The best teachers are the ones that have been through it themselves. For most of my life, my approach to health consisted of dieting, restricting, and disordered eating. I struggled with being unhealthy and overweight throughout my adolescence, teenage years, and into adulthood. I was frequently experiencing hypoglycemia because of my unbalanced and unhealthy diet, putting me at risk for diabetes.

When I was 17 years old, I hit rock bottom. I hated what I saw in the mirror. I’ll never forget one morning I just woke up and said to myself “I want to be skinny for when I go away to college.” Looking back at that version of me, there are so many things I wish I could say to myself. My mindset was changing, and I was willingly to put in the work, but I was so determined to be “skinny.” That was my goal. Although this would result in losing weight and getting healthier, I didn’t approach it that way. Unknowingly, my mental state needed work too.

I tried the trendy diets that were popular in the media at the time. I started a very strict diet where I would eat less than 1000 calories a day. I would obsess over my weight and what the scale was reading. I was not focusing on my wellbeing and I was undereating. I ate very “low carb” for YEARS because I thought carbs are “bad” and make you gain weight. This lifestyle was never fulfilling, unsustainable, and toxic. The weight would come off, but slowly and surely some of it would come back on. I started exercising to try and lose more weight, doing mostly cardio, and not fueling my body properly. I was burning myself out.

Today, I’ve lost over 100 pounds and it was never easy to keep off up until I changed my lifestyle and mindset. I took matters into my own hands, educated myself, and discovered a passion for nutrition and learning more about what foods make me feel energized and my best self. I adopted a holistic approach to health without even realizing it.