Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsImportanceBenefitsTips for Adults in RecoveryTips for Caregivers
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Importance
Benefits
Tips for Adults in Recovery
Tips for Caregivers
In our modern, faced-paced society in which food is plentiful, many people are used to eating on the go rather than stocking their kitchens and planning meals. Ordering take-out or grabbing fast food from the drive-thru is simply a matter of convenience for many people, but for someone who isrecovering from an eating disorder, a more focused and structured approach to meals is necessary.
At a Glance
Why Meal Planning Is Important for Eating Disorder Recovery
Meal planning is a crucial skill for people recovering from eating disorders, includinganorexia nervosa,bulimia nervosa,binge eating disorder, andother specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED).It’s also necessary for the loved ones, parents, andcaregiverswho are helping someone recover from an eating disorder to learn about meal planning.
Recovery from all eating disorders requires the normalization of regular eating patterns. Research has shown that this goal is best accomplished through planned and structured eating.
Helps With Transition to Outpatient Treatment
Inresidential and inpatient settings, meals are planned and provided for patients. In an outpatient setting, a person in recovery needs to implement a structured eating plan on their own. Every person who is receiving inpatient treatment will eventually need to transition to an outpatient level of care where they will take on the responsibility ofmeal planning.
Regular Eating in Eating Disorder Recovery
Reduces Anxiety Associated With Meal Prep
Some people with eating disorders avoid grocery shopping because it makes them anxious. If someone with an eating disorder is afraid of binge eating, they might not keep their kitchen stocked. In either case, a person could end up not eating enough and might even be more likely to binge eat.
Mealtimes can be stressful for the families of someone recovering from an eating disorder. Constant meal preparation and serving can be overwhelming.
The caregivers of someone in recovery might also need to provide supervision during and after meals to ensure the person is not overexercising or engaging in other eating disorder behaviors.
Compensatory Behaviors in Eating Disorders
Encourages Healthy Eating Habits
Many healthy foods to be incorporated into the diet of someone in recovery from an eating disorder are perishable, which makes planning ahead and stocking fresh fruits and vegetables all the more important.That said, it’s not always easy to find the time to shop for, plan, and prepare meals.
Benefits of Meal Planning for Eating Disorder Recovery
Making an effort to learn about and implement meal planning can ultimately pay off, as the strategy has many benefits, such as:
Meal planning can take the anxiety, stress, and confusion out of planning your diet during eating disorder recovery.
Strategies for Adults in Recovery
Whether you are planning and preparing meals for yourself or someone else, it will help to understand the basics of meal planning for eating disorder recovery. Here are some tips to get you started.
A meal plan is meant to help you avoid becoming too overwhelmed to decide what to eat and when to eat it. For example, if you come home from work exhausted, trying to figure out what to eat (let alone cooking it) might be so overwhelming that you simply decidenotto eat.
However, if you have a meal planned—and perhaps even mostly prepared— it reduces the number of decisions that you need to make and work that you need to do to ensure you are consistentlynourishing your body in recovery.
Press Play for Advice On Creating a Healthy Relationship With Food
Meal-Planning Strategies for Caregivers
Here are some tips to help you plan meals fora loved one who is recovering from an eating disorder.
If you’re caring for a child in recovery, you’ll want to talk toyour child’s eating disorder treatment teamfirst, but it might be helpful to include the child in some of the meal planning and preparation. Depending on their needs, involving them in the process can be part of their recovery.
Prioritizing and making the time for regular meal planning and shopping helps a personrecovering from an eating disordermake progress.If your family is supporting someone in recovery, you might also want to work with aregistered dietitian nutritionist(RDN) on your meal plans. If your loved one is having a hard time with meal planning on their own, you can also find additional meal support.
Takeaways
Meal planning is a critical part of eating disorder recovery. It can help reduce stress and anxiety around deciding what to eat and ensure that you are meeting your calorie and nutrition needs each day. If getting started is a challenge, talk to your dietitian about what strategies might work best for you.
Meal Support for People Recovering from Eating Disorders
5 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Grilo CM, Mitchell JE, eds.The Treatment of Eating Disorders: A Clinical Handbook. New York: The Guilford Press; 2011.
Hage TW, Rø Ø, Moen A.“Time’s up” - staff’s management of mealtimes on inpatient eating disorder units.J Eat Disord. 2015;3:13. doi:10.1186/s40337-015-0052-4
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Planning meals.
National Eating Disorders Association.Recovery & relapse.
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