Lara’s recovery story
Today. I am honoured to share another inspirational story with you. Lara is going to share with you her own journey to recovery. I am really happy that so many people are opening up and ready to share their stories. For anyone out there who would like to inspire others by sharing what they have learned in life so far, feel free to contact me. 🙂
I believe that we all have a story to share!
Don’t be afraid to share your story. You never know how many people you might inspire!
So now, it’s Lara’s turn to share her story with you.
Where do I start?
While sitting down in my chair now I am truly trying to think of the way on how to tell you my story. I don’t want to make it overwhelming because the ending is more than amazing so let’s just go by taking you along on a brief journey I had.
A little bit about my story
My name is Lara. I am a passionate food photographer and health & fitness, blogger. Two years ago, I created my brand called Fitwithoutguilt, because I decided to help people live a happy and active lifestyle while building it on a good relationship with themselves and food specifically. Unfortunately, today the media has put us in a position where we are afraid of eating so many things because the industries labelled them as ”bad”. People are afraid to take risks, go into the gym, make a step forward and make a change because they are afraid of being vulnerable. I was also one of those examples 5 years ago when I suffered from anorexia & bulimia.
How it all started
By the age of 11, I almost lost my life because of those 2 nasty disorders. However, my wish was never to be skinny, to be a model, to see only bones on my body, instead I just wanted to feel worthy of love. I wanted to feel good in my own body and with people surrounding me. I wanted to have friends, smile and to feel alive. Unfortunately, I was too young to understand the true path which would bring me those things and I thought that if I become smaller people would appreciate me more. I was wrong.
At first, the change of my appearance did bring people closer to me, especially when I lost so much weight, but after falling deeper into the darkness of the illness, people started leaving me behind. They didn’t stop loving me, they were just afraid of what I became. The voice in my head made me behave in such awful ways which pushed my loved ones away, just so that I could reach the inevitable goal- my own death. Horrible isn’t it? I started with the wish of wanting to feel worthy and loved and I wanted to end it by ”finding” the same in death, all alone.
But I chose a different story instead
Fortunately, I have an amazing dad who never gave up. He travelled all over the world to find a place which could help me recover. The funny thing is that the reason I actually didn’t feel worthy enough is the fact that he was always absent from home and in the end, my illness brought him closer to me. So he found a treatment centre where ai spent 1.5 years, all alone without parents by the age of 11. I founded a new family, learned so much, changed my way of thinking and found my worth by truly seeing how beautiful I am.
Here is my recovery “secret”
The reason I got better is the fact that I found a way of looking and experiencing things. I learned that the number on the scale isn’t my worth, that I am loved by the people around me, that I am worthy just by existing, the same are you are too. So I bet that you want to know what is a good life for me and how do I live it today after all of that?
My definition of a “GOOD LIFE“
Simple. A good life is the one created by your heart. A good life is knowing that you have a new day tomorrow to do something you have never done before, to be able to hug someone you love again, to be able to learn something new each and every day, to allow yourself slowly to accept your imperfections, to improve and to be present in every moment of your day. Once you learn that, there is no going back to emptiness.
Thank you Lara for sharing your journey.
You can get more information about her and her journey here.
