EP 247: "Will I Always Feel This Way?" Understanding Hard Times in ED Recovery + 3 Outcomes That Determine Your Freedom

Her Best Self | Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Disordered Eating, Anorexia, Bulimia, Orthorexia, Body Image, Food Freedom, Calorie Counting, Obsessive Exercise, Food Restriction

If you're in the thick of eating disorder recovery right now and wondering if it's ever going to get easier, this episode is for you.

Maybe you had a rough week with food. Maybe you're exhausted from fighting the same battles in your head every single day. Maybe you're wondering if recovery is even worth it because right now it just feels so incredibly hard.

In this episode, Lindsey gets real about hard times in recovery and shares a truth that will change how you see your struggle: there are only three possible outcomes when you're going through something hard, and what you choose determines everything about your recovery and your future.

This isn't a "just think positive" pep talk. This is truth-telling, no-nonsense guidance about why hard times don't last forever—but only if you refuse to stay stuck in them. If you're ready to stop waiting for recovery to magically get easier and start building the resilience you need to actually get better, this episode will show you how.

What You'll Learn:

• The only 3 possible outcomes when you're in a hard season of recovery (and why understanding this changes everything)
• Why quitting doesn't actually end the hard time—it just makes it last longer
• The difference between "it getting better" and "you getting better" (and why only one leads to lasting freedom)
• How to stop waiting for circumstances to change and start actively participating in your own healing
• Why hard times only end when you decide they end—not when you feel ready
• How to make decisions from your healed self instead of your wounded self
• What it really means to move through hard times instead of staying stuck in them

The 3 Outcomes of Hard Times:

Outcome #1: You Quit Quitting looks like going back to restriction because it feels safer. It's skipping meals after a bad body image day. It's choosing what's familiar over what will set you free. When you quit moving forward, the hard time doesn't end—it just becomes your new normal.

Outcome #2: It Gets Better Sometimes circumstances change and the external situation improves. But if YOU don't change? You're just waiting for the next hard time to come along. You'll always be one comment away from spiraling, one trigger away from old patterns.

Outcome #3: You Get Better This is where your power lives. This is where transformation happens. When YOU get better, you learn to nourish your body even when you don't feel deserving. You challenge food rules. You sit with emotions instead of controlling them through food or exercise. You make decisions from your healed self.

Key Takeaways:

✨ Hard times don't last forever—but they also don't end just because you want them to. They end when you choose to move through them.

✨ There are only 3 outcomes: you quit, it gets better, or you get better. Only one leads to lasting freedom.

✨ When you quit, the hard time doesn't disappear—it just continues and becomes your normal.

✨ Relying on circumstances to improve keeps you at the mercy of triggers and external situations.

✨ You getting better means actively participating in your own healing, not just hoping things change.

✨ The hard time becomes your identity when you refuse to move forward—it becomes who you are instead of something you're moving through.

✨ Choosing to get better is hard, but staying stuck is harder. Wake up a year from now in the same place or choose to do the work now.

Powerful Quotes from This Episode:

"Hard times don't last forever. They don't. But only if you refuse to stay stuck in them."

"Hard times end when you decide they end. Not when circumstances are perfect. Not when you feel ready. Not when it's easy. They end when you decide to keep moving forward even when it's hard."

"When you quit, the hard time doesn't actually end. It just continues. It stretches out. It becomes your new normal."

"When YOU get better, it doesn't matter as much what the circumstances are. When YOU get better, you have tools to work through triggers."

"You don't have to stay here. You don't have to live in this hard time forever. But you do have to choose to move through it."

"The hard time you're in right now? It's not forever. It's not your ending. It's not your identity. It's just a chapter. And you get to write what comes next."

Real Talk:

This episode delivers no-nonsense truth: the eating disorder wants you to believe you'll always feel this way, but that's a lie. You don't have to stay stuck. But you do have to choose outcome #3—to get better. That means showing up when you don't feel like it, doing the opposite of what the disorder tells you, and trusting the process even when you can't see results yet.

What's harder than doing the work? Waking up years from now still fighting the same battles because you never chose to get better.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

• Am I quitting on myself in this moment?
• Am I waiting for circumstances to change, or am I choosing to change?
• Am I making decisions from my healed self or my wounded self?
• What would it look like for ME to get better, not just for IT to get better?
• Am I refusing to move forward and making this hard time my identity?

Ready to Choose Outcome #3?

If you're ready to stop staying stuck and start getting better, you don't have to do it alone.

Inside The Recovery Collective, Lindsey's support group program, you get:

• Live 2x coaching calls with Lindsey per month
• A community of women also choosing to get better
• Tools and frameworks to move through hard times instead of staying stuck
• Support to actively participate in your healing journey

Learn more and join at: www.herbestself.co/recoverycollective

Connect with Lindsey

• Website: www.herbestself.co
• Private Facebook Community: Her Best Self Society www.herbestselfsociety.com
• 1:1 Client Applications: HBS Co. Recovery Coaching - Client Application - Google Forms

About the Host

Lindsey Nichol is a former competitive figure skater turned God-led entrepreneur, boy mom, and digital CEO. She understands how core beliefs formed in childhood can create and maintain eating disorder patterns, and she's passionate about helping women identify and transform these beliefs to find lasting freedom.

If this episode helped you feel hopeful again and remember your worth isn't found in your body or on your plate, please share it with someone who needs to hear this message. Your support helps more women break the chains of limiting beliefs.

*While I am a certified health coach, anorexia survivor & eating disorder recovery coach, I do not intend the use of this message to serve as medical advice. Please refer to the disclaimer here in the show & be sure to contact a licensed clinical provider if you are struggling with an eating disorder.