navigating new year's resolutions in eating disorder recovery
Setting a goal and working towards it can be an empowering feeling. New Year’s resolutions have become a landmark of goal-setting for millions of people in Western culture. However, diet culture has managed to co-opt the meaning of what is meant to be personal, individualized resolutions into toxic, fear-mongering, and often fatphobic messaging.
New Year’s marketing will try to tell you that the only acceptable resolutions are ones wherein change is evident from the outside, typically achieved when a person alters their physical form in some way with dieting or exercise.
What Are The Consequences?
The results of this messaging can be incredibly harmful. Realizing these unrealistic and prohibitive goals is disappointing, disempowering, and distressing for many individuals. For some, especially if they have struggled with or are recovering from an eating disorder, New Year’s resolutions can seriously factor into their physical and mental health. For instance, this time of the year can be triggering for many who have complicated relationships with exercise due to an influx of people who have “resolved” to go to the gym. If we are not protective of our mental health, it is easy to see how disordered behaviors are almost culturally encouraged.
What Are Other Alternatives?
Whether you are a New Year’s resolution maker or not, having big and small goals has increased overall life satisfaction for most people. The good news is you get to choose whether these societally prescribed goals will be helpful for you as an individual and explore what else might be possible to work toward with your recovery in mind. You are not obligated to set New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, do whatever works for you and aligns with your recovery journey. Let’s put it this way: Imagine a world without diet culture and fatphobia dictating your life goals. Got it? Now visualize what you want to accomplish, work toward, or grow from this coming calendar year.
It can feel almost impossible amidst such strong societal messaging to go against the current; if you need assistance constructing what body-neutral resolutions look like, BALANCE is here to help.
BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™, located in New York City, offers free consultation calls to help you explore next steps. We provide in-person programming seven days a week and are in-network with UnitedHealthcare (UHC), Cigna, Emblem, and Oscar, with Aetna coverage coming soon. Support is available, and recovery is possible. Schedule a free consultation call with our admissions team here and stay connected with BALANCE on Instagram here.
This post was written by BALANCE Social Work Intern, Hannah Duke (she/her).
Hannah Duke is a Graduate Clinical Intern at BALANCE eating disorder treatment center™. Hannah graduated from New York University, where she studied psychology, media studies, and creative writing. She is currently on track to obtain her MSW at NYU’s Silver School of Social Work in the Spring of 2023, where she previously worked with substance use disorders. Hannah is passionate about working with individuals who struggle with eating disorders and utilizes a HAES, anti-diet culture approach. She is also a registered yoga teacher and believes strongly in the power of mindfulness and community as invaluable tools in recovery.
