My name is Kailin and I grew up in Montreal. Like many other young girls, I suffered from poor body image very early on in life. There were always advertisements or commercials on the television, telling me that in order to be desirable, liked, or sought after I needed to shrink myself and take up less space.

I started dieting when I was eight years old. And every single diet I tried failed. Never for a second did I consider that the problem was with the diets and not with me. I blamed myself for every failed diet, thinking that I was simply not motivated or disciplined enough. It hadn’t crossed my mind that diets don’t fulfill their false promises.

I hadn’t realized, that even as a child, that this was a billion dollar industry that left people more miserable with their bodies compared to when they had started dieting.

I continued to move from diet to diet, and I never found the happiness I was seeking. I was never thin enough or good enough, and I could always find something else that I wanted to change about myself. I ended up developing three (!) different eating disorders over the span of ten years.

After I had lost my period for a couple of months, I had visited a doctor who gave me one of the biggest wakeup calls of my life: if I didn’t change my habits, there was a possibility that I wouldn’t be able to fall pregnant in the future. It was always my greatest dream to become a mother and the fact that I could be permanently damaging my body snapped the blinders straight off.

I sought out recovery right away. It was a lonely and isolating journey for me. I did not have the best support system at the time and also tried to keep my recovery to myself because I was ashamed. I remember how isolated I felt which is why I decided to share my journey on social media, through Instagram and YouTube. Slowly, thousands of people began to follow along my journey. They began to get comfortable with me as well and share their own stories. Soon, they were letting me know that it was because of me that they have improved their relationship with their bodies and food, or how they are now going to therapy because of me.

At the beginning of 2020 I was contracted to work an office job for just over a year. I contemplated for a long while about what I wanted to do afterwards. I didn’t like working in an office and the work wasn’t meaningful to me. From there, I received the encouragement of those who follow me on social media to pursue recovery coaching.

Now, I am a Certified Eating Disorder Coach (Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy Program [EDIT]) which is developed and presented by Dr. Dorie McCubbrey (MSEd, PhD, LPS, CEDS). I’ve been a recovery and intuitive eating counsellor since 2020 and have helped so many people since!