Recovery Record Nutrition App for Eating Disorders

This nutrition app is designed not only for people recovering from an eating disorder, it is also very helpful for anyone who is trying to break free from dieting, diet culture, disordered eating and practice better self-care.

Recovery Record Eating Disorder App

Over the past four years or so I have been using the application on my iPhone (also available for Droid as well as online) called Recovery Record. For those interested in working on their relationship with food I recommend this app to be used to compliment appointments with your dietitian.

What is Recovery Record?

This app provides clients with a workspace to log meals. Their thoughts. And their habits surrounding food. As I tell my clients- it was designed for use with eating disorder clients. BUT, because it is so customizable I recommend Recovery Record to many clients working on accepting their bodies, rejecting the diet mentality, and increasing overall self care.

There is a separate app that I use as the clinician that allows me to link with my clients. It allows me to see their logs as well as message them back and forth in a HIPAA confidential, secure, password protected way.

Recovery Record Features I use with my clients:

Meal logging
This feature is set up as a free text box to put in all meals, snacks, and drinks. I like this because specific numbers and nutrition information are not logged. I’ve found logging specific numbers impairs treatment with certain patients and bring them further away from their ultimate recovery and non-diet goals.

You can even take a photo of your meal to help you better communicate your meal to your dietitian.

Log questions:

These are a series of questions that pop up when logging meals that are completely customizable for the client. It may ask anything from if the client binged or restricted, to their hunger/fullness level, to their emotions (happy, sad, bored etc), physical pain, exercise, hydration and more. This is fantastic because it helps my clients be more mindful about specific ED triggers and what may help to stay recovery fosused. And this is information that allows us to really be able to start making lifestyle changes.

EDE-Q:

The Screening and reevaluation tool is used to measure body image and disordered eating habits. This is a great tool for the client to perform on their own. And then I can see the results. Sometimes we find something very important come to light for us to discuss. It is also great to see change in the evaluation.

Recovery Record Coping Skills:

The app does come pre-programmed with coping skills the client can arrange to come up when answering certain log questions. As the clinician I can also add other coping skills, quotes, etc. that are discussed in our sessions.

Instant Messages:

This is great to have all wrapped up in one area. I have access to the food log when answering the questions of my clients. It is password protected so no one can access it but me. I am also able to comment on the meal or thoughts logs, ask questions, and give feedback.

Rewards:

This is fun for an app to reward you for logging! A cute picture, song download, or inspirational quote is a great way to reward the work of logging and paying attention to your nutrition.

For more information on recovery record, click here.

Common problems with other apps:

Calorie focused:

Many apps make it very easy to only go by caloric content of foods. Nutrition is not just about what goes in vs. what comes out. Recovery Record does not list calories so this is not a problem.

Used up calories or leftover calories:

Sometimes with calorie driven apps I find my clients are still hungry at the end of the day, but they have “used up” their allotted calories. And they might either stop eating or feel guilty for eating. The important thing to remember is that all of the calorie calculations are 1.) an estimate- may not even be correct and 2.) a guide! When we ignore our hunger signals, it actually brings us further away from being able to identify what our bodies are telling us. Which then brings us away from trusting our bodies. Some days we eat more food and some days we will eat less. Your body knows what to do with that nutrition.

Our Registered Dietitians will communicate with you via the recovery record to help you make peace with food. Now the developers of Recovery Record have a brand new app called Nourishly that will help with clients struggling with both disordered eating and digestive issues and even diabetes in a health at every size manner.

For more eating disorder recovery resources:

Take a look at our Eating Disorder Recovery Resources Page.

For another favorite nutrition app:

Take a look at Nourishly which is a great app if you are managing diabetes or struggling with digestive symptoms.

Blog reviewed and updated: June 2020