'Fitness Helped Me Overcome My Anorexia'

A severe eating disorder left Sarah Ramadan hospitalized at just 68 pounds, but she found the strength to battle for her life and regain control.

- Kristin Mahoney

SARAH RAMADAN has always been a perfectionist. Whether it was pleasing her parents, teachers, or coaches, her motivation was to make others proud. “It’s hard to say if I ever did things for myself,” she says. By her early teens, her drive for perfectionism began to permeate her body image. “I associated weight loss with personal development. I thought I would be a better person if I lost weight, since that meant I cared for my body.”

Ramadan gradually started to make small changes in her diet and to adjust her behavior, slowly cutting calories like opting for skim milk in her cereal and drinking extra water to feel fuller. She came up with excuses about why she had to skip meals. “Things began to spiral,” says Ramadan, and by age 14, the Canadian had started to develop the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. “Week after week, I was having greater food fears and triggers. I associated food with weight gain, which was associated with shame. I avoided eating for fear that it would inflict worthlessness on my being,” she says.