tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post8729707593884736431..comments2024-03-04T00:43:25.831-08:00Comments on Drop It and Eat: Drop the Diet, Manage Your Weight: Reaching Your Peak: Guidance to Keep You Moving ForwardHikerRDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-30339643687888224212012-03-22T23:53:44.902-07:002012-03-22T23:53:44.902-07:00Thank you so much for your comment Laura! It was r...Thank you so much for your comment Laura! It was really inspiring and motivating to read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-75780870309311179632012-03-20T19:32:53.469-07:002012-03-20T19:32:53.469-07:00This post resonated with me. I am definitely one o...This post resonated with me. I am definitely one of your patients who takes recovery breaks, only I never really know when I am doing so. It is not a conscious decision. Sometimes its merely super convenient! I slept late, skip breakfast, no big deal. I was out during snack, its no biggie. It seems like there should be an obvious reason that I go from doing better to stepping back into my old ways. If there was a reason it would be so much easier to address and prevent! I admit I just dont understand slips, not in myself and not in my friends who have similar struggles. Treatment teams always say that recovery is not a straight line but the erratic nature of this disease is so discouraging. The first time I got rave reviews from you on my progress over the course of a week I felt, for the first time, a sense of positive reward for shifting my behavior. It was probably the first time anyone on my team made me feel that way. I had grown so accostomed to negative reinforcement and this was a refreshing switch. I left that day with a smile I could not get rid of if I wanted to! It was a remarkably different feeling. And then, three weeks later I was two steps back. Is it from taking breaks from recovery? I don't know for sure. I know that sustaining recovery behaviors is extraordinarily difficult. And, fortunately or unfortunately, I am able to recognize the obvious -- sometimes you just have to do the doing. There is no other way. And I am a perfect example of someone saying, "I'll start tomorrow, next Monday, Wednesday seems like a good day for recovery". However, ED is manipulative and sneaky and he so easily gets me to choose what he wants for me. <br />Thank you for this post, for all of your posts - I look forward to them every week. Hearing how others experiences so closely resemble my own helps me to understand myself a little bit better.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-72756239156760374702012-03-19T13:40:52.843-07:002012-03-19T13:40:52.843-07:00Did you see that hamster wheel of life post? Yes, ...Did you see that hamster wheel of life post? Yes, you're describing it well! Perhaps it's time to break out of this cycle...HikerRDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-56131375994388590062012-03-19T13:39:52.351-07:002012-03-19T13:39:52.351-07:00Everyone's "day off from recovery" v...Everyone's "day off from recovery" varies, although they tend to be times when we have less accountability and less structure. That said, some patients I see do best on school vacations, when stress is lowest and options for eating are greatest. Thanks for taking the time to comment!HikerRDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-87738603001062002012-03-19T13:37:29.735-07:002012-03-19T13:37:29.735-07:00Thanks for your kind words and your very honest an...Thanks for your kind words and your very honest and insightful comments. And to say it's harder than any classes including engineering,that's quite a statement. People need to take stock of these words. Many thanks for reading, for commenting, and hopefully for sharing these posts to help others!HikerRDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-62508687007896577652012-03-19T13:32:14.845-07:002012-03-19T13:32:14.845-07:00This is a very great and insightful post. When I f...This is a very great and insightful post. When I first entered treatment I was being pulled in 30 different directions at once, and taking care of myself and recovery weren't anywhere near the top of the list. The people on my treatment team kept asking me to consider taking a step back and stepping down from commitments that I had made. At first, I wanted nothing to do with this. And of course my health continued to suffer. Once I was finally able to put eating/taking care of myself/recovery first, I started actually improving and things got a little easier. Like mentioned above, I used to want "breaks" from recovery and thought that they were helpful. But now I realized, for me they were just excuses to justify my ED behaviors and slips. Recovering from an eating disorder is a full time job and has actually been harder then any classes I have taken (I have an engineering degree) and more time consuming then anything else I have ever done. However, I know in order to continue to get my life back and lead the life that I want to live that breaks aren't an option. Thanks again for this wonderful post.Daniellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00851214683206503226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-26329088850438246712012-03-19T13:17:47.557-07:002012-03-19T13:17:47.557-07:00Thanks for this, I really needed it! I think I ha...Thanks for this, I really needed it! I think I have opposite problem with the weekdays being hardest. I am a stay at home mom with a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and another baby due this Summer. I use exhaustion and lack of time/my husband's watchful eye as an excuse not to eat and exercise to an extreme. Weekends are easier because my husband is home and we can go do things with other people which makes me feel like a more "normal" person in my early twenties instead of a mom with so many responsibilities on top of recovery!Marthahttp://fabricsandfun.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-277034270361329722012-03-19T07:32:35.664-07:002012-03-19T07:32:35.664-07:00Your response is most inspiring! Thanks for sharin...Your response is most inspiring! Thanks for sharing it with my readers. And I'm glad this post resonates with you.HikerRDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-4666977477401081602012-03-19T04:43:40.388-07:002012-03-19T04:43:40.388-07:00I spend the whole week making up for my week-ends,...I spend the whole week making up for my week-ends, eat clean, exercise sometimes twice a day. Then Friday comes and I feel like the week was so hard I gotta live a little. Then comes Sunday and I can't believe I allowed, yet again, food to take so much space in my life, that I ate so much garbage. So I vow to get back on track for the week. And so on. As the weeks go by, it becomes harder and harder to even stay on track during the week because I see that I'm not making progress, even though I'm putting what feels like more and more effort. The running hamster in wheel image is the first thing that comes to mind here. I'm tired of running.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-60554414829610277972012-03-18T20:56:27.294-07:002012-03-18T20:56:27.294-07:00I also wanted to add that when you put recovery an...I also wanted to add that when you put recovery and your eating goals as the most important priority, you end up making progress a lot faster and it's really rewarding. In a couple of years, with this as my priority, I've been able to stay on a meal plan that completely freaked me out at first, become physically healthy, increase my meal plan when needed, at first only eat a predetermined list of meals and eventually be able to incorporate tons of variety, be able to handle restaurants in an intuitive way, stop counting calories, stop doing all kinds of behaviors that i used to do... and now, i can eat without a rigid meal plan, i can hear and respond to my hunger, i can eat until i'm actually appropriately full (and not just "not hungry"), I can eat every kind of food, i never consider counting calories, I can maintain a healthy weight easily, and i can add some moderate exercise back into my routine. it's kind of amazing to experience this change.Lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-67500780376296237352012-03-18T20:52:18.798-07:002012-03-18T20:52:18.798-07:00I think you're so dead on with this post. I th...I think you're so dead on with this post. I think of myself as recovered now, and about 1.5 - 2 years ago, I put recovery as the absolute priority. This meant that my meal plan was the most important thing in my life. As a result, grocery shopping was essential, taking time to prepare food was essential, taking time to plan for how I could deal with certian events in the context of a meal plan (like how does brunch fit into a meal plan). Nothing came before recovery. And I swear that htat shift in my thinking got me to make enormous amounts of progress in the last to years so that I now am recently considering myself recovered - but it does feel like an accurate description of where I am. To take recovery seriously, it meant several things, such as: taking a more low-key job, planning my upcoming week's meals, grocery shopping, saying no to hikes with friends that were going to be too long, calling my dietitian and coming up with exact food plans for days in which activity had to be increased, spending about an hour every night prepping all meals and snacks for the next day, etc. That commitment really made a huge difference. <br /><br />I would add that, for me, to make recovery a priority I had to get out of denial and THAT was a hard thing. one thing that helped me get out of denial was attending a treatment program in which I saw that the staff took me and my behaviors extremely seriously and just as seriously as the other girls in the program. I believed other people there had eating disorders... and if the staff was responding to me with just as much seriousness as they responded to others... well, it helped me take my eating disorder seriously - finally.Lauranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-25006300199523774792012-03-18T19:19:20.454-07:002012-03-18T19:19:20.454-07:00Oh ya, I never really know what I'm thinking o...Oh ya, I never really know what I'm thinking or feeling. :)PTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05377666179155825301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-68018503085230812932012-03-18T19:17:47.627-07:002012-03-18T19:17:47.627-07:00Thanks for that info. I'll see if she's c...Thanks for that info. I'll see if she's cool with that when I see her on Thursday. This is a therapist I'm seeing while mine is on maternity leave. She had me do the food log two weeks ago and I did it for two days then told her I couldn't do it anymore. I ended up losing weight that week. I told her I'd try it again, so I am. I'm glad you agree with me that it's not constructive at all. That makes me feel better. :)<br /><br />THANK YOU!PTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05377666179155825301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-53034183210487389162012-03-18T18:39:07.309-07:002012-03-18T18:39:07.309-07:00Your reaction is quite common! Try this to start: ...Your reaction is quite common! Try this to start: record simply the time you ate, your hunger level, and what you were thinking or feeling. Skip the actual food recording to start. Truthfully, this will provide almost as much critical info, particularly when reviewed by a therapist vs a nutritionist, as the food itself. Over time, you can begin to record the food--without measuring adding up calories. You are right--that is hardly constructive!<br /><br />Let us know how this goes. Good luck.HikerRDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15170145903147301280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1449641905298601952.post-15667633626179804332012-03-18T18:14:18.377-07:002012-03-18T18:14:18.377-07:00I just started having to keep a food log for my th...I just started having to keep a food log for my therapist and I HATE IT! It makes me way more obsessive, I count calories, and I restrict more, so how is this helpful? I don't think it is. I hate having to put so much thought into food and what I'm eating. It's way too time consuming and takes up too much of my mental energy. Why can't I just eat and not have to do all of this?PTChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05377666179155825301noreply@blogger.com