Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Aliyah Hammad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Aliyah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I took a risk when I realized that my eating was very disordered and decided to get a diagnosis and treatment to recover. As a Plus Size woman, this was very scary for me going to medical professionals and talking to them about what I thought was disordered eating. Of course, they didn’t believe me due to Medical Bias. How can a Plus Size woman have an eating disorder? It started with good intentions. It started when I went to Functional Medicine Doctors and Naturopaths because I was not losing weight no matter how hard I tried. I’ve been forced to be on diets since I was five years old and as a result, I hated myself and the way I looked. I would get small temporarily, but my body would go into famine and store weight (I wish I had known this back then). These Natural practitioners would prescribe elimination diets, supplements, and lifestyle changes. The problem with eliminating certain foods is that your body stops producing the enzymes to properly digest these foods. As a result, I was so afraid of food, would cry when someone would invite me out to eat because I couldn’t find anything to fit my rigid eating plan, I was thinking of food 24/7 because I was restricting so much (on top of already being a picky eater), my digestion and health were declining, and I ended up gaining ten pounds out of nowhere. It seemed so hopeless. When I went to my last Functional Medicine practitioner, she said that I was a medical mystery and didn’t know why I wasn’t losing weight when I was doing all the right things and my blood work reflected that. Then as I was leaving, she mentioned that it could be my Metabolism and tried to sell me the HCG diet and Metabolism Boosters. I knew from there that this was no longer my path and did research for weeks on Metabolism, so I found YouTube videos on restoring your Metabolism from these Dieticians. They were talking about Resting Metabolic Rate testing (how many calories your body needs at rest), so I decided to do this test and make an appointment with them. I told them about my history with eating and they unofficially diagnosed me with Orthorexia (I say unofficially because they’re not Medical Doctors). They explained that the more we diet and restrict, the slower our metabolism gets, and our body stores fat, and weight loss becomes a lot harder to lose. They even told me when they say an overweight person, a lot of times they know it is someone who has dieted and restricted and their biology took over and did what it needed to do to restore weight. It really started to make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, I was not able to have any more appointments with them since they are no longer doing telemedicine, so I sought out an Eating Disorders Recovery Coach., who really helped me uncover the underlying causes of my eating disorders, taught me more about self-love (because anyone with an eating disorder does not love themselves), and really helped me discover what it is that I want out of my life authentically. Going through eating disorders recovery was a risk because it required possibly gaining more weight, which was one of my biggest fears, facing your fear foods, and facing your internal demons. I can honestly say that it is one of the hardest things that I have ever been through. I did gain weight rapidly when I started and wanted to stop so badly but took a leap of faith and kept going. I am five months into the process. I am still not fully recovered, but I have learned a lot about myself and have a much better relationship with food and my body. I can truly say that for the first time in my life that I truly love myself. I love what I see in the mirror. I love the woman that I became and continuously work on improving myself. I decided to become an Eating Disorders Recovery Coach myself because this experience is very isolating and very difficult. You really do need support because it goes against everything that I have learned from Diet Culture. It was a huge risk, but a very worthy one.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
The name of my coaching business is Curvaceous, Fit, and Fabulous Health and Wellness. I offer coaching for women dealing with eating disorders, disordered eating, and moving away from Diet Culture by having more freedom with food, freedom for themselves, developing self-love, self-confidence, and helping them discover their true selves that is hidden from others, and helping them live the lives that they really want to live. What sets me apart from others is that I am a Plus Size women who dealt with an eating disorder and is going through the recovery process. I was looking for Plus Size women when I started this journey and didn’t find many. I even saw multiple comments on YouTube with people wanting to see Plus Size women do this work, so I decided to become that person. Doing this work is already very difficult, but as a Plus Size woman, it is even more difficult since we are already Plus Size and fear getting more overweight, losing mobility, and getting new health issues.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Two books that I would recommend is that “You’re a badass at making money” and “You are a badass” by Jen Sincero. It really helped me realize that entrepreneurship is a very spiritual journey and that you have to have a lot of faith going into business. It is very scary, but very worthwhile.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is that family is not always blood related. In fact, blood relatives can sometimes be your worst enemy. I grew up in a very dysfunctional and toxic household. I was mentally, emotionally, verbally, and spiritually abused. I was constantly fat shamed from childhood, forced to be on diets since the age of 5, and no matter what I did, I was never good enough for my family. I was also the Black Sheep, so I knew from a young age that I was very different from them. My Mom even told me later in life that me being born was a mistake. My family also has undiagnosed mental health issues, so growing up, I didn’t understand the change in moods, them being hot and cold, etc. I also went through narcissistic abuse. I had a very difficult childhood and couldn’t do the typical things that most children, teenagers, and young adults do, like go to Prom, have a boyfriend, etc. My childhood was hell and later in life, I cut off all communication with my family because I’ve realized that they will never change. I’ve done so much work on myself to improve and be the best version of myself and they are still the same people who refuse to
acknowledge that they even have an issue. I decided to make my own family of individuals who I like much better than my biological family. I wish them well, but I know that I need to maintain my distance for my sanity and health.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: curvaceousfitandfabulous
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliyah.hammad1215/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliyah-y-hammad-mph-ctnc-clc-6425025b/
- Other: My email is [email protected]
Image Credits
The photographs were taken by Eason Photography