​My tumultuous relationship with food and my body started at age 5.

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I was in dance class and I looked in the mirror. ​I noticed that I looked different from the other little girls. ​I noticed that my thighs touched together and theirs did not. ​I noticed that my leotard looke lumpy and bumby against my body while thiers looked smooth. ​And in that moment, for whatever reason, I decided that there was something wrong with me. 

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Next came my food obsession.

 

From that point on I was always interested in it and I couldn't seem to get enough of it. ​That combined with a typical standard American diet with no limitations, I became overweight. ​As an overweight child I was ridiculed frequently by other kids...and sadly, sometimes by adults. ​One day I was pitching in a little league softball game and the coach yelled at me "Throw harder than that! You're a BIG GIRL!" 

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I was a very active and athletic kid until one day my weight started to make an impact. ​At age 10, I discovered that I couldn't do certain moves in my tae kwon do class, and so...I went on my first diet. ​I yo-yo dieted until I was 16, desperately trying to counteract my food obsession, until one day, after learning it from a 90s tv-movie, I became bulimic. ​By age 20 I was binging and purging so much that I was unable to function.

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I decided to ask for help and told my parents. ​I was sent to a residential treatment center where I stayed for 3 months. ​I was taught that I was a food addict and needed to stay abstinent from sugar. ​I relapsed not long after leaving treatment and spent the decade of my 20s relapsing on and off. 

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I went to college for nutrition hoping that if I could understand food that I could have more control over it. ​Ironically, I graduated feeling even more confused about food than when I had started studying it. ​After college I didn't give up and continued my quest to understand food on my own. 

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At age 30 I discovered something that changed my perspective on food entirely and it was the catalyst to changing my relationship with food permanently. ​I spent the next decade of my life learning, evolving, and healing deeper than I ever imagined. 

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Today, at 41 years old, I have created lasting harmony with food and peace with my body. ​The crazy thing is, I was told it wasn't possible. I was told that I would likely always struggle to some extent and that my eating disorder would always be part of me. ​In my experience, this is not true and I will happily challenge anyone on that notion.

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Over the years I've worked a lot of unfulfilling jobs and spent a lot of time wondering how to use my education and experience to help others. It wasn't until I became a coach that my vision for how I could help people started to take shape. 

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From living 25 years disordered and 11 years recovered, I discovered a missing link in both the treatment and education I received. There was a lack of focus on my relationship with food and body. That is the work I had to do on my own in order to create lasting change, and today, that is the work I am commited to doing with others. 

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