Thank you so much for sharing. This is such a wonderful article for me as someone who struggles on my relationship with food. (This may be a little personal, it also may be a little triggering.)

Growing up, though very petite and small, parents and other mentors would make comments such as "oh you're starting to get a bit of a pooch, time to start doing more sit-ups," which as you can imagine took a toll on the way I viewed my body. Even before I had hit my double digits [age-wise] I had a raging eating disorder. By the time my parents noticed I was turning away food, the utter thought of gaining weight (something obviously inevitable for a 10-year old) terrified me. I had developed Body Dysphoria due to the years of verbal torment coming from not only those around me, but my mind had adapted to that environment and started subconciously telling me the same stuff.

After doing surface-level research on Anorexia, my parents started forcing me to eat, threatening to shove it down my throat if I said no; thinking that once I ate their problem would be over. So, soon enough my bulimic journey started.

I struggled with a mixture of both EDs for YEARS.

I'm not going to lie, it was a long road that I still struggle with, and I can't very well say that I love my body even to this day.

[this wasn't even too long ago, less than a year] But on a stupid random afternoon of my adult life I got on the scale and saw the numbers as just numbers, and I realized that being 94 lbs as an adult woman of my body proportions was not healthy. I remember this almost crystal clear, for the first time EVER I looked in the mirror and was disgusted that I let myself get so malnurished and just become absolute skin-and-bones.

I'm at about 115 now, I still have progress to be made, but it's all one step at a time, and with writers and creators like you sharing tips like this, it really does get easier. So thank you.