If you or someone you love struggles with food and body distress, you are not alone. Unfortunately, over 30 million Americans struggle with eating disorders. When we talk about healing, we often talk about how important recovery is, what it involves, and how you can get there. But where is there? Recovery can feel like a leap of faith into the unknown, so here are four tangible reasons to heal your relationship with food.
By: Alexandra Carter
Diet culture labels food as good or bad. While “ranking” food might seem innocent, it causes more harm than anything else. Black-and-white thinking around food increases the likelihood that you will experience shame, guilt, anxiety, and fear around food, leaving you with a strained relationship based on fear, restriction, and judgment.
You deserve to heal your relationship with food, and although it might seem unrealistic right now, lasting recovery is possible. Recovery can feel vague and hard to grasp when you are struggling. And yet, there is so much to gain from compassionately connecting with food and your body. Imagine eating without anxiety, not having digestive struggles, and feeling more energized and passionate about your life. There are countless reasons to heal your relationship with food, but below are four tangible ones.
Reason 1: You will develop an anxiety-free, neutral relationship with food.
When you aren’t anxious about food, you don’t need to control, avoid, hide, or binge on it. Food doesn’t have to be stressful. Establishing a neutral relationship with food means saying goodbye to those feelings of guilt and shame that you currently feel around food. It is genuinely life-changing when food can be a peaceful part of your life instead of an all-consuming stressor.
Reason 2: You will relearn your body’s natural cues and how to honor them.
One of the significant harms caused by diet culture is how it erodes your connection to yourself and your body. Everyone is born with an intuitive connection to their body and food, and no matter how long you have been struggling with an eating disorder, you can rebuild that connection. Healing your relationship with food will allow you to relearn your body’s natural cues and how to honor them. Which means you will finally be able to eat without discomfort and disengagement.
Reason 3: You can regain a social life without anxiety and food.
Eating disorders can cause you to feel isolated and alone, especially because life often centers around food. But you deserve to participate in life without fear and anxiety. You can recapture your social life by healing your relationship with food. No longer will your social life be dictated by food stress. You can have meaningful relationships because you will not only have the bandwidth for them but will finally feel worthy of them (even though you always have been).
Reason 4: You will reclaim the mental capacity and energy to live your life fully.
Lastly, you will reclaim the mental capacity and energy to live your life fully. Eating disorders take up a lot of space in your brain. Often they dominate your thoughts, making it difficult to focus on much else. But through the healing process, you will regain the brain space to rediscover your passions, purpose, and power beyond your relationship with food. Recovery means rediscovering what it means to live your life beyond the burden of an eating disorder.
As mentioned above, this list could go on forever. The benefits of healing your relationship with food and your body are countless. It might seem unbelievable now, but recovery is possible, and with it comes all of this and much more.
Plus, you don’t have to do it alone. You deserve expert, empathetic guidance and support to help you navigate food challenges and achieve peace and harmony. At BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, our highly skilled clinicians are trained to diagnose and treat the spectrum of eating disorders and body image issues. We offer a full-time Day Treatment Program, Weeknight Program, individual nutrition counseling with a licensed dietitian, meal support, and various other groups and resources to assist those seeking help for food concerns. And click here to learn more about our 12-day spring break treatment program.
Our admissions team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about our programs and services. Book a free consultation call with our admissions team below, or read more about our philosophy here.
This post was written by Intuitive Eating | HAES Content Creator, Alexandra Carter (she/her).
Alexandra Carter is a professional actor, turned certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and Health and Wellbeing Coach, turned Content Creator. After moving to NYC for her undergraduate degree in Musical Theater, Alexandra spent 10 years working all over the world as an actor/singer/dancer. Through her own healing journey, Alexandra found her way to the anti-diet space and went on to gain coaching and counseling certifications, in addition to starting her own coaching business. It was there she fell in love with content creation as a way of sharing ideas, genuinely connecting with people, and affecting powerful change. Alexandra is thrilled to be on the team at BALANCE, combining all her skills and passions to foster authentic healing.
References
How to heal your relationship with food. Steve Rose, PhD. (2021, November 6). Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://steverosephd.com/heal-your-relationship-with-food/
Davidson, K. (2020, December 3). 5 tips for developing a better relationship with food. Healthline. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fixing-a-bad-relationship-with-food#tips
What are eating disorders? National Eating Disorders Association. (2023, January 18). Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/what-are-eating-disorders
