Recovery Principles
All-In Approach
The “All-In” method, made popular by Stephanie Buttermore, means giving yourself full permission to eat without strict rules. This helps your body relearn when it’s hungry or full. For people recovering from long-term dieting or disordered eating, these hunger and fullness signals might not come back right away.
Your body has turned off those signals to help you survive during times when you didn’t get enough food. This is a natural way your body protects you after being deprived. Full recovery can begin only when we stop fearing food and start trusting our bodies again
Validating Extreme Hunger
It's real — and it deserves support, not judgment
At one treatment center, after completing a meal plan, I still felt hungry — and was met with skepticism rather than support. This type of response can be confusing and harmful. Extreme hunger is not just in your head; it’s your body fighting to recover.
Instead of using numbers and strict rules to control eating, professionals should help people listen to their bodies and feel proud of their progress, not doubt it.
Unconditional Permission to Eat
Removing guilt from food choices
True recovery involves giving yourself full permission to eat — anything, any time, and in any quantity. It might feel overwhelming at first, especially if you’ve restricted certain foods for a long time. But this is how healing begins — not through more control, but through radical trust in your body.
As fear begins to fade, a natural sense of variety and moderation returns. Instead of forcing control or obsessing over food choices, balance starts to emerge organically, guided by the body’s own cues and needs.
Mental Hunger Awareness
Listen to your thoughts, not just your stomach
Mental hunger — thinking about food even when you feel physically full — is a real signal from your brain. According to Becky Freestone, a trusted voice in recovery, this often means your body didn’t get enough food or didn’t feel mentally satisfied. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment showed that even when people get enough to eat again, they can still feel hungry if they went through a long period of not having enough food. It’s essential to respond to these cues with compassion, curiosity, and consistency.
