Anybody who knows me knows that I am always "on a diet." Always. Very rarely is there a time when I not counting calories, carbs or reassessing my macro nutrients. Food is always on my mind. I've been like this for pretty much my entire life. Fortunately, my relationship with food has changed tremendously over the past 20 years...
Staring in middle school, I discovered something that would haunt me for well over a decade. I was bulimic. You know the logistics of binging and purging, so I won't go in to the details, but it was something that stuck with me long in to adulthood. The thoughts that go through your mind are horrible...you become a victim in your own body. Your mind holds you hostage until you expel whatever food it was that you consumed. It is a horrible way of living. You become so trapped inside your body and so afraid of everything, that you just shut down. It was during this time that I really started excluding people in my life, sadly it was during this time when I needed them most. Fortunately for me, I got tired. I got tired of the purging, the pain in my throat, the decaying teeth, the constant fear of being caught. It was too much. Gradually, I learned to rethink how I viewed food and how to live an active lifestyle.
It wasn't until college that I started learning about all those "diets" out there. I became a runner, and a pretty good one, too. I will do another post how my running has changed throughout the years. My main focus, however, was always food. I spent most of those years living in a fat free world... fat free hot dogs were my go to meal at only 45 calories a pop. As time evolved, I tried everything... miracle pills (fen phen, Xenadrine, etc.), Weight Watchers, low carb, vegan/vegetarian, etc. If it was in my limited budget, I tried it.
As a habitual diet, I've learned a lot about my body and what works best (so far). I will break down each of the diets I've done throughout my life and explain some of the pros and cons of each. I have learned so much about me with each of these diets. So no matter how many cons one specific diet has over another, I learned a little bit more about me after each one. And to me, that is a success.
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