I wrote this post in my head while taking a walk. It was awesome…then. We’ll see how it goes now.
I, like many teens/young people, danced with anorexia in my teens and then again in my 20s. I was chunky from fourth grade on. My cousin was slim, all the popular girls were slim, and then there was me.
High school sucked. Most of the people around me were mean or indifferent (NOT the aforementioned cousin–she was and is one of the best people in my life). I didn’t know how to fit in at either of the schools I attended during Junior High and High School. Nothing I did helped. I felt like I didn’t have any control.
And then I learned to control my food. I could skip as many meals as I wanted. That, I could control. So, I ate less and less. And I lost weight.
Bonus.
I got down to 84 pounds.
But hunger came back and so did the pounds.
Right after high school I discovered exercise and a healthy diet. I took the weight off right this time.
And it stayed off.
Then I got involved in a relationship. A really unhealthy relationship. Let’s call it for what it was…an abusive relationship. And they only thing I ever did that made him happy was losing more weight. He loved to show people how much he could overlap his fingers when he put his hands around my waist. So, I kept losing weight.
Praise the Lord, he and I split up, but again life was spiraling for a while there and food was one thing I could control.
Until I met my now husband. I was happy with him. I had someone to eat with again. I gained weight. Then I lost weight…in time to get pregnant with our third baby…and then I lost all control of my weight with the various psych meds I was on and the depression I was in.
Control was again missing from my life.
I have slowly regained control my mind. I am slowly regaining control of my weight.
I have lost 17 pounds since January.
As I have written about before, I have had to radically change my diet. I have had to eliminate or severely limit many foods. It is not always fun, but it is worth it. The FODMAP diet has eliminated much of my stomach pain. It has made losing weight much easier, and, an added benefit, it has given me control–healthy control–over my eating again. I know what I can and cannot eat. I know how much I can eat. There is no guesswork in my food.
It is good. Very good.
Survive til you Thrive!
