Do/did you have an "exciting recovery"?!!!

Okay so I am  in the process of starting recovery from  anorexia and I was just wondering if there  will ever be a point where I get excited about eating something I love...like going to my favorite restaurant and ordering something I LOVE, and not just because its low calorie orwhatever and not beat myself up for it?

I really do enjoy food and eating  out.  But EVERYTIME i go to a restaurant (which i try to avoid at all costs).......I end up getting basically a bowl of lettuce...

What im trying to say is: Will there or has there for any of you gotten to a point in recovery where you go to like On the Border and order "loaded nachos" because they are your favorite....and not worry about it?

I just want to make recovery as exciting as possible, any ideas/solutions/stories?

Im very interested?!?!

I always got really excited when i ate something new or one of my old favorite foods....to this day i still do :) its been 5 months since my recovery and aslong as what i want to eat fits into my caloric range then I'll eat it :)

Well . . . tonight I had Edy's peppermint ice cream (full fat!) and enjoyed every mouthful. That flavor is my absolute favorite and it's only available during the holidays. So yep, here's someone in recovery who enjoys food in a healthy sane way.

For the record, I went over my normal calorie budget for today and it's just fine :-) Now THAT is freedom.

I am really in my recovery now so I am not sure if I can answer this accurately but yes I have had an exciting time coming up with recipes to make and since it is the holidays I have been able to love hot cocoa and "festive" treats that I never would have touched a year ago/heck a few months ago!

I wouldn't exactly say though that my recovery has been exciting. I mean it is the hardest thing that I have ever had to accomplish. There have been ups and downs and all arounds....haaa. I guess the exciting thing is realizing that I don't have to let ED control me forever and that I am not going to give in any longer. Letting go of the control and gaining freedom is definitely exciting, but pressing forward sometimes can be challenging.

I would definitely have to say like contrary that "every mouthful" of foods that I use to love before ED is exciting! I mean I finally can let go and have ice cream or a cranberry cinnamon loaf!

I'm still trying to recover, and yes, I always wonder if the time would ever come when I would stop worrying about what goes in my mouth everytime I eat! *sigh*

I still have trouble eating out. But a few days ago, I went out for a sushi dinner with my friends! First time in 7 months I think. The WHOLE day I was thinking about it - not anxious, but just mentally preparing myself. hahaha!
I can't say I ate everything that I loved (I still have trouble with it) but I enjoyed the experience nevertheless. Being out on a dinner with my friends at a RESTAURANT was awesome :)

I used to LOVE pasta and nachos and chicken wings, but I wouldn't be able to order them yet (I can't even make myself go to a restaurant!) But I'm sure that I would be able to do it in the future :) I just take small steps at a time, and the fact that I'm eating something that I dind't for a LONG time makes me excited.

Recovery can't be always exciting and it has its ups and downs, but hey, you're RECOVERING! I'm sorry I don't have a good solution/experience but just wanted to support you. Stay strong & good luck!! =]

I'm recovering from bulimia and I uhm, I don't get excited about food - I'm stuck in the frame of mind that it's a necessity. Then again, I am still in deep water - I suppose I will get better.

Saying that I was excited about going to Pizza Hut with my friends last week, but that was because I was with my best girlfriends not because of the food, heh. I suppose that's an improvement - I never really went for meals before.

***BumP***

So I FINALLY began to refeed myself with the support of my mom....which is 50/50 because she keeps on saying "encouraging  comments" such as "you need to be  eating foods that make you gain weight and fatten you up"...but when she says those things, I kind of freak out.

But I was just wondering if while you were recovering from anorexia and trying to "gain gradual slow weight".....Would you eat out at places that you love, like your favorite restaurants and favorite entrees/foods?....OR did you mostly rely on preparing your own food/healthy snacks at home....

I figured a "a calorie is a calorie"....but my mom is wanting me to eat some heavy duty foods...

Whatcha think? stories? experience? advice?

It's a process!  There is hope and there will be a day when you can just eat.  Even after first recovering you may still concern yourself with many things.  Like what if I am not eating enough, what if I am eating to much, what if, what if, what if...  Just know it's ok.  It's a process and it is normal to question.  When your starting the process it is normal to question is this what I want.  No matter how much a place in you screams that you don't, your heart does somewhere deep down.  It's more then just about the weight and we have to really really come to a place where that is real and personal to us.  I know it is possible, I'm there!!  All I had ever known was an eating disorder.  I know that people tell you that you must gain weight and stuff like that.  The thing is that isn't really what your focus should have to be because it still makes it about the food and the size.  It's about much more!  You deserve wholeness!  You deserve to live outside the eating disorder!  If you get to focused on the food you will struggle with it more.  There is a place you have to allow yourself to struggle with the focusing on the food part it is part of the process but staying there doesn't help

For the first few months of recovery, I didn't properly enjoy challenging "fear foods" or eating food I hadn't in ages but used to love, simply because I still felt guilty. But now, most of hte time I can be like "f*** it, I dont have to worry, there's no upper limit in recoery, and I can eat what the hell I like, enjoy it and not have to worry!" It's ace =]

that's true there is no upper limit in recovery...  i wasn't sure what to think whether to chuckle at what you said or think oh dear me.  You were intense about your feelings toward it I must say.  i think i'm more tickled at it then anything... 

there isn't an upper limit but that is a process to get to where your going with in the recovery process