How can I get comfortable with eating more?

Q. I feel as if in the past 6 weeks, I've made many good forward steps: I am exercising with less compulsion and more awareness, I am eating a least one extra snack a day. I am restricting less with money, and am much more honest with myself and others about my thoughts. I have not, however, gained any weight. Thus, I am still uncomfortable with EATING MORE THAN I NEED. Ideas to help this?

A. It is difficult to offer targeted suggestions without knowing more about the specifics of your weight stabilization goals. So ultimately, my recommendation would be to talk to your treatment team and discuss your concerns with them to design a program that can promise, over time, an ability to meet your goal.

Having said that, however, it is not unusual in weight stabilization for the metabolism to kick into gear only slowly, and the desired weight gain to take time to appear. We cannot always see from the outside looking in how the nutrient deficiency caused by an eating disorder has affected our body, and how our body is choosing to use the sudden influx of nutrients to re-nourish our body's cells from the ground up.

Another aspect to consider is whether you are able to fully absorb the nutrients you are consuming. If you have depleted the good bacteria in your digestive tract, it may be that while you are consuming the recommended daily amount to meet your weight goals, your body may not be able to absorb the nutrients through the intestinal walls. Check with your doctor and ask about probiotics and digestive aids which may help your body more efficiently and fully make use of the nutrients you are taking in.

Finally, I would personally recommend persistence. It is absolutely wonderful that you are making so many positive behavioral changes in so many areas of your life, and I commend you for it! However, no lasting change happens overnight, and if you are like so many I have talked to who struggle with eating disordered behaviors, your body, like your mind, will take time to adjust to changes in its normal daily routine. Ultimately, by the time the symptoms of either the disease or recovery from it appear at the physical level through changes to the body, it is like a volcano finally showing itself by erupting through the surface. The volcano has been hard at work beneath the surface for a long, long time and a long way down before it ever reveals its presence through the lava.

So patience and persistence are very important when working to achieve lasting change!