This is me sixteen years earlier in Northern Michigan.
In America right now, at least 30 million people of all ages and genders are suffering from an eating disorder (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders).
And, every 52 minutes, at least one person dies as a direct result. Most likely, many more go unreported due to a medical community that continues to be ignorant of, and oblivious to them.
If I could stop your scrolling for one minute, I have a crucial message for all parents:
“Stop the dieting insanity!”
Stop overeating on Thanksgiving and throughout the holidays—and then start a new diet on January 1st to mop up the damage. Stop normalizing bingeing and purging cycles. (Purging and be via vomiting, using laxatives, fasting, severe food restriction diets, overexercising, etc.)
Stop joining dieting boot camps, resets, juice cleanses, intermittent fasting groups, and weight loss challenges in the new year . . .only to give yourself permission to overeat with abandon until then. . .and after the challenge is over.
Stop focusing on food rules, how much you weigh, and how many pounds you need to lose. .
Artist Unknown
Children and teens are watching.
And, their brains aren’t fully developed to understand the complexity of damage that deprivation dieting (aka severe calorie restriction) can do to their undeveloped brains and young bodies; nor do they have the capability not to develop anxiety concerning their body size and shape.
It is purely the grace of God that rescued me from a severe eating disorder that about killed me several times.
I am alive today only because of a God who still performs miracles and delivered me out of it.
Eat on Thanksgiving—and enjoy every bite of your food—many countries don’t have that privilege.
But for the sake of the next generation, please don’t pig out, because it’s only going to lead to dieting later on. . .or more overeating until your body is so inflamed that life-threatening diseases start—or continue to develop.
May we all prioritize eating for health, so that we, and our children, may live!
Emily Boller, wife, mother, artist, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture.
In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.