Being a girl, I have gone through the ups and downs of what it feels like to be comfortable or “uncomfortable” in my body. Although I never got to the point of an eating disorder, I most definitely struggled with eating, with distorted images of my body at different phases in my life.
It’s an interesting thing to be a young girl or teen girl and surrounded by peers that seemed to have the “perfect body” or icons in the media that pre-exposed us to what is seemingly ideal. That pressure and unnatural standard of the female body, penetrates most female psyches at some point in their life.
There are quite a few points in my life when I took my eating habits to a bit of an extreme. The first was when I started testing the water of not eating for a few days in grade 7 or 8. I even went as far as trying to make myself throw up after eating two large slices of lasagna, convincing myself that was a “bad” thing to do. However, after this unnatural and unappetizing experience, I realized very quickly that this was no way to live or enjoy food.
I slowly changed my eating habits over the years from fast foods, processed foods and heavy meat based foods to a somewhat cleaner, yet quantitative approach to food. I always had my interest in healthy food and eating from an early age. I even had a bit of an obsession with fruit, among other healthy foods, so much so that people around me thought this fanatical way of eating as a little girl was some kind of disorder.
Starting in the last years of high school, and into early University, counting calories and living on low fat foods, I would calculate everything that went into my body. Looking back, I can’t believe how disciplined I was. I vowed not to eat more than 1000 – 1200 calories a day in fear of gaining weight. I was obsessed with how my body looked and wanted it to look a certain way and strictly controlling my diet felt like the only way at the time. This distortion and unhealthy relationship with food and my body, was a bit of a vicious cycle for a few years. I was convinced I was healthy at the time, I was eating “healthy foods” and I knew exactly how much was in each bite. This soon became exhausting as I realized that this was not a lifestyle or a natural way of eating.
Soon after, I started to make the connection to whole real foods. I slowly gravitated away from protein bars, tuna packs and melba toast. I recognized very quickly that the foods that got me most excited and thoroughly enjoyed, didn’t come in a package or have a label. I started to cook whole grains, beans, use more than “a tablespoon” of nuts and ate as much fruit and carby root veggies as I wanted.
Guess what? I felt great, looked great, shed extra pounds (and wasn’t even counting anymore) and my body and skin started to glow. That’s when not only my relationship to food changed but this also carved my own wellness journey that I live each day for. In addition, this set the beginning stages of my path to be a health educator in the realm of nutrition. It is my mission to guide my tribe on their own wellness journey that is not based on calories or grams of fat, but is based on eating nourishing real food, that makes you feel good. When you feel good, your body and mind feel good and then you can begin to have fun in your body and love every bit of it!
If you want to experience the passion that I now have for “real” food and well being, then join me at an upcoming cooking class in Toronto! To get inspired to take your health to the next level, subscribe to The Ultimate Health Podcast Today!
To listen to the podcast interview that inspired this post, click here!
