Eating disorder recovery is not a linear journey. It often involves one step forward and two steps back as you rebuild your relationship with yourself and your body. An important part of your treatment is finding peace with food — a task that may feel impossible right now.

For today’s blog post, I want to share four tips to help you find peace with food.

1. Focus on the next step.

Finding peace with food takes time. It’s a process that may lead to anxiety, uncertainty, discouragement, and overwhelming fear. Think about each choice as a rung on a ladder. You can build on yesterday’s decisions, but if you get off track, that’s okay too! You’re only knocked down a step or two. Instead of looking ahead to next week or next month, focus only on the day — or even the meal — ahead

2. Be positive.

Your thoughts are incredibly powerful. Your beliefs about your body image and food choices influence how you feel, which in turn impacts your behaviors. For instance, as you get dressed in the morning, you may cycle through negative thoughts about your body. Instead of isolating yourself because of these feelings, let yourself feel them while moving towards something better. Remember that two things can be true: You can feel unhappy about your body shape and size, and you can engage in your day with hope and self-compassion.

3. Know your values.

What is motivating your eating disorder recovery journey and your desire to find peace with food? I encourage you to write down the reasons why you want to heal your body and improve your relationship with food. Think about what finding peace with food looks like to you. This exercise should inspire you! You can refer back to your words when the healing process feels especially challenging.

4. Practice mindfulness.

If you truly want a peaceful relationship with food, it’s important to tune out the outside noise, negative self-talk, and eating disorder voice. This experience can feel awkward when you’ve allowed these thoughts to dictate so many of your choices. Quiet your mind and ground yourself in the present moment. Take deep breaths as you connect to what you know to be true — beliefs like “I am stronger than I was yesterday” and “I am not defined by my eating disorder.”

Later this month, we celebrate Weight Stigma Awareness Week, which ties into the importance of finding peace with food. 

You can never find peace with food if you feel shame or guilt towards your body. Created and co-hosted by The Body Equity Alliance and Within Health, this event intends to empower and educate people to end the traumatic and destructive anti-fatness rooted in shame, racism, and discrimination related to body shape and size. On September 24th through 26th, join ten live virtual education events to learn more about combatting weight stigma. You can also use the social media toolkit to engage with your own community about this critical topic. Click here to learn more, and stay tuned for my personal support of Weight Stigma Awareness Week on my social media channels.

Discover the possibility of living a meaningful life. Discover the possibility of recovery. Reach out to Dr. Benaaz Russell, PsyD, CEDS-S, today to schedule an appointment!