FueledByLOLZ

Lake Effect Series: 15 Year Battle

Note from Hollie: This is the final story before the race tomorrow. I cannot thank everyone enough for sharing their story, for donating and for being apart of this journey. We are currently at 2361 and only 139 dollars from 2500! There is still time to donate if you can. Seriously, thank you. Also it’s not too late to share or enter the giveaway associated! There are lots of great prizes like Kind bars, energybits, granola, Healthy Bites and Pocket Fuel!

On another note, I have recently started following the author of this story Jackie. She is an amazing, incredible and strong woman and I cannot sing her enough songs. I definitely encourage you to check out her blog.

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Submitted by Jackie

My journey from eating disorder to recovery has spanned 15+ years, but the sweetest feeling in the world is knowing that there IS life after an eating disorder. It doesn’t have to forever be the defining statement over your life, your relationships and your thoughts. Recovery is possible, just never give up.

My struggle with food and eating began in my elementary years, I can’t pinpoint a year, but I know I had an unhealthy relationship with food even back then. I slowly gained weight and by junior high was pretty overweight. The pre-teen/teenage years are pretty unforgiving when it comes to being overweight. It seems that people love to target and pick on the overweight kids. I was bullied and made fun of on a regular basis through junior high, but you would probably never know it, I learned to hide it well. By the end of 8th grade I remember having episodes of purging, but it was scattered here and there. It was often associated with stress and handling all these feelings that I didn’t know what to do with.

By high school (particularly later in 9th and early 10th grades) my struggle had become an all out battle. What was at one point a stress relief became an overwhelming addiction that I had lost complete control over. I lost over 100 pounds through this time and by 10th grade, not long after my 16th birthday, my family doctor recommended to my parents that they seek treatment for me. I spent six weeks at an inpatient eating disorder clinic and thanks to insurance was told I had to leave and pursue treatment back at home. I struggled with depression, anxiety, thinking that this was the end of my story, I couldn’t see hope outside of my eating disorder, it was my best friend and my worst enemy and it had its grips on me.

Fast forward through the high school years, I continued to struggle. I graduated and moved off to college and rather than the freshman 15 most gain, my eating disorder amplified and I struggled badly for those years. I am an overachiever and push myself to my limits at anything I do. I was trying to balance college studies and my struggle with an eating disorder, and having a hard time. I was pushing to graduate college with a double major in three years, wanting to keep all A’s. I used my eating as an escape for the stress I felt. A binge/purge cycle would relieve the feelings of anxiety that built up inside.

There were times that I’d get a handle on my eating, I’d think I had made a turn for the better, and then without notice I’d be swept into the struggle more fully than the time before. Eating disorders are rough because you always think you have control of it, until you realize that you don’t. I saw therapists. psychiatrist, etc throughout this time, all trying to help me…all aiding in my eating. None ever understanding how I kept falling back into the same cycles over and over.

I finished college in 3 years, and met my future husband. I got engaged and a year after college, I got married. Shortly after getting married I found out I was pregnant. Eating disorders and pregnancy are hard. You’re already freaked out about your body and then it starts morphing and changing in ways you cannot control. I did my best. My very, very best for my child. Trying my hardest to always put her needs before mine, I did well for awhile, but once she was born the struggles continued to come and go. Four years later I had another daughter and somewhere in between this time, in the highs and the lows, I began to crawl out of the pit I had been sucked into for 15 years. I can’t pin point a moment, I can’t tell you I did x,y,z, and that helped me. I don’t know exactly what it was. I do know I never stopped trying to get better.

Lets jump to today….I have 2 beautiful little girls that are 4 and 8. They look to me as an example, they want to look like me, act like me, be me. That is very scary when you struggle with an eating disorder and you’d give your life to spare them from this struggle. I started working out and lifting weights a few years back and begin to find the strength in my body to be amazing. Just very recently, I discovered my love of running. I just completed my first Half Marathon the past weekend (Feb 9) and am still in awe that I ran that far. I see beauty, I see redemption, I see a newfound respect for my body for its strength to carry me. I have found my legs to be such an amazing gift to me, food is now fuel for me and I have such a healthy relationship with it that I shock myself on a regular basis. I can truly say running has saved my life. It has given back to me something that I never knew I possessed….pride in myself and a love for myself.

Running has made me feel whole, see my worthiness. I am a Christian and I thank God always for sustaining me in my struggle. He truly has given me the strength to press on and never give up. My faith carried me in the darkness and that coupled with my running shoes are carrying me places I never thought possible.

I fought a hard battle, I never gave up having hope that one day I would live without the struggle of an eating disorder. I am a survivor. My voice may be small, but I am not longer ashamed of the battle I fought. I made it, many others are still fighting and I want to give people the hope….just keep going! If one person finds help, if one person sees hope, then my battle has been well worth it. Eating disorders don’t have to stay hidden and in the dark, there is such beauty in the freedom of the truth.

Thanks for letting me tell my story,

Jackie 🙂

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 <3.

Lake Effect Series: Your Heart Will Stop

Note from Hollie: I cannot thank each people for submitting a story and sharing. Each story has been powerful and so inspirational. It is motivating me to run hard on Sunday. Run hard for Ophelia’s Place. Run hard for all of the supporters, sharers and everyone. So thank you.

It’s not too late to donate and please consider it. Donating or sharing will also enter you in the giveaway that multiple companies have participated in. I know Ophelia’s Place will put the donations to good use.

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Submitted by Karla
First off, I’d like to thank Hollie for shining a spotlight on a topic so important and near and dear to my heart. Even though about 1% of American women are affected by anorexia, there is still a lot of stigma about it and other eating disorders. That’s why I’m happy to share my experience with anyone and everyone who will listen, because:

1. There’s absolutely no shame in seeking help when you need it,
2. My story is proof that there is life after anorexia, and
3. If even one person’s affected enough to assist a friend or consider treatment as a result, being open and honest about my past struggles is well worth it!

Eleven years ago, my weight was such a struggle (I reached nearly 180 pounds), that I figured all my problems, social, physical and otherwise, would be solved if I lost weight. So at 15, I started on a healthy kick, swapping grilled chicken for my beloved fried chicken fingers and visiting the gym each day after school for 30 minutes on the elliptical. As I—and my peers, boys included (finally!)—noticed results, I began cutting portions even more and adding minutes to my sweat schedule. Forty pounds lost by 6 months became 86 one year later, and I barely recognized the skeletal 94-pound girl I saw in the mirror.

My parents were at their wits’ end. We had consulted my family doctor, dietitians, psychologists and more to try to find a solution, yet nothing seemed to stop my downward spiral. At one point, I was eating about 800 calories and exercising two hours each day. I knew I was too thin and, since I was without any energy, felt myself pulling away socially from the new friends I had gained as a result of my newfound confidence. But something inside me wanted to keep losing. I needed to prove to the kids who used to taunt me as “big tit Karla” that I was in control and was not the chubby girl they believed me to be.

Eventually, my normally non-emotional dad sat me down and said, “Look. We’re worried that your heart is going to stop because you’re so thin. If you lose one more pound, we’re putting you in an inpatient treatment facility.”

I was officially scared straight, and after a few stops and starts, and years of visits with my psychologist (because, despite what I once believed, therapy is not just for “crazy people”), I got my body back on track. It took longer to get my brain on the same wavelength and move beyond the thoughts of inferiority, but within the last year or two, I finally feel like I’m becoming confident with myself, my body and what it can do for me.

One of the best things that’s come out of my eating disorder was a passion for health—in moderation. I went to school for magazine journalism and kinesiology so I could write and help educate about the importance and power of making wellness-promoting decisions while not letting that mindset take over your world. Today, I’m honored to be able to help FITNESS magazine spotlight real women who have done just that in the “I Did It!” section and aim to inspire my group fitness class students to strengthen their bodies in each of our sessions so they’re able to live long, vital lives rather than looking smokin’ in their bathing suits this summer. Because there are way more important things in life than being completely cellulite-free!

Thank you again!

Lake Effect Series: An Innocent Diet

Note from Hollie: This story is near and dear to my heart. As a collegiate runner and distance runner I’ve heard MANY females talk about losing their period is natural in training. It’s not. I can 100% say I have never lost my period and it is not normal if you have. If you have lost your period, please go see your doctor.

With only a few more days to go we have surpassed the goal of reaching 2000 dollars for Ophelia’s Place. We only have 95 dollars to reach the new goal of 2200. Please continue to donate as Ophelia’s Place will always put it to good use! Please feel free to share any or all of the stories. The amount of awareness is incredible. Finally do not forget to enter the giveaway!

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Submitted by K

As several other writers have mentioned, it is so hard to know where to begin. I could tell you about waking up every morning in elementary school to the sound of my beautiful mother weighing herself. Or, I could begin in 4^th grade when I first began hating my body because I weighed as much as a family friend who was several years older (and several inches shorter) than I was. I could talk about 6^thgrade when I began telling my parents I did not like to eat breakfast and then “forgetting” my lunch at home daily. I could tell you about the weight I lost, and was incredibly proud of, as I was weighed daily in my 8^th grade personal fitness class. I could tell you about the dangerous game this created in my head, as I realized watching these numbers fall gave me a feeling of control over the otherwise chaotic life I was living.

I could begin my freshman year of college, when after a few years of appreciating my body and running competitively in high school, I gained the infamous “freshman fifteen.” Thankfully, during high school, my disordered eating lay dormant for the most part! I was running track and cross country, playing travel soccer, and fueling myself properly. I was training hard and reaping the rewards. But with the transition to college came a decrease in my training, an increase in dining hall desserts, and a truly unintentional reversion to my old “game.”

I was disgusted with the weight that I gained, constantly uncomfortable in my body, and frustrated I could let myself eat so much, so I decided to do something about it. I do not believe I set out with the intention of creating an eating disorder. I did not even label what I experienced as an “eating disorder” until I ultimately sought a nutritionist and therapist my junior year of college. It began as an earnest attempt to run more, eat less, and lose some of the “freshman 15” I had gained. It started as an innocent diet to lose the 15 pounds I had gained.

I began training again, reading nutrition labels, calculating calories in my head or on paper, and ensuring that no meals I consumed had more than what I deemed to be the “acceptable” amount of calories. I have ALWAYS been a numbers oriented person. I love math, which is why I majored in accounting! This aptitude for numbers, however, turned into a very real and constant obsession. If I did not know how many calories were in something, I could not eat it. I did not want to introduce any kind of uncertainty into my new game. I loved knowing exactly how many calories I was eating, and estimating how many I was burning. I never took into account Basal Metabolic Rate, so my efforts to operate at a caloric deficiency resulted in a much greater deficiency than I even expected (because your body needs a considerable amount of calories just to operate in a day without exercise!)

I was losing weight, and I was thrilled. I loved knowing exactly what I could eat and when. I loved having so many rules to dispel any uncertainty from my diet. I was fitting into my old clothes again, and not just from college, but safety pinning the shorts I once wore in high school when I was much smaller and hadn’t truly matured into my adult body. I never once thought that maybe, at 5’8”, I didn’t need to fit into these size 0 pants.

But I was running the best I ever had! I was PRing road races and training for triathlons. I was winning my age group in races and working myself to the bone on my own. I was doing track workouts in the pouring rain and running late at night if I couldn’t get it in at another time. I was late for class and meetings so I could get in a few more miles (and I am NEVER late. It is one of my biggest pet peeves). I was choosing exercise over people because I didn’t want to slow down if they weren’t my pace. I was obsessed, and I was slipping down a dangerous slope all by myself, without the presence of mind to realize what I was doing to my body. I lost my period, but told myself that couldn’t have had anything to do with my diet or exercise. “A lot of runners lose their period, right? It’s just natural…” Wrong. These thoughts were taking over my time, my life, and my mind. It was all I could think about, and all I could do. I found myself in the depths of a full blown eating disorder, without realizing what was happening.

My junior year of college, the effects started catching up with me. My grades were slipping and I was isolating myself more than ever. I was no more satisfied with myself than when the restriction began—in fact, I hated myself more. As a very extroverted person, it was the depression and isolation that finally clued me in to what I was doing to myself—this was no way to live. I was constantly preoccupied, thought about food 24/7, and finally realized there might be something wrong with the way I was living. I made the decision to call a nutritionist at my college, honestly believing she was not going to see anything wrong with my choices, but hoping that she could help me dispel some of the obsession I was experiencing about food. Little did I know, meeting with her for the next two years would absolutely change my life.

Calling what I was experiencing an “eating disorder” was one of the hardest things to verbalize. But finally accepting what I was doing to my body allowed me to begin to fight back. I have learned so much through the recovery process, and while it has been THE hardest experience of my life, I have learned more from this process than I ever expected. If I could have learned these things through any other process, absolutely I would have chosen that…but I am so thankful for what I am learning from my life’s path and I would love to share some of these lessons with you all.

– I have learned to appreciate my body for what it does, not have it looks like. Thank your legs for carrying you throughout your day! Your body is powerful, and it keeps you alive. It enables us to experience so much. Now, I would rather run marathons and hike mountains than have misconceived “power” over my hunger and needs. I am thankful for my body and I hope you are too!

– I have learned that the physical body does not always show evidence of the mental struggle. I wish it was like a light switch, that once your body is healthy, your mind follows suit, but the darkest days of my eating disorder were when I was regaining weight in therapy and fighting the intense mental desire to return to restriction. A healthy body does not always ensure a healthy mind, and we cannot assume that since someone’s physical body does not show the evidence, that they are not experiencing deep hurt and inner turmoil. Eating disorders affect people in all shapes and sizes and in all stages of the recovery process.

– I have learned that I am not alone. The shame is incredibly intense, and I felt crazy and as if no one would understand, but that is absolutely not the case. This series of posts alone shows how pervasive eating disorders are in our society, and that we are not alone. Even if people have not experienced an eating disorder, in my experience, my friends still tried to understand. It was incredibly intimidating, but once I spoke up, I was astonished at the support I received and at the amount of people who had experienced an eating disorder or knew someone who had.

– I have learned how important it can be to ask. Speak up if you are concerned for a friend. Ask out of the compassion and love in your heart. If they are not suffering, hopefully they will know that you care about them enough to ask. If they are suffering, your words may enable them to speak up, receive support, and fight back against something that can truly take their life.

– I have learned that nothing is a waste if you learn from it. Like I said before, if I could have learned these lessons any other way….sign me up! But instead, it took an eating disorder and a difficult, continuing recovery process to teach me to love and value myself, and for that, these dark years of my life have meaning.

For so long, I avoided talking about my experience with anyone because I was so ashamed. I was ashamed that I had so much trouble doing something that should be so easy and intuitive; ashamed that I refused myself food when others around the world starved for no fault of their own; ashamed I despised and abused my perfectly functional body when others’ bodies are attacking themselves with disease and illness. I was ashamed I struggled with something I couldn’t even understand. But today, in sharing my story, standing on my recovery, and realizing all of the incredible lessons I am learning through my experience, I can continue to dispel the shame. If I can answer one question, encourage one person, change one perspective, or initiate one conversation, my experience is worth it. Thank YOU for helping me make meaning!

Lake Effect Series: Giveaway!

As part of the final week leading up to the Lake Effect Half Marathon I will be having a giveaway. I am so lucky that so many people and companies have decided to send awesome gifts and prizes for you. I am honestly overwealmed with support from people and companies towards this campaign. I will never be able to thank people enough. From the bottom of my heart thank you for everyone’s time, donations and positivity towards this campaign. It truly means a lot.

Without further ado here are some of the gifts you could potentially win!

A 12 pack of KIND Bars.

KIND BARS are very well known and I was happy to have them on board. The box of 12 contains multiple flavors. They would like emphasize being kind to your body and fueling correctly for any exercise and life! Kind bars are actually a personal favorite in my household (when I get my coupon on).

Two different Energy Bits and PocketFuel gift packs. Energy bits is a well known and great alternative energy source for athletes and anyone in general!

Pocketfuel is a new to me fueling but I have found since recovering from the marathon and starting runs that need fuel, they are completely awesome.

Included are my personal favorite (and more) Java!

Healthy Bites from Lindsay at Cotter Crunch

Let’s face it Lindsay is an awesome and very well known blogger. To have her sending a lucky winner some of her Healthy Bites is completely awesome. Her Healthy Bites are delicious. Since she is a kickbutt athlete (as well as her professional husband) how could you not want to win some? She will be providing a box!

Here is a small excerpt she wrote about her Healthy Bites:

Healthy Bites is a company dedicated to providing healthy snack and fuel options for all people. It was started by myself (Lindsay Cotter) and my husband (James Cotter). I am a certified Nutrition Manager and Fitness Consultant and my husband James is a professional triathlete. In the past, I struggled with a lot of health issues which resulted in a drastic change in my diet and my husband’s diet, but for the better. Since 2009 we have been gluten free. And in an effort to help James (and myself) have a healthy gluten free pre and post recovery snacks I started making him healthy bites. Realizing, that I was onto something I enlisted my friends and colleagues to help me expand my idea into a small business. All of us worked hard to create different flavors and break down nutrition for each Healthy Bite. James and I are grateful for the hard work and direction we received from our friends and family. They are our best supporters! Now about our Healthy Bites……..

We’ve created 4 standard flavors: Apple/Peach/Apricot Cinnamon, Muddy Buddy Mocha, Whey Good (Vegan Protein available), and Cookie Dough/Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. Each flavor is unique in its taste and function. All are made with mostly all-natural, gluten-free and organic ingredients. The mission is to offer the most minimally processed bites proving to people that eating healthy can taste really good while still being really good for you. Each box comes packaged with the ingredients and nutritional information so that every customer knows exactly what is going into their bodies.

Hearty Handfuls Granola made by Allie

Allie has been one of my good friends for a very long time. She is an amazing baker, foodie and women in general. She recently opened an etsy shop where she is selling her healthy and minimal ingredient granola.

She was nice enough to write me a small excerpt about healthy handfuls!

“I created Hearty Handfuls as a way to connect with others and share my love of baking. I chose the name Hearty Handfuls because I bake with my heart, and it makes me so happy to see others with handfuls of something I created for them. All of the varieties of granola offered in my Etsy shop are healthy, and made with simple ingredients like whole grain oats, honey, and raisins.”

So in summary the prizes up for grabs are:

1. A 12 pack of KIND Bars

2. One gift pack of Energy Fuel and Energy Bits

3. Another Gift pack of Energy Fuel and Energy Bits

4. Healthy Bites from Lindsay

5. Two bags of Hearty Handfuls Granola Package from Allie

Now how can you enter?

The ways to enter are very simple. For every dollar you donate (or have donated), it is a single entry. For instance, if you donated 100 dollars, you have 100 entries. I am truly grateful for all the support for Ophelia’s Place I have gotten and I know we can raise more and spread more awareness.
If you have shared a story, I have also thrown your name into the mix. I actually have the rest of the stories scheduled and I cannot thank each person who shared enough. They have all been truly inspirational.
Finally if you share the link to the fundraising page or the the Lake Effect Series page (facebook, twitter, however you want you want to share and support) you can receive an extra entry. You can do that as many times as you want. Please just comment here each time you share, so I can add you to the list.

So in cliff notes version to enter the contest you can donate to Ophelia’s Place or share. I think we are capable of reaching 2200 dollars before Sunday!

I just wanted to re-thank each company and individual for donating to this give away. I’m very excited to see how far this campaign has come and I know Ophelia’s Place will put the fundraising to good use.

*Each company has provided these for this giveaway.

I will draw the winners randomly sometime next week and include it in the series wrap up.

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!

———————

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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