An Amazon meal, circa 2012

    The biggest {and frankly most exciting} part of ED recovery has been relearning my love for food.  Gone are many of the fears that made food no longer enjoyable. No longer must I fret while I chew, forgetting the delight of sweet, of salty, or of savory. For too long I was so scared of every calorie that no bite felt worth it, unless the food was "safe" or I was just so hungry I couldn't bare it any longer.
     Recovery gets easier the longer I go along because I can eat a food and think about how good it tastes rather than if it has too many carbs.  Getting married has also given me the opportunity to cook for the man I love, and with this comes the desire to make food that is both tasty and will make us feel full. Over the past few weeks, I have made many things from scratch:

• ricotta cheese, used in a baked ziti
• BBQ and Hawaiian pizzas
• Italian chicken
• some of the 45 lbs of salmon that Dallin caught in Canada, cooked with either teriyaki sauce or with lemon and parmesan 
• Thai peanut curry noodles
• Indian chicken curry
• lemon parmesan pasta 
• mango-pinapple chicken tacos
• the Lundgreen family's famous sourdough waffles
• etc.

      Recently I have become much more open and public about my past struggles.  I have been willing to share my former struggles and my advice, because I know there are other people out there who are currently suffering.  Why stay silent when I can offer a voice of both empathy and encouragement?  It's been both incredible and sad to see how many people open up to me in return in order to tell me about their own or their friends/family members' similar struggles.  But that's why I will keep on talking, and keep on eating, trying to set that example.