to eat enough to have a healthy metabolism/body/brain/hormones to feeling less obsessive and chaotic around food, when we pursue SATISFACTION in our eating, both a healthy diet and a healthy relationship with food tend to fall into place.

There are many factors that go into making a food or eating experience satisfying. Some of these include eating enough, eating when we are decently hungry most of the time (versus famished or full), eating enough fat/carb/protein, and allocating enough time to eat and prepare our food.

Additionally, a key component of satisfaction in eating is seeking to eat foods we genuinely enjoy (at least most of the time — not every eating experience will be tasty and delish and this is also perfectly normal), and eating foods in a way that they taste good/best… elevating what we are eating from “fine enough” to truly satisfying.

One question to ask yourself to challenge your disordered eating is, “What would make this better?”

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August 21, 2024August 12, 2024 by Libby

Allowing the Different “Parts” of You to Have a Voice in Your Eating Choices

While we are, of course, cohesive beings, it can sometimes be helpful to conceptualize the different “parts” of our personalities, or of who we are.

We often talk with this “parts” vocabulary in everyday life.

One part of me would like to relax and watch TV all evening, while another part of me feels like getting these chores done would be helpful for the rest of my week.

Part of me wants to say “yes” to dinner with friends this Friday, and part of me wants to stay home and have a chill/quiet evening instead.

We are all complex, multifaceted, and nuanced individuals. We have various needs, desires, and preferences that sometimes are at odds with one another!

In general, I find it can be helpful to “consult” these various parts of ourselves when it comes to decision making, not letting one part dominate or run the show 24/7.

If ALL I do is stay home and have introvert time every single day, I probably wouldn’t have many (or any) friendships. If ALL I do are chores and other tasks in the evenings, I would almost certainly feel burnt out.

When it comes to your food decisions, are you letting multiple parts of you weigh in on your decisions? Or is one part of you calling ALL the shots?

For the purpose of this blog post, we are going to consider two “key parts.”

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July 17, 2024July 16, 2024 by Libby

5 Recovery Challenges to Consider This Summer

If you are in the midst of recovering from an eating disorder (or any degree of disordered eating), summer can be a good time to challenge yourself a bit when it comes to your recovery journey.

While summer certainly isn’t always this way, oftentimes we might have a little more energy, space in our routines, and motivation to intentionally focus on something like our mental/emotional and physical health. Maybe you are a student in transition between semesters or school years, and your schedule is more open compared to the fall and winter. Maybe your job is a little less busy this time of year.

Any way you slice it, I encourage you to use the mood-boosting effects of all the sunshine, longer days, and summer outdoor-beauty to lean into your recovery more intentionally before the fall is here!

Today I’m sharing 5 recovery challenges to consider this summer. If you are walking through anorexia recovery, working on your relationship with food, or trying to prevent a relapse, then this blog post is for you!

5 Recovery Challenges to Consider This Summer:

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June 26, 2024June 26, 2024 by Libby

Benefits of Eating Regularly (3 Meals & 3 Snacks)

Today I wanted to do a post on some key reasons why eating regularly is beneficial – both from a nutrition and a relationship with food standpoint.

By “eating regularly,” I’m talking 3 meals and around 3 snacks per day, every 3 hours or so. Some people may prefer/need more like 2 or 4+ snacks, and some people eat a little more often or go a little longer in between meals, depending on hunger cues/personal preferences/schedules each day. BUT, I find these rules of thumb for regular eating rhythms tend to work well for pretty much everyone. (Since they are based on human biology & psychology!)

As an example (everyone is different!) you can see how I might incorporate 3 meals & about 3 snacks in my everyday eating here.

Oftentimes, a client will come to me eating only 2-3 meals per day and no snacks. Snacks might be viewed as “bad,” and the thought of eating more regularly may at first seem anxiety-inducing or counterproductive. However, it’s common that the client is experiencing a range of symptoms that can be vastly improved upon with regular eating rhythms.

These symptoms may include bloating, constipation/diarrhea, obsession/preoccupation with food, binge eating, chaotic eating, difficulty noticing or listening to hunger/fullness cues, lack of hunger cues, slowed metabolism, imbalanced hormones, feeling addicted to food, and more!

Once we begin to understand more what is going on and start to make gentle shifts towards more regular and balanced eating, these concerns start to improve.

Let’s explore some of the main reasons why I recommend eating regularly! (3 meals and ~3 snacks)

Benefits of eating regularly:

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May 29, 2024May 24, 2024 by Libby

Why 1200 Calories a Day is Not Enough

“1200 calories a day” is the number I often hear thrown out there by clients or friends who may be unhappy with their bodies and trying to lose weight.

Today we are having a brief chat about why that number is MUCH too low, and why you should be eating significantly more!!

Before we get started — let’s be clear, I don’t “think” or “talk” in calories pretty much ever. I don’t find that generally useful in my personal life or nutrition counseling work. I suppose I could ballpark guess, but I don’t have any exact idea of how many calories I might eat in an average day.

I also don’t care, besides from the fact that I want to be eating enough for my body and activities! What’s more, calorie labels are estimates and are able to be put on products with the assumption that there is up to a 20% margin of error. (All the more reason to not be paranoid if you count calories and find yourself panicking for eating slightly more than your self-prescribed limit…).

If you find yourself trying to eat 1200 calories (or under), I do know that that is almost certainly NOT enough food for your body.

1200 calories is the general estimate of what it takes to sustain doing nothing all day… basically if you or I were to lie in bed all day and move as absolutely little as possible, our bodies would still need about 1200 calories just to breathe, digest, and sustain normal life.

To be clear, this is what our bodies need to function without any exercise, walking around, going up/down stairs, doing household chores, working / expending mental energy, and all the various other things you might do throughout the day!

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May 8, 2024May 3, 2024 by Libby

Ways to Increase Motivation in Anorexia Recovery

Recovering from anorexia is a long, challenging process. While it is normal (and okay!) for your motivation level to ebb and flow, it is vital to your recovery success that you work to keep your motivation as high as you can, more often than not.

If you are at the beginning of your recovery journey, you may have very little motivation right now. Anorexia is especially unique, when it comes to mental/physical illnesses, in that when we are stuck in it we don’t generally want to get better! (There are a variety of reasons for this, and this contributes to the danger/lethality of anorexia).

However, given that you are reading this blog post, I’m guessing that at least a small part of you does want to get better. Great – let’s start there! We can work with any ambivalence and hesitation you are feeling over time, no matter how strong. This is also normal.

On the other hand, if you are already full-force into your recovery journey, then hopefully the ideas in this post help you to keep building on and maintaining your motivation.

Ways to increase motivation in anorexia recovery:

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May 1, 2024April 26, 2024 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…)

April 10, 2024March 22, 2024 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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March 13, 2024March 8, 2024 by Libby

My Journey with Exercise

I’ve shared bits and pieces throughout various blog posts of my story experiencing an eating disorder and exercise addiction, and wanted to share a post today with more details regarding aspects of my story from the exercise angle. I know many of you reading the blog and many of the clients who I work with in my private practice also have experience with a disordered relationship with exercise. This can look so different for everyone, but my hope is that this blog post can provide some inspiration that healing your relationship with exercise IS possible, and that you can experience exercise and moving your body from a place of JOY and FREEDOM.

This post is a bit lengthy compared to usual… so bookmark for whenever is a good time and grab a favorite beverage to sip on!

When I think about my anorexia experience, it was in a lot of ways more of an EXERCISE problem. Obsessive exercise, exercise addiction, compulsive exercise – all of the above and whatever you want to call it. Addictions can happen with various “behaviors/processes” (such as exercise) — not only with substances.

My eating disorder was not primarily food or body image driven, like many of the anorexia stereotypes might lead you to believe. Exercise / athletic performance was the gateway to my spiral into anorexia. My “main issue” was and has been obsessive compulsive personality disorder (different from OCD), which led to an exercise obsession, and from there to an unintentional “free fall off a cliff” into anorexia.

But, let’s back up, and start with what is initially a positive story! 🙂

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February 28, 2024February 27, 2024 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.