faulker053

Recovery is a tricky thing. You may be making progress with your eating—whether you are working to overcome binge eating, anorexia or bulimia—but may be fooled into believing that you’ve truly normalized  your relationship with food. It may feel like you’ve largely recovered; you’ve started to include ice cream (but only when you’re out, never keeping it in the house). And your binge frequency is close to zero. And surely you who’ve been restricting deserve credit for eating more than you used to—at least of the foods you deem good for you. But consider this: No, avoidance isn't the answer . Is it really recovery when the only way you feel in control is to fill your days with so much activity (no, not even physical activity) that you don't get to sit with your feelings? You work long hours waitressing, take on extra shifts or extend your work hours only to avoid being with yourself. You struggle to allow yourself to feel hungry—fearing you're not trustworthy to respond corr...

Perhaps you CAN rise above the clouds. I don’t know the Harvard psychologist Dr. Sheila Reindl, but I have recommended her book Sensing the Self , many, many times over the years. It’s filled with wisdom about recovery from bulimia, honed from Reindl’s extensive interviews with 13 recovered women. (Not bulimic? Please read on! There’s something here for you too!)   Maybe I was attracted to it having learned that several of the pseudonym-ed women were actually past patients of mine, shared with a therapist who contributed these cases to the book.  Or maybe that it meshed research with patient stories, extracting the essence of the recovery process into meaningful chapter themes.  Personally, I hate reading books about recovery (but I read this at the insistence of a patient). That likely has mostly to do with the fact that I discuss recovery almost 40 hours a week. Do I really want to engage with strangers’ stories on my down time? I don’t think so. Yet I likely suggest i...

And practical minded too. Will do it all but cook for you. I'm talking about my new book, “Food to Eat, guided, hopeful, and trusted recipes for eating disorder recovery”. Lori Lieberman, RD, CDE, MPH, LDN, and Cate Sangster may seem like unlikely coauthors. Lori, a 26-year veteran of eating disorder counseling and a blog author in the Boston, Massachusetts area and Cate, a soon-to-be-published coauthor (with eating disorder author June Alexander), and recovering adult anorexic in Melbourne, Australia created a novel recovery tool. Part cookbook, part CBT-styled guidance and support, this book gently and thoughtfully assists readers, allaying their fears and misconceptions they may be ruminating over when contemplating eating. It addresses head on the barriers to change, including perception and fear of nutrient content, GI issues and the consequences of change. Nutrition myths are broken down and justification and support for renourishing is provided.  It builds on a transference ...