I know what it’s like to want to change my own life and not know where to start. For five years, I battled an eating disorder that had a vice grip on me. My body and my mind were no longer connected—they were at war. The scale dictated my mood and how I felt about myself that day, and every morsel of food that passed my lips was something I’d previously researched and placed on my “approved” list. Throughout my recovery process, I’d take one step forward and end up two steps back, but I never gave up. Day by day, I changed little things where I could.

First, it was the information I consumed. I swapped diet tips in magazines for self-healing and self-love books. Meditation and journaling replaced body-checking and calorie counting. Then, came the language. Foods no longer fell into categories of good versus bad, healthy versus unhealthy, clean versus unclean. As I continued, I turned deeply inward and found that there was someone incredibly strong within me who never gave up on me. The connection between that strong inner self and my body continued to grow. I no longer wanted to punish myself; I wanted to nourish myself. That strong inner self is now the woman in the driver’s seat.