Holly's Story - a weight loss journey & overcoming an eating disorder
I have gone through an 80-pound weight loss journey and I want to share my story and how the ate app has not only helped me through this journey but also helped me overcome my issues with my ED.
Going into my last year of middle school I was weighing in at around 200 pounds. While I had an issue with self-control there were also external factors that played into this issue much like most people who struggle with eating.
I grew up in an incredibly toxic environment. My mother was extremely abusive, addicted to pills, and was ultimately diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder.
The stress of my home environment led me to develop a disastrous habit of stress eating, along with often finding comfort in food.
My mother herself was around 300 lbs. When she first became addicted to painkillers she also acquired a disturbing obsession with losing weight. What started as a few Weight Watchers meetings, slowly developed into a full-fledged eating disorder of bulimia. Throughout my middle school years, I watched my mother binge eat, and immediately vomit her food. Her horribly unhealthy relationship with food was something that I couldn’t help but find difficult to interpret.
I wanted to lose weight myself, but my only role model was doing it in a way that was not healthy for one’s body. I wanted to be thinner, but I had absolutely no idea where to start. My 13-year-old brain was confused and misguided.
In the storm of my childhood, I lost control of my own weight to the point where I simply did not care anymore.
After it had been a few years since my mother had disappeared, I was going into my senior year of high school and something simply clicked. I was disgusted with my own self-image and knew I needed to make a major change in my lifestyle before things got too far.
Beginning my weight loss journey was an incredibly daunting and nerve-wracking experience for me. With the immense amount of information, diets, tips, and advice on the internet, I had no idea where to begin.
In all honesty, I will not lie that there were times when I wanted to fall back on what I know and simply become bulimic like my mother. The temptation of immediate results was something hard for me to shake.
Despite this, I decided I was going to do it the right way.
As of today, I am proud to say that I have lost 80 pounds. I cannot even begin to explain how drastically my life has changed since I altered my lifestyle. Not only do I feel more comfortable in my own skin, but I feel a tremendous difference in my body.
The positivity that has come into my life by becoming healthier is amazing and I wish I would have made this change sooner, and I believe I could have done so if I would have known just how simple it can truly be.
While losing weight, I struggled tremendously while trying to use different mobile apps that tracked calories, macros, and specific details about my diet. I found this process incredibly tedious and I seemed to be only able to track these details for about a week before I lost interest.
In another desperate search for an app that I could easily track my food with I stumbled on the ate app. I was a little surprised at first. After all this obsessing about details, I just needed to take a picture.
This app allowed me to stay on track without spending a tremendous amount of time trying to search for each food I was consuming, measuring and tracking.
My absolute favorite thing about this app is that it opened my eyes to a concept. It showed me that I know what is healthy and what is not. Taking pictures of my food shows me where I made mistakes in my diet and allows me to be conscious of my food without obsession.
After I lost the weight I found myself tinkering on being underweight due to an obsession with losing weight. To this day, I admit that I still have an obsession with weighing myself which I am working on.
Other apps made me OBSESS about what I was eating and left me discouraged, while ate app simply helps me to be mindful and focused. I can see when it has been far too long since eating due to their time tracking feature and I love that I can see my ‘off-track’ v.s ‘on-track’ meals and snacks.
I not only would suggest this app to those who are trying to lose weight but for those who also struggle with an unhealthy relationship with food, like myself. I am very grateful for what the ate app has not only done for my weight loss but the help with overcoming my eating disorder.
Follow Holly on her fitness & health journey through her Instagram page!
