Bulimia Help Tip: Nourishing Your Body

This is a guest post by friend and holistic recovery & health coach, Pauline Hanuise.

When I started to recover from my 15 years of struggle with bulimia, learning about nutrition and how my body worked played a crucial role.

I started to do lots of researches and became so passionate that I ended studying Holistic Nutrition and became a Holistic Health Coach.

That’s why I would like to share a few quick and easy tips to help you improve your nutrients intake.

Bulimia is a sort of deprivation.

So when you suffer from this illness, your body is deprived of what it needs to function properly.

One of the main keys to recovery is to re-nurture your body to start to reduce the intensity of the binges and make them disappear. Obviously it doesn’t happen overnight, this is a long process but with a minimum of motivation and commitment, recovery is possible.

And you deserve it!

So here are a few things you might find helpful, especially if you are just in the early stages of recovery and are still using purging methods:

1. 1. If you are using self-induced vomiting techniques to purge, the acid will quickly destroy your teeth. These damages are irreversible and really painful, believe me! I know it because I’ve destroyed all my teeth after vomiting every single day during 15 years. To reduce the damages, you can rinse your mouth with water mixed with some bicarbonate soda. This will reduce the acidity and the damages it may cause.
   2. After your last binge, drink some coconut water. The best is to drink it from the fresh young coconut but packaged coconut water is fine too (just try to choose one without added sugar or preservatives. Why? Coconut water will highly hydrate your body, which, if you purge regularly, is most likely highly dehydrated. Coconut water is also very rich in electrolytes vital for your body, such as potassium. Potassium is very important as it’s taking care of your heartbeat. But unfortunately potassium is also removed from your body by purging methods. This can obviously be very dangerous. So drinking coconut water will nonetheless help you rehydrate your body but will also help rebalancing your electrolytes.

1. Try to eat some good fats such as a piece of avocado, coconut oil (or coconut meat), a few nuts and seeds, flax oil, LSA, fish oil supplement, etc. Good fats like these ones don’t make you fat and are actually essential to repair your tissues and your brain cells. They are also essential for maintaining a healthy body (that’s why we call them essential fatty acids). I eat them every single day and I’ve never felt so good.
2. Take a food supplement – this can always be beneficial. Try to choose a daily dose containing at least vitamins B (all of them, especially B6 and B12), vitamin D, vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, zinc and iron.
3. Add superfoods into your diet – another great way to increase your nutrients intake without having to eat huge quantities of food. Superfoods are very rich in vitamins, nutrients, phytonutrients, minerals and electrolytes but are also very poor in calories. So, with just a small intake of superfoods you can get amazing benefits and start re-nourishing your body day after day, which is an essential step towards recovery.

Superfoods have changed my life and played a huge role in my recovery.

I am sure these 5 simple steps will already greatly (and easily) improve your nutrition intake, increase your energy and vitality and give you the strength you need to recover ;-)

Pauline Hanuise is a certified and passionate Holistic Health Coach. Having recovered from 15 years of struggles with eating disorders, she is now dedicated to help people to make peace with food and get the best life ever. She is the creator of the health and wellness website where she gives tips and advice about health, wellness and happiness. You can also find her on Twitter, @Pauline_Hanuise.