raylea
February 13th, 2004, 11:34 PM
Do you think that converting to veganism would inhibit the process of recovering from an eating disorder?
There's actually quite a long story behind this. In order to fully understand the question, I guess you'd have to understand a bit about me... so here goes.
I am a high school student and officially diagnosed with bulimia. I am also incredibly lucky, for just about everything I have tried has come easily. But as I began to enter high school, I found that my ablilities led to my desire to attain perfection. And for the most part, I was successful. I got straight A's, good time records in track and field, lead roles in school plays, and many other accomplishments. Soon, I needed to have perfect food as well. I had been vegetarian for years, but I found myself cutting back junk food and sweets and loosing some weight. But then it began to take over my life, a grueling manifestation of deprivation. I set unreasonable standards for myself, aiming to eat a very small number of calories a day. Then, when I couldn't meet that goal, I would be very upset with myself... and soon I found that I was forcing myself to throw up food or spend hours at the gym to "justify" eating more than i should. But my parents caught on and set up appointments with a psychotherapist and a nutritionist and I'm doing much better. I'm at a healthy weight and my minor health problems have been fixed. It's been almost 2 months since my last "purge"!
However, the more I learn about veganism, the more I want to give up the traces of dairy and occasional egg that I eat now.
My parents forbid it-- thinking that if I cut out more food groups, I would eat nothing but lettuce and tailspin back into the disorder.
But I think that if I could focus on eating "vegan" rather than eating "healthy", I would be more comfortable with eating higher amounts of calories because I will feel healthy as long as I'm eating vegan, rather than eating a certain number of calories a day. Also, veganism would force me to eat more calorie- and nutrient-dense foods, like nuts and beans to get enough protein and minerals, therefore, my overall calorie intake would be up to an optimum level. I still struggle to get as many calories in as my nutritionst tells me that I need.
Cooking and providing meat, egg, and dairy free food is not an issue, because there are many vegetarian resources in my area and I enjoy cooking.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks bunches! :o
There's actually quite a long story behind this. In order to fully understand the question, I guess you'd have to understand a bit about me... so here goes.
I am a high school student and officially diagnosed with bulimia. I am also incredibly lucky, for just about everything I have tried has come easily. But as I began to enter high school, I found that my ablilities led to my desire to attain perfection. And for the most part, I was successful. I got straight A's, good time records in track and field, lead roles in school plays, and many other accomplishments. Soon, I needed to have perfect food as well. I had been vegetarian for years, but I found myself cutting back junk food and sweets and loosing some weight. But then it began to take over my life, a grueling manifestation of deprivation. I set unreasonable standards for myself, aiming to eat a very small number of calories a day. Then, when I couldn't meet that goal, I would be very upset with myself... and soon I found that I was forcing myself to throw up food or spend hours at the gym to "justify" eating more than i should. But my parents caught on and set up appointments with a psychotherapist and a nutritionist and I'm doing much better. I'm at a healthy weight and my minor health problems have been fixed. It's been almost 2 months since my last "purge"!
However, the more I learn about veganism, the more I want to give up the traces of dairy and occasional egg that I eat now.
My parents forbid it-- thinking that if I cut out more food groups, I would eat nothing but lettuce and tailspin back into the disorder.
But I think that if I could focus on eating "vegan" rather than eating "healthy", I would be more comfortable with eating higher amounts of calories because I will feel healthy as long as I'm eating vegan, rather than eating a certain number of calories a day. Also, veganism would force me to eat more calorie- and nutrient-dense foods, like nuts and beans to get enough protein and minerals, therefore, my overall calorie intake would be up to an optimum level. I still struggle to get as many calories in as my nutritionst tells me that I need.
Cooking and providing meat, egg, and dairy free food is not an issue, because there are many vegetarian resources in my area and I enjoy cooking.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks bunches! :o