How to Stay Focused on Your Recovery When Everyone is Talking About Weight Loss Goals
Is everyone around you talking about weight loss goals? Same. Every year, the top New Year’s resolutions are about weight loss, exercise, and body change. If you’re in eating disorder recovery, this talk is not only annoying, but actually harmful to your recovery goals. So how do we help you protect yourself and your recovery efforts while everyone seems to be talking about weight loss? Read on for 5 time-tested ways to continue honoring yourself and your recovery.
Name What’s Actually Happening
When everyone around you seems to be focused on one thing, whether it’s a football game, a movie, or a goal, you can feel FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. It’s natural and expected- we are social beings and we want to belong, and if we are the odd one out, it can feel isolating. When it seems like you are on the outside looking in with weight loss, you can feel like the ground underneath you is giving out. Choosing recovery means rebuilding trust with your body, ignoring diet culture, and retraining your brain to be able to nourish and move without rules, numbers, or control. When others talk about weight loss, it may bring up old thoughts or behaviors that once felt safe. Take a deep breath and recognize (without judgement) that you are human and being around weight loss talk is difficult in eating disorder recovery. This skill of noticing without judgment is an incredibly important one to have in your recovery.
Clean Up Your Feed
We’re not talking food here, we’re talking social media. Cleaning up your social media feeds so that they’re only showing you helpful content at this stage in your recovery is a huge way to tune out the weight loss noise going on right now. Whether you unfollow or mute friends, family, and celebs, make sure that who you are following is promoting content that is supportive and/or enjoyable. Do you love a certain celebrity’s style, but they’re always talking diet? Let’s find someone with a similar style and no body talk. While it can feel really difficult to unfollow or ignore people close to you, we want to protect your mental and physical health. Maybe you challenge yourself to make some changes for a short period of time such as three days, or even a week, and reflect on how that has impacted you. Talk through what feelings are coming up with your therapist or dietitian- they are there to help you navigate these tricky feelings, and help you figure out what’s best for you.
Remember Your Why
Go back to why you started eating disorder recovery in the first place. Doing something important isn’t always easy, but it is very worth your time and effort. Dig into why you started this recovery journey in the first place and hone in on that. Rather than doing what everyone else is doing, you are choosing to do what’s best for you both mentally and physically, and that should be celebrated. For your hard days, an affirmation or journaling on why today feels difficult might be helpful. Remember to treat yourself kindly, and turn inward to your why. We have some journal prompts and affirmations in an earlier blog post, which you can read here for some inspiration.
Come Up With Scripts
Coming up with scripts for what to say when people are talking about weight loss, diets, protein everything, or anything that doesn’t serve your recovery efforts can be an important part of protecting your mental health. Know that you can always leave a conversation that doesn’t feel good to you, but you can also have a few go-to responses so that you don’t feel caught off guard. Try something along the lines of, “That’s not something I’m pursuing,” “Can we talk about something else,” “I don’t do weight loss talk,” or “I’m focusing on health in a different way right now,” are all good options. Try them out and see what fits best. You don’t need to explain yourself, just find ways to redirect the conversation to anything neutral. You might have to be repetitive, but stay strong.
Get Additional Support
If the constant talk about weight loss goals feels like it’s too much, amp up your support. Is there a provider you can add to your team? Or can you increase sessions? Or join a group? Talk to your current support team to see what makes the most sense for you. It doesn’t even have to be eating disorder recovery focused- maybe joining a book club or taking a painting class would be fun. Social support that makes you feel like you is also a hugely important thing. You could also read a book or listen to a podcast that supports your recovery. We’re starting a Walk and Talk group for eating disorder recovery and if it makes sense for you, we’d love to see you there! Learn more about the group here.