Posted on Friday 17 February 2006
Things Your Body May Go Through In Recovery
I have found that my body feels better in so many ways — but my digestion tends to be worse. I’ll share what happens to my body, because I found that it helped me to trust the process of recovery when I understood that these things were part of it. Keep in mind that this is not medical advice — it is only my experience. Your doctor or health care professional is the best person to talk to regarding your personal situation.
From my research, many bulimics (including me)– and maybe anorexics too — go through symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). In my experience, it did get better over time. In future posts, I’ll share some tips for easing digestive issues in recovery. Please talk to your doctor or health care professional before trying anything related to your eating or health. It’s so important to get guidance from a professional that you trust when it comes to your health.
Here is my list of some of the challenges my body goes through. I would appreciate if you share your experience as well. There is virtually nothing written about how the body recovers from an eating disorder. Most books, therapy and programs focus on ending the behavior — but not on helping us understand and cope with how our bodies react in the recovery process. Since most of us get a little freaky when our bodies do things we can’t control, it makes recovery more challenging. This is where trust comes in — start to trust your body — read my posts on learning to trust your body for some tips & actions you can take in your own recovery.
- Bloating - everywhere, legs, stomach, etc. I had a pregnant stomach effect for hours after eating or sometimes all day.
- Gas
- Constipation
- Some body pains — for me it was my face — my cheekbones, jaw & temples ached & needed to be massaged
- Nausea after eating or taking vitamins
- Discomfort after eating - maybe even for several hours
- More frequent urination during the day and/or at night - your body may have been retaining water or needs to balance now that is is getting the hydration it needs.
- Digestive discomfort sometime in the early morning (3:00 am - 6:00 am) - this is fairly normal, but I wasn’t used to it. I’ll give tips for this in another post.
Here’s my list of wonderful things that happen to my body in recovery:
- My knees feel better & stronger
- My back, neck and tailbone feel better - no more sore muscles
- My throat & esophagus feel better - no loger sore
- My teeth feel stronger and no loger hurt when I eat fruit, hot or cold beverages, etc.
- I sleep more soundly & for more hours - no more dark circles under my eyes
- I drink more water and my skin gets better — it’s softer, healthier looking & the redness goes away
- My face & neck are no longer puffy - you really notice a difference in pictures, even if it’s less noticeable day-to-day
- Less congestion - I feel like I can breathe better, even at night - this could also have something to do with foods you eat.
Toward Radiant Health
In recovery, I’ve had friends tell me I look radiantly healthy. The last time they visited me, they told my husband that I looked better than they had ever seen me look. Now I’m not saying that the focus should be looks or image — it wasn’t that I was more beautiful or anything — it’s that I looked so healthy, instead of tired and drawn. If you are reading this and you’re under 30, you may not realize how important health starts to become to people as they get into their 30’s and up. Looking & feeling healthy became more of a goal for me — it was too much of a challenge with an eating disorder.
Recovery is more than just body health, however — it’s a partnership of the mind, body and spirit. I noticed that over the years of my recovery, each area started to unfold. Every time I stumbled, I took a lesson from it. Every time I recovered, I felt so much better. I started to tell myself that I wanted to live. I just wanted to live — to feel good.
Heather,
Thank you again for this web site. I have 5 weeks in physical recovery. My body is going through some changes. I remind myself that I want to live a happy life and it’s going to take some practice to find my balance.
Sincerely,
kata
Kata, Congratulations!!!! I want to acknowledge and support you in your commitment to recovery! During this time, be really alert and aware of what your thoughts are doing. Practice catching them - it sounds like you are, since you continue to remind yourself aboaut having a happy life & finding balance. That will carry you through any challenges that might crop up. You deserve a lot of credit for honoring yourself in this way!
With love,
Heather
Is there anything to do to supress the bloating? Does the bloating initially causes you to gain weight or just feel like you have?
Hi Karen, there are two things that happen: bloating & edema. Both generally look like you gained weight, when in fact, you haven’t. How do you tell? If you all of the sudden look different/bigger than you usually do, almost overnight — it’s probably bloating or edema.
For me, my whole lower body looked like it was inflated with water. I bet no one else noticed it, but I sure did! However, I decided to trust my body and understand that this is the normal process. After it subsided, my body actually looked better than it did when I was b/p. It looked normal, finally! I stopped having these sudden overnight bloatings, that I’d often get when b/p.
The same thing happens with anorexia, although I’m not sure for how long. It depends on the severity of the ED. It eventually subsides. It takes a lot of trust to get through it.
It’s not weight gain, alghough if you get on a scale, it may look like it is. Remember what we learned about our periods growing up? That we could get bloated and gain weight before our periods? Since our bodies are holding onto water, the scale may show a higher weight and our clothes may be tighter — but it’s not “weight.”
The final consideration on suppressing bloating is if there are digestive issues (food allergies, IBS, Chron’s, etc.). Eating the foods that support your body will enable you to get through the bloating more easily, because you won’t be eating foods that contribute to it. One word of caution though, when you start eating foods that heal your body, you may get gassy & bloating at first. This is because the healthy microflora in your body are fighting the unhealthy bacteria that built up in your body (reason for the digestive distress to begin with).
As our bodies balance, as they heal, there is always a stage where discomfort may occur. This is normal for a body seeking balance. Trust the process. We owe it to ourselves to ride it out and see what’s on the other side. What if what’s on the other side is more wonderful than we could have imagined? What if we never tried it — and missed out on the freedom we could feel?
With love,
Heather
thanks for the quite response. I’m concerned because I am in a wedding in four weeks and I don’t want to look like a blimp. I know I shouldn’t care, but what if my dress is too small on me or something? How long does the bloating typically last? the whole concept of it makes me completely anxous.
Hi Karen, For me it lasted for 6 - 10 days. Keep in mind that during this time, I was not eating any foods that promoted food allergy responses. I was following the BED, whick allowed my body to start healing. That helped a lot. I’m not sure what it would have been like if I was eating things like wheat and sugar — but everyone is different. For me, wheat and sugar causes bloating and abdominal pain.
If you are eating foods that don’t cause those symptoms, you should be okay. Trust yourself. Make sure you have something to wear at the wedding that you feel completely comfortable in. Tight close tend to cause body consciousness and anxiety.
You may want to consider writing some affirmations about trusting your body to take care of you. And about loving yourself & your body unconditionally. Keep feeding your mind healthy thoughts, ideas and beliefs. It’s kind of like a retraining. Remember that we have two brains — head and gut. They support one another — our beliefs are responsible for 35% of our health according to studies, although Louise Hay and others may tell you it’s higer than that. Our minds have the power to create what we want or limit us. It’s all based on our thoughts.
Karen, I know you do a lot of things to help your mind support your body. Now is a great time to utilize them to get through the scary parts of recovery. You might like what you see on the other side!
With love,
Heather
well, I am in the wedding so I have to have the dress fitted like now. I’m just concerned it will be too tight on me or something in a month..I think I should be fine. I’m just still so concerned about being beatiful, just b/c I am so conerned about how others perceive me. I realize I need to be more concerned about how I feel on the inside. Thanks for the info. It really helped me out. Another quick question for you…I am 25 and my friends & I drink socially. Do you think it is detrimental to recovery?
Hi Karen, Yes — I love that you know that focusing on the way you feel inside is most important! Also, trust your body. With ED, we often have this idea that we’ll blow up like balloons overnight. Our bodies don’t do that. With healthy eating, self-love and gentle movement/exercise, our bodies support us.
Regarding alcohol, here’s the thing I’ve learned in my own recovery: it feeds the yeast/Candida. Many people with ED have Candida. It’s not written about much, but one of the treatment centers just came out with a statistic that said 80% of their patients have Candida. This is something that Donna Gates wrote about in The Body Ecology Diet. Alcohol does feed the yeast, just like sugar. What I did at first was choose the lowest sugar alcohol (scotch, maybe vodka) and sipped that slowly. Just one drink every now and then. That’s what I did in the beginning, before I really recovered.
After awhile, I realized that alcohol contributed to wanting to binge. That’s the yeast talking — it starts clamoring for more. So I stopped drinking alcohol all together. My recommendation is to see what works for you. Really pay attention to how it affects you during, right after and the day after. Pay attention to everything — your mood, cravings, how you eat, fatigue, energy levels, etc. Then decide what you want to do.
The best thing you can do is to have a feeling of trust — if you do something, trust that you’ll be okay. If you’re going to drink anyway, just feel good about it. If you find out later that it didn’t work for you, decide what to do then. Better to experiment with what works for you, than worry about everything you do. I spent a lot of wasted time worrying about everything I did — worrying that it would be bad for me. When you are committed to recovery and really taking care of yourself, you can get through many challenges and learn from them. Trust yourself!
With love,
Heather
I have been on the BED diet for about 6-8weeks. I say this because I had some stuff that was not on the diet at first by accident (almond butter).I have a question does it take some time for your body to know you are not going to b/p the food that you are eating. I have not gain any weight maybe lost some for sure bloating is gone. I know that my weight should not be the important thing here. The fact that I am eating to heal myself and not purging is a milestone in itself.
Hi Kelly, Thank you for visiting my blog! It’s wonderful that you are experiencing good results on the Body Ecology diet. I acknowledge you for your progress.
I ate a little almond butter in the beginning too, along with some other things, like walnuts, that were not on the program for the initial digestive repair phase. Mostly because I was in the Caribbean and didn’t have all the choices. I found that my digestion still felt good, so it was okay for me.
Follow your intuition when it comes to foods you eat, even while you are following the BED. The more you tune into your inner body, the more you will feel signals that tell you what will make you feel good to eat.
While many of us have been brought up to think that eating food and digesting means weight gain, this is absolutely not true. Eating foods that are wrong for our bodies, stress and chemicals in the household and environment and toxic emotions are what causes weight gain. When you are eating healing foods and repairing your digestive system — while at the same time, releasing emotions and thoughts that don’t serve you, you will find that your body supports you with healthy weight.
I don’t think there is any fixed guideline for whether your body knows you will b/p the food you are eating. I do think that your body will start to feel better with food inside it. And you will start to know the types of foods and quantity of food that feels best inside of your body. With more self-love, you will also want to keep your blood sugar strong throughout the day so that your good moods are supported. You’ll think less about calories and more about how to keep your energy strong and consisitent.
All fo this happens over time. When you start to recover, trust and love where you are in that moment — instead of looking ahead and expecting perfect health goals to be accomplished immediately. You are setting a foundation for the rest of your life, so take your time and celebrate where you are in each moment.
With love,
Heather