Coping with the Holidays: Part III, by Alyson Knop, EDCT Volunteer
As I think of “New Year's Resolutions,” and the sorts of resolutions our commercialized culture tends to prescribe, I remember my time in a residential eating-disorders treatment center several years ago. I was there over the Jewish High Holy Days, and two of my peers—a young teenager and a middle-aged woman—were distraught that their treatment plans would not allow them to fast on Yom Kippur. A staff therapist, who also observed the Holy Days, urged them to think of their situation in a different light: “For you both,” she said, “following your meal plan requires at least as much sacrifice and discipline as fasting does for those without anorexia.”
Of course, fasting for a religious holiday is far different from a New Year's resolution to lose weight. But like fasting, fad diets and “lose 10 lbs. in 2 weeks!” exercise programs can be dangerous for anyone with any sort of eating disorder. (And, unlike religious fasts, those marketed diets and pound-yourself-to-the-ground workouts are unhealthy for anyone.) The quick weight loss (if it happens) can lead to a slippery slope of decreasing food intake and weight, or it can be unsustainable, resulting in weight gain and feelings of shame and guilt that already plague those suffering from eating disorders. A better “resolution” for those who struggle with disordered eating—or for anyone, for that matter—would be to follow a sensible, healthily balanced diet that allows all foods, and to adopt an exercise program that is reasonable, not extreme.
For me, I will continue going to my gym in the new year, not because I think doing so will make my body look a certain way, but because moving in the ways I do feels good to me. (I also enjoy the people I know at the gym, and sometimes I spend more time talking than working out. That's fine—I'm nurturing my soul as well as my body.) I enjoy the sense that, over time, my body is getting stronger and more flexible, and my goal is to be as strong and healthy as possible before I have major surgery in the spring. That's my resolution: to listen to my dietitian, and to my body, and to do what I need to do to be as healthy as possible. I wish a New Year of good health, and gentle self-care, to you all!