Once you start your path to eating disorder recovery, how can you keep going?  What happens when your good intentions begin to slip away? How can you bring them back?

Eating disorder recovery, or recovery from disordered eating whatever form that takes, is not about finding and sticking to a diet.  But the pattern of failure can be familiar as you lose momentum in your recovery work. To stay on your healing path you need

You've probably started many diets with enthusiasm, hope and every intention of following through.  Yet time and time again the program loses its luster.  You either give up or become lax in following the scheduled regime.  Perhaps you lost or gained the weight you wanted to change and went back to old eating habits.  You figured that once you arrived at or near your goal weight you didn't need that diet anymore.  Or, more likely, you encounted stress in your life that you couldn't cope with without your old eating patterns. This doesn't have to be an ingrained pattern for your efforts to get into real and lasting recovery.

Develop Your Recovery Check In

What you need to incorporate into your recovery plan is a check point where you can assess your development.

And you need to check yourself so you can notice and make adjustments while you remain in recovery.  You don't need to feel like you've failed and surrender to your eating disorder with shame, guilt and despair. You can catch yourself before you fall.

On the Women's Conference Blog in the "our kitchen table" section, Ann Pardo gives her list of five New Year's Resolutions. I like them.  But New Year's resolutions can lose their power as the months of the year go by.  Many are broken before even January is completed.

I suggest that you use these resolutions as part of your check list for recovery.  Set them up where you can see them on a regular basis.  Make it a point to review them once a week.

Ann Pardo's Resolutions as Check In Points

1.    In 2010, I will BUILD a relationship with food that is ________________.

Think about a positive way to approach food. ................. At the end of every day, ask yourself if you stayed on target. Isn’t this approach better than making a caloric goal?

2.    In 2010, I will DESIGN my relationship with exercise to be ________________.

Exercise offers much more than just physical fitness.  Think of terms like social, community-based, sensual, experimental, natural, joyous and multi-dimensional.  .........

3.    In 2010, I will CREATE relationships with my care providers that are ________________.
Care providers include doctors, dentists, massage therapists, spiritual guides, beloved Labrador retrievers and goldfish, best friends, and soul mates. Relationships may be connected, appreciative, mutually exciting, friendly, etc.  Studies have shown that patients who appreciate their providers actually receive enhanced treatment, so create positive relationships with your care providers now.

4.    In 2010, I will DESIGN a relationship with my mind, my brain and my soul that is ________________.
I like the word “graceful” for this category. You can borrow it or find your own word.  This task is not easily quantifiable, but you will know at day’s end how close you came t........<celebrating>............your innermost being?

5.    In 2010, I will EXAMINE my relationship to my core health value(s) and ________________.
Think about why you value your health.

Benefits

A check point like this can show you if you are honoring what you honor and following through on what you care about.  Such checking will help you stay on your eating disorder recovery path.  You really are on a journey to a better life as you leave your eating disorder behind and invest in what you truly care about.