Happy Friday to everyone! Congratulations you’ve made it through the week and hopefully it was a successful week set with positive intentions and healthy motivations! #MotivationIsNotJustForMondays Today’s post is part 3 of the #MotivationIsNotJustForMondays, and I will be touching a bit more on the app SkyFit (now known as Aaptiv)! First off, lets rein it in, and bring some honesty into the moment. As I have said before, and I will say it again, physical exercise is a huge part of my self-care routine, yet I make sure that I stay safe and protect my recovery first and foremost! How do I practice safe physical exercise? I almost always practice my exercise through a class forum, whether that is at an individual studio, a gym, on a dvd, with a group of friends, or on the SkyFit (Aaptiv) app, as this allows me to stay accountable and not “overdo” my exercise. I also make sure that I limit myself to one class a day; therefore I am protecting my recovery, and maintaining healthy motivations. I also make sure to stay honest, and accountable for my thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviors surrounding my physical activity, in that if I have the
Month: September 2016
Letting Go
The Garage Sale This past weekend, I helped my aunt and uncle, Carole and Russ, with their garage sale. They had a lifetime’s worth of “things” displayed in their garage…things that were filled with memories and stories, things that were being sold to strangers and categorized with a dollar sign in place of memories and emotions. As I sorted through all of Carole and Russ’s goodies, treasures, and “junk” it truly struck a chord. Letting go is scary, it makes you vulnerable, it has meaning, and we cannot move on, whether that is figuratively or literally, until we truly let go. This made me think, why is it that we hold onto things with all of our might, especially when it is so clear that letting go would be the healthiest and best choice? Sometimes it seems like it should be so easy, but it’s the “simple” things that are truly the hardest to let go! When it comes to my own journey within eating disorder recovery, my Eating Disorder (ED) was much like an abusive relationship. I fought with ED, I bickered with ED, I was emotionally intimate with ED, I lived with ED, ED abused me, I was
Embracing Your Inner Child!
It’s Monday again, most likely you are getting back to the grind, pouring yourself that extra cup of coffee and doing your best to gear up for the rest of the work week. You can do it! Remember take it day by day, believe in yourself, and practice self-care. Seeing that this blog has been “live” for about two weeks now, I have decided to share my current and unique self-care story. Now, let me remind you that everyone’s eating disorder, as well as, everyone’s recovery looks and feels different, it is unique to the person that you are, but it is also unique to WHERE you are within your life, and recovery. For instance, I consider myself fully recovered, in that most professionals would consider me “recovered,” but I believe that recovery is a process, a journey and is therefore NOT LINEAR, because all human beings deserve self-care, and a chance to learn and grow, and a chance to live healthy lives…. and that is what recovery is all about right?! So here it is….. The past four years of my life have been beautiful, in that I was forced to grow, to change, to challenge myself and work
Eating Disorders….It’s Not Just a White Girl Thing… Pt. 1
Well its Wednesday….we are half way through the work week and I hope we have all been practicing self care!! So first off I applaud you for making it this far through the week, and practicing self care by reading this blog! Here is a photo summary of my practiced self care this week…being away from Sean is so tough for me, so I make sure that I am on my self care game more than usual! So this week that meant family time, more family time and rainbow sprinkles….what could be better?! Seeing that our brains aren’t completely worn out yet, I will be sharing an educational “blurb” on eating disorders (ED). Now, ED is misunderstood by so many, even clinical professionals!….It is constantly seen as a vain disorder that is self induced or created by bad parenting….and let me tell you right now this mindset and way of thinking is incredibly outdated! So, as you read this post, I ask you to relearn what ED means to you, try to take the judgment and shame away, and have an open mind! For those of you within your own ED journey or recovery, try
Practice Prevention with Self Care in the AM!
Recovery Love and Care is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This post is not sponsored by any of the independent brands, I am just a HUGE FAN of the products and wanted to share them with my amazing readers! Happy Monday everyone! I am hoping it has been a happy day for you, but I do know that Monday’s are hard…. getting back to the grind, waking up with your alarm clock, having to face another week, whether that be at work, with your kids, or maybe facing another week of your recovery, can be intimidating and exhausting! Understanding the wear and tear that Mondays, and granted, most weekdays can have on your mental and emotional wellbeing, I am going to share how I make my day’s happy, no matter what day it is! As I have stated before, eating disorder recovery has so much to do with self-care, and learning how to replace unhealthy behaviors with healthy comforts! My unhealthy behaviors were always triggered in times of stress, which was usually based around my
BlogLovin
Now you can follow RecoveryLoveandCare on BlogLovin.com (see below)! Understand the importance of self care within recovery, while also following fellow bloggers and vloggers on one master feed! Enjoy, and don’t forget to practice Self-Care! Make sure to checkin tomorrow, as a new post within the #MotivationIsNotJustForMonday’s series will be up on the blog! https://www.bloglovin.com/
#MotivationIsNotJustForMondays
The following is the first in a series of posts focused on physical activity and exercises that facilitate self care. Please join the conversation and share your learning’s, questions, reflections, and struggles – we’re in this together! All right, so I think it is about time that we were all honest about exercise…and I mean this in a few different ways! First off, there is this new “trend” of people posting pictures of themselves conquering a yoga pose, with six pack abs, on top of a mountain, with no evidence of physical strife whatsoever…okay I may be exaggerating a bit, but in some cases this is absolutely true, right?! First off, my intention here is not to shame or put down anyone (ALL BODIES ARE BEAUTIFUL), instead, my intention is to bring a bit of reality and maybe even clarity to physical exercise, so by all means, if you are that person with a six pack, doing a headstand, on top of a mountain, then good for you…you do you! What I am truly trying to “get at” is the motivation behind YOUR physical exercise. What is YOUR motivation when it comes to exercise? …..Dig deep…be honest!… If you are
An Educated Decision When it Comes to Care
I have received some feedback with questions on what type of care is best and why, and to be honest, there is no one right answer, everyone’s experience within their eating disorder and within their recovery looks different and specifies for different needs. Understanding this, here are the facts, as well as, tidbits from my own experience, and I encourage everyone to make an educated decision on what “care” is best for them. Throughout my academic career I have referred to counseling as a helping profession, but I never truly dissected the meaning behind that title. Many graduate students within the counseling field refer to themselves as therapists in training, but the accurate term for myself is technically a counselor in training (Hutchinson, 2015). Such students shy away from using the technical term of a counselor, due to a social misconception that all helping professionals are the same, but in reality there are many differences between the various helping professional roles; these include family therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, marriage counselors, career counselors, and clinical mental health counselors (Hutchinson, 2015). Another incredibly important, and in my opinion crucial, aspect to keep in mind is to understand that said helping professionals usually
It’s Not What You Think
Now, I am incredibly aware that when most people hear the words eating disorder, they picture an emaciated, malnourished looking female, they think about that film For the Love of Nancy, staring Tracy Gold, that actress from Growing Pains, but this is not exactly the case for all individuals with eating disorders, yes, many fit this mold, but many do not. In other words, most family members, friends, boyfriends, doctors, and even the individual with the eating disorder are not aware of their disorder, because they may not fit this “preconceived notion” of what an eating disorder “should look” like. Therefore, I ask you to relearn what an eating disorder really is, it looks different for everyone, it may even feel different for everyone, but no matter what, it is common, and so incredibly real. It can be difficult, but I also ask you to avoid shamming individuals who may look “sick”, because again, someone may look “sick,” but that may be their healthy, and some may look “healthy” but that may be their “sick”….The amount of times you may tell someone how “healthy,” and “fit” they look, the more they may continue to justify their unhealthy behaviors. I know of