Did you know that this week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week? I didn’t know until I started seeing some articles about it. It’s a difficult topic to talk about. When you delve into the subject you start to see it everywhere. Diet culture is everywhere and it’s so hard to avoid. There are things you can do to try and change that culture in your own life. Read about that here.
The thing about eating disorders is that even if you are doing “better”…those old habits and thoughts can rear their ugly heads. For me, it was recently with my arthritis medication not working as well anymore. I was doing really well, I was working out like I wanted to, I was even doing short jog/walk intervals on the treadmill. Then I was back to limping and having ankle pain. It was depressing and I found myself picking up old habits. I realized that it was about control. I missed the old me. I missed being able to just go to the gym and do any kind of workout I wanted, pain-free. I missed not having to think “will this be a bad day?”
So when your life feels out of control, what is something you can control? Food. I found myself back to demonizing carbs. To restricting. To ignoring hunger cues. To not eating snacks and limiting my food to just three meals, even when my body and mind was not ok with that. Eating Lean Cuisines for lunch, even though it wasn’t enough food. Etc etc etc.
*If* my body wasn’t feeling so broken right now? I KNOW I would have been doing punishing workouts as well, like I used to, to try and burn the most calories as possible.
What do we do when that happens? We need to be kind to ourself. We need to be gentle. We need to remind ourselves that LIFE changes. Our BODIES change. We are NOT meant to look the same at 40 as we did at 28.
It’s a different chapter in my life, I no longer have all the time in the world. When I have free time I use it wisely. Instead of one long, punishing workout, I do small bursts of movement throughout the day. I do what I can. And I make room for hobbies and the kids and friends.
Being aware of the slippery slope is the first step. Then being kind to ourselves. Try to shut out the “noise.” What are you doing to take care of yourself?
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