Welcome!
First, let me say I am SO glad you are here and considering taking that first step to finding real peace with food and your body.
Taking that first step toward recovery many times creates feelings of both nervousness and hope. Let me reassure you, freedom is possible! And I believe in you!
Second, I want to share a little of my own story: I myself struggled with an eating disorder for nearly two decades, starting in my early years (i.e. elementary school through college.) A disordered relationship with food and exercise permeated every area of my life. I was a slave to numbers…on the scale, calories burned at the gym, macros, pant size, nutrition facts, you name it. I was living off of diet mountain dew, sugar free red bulls, laxatives, diet pills during the week, then binge on the weekends. The restrict-binge- guilt-shame cycle consumed me. I was hospitalized in high school and although my weight was “restored” and my physical appearance was not as “sickly”, the next 10 years remained the same concerning my obsession with the numbers and the secretive disordered behaviors. Eating disorder thoughts, controlling food rituals and rules, exercise addiction, binging…these were the hardest years of my struggle. I felt alone, isolated, defeated, and no hope for a different future.
Three powerful forces led to a real change:
By the grace of God, I became pregnant with our first child. I knew intuitively that I could not sustain a healthy pregnancy while restricting, binging, then running 10 miles daily.
I prayed for God’s help for the first time in my struggle. As my faith strengthened during my pregnancy, I began to slowly release the grip of control and began to discover who I was and whose I was. I started getting curious about my emotional health, with the hope that my daughter(s) could experience a different future with a present mama that loved herself, enjoyed meal times again, and wasn't missing precious moments while at a gym. No longer a focus on the numbers — instead, a focus on Him! Life! LIVING!
I invested in a coach.
Freedom is something every person deserves to experience, and I know first hand what it feels like to feel burdened by something you feel you have no control over. I also know what it’s like to experience that freedom for the first time. Emotional and spiritual bondage come in many forms, but when you finally decide to let go of your fear and release complete control over to the Lord, you’ll experience true and everlasting freedom.
In 2023, I completed my eating disorder coaching certification with OutshiningED.
I am passionate about helping women break free from years of restriction, binging and over exercising. I love helping women who struggle with food and body-related issues make peace with food and their bodies, and discover freedom in Christ. Unlike other approaches that only focus on food-related behaviors, I help clients replace negative beliefs with spiritual truth to discover their God-given identity without their eating disorder. I am passionate about helping moms gain insight grounded in grace and truth, feel confident around food again especially those struggling with gut challenges, autoimmune disease, and other food related allergies. I help moms trust their bodies again, find peace at meal time, joy in movement, and freedom in their good bodies. I am committed to raising the next generation of children that value the size of their heart over their body size. We will quiet the inner critic that forever shames our bodies and run full force toward freedom.
My favorite quote: “When we deny our stories, they define us. When we own our stories, we get to write a brave new ending.” I am SO excited you are here and ready to lock arms with you to help you write that “brave new ending.” Let’s go!
May we rest in His Grace and follow the Joy!
Xo,
Laura
What led me to ED coaching?
I graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina (2009) with a masters in speech pathology. My passion has always been helping others achieve their goals. As a speech pathologist, I worked with kids with speech, language, feeding delays, and helping kids to find their voice. In this ED coaching space, we are doing that same voice-seeking, only from a deeper space. After working as a speech pathologist for nearly 10 years and partnering with another company that’s mission is educating about the healing power of food and relationship between nutrition & disease, all of these life experiences have brought me to this very season.
While on this journey to making peace with food & my body, my oldest was diagnosed with the antibodies for type 1 diabetes like my husband and MIL.
I believe God used this diagnoses to shift my perspective to now seeing food as medicine (not just something I used to numb out and control), and I believe this diagnosis sponsored a deeper healing that that showed me we can honor our good bodies as we nourish them well while living free. I believe freedom and health can co-exist.
