By Annette Campbell
Tracie Fielding never used to like what she saw in the mirror.
The now 17-year-old from the western suburbs of Brisbane, QLD, remembers running to her room and crying after being called “hippo” by her brother, when she weighed 57kg at the age of 10.
As a young teen she was painfully aware that the boys preferred to stare at her “gorgeous” friends. So, at the ripe-old age of 14, she decided that she had to do something about her weight.
She tried a few diets that didn’t work, and then started jogging on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day. This soon became 30 minutes twice a day and then Tracie was jogging for up to 60 minutes, twice a day. At the same time, she was eating less and less.
Within only a few months Tracie had lost loads of weight – and was firmly in the grip of an eating disorder.
“I was so ecstatic with the results that I thought if I ate anything and then didn’t workout afterwards, the weight would simply pile back on,” she says.
During a routine appointment, the local G.P. noticed straight away how skinny Tracie had become.
“I was 169cm tall and weighed 55kg,” Tracie recalls. “The doctor explained I should be at least 60kg, and warned me that unless I put on weight, I would end up being sick. But of course I didn’t listen. I still thought I was too fat.”
So Tracie continued eating only an apple and yoghurt for breakfast, an apple for lunch and nothing for dinner. And she was still exercising for two hours every day.
It was only when she saw herself in some family photos, that Tracie suddenly, truly understood how sick she was.
“I was at my lowest weight of 49kg and I knew that I had to do something,” she says. “So I went to see the guidance counsellor at school, broke down crying and told her everything. That afternoon mum and I talked and cried and I made her a promise that I was going to get better.”
From that day, Tracie cut-down the amount of exercise she was doing and made a determined effort to eat more and more each day.
Now she weighs a much healthier 60kg, is happier than ever and is keen to help others battling with eating disorders.
“I used to think that to be skinny was to be beautiful and that everyone will notice you…I was wrong,” she says. “And for others going through what I went through – don’t judge yourself from the outside but look at yourself from the inside because that’s where the true beauty is.”
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