Once Upon a Time . . .

   Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved Disney princesses. She collected all of the Princess Barbies and always said "Someday I want to look like Snow White!" Unfortunately for that little girl she couldn't stay in her room and pretend to be a princess all day; she had to go deal with reality. The reality was that people around her were never happy and she couldn't control it...but she could control food. She could hide blocks of cheese under the couch for later. She could eat until SHE decided it was enough. She could have total control over food even if she couldn't control anyone around her. . . . THE END

   It took me about 10 years to realize that there was a problem. The relationship I had with food was unhealthy, but it still took me another 4 years to WANT to find the root of my problem. I know for a lot of people it may seem like a pretty simple thing to do: acknowledge you have a problem. But for the people actually living through it and experiencing it, you know it's not easy to look internally and point the finger at yourself. You can try all you want to blame someone else but at the end of the day you have to take ownership over the situation.

   My Grandma never recovered from her divorce from my Grandma...my mother was always hunting down my biological father to pay him child support.... my mom and Grandma just couldn't get along when they lived together... my mom was always stressed out trying to juggle a full time job, night school and raising a child. Life wasn't that peaceful for the people around me, but I couldn't do anything to make it better...I was just a kid. That's most likely when I began my unhealthy relationship with food. I would eat more when it was more apparent that I couldn't control things going on around me.

Disney Princesses don't eat their feelings...neither should I!