5 Tips for Navigating Summer in Eating Disorder Recovery

Summer is right around the corner. The unique seasonal pressures that the summer months bring can test even the most solid recovery foundation.

Summer can turn up the volume on existing recovery challenges, but also brings its own:

• Disrupted schedules and the loss of daily structure
• Travel that takes you away from your usual supports and routines
• More invitations than usual, including more social gatherings around food
• More meals in public, in less familiar settings
• Summer food as ritual: BBQs, ice cream, cookouts
• Alcohol at nearly every social event
• Diet culture and fitness culture at their loudest
• More of your body visible than the rest of the year
• Family time that can resurrect old comments and dynamics
• The internal pressure to be “further along by now,” even when recovery is going well
• The guilt—and sometimes the loneliness—of not being able to just enjoy it
• Pressure to match summer’s cultural script of lightness and fun

It’s normal to wish things were easier, AND it’s possible to engage with the experiences of summertime in a way that doesn’t require you to grit your teeth through the next three months. Read on for practical tips to help you stay grounded in your recovery and keep an eating disorder from running the show this summer.

5 Tips for Those Recovering from Eating Disorders This Summer

Push Back Against “Summer Body” Pressures

The tidal wave of “beach body” and “summer body” advertising crests like clockwork this time of year. You can probably name exactly what’s behind these messages (diet culture) and why (making you feel bad about yourself sells more diets, programs, and products), and yet awareness alone doesn’t always make these pressures quieter.

Years of absorbing societal messages about the “ideal summer body” can make it all too easy to get caught up in your own thoughts about how your body “should” look and how others will perceive it.

When the messaging gets loud, mute or unfollow social media accounts that reliably pull you into comparison or reignite old eating disorder thoughts. Most platforms also let you hide or block specific ads—a small but real way to push back on what shows up in your feed. Curating your feed toward accounts that show a more realistic and diverse range of bodies, or content that doesn’t put bodies front and center, can help, too.

When the script shows up in your own head, naming it can take some of the air out of it: This is diet culture, not me. You’ve challenged voices like this one before; the skills you’ve been building in and after treatment work well here.

You have as much right to this season as anyone else. Here is where it may be helpful to repeat: Every body is a beach body. Every body is appropriate for the beach. That includes yours.

Wear Clothes That Make You Feel Comfortable and Confident

There’s a lot of individuality and nuance in each person’s relationship with their body. Body image doesn’t disappear in recovery; your perception of your physical self might look different from day to day. That’s why clothing decisions can still feel loaded in recovery. Maybe you’re pulling out warm-weather clothes you haven’t worn since last year—shorts, tank tops, swimsuits, dresses—and finding that items that fit then don’t fit comfortably now. That can land harder than expected. But bodies naturally change and fluctuate for myriad reasons, and a shirt fitting tighter than it did nine months ago isn’t a verdict on you.

A few moves that help: try things on with the expectation that some pieces won’t work for you anymore, and let that be okay. Let go of things that no longer fit or no longer feel right, without making it a referendum on your worth. Buy or borrow pieces that fit your current body, not a past or future one. Cut tags out if the number is going to pull your attention every morning.

Useful questions when you’re getting dressed: Do your clothes let you breathe without feeling constricted? Can you move freely without engaging in body checking? How do the fabrics feel against your skin? Focus on these markers of comfort rather than the number on the tag or your reflection in the mirror.

Comfort and confidence tend to come from the same place—when something fits the body you have, when the fabric feels good, when you can move without your attention pulling you inward, you spend less of the day thinking about your body and more living in it.

Plan Ahead

Summer schedules loosen by nature with travel, late dinners, plans that run long, and days spent away from home. Over time, small routine disruptions and meal irregularities can erode the consistent eating habits you’ve built in recovery.

Try to maintain your meal and snack times wherever you are—at home, at a campsite or lake, while lounging around, or out exploring nature. Try not to leave yourself in the position of “I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

If you’re worried about forgetting to eat outside of home—whether you are truly apt to forget or your eating disorder tries to use that as a convenient excuse—pack the necessary food ahead of time. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a bag of trail mix, for example, are easy options to stash in your bag on summer days out.

If your eating has more structure (a formal meal plan, set times, specific supports), don’t let summer be an interruption to that, either.

Lean on Supports

The people who supported you through earlier stretches in your journey are still available, and using that support isn’t a regression in your recovery. In fact, recognizing when it’s time to turn to and use your support system is one of the things that makes long-term, sustainable recovery really take root. Relapse prevention planning is crucial, no matter how long it’s been since treatment.

Rely on a trusted family member or friend to help support you before, during, and after situations that might activate disordered thoughts you’re working hard to put distance from. They can be your allies by redirecting a spiraling thought, changing the subject if conversations turn to food and bodies, or simply by being present and taking a few deep breaths with you.

If you’re heading into something you know could be triggering, plan your support. Who can you text? Who can you sit next to? Who can you call on the drive home?

If you have a therapist, dietitian, or care team you check in with (even occasionally), summer is a reasonable time to be in touch. You don’t have to wait until something is wrong. A check-in before a trip, a harder family event, or just a season you know historically hits differently can be more useful than a check-in after something has come up.

Schedule Alternative Activities

Summer is sold as a season of freedom and fun—light, social, and abundant. For people in eating disorder recovery, the reality is often more complicated than that. Some of the summer script may feel harder to opt into, and some of it you may not want to opt into at all. There’s power in knowing yourself and your social, physical, and emotional energy capacities. It’s okay to decline invitations or set boundaries around them (i.e., showing up for a set period of time, bringing a support person, having an exit plan ready), or to keep distance from environments that don’t serve this stage of your recovery.

The defaults like cookouts and pool days are just one version of the season. What summer activities actually sound relaxing or appealing to you?

It might be time near water, without the pressure of a beach day. Leisurely morning walks before the heat settles in. Tending to a garden, going to an outdoor concert or two, or learning a new creative skill. A standing plan with someone whose company actually restores you. Whatever it is, make room for it.

If you could use additional eating disorder support this summer—or any season—The Emily Program is here. Contact us at 1-888-364-5977 or by completing our online form.