Striking the Balance... Eating Disorder Recovery and Exercise

Striking the Balance... Eating Disorders and Exercise

Striking the balance between eating disorder recovery and exercise can be a challenging endeavor because it can look very different for different people. Part of the reason that it can feel so challenging is that it can be both a positive coping skill and a negative coping skill at the same time.

Many people who have disordered eating use exercise as a way to control their eating disorder. Yet while in recovery we want to step away from control and into the experience of trusting the body. In doing that, we often use coping skills. One of which, for many people, can be exercise.

So how do we manage exercise when someone is using it for both positive and negative uses simultaneously?

Depending on how severe the eating disorder is or how strong of a relationship that exercise has to the eating disorder, the recommendation may be to do a way with it for a period of time. We can also direct ‘exercise’ to look more like movement for the sake of moving. These practices usually come in the form of yoga or another mindfulness related practice.

It can be incredibly beneficial to take dedicated time off so that someone can get back in touch with what their body is asking for, at any given moment, without a pre-existing agenda that exercise will take place.

What about eating and exercise when you have an eating disorder?

By taking an Intuitive Eating approach to recovery, the goal is to work on hunger and fullness cues, that way there is less thought that goes into eating decisions and more feeling. By using our feeling skills, we have awareness around when it is time to eat. Therefore, if someone is restricting because they did not exercise or eating to a put of over-fullness because they did, there is space to learn a more intuitive approach to our body’s and our minds.

Recovery is possible. Having a balanced relationship between exercise and food is possible. Your eating disorder does not have to rule your life.

If you are interested in seeking support I would love to work with you towards reaching your goals and redefining the relationship that you have with your body. If you are interested in learning more about how I work with intuitive eating, body image dissatisfaction, and disordered eating with eating disorder treatment, I encourage you to read more. 

If you are interested in setting up a free 20 minute consultation please reach out!

-Ellie