My Story

My Story

 

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My Story.

Hello Lovely People and Welcome to Hannah’s Healthy Eats.

Thank you so much for visiting my website. It is a work in progress, as is my life, and I continue to grow each day.

I started this website because I want to inspire anyone I can to lead a healthy life, with optimal nutrition and wellbeing. Health is such a broad word, yet it is used far too often in the incorrect way. Health isn’t just about your physique and what you put in your mouth. Health is our overall wellbeing. Health is our environment, the lifestyle we live, the people we choose to associate with. Health is all the above with the inclusion of what we put in our mouths. I think when people learn to understand this we see a great change in the life that we lead.

We all have a choice.

When I was 20 years old I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. I was the person who said, “I would never be Anorexic, I love my food too much”. What people do not realise is that Anorexia is a state of mind, a mental illness. Anorexia has no control. Ironic. At aged 21 I was told that I would be spending my birthday in an Inpatient hospital, as my weight was dropping dramatically and there was nothing the Psychologists could do for me. Hearing those words and realising that potentially I could be spending my 21st birthday in a hospital, being force fed, beyond my control, I knew something had to change. In what felt like a split second something in my brain clicked. I didn’t want to die and I didn’t want my family to suffer anymore. I needed to change.

Months and Years passed. What I felt would be the easiest part of my illness, turned out to be the hardest. Recovery sucked.

Learning to introduce foods into my diet again. Learning to eat again? How do I know when I’m full? What foods are actually good for me and what foods will continue to add damage to what I have already created. My muscles had been destroyed from putting my body into prolonged starvation. My body had turned to energy stores located in my muscles to attempt to fuel my body. My metabolism had slowed down to snail pace to preserve all the energy it could. This meant that whatever I put in my mouth, my body would hold on to for dear life. Literally.

As a result of months of starvation, when I introduced food again I became addicted to eating. It was a full 360. From undereating/ no eating, to eating everything and anything in sight (the bodies natural reaction to starvation). I would binge then starve. Binge then starve. This cycle continued and continued for approximately three years. My weight declined and increased on a weekly basis and soon enough I had gained a whopping 4 and a half stone!! That translates to 63lbs and 29kg.

Having to deal with this entire situation was horrendous. Words can’t describe the insecurities I had. The shame. The embarrassment. All of the above and more. I had gone from the Anorexic chick who doesn’t eat, to the Fat chick who doesn’t stop eating. It was a dark time which I will never get back, but from the darkness I found the light.

Anorexia changed my life. It changed my outlook on life and it introduced me to a whole new world. My passions are greater. My ambitions are stronger. My drive for success continues to grow. But overall, my wellbeing is blossoming.

My cycle of poor nourishment, inconsistent eating, and re-education lead me to the world of plant based living. A diet based on mostly whole, plant based foods, eaten in their most natural form. I researched every “diet” you can name and I finally found a way of living which would nourish my body from the inside out. It enabled me to eat in abundance, whilst putting aside all my thoughts and fears over what I was putting into my body. A predominantly plant based diet would allow me freedom of choice and optimal health. Little did I know that it would lead me to a life without any binge eating and a mind of clarity.

When you clear your thoughts around food, a whole new World opens up. You can spend more time enjoying the present moment, being creative, setting goals and working towards them. You no longer have to write down meal plans, count calories, look at nutritional values on labels, spend time obsessing over food! The mind has time to focus.

Words can’t explain how comfortable I am with food now. I am happy. My outlook is clear and I am focusing on doing everything I can to allow myself to live my life to the fullest. Life is unpredictable so if you have the opportunity to lead the healthiest life you can whilst you are on this planet then do it. A plant based diet isn’t for everyone, but adding more fruits and vegetables into your diet is manageable. Whatever makes YOU happy is what is important for YOUR wellbeing.

All I am here to do is to inspire others to not only eat more fruits, vegetables and wholegrains, but to live life to the fullest. The only person stopping you is YOU. We have control over our actions and each day we must make a choice. Do we want to be happy? Do we want great health? If the answer is yes, then take action.

If you want to be a part of this journey with me, or just be inspired then “Welcome to my Website”! You can also find me on Instagram (hans_eats) and Facebook (hannahs healthy eats) for daily inspiration whilst I continue to work and improve my website.

Thank you again and I hope we can inspire each other together 🙂

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