Letting Go of Eating Disorder Behaviors, or Moving Past Disappointment

I guess it’s the curse of a new year. Just as we all have a tendency to look at the things that we want to accomplish, we tend to look at the things that we didn’t accomplish last year. For some people those reflections often go a little bit like this:

• I had every intention of making more money (or losing more weight or getting a better job or taking a better vacation or writing a novel or. . .) last year.
• Here are just a few reasons why that didn’t work out - and then we go on to name them, mostly things that seemed to be completely beyond out control
• This new year is going to be different because. . .
• We set the same goal

Sometimes, sure, we’re able to take a look at what didn’t change and figure out what we can do to get different results. More often though - especially when we have a perfectionism streak in us - it’s easy to get caught up. That’s when eating disorder behaviors are likely to creep in.

I’m not the only one who has noticed this trend; there are eating disorder specialists who notice and acknowledge the trend as well. One of whom included in her blog a post about the likelihood for eating disordered individuals to resort back to the behaviors of their illness:

Please, hold out. You might be hung over from too much of everything over the holiday. You might be exhausted from activity and tension. You might be frightened because of the sudden transition from holiday to quiet regular life. Maybe you are experiencing all three.

Give yourself a chance to adapt to the shift your mind, heart, body and emotions need to make after the holidays.

A big tip that always needs reminding, that all of us tend to forget:

Don’t get too hungry.
Don’t get too thirsty.
Don’t get too tired.

Hunger, dehydration and fatigue will play havoc with your emotions, your ability to think and your ability to perceive realistically.

While she is specifically addressing those who suffer from bulimia, the reality is that this is something that everyone - those who are struggling as well as those who are healthy - experience. Stress decreases appetite, and people do get hungry when they aren’t eating enough. We almost all need better hydration (I know that I do, I rarely drink enough throughout the day). Sleep? What’s that?

The more that I’m not eating well, getting dehydrated and, well, not getting enough restful sleep, the easier it is to skip a meal or eat a bit less. The less I’m sleeping well, the less inclined I am to try to get to bed early or grab a quick nap; the more likely I am to stay up late, surfing the web, working on something or just watching TV (something that, well, isn’t all that productive really).

My goals for the new year are fairly simple really - though I doubt that they will seem it to anyone but me:

1. I want to learn to cope with disappointment without falling apart; this year, when something goes horribly awry I want to learn from it and move forward
2. I want to focus on finances. Earning more would be great, but, realistically, I know that I need to make some changes in order to make that happen - and I need to be willing to push more independently and quit waiting for what I want to come to me
3. I want to learn to look forward rather than looking back. This year, my goal is to focus on the now and the tomorrow; I cannot change what happened last week or five minutes ago.

Here’s hoping that I can stick them out.