Nutrition Services and Eating Disorder Treatment

Nutrition services for eating disorders can be a difference maker for people struggling to overcome anorexia and bulimia. The Fairwinds Treatment Center team is committed to delivering the most effective nutrition services in Florida. Our registered dietitian, physicians, and other treatment team members have a proven track record of success treating men, women, and teens with eating disorders. Most important, we continually look for ways to improve the quality of treatment we provide. 

No one is immune to eating disorders. Bulimia, anorexia, and compulsive eating disorders affect at least 30 million men, women, and teenagers in the United States. The eating disorder specialists with Fairwinds understand that eating disorders impact people differently. Our nutrition services are always customized and we never use a cookie cutter approach to treatment.

Most importantly, we have nutrition services and programs in place to help clients of all ages recover from their food-related challenges. Children and teenagers face an especially unique set of struggles, and require an age-appropriate set of services that we provide.

A Non-Diet Approach for Bulimia and Anorexia

Fairwinds is pleased to offer eating disorder treatment that helps people make the switch from obsessing about the weight they think they need to lose to learning to love their bodies. Also called a non-diet approach to eating disorders, our treatment process is designed to motivate people develop normalized eating behaviors that will help prevent the recurrence of damaging eating habits. Here is a look at the goals of our non-diet approach to nutrition services:

• Promote a focus on total health instead of a focus on an ideal weight
• Help people learn to eat well in response to their internal hunger cues instead of dieting
• Encourage enjoyment of physical activity instead of promoting rigid exercise routines
• Foster appreciation and respect for the many different body types instead of an idealized weight 

At the heart of our nutrition services is the recognition that there is no single ideal body size or shape. Our classes, meal planning, and food monitoring services aim to erase appearance stereotyping and encourage men, women, and teens to focus on maintaining good physical and mental health.

What You Can Expect From Our Nutrition Services

If you are not familiar with the nutrition services at Fairwinds, you may wonder what you can expect from them. The ultimate goal is to help you gain at least one and a half pounds each week. With this treatment goal in mind, you can expect to receive the following:

• Step One: When you are admitted to our facility, our attending physician and registered dietitian will conduct an initial assessment of your health.
• Step Two: The physician and dietitian will collaborate to determine your weight goal or target weight.
• Step Three: Your team will determine the number of calories you should receive in order to achieve your final weight goal.
• Step Four: We will measure your caloric intake and regularly evaluate your progress during treatment team meetings.
• Step Five: If you are not making sufficient progress toward your weight goals, additional calories or formula feedings might be added.

Therapeutic Meals to Help You Rediscover Your Enjoyment of Food

The path to recovery from anorexia or bulimia begins with a therapeutic dining experience. The Fairwinds team recognizes that mealtime is often very uncomfortable for people with eating disorders. For example, people with anorexia are often hungry but become fearful and nervous as mealtime approaches.

We strive to create the most comfortable dining experience possible to help our clients relinquish their obsessions with calories and their compulsive behaviors that revolve around food. By creating a dining environment that is pleasant, supportive, and empathetic, individuals are able to gradually overcome their food-related fears and begin to look forward to mealtime. 

Monitoring of Food Consumption to Gain Insight Into Eating Behaviors

While we work tirelessly to create a therapeutic meal setting, we realize that eating disorders can be particularly resistant to intervention or treatment. Mealtime can be especially challenging for people with anorexia, and it is important to closely monitor eating behaviors to gain insight into their underlying struggles. Here are some specific ways we gain insight into each individual’s eating disorder pain:

• Meal Monitoring: Meals that are supervised by a meal monitor can provide valuable clues about a person’s progress with treatment.
• Fear and Uncertainty: Meal monitors look for lingering signs of fear and anxiety that may accompany mealtime.
• Social Development Monitoring: Our treatment team looks for any unique behaviors such as kindness or encouragement that accompany eating.

Nutrition Education to Help You Understand Eating Disorder Pain

Education plays a vital role in a person’s ability to avoid a relapse of anorexia or bulimia. At Fairwinds, we are dedicated to helping our clients and their families understand the genuine pain people with eating disorders experience when consuming food. 

Our nutrition education classes are an example of a service designed to teach people about the important role of balanced meals, nutrients, and vitamins. Classes are held each week and rotate on a bi-monthly basis. Because many people with eating disorders feel uncomfortable talking about food, one of the main goals of our classes is to help people gain the confidence to openly share their thoughts and feelings about food. Here are some examples of specific topics covered in our nutrition education classes:

• The role of registered dietitians and how they can help people with eating disorders
• The link between eating disorders and malnutrition
• Common thinking patterns about certain foods and how to dispel them
• Tips to help affected individuals eat normally again
• Faulty beliefs that exist about eating and how to eliminate them

A secondary benefit of education classes is engagement. By openly discussing topics with peers and educators, participants are able to play an active role in the treatment process. They also pave the way for their classmates to share their thoughts and success stories.

Customized Menu Plans to Boost Treatment Success

Developing effective, personalized menu plans that meet the needs of each individual client is a top goal at Fairwinds Treatment Center. Through customized menu planning sessions, clients with our registered dietitian to learn how to put the information they learned in their education classes to use. Here is a look at how the menu planning process works: 

• Step One: Our registered dietitian will conduct individual sessions with each client to help them develop customized menu plans.
• Step Two: Clients are taught to plan menus that include meals, drinks, snacks, and condiments that include a sufficient number of calories.
• Step Three: Following these menu planning sessions, our dietitian will review each plan to ensure that it includes an adequate number of calories.
• Step Four: Based upon the results of this review process, menu plans are updated as needed by our registered dietitian. 

In addition to these steps, we use a treatment level systems that rewards clients for their progress. As an incentive for attaining specific levels of treatment success, clients are rewarded by receiving individual time with our registered dietitian. 

Valuable Coping Strategies During the Holidays and Other Challenging Times

One of the greatest challenges for people with eating disorders is to learn how to survive the holidays and difficult times without sliding back into their old counterproductive eating habits. Our classes will help you learn effective techniques to maintain proper eating behaviors during difficult times. Our nutrition services will help you prepare for the following:

• Thanksgiving: The endless array of food can be especially tough for people who experience stress around mealtime.
• The Christmas Season: Christmas and New Year holidays often involve parties and gatherings that revolve around food.
• Special Events: Company parties, community gatherings, picnics, and school functions often involve excessive food consumption.
• Family Reunions: Family gatherings are usually centered around one or more large meals.

Your Trusted Resource for Comprehensive Nutrition Services

Nutrition Services at Fairwinds Treatment Center play a key tole in treating eating disorders. In addition to our therapeutic meals, customized menu plans, and educational classes, we incorporate nutrition services into our overall treatment approach for anorexia and bulimia. Here are some of the many ways we will help you win the battle against anorexia and bulimia with our nutrition services:

• Deliver a fast, accurate assessment of your overall health when you enter our facility
• Provide a multi-disciplinary approach to treating your eating disorder
• Offer eating disorder tips for spouses that can help husbands and wives support their spouse’s recovery
• Arm you with proven coping strategies to help you maintain productive eating behaviors in difficult situations
• Educate parents about what to do if their children have an eating disorder
• Provide care to people who are also struggling with depression, substance abuse, or other behavioral health disorders
• Help you stay on track after you complete inpatient treatment for an eating disorder 

If you or a loved one are considering treatment for an eating disorder, Fairwinds Treatment Center is here to help you. We invite you to contact us to discover the many ways that our comprehensive nutrition services for eating disorders can help you or a loved one develop a healthier relationship with food.