I often missed the essential steps to binge eating disorder recovery because, when I binged, I felt overwhelmed with shame, guilt, and sadness. It did not occur to me there may be more below the surface. I attributed overeating to lack of self-control and used it as a way to berate myself for days on end. But when I started journaling, I began to see in black and white how I spoke to myself, my mood instability, and how much pain I was in without even acknowledging it. Because of journaling, I uncovered three essential steps to binge eating disorder recovery.

Why would we use gratefulness as a binge eating recovery tool? Why is gratitude important to eating disorder recovery? Well, sometimes as humans we become so bogged down in all the negative of this world. We focus on what's wrong, what needs to be fixed, and how much better life could be. What would happen if we refocused our mind on all the things that were going right? All those things we find beautiful in the everyday. There is always something to find joy in even when we seem to be surrounded by the darkest of moments. Gratefulness is important to binge eating disorder recovery because it helps us find joy, and in joy we're strong.

Grieving in binge eating disorder recovery matters. It may seem weird to think that you need to grieve the loss of your eating disorder as if it were a person. Let's really think about it though. I know for me, my eating disorder served a big purpose in my life and was, at one point, my only friend. As necessary as ridding this disease from my life was it was still a loss and required me to grieve. This is a challenging part of the process but is absolutely necessary if we are to move on and find wellness. Grief in binge eating disorder recovery is important.

While active in my binge eating disorder, I thought "Recovery isn't meant for me" because I could not imagine what a life free of my binge eating disorder could look like. Sometimes I think I didn't even want to. I thought my behaviors were keeping me sane, so why would I want to envision living in any other way? I was certain binge eating disorder recovery wasn't for me.

Traveling during eating disorder recovery can be tricky. When we get outside of our normal routine, slips have more potential to occur. With proper planning, however, taking trips and sticking to your meal plan is absolutely possible. Here I share my experience and travel tips for your eating disorder recovery.

I've learned that finding your passion is critical in eating disorder recovery. Passion is what keeps us pushing through life, through the worst and the best of days it remains a driving force. While a prisoner of my eating disorder, I lost passion for any and all things this life had to offer. I realized during my eating disorder recovery journey that passion is something we need to reconnect with to find the strength to keep persevering in wellness.

It can be hard to integrate old binge foods back into your diet. In all honesty, I still have foods that I fear greatly though I have been in recovery from my binging behavior for quite some time. These foods are the ones that I would consistently binge on and would bring me mass amounts of distress. Over time, however, I have learned to reintegrate old binge foods back into my diet and consume them in a normal way.

I always knew I needed to let go of shame during binge eating disorder recovery and knew it would be a difficult road getting there. Letting go of the shame surrounding your eating disorder behaviors allows you freedom from the secrecy of your disorder and is essential while on the path to wellness. Here are tips on letting go of shame in binge eating disorder recovery.

Being honest with yourself and where you're at in your eating disorder recovery process can be challenging. At times I find I am trying to convince myself that I am doing better than I actually am. What we need to do is be honest with ourselves each day, checking in, seeing where we are at and what we need. Doing this will create self-awareness that will aid in keeping slips at bay.

We need to learn how to deal with the urge to binge eat -- even if we haven't binged in years. When the urge to binge arrives, we may feel like our only choice is to give in. Here's the good news, we have a choice. We can choose not to act on binging behaviors. Here are some tips to help deal with the urge to binge eat head on.