Normal Eating

Source: http://www.eatingdisordersupport.co.uk/self-help/normal-eating

Al­though the main causes of all eat­ing dis­orders are psy­cho­lo­gic­al and deal­ing with food is­sues alone will not lead to a cure, at some point the suf­fer­er’s food in­take does need to be ad­dressed. When this hap­pens var­ies be­tween pa­tients and se­ver­ity of ill­ness. A se­verely un­der­weight an­or­ex­ic will be treated to have their nu­tri­tion­al needs taken care off as a mat­ter of ur­gency.

Many peo­ple are afraid to start eat­ing nor­mally for fear that once they start eat­ing they won’t be able to stop, but ex­perts state this won’t hap­pen. Be­gin­ning to eat nor­mally takes time and any good treat­ment team should do this slowly so that you don’t start to pan­ic and lose con­trol. The ul­ti­mate goal will be to learn to eat 3 non-di­et­ing meals and 2-3 snacks per day. Car­bo­hydrates such as cer­eals, pasta, rice, bread, fruit and ve­get­ables should make up 50-60% of your to­tal daily in­take. Fat is also an es­sen­tial nu­tri­ent and should make up about 25% of your to­tal daily in­take. Pro­teins such as eggs, red meats, dairy prod­ucts and poul­try should make up about 10-15% of your to­tal daily in­take. A qual­i­fied nu­tri­tion­ist can help you to gradu­ally de­vel­op a healthy eat­ing pat­tern.

Be­low is a list of sug­ges­tions that might help when try­ing to re­turn to nor­mal eat­ing:

• If you are an­or­ex­ic, try eat­ing 6-8 small meals per day. Small meals will be easi­er to eat than 3 nor­mal meals. Small meals will not leave you feel­ing quite so bloated and full. It is im­port­ant to re­mem­ber that in the be­gin­ning you will ex­per­i­ence bloat­ing, and that can be un­com­fort­able. Many think this is a sign they are be­com­ing fat, but it is nat­ur­al for this to hap­pen. It is only tem­por­ary and can last from 6-8 weeks. In­stead of think­ing of the bloat­ing as you be­com­ing fat, re­mind your­self that it is a part of the re-feed­ing pro­cess and it is a sign that your body is heal­ing.

• If you are bul­i­mic or a com­puls­ive eat­er, try eat­ing 3 non-di­et­ing meals and 3 snacks each day. Try to eat them at the same time each day. You may find it be­ne­fi­cial to fol­low a meal plan in the be­gin­ning so that you will know what you will be eat­ing in ad­vance. Do not al­low your­self to eat more than planned. Eat­ing more could lead to feel­ings of, “I’ve blown it,” and may cause you to binge or purge.

• In the be­gin­ning try to avoid foods that tend to trig­ger a binge or cause feel­ings of guilt af­ter eat­ing. Later on you can re­in­tro­duce those foods into your meals.

• If an­or­ex­ic, you may wish to be­gin the re-feed­ing pro­cess with foods that will be easi­er to di­gest (ie mashed pota­toes, ma­car­oni cheese, scram­bled egg, etc.) Once the body starts to get used to hav­ing food, you can then be­gin to in­tro­duce more sol­id foods.

• Throw out your scales! Dif­fi­cult I know but con­stantly check­ing your weight on the scales just makes eve­ry­thing more dif­fi­cult. There­fore get­ting on those scales can pre­vent you from your reach­ing your goal of healthy eat­ing. If it seems too hard to throw the scales away at this point in time, per­haps give them to some­one to look af­ter them and agree that you can check your weight once a week maybe. Also, it is im­port­ant to re­mem­ber that you are not a num­ber, and that num­bers on the scales can nev­er change the per­son you are in­side.

• After eat­ing, try and dis­tract your­self with an activ­ity you en­joy, or if you feel very un­com­fort­able, try deep breath­ing ex­er­cises.

• Stop count­ing cal­or­ies. This is an­oth­er tough habit to break free from but con­tinu­ing to count cal­or­ies will pre­vent your from eat­ing nor­mally. Con­cen­trate on learn­ing about what nor­mal eat­ing is. Some­times watch­ing oth­ers eat can help to show you what nor­mal eat­ing really is.

• Start liv­ing one day at a time and one meal at a time.

• Some­times it helps to think of food as medi­cine. You may not want to take it, but it is ne­ces­sary for you to eat it in or­der to re­cov­er. You can also think of food as fuel. Your body needs that fuel in or­der to be able to func­tion prop­erly.

• Re­mem­ber that the voice in your head is ly­ing to you. You need to do the op­pos­ite of what it tells you. If it tells you not to eat, do your best to ig­nore it and eat any­way. By do­ing this, you will be able to start tak­ing back the con­trol the eat­ing dis­order has. 

• Many peo­ple be­lieve that if they don’t eat, they are the ones in con­trol. The real­ity is, if you do not al­low your­self to eat, the eat­ing dis­order is the one con­trol­ling you.

• If you ex­er­cise ex­cess­ively, try to slowly cut back.

• Re­mind your­self con­stantly that NO food will make you fat, as long as it is eaten in mod­er­a­tion.

Nor­mal eat­ing does take time and it should be done slowly so that you do not be­come too over­whelmed. It does take a lot of hard work in the be­gin­ning, but in time it will be­come a nor­mal part of your day.