3 Turning points: my eating disorder: It took me 10 years to lose 10 pounds

By Kelly Clark / As Featured On

There’s all kinds of turning points
Turning points offer a blue print to get better
TQ She Does The City for sharing my 3 turning points

I’ve been fascinated by turning points as early as I can remember.

Brad Pitt drove to Hollywood, lived in his car and dressed up as a chicken. Don’t you want to know how he got from standing outside the El Pollo Loco restaurant, trying to attract potential customers, to being an A-list actor?

The great attraction of turning points

Turning points have a sort of magic to them. A rags-to-riches quality. Having an example of someone improving their life is inspiring.

There are all kinds of turning points. But the ones that interest me most are those that capture how someone has overcome something.
When you’re watching a movie and someone has a problem, and the will to change, that’s when a film gets interesting. That’s when they insert the music montage. You see the person training, studying, being resourceful or whatever it is they need to do to get to their goal while blood-pumping music plays in the background.

Doing the work feels good

A few years ago I heard Frank O’Dea speak about how he went from being an alcoholic who was homeless to being a co-founder of the second cup coffee house. I love these kinds of stories! They bridge the gap between being in the depths of despair and living a meaningful life.

In between is the work. And the work is what makes it rewarding. When I was in school what motivated me to study was thinking of the feeling you get from holding a paper with an A+ at the top. But the only reason that conjured a deep sense of satisfaction is because of all the work in the middle.

Talking about the work in the middle offers a blue print to others who are going through something similar.

After years of confusion I could share my turning points

When I was paralyzed by my eating disorder, when I didn’t know how to live with it or without it but was absolutely in love with life, I had no idea what to do to get better. If I could have had one wish granted it would have been to talk to someone who’d been there and back. I wanted to know how they did it. I wanted to get healthy.

Recently it was Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Jen McNeely asked me to write about my experience on She Does The City. I was honoured to have the chance. It was the most public place I’d ever talked about my eating disorder. Which also meant, it was my biggest opportunity to share what I learned. I decided to write about my recovery. The 3 turning points that helped me get healthy.

When I first got healthy, the previous 10 years were a tangled mess in my head. It took years before I understood what had happened. Until then, all I knew was that it was complicated. And so I kept it a secret.

… Here’s another secret. I’m obsessed with Scott Helman! Super, super talented.

Thank you She Does The City for the chance to share my 3 turning points.