My prescription for obsessive eating or orthorexia is : eat. Let go of any and all food rules and restriction and acceptable eating amounts. Eat more than you ever thought you should. Neutralize all foods. Allow binges (and by doing that, it becomes not a binge.)

Eat and eat and eat, and eat the things you are scared of, until eating is just eating and food is just food.

It works. Especially when you are supporting your emotions and fears, and helping create a new expansive identity beyond food and body obsession.

It heals your metabolism and fixation on food.

It is the way to get to true intuitive eating. Attuned eating. Eating where you are able to simply listen to your hunger and cravings and not judge them for not being healthy enough, or not being what you expected or heard was acceptable.

“Healthy Food”

Lots of people think Yea well, I’ll eat, but I’ll only eat good healthy foods.

I want to share my view on “healthy” and organic foods.

Besides the fact that “healthy” is subjective, and the healthiest thing for you is what you crave in this very moment. And therefore healthy changes from day to day depending on what you need….

I LOVE healthy and organic foods. Maybe selfishly, I truly wish we lived in a world where access to healthy, sustainably and humanely raised, organic, non GMO, real delicious buttery food was the norm. I wish we could get back there. I wish it was accessible to everyone. I wish that was the food we ate. At least I wish that was the food I found everywhere I go.

In general, I like that food better. It tastes better to me. It feels better to me. And, perk, it helps our planet too.

And I’m not talking about low cal BS. I’m talking the real stuff.

But… it still doesn’t help to fear the other stuff. The” shit food”, as I call it, it IS all neutral. It is important to eat that food when you want it. In whatever quantity you want it. Forevermore. It is important to enjoy it, release all fear of it, and enjoy it.

Remember this: Perfect health does not exist by eating perfect foods.

Sorry about it. Eating pure perfect foods isn’t the be all end all. If it was, I would have cured myself doing the paleo diet and I never would have started The Fuck It Diet. Perfect food (whatever that is) does not cure all our earthly woes and health problems. And some “shit food”, as I sometimes call it, will not ruin our health.

It just won’t.

As Linda Bacon says in Body Respect, what has more impact on our health than anything else is how much power, autonomy, and agency we have in our lives. Feeling stressed, marginalized, financial burdens, prejudice, and fear of the very things we are using to sustain our life force cause more health problems than any health habit.

Fearing food is not good for us.

Part of orthorexic or food obsession recovery is about  truly neutralizing food and weight. And that includes eating any and all food you want. Especially foods that scare you. Rancid fried oils in your nachos? Bring it on. It can not will not ruin your life or your health. It just doesn’t hold that much power.

Realizing that no one food has the power to heal or destroy you (unless you are legit allergic to it, in which case, more power to you! Become aware of that stuff. Thank your body for communicating so amazingly to you.)

Are rancid fried restaurant oils the best? Surely not. Does it matter in the big picture. NO.

Pop tarts might be just the thing for you. It will help you heal your fear of foods, it’ll let your whole being know you are feeding and taking care of yourself physically and emotionally, and it’ll do just as much work to speed up and repair your metabolism as a “healthier” food.

Intuitive Health Food

It is so essential to eat foods because you want and crave them. The best bet to getting to a place where you are really eating what you want and crave, is to get through all fear and food fixation. If you are eating wild salmon because you are forcing yourself to, as opposed to when you really really really want it, your health will flourish so much more from eating it when you crave and want it.

Organic, whole foods are great. I think you are great for your health, happiness, taste buds, and the planet, but trust your body when it wants other things. Trust this process.

Do not force health foods on yourself. Be open to eating and exploring them when you want them. Until then, realize that your nachos and pop tarts are exactly where you need to be. You can trust your body to lead you right. Give it time.

This story is from a Mentee that I have worked with for a year now. She wants to remain anonymous, choosing to go by the name Magnum Macncheese. (Caroline Haagen, anyone?!?!). English is her second language, so I have edited some of the phrases to read more fluently.

During our time working together, she was so worried that she was eating way too much, that she would never stop gaining weight, and that she would never accept her body again. Reading this, I’m really proud of and excited for her.

 

I was 30 when I first had an eating disorder. I was working full time and doing my post doctorate education. Combining that with my lifelong personality traits of perfectionism, introversion, and insecurity – it triggered an eating disorder.

I exercised a lot (running) and started to restrict my calories more and more until I was severely underweight. I couldn’t sleep anymore, couldn’t watch tv because my mind was occupied with meal planning/skipping, and I constantly thought of food/calories and how to compensate.

I got help. And it worked a bit, but after a year of therapy I was still underweight. Though not as dangerously underweight anymore. So I lived my life until I got pregnant at the age of 34 and my eating disorder was triggered again.

After I gave birth to my daughter I was at my lowest weight ever. Something had to change. My family and friends were really worried and my doctor wanted me to go inpatient. But of course, as a new mom that would be my worst nightmare. So I started to search for treatment options and came across youreatopia.com and Minniemaud (*see note at the bottom from Caroline).

I read the literature for days and days and decided this would be my way to recover.

I jumped in. And it was hard. I started to eat whatever, whenever, and as much as I wanted. I promised myself to ‘de-head’ myself for a couple of months, not use my head, not think about my eating, and just eat whenever I was hungry/thinking of food/craving something, or when I couldn’t sleep.  It meant that I ate lots and lots of food. Day and night. And I quit all exercise.

I got hit by extreme hunger. I could eat bars and bars of chocolate, chunks of cheese, family bags of cookies in one sitting. I ate to nausea and had to lay down sometimes and still crave more food. And then I ate again. I promised myself that thinking or wanting food was a sign of my starved body. I knew I had to give my body what it wanted in order to make it trust me again. It took months. The extreme hunger lasted for months. I had extreme hunger episodes three times a day/night for months! But it helped me overcome a lot of fears.

I ate all the food I was afraid of, I didn’t do it step by step but just took the plunge. I had a lot of fear after the eating sessions. I thought I would become obese, that would never stop eating junk again, or that I was developing Binge Eating Disorder, etc. I even had a purging thought after extreme hunger when I had never purged during my eating disorder.

At times I wanted to exercise more. But I didn’t. I quit all exercise. I knew I had to eat without any form of compensation in order to heal. Physically and mentally. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it saved my life.

After half a year or so my eating started to stabilize. I didn’t have a lot of extreme hunger anymore. Sometimes I did (and still do) but now I know it’s because of my period/stress/busy times or something. Or before I got the flu or after I was sick. My body is so smart. That’s what I learned. It knows perfectly well how to cope in times of distress.

Caroline helped me a lot on this journey. She could always put things in perspective, and tell me that what was happening was all normal.

The hardest thing was letting go of counting calories. It was such a habit. I knew the caloric value of all different kinds of lettuce for crying out loud. But it gets better. Sometimes I still count or add things I eat in my mind, but I can much easier say to myself  ‘well whatever, my body probably needs it’.

I stopped weighing myself immediately when I started eating again. Really scary but I’m positive this is one of the things that helped me most. I still don’t know what I weigh now. I’m fine with it. I’m pregnant again and I’m not going to weigh myself. I never want to risk interfering with what my body wants again. So all thoughts I have about weighing /exercising/how much I should or shouldn’t eat, I label those thought as my old eating disordered thoughts wanting to gain power again. And I know for sure that if I give in, it will become more powerful. So I put those thoughts aside and trust my inner gut feeling.

My life is so much better now. I eat what I want, I never compensate, I can be a good example to my kids, I can sleep again, go out for dinner spontaneously even though I had a big lunch, and concentrate again. I don’t give a shit anymore about cooking/watching or reading food related stuff. I can live my life again. I can even like vegetables again after a year of just eating veggies in the form of potato chips or apple dipped in cashew nut butter…..

It changes,  It really does. We just have to trust our bodies.

–Magnum Macncheese Cashewnutbutter, Denmark

 

* Youreatopia.com is an excellent source for recovery for extreme restrictive eating disorders using Minnimaud, a radical science based eating disorder recovery method that focuses on eating A LOT OF FOOD as opposed to strict meal plans. If you have an extreme restrictive eating disorder, I recommend you seek help from an eating disorder professional and read Youreatopia.com.

My site and method are congruent with Minnimaud, but I do not specialize in coaching restrictive eating disorders, I specialize in the emotional chiropractoring soul recovery that comes with the aftermath of an eating disorder or people who have dieted a lot and want to stop. Magnum and I worked together once she was well into the eating/recovery process, getting support to keep going and getting her life back in place.

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN EATING DISORDER, Extreme Hunger still may apply to you. It did for me. Most people who have been restricting, even if it isn’t full blown anorexia, need to eat a lot of food in order to normalize their appetites, metabolism, and to neutralize food. So Magnum’s story is applicable to us all!

Do you still think, if I could just get a little bit more self control, then I’d be able to eat normally.

Do you still find yourself thinking, well, I’ll eat what I want, but I just won’t eat a lot.

Do you think, well as soon as I start eating better than THIS, everything will fall into place.

Do you still find yourself hoping that “better willpower” is going to be the answer to all your food (and life) problems?

Are you half-assedly “not dieting” but also know you’re still holding on a little too tight?

Yea?

Have I mentioned Isabel Foxen Duke to you before?

Cause she is amazing.

If what I’ve said above resonates, I want you to watch the videos in her free training series.

Isabel is a brilliant badass, and a master when it comes to getting women normal with food.

She is one of the only teachers out there who I think really nails it on how to help women end the vicious diet cycle.

Her first video is all about Why Willpower is Not the Answer.

If you want access to her whole free video training series, get it here.

And reply to let me know what you think!