Insight #1

In my very first session with Chaundra back in early January, my mind was totally blown when I had the following insight:

My compulsive eating habits began at a very young age, though my weight wasn't an issue for several years. My hippie mom tried to restrict my sugar intake from birth (legend has it I wasn't fed any refined sugar during the first year of my life), which raised several eyebrows among less progressive-thinking members of the family. I don't remember my grandmother sneaking me junk food, but I've been told it happened. I picked up the habit and continued to hone my sneaking skills on my own, and around age 11 I started gaining weight.

Discussing this with Chaundra in what was the first completely frank and honest conversation about food I'd ever had in my LIFE, I had the following realization: Puberty started setting in when I was 11, so it logically follows that my changing metabolism caught up with my eating habits and I began to gain weight. That's how it started, not because my parents split up (which happened 4 years prior and didn't make sense as an explanation anyway), not because I was abused or traumatized in some way (I wasn't), not for any other reason than my body finally catching up to my eating.

Holy crap! Mystery freaking solved. Day one and as far as I'm concerned, we hit one out of the park.