Motivation / Success Stories

Weight Rid story by Shadiya - web page is: www.bellydancebyshadiya.com

I come from a big family, and there aren't very many of us. Although I've never had a 'weight problem', I grew up in a family where we would binge on comfort foods in secrecy. We were all fat and stuffing our faces and pretending to be good eaters. I'm saying this because I think sneaking food is an interesting phychological phenomenon. Nutrition was something emphasized as important in our upbringng, and yet the emotional eating habits left a greater impression. Even though I know how to eat healthy for optimal nutrition, I still ate crap because it was this taboo. And on some levels I suppose it was a tendency to be self destructive. I used to do some pretty radical things to my body out of fear of being fat. I would starve myself, binge and then take laxatives, compulsively exercise etc. I am so lucky that I hate throwing up, or I probably would have resorted to bulemia as well. Nevertheless, I think my digestion is pretty screwed up today from those teenage years.
I have to say that when I began to bellydance in my early 20's is when I really began to accept and appreciate my body. I was suddenly immersed in a culture of femininity where curves were celebrated as art. I stopped trying to conform to an aesthetic of impossible thinness and began to appreciate what a women is supposed to look like. I also stopped giving myself a guilt complex about food. When I took the shame out of eating naughty things, I ended the vicious cycle of binging and self loathing.
Today I am a professional bellydancer and instructor. What I love most about sharing my passion is encouraging other women to discover their own unique beauty. Bellydancing is a way for women to experience beauty and sensuality as a form of self expression, not outward appearance.