Hello dear friends, today’s topic is a sensitive one. We talk about body image, eating disorders and recovery.

At 31, I can say that I’m finally comfortable and at ease with my body. But this wasn’t always the case.

Eating disorder or disordered eating?

I’m sure many of you have a personal story related to body image and the pressure to look a certain way

I’ve never shared this publicly before but I want to be as honest and transparent as possible about my journey. It’s taken me many years and inner work to get to a place of inner peace, acceptance and compassion.

The year was 2009 and I was on the verge of an eating disorder or unbeknownst to me perhaps I was already deep in it. You see it started as a way to “get healthy, get more energy, feel my best” and it became a slippery slope from there. I was never on a diet, so I told myself I was just being healthy.

I lost a lot of weight and was getting validation from everyone

But in the inside, the mental chatter, obsessive thoughts about how “healthy” food was took up so.much.friggin.space. It was exhausting thinking about calories, forcing myself to work out after a meal but it was all under the pretence of health and feeling good.

How did I allow the words “You’ve gained weight” to evoke so much shame? And why are we conditioned to feel this way? …

The turning point

My turning point? Well I had a few. Because after I snapped out of this one, years later I fell into binge eating and purging, we’ll leave that story for another time.

I share a little bit more about my experience and turning point in the latest podcast episode. I am so honoured to introduce today’s guest, Mary Jelkovsky. Mary’s the author of The Gift of Self Love, a workbook to help you build confidence, recognize your worth, and learn to finally love yourself. I wish there was someone like Mary to look up to when I was going through my healing journey.

Founded by Mary Jelkovsky, Mary’s Cup of Tea is an online platform that empowers women to be more confident in their bodies and love themselves unconditionally. After recovering from an eating disorder, Mary started her Instagram account @maryscupofteaa to help women heal body-image struggles and find self-love. Now, Mary is a published author, TEDx speaker, and women’s self-love retreat host. And her podcast, Mary’s Cup of Tea Podcast, is the top self-love podcast in the world.

Mary’s story has also been featured in places like Teen Vogue, TEDx, and Health Magazine because unfortunately, too many women know what it’s like to struggle with self-love and body-image. Mary is committed to changing this trend by inspiring thousands of women through her book, social media, podcast, online courses, and worldwide self-love retreats.

In today’s episode Mary shares:

• How her body image issues started at a young age, training for bikini fitness competitions
• How her body rebelled and started to say no
• Her recovery journey moving to Canada and tuning out the external voices
• How her relationships with her friends and family changed
• What she’s learned from her younger sister
• and how she hopes to help other women embark on their journey of self love

Come tag along!

And if you’re visual like me here’s a video of our conversation 🙂

Shownotes

MARY’S FAVOURITE BOOK:

• Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

FIND MARY HERE:

• Mary’s personal page: www.instagram.com/maryscupofteaa/
• Podcast: www.instagram.com/maryspodcast/
• Retreats: www.instagram.com/retreatsbymary/
• www.maryscupoftea.com/

Get Mary’s new book here:

• https://maryscupoftea.com/book

Watch Mary’s TED Talk here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoDzwM0gybg&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

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Instagram – www.instagram.com/wholeandunleashed

Email – hi@wholeandunleashed.com

What was your takeaway from today’s episode?

Let me know in the comments so I can keep providing value <3