Empowered RX is changing the status quo. The healthcare system is broken and neglects a MAJOR part of health that we believe is the missing piece to healing and reclaiming your life after an Eating Disorder: Exercise Physiology & Empowerment.
In America alone 28 Million people suffer annually from some form of diagnosable eating disorder. Missing from these glaring statistics are the people who engage in disordered patterns of eating without seeking treatment.
The typical treatment of eating disorders leaves many patients predisposed to relapse.
Not just to relapse one time but over and over, and over again. The average girl/woman with an eating disorder will relapse 18 times in her life. Only 21 % of patients will make a full recovery. In the first year, 36% of patients struggling with eating disorders will relapse.
We started asking why?!
The typical treatment for Eating disorders consists of:
Evaluation
Hospitalization
Re-nourishment
Weight Gain
Discharge
Placed back in the same environment they were in before
Relapse
The team in the Eating Disorder Treatment model typically consists of in-patient and outpatient treatment programs with a combination of:
Doctors
Therapists
Dietitians
All covered by insurance... which can cost upwards of $4000/month.
Unless you don't have insurance coverage which can make in-patient long term treatment upwards of $30,000.00 a month... likely meaning that many people simply can't afford the help they need OR after relapse might not afford to go back into treatment for multiple bouts.
One of the major issues with this treatment model is that it fails to Empower, Strengthen and Educate. This is where Empowered RX comes in. We intervene with either two routes preventative coaching or medical coaching.
Preventative Coaching:
Preventative Empowered coaching intervenes before an eating disorder has taken root. The average female tries her first diet by age 12. By empowering and educating on toxic media messages, beauty standards and diet culture, we are able to change the trajectory of girl's lives. For some, this is life saving.
Our Girl Power program is a course that gives girls the tools to navigate diet culture and peer pressure. It fortifies their confidence and helps them to build resiliency in topics that rarely ever get discussed in school: Body image, wholesome, nutrition, weight lifting, strength & empowerment.
Mentorship Medical Coaching:
Empowered RX also intervenes in the treatment model after discharge from in-patient recovery and once the girl/woman has been cleared to return to her activities of daily living.
Traditionally, exercise has been deemed off limits for those in recovery as it sometimes is abused as a form of caloric expenditure in the heat of the Eating Disorder. If we can learn anything from medicine though, in-action is worse than intervention. Not too long ago a person in recovery from a heart attack would be put on bed rest... now we have them exercise shortly after with Exercise Physiologists in Cardiac Rehabilitation programs.
For athletes who injure their legs, they work with Physical Therapists to regain full function.
THIS IS THE MISSING PIECE IN THE EATING DISORDER TREATMENT: A wellness coach that re-educates and empowers healthy, balanced and wholesome living, nutrition, mindset & exercise. Empowered RX coaches have a thorough understanding of Clinical Exercise Physiology, Nutrition, Trauma & Eating Disorders. This combination helps tie all the facets of health together for a holistic and longterm lifestyle transformation.
Think about it... you enter an Eating Disorder program where every aspect of your life is controlled. The power to make your own choices is taken away. Your food is given to you based on calories and nutrients needed to re-nourish. A huge sign of healing is when weight is restored. So much of the traditional treatment model still revolves around food and weight. While the girls enter treatment with rigid food rules that they have self-inflicted... the rules continue in-treatment with highly enforced rigidity.
We recognize that this is an important and necessary part of the treatment program. Weight needs to be restored and medical issues need to be addressed. Nutrition needs to be highly monitored to avoid further weight distortion and malnutrition.
Once a girl is cleared from in-patient they return back into their world, back into the original environment that planted the seed of the eating disorder. Our wellness coaches are there to support this transition period. To teach healthy coping skills and health practices, and to serve as role models of strong, empowered and healthy women.
The Health Consequences of Disordered Eating and how our program at Empowered RX combats them:
Within 8 weeks bone mineral density starts to decrease. Resistance training accelerates bone remodeling that prevents further loss or weakening.
Exercise boosts mood and endorphins giving the girls/women a healthy outlet for stress relief. Where before the control of food may have provided this, they now have a healthy coping mechanism.
Dehydration. Empowered RX teaches nutrition and hydration principles applicable for REAL LIFE.
Distorted hunger cues. Empowered RX educated the girls/women about hunger, physiology and hormones so they claim responsibility for their health. We work on setting up habits and routines that promote the maintenance of healthy hunger cues.
Muscle wasting: In times of severe or prolonged calorie deprivation your body begins to weaken as it uses muscle as fuel. Empowered RX helps girls/women gain physical and emotional strength through weightlifting practices and healthy fueling.
Decreased confidence: Empowered RX coaches are trained in resiliency and behavior modification. Through empowerment work and mentorship we help girls discover self-love.
Slow Metabolism: Eating disorders slow metabolism and can wreak havoc on insulin response. We help girls/women establish health boundaries to avoid over-exercising and form a healthy relationship with food.
Social isolation: In-patient exposes girls/women to others who are sick. They return to the environment that sparked the eating disorder. Our Empowerment coaches serve as role models. They are have first hand experience with trauma &/or eating disorders and now have found deep health. They demonstrate in action that healing is possible. That strength is beautiful and that amazing women come in all different shapes and sizes. Empowered RX also allows for social connection for peers who may also be struggling. There is comfort in knowing you aren't alone.
GI Distress- Eating disorders often wreak havoc on the digestive system. Healthy hydration, sleeping, eating and exercise helps to rebalance gut health and restore GI function.
Cardiac concerns: A lack of nutrients and calories stresses the heart out. Returning into sport without proper transition can increase risk of arrhythmia and palpitations. Our coaches help create a graded-exercise model based on science and research that will help strength and fortify all systems in the body.
These are just a few of the topics and factors we address in our program. Our prescriptive and allied health team approach allows us to treat the INDIVIDUAL. We honor each girl/woman's lived experience and embrace change and personal growth.
If you or your daughter are struggling with body image, restrictive eating, disordered patterns of eating, a strained relationship with exercise/food, lack of confidence, trauma OR an eating disorder. WE ARE HERE TO HELP!
For a testimonial head on over to our blog post written by Kirsty, who is in recovery from Anorexia and is finding self-love and acceptance for the first time.
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