Healing and Hungry: Chasing Progression and not Perfection

As of this week I am 4 weeks into my recovery journey.

And boy, has it been some of the hardest weeks I've been through yet!

This week especially has been really tough on me. I am noticing more changes with my body, my clothes fit me tighter, I am emotionally exhausted and I had a slip.

I feel like such a failure. How could I miss my evening snack? I am so disappointed in myself.

All of these are phrases that have circled my mind these past couple days and consumed so much of my energy.

So, I felt like it would be fitting to dedicate this post to Slips, Lapses and Relapses.

Let’s start with Slips.

Picture yourself walking down the street. You’re on your phone and distracted, causing you to trip on your own feet. You fall but you get right back up and continue walking. That’s a slip. It could be that you engaged in a behavior or skipped a meal. Either way, it happened but you don’t let it affect your treatment as a whole.

Slips are normal and are supposed to happen!

This is the first time you’re going through a stressful time and cannot use your eating disorder to cope. It’s almost better that they happen during treatment so you can discuss with your provider and you can come up with a plan on how to react to slips

Next we have Lapses.

You’re walking down the street again. Still distracted like before, you trip and fall down. This time you lay there for a little bit. Your good friend happens to be walking by and asks if you need help.

You say yes.

They give you their hand and now you’re back on your feet.

Lapses happen when you engage in a behavior for 2 weeks or less. But eventually you are able to reach out to either your support system or providers and they are able to help you get back on track.

Lastly we have Relapses.

You’re walking down the street.

Trip.

Fall.

But you lay there. And your friend walks by and asks if you need help but you ignore them.

You stay lying down.

You submerge yourself back into your eating disorder and revert to those behaviors again.

So, what’s the point of me sharing this with you all?

We are working on progression, not perfection!

If you are going through treatment, give yourself some grace!

Slips happen.

Do not beat yourself up about it

I want to encourage you to not let one mistake derail the rest of your journey. I had to give myself a personal pep talk too. Recovery is exhausting, and so much work. But we’re going to get so much out of it.

No matter where you are in your journey, you have already come so far.

Yes, I had a slip. I missed one of my snacks. I was full from eating all day and the thought of food was the last thing that interested me. So I decided not to eat my snack. I slipped. But I couldn't let that one mistake cause me to throw in the towel and quit.

Recovery isn’t linear friends!

It is so worth it and you deserve it

SONG FOR POST: Recovery by James Arthur