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Nutrition Programs
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- Stage One - Mechanical eating: In stage 1 clients need stabilization. Often they begin with little to no awareness of hunger and satiety. The goals for stage one are to restore and/or stabilize weight and to increase hunger and satiety awareness. Clients have a weekly individual nutritional counseling session where a personalized meal plan is designed and every meal is closely supervised. Eating up to five times a day at EDCASA is available to monitor and encourage weight stabilization and cessation of purging symptoms.
- Stage Two - Intuitive eating: The goal for stage two is to become less dependent on a meal plan and more dependent on internal cues. As recovery progresses, trusting hunger and satiety signals becomes their primary guide. Clients learn to reject the diet mentality, make peace with food, and cope with emotions without using or restricting food. Moving away from the meal plan, honoring hunger and challenging false beliefs about food are part of the process. In intuitive eating, clients learn to find their wise mind, manage their anxiety in restaurants or grocery stores, and to have joyful and healthy meals.
- Meal support groups are an opportunity for clients to share meals and snacks with other clients and trained staff. The staff, aware of each client's stage of recovery and need, provides support and challenge appropriate for the individual. The goals for meal support sessions are to help clients to observe their eating habits, to practice their skills, to address their fears about food, to relate to others around the table and to integrate healthy and joyful normal eating as the final goal.
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- EDCASA offers two levels of nutrition education and meal planning designed to match the client's stage of recovery. Stage one is mechanical eating and stage two is intuitive eating. Each group is led by a dietician and a psychotherapist.
Stage 1 - Nutrition Education and Meal Planning group provides a supportive environment in which clients receive accurate information about food, nutrition, exercise, and weight. The group gives clients an opportunity to explore and challenge their distorted beliefs and find their wise mind in relation to food and their bodies. In this group clients are encouraged to move to a place of willingness and to be able to plan their own meals supervised by the dietitian.
Stage 2 - Nutrition Education and Meal Planning assumes that clients are in a place of willingness in their journey towards normal eating. More myths are challenged and discussion focuses on integrating normal eating into their lives. In this stage, clients are encouraged to trust their hunger and satiety cues as their best guide to eat. They also learn how to anticipate stressful situations and to notice and observe any obsessive behavior towards food and weight. Discussions focus on integrating joyful and healthy normal eating into life.
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- Nutrition Experience: In an effort to build healthy relationships with food, EDCASA offers activities and outings that allow clients to gradually develop confidence in planning and going to grocery stores, eating out, and cooking.
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- The primary intent is to provide a time for clients to listen to their hunger cues and eat a snack. Additionally, there are many opportunities to try new foods prepared by the dietitian. Clients are often surprised at finding new foods they like or having less anxiety with previously feared foods.
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