Sunday 2 June 2024

11 year update - I made it

So hi everyone. It’s been over 11 years since I last updated this blog. I forgot that this blog existed until I recently stumbled upon an old list of emails that had anaveganboy@gmail.com listed.

I think the big question is, did I recover? And to that I say, yes. Yes, I did. 

I am now fully recovered. I have zero ED tendencies anymore. 

I started this blog when I was 13 and at the height of my ED. Reading my old posts and tweets was heartbreaking. I was so depressed, so broken. My ED completely consumed me. I couldn't think of anything other than starvation and getting skinny. 

I'm 25 now and the broken 13/14 year old boy that authored this blog seems so alien now. Its cliche to say but I truly don't recognise 13/14 year old me anymore. I can't express how much happier and healthier I am. 

 

My Eating Disorder and Recovery Story 

This post does a good job summarising how I developed my ED. However, one thing that I left out was how the trauma from various sexual and physical abuse played a role in developing my ED. Its something that at the time of writing this blog, I didn't realise was "abuse". It’s taken a lot of self-reflection over the past decade for me to acknowledge that I was a victim of abuse and recover from it. 

My parents repeatedly made comments about my weight around the ages of 11 and 12. At the time, I was dealing with a lot of trauma that stemmed from sexual abuse as well. That trauma, combined with those comments, sparked something in me. When I was 12, I suddenly wanted to "get healthy" to make my parents proud but it soon devolved into full-blown anorexia when I realised my parents and peers liked what skinny me looked like. 

Around the age of 13 and 14, I was further abused by a teacher. He would physically assault me and yell at me when I was alone with him in the classroom. I finally confided in my parents about the physical abuse and he was removed from the school. The whole incident further reduced my self-confidence and is probably the reason why I continue to have issues with authority. 

Between the ages of 12 and 17, I went through a cycle of starving myself and regaining the weight over and over again. My body image was shot to hell and I couldn't look at myself in the mirror or even pictures of myself without crying. 

I remember my parents begging me to eat because of how skinny I was. I would yell and scream at them for even talking about my weight or eating patterns. Losing weight was the only thing that made me happy. I already lost everything else; I couldn't lose the only thing that brought me happiness. More than once, I remember going to sleep and praying that I wouldn't wake up. I was so depressed. I started skipping school. I began using alcohol to numb the pain. It was by far the darkest period in my life. 

I eventually went into foster care from the ages of 15-17. My home life was getting too toxic and my parents made the decision to temporarily give me up. During my time in foster care, I was able to get the treatment I needed for my trauma and my ED. 

From 18 to 19, I still would have the occasional intrusive thought that I was too fat and needed to starve myself. It was at that time I made the decision to join the military on a whim. It was during the recruitment process when I realised just how skinny and weak I was. I failed the fitness test the first time because I lacked strength and just didn't weigh enough to pull 250 lbs during the sandbag drag component. 

Joining the military made me realise how destructive starving myself had become. It was the motivation I needed to start seriously reconsidering my health. From the ages of 19 onward, I began upping my calorie intake and started taking fitness more seriously. Over time, those self-destructive thoughts of starving myself completely disappeared. 

 

Being a straight man with an ED

Being a straight man with an ED was an incredibly isolating experience. EDs are not a rare phenomenon. However, they are much more prevalent among women. Because of that, I was never able to receive treatment until 3 years into my ED. 

Doctors didn't take my parents seriously because I was a man. They never suspected I had an ED because they assumed EDs were a "girls' disease". I only was able to receive the treatment that I did because my parents went out of their way to tell my social worker about my disordered eating habits. 

I remember stepping foot into an ED community centre and asking the coordinator if there were any males in the support group I could talk to. She shook her head and said no. 

Even among the pro-ana community, a lot of people assumed I was gay. I had to clarify on more than one occasion that I was straight. Despite it all, I was never able to meet another straight man with anorexia. 

It did mess with my perception on my masculinity as well. Thoughts of "am I really man enough?" permeated through my mind on occasion. Anorexia was and is still seen as a "teenage white girl disease" which didn't help. 

To the men out there struggling with an ED, you are not alone. Recovery isn't easy but its absolutely worth it. Please seek professional help if you believe you may be suffering from an ED. 

 

Body/Diet/Fitness Updates

I'm still 5'5. I stopped growing around the time of my ED and I believe my ED likely stunted my growth. However, I now weigh a healthy 140 lbs. Looking back at pictures of me during my ED is incredibly jarring. I can't believe how skinny I was and how I wanted to be thinner. I was nothing but skin and bone, yet I somehow thought I was "fat". My ED completely warped my perception about my body. It has taken me 10 years of recovery to finally understand how messed up my perception really was. 

I probably eat around 2500-3000 calories a day (I'm in a bulking phase right now). I no longer count calories and instead practice intuitive eating. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm not hungry, I don't eat. It's crazy to think back to a time where I would have a mental breakdown eating 600-800 calories a day (I have a vivid memory of crying myself to sleep after I "binged" one day and ate 800 calories). I'll eat that many calories as an afternoon snack nowadays then go back for more seconds. 

I also practice "clean" eating. As in, I don't eat ultra-processed foods and cook all my meals from scratch. I don't do this because I'm trying to lose fat or because processed food = bad. No, I do this because it makes me feel better. Eating clean gives me more energy and makes me feel better. For me, its what works. That's not to say it works for everyone. 

I'm still very physically active. However, now I actually have the energy to excercise. I hit the gym 5 times a week for strength training and do cardio at least 3 times a week. On top of that I rock climb, hike, run, bike, kayak, and have began dabbling into mountaineering. I love weightlifting and getting my heart rate up while exploring the outdoors. 

Overall, I'm still conscious about my weight. However, my focus has shifted from "I need to get as thin as possible" to "I want to lead a healthy, balanced life". 

 

Where am I now? 

I joined the Canadian Armed Forces while in university and have been working with them full-time since I graduated. I've done two deployments and absolutely love my job. I recently purchased my first house and am currently planning out how I'm going to proposed to my girlfriend this summer. 

Life is good.

I obviously won’t be updating this blog anymore. However, it just doesn’t feel right not providing an update. For those that interacted with and supported me throughout the years, thank you 😊.

On a closing note, please enjoy this photo of my section during our infantry training!


One more thing!

I just discovered that this was my last tweet on Twitter.


11 years later and you did it little bro. You did it. 


Thursday 24 January 2013

My Name

I just want to clear something up real quick. James is not my real name. It is an alias I use to protect my identity. I would prefer if my parents don't stumble onto this blog by searching up my name. I just wanted to clear that up because I received a message about someone asking my about my identity.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Underweight Models Banned in Israel to Fight Anorexia

Wow, I have been updating a lot.

In the world of eating disorders, there are somethings being done to combat the growing problem.

Skinny underweight models are a thing of the past now in Israel. Starting in 2013, model's BMIs cannot be below 18.5. Anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. Models now have to produce medical records three months prior to a photo shoot of catwalk show. Also, the bill that was passed in March of last year stats that advertisement that are digitally altered to make the model look skinny must be identified. 

The information above was gathered from this website.

When I heard about this new law, it felt like music to my ears.  Finally, a country is doing something about the growing problem of eating disorders brought on by the media. Things like extremely thin and photoshoped celebrities should not be the meaning of beautiful.

Here is an example of what photoshop can do:


The Photoshop Beauties: Before and After


In the article, it says 5% of Israelis suffer from an eating disorder which is a relatively high number. This probably meant that body image was more important to the Israelis government than maybe the American government.

Overall I am happy with what Israel has done. I really do hope that other countries will catch on. We have to protect not only our children, but ourselves from this type of manipulation.

Friday 4 January 2013

Stressed Out

This post is going to be very personal.

Right now I am so stressed out because of my friend Erin. I just want to say we are not dating or anything, we are simply friends. In September of 2012, I started to notice that she kept making comments about people’s weights and about how fat she thought she was. I was worried so I tried telling her that she was beautiful and didn’t need to lose weight. She didn’t believe me. I thought/hoped that it was just a phase.


I believe in November she asked me something that felt like a stake through the heart. She asked if I had any tips to lose weight. Yes I do have a lot of weight loss tips but are they safe? No! For god sakes my heart has almost stopped on more than one occasion! Immediately I gave her a hug. I can’t tell you how sad I felt. I am not joking when I say that I almost cried. I want no one to ever endure the torture that I went through. Erin is such a sweet, lovely girl and she does not deserve something evil like Anorexia.


After she asked me, I asked my mom for advice. I told her I was afraid that Erin was developing an eating disorder. My mom waved it off and told me that is her business and not to worry about it. Well what she said was not what I did. I started to watch her during lunch and noted that she ate smaller portions than she did the year before.


A few days later, I decided to talk to my teacher Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson knows that I have been struggling with an eating disorder for over a year now. I told him that Erin had asked me for weight loss tips and that she kept saying how fat she was. He promised that he would talk to Erin and not mention my name.


Call my paranoid, call my crazy but I don’t care. Anorexia took so much from me and I want no one to ever go through the hell I went through.


James


*Names have been changed to protect the individuals privacy.

Thursday 3 January 2013

New Year’s Resolutions

Yay, it’s the New Year. That means… resolution time! When I set goals, I try and make them easy to achieve. That way, I will stay motivated.

So here are my resolutions:
  • Get down to 100lbs by December 31, 2013.
  • Shrink my waist down to 27 inches by December 31, 2013.
  • Eat less than 1000 calories every day.
  • Update this blog at least once every other week.
  • Get A’s in all my classes.

One more thing, happy holidays!

Stay strong

James

Friday 16 November 2012

Dealing with Hunger Pangs

Let’s face it, hunger pangs suck yet they are almost always with us. The growling feeling of hunger and its demand for food isn't the best feeling in the world. Most people deal with it by eating. Anorexics like to do it differently.

We deal with it by:
  • Chugging a glass of water
  • Drinking something with caffeine in it (caffeine is an appetite suppressant)
  • Punching our stomach
  • Rolling up into a ball
Yum! Doesn't that sound fun!

Okay this is sort of a really random post.

Stay Strong

James

Tuesday 2 October 2012

How I 'Became' Anorexic


I wish I could say that I just ‘became’ anorexic but that’s not the case. But I do know when I first ‘met’ Ana.  I was ten years old, and I was well fat. I wanted to lose weight and got the great idea of not eating and over exercising. Luckily this never happened, it was only a thought. But when I was twelve, I turned those thoughts into actions.

My family was very negative about my weight and would make mean comments. I guess you could say I just wanted to make them proud. Usually I only ate around 500 calories a day and worked out for about three hours. I lost about twenty pounds. I started to black out as well as faint almost daily. At the time my parents thought it was just harmless loss of baby fat and commented about how good I looked. This just fueled my eating disorder. I started a stricter diet but that led to binging. At the time I didn’t gain any weight.

When I started school my friends also commented about my body. But, then they saw what I ate. My friend said it looked as if I was anorexic but I knew she was joking. Even though I didn’t think I was anorexic, I researched it anyways. That’s when I realized I was anorexic; almost all the symptoms matched. I was nervous and eventually told my parents. They were not that educated on the subject so they did not seek help. Anyways I didn’t need help. I was able to recover in February of 2012. I gained back all the weight I had lost.

I got depressed about my weight again and I had a relapse. That was June of 2012. In July of the same year, I created this blog to aid me with my weight loss. Now it is October of 2012 and I’m still trying to lose weight.

All I have to say is, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but worlds will cause me to starve myself.’ Think before you say.

Stay Strong

James

Monday 24 September 2012

Weight Loss Shows for Motivation

One of my huge motivations for loosing weight would have to be watching weight loss shows. Most of the time I am quite mean and laugh at how overweight they are. I know that's mean, so I do not recommend anyone else doing this. When I watch these shows, I learn more about weight loss, although I am already an expert.


One of my favourite weight loss shows is "X-Weighted Familes". It is a Canadian weight loss show so I am not sure if it is available in the USA. It tracks a overweight family on there journey to loose weight. Here is the link to watch episodes online.

Another weight loss show I like is "Supersize vs Superskinny". It is a British television that deals with extreme diets. An extremely overweight and underweight swap diets for a week. It gives you motivation by watching overweight people and gives you thinspo as well. Also it talks briefly about Anorexia in each episode. They usually follow a few of them during there journey to recover. I usually just skip that part.

Here is my favourite episode:






There are many more weight loss shows that I watch but these are deffinately my favourite.

Hope this helps

Stay Strong

James

Thursday 13 September 2012

Male, Straight, Anorexic


What is my sexuality? I am STRAIGHT! It is a fact that gay men are three time more likely to delelope anorexia then straight men but this does not mean that every male anorexic is. When someone finds out about my eating disorder, the first thing they assume is that I'm gay. Well I'm not. Here is a nice article talking about male eating disorders and how sexuality relates to them.

Well I do not have that much to say. People automatically assuming I'm gay has got on my nerves. I just want to express that. If you read this, please note that if you are a straight man with an eating disorder, do not worry. You might be in the minority but nothing is wrong with you.

Stay Strong

James