Slither,
I think your suggestions of getting her working with a trainer are great. I'm convinced that bodybuilding and the bodybuilding lifestyle saved my life. Eating disorders are not about food, they're about control. Bodybuilding is a much healthier way to control your body, and unlike with anorexia or bulimia, you REALLY feel in control. Once I learned that muscle weighs more than fat and burns a lot more calories than fat, I realized I could stay the same size (or get even smaller since muscle is denser than fat) AND raise my metabolism. Bodybuilding gave me license to eat and literally gave me my life back.
Once I got into setting strength goals for myself, I gradually started improving my diet. As a 20 year veteran of disordered eating, any kind of dietary changes had to be gradual so not to set myself off. My husband tried for years to convince me that I needed more food to make gains in the gym, but I had to discover this for myself. (I just thought everyone was trying to fatten me up!)
I went from being a skinny fat (meaning I looked skinny but still had more body fat than I wanted) weak and tired all the time person to a strong healthy happy wiry muscular person with a great metabolism. I used to be skeletal on top and too soft for my taste on the bottom. I still pretty much wear the same size now, but my top half is a little bigger* and my bottom half a little smaller, and EVERYTHING looks much better. Even so, I've been treating myself to some new clothes - shoulder, back, and belly-baring stuff, even slim, butt-hugging pants and short shorts! (All tasteful of course
.) Even at my skinniest, I used to wear loose baggy clothes.
Temple01 is right when she says "Anorexia is something that I don't believe you ever fully recover from..." I was anorexic in high school. The severe part lasted about a year. After that I became bulimic. People thought I'd "recovered" because I no longer looked emaciated. Actually, the bulimia was more horrible than the anorexia. Even when I'd recovered from bulimia, my eating was still messed up. I'd eat normal meals in front of people but virtually nothing at any other time, and I'd still have binges followed by fasting and intense exercise. the older I got, the harder it was to keep up. It was an awful way to live and a waste of many years.
* Thought I'd better clarify this since there's another thread on shrinking boobs. Yes, my boobs decreased from an ample C to a regular B. I gained size in my shoulders and back, so I now have more of a V shape. By gaining muscle in my chest, the little indentation between my pecs gives an illusion of cleavage, and since developed chest muscles are nature's own "bra", I expect my B's to stand at attention for a long time to come!
[This message has been edited by FitFossil (edited April 11, 2001).]