EDAW19 – Socking it to Eating Disorders

It’s Monday, again. My son woke me up at around 6:30a.m and we pottered around the house for an hour or so, as usual. Then I made myself a cup of tea. Nothing out of the ordinary here right? But then I sat down to enjoy my morning brew with a slice of toast, slathered in butter AND peanut butter. “So what” you’re probably thinking? Well, two years ago this would’ve been a somewhat impossible feat. In fact if you spoke with my dietitian, she would in fact tell you that one of the first goals I ever set with her was “to spread as much peanut butter as I like on my toast instead of measuring it.” SMASHED IT MATE!!! But all jokes aside, when I look back at this target that I initially set for myself, I genuinely feel sad. Sad for the girl who weighed everything religiously, who felt she HAD to do that. But I am also proud that she is getting stronger every single day. I am so thankful that she kept going, even when she honestly believed she had no fight left. It’s been a real journey….. and it hasn’t all just been yoga, green tea and avocados (I don’t even like avocados). It’s actually been the hardest work I have EVER done. So for Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2019 I am planning to write a blog post every day – not only to celebrate my successes so far, but also to try and educate people further on what is still such a stigmatised subject. (If you’re new to the blog you can find my first ED recovery post here.)

A few days ago I asked my Instagram followers whether they had any specific questions or anything in particular that they would like to know more about. With regards to both eating disorders in general and also recovery. I was overwhelmed by the response and I am going to use the questions I received as the topics/themes for my blog posts this week. I think it’s great that people want to know more. Nothing bad will come of us openly chatting, sharing and spreading awareness. It won’t always be comfortable, of course, it cannot be. But I hope you’ll stick with me regardless, for this, Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2019 and my intent is that you will come away from it with a better understanding or perhaps even a different perspective.

If you have any questions or if there is something you would like addressed here this week then please feel free to comment below. I will try to get through as much as I possibly can. And as always, I am not pretending to have all of the answers here. I’m still very much finding my feet in my own recovery, but I can assure you I will always be honest with you and I will most certainly always help if I can.

So I’ll see you back here tomorrow with my opening question – “How did you first know that you had an Eating Disorder?” And to be fair that seems as good a place as anywhere to start; don’t you agree?

If, in the meantime, you’re ready and raring to go and you would like to do something incredible, then you can support the wonderful work that BEAT do here in the UK by donating to their “Sock it to Eating Disorders” fundraiser.

From the bottom of my heart, thank-you for being here.

Beth Anne xoxo