Green Recovery Series
Green Recovery is my attempt to highlight stories of the many men and women who have moved beyond disordered eating patterns (at least in part) with the help of a plant-based diet. There is a very high incidence of ED histories in the plant-based community of eaters—myself included. At some point in the last few years I realized that there were many others who felt, as I do, that eating a plant based diet helped them to overcome their struggles, and redefine their relationships with food in a positive and productive way.
Some of the traditional attitudes within recovery circles maintain that any sort of strong selectivity about food (such as eliminating animal products from one’s diet) or overt emphasis on food’s significance is inherently at odds with the recovery process. I disagree. My goal with Green Recovery is not to suggest that veganism is the right choice for all disordered eaters, or that it’s a “cure” for disordered eating, but rather to explore the notion that a world view in which food choices have political, ethical, and personal significance may actually heal, rather than hurt, people with traumatic histories with food.
Please join me as I welcome the voices of men and women who are evolving toward a fresh and peaceful relationship with food, one green plate at a time.
If you would like to submit your story to Green Recovery, please email it to me (as an attachment or simply pasted into an email) at gena@choosingraw.com. Note that while the series is not exclusively vegan, I do prefer the emphasis to be firmly on the virtues of a plant-based diet.
Green Recovery Stories:
Freya Finds Self Respect and Self Care with a Vegan Diet
Casey Lorraine Finds Freedom Through Wholesome Food
Exploring the Link Between Diet, Sexuality, and Self-Esteem
Wendy Puts an End to Compulsive Eating Through a Plant-Strong Diet
Laura’s Story of Finding Balance
Andrea Falls in Love With How She Feels on a Plant Based Diet
Sarah Gives Veganism a Second Chance
Heather’s Positive Affirmations
Katie’s Conscious and Wise Choices
Marlena Celebrates her Body with “Beautiful, Hydrating Food”
Finding Peace Through Activism: Marissa’s Green Recovery Story
“Do You Want to Give All of This Up?” Lia’s Green Recovery Story
Houston’s Green Recovery Story (A Male Perspective)
“I Couldn’t Understand Why Eating Normally Was So Difficult For Me”: Lauren’s Green Recovery Story
Unapologetically Angela: Angela’s Green Recovery
Rose Carves Out Space in Her Life for Healing
Rachel Finds Balance and Compassion
“What Healthy Truly Means”: Quincy’s Green Recovery Story
“It’s Not Just OK, but Human to be Imperfect”: Sharon’s Story
I'm a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, a former book editor, and a post-baccalaureate pre-med student at Georgetown University. I'm passionate about helping people to discover and enjoy plant based foods in a simple and healthy way. My name is pronounced like "Jenna." 
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! I think this is a good thing. I am a dancer and about six months ago I started to get habits of disordered eating. I was not a true anorexic, but I started developing habits of one. I was secretive about food and I hated it when anyone would make me eat something. Well, I lost 15 pounds and then I started learning about health and nutrition. I had always been around it, as my father had taught me a lot about it and he was also a health food nut. I was able to read some of his books and use his machines (ex. Juicer, Vita-Mix, Dehydrater). I started to eat healthy and then I stopped worrying so much about my weight. I started thinking about feeding my cells instead of starving them. Now, although I may eat a cupcake or something “bad” once in awhile, I am mostly an herbivore. I love it! It makes me feel energetic and alive.
This is really an interesting topic. I was thinking about it one day, and what do you know? Other people think the same things.
Hannah,
It’s rare, I think, that one goes through this sort of experience only to find that one has been alone. So many of us have “green recovery” stories within. Glad you found this page!
Gena
I love that I came upon this site. I am just starting the raw/vegan lifestyle. I have been to numerous retreats and love learning how food is medicine, if used correctly. I am a recovering ED person. I feel those tendencies may always be there, but when I am eating clean, the urge to purge is gone:)
My goal now is to help others feel as good as I feel.
Thnx!!
Christine
Welcome, Christine! Stay strong in your recovery.
Thanks, Gena! I am not sure if this is the place to post this? If not, I apologize:)
I am going on a cruise in June and already getting nervous about my food. I know they will offer a salad bar, but I would like some tips on how to stay on track with my vegan lifestyle. I was even thinking of bringing some portable food with me. Protein shakes, almond milk..I am traveling to Europe, so can’t weigh the luggage down too much. I am going to focus on having fun and try not to stress out about staying on track.
Thank you,
Christine
I had the same experience when I transitioned from an unhealthy vegetarian diet into a whole foods vegan diet. This was a big part in my healing from a past of disordered eating.
That’s wonderful to hear, Elizabeth
This is not in response to a particular post, but rather to the whole concept of the Green Recovery series. I am so incredibly grateful, Gena, that you started it, and I’m so glad to have found it. My eating disorder (the classic mix of anorexia and bulimia) began long before I went vegan, and I consider myself about 75% recovered, but I continue to really struggle, despite my healthy lifestyle. I felt very guilty about this: something told me that “real” vegans should not only have perfectly clean diets but always be bursting with radiant self-love. I take tremendous comfort in knowing that other people out there, who are certainly “real” vegans, still struggle. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Oh gosh, Emma, yes: “real” vegans can feel every bit as vulnerable and as anxious as anyone else. Eating a wholesome diet isn’t an armor against human emotion! I’m happy this page gives you comfort
Thank you, Gena, for providing this forum for people to share. I’ve struggled with perfectionism, mild depression, and mild obsessive-compulsive disorder since I was 16. I’ve worked with therapists, read numerous helpful research-based books, and had tremendous support from my family. All of these methods helped me make great progress.
In addition, many members of my family, through a series of diets, came across a whole-foods, plant-based diet. Then a 33-year old, I had already progressed in some ways toward this type of diet, but went even further with them, adding in many, many vegetables and eliminating most processed and animal foods.
The greatest benefit and main reason I had pursued this type of diet was to help with my depression, which it did. I remember coming home after spending the holidays with my family, at which time I’d been eating a plant-based diet for over four months. I had a particularly stressful week, and I remember having these tremendous reserves of energy and the ability to think positively in stressful situations, and I thought to myself, Is this how people without depression feel? So I’ve seen obvious benefits from eating a green diet.
But it’s been a mixed bag. I often see my perfectionism and obsessive-compulsiveness flare up as I struggle with food choices (although my obsessive-compulsiveness is sometimes soothed by not having to cook with meat) and I’ve struggled a bit with body image, which I never really had before. I’d always been in it for the health. But as I’ve lost weight with my family, I’ve become more competitive and obsessive.
Yet, I would not give up the green eating. I believe that I have a ways to go to figure out how to integrate this way of eating into my lifestyle. (I, like most people, am continually working to lead a balanced and happy lifestyle.) But the benefits of mood stabilization enable so many other changes. I believe that green eating, along with continued help from therapists and friends, will help me to continue making progress with perfectionism and its related disorders.
Emily,
Thanks for this nuanced and thoughtful comment. I totally agree that this can be a mixed bag–my own wholesome eating was, at the beginning, a little too colored by perfectionism and rigidity, too, but I’d never give up the perspective I’ve found. Thanks for sharing!
Gean
Hi Gena. You are doing such a wonderful service to humanity with your blog. I feel at home when I read the entries, others’ comments and the recovery stories. I too have dealt with disordered eating and still catch myself in old patterns.
My challenges started when I transitioned to college in conjunction with a broken heart. I looked to food to fill that loss and give me comfort in times of big changes in my life. Throughout my 20′s I was obsessed with losing weight (even though I was already thin) and would set up all these rules and then when I would break one I’d beat myself up. This created an emotional nightmare for me for over a decade.
Fast forward to today and I’m doing really well. I still catch myself with the making/breaking rule patterns and step back and think about what I’m doing and why. Then I work on the source or root of the issue instead of masking it with food. Now I embrace a primarily raw vegan diet and I feel alive, healthy and happy. Thanks for offering a forum for us to share our lives.
Jen,
Thanks so much for your comment. I’m happy that this page gives you a sense of community, and inspires you to continue what sounds like an already strong and successful recovery.
Gena
I was anorexic, few months ago. I’ve felt really bad, I was depressed, sick, skinny. I was already vegetarian ( not because of my ed, I’ve been vegetarian since I was 10) and I was really underweight. Nobody helped me, even if there were some people who knew it. One day I came across a vegan cooking blog. It was colorful, beautiful and it reminded me how amazing cooking can be. Slowly, I started eat again, trying the recepieces of that blog. And I started also my vegan diet. I am very careful on the quantities of proteins and calcium though, ’cause I’m 17 and I have to grow up physically. But I wanted to say that vegan cooking saved me and to share my story.
I’m sorry for my English but I’m Italian….
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