Hey Sarah. I'm Kristen, 19 as well. I know your message is a few months old, but I thought I'd reply just to let you know that you can do it. Since the beginning of August I made a commitment to myself to get healthy and to recover from bulimia. I had been bulimic since february of 2008 and it took me a while to gain the courage to stop. I want to extend some encouragement to you to keep up the good work and don't get down when you fail to stay b/p free. The longest I've been able to go without b/p-ing is about 10 days, and then there will be one day where I will relapse a little by either bingeing or purging a little.
I'd say the most difficult part of it so far is avoiding triggers, which for me is mainly being home alone with food in the house, and finding something else to do so I don't concentrate on my body too much. Another difficulty is worrying about how many calories I should eat so I don't gain weight.
I want to tell you that the first week is definitely the hardest because you gain water weight, but it's natural and it's your body's way of holding on to the nutrients from the food you eat because it's expecting you to purge them all away any minute. If you can push through that and keep focused on the ultimate goal or healthy eating and exercise then you can see that the water weight is only temporary and will eventually go away. For many bulimics, you actually lose weight after the water weight because your body's finally normalized and you're not consuming all the extra empty calories that you were before when you would binge.
Hope you're doing well!
Feel free to message me...= ]
