I grew up in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, living a pretty active and healthy life with my family. My family always went on hikes, walks, camping, and enjoying the outdoors. We didn't watch TV, never ate fast food, and ate many vegetarian options. At different times during my childhood, I participated in swimming, dance, soccer, and field hockey. Upon entering high school, I decided to stick with field hockey and continued to play all four years. I also experimented with track but HATED it.
I entered my first year of college at a small school in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Upon entering college, I decided that I did not want to continue field hockey. But after being there and meeting girls on the team, I decided that I would join in, and began taking part in "spring training".
I was not extremely active during the first part of my freshman year, but would occasionally go to the gym. I fell into the college life style of eating foods that I had never been able to at home ( pizza every night etc.) I had always been thin and always ate what I wanted to without having an problems with my weight.
During my freshman year, not only was I adjusting to college life, new food, new people but I had also gotten out of a serious three year relationship. I ate my emotions. I gained the "Freshman 15", and everyone noticed. I began to try to solve the problem in an unhealthy way by using laxatives and binge/purge. My parents pointed out my weight gain out, and had me go to a nutritionist. The summer after my senior year, I stopped drinking, became very devoted to my nutrition, and exercise (pretty much obsessed!). I also discovered a love for running during this time. I lost much of the weight during that summer, and continued throughout my sophomore year.
I began to feel better about my self, began a new relationship, but still continued to obsess about my food and exercise. I managed to loose all the weight, in a healthy/unhealthy combination. (It did not help that my roommate was in the same vicious cycle that I was).
Come to my junior year.
Spring of my junior year, I studied abroad in Australia and it was almost like we were freshman all over again.
I went there not knowing anyone, but quickly made friends with my roommate. The dorm that we lived in was all first year students. The food options were not generally healthy either, but I was had more information about healthy foods. I also decided to become a vegetarian at this point, as I never really craved or loved meat. I never really at red meat before. However, I could not and will never be able to give up seafood!! I did utilize the gym often while studying abroad and we walked everywhere. I still managed to gain some weight but was able to loose it quickly.
During my senior year, I began dating my high school boyfriend again, and was feeling a lot more settled with myself. I still continued some of my unhealthy habits but did go to some therapy to deal with these issues. I ended up telling my mom about my disordered eating habits, but never went through with an serious therapy. I did however find out a lot of information about eating disorders through my senior thesis "The Strive of Perfectionism in Athletes" which was centered around eating disorders in athletes.
As I have entered the work force, I have struggled with finding time to work out, challenges of treats at work & grad school, sleep deprivation etc. I have managed to adjust to living with my boyfriend. I still continue to struggle with my eating habits and sometimes exercise obsessively, feeling that "I am too fat" "Not good enough" and all those other mantras that go along with eating disorders/disordered eating. I have become more aware of it and living with my boyfriend has helped me relax with it.
Since college I have completed some races and love to run, but am currently struggling with an injury while in the process of training for a marathon.
I recently began reading healthy living blogs and became inspired to create my own to take control of my own life and connect with others with the same goals!
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