‘All In’ On Movement?

A Post Originally Written For Instagram Towards The Start Of My Recovery:

‘All In’ Challenges but what about Stopping Movement??

In the eating disorder recovery community we often talk in black and white about going ‘all in’ in recovery with eating – responding to hunger, facing challenges and food fears etc…

BUT what about the movement?

Recovery takes rest to allow physical healing and to neurally rewire the link in the brain between eating and compulsive exercise, walking, standing, lower level movement…. Stopping these behaviours and resting is therefore crucial to recovery- whatever approach you use to do so.

I hold my hands up that the movement side of recovery is something I would rather crawl out of my skin than address and I know many others are the same.
PLUS I could easily weight restore by eating more alone and keep the movement compulsions in place – I know this as I have before.

BUT if I do not deal with the compulsive movement, alongside the eating this time, recovery remains elusive and as before the eating disorder will worm back in until full relapse hits and I am back to square one.

The movement too is sneaky: easy to hide and easy to deny (even to ourselves)…. Excuses to go up and downstairs more than necessary, walks because it is a nice day or to save petrol, housework, standing instead of sitting.
Any small excuse to move, the eating disorder loves.

So, All In Eating but what about dealing with movement at the same time?

I know too that I find when I rest my body my brain does become calmer and hunger comes through.
People who are sick rest, nourish and let themselves recover. We might not realise it right now but we are sick – very sick and we need to treat ourselves with that same level of care and respect.

So, for me – renewed efforts for better levels of rest while continuing to eat well.

A future of binge watching TV shows, movies, PJ days, trashy novels could be ours… we have spent long enough punishing our legs and bodies through movement – we owe it a bit of resting time, while nourishing it with delicious foods!