The Eating Disorder Recovery Blog

The month of February means Valentine’s Day, bringing our focus to the topic of love. Love can be a difficult topic when you are struggling with your relationship with food and body image.

Here we explore how recovery supports love and helps to create healthier and more meaningful relationships for years to come.

Have you ever experienced feeling fat one day and not feeling comfortable in any of your clothes, then another day not having any of those feelings and fairly easily getting dressed? Maybe the way you feel about your body influences your eating behaviours, and you find yourself constantly yoyo-ing.

Here we unpack the common experience of ‘feeling fat’.

Dieting can lead to a preoccupation with food and weight that, for some, can become obsessive and harmful.

Here we explore some of the problem with diets, before highlighting 5 reasons that dieting may lead to eating disorders.

Hazel’s experience of continuing her eating disorder recovery journey through our support group – The Community.

“Whilst we all have different stories to tell, we are united in our goals. To be truly free of this illness, to make peace with food and our bodies.”

This month’s recovery focus is intuitive movement and body image, and our podcast is Train Happy by Tally Rye.

Tally is a personal trainer who helps people to create a healthy relationship with movement. In this post we share some highly recommended episodes and resources.

In recent years there has been a large increase in the popularity of bodybuilding, and studies are now exploring the link between bodybuilding and eating disorders.

“I lost my personality, my partner, and my purpose in life. It was just gym, eat, repeat. There was literally no time or energy for anything else.”

In today’s blog post, eating disorder recovery warrior Lydia discusses how she navigated her fears around body change and took powerful steps towards body acceptance. Sharing difficulties she faced and a recovery tool that she found particularly helpful throughout her recovery journey.

Using affirmations can be incredibly supportive of eating disorder recovery.

We asked our recovery group to share the affirmations that have supported them most through eating disorder recovery. Here are the top 20 they found most useful. We hope they inspire you too.

Body image issues affect around 1 in 3 adults in the UK, and studies suggest this number is growing. An important part of building a healthy relationship with food is looking beyond the exterior, including when we compliment one another.

Overwhelm for someone suffering from an eating disorder can be a distressing experience, often triggering increased eating disorder thoughts and leading to unhealthy behaviours, in an effort to cope.

Today, Ashley shares her birthday experience and how she was able to move from overwhelm to embracing her special day.

In this article we discuss weight stigma and what health really is.

“Your healthy weight is whatever weight you reach when you are nourishing your body intuitively. When you are not restricting food in any way or compensating for food eaten. When you are neither strictly controlling food nor feeling out of control with food.”

Restaurants, cafes and takeaways with more than 250 staff are now permitted to display calories on menus, websites, and delivery platforms.

In this post we share our thoughts on this new legislation, as well as tips on how to navigate this change.

Have you ever listened to the little voice inside you that reminds you of your younger self? Regardless of how much we grow, we carry our younger selves with us through each day. Perhaps it’s the unheard 10-year-old self that shows up when we feel someone isn’t listening to us, or maybe it’s the heartbroken teen who shows up when we feel a lack of attention or care.

Today we hear from Abby, who recovered with us here at Natural Food Therapy. Abby shares her inspirational story through eating disorder recovery. A journey of inner strength and self-discovery.

“At 29 years old, I found the strength to get help for my eating disorder. And I believe it has been the best thing I have possibly ever done.”

Most people will experience a grieving process on their journey towards body acceptance. A powerful and necessary step that allows you to let go and grieve unrealistic expectations of what your body ‘should’ look like. Here are the five stages of body grief and some thoughts on how to navigate them.

January is possibly the most challenging month for anyone suffering from an eating disorder. It can not only reinforce behaviours that you’ve been working so hard to change but can drive a depriving and punishing mentality with regards to food and exercise.

As we enter a new year, the traditions around setting resolutions and January diets can be full of difficulties for those suffering or at risk of an eating disorder. Today we hear from a sufferer who shares her recovery experience and some inspiring insights on how to approach this year differently.

Diet culture can be tough to navigate when in recovery from an eating disorder. This week two of our recovery warriors have chosen to share their letters to diet culture with us all. As well as being thought-provoking and impactful, these are letters that deserve to be shared and celebrated.