Week 9-10 Eating Disorder Recovery Update (Wendy)

Week 9-10 Goals/Activities

• Dietitian appointment

• Weigh in

• Challenging fear foods

• Practice

  • Recognizing thoughts and feelings

  • Building positive thinking skills

• Adjusting to new schedule

• Restaurant Dinner with work colleagues

Dietitian appointment

We had 1 appointment over the 2 weeks. The challenge for Sam was to continue with fear foods 3x per week and a small increase to some breakfasts.

How it went

The first few days our meal plan went smoothly. A food fear challenge was to change our cereal in the morning to one that had ingredients on her food fear list. This change went well. Sam also continues to have the odd cinnamon bun for morning snack. One evening, Sam had supper with her work colleagues at Woodbine. This day we were relaxed about the meal plan as there was heightened anxiety around preparing for the dinner out. Sam dressed up and had a very enjoyable evening. Following that, we started to have some difficulty with the meal plan. First off, due to my work schedule, we started to sleep in which began our days later. This was causing the morning snack to be hard to handle and some days the morning snack got missed altogether. Then the mid-day snack became altered or incomplete. The odd supper had less than what was on our meal plan. I was getting frustrated. Then we had a bad day.

Recognizing thoughts and feelings

One breakfast add-in, put Sam’s ED voice into overdrive. It was an add-in that she was not prepared for. She did finish the meal. After, being frustrated, I tried to talk with Sam. I gave her a bit of a reality check hoping to motivate her to continue to fight her ED. I pointed out what she is missing in her life and what her ED is costing her including monetary issues, social contact with work associates, school issues, and how ED has made her world smaller. This brought on strong emotions within her. I left Sam alone to process her emotions. Her ED voice became very strong. A voice that is a defense mechanism made her feel unsupported and alone. We then skipped yoga and missed our morning snack but continued the rest of our day as best as we could. Later that evening Sam expressed her feelings in writing. In some ways I was happy with the note as it showed me that she can now begin to recognize her ED voice and she needs to look at these thoughts and feelings more closely, explore them, and challenge them. I haven’t really responded except for a brief conversation reassuring her that she is supported. I feel I need to discuss this further with my therapist as I don't really know how to handle this situation and I do not want to make this worse. The rest of the week continued with late starts, missed morning snacks, and mid-day snacks being altered or incomplete.

Weigh in

This week's weigh in was ok. Sam’s vitals were all good but no weight gain. Considering the challenges we faced over the last two weeks I am grateful there was not a weight loss. I am inpatient and want Sam to gain weight faster so that she can start to move forward with her life. Unfortunately it is not my motivation that controls her recovery, it is hers. The lack of a weight gain contributed to my frustration and my rant to Sam the following day which was our “bad day”.

Adjusting to new schedule

Going back to work has created some challenges. The biggest one is sleeping in later which pushes back breakfast time. This then shortens time in between breakfast and lunch not allowing enough time to get a morning snack in. Also my reduced time at home does impact time for cooking and baking. The schedule is not smooth yet, we still have work to do.

Other tid-bits

We continue with yoga and meditation. We missed a few mornings due to time and a rule we set for incomplete meals. If a meal is not complete and not made up at some point in the day, Sam does not get to do yoga the following day. I enforced this one day and I did not like it. No yoga put a damper on the whole day for me. I am sure Sam felt the same way. No yoga is not the right discipline for a missed or incomplete meal as it turns the day into a very negative day.

The leaves are all off the trees now, revealing nests around the yard of critters that have been living with us. Weather has been great and we both enjoy walks around the yard. Nature does have a way of soothing the soul. Our crows and squirrels continue to come by the same time everyday to get their peanuts. They are a fun distraction as they chase each other. We also have a grey squirrel that is slowly making its way closer to the house. The grey squirrel manages to get the odd peanut from the crows.