bulimia – FueledByLOLZ

Commenting on Someone’s Food.

As the Holidays quickly approach, more and more family gatherings occur. Family you haven’t seen in days, weeks, months or even years quickly becomes the norm. The majority of the population enjoys and looks forward to these gatherings. Despite small hiccups along the way (as any family does), they are enjoyable days.

It should be fun.

It should be great to see friends and family.

While there will be stress, the social time shouldn’t be too stressful.

Sadly it is though. There is a small percentage of the population that struggles and is more stressed for the Holidays. This percentage of people is struggling from an eating disorder. While I have never had an eating disorder I have worked with people who have as well as a couple of friends and teammates. I have also had people comment on my food intake.

There are so many articles, blogs, internet resources telling you how to “survive” the Holidays. There is a small percentage of people that are trying to survive in other ways. Trying to survive the inner battle they are facing within themselves. The battle with food, stress, anxiety and other health problems.

They are silently preying you don’t make an insensitive comment.

They are preying you are silently judging them or telling them to eat more.

Or even worse, they are holding it all together only to be sick in the bathroom ten minutes later.

It’s not a large population but it’s one of the hardest to understand and comprehend. 5-15% of people struggle with an eating disorder. The answer is unknown because most cases go unreported. You may never have had your Holidays with someone struggling with an eating disorder. I can guarantee you will unknowingly come across someone who is struggling.

Source

Food is a touchy subject in our culture. It’s part of the reason that over half the United States population are overweight or obese. It’s part of the reason over half the population does not have a healthy relationship with food. We use food to celebrate, for social events and for rewards. We separate food into good and bad categories.

It’s always important to be aware of what you are saying to others regarding food. You don’t know their past, present or even future tendencies. Food is something we need to survive.

I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of someone saying it was one comment that triggered them. One comment such as “you are going to eat all of that?” Or “wow how does someone your size do it” or even “geez eat a cheeseburger”.

If you take anything away from this post today, take this:

Don’t comment on what someone is eating. Just don’t do it ever…at restaurants, at family gatherings, wherever. You don’t know their history and it’s just better not to comment.

If you are worried there are many people you can reach out too such as parents, counselors, family doctors, coaches. The chances that someone is going to change their food intake because of a single comment are slim (so just avoid it anyways).

You’re going to eat all of that?
I don’t know where you put all of that.
Wow, you are going up for seconds, thirds, tenths…
One slice of dessert won’t hurt you…

While none of these phrases are meant to be harmful, they can all be taken offensively by someone.

Lake Effect Series Final Wrap Up

I am sad this is the last post regarding the Lake Effect Series. I have had nothing but a great time fundraising and spreading awareness for Eating Disorders. The support I received from friends and family as well as strangers has been overwhelming. I will truly never forget this experience.

Before the race Ophelia’s Place shared that this race contributes 10% of their annual budget. Every single dollar and donation truly does make a difference. It is so hard for me to believe that together we raised 2500 dollars. There were over 70 donors. Wow!

Left to right: Heather, Laura, me, Brittany

If you haven’t already please go read some or all of the incredible stories. These stories are truly amazing and show the incredible courage and bravery of the authors. They will always remain on my blog under the “reads” section.

After adding everyone into the giveaway (donors, story sharers and those who shared the link to the giveaway or stories) I came up with 3653 entries to the giveaway! I drew the numbers from random.org and ended up with these.

Without further ado here are the winners and thank you again.

KIND BARS: 2912 The Writer of the post “Binge Eating”(anonymous)

Pocket Fuel and Energy Bits 2355 Package 1: Jacqueline Klayman

Pocket Fuel and Energy Bits 1037 Package 2: Mike Post

Lindsay’s Healthy Bites: 962 Alex at Runwithin

Allie’s Hearty Handful Granola: 1202 Ashley Fincher

**Please email me and I will connect you as appropriate.

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Summary:

This whole experience was eye opening for me. It truly made me realize that we do possess the ability to make a change or a difference. Every dollar donated, whether it was 1 dollar or 100 added up to 2500 dollars. I can honestly say this was one of my biggest accomplishments in my life. I truly cannot thank the support of family, friends, readers and anonymous donors. It was a great experience for me and I am truly glad that I ran this race. To answer your question: I do plan to run the Lake Effect Half Marathon every year I am close enough to Upstate NY.

No questions today. I just want to express how truly grateful I am for all the support from every single person.

Lake Effect Series: I’m Healthy Now

Note from Hollie: Today is the day that I run the Lake Effect Half Marathon. It is hard to believe this is the result of three months of fundraising and eating disorder awareness. We did it though. We raised over 2500 dollars and we raised even more awareness about eating disorders. Thank you everyone for your support. It’s not too late to donate or enter the giveaway. I will be doing a final post sometime this week to recap the campaign as a whole, announce giveaway winners and provide a final closure. It has truly been an incredible experience and I never would have dreamed we would have raised 2500 dollars together.

The final story is the most emotional and the most graphic. Thank you for sharing.

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When Hollie asked me to share my eating disorder story, I jumped at the chance. Of course I’d help. After all, having a distorted relationship with my body and with food is all in the past. I’m healthy now. I’ve moved on. I’m recovered. Sometimes it’s hard to put yourself into the mindset of someone who has an eating disorder, even if that someone was just you at a younger age. Luckily, I happened to have kept an online diary during some of my darker years, and the entriesserve as a constant reminder of what that life was like, and how miserable it was. Some of the entries are truly heart breaking, and are hard to read, but I’ve included a few passages to paint a better picture of just how distorted your head can get when you’re suffering from an eating disorder.

Like so many others, my issues with food evolved over many, many years. At age 8, I determined that my thighs were too fat, and by age 10 I was trying out my first fad diet (Cabbage Soup). I’ll never forget going to McDonald’s with my friend’s family and passing on French fries. I felt triumphant; as if I belonged to a special society of people who were too good to put such trash in their bodies.

“I like going to bed with my stomach empty. Makes me feel…less like a failure”

During my adolescent years, I slowly started on the downward spiral towards food obsession. I went on numerous fad diets, counted calories and fat grams, skipped meals, went on fasts and eventually even tried to make myself throw up. At first I considered vomiting only as a last resort. Something I’d do in “emergency” situations where I had eaten something unplanned and “bad.” Most days I’d restrict my calories to practically nothing, only to binge on whatever I could find once I got home from school. Then, as I could feel my stomach churn at the presence of food, I’d rush to the bathroom in a panic, intent on removing as much of the offending substance as I could. But I hated puking. It was logistically difficult to manage while living with parents and it was just plain gross. There is nothing glamorous about vomit. I kept hoping that if I could just get a control on my diet, then I wouldn’t need to throw up anymore. If I could just get my weight low enough, then I wouldn’t need to diet at all. But the weight didn’t drop off like I wanted to, and instead, primarily due to my horrific eating habits, it increased.

“I want to see skin hanging off my bones. It’ll make me feel like my skin is more like a large sack and I can hide in it”

My downward spiral continued into my first year of college. Surrounded by thin, beautiful, attractive classmates, I became painfully aware of everything that I was not. My body image plummeted, and I found myself increasingly turning to food to numb how I lonely and depressed I felt. I’d go to the dining hall and pack a to-go carton FULL of food. Starches were my favorites. Garlic bread, pizza, cookies, hot dogs, cakes, bagels. Not to mention drink containers filled with frozen yogurt and soft-serve ice cream. I’d sit in my dorm room alone and eat and eat and eat until my stomach literally couldn’t distend any further. Then I’d head to the bathroom where I’d wait until I knew I was alone and I’d vomit everything out. Over time I learned which foods came up the easiest, and which ones were difficult. I learned how to be quick and how to be quiet. I concealed my secret very well, but to my despair, my weight refused to drop, and instead, continued to increased.

“I feel like I’m falling apart. I’ve really come to detest what I’ve turned into. Physically, I’m really gross. I can’t even describe it. AHH! I can’t handle myself anymore! It’s like I’m teetering on the edge of this huge cliff. If I let myself go then I’ll plummet back into the world of extreme depression and unattractiveness. If I can manage to get myself on stable grounds then I’ll be okay but I’m just sort of handing there, my fingers grasping at the rim. But they’re losing their grip and I see it all just slipping away. My face.My hair.My ideal body.My grades.My friends.My future. I don’t know what to do. It’s like I’m too far gone. It’s too bad they can’t put me into solitary confinement for a month so that I can just slowly wither up and die. Or at least get thin.”

A couple of months into my sophomore year, I hit a breaking point. I couldn’t say exactly what changed, but something inside me snapped. I stopped eating. I lost all focus on school or relationships and instead became entirely fixated on my weight. I weighed myself almost hourly, making sure that I didn’t magically gain a pound when I wasn’t looking. I hardly ate anything and what I did eat I immediately threw up. My hands couldn’t stop feelingmy hips, stomach, thighs, and collarbones, searching out for areas that felt thinner or bonier. I’d try on and retry on clothes to see if they fit any looser than the day before.

“I hate the way I can’t think about food normally. I hate how I can’t stand the way it feels inside me. I hate the way my mood is so dependent on those three digits the scale reads. I hate how throwing up doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me. But I couldn’t imagine living any other way. This way of thinking is too infused with my way of thinking. So throwing up food isn’t particularly good to a number of my body systems, but it gives me some sort of mental comfort, like some sort of accomplishment. Sick? Yes. But I can’t stop. If I did what would I do?”

By that spring, I had lost about 30lbs over the course of 3-4months. I was feeling good and in control. I just wanted to lose a little bit more.If I could just lose a little more, then I could give myself permission to be happy, because only then would I be worthy enough.But while my weight was still well within the normal range, the weight loss began to attract attention. My parents became suspicious and shortly thereafter figured out what was going on. I would like to say this was the point at which I finally got help, finally started getting better, but that was still a long ways off. Instead, I was forced to see a social worker and then a therapist. I know my parents were only doing what they thought was best, but I was not in the right mindset to receive help, and instead I resented them for it, and quit going shortly after only a couple of sessions.

“I have so much emotion stored up in me and I HATE having it come out. Crying is weak and therefore I am weak. I detest weak people. I want to be strong and resilient and independent and not need anybody but I’m nothing like that. But food helps me pretend. It gives me a focus. By constantly focusing on weight and good I can take my mind off everything else that I hate about myself. Because if my weight was perfect, then I’d have to find some other part of me that wasn’t and try to fix that too. Because there has to be a reason I’m so messed up. There has to be something wrong with me. But I can only fix one problem at a time because otherwise I’ll get so depressed and frustrated I’ll just give up and succumb to the sadness.”

Over the next year and half, I continued to struggle with my eating. I frequently found myself in debt after spending entire paychecks on food that would be gone in a night. I isolated myself from friends and avoided social situations, but I also became increasingly frustrated and angry with my situation. I hated that I had become so controlled by food, and gradually I tried to release myself from its grasp, which was of course easier said than done. I’d start off Monday promising myself I’d eat healthy and nutritious and in moderation, but by Friday I’d be consuming an extra-large pizza by myself. It seemed hopeless. I was hopeless.

“I’m sick of this. I’m sick of binging. I’m sick of throwing money in the toilet. I’m sick of wondering when I’ll get my next “fix”. What it will be, when and where I’ll do it. I’m like a drug addict.”

However, I did make tiny steps towards progress. With graduation looming, and threats from parents, I finally decided to commit to getting better. I bought myself a book on recovering from bulimia as well as a few books on intuitive eating. Despite appearances, I was still a somewhat rational person and knew that I needed some nutrition. So I started there. In between my massive binge/purge sessions I’d force myself to have an apple, or maybe some carrots, and let that sit in my stomach, repeating to myself over and over that while uncomfortable, the nutrients were necessary. Using the books as a reference, I relearned how to eat and how to recognize fullness. Once my eating had somewhat stabilized, the real work began. My eating disorder was an excuse for me to ignore some very painful emotions that I had hidden from myself. For years I had believed myself to be unworthy and incapable of so much. Identifying and confronting those beliefs as false has taken years.

“I’m slipping. I can feel my thoughts changing. I’ve been trying to stay so positive and so on top of things but it’s getting too overwhelming. I don’t know if I’m doing things right. It’s like standing on a point and being told by a million different people that in order to reach your goal you should go this way or that way or no this way over here. So you pick one, hoping it will lead you in the right direction, but now you’re feeling even farther away than you started and you being to think you chose the wrong path so you start to doubt everything you’re doing and try to backtrack or maybe hop on another path. But how far do you try out one path before you give up? How long do you go without your goal in sight before you try a different strategy?”

My recovery from an eating disorder, like my descent into it, was a gradual process. I still have days when my demons rear their ugly heads, attempting to lure me back into the darkness. Luckily, I’m stronger now than I once was, and I know how to face them. I still occasionally worry about weight, but I try not to let those worries consume me and my former obsession with food has even evolved into a loveof all things cooking and baking. I guess that a silver lining?

A big thank you to Hollie for letting me share my story with you all. Hopefully you gained a better perspective of what it’s like to be in the mind of someone with an eating disorder. If you have, or are currently suffering from, an eating disorder or eating disordered thoughts, my heart goes out to you. You are worth so much more.

Lake Effect Series: Dear Diary

Note from Hollie: This was sent to me by Sophie. Thank you Sophie for sending me this and it’s a truly inspirational story.

There is still time to donate. Yesterday we reached 2231 dollars, every single dollar donated will be put to good use. Thank you. Thank you everyone for donating and sharing these stories. I truly cannot believe that that the race is 2 days away. I’m actually traveling to NY as you are reading this! Finally don’t forget you can enter the giveaway by sharing any of the stories, giveaway link, fundraising link or anything involved. Just let me know you did!

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As many of you already know, I battled disordered eating, from puberty until my hospitalization in 2005. My official diagnosis was Anorexia – purging type. I would restrict calories and purge the calories I did consume with excessive exercise and/or vomiting. The disease evolved in the 15 years I battled it – making a transition in my early 20’s to full-on binge eating disorder then, back to anorexia again in my mid 20’s. There are so many reasons a person succumbs to such a disease. There’s much research and plenty of theories – none of which I feel like engaging you in with this blog entry. Mental illness is a very difficult topic because there are just too many factors – here are mine:

I was the oldest of two children born to 17 year old high school students. My parents married, got jobs in the local car factory, and did the best they could to support their young family. My mother was born into (and had in a sense escaped, when she became pregnant with me) a heavily toxic family as the oldest of 6 children. Sexual and physical abuse as well as alcoholism, were part of her daily existence as a child. My father was the 2nd oldest of 5 children born to a hard working family with a very emotionally unavailable mother. They raised their children the only way they knew how. My mother knew absolute instability, neglect, and abandonment – and my father knew how to disassociate. This was the perfect storm.

I was the oldest of 2 children and spent my entire childhood trying to keep my emotionally unstable mother happy so she didn’t fly off in a rage and abuse my brother – because when she did, I was powerless. In order to do this I had to keep my brother on his best behaviour and my father happy so he was always in a good mood. Even at the age of 6 I understood that my safety and the safety of my little brother, was in my hands entirely. As you can imagine, this didn’t work. My brother still suffered from my mother’s rage, my father still left, and I was still scrambling to pick up the pieces.

No one ever gave me this role but it was not a conscious decision that I would be the keeper to this household. I just fell into this place because of my basic survival instincts as a little girl. I learned that if I was one step ahead of everyone else, I would be safe. So, my quest for perfection began when I was 6, when my brother’s abuse began. I was doing dishes, laundry, vacuuming, dusting, and making beds from the age of 6 to 8. By 9 I was left to take care of my brother while my parents worked, and I was in charge of cooking. I started babysitting other people’s children at that age for extra cash as well because it angered my mother when I asked for money for things for school – like pencils, erasers, new shoes. I learned that being perfect was absolutely critical to my safety.

Eventually when my dad left and my mother had nothing to be angry with me for, she started picking on my appearance. I was entering puberty and I was gaining weight, which became her focus. I would be so pretty if only I lost weight. I would be a better baseball player if only I lost weight. I would be a better… you get the point. So did I. The message was loud and clear.

My relationship with my mother would continue to be based purely on my productivity and accomplishments as I grew – and I tried to love her anyway. What I did not do however, was try to love myself. My identity was built and by hitting rock bottom with my eating disorder I was finally given permission to look at why and how that identity was killing me, slowly. I recovered in 2005 and went on to work tirelessly on rebuilding my self-worth and giving myself permission to find ME. I am now a successful entrepreneur with two businesses that allow me to embrace my two biggest passions: childcare, and fitness. I am a mother to an incredible little boy who is an absolute JOY to love, and I am a competitive bodybuilder. In spite of the rocky start and the rock bottom plummet, I am here, happy, enjoying discovering all of who I am and what the Universe has in store for me. This is the reason I decided it was time to share my experience.

Over the years I have kept a journal. Recently I came across the journal I kept while I was at the peak of my illness. While I understand the depth of my experience I was now reading these journal entries from a healthy mind, and I was absolutely floored with what I read. I want to share some of my entries with you. They are from the mind of a girl in her mid-20’s who has only the buds of consciousness that her lack of self-worth is controlling her drive to…kill herself for perfection.

Entry #1

Sometimes, like tonight, I want to stop. I picture myself as a bystander, watching this pathetic 26 year old ram her hand down her throat to remove the filth she swallowed. I see the superficial things like the mucus dripping from her nose and the strained blood vessels around her eyes, and the fear of failing to succeed at getting it all out – all of what? Food? Shame? Regret? Maybe all of the above. I see the filth all over her hand, the raw skin on her knuckles from her teeth as she pushes harder into her mouth – more frantic as time passes to get it all out. Regret kicks in, turns to shame and self pity. I see all this in my mind. What do I do with this image? Nothing usefull – clearly. I suppose I store it in my reserve pile of shame. Chances are, I won’t require it, there’s enough to go around. I want to stop, a little. I want to keep doing it more than I want to stop. I want to be skinny more than I want to stop. I see the health risks but I see them as “far away” and for those to will do this forever. I don’t see myself doing this forever. But I think I will.

Entry #2

I can’t tell him that I purge up to 6x a day, that I purge even vegetables. That I feel so unbearably alone. That I feel like no one would give a crap if I disappeared. That I take handfuls of laxatives, that I compare myself to every single person I see. That I hate myself. I hate my body, my face, my laugh, my voice, my thoughts, my dreams, I hate everything. I beg God to take me almost daily. I pray my suffering will end because I can’t end my struggle alone. I don’t have the strength to go on. How do I say that? So I don’t. I keep it all inside where I hope it will dissolve but I know it never will. One day I hope to look back on these entries in shock. Completely shocked by my words. But for now, they are mine, and all I have. My head hurts, I have to sleep. I’m too hungry to stay awake.

Entry #3

6lbs down. I swear to you that was the most beautiful thing I could ever see. I want to lose 8lbs more before I see the doctor at the hospital. How sad that I feel I need to be a better anorexic to deserve treatment, much less a diagnosis. I want to be a better, more successful anorexic. It’s insane but I can’t help it.

Entry #4

I had my assessment today with the Regional Treatment Center. After all the questionnaires and my interview with the head psychiatrist I’m told “You’re very ill and we recommend hospitalization”. Apparently I’m in a category of individuals who suffer from cardiac arrest and it’s a matter of time until I have a heart attack. You know, I honestly thought I was going to hear “you’re not too far gone, we’ll set you up with a self-help plan”. Instead she repeated all the statements I made that stood out to her and explained how they reflect the views of a seriously ill person. All I could think as she was saying all this was “but i’m STILL FAT! I still have fat on my stomach and thighs – can’t you see that?”

Lastly, if something does happen to me in my quest for thin, I hope my family forgives my selfishness. I’m afraid this may hurt me. Maybe not kill me, but i’m aware that it isn’t good. I know it’s selfish and vain but I can’t live without my ED. I don’t know how to undo 27 years of filth and shame.

Entry #5

The thing about anorexia that continues to shake me is that an otherwise intelligent educated woman can be convinced (by herself of all people) that she is hideous and unlovable. I can honestly say that I hate myself. No amount of weight loss can change that. I don’t like myself enough to feed myself. I feel unworthy of the food I put in my mouth, and once it’s in my stomach for any length of time I get a sudden fear that I don’t deserve what I just ate, and I purge it. Lately, even water. That’s a fucking sickness for you.

Entry #6

When things started to get tough in my life I just started to focus on destroying myself. I run twice a day, sprints in the morning, and a steady-state run in the evening – all on less than 600 calories a day. Every time I run, I pray to collapse. I realize the only way I could stop is if I died and I could only die if it happened to me. I couldn’t end my own life any other way. I desperately want it to end.

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As you can see this girl needed help in the biggest way and while she saw it – she didn’t want to acknowledge it. She was so far gone that she didn’t feel worthy of the help. The story ended happily but so many do not. There are hundreds of men and women on waiting lists to get into recovery centers like I did – some die on that waiting list. Death from starvation is one thing, but death from starvation of self-love is entirely another. No one should suffer from that, much less die from it.

If you take nothing else from this story, I want you to remember that there is absolutely nothing you cannot do with self-love. As you can see from my story, I was not granted self-love – I had to build it – and I had to hit rock bottom to even understand the work that needed to be done in order to attain it. I work on it even now, daily – and I will never stop because that is my birthright – as it is yours❤.

Lake Effect Series: You can’t “not eat” and train for a marathon.

Note from Hollie: Thank you for sharing as always. It’s such a reminder that even those who appear healthy often times are not. Appearance does not tell the whole story.

Only a few more days to donate. We are 40 dollars from 2200 and I truly believe we will reach that goal. Please feel free to share any or all of the stories and enter yourself in the giveaway. A single donation or share is all you have to do!

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I was always bigger. Not necessarily overweight – but everyone in my family is German and 6+ feet. I’m not quite as tall, but still have the same bone structure. I was very active in high school, but I still had that ‘nagging’ feeling that I just wanted to look like everyone else.

When I went away to college, I realized I could reinvent myself. I’ll diet! I’ll workout even more! What started off as good intentions turned into skipping class to spend hours at the gym and adopting a strange, extremely strict food regiment.

It didn’t take me long to start realizing that I was headed down a slippery slope. But, all the girls on my hall were so IMPRESSED with my dedication and discipline! “Oh, how I wish I could be like you!” “Oh, you’re so diligent, that’s awesome!” How can you possibly start breaking a bad habit when everyone applauds you for it?

I’d strategically eat one piece of wheat bread with a scoop of trail mix on top of it and consider that most of my daily food. Healthy fats, good carbs, protein…who cares that its only a total of 200 calories? It’s well-balanced!

My behavior continued all through college…each year brought new challenges. Engineering classes were hard, I joined a sorority…every new challenge drove my perfectionism harder and harder. I figured that once I graduated college, it would all go away. I figured that “adults” don’t deal with these kinds of problems! I’d just wake up and be normal.

Well, I graduated. And I got a good job. And the behavior didn’t stop. I’d spend all day at work just chugging water hoping I didn’t pass out. Our company did a free health screening…and mine came back bizarre.

My blood work was all over the place. I was lacking tons of nutrients, had wild levels of certain horomones, had stress on my kidneys. Not to mention my hair was falling out by the lock, and I developed awful insomnia. I finally realized – “adulthood” wasn’t going to solve my problems.

My main vice in my times of disordered eating was over-exercising. I’d run for hours and hours just to watch the calories on the machine count up. I’d skip meeting friends because I had to burn more calories. Would get up and run in the middle of the night because I had to burn more calories. Would go to the gym with the flu because I had to burn more calories. I decided to apply for a cognative-behavior therapy study taking place at a local university. I was accepted, and entered into a therapy person.

As my therapy went on, I realized that I really liked to run, when I wasn’t using it as self punishment. My therapist helped me channel my ‘perfectionism’ a little bit into my running. Okay, great, I can stay on a treadmill for hours…but can I run a fast 5k? A 10k? How about a marathon?

Here’s the catch: You can’t “not eat” and train for a marathon. I think this was my saving grace.Towards the end of 2012 I became focused on completing the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2013, and I did. Properly fueled and all.

In 2013 I ended up running over 15 half marathons, the marathon, and a half trail ultra…plus a sprinkling of local 5 and 10ks. And get this, I WON some. I finally started realizing that being proud of my body’s physical strength and power is a lot more impressive than my jean size.

I’m gearing up for the marathon in Pittsburgh again, and have already started setting my sights on a BQ sometime in the future. Who knew running could save a life?

I’ve come a long way, but still seek therapy help and suffer relapses. Recovery isn’t a mark in the sand, its a constant forward-and-backward and up-and-down. Kind of like running a marathon.

Question for you: What nonphysical aspect of yourself are you most proud of?

Lake Effect Series: Five Years Lost

Note from Hollie: This post is extremely heartbreaking. Often times eating disorders are associated with being very thin but there are so many people suffering that are not underweight or do not looking they are having inner battles.

There are exactly two weeks to go before the race. I’m very very excited to see how far this campaign is going. I am surprised, excited and overwhelmed by the support from donations and sharing stories. I cannot believe together we have reached over 2000 dollars! Thank you friends and family for being so supportive.

I need 4 more stories for the final week before the race. If you are interested in sharing your story please do no need hesitate to email me!

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Bertha

That’s what my 8th grade teacher called me one day. Middle school kids can be harsh and sadly things like that stick around for far too long.

When you like eating disorders what comes to mind? Let me guess, the “thinspo” or pro-ana websites that are sadly all too prevalent thanks to the internet? Skin, bones, hair falling out? Probably not 200+lbs right? But in my case, that’s where the disordered habits began. I was never dangerously underweight or the “stereotypical” specimen, yet there I was in High School eating a few bites of chicken and baby carrots for lunch to make my sudden weight loss look relevant then going home and binging on whatever I could find at night. It didn’t start out this way, and the downward spiral began without me even realizing it.

In my first year of High School I took up rowing and went from well over 200lbs to a healthy and very active 150-ish lbs. I was eating better, I was exercising and competing in both rowing and Dressage. I was happy, much healthier and life was good. I took a year off rowing to focus on my horseback riding and suddenly my activity level went from extreme to…. non-existent. Needless to say, the weight came back on and it came back on fast. I’d go back and forth joining gyms, trying to “diet” and generally just getting nowhere. I got back into rowing and my weight evened out.

In my last year of high school I was aiming to finish my year competing at the Canadian High School Rowing Championships. My coach sent in the entries the week of Christmas and he casually mentioned he entered my teammate and I as lightweight, which was 138.6lbs and under (Yes, a number that will forever be burned in my brain). At the time I was going to a small women’s only gym and remember going into the locker room that week and stepping on the scale. 216lbs and my race was 4.5 months away.

And so began the bites of chicken and baby carrots.

No breakfast.

Cardio.

Twice a day training.

May came and I stepped on the scale in front of the race officials, my weight class was sharpie’d onto my arm, and this is where life should have gone back to normal. Work on my eating habits and continue working out, the beginning of my new healthy lifestyle, only this is where I started eating even less, training more, and binging at night. I hated myself, my body, my inability to quit binging.

Eventually the restricting led to a doctors appointment. I was frequently lightheaded and on the verge of passing out, but on the outside I looked like an average weight high school kid. I remember the doctor asking very vague questions, after all I didn’t LOOK sick. The outcome was no tests, no concern. Low iron probably, pick up a supplement and get on with it.

I wish someone had seen something in that time and expressed concern or that there was more resources available. I spent years of my life yo-yo dieting, hating myself and my body, starving, binging, taking part in a never ending vicious cycle that maybe could have been cut much shorter with proper education and help. Someone to listen, a place to feel safe to share my struggles, the knowledge that I wasn’t alone. Reading the stories that Hollie has posted have broken my heart and while I know my story is nothing in comparison I think supporting this cause and bringing eating disorder awareness and resources to more people is so very important.

Maybe being diagnosed would have changed my life, had I got help sooner I often wonder what would have changed in my life. I wasted 5 years of my life to stressing over my body and eating. Five years of ignoring real life and just existing in my disordered habits. Those are 5 years I’ll never have back and want no one else to lose.

Thank-you.

On Monday evening it happened. Together we reached raising $2,000+ for Ophelia’s place. I sat there in shock, in amazement and overall wow. I don’t think I have been more proud or excited about something. After realizing the significance of how much we have raised, I cried. Good and happy crying but I just sat there crying.

I cannot thank each and every person for donating, for sharing their story and for sharing this series with others. Not only have we fundraised but we have raised awareness. With only 2 weeks until the Lake Effect Half Marathon, I am getting more and more excited. I am excited to run my heart out for such a good and rewarding cause.

So thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story.

Thank you for donating.

Thank you for supporting Ophelia’s Place.

Thank you for supporting me.

With over 2,000 dollars raised and the primary goal met, the sky is the limit. If you have a story you would like to share or would like to donate please don’t hesitate! There is still over two weeks to continue building awareness and fundraising. If you or a loved one has a story to share my blog is always open.

I cannot believe 61 people donated and together we raised 2,035 dollars. Stay tuned because next week a few companies have sent me products to raffle off for those donating. I’m really excited to have companies supporting this cause too!

No questions today, words can never truly express how thankful I am.

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