Young mother who weighed just five stone last year, but was denied NHS treatment for anorexia, healed herself by eating pizza and is now a muscly gym bunny
A young mother-of-two who battled anorexia for 17 years took photos of herself eating pizza in a bid to put on a weight.
Holly Griffiths, 25, from Greenwich, London, was eight-years-old when she first stopped eating and for nearly two-decades her life was plagued by the horrific eating disorder.
‘Blinded’ by body dysmorphia and weighing a skeletal five stone (72lbs) her wake-up call came last year when she was refused NHS treatment because she was continuously relapsing and losing weight.
She decided to start eating pizza once every two weeks, and said: ‘If I wasn’t going to recover the only other option for me was death, I either had to stop and turn things around or carry on and die.’
Now Holly has celebrated her incredible transformation from being ‘so skinny she could snap’ into a muscly gym bunny.
Holly began posting images of herself eating pizza once every two weeks before she built up to her now 2000-calorie-a-day diet
Wake-up call
After resolving to turn her health around, Holly, who had been prescribed anti-depressants and sought out private therapy to fight body dysmorphia, ate pizza every two weeks and posted photos of her achievement.
Since then, Holly has passed eight stone by working out at the gym to gain muscles and eating a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet for the first time in nearly two decades.
Now she’s posted amazing videos to show her transformation and is training to become a counsellor.
Holly said: ‘I realised you can’t live forever with an eating disorder, starving yourself and purging when you eat will lead to a heart attack or a stroke.
‘I realised no one was going to help me, if I wanted to get through my eating disorder enough I had to be rational enough to do it myself.
‘Body dysmorphia had blinded me to the point where I looked like I was about to die, I looked horrific, I can’t believe I could even stand up back then.
‘Now when I look at my body I can see I’m stronger, my skin is healthier where before it was yellowish-grey, I don’t have bones sticking out at weird angles and I no longer have spots.
‘I used to be upset by my thighs most of all, I thought they were fat, horrific and I’d cry seeing them, now I don’t think my quads are big enough.
‘The difference now is that I’m not happy because I want to be stronger and more flexible, I don’t cry when I look in the mirror anymore, I’m proud of my body and what I’ve achieved.’
Diagnosed with anorexia as a teenager
Holly, who was formally diagnosed with anorexia at 13-years-old, was often fuelled by dangerous pro-anorexia communities online.
https://youtu.be/AkFUtk7ifdg
Holly said: ‘I don’t know what led to it, it’s difficult to understand my rationale at eight-years-old but I stopped eating for reasons I can’t explain despite countless therapy sessions.
HOLLY’S ANOREXIA BATTLE
Aged eight, Holly stopped eating.
At 13 she was diagnosed with anorexia.
At 17 Holly had a mental breakdown.
Aged 24 she was just five stone and refused treatment by the NHS.
The wake-up call saw Holly start to eat pizza once every ten days.
Within a year Holly increased her weight to eight stone and now eats 2000 calories a day.
Holly said: ‘I don’t know what led to it, it’s difficult to understand my rationale at eight-years-old but I stopped eating for reasons I can’t explain despite countless therapy sessions.
My illness had me at the point where I was lying down and was convinced I could see my thighs touching so had to take a picture to prove it wasn’t true.’
During her struggles, she battled to get back to a healthy weight but suffered a mental breakdown at 17-years-old.
Strangers commented on her shrinking frame
She says during her darkest days, cruel comments from strangers made things worse.
‘I was told to eat a burger more times than I can count, that it looked like I was going to snap because I was so thin and other things but I was so immersed I couldn’t see it,’ Holly said.
‘I used to get so angry about it because I couldn’t see what I really looked like and how very unwell I was, it’s only relatively recently that I’ve been able to see reality now and I won’t go back.’
Healing herself with pizza
She started eating one pizza every 10 days and celebrating it with pictures before introducing more food groups to her diet.
She was also given anti-depressants and paid for a private therapist, which helped her to re-evaluate her mindset.
Holly said: ‘I ate half a low-calorie pizza from Pizza Express, I thought I really like that so I will commit to eating this same pizza at least once a fortnight.
‘I would take a photo while doing it to celebrate my achievement.
‘I never thought it was possible to be where I am now, I thought I would always be destined to live in that grey area where I was still restricting my diet.
‘I threw out all of my skinny clothes too, which was a big deal for me as I used to keep them all ready for my relapse, now I see this as part of the bigger picture.
‘If something doesn’t fit now it doesn’t upset or freak me out,.
‘I’m proud of my body and proud of the fact that it got to almost breaking point and I’m strong now.’
YOUNG WOMAN TOLD TO DIET BY HER MOTHER BEAT ANOREXIA
A young woman revealed she battled anorexia after her mother told her she should diet, surviving on just 100 calories a day.
College student, Oceane Maher, 20, from Texas, USA, was a keen runner but after hitting puberty, she felt she had gained weight and slowed down.
Despite being a healthy BMI, her mother, pointed out her weight gain, which sparked Oceane’s obsession with the size of her body which eventually led to her hospitalisation.
At her lowest, Oceane weighed just 6st 10lbs (94lbs) and was a UK size two. Now she is a healthy 8st 3lbs (116lbs) and a UK size six to eight.
‘I developed anorexia when I was fourteen. As a kid, I’d always been naturally very thin but I gained weight as I was going through puberty,’ said Oceane.
‘Around that same time my mom started pointing out that I’d gained weight and saying I should go on a diet. She has her own struggles with eating and projected her insecurities onto me.’
Oceane said she became ‘very obsessive’ began cutting out certain foods which quickly escalated.
Over the next few years she managed to sustain her restrictive diet, distracting herself with school and friends but it got worse when she went to university.
Before embarking on her recovery, Oceane would survive on eating just 100 calories worth of porridge a day to kickstart her metabolism in the morning.
She would continue to fuel herself with cups of coffee, diet pills with limited vegetables and rice cakes. Oceane would exercise all day long and would track her steps meticulously with her Fitbit wearable device.
Oceane decided to enter treatment a month into her second year at university after her doctor ‘begged’ her to go.
Oceane now visits a dietician once a week who helps her plan her meals to ensure she gets the right mix of grains, proteins and fats.
She says that she wants to spread the message that eating disorders are about more than the numbers on the scales.
‘All the way up to the day I was admitted into treatment I was told ‘you don’t look anorexic’ despite being severely underweight.
‘Hearing words like that made it so difficult for me to seek treatment because I was so afraid I would be the fattest one there.’
‘I may not be one-hundred-percent there yet but I’m working on it. I do go on runs every once in a while but I make sure to not overdo them so it doesn’t become obsessive again.’
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Source Türk
