eating disorder Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Everyday Chocolate

December 15, 2021December 9, 2021 by Libby

Day in the Life: Eating Disorder Rotation

Hello! Today I wanted to share a “day in the life” type post… so read on if you are interested in seeing more of what my days often look like and more of what I have been up to in my eating disorder rotation! I know I enjoy reading these types of posts and have found it helpful to read what other dietitians’ or dietetic interns’ days are generally like. I am writing this a few days in advance, so this was my day last week on Wednesday!

5am: Wakeup! I like to wake up early so I have time to do the things I like to do before starting my work day – this helps me to feel energized and ready to go for the day! When I get up, I get on my running clothes and go downstairs to have an energy bite with some almond milk for a snack as otherwise I would get way too hungry since I don’t have breakfast till a bit later.

5:10-5:30am: After my snack, I sit in my favorite spot (next to the Christmas tree) to read my Bible and pray. I am doing a Bible reading plan that would take you through the Bible in one year but I am doing it in two years so the amount of reading each day is more doable for me right now!

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December 1, 2021December 1, 2021 by Libby

Is Your Relationship with Exercise Healthy?

Health messaging all over the Internet and in the offices of healthcare professionals is often, in unison, recommending that we should be exercising more – more often and with greater intensity. We are told we should be exercising more to lose weight, prevent diabetes and heart disease, and on and on. This leads many of us to think that the more exercise we do, the better. However, is exercise always healthy? And, when it comes to exercise, can there be too much of a good thing?

I think there are two main angles to look at to discern whether or not the exercise you are engaging in is healthy. On the one hand, there is a point at which the exercise you are engaging in is physically unhealthy. On the other hand, there is a point at which the exercise you are engaging in can be mentally and emotionally unhealthy. I will illustrate this with a few examples.

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October 27, 2021November 10, 2021 by Libby

Eating Disorder or Disordered Eating?

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a nice week so far. I have been enjoying the fall colors lately and getting outside when I can, especially when it is sunny! I just finished my five-week-long food service management rotation at one of the dining halls at U of M. I enjoy food service and learning more about managing food operations – it was especially interesting/crazy with all of the supply chain and staffing issues going on with COVID! Not fun for the staff when they are trying to feed and forecast menus for 2000 people multiple times every day… This week I am doing a one week clinical rotation with the maternal and infant health unit at Michigan Medicine. The one constant of this internship is that it is always changing and quickly on to something new!

Today I’m going to be covering a few concepts…

- - What is an eating disorder?
  - What is disordered eating?
  - What does it look like to be a healthy eater?,

I often talk about both eating disorders and disordered eating, so I think it’s important to take some time to explain what each means. It’s necessary to make this distinction because one can have a disordered relationship with food without having a full-blown eating disorder, and both are important to address for optimal health and well-being.

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May 12, 2021May 12, 2021 by Libby

Self-Prescribed Rigid Box Thinking

Today I’m going to talk about a concept I think of as “self-prescribed rigid box thinking,” – rule-bound, all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking we can impose on ourselves. This is something I used to struggle with a LOT when I had an eating disorder and this way of thinking can still impact me regularly (but thankfully usually in much lesser degrees).

About a week ago I decided not to do a marathon that I had been training for the past few months. The marathon is only a month out, but I was at the height of my training plan and my knee was starting to flare up a bit. I felt like I could have pushed through it and done the marathon, but I really did not want to risk any injury, especially since the last (and only) time I did a marathon I was out for 5 months after the race recovering from a knee injury in the same knee that was flaring up last week. (The marathon was totally worth it at the time, but I would not recommend running a marathon on a semi-good knee!) I also felt like my motivation for doing this marathon wasn’t in the best spot. For the first marathon, I had a lot of fun training, and completing the marathon was my only goal – and it ended up being one of the best/most exhilarating days of my life! Running a marathon was something I had always wanted to do, and I didn’t know for a long time if it would be possible for me to run a marathon healthfully due to my history of anorexia nervosa and 6 years of restrictive eating/overexercising-induced hypothalamic amenorrhea.