I am a 21-year-old student at Northeastern University. My love of fitness began as an athlete, all the way back when I could begin kicking a soccer ball. My enthusiasm and love for sports grew in intensity until I suffered a back injury in eighth grade.
Trigger warning: Descriptions of eating disordered behavior.
After my injury, I tried tirelessly to recover and make it back to my beloved sports. Unfortunately, I was unable to continue playing sports, making high school and all of its social/fun aspects very hard and different from what I had always imagined. Once I was able to manage my back injury, I became obsessed with fitness, healthy eating and becoming what I thought was “perfect.”
I spent years wasting away at the gym. I would spend hours at a time trying to burn through as many calories as possible, sometimes going to the gym twice a day. My relationships disintegrated and my family and friends watched heartbroken as I was wasting away. Years of this routine resulted in bone loss (osteoporosis), stress fractures, foot surgeries and time off from school.
However, I am now happy, working on being healthy and able to live a life without restricting myself to minimal calories and hours of gym time…
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