It Starts With One Day at a Time

If, like many people tackling eating disorder recovery, you find the scale of the task in hand daunting, overwhelming, or frankly impossible, why not try the “just for today” technique?

Setting yourself huge long-term goals and commitments (you know… “I’m never going to weigh myself again for the rest of my life” or “I’m going to start eating 100% intuitively and freely from now on for the rest of my days”), whilst they are completely valid and almost certainly positive and recovery-oriented, might mean you find yourself under a lot of pressure.

It may be that these big commitments do work for you and you manage to sustain these changes.

If so, brilliant!

But if by day 3 you’re finding you’ve made a tiny slip up and are convinced you’ve blown it, or are feeling it might not be manageable to tackle everything at once, you might find yourself feeling like you are doomed to failure and it’s not worth even trying to recover at all.

If this resonates with you, why not try setting yourself goals or targets for just the next 24 hours?

“Just for today, I will not weigh myself.”

“Just for today, I will not go for a run.”

“Just for today, I will eat 3 meals and 3 snacks.”

“Just for today, I will let somebody else make my lunch.”

“Just for today, I will not purge.”

“Just for today, I will not plan and shop for a binge.”

“Just for today, I will say ‘yes’ if I am offered a piece of cake.”

“Just for today, I will make sure I go to bed feeling truly satisfied.”

“Just for today, I will not wear my fitness tracker.”

“Just for today, I will not choose the lowest-calorie sandwich in the shop.”

“Just for today, I will not use children’s cutlery.”

It’s not with the intention of giving yourself a cop out (“it’s fine, I’ll do this today and then get straight back to my ED ways tomorrow”), but rather you might find you’re able to experiment and get curious if you’re not pressurising yourself into “forevers”.

If you find that you do survive the discomfort and anxiety that might arise as a result of making a change for that day (spoiler alert: you CAN and WILL!), then you might just feel empowered enough to wake up tomorrow and make the same one-day commitment.