Patients who have already recovered from bulimia are still at risk going into a relapse. Some individuals, particularly those who feel alone in their battle, find it difficult to eat regularly after undergoing rehabilitation at a bulimia treatment center. Here’s when the danger of falling back into their bad habits is the strongest.
If you are now on the road to recovery from an eating disorder, you have to understand the importance of planning your meals. But how meticulous should you be about planning and preparing your food? Here are some tips to keep in mind.
Plan for the week
Start your week by planning what you will eat each day. Write them down and list the ingredients you have to shop for. Be sure that you have an idea of what to eat every day because you are trying to avoid encountering a day wherein you will come home from work exhausted, and you do not have anything in the fridge to eat. If this happens, you might be tempted to call delivery and gorge yourself again, which could lead to a relapse.
But this does not mean that you cannot change your meal plan. If the food you will eat on Tuesday you want to have on Thursday, you can alternate them. Also, you should plan your snacks: what time you will eat them and what kind of snacks you will have.
Plan for your dine outs
This may be more difficult than it looks because it is hard to schedule when you will dine out or eat at home. So, to make things easier inform the people around you (friends, family members and co-workers) about your situation. Tell them that if they want to invite you to dine out, you would greatly appreciate it if they inform you a day before.
If that is not probable, they should let you know a couple of hours before so that you can plan ahead. Or better yet, just come up with a contingency plan for these kinds of days.
Plan the schedule of your meals
People recovering from bulimia should train themselves to eat regularly and on time. This means that you should have three meals every day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and two to three snacks as well.
Also, you should eat every three to four hours and not skip any meal. This is to train your body and your mind that food is your fuel and medicine. When you start to ingrain that into your mind, you will start to feel that you are more in control of your food intake.
People who suffer from bulimia often feel that they do not have full control of their selves whenever they eat. They feel disgusted about eating too much that they try to expunge those foods from their bodies as quickly as possible through unhealthy ways. These include forcing their self to vomit or exercise excessively.
By gaining control of your body and your mind again, you will be more capable of avoiding the possibility of relapse. Continue your recovery and be as healthy as you can, both in mind and in body.
