Tuesday 28 December 2010

"The morning sun is shining just for you"

"Difficulties arise in the lives of us all. What is most important is dealing with the hard times, coping with the changes, and getting through to the other side where the sun is still shining just for you...
It takes a strong person to deal with tough times and difficult choices. But you are a strong person.
It takes courage. But you possess the inner courage to see you through.
It takes being an active participant in your life. But you are in the driver's seat, and you can determine the direction you want tomorrow to go in...
Try not to lose sight of the one thing that is constant, beautiful and true:
Everything will be fine - and it will turn out that way because of the special kind of person you are.
So...beginning today and lasting a life time through - hang in there, and don't be afraid to feel like the morning sun is shining...just for you." (Douglas Pagels)

Saturday 25 December 2010

Take a day off from your ed!

Merry Christmas!! Hope you all have a good day and get lots of nice things :)
If you're anything like I have been in the past then I'm sure all you want for christmas is to be free of your eating disorder. Santa might not be able to magically give us that but that doesn't mean it has to ruin our day.

Take a day off from it! That might be easier said than done but it can be done!
Of coure this comes with consequences after today such as possible excessive exercise, restriction etc to make up for it but if it means you enjoy time with your family and friends for one day then thats the most important thing.
If you're a restrictive eater then I'm not saying stuff your face but allow yourself to enjoy the foods you want to eat (if you're family know then its probably the best present you can give them, to let them see you eat and enjoy christmas dinner).
If you end up binging which I know is a risk on christmas day don't beat yourself up about it. Half the world end up binging on christmas day!! You won't suddenly become obese so don't panic and let it ruin your day.
If you're a purger then try your best to put it off for today because you know it will just put a downer on your day when you could be having fun with your family.

When you think about it christmas dinner isn't the scariest of meals...you can fill your plate with vegetables, and turkey is one of the lowest fat/calorie meats you can eat.

If you're really worried about eating too much then maybe try to have a plan in your mind for the day. Are you going to eat when you want to or stick to a more structured plan of breakfast, lunch, dinner?
Distract yourself! Keep yourself busy. I'm currently doing just that by writing this...I've had breakfast, opened presents :) and now I'm distracting myself before lunch.
Focus on having fun and stop worrying about what might or might not happen. You deserve to have fun and enjoy today as much as everyone else and food does not have the power to change that!

Stay strong, it's just one day!
Love Jasmin

Monday 6 December 2010

Christmas exercise programme!

First of all I just realised that I had already done a post on the rules of normal eating so sorry if you read it twice.

Moving on, it's nearly christmas...wooo! I LOVE christmas.
Of course christmas can raise a lot of issues when it comes to food, family etc. For me food has never been the main issue at christmas. For some reason the last couple of years no matter how bad my eating has been leading up to christmas (which is usually bad because october to december for some reason seem to be the months I struggle most)I always seem to relax about food a bit more as soon as its christmas. I'll admit this has sometimes lead to a panic after christmas because of wanting to lose weight but the main thing is I refuse to let food ruin my favourite time of year.
I think part of why it becomes less of an issue is because I tell myself I'm not going to worry. I wish I could do that all year round! I'm off from college so I don't worry about having to wear a leotard for a while. I know that if I try to control food it is going to ruin my christmas as well as my families and with so much food being around I am more likely to binge and purge rather than restrict which could possibly cause weight gain anyway. If I actually allow myself to eat what I want I am less likely to binge and won't actually want to eat all the time. Of course I still have issues over christmas and my relationship with food doesn't miraculously fix itself for a month but I seem to focus less on losing weight and more on relaxing and getting through christmas without constantly worrying about my ED.

However, one issue I do have over christmas is exercise....
As a dance student I'm used to exercising a lot. So of course I want to exercise over christmas still because I need to keep my fitness up. But then there's the fact that it's easier to not worry about food if I'm exercising. Over exercising is never a problem for me except for christmas so this year I decided I should prepare myself for this problem in advance and I thought it might help some of you to.
I'm going to make an exercise timetable. I'm going to decide what type of exercise I'm going to do on what days and how long for and make sure I give myself rest days.
Hopefully I'll be able to stick to this and not get obsessed.

Hope you're all ok and not worrying too much about christmas
Love Jasmin