Kathryn’s Story – Overcoming an eating disorder

After graduating from college, I decided it was time for me to lose a couple of pounds and start my new healthy life as a young business professional! But what started as a seemingly harmless
desire to get healthy and watch my calorie intake, soon turned into an addiction to weight
loss, body image, and years of an eating disorder.

The “control” that I thought I had acquire through counting every bite of food I took and every minute I spent at the gym soon became severe anxiety and addiction. this battle ultimately took me down a long path of self-destruction… but also spiritual awakening.

I spent about three years meticulously counting out what I ate (if I did eat anything that day),
over exercising, shutting out my community, lying to my peers, hurting the ones around me,
and surviving in pure denial of what was really happening to me.

One Christmas, I visited my grandmother and family in Wilmington, North Carolina. I went on
a long run one morning to the beach, and as soon as my feet hit the shore I fell to my knees
in tears, finally recognizing that I was destroying myself from the inside out and knowing that
I need to make a change. a fresh start. so I took a chance and made a leap of faith, moving
from Dallas, Texas to Wilmington, North Carolina to start over!

After a long and drawn out process of admission, recovery, and transparency, I began to
hear from other women that I was certainly not alone in my shameful feelings and negative
actions towards my body. This sparked a passion and purpose to help other women who
might be going through those same shameful experiences. Ironically, my vehicle for change
was the same one which had originally started me down that path: fitness. only this time, I
was determined to redefine what it meant to truly live a healthy and full life. which is why sole
fitness was born.

My dream is to speak life into & unify women through health, fitness, and of course…
shameless living by sharing our stories and admitting our weaknesses, we can overcome
and become stronger together: both physically and spiritually! I now aim to redefine fitness
and health for women to erase the pressure associated with it and bring the joy back into
movement. My story hurt me for many years, but now I love that it can bring life to others
before they get to the dark place that I got to. I now seek to provide freedom from shame
and perfection to women!