How to overcome an eating disorder

A couple of weeks ago I shared my story about my battle with Orthorexia and some of the lessons I learnt from that time. It was heartwarming to have so many of you get in touch to thank me for sharing my journey and to open the conversation around eating disorders.

I also realised how many people struggle with thier eating habits. So I decided to follow-up that blog post with a guide to overcoming unhealthy eating habits based on personal experience and share some of the ways I was able to change my thinking around food.

Quick disclosure, I'm not a medical professional and have no medical experience in this field.

I did, however, overcome Orthorexia on my own through implementing changes based on advice and my own research. These are just suggestions based on things I found worked for me. If you are dealing with an eating disorder and feel you need proper medical advice, please see your doctor.

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Remove the labels

Orthorexia, like many other eating disorders, is built on the belief that certain foods are healthy and certain foods are not. It manifests on the categorisation and labelling of food.

With those labels come different responses. When we eat something we class as healthy, we praise ourselves, pat ourselves on the back and create a 'feel-good' moment. On the other hand, when we eat food we perceive to be unhealthy we feel guilty and create a negative response. The pleasure of eating 'unhealthy' food is so short-lived because we suddenly feel as if we have to rectify the situation and make right our wrongs.

One of the most effective ways to combat this thinking pattern is by removing the labels. Food is food. It's that simple.

There is no such thing as healthy food and unhealthy food - just food. Yes, some foods contain a higher nutritional value than others and some might be better suited to higher consumption than others, but it's still food.

One of my biggest pet-peeve is when I hear people say how they are really craving a cupcake, for instance, but then follow-up with "but I shouldn't because it's unhealthy, so I won't." The problem here is that the cupcake has now been associated with a negative response. A cupcake should be enjoyable, not make you feel guilty!

Just to make it clear I'm not saying we should eat junk food or sweet treats all the time, obviously, some common sense here is needed. What I am saying is when you do choose to have a treat, enjoy it and steer away from labelling it as anything other than food. A cupcake still has value, it's classed under what I call 'soul food' because it's good for the soul. It brings happiness to you, therefore, has value to being part of your diet. Every single food has value in some form.

Eat intuitively

Learning to eat intuitively can be a very powerful tool when overcoming an eating disorder or when trying to better your relationship with food. It basically means learning to listen to your body, it's cravings and it's hunger cues.

One of the hardest things I struggled to let go of when working through Orthorexia was calorie counting. I was obsessed with counting everything I ate. just to make sure I wouldn't accidentally eat too much. I was terrified that if I didn't, I'd have a few too many calories and one day be suddenly 10kg heavier!

I seriously believed it could be that instant. While we're here I'll quickly make one thing straight - say you usually eat 2,000 calories a day, it would take an additional 3,500 calories in one day to gain 0.4kg - so stop stressing.

Calorie counting is a great tool when used correctly and I'm not saying it's all bad. But you need to assess whether counting your calories is having a positive effect on your body physically and mentally. For me, it was clearly negative as I couldn't even trust myself to know what to eat, how much and when without it.

The best way to break away from calorie counting in my experience isn't to go cold turkey. If you suddenly take that tool away from yourself you'll panic and end up running back to your fitness pal app or just start sneakily counting in your head.

At the start, I would allow myself to track my breakfast, morning tea, lunch and then stop in the afternoon without tracking dinner. By allowing myself to track the start of my day I still felt like I had some control and that I was still in my usual routine. But as I slowly stopped counting in the afternoons it became easier to ditch the process altogether.

Once counting calories is out of the equation, you're left with only your body to rely on to make food choices. You'll start to tap into understanding your body and its needs.

Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. Satisfy a craving, fuel up on veggies when you're feeling run down. Food doesn't need to complicated.

The portion trick

If you're at the stage where you've identified a need to put on weight but are still struggling mentally when it comes to food, try the portion trick. It's easy to bulk up meals in caloric value without actually giving it the appearance of being a bigger meal. For instance, toss a few tablespoons of sunflower and pumpkin seeds over your salad - that's around 60 additional calories and the size of your meal will not have changed.

Olive oil, protein powders, chia seeds in smoothies, hemp seeds on toast, rice noodles to a stir fry ... there are endless ways you can add to meals without feeling like you've necessarily eaten more.

Overcoming discomfort

One of the symptoms of Orthorexia is the feeling of guilt and discomfort that comes with eating something outside of ones usual diet. In order to overcome this, you need to face the problem straight on.

When I was in my recovery stage and felt like some dark chocolate for dessert but heard a voice in my head tell me I shouldn't, I would start an internal dialogue with myself.

I'd say: "I feel like some chocolate tonight, I am acknowledging my body's craving and will satisfy it with a certain amount of control so I don't have to feel bad. By eating a row of chocolate, I am listening to my body and not depriving myself only to end up binging later on."

I would then eat the chocolate and sit quietly to address the feeling of discomfort. I would continue doing this anytime I felt I was "breaking the rules" of my diet realm until eventually, I would stop feeling uncomfortable.

By learning to accept and deal with your feelings, it will stop being uncomfortable and the sense of guilt will fade with it.

Change your language

Picture this: You're about to go out to dinner with your friends and are nearly ready to leave the house. You've spent the past hour getting ready and feel good about how you look. But as you go to check yourself in the mirror one last time, the voice inside your head whispers: "Look at your waist, it's too big. I need to start dieting again this week to lose that fat."

You lean in closer to the mirror and start nitpicking your appearance. The more you stare, the more faults you notice and the louder the voice gets. Words like "fat" and "ugly" swirl around in your mind until you've accepted them as being true. You start to see yourself differently to how you really look. The words stick to your brain and haunt you for the rest of the night causing you to steer away from certain foods when out for dinner and opting out on a dessert - even though you desperately want one.

Sound familiar?

How we speak to ourselves and the words we use is so important to our overall wellbeing. When suffering from an eating disorder, your self-talk can take a very dark turn.

The voice in your head can create illusions that are far from the truth. The only way to stop this is to be ruthless with your inner dialogue.

Don't accept it. Don't accept it's lies.

When you're looking at yourself in the mirror, choose to focus on the positive and beautiful things about yourself. If this is difficult, try avoiding the situation altogether. I used to not let myself linger in front of the mirror because I found the longer I stared, the more likely I was to perceive a fault.

Making an effort to change your self-talk and focus on what you have, rather than what you don't, will make you a much happier person and set you on the path to healing.

Seek the beauty within you.