Recover To Flourish | Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast

One of the biggest things I've learnt through my own recovery is that sometimes the urge to restrict, exercise or control my body wasn't really about food. It was about trying to cope with difficult emotions.

And through pregnancy, motherhood and running a business, I've learnt just how important it is to manage those feelings without turning against my body.

In this episode, we'll explore:

• Why ED behaviours can become emotional coping mechanisms
• The psychology and neuroscience behind emotional regulation
• Why bad body image days aren't always about your body
• Practical DBT tools for managing anxiety, guilt and overwhelm
• How to sit with uncomfortable emotions without acting on ED urges
• My own experiences and lessons from recovery

Because recovery doesn't mean you'll never feel overwhelmed, anxious or upset again.

It means learning that you can have a difficult day without making it a difficult day for your body, too. 🤍

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

In this episode, I’m joined by Hanne Arts for an honest conversation about extreme hunger, food rules and learning to trust your body again in eating disorder recovery.

We talk about what extreme hunger can actually feel like, why it can be so frightening to honour, and how recovery often means doing the opposite of what your eating disorder is telling you — even when the guilt and uncertainty are incredibly loud.

We cover:

• What extreme hunger can look and feel like
• The fear that it will never end
• Managing guilt and discomfort when eating more
• Spotting the obvious and sneaky food rules keeping you stuck
• Why challenging something once often isn’t enough
• The importance of repetition in rewiring fear around food
• How to challenge rules without turning recovery into another rigid set of rules
• What food freedom can genuinely look like on the other side

Hanne also shares her own lived experience of recovery and what helped her move towards a much freer relationship with food.

A really open, relatable conversation for anyone navigating extreme hunger, fear foods or those lingering food rules that can remain even when you're doing so much better. 🤍

Find out more about Hanne:
Hanne Arts’ website
Hanne on Instagram

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

You know what you need to do for recovery… but actually doing it feels terrifying.

In this episode, we’re talking about how to take recovery action when the fear is still very much there. Because recovery isn’t about waiting until you feel ready — often, the confidence comes after you’ve done the scary thing.

We cover:

•  Why fear can get louder when you challenge your ED 
•  The neuroscience behind avoidance, fear and rewiring your brain 
•  Why waiting to feel “ready” can keep you stuck 
•  How to make scary recovery challenges feel more manageable 
•  What to do when you’re panicking and want to back out 
•  Why you shouldn’t measure success by how anxious you felt 
•  How to handle the guilt and urges after a challenge 
•  My own experience of taking action while absolutely petrified 

You don’t need to become fearless before you recover.

Sometimes recovery is simply being able to say:

“I’m terrified… and I’m doing it anyway.”

Fear can come with you. It just doesn’t get to choose the direction.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

I’ve spoken before about my own pregnancy journey — carrying twins, a complicated pregnancy, premature birth and everything that came with it.

But in this episode, I want to get real about something slightly different: what it can actually feel like to be pregnant whilst going through eating disorder recovery.

We’re talking about the parts that aren’t always easy to admit — rapid body changes, weight gain, changing hunger, losing control over your routine, movement and rest, being weighed at appointments, comparison, food guilt, old ED thoughts resurfacing and the pressure to suddenly feel completely comfortable with your body because you’re pregnant.

I also share practical ways to navigate these challenges, why pregnancy can sometimes make old eating disorder pathways feel louder, and how to keep choosing recovery even when your body and life are changing faster than your brain can keep up with.

Because pregnancy doesn’t require you to have perfect body image or perfect recovery.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

The final part of my Recovery Q&A series is for anyone who knows what recovery asks of them… but is finding it hard to keep going.

We’re talking about the less exciting, more frustrating stages of recovery. When the initial motivation wears off, you’re doing “better” on paper, but you still don’t feel free.

In this episode, I cover the honeymoon phase of recovery, getting stuck in quasi recovery, navigating life after hospital treatment, the daily grind of choosing recovery, difficult anniversary dates, and coping with heat and changes in movement.

I’m also giving you a personal update on where I’m at now, what recovery looks like for me years later, and why difficult thoughts don’t have to mean you’re going backwards.

If you feel like you’ve been recovering forever, you’ve lost motivation, or you’re wondering “Is this really as far as I’m going to get?”, this episode is for you. 

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

Recovery isn’t one brave decision or the polished version often shown online. It can involve boredom, grief, uncertainty, louder thoughts and learning who you are without the eating disorder.

In this honest episode, I share what I wish I’d known about letting go of control, why your mind may take longer to heal than your body, and how ordinary choices slowly rewire your brain.

In this episode, we cover:

•  Why you don't have to feel ready before recovery begins. 
•  Why letting go of control is often harder than weight gain itself. 
•  Why your body can heal before your mind catches up. 
•  The neuroscience behind why recovery feels repetitive and why that's actually a sign your brain is changing. 
•  Why recovery becomes "boring"—and why that's one of the biggest milestones you'll ever reach. 
•  How to build a life that's bigger than your eating disorder. 
•  Why recovery doesn't remove difficult emotions, but changes how you respond to them. 
•  The grief that comes with letting go of your eating disorder identity. 
•  What life really looks like years into recovery.

If recovery feels harder or slower than expected, this episode will remind you that you’re not failing. The goal isn’t perfect thoughts around food. It’s building a life where the eating disorder no longer gets the final say.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

Welcome to part two of the Recovery Q&A series.

This week we're moving away from weight gain and talking about something that can feel just as challenging: recovering in a world where everyone seems to have an opinion about food.

How do you stop comparing your plate to everyone else's? What do you do when your family comments on your food? How do you recover when diet culture is everywhere? And does recovery ever reach the point where food just becomes... normal again?

In this episode, I'm sharing my own experiences, the psychology behind comparison and diet culture, and the lessons I've learnt from supporting hundreds of people through eating disorder recovery.

In this episode we cover:

• Why comparing your food to other people's keeps you stuck.
• How your eating disorder uses confirmation bias to reinforce old beliefs.
• Recovering when everyone around you seems to be dieting.
• The difference between self-care and self-control.
• What to do when family members comment on your food or body.
• How to navigate "healthy eating" without slipping back into restriction.
• My biggest motivation for recovery since becoming a mum.
• Whether you can pass an eating disorder onto your children.
• What recovery really looks like years later—and whether food ever becomes ordinary again.

If you've ever felt like you're trying to recover whilst the rest of the world is telling you to eat less, move more, or change your body, this episode is for you.

Because recovery isn't about learning to survive in diet culture.

It's about learning to trust yourself enough that it no longer gets the final say.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

You sent in your questions, and this is the first episode of a three-part Recovery Q&A series.

These aren't quick answers or textbook explanations. They're the conversations I wish someone had had with me when I was recovering.

In this episode, we're talking about one of the biggest fears in eating disorder recovery: weight gain.

We're getting into the questions that keep so many people stuck, including whether weight gain ever stops, why your body can change even when you're eating what feels like a "normal" amount, how long it takes to trust your body again, and why feeling guilty for enjoying food is actually far more common than you think.

If recovery currently feels scary, uncertain or completely overwhelming, I hope this episode helps you understand what's happening in both your brain and your body, and reminds you that you're not alone in feeling this way.

In this episode we cover:

• Will I just keep gaining weight forever if I fully commit to recovery?
• Why am I gaining weight on what feels like a low intake?
• Why your body isn't broken after restriction.
• The psychology behind the fear that recovery will never end.
• How your body slowly learns to trust you again.
• Why confidence comes after recovery actions, not before.
• Feeling guilty for enjoying food and how to move through it.
• The small, ordinary decisions that create lasting recovery.

Whether you're at the very beginning of recovery or you've been feeling stuck for a while, this episode is here to remind you that healing isn't about perfection—it's about consistency, compassion and learning to trust your body again.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

Most people in eating disorder recovery spend years trying to get it right.

The right amount of food. The right level of hunger. The right level of fullness.

In this episode, we're talking about what happens when recovery feels messy. When you eat past fullness, feel out of control around food, or stop trusting your own decisions.

What if you're not failing recovery?

What if you're learning something your eating disorder never taught you: how to trust yourself?

In This Episode:

• Why feeling out of control around food doesn't always mean something is wrong

• The perfectionism hiding behind "doing recovery right"

• What eating past fullness actually means

• Physical hunger vs mental hunger

• Why self-trust is built through experience, not certainty

• How to respond after a meal that feels "wrong"

• The mindset shift that helped me stop treating recovery like a test

If you've ever worried that you're overeating, losing control, or getting recovery wrong, this episode is for you.

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg

In this episode, I’m talking about one of the biggest myths in eating disorder recovery: the belief that your body image will improve once your body changes.

So many people believe that losing weight, changing their shape, eating less, exercising more, or achieving a certain look will finally make them feel confident and comfortable in themselves. The reality is that eating disorders often make body image worse, not better.

I explore why body image struggles persist regardless of body size, how eating disorders distort the way we see ourselves, and why chasing the "perfect" body never creates lasting peace. I also share practical strategies for coping with bad body image days, reducing body checking, challenging appearance-focused thinking, and building self-worth beyond how you look.

If you're tired of waiting to feel good enough, this episode will help you understand why recovery isn't about fixing your body. It's about healing your relationship with it. 

Let me know your thoughts!

SOCIALS:

Instagram: @flourishwithciandra @recovertoflourish_pod
TikTok: @flourishwithciandra
Website: https://flourishwithciandra.com/
Contact: [email protected]

👉🏻 If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share a screenshot on Instagram by tagging me @flourishwithciandra and I'll be sure to re-share.

FOR MORE SUPPORT:

❤️ Looking for more support and concrete steps to take to heal your relationship with food and your body? Apply to work with me 1:1 to recover from your eating disorder while improving your relationship with food and exercise, head to: https://rb.gy/o3i6t 

❤️ If you're not ready to commit to a coaching package, why not schedule a 90-minute kick-start session where we can get your recovery off to the right start: Apply here: https://rb.gy/i7srly

❤️ Get Eating Disorder Recovery Guides and Workbooks to aid your recovery: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlourishTherapy

❤️ Download your FREE Self Care for Eating Disorder Recovery eBook by heading to https://bit.ly/44CKaRg