Support your binge eating recovery

If you binge eat you can use this New Year time of new beginnings, fresh starts and New Year’s resolutions to renew your commitment to recovery. But, please be aware of the different kinds of resolutions. The best resolutions you can choose are those that support your healthy way of living and add energy to your life. Be wary of resolutions that are triggers for slips or major eating disorder acting out. Here are some examples of both.

Examples of Recovery Support New Year’s Resolutions
These resolutions involve activities that weaken the need to binge. 

 I resolve to:

1.  learn something new.

2.   take a class in what I care about.

3.   keep my environment clean and organized.

4.   write thank you notes to people who have helped me in any way.

5.   reach for what I’ve been postponing.

6.   remove or protect myself from negative people and situations

7.   give myself one beautiful experience every day even if that means something as simple as looking for a moment at a cloud or a flower or a child’s smile or a kitten at play.

8.    listen to classical music at least once a month.

9.   read a classic novel, at least two in 2009.

10.  develop a regular routine for sorting clutter.

11.   find a way to get better at what I do.

12.  make my home more inviting.

13.  get a medical, dental, chiropractic check up.

Examples of Possible Triggering New Year’s Resolutions
These resolutions involve activities that trigger binges

 I resolve to:

1. eat xxx every day.diet until I lose xx pounds
2. skip a meal at least once a day…..
3. not eat breakfast, or lunch or dinner or see how low I can go without eating.……
4. stop eating on weekends……
5. only eat after work. Eat nothing during the day.……
6. starve till I am a size…..
7. treadmill till I am a size ….
8. find ways to make purging easier.
9. quit therapy and do it on my own.
10. quit school, support groups, OA and do it on my own.
11. leave town so I can feel better some place else.
12. tell xxx how angry and resentful I am with him/her.

Supportive The supportive resolutions are not about food at all. They are about developing yourself and nourishing your mind, heart and body. They are about helping you become more sturdy, healthy, enriched and competent in this world. They are about opening your mind and heart to the beauty in people, the world and yourself. These resolutions touch on the essentials for your eating disorder recovery.

Triggering The triggering resolutions are about rigid control, limited perspective and attempts to get quick gratification for frustrated feelings. Giving yourself specific limiting controls will only build up pressure to binge eat. Withdrawing from support and healthful activities serve to gratify a desire for control that leaves you defenseless against the power of your own eating disorder distorted thoughts and feelings.

Clarity Check Yes, New Year’s can be a time where you take a fresh look at what’s going on in your life, what’s not going on in your life and make preparations for the positive changes you want. Please run a clarity check on every resolution before you make your commitments. Ask yourself: Is this resolution coming from my eating disorder symptoms? Will it trigger binge eating? Or, is this resolution coming from the healthy life force in me that wants to thrive and prosper?


Joanna Poppink, MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice specalizing in eating disorder recovery. All appointments are virtual. For a free telephone consultation e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Author of This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Healing Your Hungry Heart: recovering from your eating disorder

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