Herbalife

Ever since starting my recovery I have really started to learn the importance of looking after your body. While I have done a much better job of this over the past 12 months then I had previously, I have decided that I would like to take that a step further and really start to nourish my body. I am hoping that this will improve my energy levels and get my body functioning optimally so that I can feel happier and healthier.

I have decided to start a Herbalife program which I hope will help me to feel more energetic and which I also hope will help me to fuel my body. Its by no means a weightloss program, but instead a wellness program which I may transition into a muscle building program if I decide to in the future. If you would like to find out more about Herbalife, follow this link. I have decided to start off with a protein plus starter pack as well as a herbal peach tea which is really supposed to help with your energy levels.

I have also joined a gym which I hope will allow me to grow fitter and stronger whilst taking the herbalife products and of course eating lots of good foods too. I am defintely not planning on taking the herbalife products instead of eating, I just plan to incorporate them into my diet. For example I might have a tea with my breakfast, and a shake with my lunch and add the protein powder to things I already eat ie. My morning oats or other snacks.

I have made my consultant aware of my history of anorexia and she is really excited for me as she believes Herbalife will really help me. She too was once really underweight and Herbalife has really helped her to transform her body and life. She asked me to write 20 goals and also do some before shots so that we can use them to see any progress I make. Here they are :)

1. Increase my confidence

2. Learn to eat more intuitively 

3. Cut back on sugary processed foods 

4. give my body the nutritious food it deserves

5. Get stronger

6. Gain some weight (in the form of muscle)

7. Become more energized 

8. Tone my muscles

9. Get fitter

10. Do a fun run for charity

11. Have a well balanced life 

12. Develop a healthier relationship with food

13. Stop counting calories

14. Learn to listen to my body

15. let myself rest when I need to

16. Develop a more positive body image

17. Prove to other sufferers that full recovery from anorexia is possible 

18. Increase my positivity and enthusiasm 

19. Run 10 kilometers

20. Visit the gym regularly  (atleast 3-5 times a week)

Eating more both in and after recovery

You may find, that in order to gain weight early on in your recovery, you dont have to eat that much food. As time passes however and as your metabolism gets faster, you will most likely have to keep increasing your intake in order to keep gaining weight.

As explained ithe science of eating disorders website;

'Weight restoration is a crucial component of anorexia nervosa treatment. It is a challenging process for a multitude of reasons. Adding to the complexity and the challenge is the fact that during weight restoration, individuals with anorexia nervosa tend to require increasingly more calories to maintain the same rate of weight gain.'

Even though continuously having to increase your intake can be really hard, I think that you shoud consider this as a good thing as it means your metabolism is repairing and functioning properly again. Even after you reach a healthy weight, you will most likely have to eat more then others around you in order to just maintain your weight.

This was also explained in the same article;

'After achieving a healthy weight, individuals recovering from anorexia nervosa still typically need to eat more calories to maintain their new healthy weight — more than healthy individuals of the same weight who do not have eating disorder histories'

This is why I have to take particular care to ensure I am always eating plenty now, even though I am only trying to maintain my weight. It also explains why I accidentely lost some weight a couple of months ago, even though I was eating the same amount as those around me. To be honest, I enjoy having a fast metabolism now and am glad that I am now able to eat so much, without gaining weight.

If you find you are able to keep gaining weight on a low intake of food in your recovery, I would reccommend increasing your calorie intake anyway. Otherwise there is a chance that your metabolism wont repair which will mean you will be stuck eating small amounts of food forever. And eating normal portions once you are weight restored may lead to weight gain.

Recovery amounts of food + quick update

I slept in to 5:30 am this morning which was realy good as I usually cant sleep past 4:00 am. I got up and made myself some breakfast, which I ate while blogging. I had lots of comments to reply to which was a nice surprise for me as I always love hearing  from my readers and I also started thinking about what posts I will write today. The next thing I plan to do after writing this post is to answer some emails to the lovely girls who I regularly talk too. I love emailing these girls and hearing about how they have been going. They are all so strong and woderful and give me the motivation I need to keep fighting everyday!

Quite a few people have been asking about recovery food intakes so I thought I would post everything I eat today, to show everyone what my recovery intake (3000 calories) looks like. I really hope that by talking about the exact amount I eat I am not triggering anyone but I just think it is important that people wanting to recover realise what real recovery amounts of food are and what it looks like. I know that different people require different intakes in recovery but this will most likely never be less then 2500 calories.

You may think that you can recover while eating between 2000 and 2500 calories but unfortunately you cant. Even if you are slowly gaining weight while eating a lesser amount, you still arent eating enough so your metabolism will remain supressed and your body and mind will most likely not repair. While eating 2000 calories you are not providing your body with anywhere near enough energy for weight gain, repair and for your metabolism to begin functioning normally again. My magic intake amount is 3000 calories but you may find you dont need quite as much, or that you actually need more.

For a long time I believed I was eating enough to recover but now I can see that I definetely wasn't. I honestly thought that I was some kind of exception and that I therefore didn't need to have the recommended recovery amounts. Luckily in the end I finally realised that I was no exception and that I not only had to eat the minimum recovery amount, but another 500 calories on top of that. It was really hard for me to go beyond the minimum recommended recovery amount but thankfully I was strong enough to do it, as this was the only way I could continue gaining weight at the right rate, function properly and repair too.  

I have another day working at the IGA today which is good. I am working witth my mum which should be nice as we are getting along quite well at the moment. She says that she is going quite well (in regards to her drinking) but I honestly dont know whether I should believe her or not as she has lied to me so many times before. Its really sad but unfortunately I cant believe her until I talk to my dad and hear how she has really been going from him. I really hope that she has been good though as I care about her a lot and desperately want her to recover from her problems too.

Have a good day everyone!:D

My understanding of Metabolism

In the early stages of my recovery, I remember feeling extremely worried that my metabolism would never recover and that I would have a supressed metabolism for the rest of my life. I was worried that I would never be able to eat normal amounts of food again, without gaining weight. I was pleasantly surprised however, as this has not been the case for me at all and it doesnt have to be the case for you either. In fact, if you recover the right way, you may find that you have an even faster metabolism then you had before you got sick.

If you eat proper recovery amounts FOR YOU, your metabolism will recover. You need to realise that a proper recovery amount for you, may be more or less then others, although it is almost always over 2500 calories. For example I found that 2500 calories was no where near enough for me to gain weight and for my body to repair as well as function normally. In fact I  have found that going above 3000 calories has even been neccessary and my weight gain still isnt always as much as it should be. Your metabolism simply will not recover if you dont eat proper recovery amounts and the reason for this is quite logical.

If a normal person maintains there weight at 2000 calories, this means that all of the energy they eat can be used to keep them alive. This amount of energy is enough so their body can function optimally and healthily. If a recovering anorexic tries to get better eating only 2000 calories however, not all of this energy is used for everyday functioning, as it is in a normal person. Energy must also go to repairing the body and weight gain. So once energy has been used for these other things, there may only be 500 calories or so left over for your body to use for its normal functioning, which simply is not enough. Your metabolism must therefore stay in a supressed state, to try and keep you alive as best it can on so few calories.

Eating a larger number of calories allows your body to run efficiently as well as repair  and gain weight and your metabolism therefore can speed right back up again. Sometimes in recovery, your metabolism actually starts running too fast, which means even more energy is used by your body while completing everyday functions then in regular people. This is known as hypermetabolism and can cause things like overheating, extreme hunger, difficulty gaining weight, insomnia and fatigue (all things I have experienced throughout my recovery at different times). Generally your metabolism will stabilise again however, once you reach a healthy weight.

Know that it is never to late for you to repair your metabolisnlism, but to do so you will need to eat proper recovery amounts of food, so that your body can come out of starvation mode. Indications that your bodies metabolism may still be supressed include feeling cold all the time, constantly thinking about food and feeling really hungry, thinning hair and nails and gaining weight easily on a relatively low calorie intake. So if you have any of these symptoms, you really need to increase your intake to proper recovery amounts, even if you are allready weight restored.