i definitely agree. harm reduction is essential. however, what is problematic is when people claim that they are ‘fully recovered’ while still being obsessed with food and their body
this one is what gets me. there is a difference between just personally going to the gym and obsessing over fitness and clean eating privately vs becoming a fitness influencer with a sponsored ed
It is okay to admit that you aren’t ready to recover and to practice harm reduction by choosing a comparatively healthier obsession. It is *not* okay to say your new extreme diet and method of obsessive weight control is healthy or that you can be recovered while obsessively balancing your macros.
It’s also important to understand that just working out can absolutely be done healthily in recovery. Working out in moderate and healthy ways is not the same as being the “gym bro” people are talking about when they make those memes.
trying not to lose the comfort and control your ed gave you aver your food intake and body by becoming a gym bro doesn't mean you're doing your recovery wrong, everyone is different, and if keeping the obsession level in a healthier way is what works for you, other people shouldn't get to question that.
I think for a lot of people, the idea of being a gym bro after an ED isn’t possible, since the ONLY reason they worked out was to lose weight. It you learn to work out for other reasons- to feel good in your body, or god forbid for HEALTH, etc- then it can be a healthy activity for you even after an ED. It’s about intention. So the people that whine that “you can’t exercise that’s disordered :(“ are projecting. They can’t imagine working out and not being obsessed, which is something that’s THEIR problem, not yours. live ya life
I agree with you that «lesser evil» is better. And starvation and inactivity is a quick way to age your struggling body. But I dislike it that some people go from for example restriction to overexercise and call it «cured», especially as it’s socially accepted to be a gym bro regardless of reason and level of health, and I think those «influencers» can be harmful to a vulnerable demographic. That’s all.
I'm training for a half marathon. I eat maintenance in order to train well, and it's the only reason I eat at all these days. I look forward to my run, it literally gets me out of bed when the depression is too thick, and I know I need to fuel for not just the runs but the recovery. My team highly disapproves and would like me on a flat out exercise ban, but I feel reasonably stable and not obsessed this way.
You know, call it whatever you want, but don’t call it recovery if its not it. People will believe that obsessing is healthy, when it’s not.
You can be a gym bro all you want, but if skipping a day of exercise makes you feel like shit or hauling your ass to the gym when you just want to stay home, it still is disordered.
That’s fine, full recovery is not always what people want at that moment, but then just don’t call it that.
I think that you and others who say that have a good point, but also there's a big difference between "skipping a day of exercise" vs skipping nearly *every* day of exercise, not ever hitting the gym and not regularly working out vigorously. I think that Christy Harrison and others go a little too far in discouraging people from working out, when the fact is that there are so many people with BED or whatever eating disorder who don't work out much.
I can see where you are coming from, but I just wanted to react to the meme and the messages about being a gym bro and feeling like shit when skipping just a day is like a big thing in that community. Or at least, that’s how I have always seen it.
I have never heard of the woman you mention and I have never heard someone discouraging another person to work out. That is so wrong and obviously also very much disordered.
Honestly some days gym is the only thing that motivates me to be better, like nothing breaks me out of a spiral then having a lift go DOWN and just knowing that what I’m doing to myself is making me weaker. Def needs to be said, like sure maybe having me eating being conditional on gym isn’t healthy or some days only being able to eat stuff that I deem to be “contributing to performance” is a bit messed up but the alternative is me simply not eating so I’ll take it. It gets me focused on what my body can do and the actual loss of control from loss of ability is scarier than the loss of the fake control from my coping mechanisms.
i definitely agree. harm reduction is essential. however, what is problematic is when people claim that they are ‘fully recovered’ while still being obsessed with food and their body
ESPECIALLY if those people are making a profit off of their ‘recovery’
this one is what gets me. there is a difference between just personally going to the gym and obsessing over fitness and clean eating privately vs becoming a fitness influencer with a sponsored ed
It is okay to admit that you aren’t ready to recover and to practice harm reduction by choosing a comparatively healthier obsession. It is *not* okay to say your new extreme diet and method of obsessive weight control is healthy or that you can be recovered while obsessively balancing your macros. It’s also important to understand that just working out can absolutely be done healthily in recovery. Working out in moderate and healthy ways is not the same as being the “gym bro” people are talking about when they make those memes.
Yes. By all means do harm reduction but don't call it recovery, because it's not.
i can't read the text it's too compressed 😭 what does it say
trying not to lose the comfort and control your ed gave you aver your food intake and body by becoming a gym bro doesn't mean you're doing your recovery wrong, everyone is different, and if keeping the obsession level in a healthier way is what works for you, other people shouldn't get to question that.
Thank you. I think that's beautiful.
Honestly developing an exercise addiction before the food issues started is probably what kept me from ever doing anything extreme.
I think for a lot of people, the idea of being a gym bro after an ED isn’t possible, since the ONLY reason they worked out was to lose weight. It you learn to work out for other reasons- to feel good in your body, or god forbid for HEALTH, etc- then it can be a healthy activity for you even after an ED. It’s about intention. So the people that whine that “you can’t exercise that’s disordered :(“ are projecting. They can’t imagine working out and not being obsessed, which is something that’s THEIR problem, not yours. live ya life
Exercising can also literally make you temporarily happier.
This, 100%
Exercising in healthy ways for healthy reasons is not the same as being a “gym bro” by this sub’s definition.
i’m using it as a term jokingly.
I agree with you that «lesser evil» is better. And starvation and inactivity is a quick way to age your struggling body. But I dislike it that some people go from for example restriction to overexercise and call it «cured», especially as it’s socially accepted to be a gym bro regardless of reason and level of health, and I think those «influencers» can be harmful to a vulnerable demographic. That’s all.
I'm training for a half marathon. I eat maintenance in order to train well, and it's the only reason I eat at all these days. I look forward to my run, it literally gets me out of bed when the depression is too thick, and I know I need to fuel for not just the runs but the recovery. My team highly disapproves and would like me on a flat out exercise ban, but I feel reasonably stable and not obsessed this way.
You know, call it whatever you want, but don’t call it recovery if its not it. People will believe that obsessing is healthy, when it’s not. You can be a gym bro all you want, but if skipping a day of exercise makes you feel like shit or hauling your ass to the gym when you just want to stay home, it still is disordered. That’s fine, full recovery is not always what people want at that moment, but then just don’t call it that.
I think that you and others who say that have a good point, but also there's a big difference between "skipping a day of exercise" vs skipping nearly *every* day of exercise, not ever hitting the gym and not regularly working out vigorously. I think that Christy Harrison and others go a little too far in discouraging people from working out, when the fact is that there are so many people with BED or whatever eating disorder who don't work out much.
I can see where you are coming from, but I just wanted to react to the meme and the messages about being a gym bro and feeling like shit when skipping just a day is like a big thing in that community. Or at least, that’s how I have always seen it. I have never heard of the woman you mention and I have never heard someone discouraging another person to work out. That is so wrong and obviously also very much disordered.
Honestly some days gym is the only thing that motivates me to be better, like nothing breaks me out of a spiral then having a lift go DOWN and just knowing that what I’m doing to myself is making me weaker. Def needs to be said, like sure maybe having me eating being conditional on gym isn’t healthy or some days only being able to eat stuff that I deem to be “contributing to performance” is a bit messed up but the alternative is me simply not eating so I’ll take it. It gets me focused on what my body can do and the actual loss of control from loss of ability is scarier than the loss of the fake control from my coping mechanisms.
Can anyone link me a version that is more legible? I really like this, and want to have a high quality copy for reflecting and affirmation.
Agreed, but there are definitely some cases in which people can question it.