My eating disorders started around age 12. In college, I used food to cope with everything I didn't know how to feel. In my twenties, I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety — and I binged my way through the pain. By 34, I was dealing with endometriosis and cysts that made every month feel like a war with my own body.
I truly believed peace would come once I finally "got it together." That if I could just control myself enough, things would click.
In 2015, I saw a transformation photo from someone I actually knew. Not a celebrity. Not a filtered ad. A real person, with a real life that looked like mine. And for the first time in years, I felt something I had almost forgotten: hope. Hope that I could lose the 30 pounds I'd gained from emotional eating. Hope that I could feel comfortable in my body again. Hope that this cycle wasn't permanent.
That photo didn't change my life overnight. But it got me moving. And once I started moving, hope opened the door to something deeper — food freedom, emotional regulation, and a career built entirely around helping other people stop fighting themselves.