Eating disorders are motivated behavioral conditions. This workshop will review how recovery depends on acting your way out of the disorder. We will start with an overview of the effects of starvation, bingeing and purging on brain reward circuits and on gut-brain signaling. As behaviors are repeated, physiological alterations and learned associations with people, places and things increase compelling urges to engage in eating disorder behavior yet maintaining successful behavior change is crucial to recovery. A behavioral approach will be reviewed including practical tools to achieve success. Techniques to assist in establishing a therapeutic alliance, achieving effective behavior change, relapse prevention and social rehabilitation will be stressed. Data will be presented to support how self-efficacy for recovery and patient treatment satisfaction are related to mastery over behavior change and clinical outcome. The presentation will conclude with a recovered patient and his father's first-hand account of overcoming life threatening anorexia nervosa by utilizing behavioral family-oriented treatment.