Bulimia Recovery Tips # 2

My previous lesson was very long, but I hope you will take on board my words.

So let’s do a quick recap: I’ve recommended you to start
writing your DIARY and pointed out the importance of
Planning.

Today I will focus on your PLANNER.

Your planner should give you a BLUEPRINT to follow.
It should include:

1)When to eat
2)What and how much to eat
3)What to do when you feel in a certain way
4)What to do in certain situations

–WHEN TO EAT–

I know eating is something that is hard for you to even think
about… I hope that by this time you understood that your
fear of eating is something you have to break through to
recover.

You have to eat – there is no way around it! Your recovery
strategy is to eat regularly and often (I’m sure you heard
about it thousands times already!)

You should plan EXACTLY WHEN TO EAT (in terms of hours).
Your meals should be every 2,5 hour (max: every 3 hours).
That’s right!! Often meals will keep you away from binging,
because you won’t be hungry.

So first step is to plan your eating hours. Choose times that
suit your daily routine.

Example:
07.30am – breakfast
10.00am – snack
12.30pm – lunch
03.00pm – snack
05.30pm – dinner
08.00pm – snack

–WHAT AND HOW MUCH YOU EAT–

Ok, 6 meals day seem a lot, I know this :). BUT I didn’t
mention yet that all your meals will be quite small…
Small portions are much easier to keep inside the body. And
of course in general, it is very healthy for your digest
system to intake small and often portions of food.

Now the question is “what to eat?”:

In general when you first start eating with your plan, you
should avoid food that might trigger your binging/ purging
cycles. The second rule is to eat natural products.

When this is possible, try to prepare your food yourself.
Ready-made meals are not healthy in general.

Because it is tricky to be able to prepare a meal every few
hours, you might want to cook beforehand and put it into
small containers…

I won’t give you the exact menu to follow, because I don’t
know your triggers, your current health condition and other
personal circumstances of yours. If you have a nutritionist
who help you, you should listen to her/him. Or there are a
lot of books on this subject.

The rule is to be honest with yourself. Your goal is to be
healthy, so don’t allow your fear of food to destroy it –
don’t cheat yourself.

In terms of counting calories and weighting, this is also a
personal thing. Calories & weight are used for “controlling”
and they might be very dangerous.

On one hand, you need to know if you eat enough, on the other
hand – you don’t want a situation that you start restricting
your food intake.

I would say, you should try to trust yourself and eat small
regular meals without counting calories. BUT if you not able,
just follow the guidelines from your doctor.

Example meals (this is only example to give you the idea howyour daily food plan may look like)

07.30am – breakfast – muesli with banana and nuts

10.00am – snack – healthy bar & apple

12.30pm – lunch – sandwich & tuna salad

03.00pm – snack – veggie soup

05.30pm – dinner – salmon with vegetables and a few chips

08.00pm – snack – a biscuit with tea

*In your PLANNER, you should always have your daily food menu ready for at least 2 following days. When you have it all
written, you have much bigger chances to succeed.

–WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FEEL A CERTAIN WAY–

There will be many things going on in your head, which may
keep you away from your new eating routine. The main dangers
are your feelings: One minute you may feel empowered and
think “I will do it, I will be strong and help myself”, but
the minute after, you may find yourself panicking and wanting
to binge… /This is normal!/

You need a plan, to help you with dealing with your emotions.
Your PLAN – simple ‘to do’ list – should contain action steps
for your difficult moments.

Basically, you need to have a list of your possible actions to
take if you are angry, sad, discouraged, feel guilty,
just relapsed etc.

When you have your list ready in your planner, you will be
able to help yourself in a constructive or creative way.
As a Bulimic you use food to deal with your negative
emotions, when you have your list – the chances are that you
will pick one “idea” from your list and do it instead of
binging.

~Think about things you like or liked to do.
~Think about the things you wanted to do but never tried.
~Remind yourself your childhood to find things you enjoyed…

I am sure you will find at least 1 thing you always like to
do. If not, I will give you plenty of ideas later on.

–WHAT TO DO IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS–

Well, you now avoid dozens on situations and in fact you
shouldn’t… For example, going out with your friends is
difficult.

You probably even stopped doing so, because of your fear of
unexpected questions or situations. Again, if you have a plan
in place, it will all be easier.

People are worried about you and this is why they ask or
suggest stuff to you. Your reaction is really up to you. If
you are unprepared then all the negative feelings will be
stored inside you (and you don’t want that!)

Every new situation should be carefully planned by you
beforehand and noted in your PLANNER. Of course you are not
able to plan everything, but at least you should try to think
of what might happen and how you should react.

In many cases,you basically don’t want to say the truth about
your condition to others (this is ok – only you can choose
people you trust). Your plan will help you to protect yourself
from unnecessary stress.

I hope now you understand why you should
spend time planning your recovery strategy.

P.S. Next time I will focus on practical methods you can use in
your bulimia battle. There are many techniques you can use
to “teach” your subconscious to be healthy. There are also
many methods you can use in your daily life to prevent
yourself from binging & purging.

After you decide which techniques you want to use, it will be
the case of repetition and keeping yourself on the right
track:)

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BOOK RECOMENDATION:

Anorexia & Bulimia
“POSITIVE ENERGY TREATMENT”

by Karen Phillips

http://www.bulimiasecrets.com/ebook