How to Heal, Validate Yourself & Be Good Enough For You | Brittany Burgunder on Women of Impact

I'm Lisa B Leah and I went from housewife to co-found and a billion dollar company quest nutrition and now president of impact Theory our mission with this show is empower you and all women to recognize you really can become the hero of your own life welcome the women of impact every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder that's basically every hour every hour someone has struggled so profusely with mental illness that has resulted in them losing their life but today's women of impact refused to be one of those statistics and even while lying in a hospital bed a terrifying way of just 56 pounds unable to walk from anorexia she refused to let the doctors be right when he told her parents to plan her funeral she refused to allow this to be the end of her story so she fought and she slowly took herself from the hospital bed to trying food she hadn't eaten in over seven years but sadly her recovery was actually short-lived and no she actually didn't relapse like Tarzan she swung hard in the other direction and her healthy weight gain quickly led to her gaining 30 pounds a month due to daily binging by the time she tipped the scale at 221 pounds in less than a year she realized that restricting or binging on food was a symptom not the actual core problem she finally realized that her struggle had absolutely nothing to do with her body but everything to do with her mind and in order to make real change like no b.s will change she just had to start there now for years in recovery today's women of impact is a certified professional coach whose story has been featured in Cosmo the new post and the doctors to name a few she is also the author of the incredible book safety in numbers from 56 to 221 pounds my battle with eating disorders it's a war on this and traumatizing memoir of a 10-year battle with three forms of severe eating disorders anorexia binge eating and bulimia so please help me in welcoming the woman who is now an advocate for those facing eating disorders and mental health issues the woman who has dedicated her life to helping others their path towards recovery and the woman who strives to be a role model and bring inspiration to those who have lost all hope the remarkable Brittany bug and up welcome to the show we're having you thank you for being here your story is just absolutely incredible and the one thing I never want to assume is that like it's all good now you're fine I know that it has been an evolution for you but I actually want to start from the beginning and kind of work our way through and haven't won't yeah I'd like to start with um so you said I was bullied constantly by my peers and I had no friends I thought it was my fault I thought that there was something wrong with me maybe if I change myself people would like me and the reason why I wanted to start there is because I think that that's something that people struggle with so much being accepted yeah so when I was young I would go to school and I didn't have friends and I was getting bullied and I figured there must be something wrong with me because everyone's living these lives and they seem to be happy and have friends and I started quickly looking to externals and thinking that maybe in order to be happy you had to be successful you had to be beautiful you had to be a really talented athlete or get good grades and I just figured there was some internal flaw within me so terrible that I believed externals would maybe make up for it and I put tremendous amount of pressure on myself to reach unrealistic expectations maybe if I'm the best tennis player and the whole entire world I'll be accepted and happy and have self-esteem and have friends and maybe that will make up or hide what's so wrong with me and I the I did the same thing sort of this black-and-white thinking all or nothing either I have to be the best or I'm worthless and that was just something I a core belief that stuck with me from a very young age yeah it never dawned on me so growing up I had a mother who was basically anorexic I don't know she ever labeled herself that but I grew up seeing you know very her eating very little and just kind of getting completely skinny and it never dawned on me that it was about the control I always thought it was about the food yeah so talk to me about the control element of that yeah I felt so out of control now for me I couldn't control whether my peers were going to bully me or accept me I tried really hard to be the best student and get the top grades but I couldn't always control that there were always going to be other people who maybe were smarter than I was I couldn't control whether or not I was going to lose a tennis match and pretty soon that pressure that I put on myself to be the best at everything who can do that like I don't even think superwoman can do huh you know pretty soon I was like I can't do it anymore and so I started turning to food and my mind kind of came up with these weird games like maybe I'll count calories or I'll try to like get my food or eat the same same thing every day and it simplified my life I just being able to focus on food rather than what was really really hurting me internally which was anxiety and depression and loneliness and not having friends and just believing I was a bad person somehow and so by distracting my mind by thinking about food and my body and my weight that gave me a sense of control however early on I didn't even know it wasn't eating disorder I just knew that I would get instant gratification every time I saw the number on the scale get less or if I saw a slight change in my body or appearance I somehow believed maybe that's going to lead me to happiness maybe that will fill the holes in me that are empty right now and make me happy yeah and it was in taking that control for yourself that seemed to have been spiraled you down into like severe anorexia and being hospitalized and this is what I really would like I was excited to talk to you about because there's certain moments of control that I think can be amazing for you right it's like you're saying about the PE you know looking at the number on the scale for people who are unhealthy over we're taking control is actually good for them absolutely but sometimes in your case taking the control probably in fact was the worst thing that could have happened and how like have you been able to look at that control and be like okay this is when it's good for me and this isn't when it's yeah absolutely I mean back when I was really struggling I thought I was in control but in reality I was completely out of control what for me now it's really a huge strength and what I had to realize was just in my recovery process through all of these eating disorders and everything I've been through change is scary when I think for anyone and especially for me just the thought of change especially taking that first step it's so terrifying that you're just like you start thinking like how do I get from A to Z and how do I get from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain and that's just not how it works you don't change overnight and I kept putting a tremendous amount of pressure that oh my god everything has to change like that's too scary oh that's too scary I I can't do it but it's really not about changing yourself but just rearranging where are you putting that energy and that strength I've always had which helped me survive really unthinkable things I've always had a huge amount of fight and strength and perseverance but I was putting all that energy into the wrong areas of myself and into the wrong outlets and that's why I got to such really destructive places internally which then bled out to external my external life as well but really I had to rearrange my thinking one by one and that led to change but it was just transferring that same fight and energy towards positives within me all right that's so freakin powerful so let's break it down so that people who are listening or watching can actually use that in their own life yeah because I also don't actually think that you have to have had an eating disorder to it be able to relate to what you're talking now I think it's any emotional struggle that you're going through so let's break that down so eventually you realize it's actually not good for you but you right you don't realize this for so long about me saying you're unhealthy about today I am and you're still like hiding weights in your bra so clearly it wasn't people telling you no so what was that thing that made you take that shift and then how can people at home replicate that yes so in again like you said it really doesn't matter whether it's whether you're struggling with an eating disorder or you're just unhappy in your life whether you're struggling with your weight addiction it they're all they share so many similarities and overlaps so for me I really had to get to a place everyone kept asking me you know do you want to die and I told myself no I I don't want to die but what no one ever really asked me and what I never asked myself was do you want to live and I had to think about that and it hit me really hard because when I just reframe that question I realized that okay I don't want to die like but do I really want to live because I have one foot in destruction one foot in life and so I'm just existing right now and that felt safe and that felt comfortable however was I happy no and so I really have to get honest with myself and say look you are you know where your eating disorder is going to take you you know we're not taking care of yourself is going to lead you you're going to be unhappy but you're also terrified of really living and you've never done that either but right now you're kind of just stuck you're not taking us in either direction and I hit rock bottom in my mind and that's where all my problems and wrongful thinking that's where it all started it was just how I mentally thought about myself and then that turned into how I perceived the world and my surroundings and it's also really where my healing began is going back to my mind and just really breaking it down again and looking in the mirror and saying no you aren't a bad person and I do want to live and despite everything I've gone through I can still change and I can take what I've gone through and actually use it as strength and one by one that started to slowly change my life and it doesn't again happen overnight I think the hardest part to was any sort of healing is that you can't see it which was really hard for me who was always clinging to external validations and what I really had to do was find ways to go within myself and boost my self-esteem how do you do that though because if you're in a situation where you've gone like you're like 56 pounds in the hospital yeah then you transition you start eating healthy everyone's encouraging ya even though you're eating junk food yeah but people are like oh no you look great yeah and then you went too far over let's say and went up to 221 pounds how do you in that mist of being so like tumultuous right your life is like losing weight putting on to my you've got all this outside noise yeah that I'm sure is screaming at you how do you navigate all of that so then find that voice that allows you to dig deep yeah um I didn't know my own voice for ever I did not know who I was if you asked me anything about myself I had just become so used to my identity being the girl with the eating disorder wife or the girl who I was the ëthey I was the good student I was anything but break yeah anything and a big part of my healing was saying I need to learn how to validate myself alone and without any sort of external feedback or any sort of external successes I have to go and heal and have to find out who I am by myself who is Brittany and is she good enough without straight A's is she good enough without a smile on her face and what's so difficult about that process in any sort of healing is that it's very lonely and it does not happen overnight and no one can see when you're changing your mind it's not visible so if you're losing weight or if your body's changing it's easy to look in the mirror to have people say hey look you look different you know good job and you've got outside people congratulating you and being your cheerleader and when you're doing any sort of I think just healing that's going to last or if you're really trying to change your mind or if you're looking for something that is not going to be a quick fix but a change that will take you through your whole life then you're going to put in a tremendous amount of work that no one can see and it's your you have to be your own cheerleader and you have to say okay I'm working really hard but it looks different than the type of work that you are doing and you have to be okay with that and trust that you're lying you're building a foundation that's going to then give you those things that you want yeah that's incredible and I didn't expect you to say that because so many people like the people I've had on the show up people that I talk outside to most people say surround yourself with friends and family right like that yeah like how do you get out of this situation the answer I'm mostly 99% of the time get is be around friends and family but then how do you because you actually almost in a way like I get it but you kind of contradicted yourself as well yeah saying but it felt lonely you always need to do it so how on earth do you not let the loneliness take over again and save yourself no lonely being lonely right now is what I need yeah how would you yeah so I was very used to the company of my eating disorder and but you know because I didn't have a lot of friends anyway growing up and throughout a lot of my life I never had good friends I've been very fortunate to always have a very supportive family but besides that it was just my I had my eating disorder was sort of like my built-in worst best friend and so without as they began to recover my head got quieter because my eating disorder ago I thought quieter no matter how many good friends I did meet or how supportive my family was it had to come from me and I think what was so difficult and what was really a wake-up call for me for me was I was the only one who could save myself and I kept thinking you know for being such a hard-working individual I could never seem to recover and I thought I would never recover from my eating disorder I thought I would never change and I felt I had exhausted every option and I got to the point where I was so lonely I was so fed up I had no self-esteem I didn't believe in myself at all I wanted someone else to just say like here's the magic wand here's the magic formula here's the magic diet here's the magic therapist here's the magic anything move anything I was willing to have anyone just tell me what to do and none of it ever worked it might last it might have lasted very temporarily but then all the bad all the bad thoughts that I had about myself or bad behaviors would soon come back and really to change my life I had to realize that I had to make the choice for myself and my parents couldn't make my eating disorder go away it wasn't my fault that I developed and eating just and that's really important it wasn't a choice but as far as recovery and as far as wanting to change my life only I could do it and it didn't matter if I received the best treatment or no treatment and for anyone else if they're going through a tough time support is so necessary but ultimately it has to come from you and you have to have some sort of fire within something that drives you that's bigger than you that will keep you going even when you don't want to even in those lonely moments so what was that fire for you for me it was everyone it was the other people that were struggling that reached out to me and eating disorders and just mental health is so secretive and it's not talked about and I began sharing my story and people were they'd write me privately and be like oh my god I thought I was the only one and I thought I was the only one who had these crazy thoughts or who did these weird things or who hated myself and and so it was really just hearing also that other people shared similar experiences that I went through and I realized that my voice was important maybe I can be about one person that they could look to in their darkest times but they don't have to go down two roads as dark as I did and I really wanted that for others because I didn't have it when I was struggling I always mentally think alright I pretend I'm talking to like my younger self where someone comes to me or someone reaches out to me I always think you know if it were me and if I were really back struggling with my anorexia this one person and what they're saying even a stranger really could have changed my life maybe I can help them hang on even if it's just for a week maybe I can help them move along in their life in a better way that's amazing how do you not get trapped in identity right because you've gone through evolution so you've gone through being an anorexic you've been labeled that and then you get better and you become it was very binge eating clear be some question yet they're correct yeah and then you become that's your identity and now you're that your identity is the recovering yeah so how do you actually not get trapped in any of those because even yeah although it's amazing that you're in recovery whoo something inside me is telling me is actually a little dangerous to then label you that as well it's really difficult I have to and I've gone my relationship with myself and with just how much do I want to put my time into helping others with eating disorder and this and that how much do I want to talk about it that has been such a difficult balance for me personally because again it's just the more you immerse yourself in it it's kind of addicting and it's kind of addicting again not in a necessarily a healthy way to attach your identity even to something positive and so I definitely went through a period where I sort of felt like I have to be the perfect recovery for money and again that's like exactly the opposite of what recovery is and what I stand for recovery is it's up and down it's a roller coaster it's anything but linear and yet I was almost holding myself to this unrealistic standard that especially when talking about mental health where no you know it's such a sensitive topic everyone's going to have a different experience but I was putting this pressure on myself that I have to be this perfect recovery voice for everyone struggling with anorexia for struggling with binge eating disorder for struggling with bulimia for struggling with anxiety depression PTSD mental health how do I be I can't say anything wrong I have to be perfect and yet how I got how I went through all that I went through and got to where I am now it was through being so goddamn imperfect that I mean I was just my life was a catastrophe I was just just this raging ball of chaos it's probably what an outsider would have thought or what was going on in my mind and so I'm very careful now with just boundaries and I think doing all that internal work and really getting to know myself alone to getting to know myself Who am I without the identity of a good student Who am I without an eating disorder Who am I without friends Who am I without you know an amazing job or I really have to say am i okay with myself Britney Bergen Durr with nothing and I had to get to know myself inside and out and look in the mirror and say you know what yeah I am proud of you and you are a good enough and no you're not perfect and that's okay and not everyone will like you and that's okay and you can continue to grow and learn and you still are important in this world just as you are right now and that has carried over to help me now with yeah I'm a voice for recovery but I have many other interests and I have met many many other things that are important to me and so I think again it's just knowing that recovery and that's a huge part of me and that's my passion and I feel that's my purpose in life but it doesn't define me it doesn't label me and it doesn't confine me to a certain way because then I lose Who I am so I do have a good balance between doing the work I'm passionate about but then also making sure my mind is filled with other content that inspires me and motivates me and helps me grow as an individual and then I get on the tennis court and I go have fun and you know I I got a puppy yeah I have you know I have good friends but if there has to be a balance and what it comes down to is if I lost this or that or if I go through a hardship if I have a challenge in my life if social media was gone if my business was gone if I could never play tennis again would I still be a good person what I still be could I still looking in the mirror and say you have value and I do but it took me a really long time and a lot of alone time to get to that point yeah and I assume it's never-ending right I mean even now people look at you you're very articulate very well-spoken you're able to really take ownership of your past and what you've learned and yeah you know it you're so incredible and I have been so inspired for you from you for so many years and but how do you make sure that you don't let that then keep you where you are you're still able to keep growing yeah I again I start looking probably to new people and new ways to challenge my mind and for me if something scares me I have to do it because I know that's what's going to help me grow and for me like being a voice for recovery or the eating disorder world I guess you could say I'm good at it because I know it but it doesn't challenge me and it doesn't help me grow and so I've really learned that there is really the best thing you can do is be a beginner in life and in many different things and to realize that you're not starting over from square one but it's amazing to learn the one thing I love about change in general is being able to learn something new evolving and but I find and maybe you can talk about this about self sabotaging right so it's like you're on a path you're doing great and yeah as human beings I'm not alone you're like everyone listening to this he has done this at some point where they self-sabotage and yeah when I think about it it's not like people mean - yeah so talk to me about that how the hell do we recognize that we're self sabotaging and then change that yeah I did this all the time I do it I'm just I'm laughing because I'll do it on the tennis court even I'll be maybe winning a match and then I'll start then my mind will start getting really I'll start thinking no you're not good enough like no you don't deserve to win or no no you don't and then I'll I'll start you know end up losing the match maybe because I just end up beating myself and I think there's some sort of at least for me pressure that if I win or if I'm happy or if I succeed there's this pressure that I have to keep it up pressure that you put on yourself and so in a way I think I I would often self-sabotage because that was almost easier to just beat myself first and it was almost this shield because then someone else didn't have to beat me I felt like I was in control because then it was easier for me to say what if rather than I lost Oh interesting self-sabotage is something that we all do no matter who you are no matter where you are in your life and it's how do you get out of your own way how do you how do you use your strengths and again it's a confidence issue I think a little bit it's just thing no you know what I worked hard for this and I don't have to I don't have to somehow feel bad for taking up space in the world Wow and that's crazy I didn't expect that answer by the way when I think about in the past when I was younger when I used to self-sabotage it was more to kind of reassure myself see you knew you can do it yeah you know versus the you know the what if is like what you say if to me that never even occurred to me so for me and and I hear that a lot and I that of course was sort of I was self-sabotage in that way too at times some if things were going well in my life in the past sometimes I would just be like you know what things are going too well and then I would just turn to my eating disorder because things going well was uncomfortable for me I was comfortable not being happy yeah Wow so in a way for me I grew up getting very used to and comfortable feeling worthless and I got comfortable feeling unhappy and so as much as that's not what I wanted it's what I felt I deserved and so every time I began to feel happy I was like no something's wrong something's wrong something some catastrophe is going to happen and so I wanted to self-sabotage to make sure that I had control over whatever happy thing that was going on so and it was sort of like again going back to my childhood and bullying hmm I felt that if I rejected myself first then if a person did it didn't hurt so much because I beat them to it I had that control I bullied myself first and then going through recovery I realized no instead of rejecting myself first I can accept myself first how do you actually do that then yeah well sitting you know sitting alone in a room crying and getting angry and letting out all those emotions like if you can give less like three tips but actual things appear to do right now if they're in that situation I get yeah look everyone listening please understand this we're never gonna be able to give you Oh like you said like the golden ticket yeah to be like completely recovered right so what are the things that at least people can maybe try to help them get there mm-hmm it's really daunting to think I have to change I have to give up everything okay so think about it as I'm just rearranging parts of my life one by one you just taking that fight and energy you're putting into your eating disorder you're slowly gonna rearrange it and take some of that energy and put it into a new outlet in your life and that's really the first step is just to any sort of change it's take realize that you are way more capable and way stronger than you think you just have to rearrange that energy and where you're putting it how do you know to listen to that voice though because if you've gone to that voice that for so long ten years where I has been saying you know you're not good enough yeah you know and see you're not worth than you're worthy like all this stuff it did yeah of that a lot so going okay I want to make that first step I'm not happy tell yourself that you're worthy have actually believe it or do not believe it at first you know what honestly at first you're not going to believe it why so it's going to take you really have to go within and say you know what I'm not happy I'm going to put my trust in someone else in something else and hey tell yourself and this is what I did is that you know what try it if you don't like it just go back to your eating disorder go back to your seem familiar I mean that's almost an awful thing to say but it's blunt and it's sometimes it's it's the tough love you need to kind of take that first step is realize look if it's too scary if recovery is really too scary if being happy is really too scary if living a better life just go back just go back you need that safety net you know just take it one step at a time but you're not going to believe it yeah and it took me years before I could actually believe it for myself and I needed a lot of other people to kind of say like no you are a good person you you should love yourself or you don't need your eating disorder it is harmful it is this it is that and I didn't believe them but it works over time just hearing that positive reinforcement away from what your eating disorder just away from the negative habits that you have you do need other people to say like no this is this is a better path this is a better path this is a better path and the more you keep doing that and hearing that and trying it then for yourself it starts to become your own truth and you do start to believe it but it's a very slow process yeah the reason why I ask is that was actually one thing that I started doing so you know as you know I've been suffering suffering from about three years of digestive yeah and I started to identify the sick person that has my conquerour and eat of restaurants and yeah you become this type of person and then everyone starts to treat you like yeah and I remember it really hitting me thinking this is dangerous I'm actually going down a dangerous path right now and I need to stop identify myself as a sick person so what I did my mom god bless her yeah she would keep asking me like oh my god are you a case if we can find you I do and she because she cares yeah I started to realize it was that was detrimental to my mindset because it's reminding me that I'm sick right it's putting my mind into the victim rate and so I I actually sat her down I said mom and you just stop saying this and she's like but I want you to know you I care and I said okay this is these are the words I need you to say I know you can yeah it's gonna help me keeping a positive mindset and I will and I titter mom tell me what is great in your life right now tell me an exciting thing that's just happened in your diet right instead of it being the negative yeah like oh my god just sick of you okay yeah it's just the perspective yeah so I like to add she told people this is the I did get to that point yeah absolutely yeah where and the same with my family I have a very similar example is that they just they love me and they care so much about me my parents had to live so many years with me avoiding food or wanting special food or binging or then starving or this or that thought sometimes they forget or my mom god bless her she's looking like Britney you know this is what we're having for dinner tonight is that okay and I'm kind of like only anything of course it's okay like but it but again it is just sort of reminding your loved ones that yeah actually this is what I do need to hear and it's being brave enough I think sometimes we were so ashamed of being imperfect people or maybe having a struggle that we keep our mouths shut and we don't speak up and say I this label that is somehow unhealthy because we'll start labeling ourselves other people are gonna label us no matter what but the most dangerous is to label to put a label on ourself because then we're putting a ceiling on ourselves and we're inhibiting any growth and so it is realizing that you know what my recovery is important to me and as hard as it is I'm going to somehow blurt out the words that these are the boundaries I need and it's making those decisions for yourself and again you have to you have to get to a point in your life where you you do want to live and you value yourself enough that you will speak up for what you know is going to help you move forward and that is sometimes you know confronting others and saying this is good for me and this is it and you have to be okay with that I love talk to me about your book yeah you their memoirs you wrote all throughout your 10 years we have the evolution of what you've been going through yeah and then you've published it so talk to me about yeah why you called it that in fact I find later yeah yeah it was never supposed to be a book I started journaling in a diary when I was very young and since I was very secretive and I didn't talk to my parents about my eating disorder I didn't talk to therapists I didn't open up to them about what was really going on him head and so every day I would journal obsessively obsessively detail for detail what happened during each day and often it was my eating disorder talking like these are the tips and tricks I did and I lost weight or I did this or I did that this is it was very OCD like this is how much exercise I did but then it was also a way to just put on paper this madness thought I thought in my head like why do I feel so crazy and it was just like this venting Outland for me because I didn't speak to anyone so over over 10 years I just kept writing and writing and writing and I never expected it to be a book and I never certainly would have expected to publish it without even editing it or trying to neatly change yeah and what I ended up with was just stocks of hundreds and hundreds of Diaries and one day I kind of realized gosh I I wonder what's actually in those and I kind of lined them all up and order because they all have they're all dated and it flowed like like a book in a way where it held a story of my journey but I chose after tremendous amounts of back and forth debate do I publish this or do I not and do I publish it as is or should I go back in and try to put myself in a more flattering light and I felt that a lot of people could maybe find themselves in what I wrote and so I decided to just put it out there that courage because there's one thing saying like no no like I really want to bet is another actually putting it out there and actually having yes so many people reading your thoughts back then like yeah then it's like if you had to ask me what is one of the most terrifying things that is probably one yeah I am yeah it was definitely a very hold my breath kind of do I really want to do this and it's certainly I think the hardest part for me was are people going to realize because reading this book if you don't know me why you're gonna think I'm just this crazy crazy person but I felt that no actually that is a power that I have that I've been fortunate with a wonderful family and you know a wonderful life and this is still what happened and now here I am fortunate enough to be in recovery so you know what why not open up the doors to you know my very personal life and say despite this pretty smile you see that I tried to make you believe behind that I would just smile all the time and I never wanted anyone to know how bad it was but I figured that if I could hide it so well that other people should know they're not alone and I really felt just such passion and purpose knowing that maybe it'll help one person and that that drove me to do it yeah I just thought if I have the possibility or opportunity to reach one individual who might need to hear these words it is absolutely worth it it's interesting because what I noticed with many people going back to it not just being wait but like other things is when people have struggled the most right when they've hit their rock bottom they've got in there because usually because negative talk and yes like that they've got in there and then they've been able to spin it around and then use it as their biggest strength and I feel like you're what you've been through is your biggest shredder um but yet we still find people dying yeah from things that they do whether it's food-related or suicide and mental illness yeah yeah it's really the people who are willing to get out of denial and there's all these stage I mean there's stages of denial bargaining anger depression and acceptance but what I what I notice is probably the biggest key difference for those who continue to struggle and those who really have a shot at changing their life is realizing they have a problem and realizing that like you said the word admitting is getting out of denial and understanding that I'm not okay and and you can just stop there cuz that's that step alone is huge but there are some people and many people and I was like this for years where I didn't even realize I had a problem I was 56 pounds and I thought it was fat and I was 56 pounds and I thought I was fine to go back to college so I didn't realize I had a problem at all that just didn't even enter my radar so really the first step is pausing and I do have a problem and then you and and that's really the split the first difference that kind of splits the two in half because those who will stop and say yeah what I'm doing is not okay yeah I do have a problem they have a chance within them to then over time reach out for support or realize maybe I want to change but it's if you don't really reach that place of pause where you can understand and and just get out of denial then it's super easy to just kind of continue living the life you know and the life you know might you tear you know the life that's killing you but you just have no you have no idea how good life can get if you stay there what I'm really excited about and what I feel will be very helpful to other people is kind of going back to what you were saying about my first book is that it was not supposed to be a book and it doesn't really end much even speaking about my recovery but I continue to journal and continue to write long after that book was published and it's only part one of my stars can you say did you it is really I think the biggest part that made me nervous was that people would read this book and they would think sort of that's it that's how she did it or like that's her story like this doesn't seem real to me this doesn't even seem like recovery how do you go through all these horrific things and then not take steps to actually heal your life because none of that's in my first book though that was where I sort of felt like a fraud for a while after that book was published I was afraid that people would look at me like you're you're not the real deal or like I just read your book you sound crazy like what did you how did you heal and so the next two books though that will tell the rest of my story and I think really hopefully help other people see that recovery is this wild rollercoaster it's gonna flip you upside down and this and that and it's all over the place my recovery was it was much harder than my any of my eating disorders but that was the worthwhile journey that has given me it's opened every door I was seeking from the very beginning that true happiness those friends and at the end of the day just realizing that I never had there either was never anything wrong with me in the first place I was never a flawed human being I don't need externals to define me I am my own person and all these things other things in my life those are nice bonuses I mean there are nice strengths that I have but I alone am still a person of value well thank you so much for coming on before is my last question yeah can these guys find you online and check out your bird yeah absolutely probably the first best place is my website Britney Berg under comm that has access to all my links and social media and things that I'm doing otherwise Instagram Instagram yeah at Britney Berg under that's probably my favorite social media app my book if you're interested in it it's on Amazon yeah and last question what is your superpower my superpower is taking any hardship or any challenge and turning it into my greatest strength and helping others do the same Mike drop right there girl guys guys this woman is so incredible what I actually didn't get a chance to tell you is that I actually have known Brittany now for probably three and a half four years she found quest protein bars and reached out to the marketing team and the media team and since then for three and a half to four years this woman has been on my radar she comments she post she supports everything I do the company does question two ition does in there in women have impact like when I say this woman which she has said before that she actually does go in and look at like motivational things she really means it and everyday she's not only ingesting but she's actually putting it out there to encourage others like the amount of comments this woman has written to me to encourage me for this show for the companies everything that I'm doing is just so remarkable so when you have someone like her who goes through so many struggles so many issues is still trying to work on us I'm still trying to overcome these problems and yet she takes time to encourage others like when I say this woman is incredible that's what I mean that's the level of just admiration and respect that I have for this woman so guys you've got to go check her out you've got to check out her content you've got to check out her book and just remember to live by the words that she said do you want to die or do you want to live like it's that simple I and my friend want to live so thank you so much for coming guys check it out subscribe to this channel so join me at instagram at lisa video and until next time go be the superhero of your own life what up guys Lisa here thanks so much for watching this episode and if you haven't already subscribed that little bone right in front of you click click click away we release episodes every Wednesday so be sure to get notified until next time go be the hero of your own life

Channel: Lisa Bilyeu

Views: 45,543

Keywords: women of impact, woman of impact, lisa bilyeu, tom bilyeu, impact theory, quest nutrition, motivation, inspiration, brittany burgunder, safety in numbers, anorexia, eating disorders, eating disorder, eating disorder recovery, recovery, binge eating disorder, be your own validation, how to heal validate and be good enough for you, how to heal, ed recovery, validation, validate yourself

Id: H1ZoDLRUBto

Length: 47min 51sec (2871 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019