5.5 years of anorexia/restrictive EDNOS, 2-ish years of recovery. A couple of weeks ago I started a new exercise routine and realised I was doing it because I enjoyed it, not because of a compulsive need to burn calories. It was an amazing feeling!
I did psychotherapy (Acceptance and commitment), which helped a lot. I re-evaluated what I wanted to do with my life and that helped massively. I make time to sit down with myself and go through a DBT workbook and that's really helping with recognising my emotions, which is helping me to avoid using food to cope.
Situations do still come up that trigger me, but I find it much easier to move on now. My thinking is far less black and white. I can have a bad day (or two, or three), without it turning into a total spiral. There have been a few times lately where I have caught sight of my body in the mirror and thought 'hey, I look alright'. Am still aware of what I eat, but now that's more to do with making sure I'm eating enough than trying to restrict. I think the thing that helped me the most, especially in the beginning was telling myself that I was just choosing recovery today. That I knew I could restrict and lose weight if I wanted to, but for today, I was going to try recovery. Thinking in absolutes like 'this is it, I am now in recovery, I won't be like this again' used to do my head in. It made me feel like if I had a bad day I had screwed up.
It has been a slow process, it's only been in the last few months that I've really noticed how far I have come. Sometimes I still need a hand hold.
Sorry that was long! Anyway, wishing you the best of luck! Recovery is achievable.