Former Anoretic Says Hello!

Tokkeditok

Hello you all

Finally, I've joined MyFitnessPal and so I want to introduce me today!
I am an 18 year old student from Germany who is just moving in her own flat.
I have had an eating disorder for 5 years, but I also visit therapy for three years now and am really eating better. I have gained weight again, so that my body fat percentage is normal (21%), but my muscle ratio is veeery low. I also suffer from osteoporosis, which means that I should not do jogging or other sports that are bad for my joints.

I want to do weight training 2-3 times a week (I will start this when I move out, because I have too much stress now, but I am doing push-ups and squats regularly for a start), and eat much protein and fat. I have always feared fat, so I think this will as well make my eating disorder get better. I make progress in therapy and my therapist even recommended doing weight training, so I think it will be okay. I am not trying to lose weight. I rather want to boost my metabolism because it has gone very slow over the years.

I hope that someone is interested (maybe because one has gone through the same problems with food?!) or has some advice for me.

tacanevari

How do you start a thread on here? I can not seem to find it. Please help.

econut2000

I do not have any advice nor have I been through the same thing as you but I just want to tell you congratulations on battling anorexia and winning!!! Good luck in the future as well. :flowerforyou:

bookwormwendy

Hi and welcome,
I went through a round with anorexia when I was in high school. I felt like my life was spinning out of control. My parents had always fought but now my dad had cheated and their marriage was rockier than ever and then they were divorcing. My mom had always been obese and I loved her but I didn't want to be like that and some of my family teased that I was getting fat. Put it all together and you had a recipe for disaster. I started losing weight, intentionally, barely eating, dancing more (something I loved anyway) and got down very small. Stopped having my monthly cycle, started having other symptoms and finally my mom caught on. She made me go to the doctor, I'd seen him for years and they threatened to put me in our local mental health facility for treatment if I didn't start eating. Probably a threat more than a promise but it scared me enough that I put on enough weight to keep them off my back. I was at the very low end of my healthy range and yo-yoed at that and just under it for a while.

Then I met my now husband, had a miscarriage, married, had two kids twenty-one months apart, and gained a lot of weight. I lost my mom to cancer less than a year after my youngest was born and began a downward spiral....the opposite direction. The problem for me is, until recently, I never had a healthy relationship with food. It wasn't JUST about being skinny it was about not having a healthy relationship with food and maybe even more about not having a healthy self image. It has taken me years of maturity and life experience, probably would have benefited from counselling, to come to a place where I feel mostly comfortable with food. I don't withhold it from my self, I don't binge, the two extremes I had been through.

I don't want to scare you, I am pretty sure you won't go the other direction, I am just sharing my own experience. Each one of us who have had weight struggles of any kind have own issues, our own "root of the problem" for me it was self image and an unhealthy relationship with food. It took me a lot of stumbles and bruises (and some health issues) but I believe I am finally in a healthy place emotionally and mentally and can successfully and just as importantly, safely lose the RIGHT AMOUNT of weight.

I wish you the best of luck, it sounds as though you have a good plan in place and you are getting help, wish I had. Hang in there and don't beat yourself up too badly when you do have bad days. And most importantly : LOVE YOURSELF! It's a really great place to start