Chanelle struggled with Binge Eating Disorder (B.E.D.) to the point where it became destructive. She constantly dealt with a combination of disordered behaviours. "My typical week [consisted] of 4 days eating super clean (vegan, no sugar, only drinking water etc..) and 2 days binging on chips, cakes, pizza, coke, etc.," she explained. "Every time I ate "bad foods", I hated myself and went straight into fasting for the next 3-4 days to purge or 'detox'." On top of that, Chanelle exercised obsessively to counteract whatever she ate. Guilt about food consumed her. "I'd wake up at 5am in the morning to run and come back home after work to burn even more calories at the gym," she recalled. "My life was ruled around what I ate and burning calories. This was extremely stressful." 

As a result, Chanelle gained weight because she was constantly depriving herself of food. Her metabolism slowed to a grinding halt"My body decided to save and stock all the calories I [consumed]," she revealed. "I had no idea why I wasn't getting the results that I wanted, even when I was so stressed out and worked hard to lose weight.  That was my biggest setback."

Chanelle began her journey on PumpUp in June 2014 because she was having a hard time regulating her eating habits. "I gained 5kg in 2 weeks as a side effect of taking contraceptive pills which increased my appetite dramatically, and I was going through a tough time in life which also made me eat a lot more than I usually do," she shared. "PumpUp played significant part in my success overcoming binge eating disorder. In Japan (where I currently reside), people are usually genetically skinny, therefore eating disorders aren't really a commonly discussed topic. That also means that there are not many best practices or blogs about having eating disorders. But on PumpUp there are people from all over the world who are also suffering from the same disorder, or people who are truly enjoying their healthy lifestyle." Chanelle was able to receive a lot of support for her recovery journey, just by interacting with others on PumpUp.  "That helped me a LOT in overcoming binge eating disorder and being healthy and happy."

Now, Chanelle is an intuitive eater. She is a Pescatarian for 95% of her meals, but she occasionally eats meat at social gatherings. She no longer exercises out of guilt. Instead, Chanelle works out to be healthy and to relieve stress. "I decided to focus on being happy and enjoying myself," she insisted. "It was tough to accept "chubby me" at first.  When you're unhappy with your body figure, you tend to think, 'Why would I have anything to be happy about?'.  The thing is, you have so many things to be happy and blessed about.  You don't realize that because you're too obsessed with [your flaws]."

She considers overcoming BED to be her proudest accomplishment with PumpUp. "It made me so much stronger and better as a person," she shared. "I also look much younger and healthier than when I started this lifestyle! I don’t have a particular role model. The people I subscribe to on PumpUp are my motivation and they’re all awesome!"

Chanelle's Best Advice

From a recovered binge eating disorder person's point of view, I'd say don't be obsessed with your body image. "Taking care" of your body and "depriving your body" are completely different things. It takes time to get the result you want so be flexible and focus on your mind and body to be truly happy and feel good. 

Remember, life is about being happy and your happiness comes from being "healthy" and feeding your body with the nutrients it needs to be happy. Your body will listen and give you the result in return if you treat your body well.

How Chanelle takes care of her body

I play volleyball once a week, and basketball twice a week because I love playing them and I enjoy them. I also occasionally run when I feel like it just because it feels good.

I also do “pumper nights” to treat myself at least twice a week. I do a little self-spa night and that makes me feel very good.

How Chanelle found confidence in her body

I don’t feel completely confident in my body yet, but I don’t think I need to be. 

I realized that my family and friends still thought I'm the best, fabulous and beautiful inside out! That helped me to gain self confidence and not focus too much on the body image and just accept myself as [the way that] I am. I didn't have a boyfriend at that time and I thought I'd never get one because I was 'ugly', but I realized that it is not worth it for me to be so stressed out and be good looking to attract guys who care so much about how I look externally. So I started enjoying the time I spend with my family or friends. If they're eating something nice, I'd eat it with them if I felt like it because I enjoy the time with them. 

Chanelle's potential super power

Mimicry? So that I can have any super power that I want to have in the condition that I’m in!

Keep Chanelle pumped @chanellefit7727!