Practical, lived-experience-informed guidance for every stage of recovery.
I'm a recovered anorexic and certified mental health professional with over 9 years of experience helping people recover from eating disorders. My approach combines clinical knowledge with lived experience — I've been through recovery myself, and I understand the challenges from the inside.
Explore guidance on specific aspects of eating disorder recovery:
How to systematically challenge fear foods, break rigid food rules, and desensitise anxiety around eating.
Understanding extreme hunger in recovery — why it happens, why it's normal, and how to respond to it.
Recognising when you're stuck in quasi-recovery and how to commit to full recovery.
Navigating body image during and after recovery, dealing with weight changes, and building body acceptance.
Managing guilt and shame around eating, and building a healthier relationship with food.
Practical guidance on meal planning, calorie increases, and recognising hidden restriction.
Recognising warning signs, coping with setbacks, and maintaining recovery long-term.
When and how to reintroduce exercise safely during eating disorder recovery.
Getting your menstrual period back after an eating disorder — causes, solutions, and when to seek help.
Understanding and externalising the eating disorder voice, intrusive thoughts, and mental resistance to recovery.
Navigating relationships, intimacy, and sex during and after eating disorder recovery.
Dealing with comparison to others, feeling like a bad role model, and building self-worth.
Understanding binge eating in recovery, breaking the binge-restrict cycle, and learning what overeating actually means.
What committing fully to recovery means — eating without restriction and trusting the process.
Staying motivated to recover, finding reasons to keep going, and what recovery gives you back.
When food occupies all your mental space — obsessive food thoughts and how to redirect focus back to living.
Dealing with bloating, constipation, and digestive issues that commonly accompany recovery.
How quickly to gain weight in recovery, and why aggressive refeeding matters early on.
Metabolism myths, metabolic adaptation from restriction, and what actually happens during recovery.
Why body shape changes during recovery, what overshoot weight is, and when it settles.
Sleep disturbances, insomnia, and foundational habits that support the recovery process.
Why weighing yourself undermines recovery, and how to let go of the number.
Feeling like your eating disorder isn't serious enough to deserve help — and why you are valid.
Navigating Christmas, birthdays, and social eating events when you have an eating disorder.
Yes, full recovery from an eating disorder is possible. While recovery looks different for everyone, it involves not just physical restoration but also healing your relationship with food, your body, and yourself. Recovery means reaching a place where food no longer controls your life and you can eat intuitively without anxiety or guilt.
Extreme hunger is a normal and necessary part of eating disorder recovery. After periods of restriction, your body signals intense hunger to repair damage, restore weight, and heal metabolic function. It's not binge-eating — it's your body's way of catching up on nutrition it's been denied. Listening to this hunger is essential for full recovery.
Quasi-recovery is when you're eating enough to survive but still following ED rules, restriction patterns, or compensatory behaviours. You might look recovered to others but still feel controlled by food thoughts, guilt, and anxiety. True recovery means letting go of all ED behaviours, not just the most visible ones.
Fear foods are foods your eating disorder has taught you to avoid. Systematic exposure — gradually reintroducing these foods — helps desensitise the anxiety they trigger. Start with less challenging foods and work up. The goal isn't to force yourself to eat specific foods, but to break the rigid rules that keep you stuck in the ED cycle.
Meal plans can be helpful tools, especially in early recovery when your hunger signals are unreliable. However, they're a starting point, not an endpoint. The goal is to eventually eat intuitively. A meal plan should be flexible and increase over time as your body heals. Working with a professional can help determine the right approach for your stage of recovery.