I am immensely proud of my new ebook, Breaking Free: An Holistic Guide to Overcoming Binge Eating and Building a Healthier Relationship with Food. It is a topic very dear to my heart – my lived experience and struggle for over a decade. I wish that I had had access to a concise guidebook like this to give me actionable tools to break free of the binge eating cycle. There is so much shame attached to binge eating disorder and many (like me) suffer alone in secret for far too long.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) can hold one back in so many areas of life. It can be all consuming. It can waste so much time, energy, money and living! I hope that Breaking Free can reach as many people as possible and help on their healing journey. If you’re reading this and you’re suffering, please buy it. If you know someone who may be suffering, please let them know about it or gift it to them. If you’re a wellness professional looking for a helpful resource to assist your clients, please buy it. It’s on sale for only R180/$10. Buy here.
Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Breaking Free:
I’m a “Been there, done that.” girl when it comes to eating disorders. Anorexia. Binging. Purging. Orthorexia. Done them all.
Binge Eating was the eating disorder that stuck with me the longest and the one I found the hardest to kick. There were weeks and months that I was so entrenched in the binge eating trap – a deep, dark hole of self-loathing – that I thought I would never get out of it. There were times when I binged on so much food, to the point I would be sweating, my heart racing and my vision almost blurry. There were times when I thought that I just might die from the way I felt after a binge. (Thankfully I never landed up in hospital or worse!) And yet, the next day or a few days later, something or someone would trigger me and set off another binge eating episode. Binges were mostly done in secret, although sometimes I would eat A LOT in front of other people (especially when I was super underweight – in fact, it was kind of encouraged! Thin privilege/bias!) and then carry on the real binge once I was alone. The behaviour was lonely and isolating.Sometimes I would choose staying home and binging over social arrangements. Binge eating disorder can really take over your life. I felt so embarrassed that I never told a soul until many years later. I was so ashamed about how much time and money I had wasted and so many positive things I’d sacrificed or missed out on because of this disorder.
Part of my healing journey, was letting go of this shame and sharing my story and all the lessons I’ve learnt along the way, so that I can help as many people as possible recover too.
Breaking Free contains practical tips and tools, meal prep and meal suggestions, as well as digging deeper into underlying issues and identifying triggers. There’s also a broad collection of resources to help on your healing journey. I am so proud of this work and I hope you feel the same too.
If you purchase Breaking Free, I’d love to hear your feedback!
With Love
Oona
xoxo