It's Fall my favorite time of year. Most importantly it's the time I made the biggest decision of my life. Last Fall I chose myself. Meaning I choose to take a full year off to heal and recover from codependency, sugar addiction, and my relapse into my binge eating disorder.
I am so proud to say it's been a full year. It hasn't been easy but it has been worth it. I took it one day at a time and one meal at a time. Slowly reducing my sugar intake. Grabbing my shadow work journaling to deal with stress rather than the bag of cookies. I made it my business to plan by meal prepping every Sunday, and now I've formed the habit of "Self Care Sunday." I am so proud of myself.
Sharing my eating disorder recovery story has helped me process what my life was like growing up, in my quarter-life crisis that caused the eating disorder, and as I’ve progressed in my recovery. Sharing has helped me accept what my shame story is, and has helped me see the difference in my life before recovery and now as I live in full recovery. It has been a way to see and focus on the things I’ve learned in recovery and want to pass on to others that may need to see that recovery is truly possible. Sharing my shame story has lessened the shame I have often felt with my story. It has helped me find the voice that I was so scared to use. As a sugar addict, I felt misunderstood and embarrassed about my condition. I never told anyone because
I feared no one would understand why it was hard for me to not escape with food in times of stress. I never felt like anyone would understand how I felt when I couldn't control or manage my life as a trucker wife. No one could ever understand how food could be an addiction that I use to destroy myself. But I finally realized that no matter how ashamed I felt I had to get sober to be a healthy example to my four children. Sharing my story has been a way to see meaningful and good things come from the little girl who struggles with the false beliefs that she is not wanted, loved, or worthy. My childhood emotional neglect and abandonment trauma has caused a lot of self-sabotage but my year in recovery has brought light to the darkness I felt as a child who was rejected and left behind.
If you are struggling with an eating disorder just know that... Recovery is possible -- and worth it!
Start your healing journey today you won't regret it.
ARE YOU LOOKING TO DIVE DEEPER INTO SELF-CARE?
I Can Help in Developing A Plan For Self Care
Do you want to help develop a self-care plan that works for your own busy schedule? Do you want accountability in implementing a self-care plan? If you or someone you love is struggling to maintain optimal mental and emotional health, consider reaching out to Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. We are a Metro Atlanta, Conyers Georgia area. We are a coaching and counseling practice with empathetic, skilled counselors and recovery coaches who can help you set goals, develop a self-care routine, and move forward to build a more fulfilling life. Our team would be happy to work with you either just for a couple of sessions to develop and implement a Self-care plan or longer term to work toward overall better mental health within our membership site or other programs.
About The Author:
Dr. Nikki LeToya White MSEd-TL, Ph.D. RHN is the founder, director, and full-time board-certified trauma-informed nutritionist, folk herbalist, and wellness consultant at Spiced Life Conversation Art Wellness Studio and Botanica. She created Spiced Life Conversation, LLC Art Wellness Studio, and Botanica to provide the Metro Atlanta area with counseling and coaching services where clients are carefully matched with the right program for healing abandonment and childhood emotional neglect trauma that cause codependency, emotional eating, financial stress, and imposter syndrome as it relates to the fear of success and being abandon. We help you begin your emotional healing journey with ease. Recently, we have expanded to include an online membership site so we now provide support to people living all over the world. All of our recovery coaches provide at least one evidence-based treatment to assist in your recovery. Dr. White is a big proponent of self-care and helping people live a fulfilling life! She has been in full remission with both codependency and emotional binge eating disorder since 2016. In living a life in recovery from sugar addiction. I love my low-sugar balance lifestyle.
Best Regard
Dr. Nikki LeToya White