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This is one of those pieces she'll treasure. And once you see it, you'll want it for your own home too. Find the full collection at length.com slash spicevillage. Uh This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories.
Send them to ouramericanstories.com. They're some of our favorites. And up next. We have the story of a young woman named Randy Wilson. This is her story.
It starts with an eating disorder. and goes straight to motherhood. And Chrissy brings us this story. And it begins with Randy Wilson.
So, I ended up moving to Florida, and I lived with this aunt of mine, and she lived in a retirement community.
So, I was down there by myself. I didn't have anyone that I knew. I didn't make friends right off the bat. And that's Abnormal for me 'cause I'm just I'm really bubbly, I'm outspoken, I'm an extrovert. I wasn't doing good in school.
My grades started to slip, but I was not praying every day like I used to. It kind of just brought me more into a depression.
So, my aunt Alice introduced me to a friend, a family friend of hers who had a son who was around my age.
So, we hit it off right away. And next thing you know, we started dating. And he was really into fitness and CrossFit and very kind of obsessive over nutrition and exercise. And I've always been small. I've been petite my entire life.
So, I wasn't really too concerned with my weight. I guess being around him so much and him talking about it and everything, then I suddenly felt the need to get on that ball too. I started putting more attention and focus on getting fit and starting to go to the gym and paying more attention to nutrition and what I was eating. But I've never done that before, so I didn't really know the healthy way to do that.
So I just started going at it with. What I assumed was the healthy way. I was like, okay, well. I'll just start going to the gym and eating less. About a week into starting that habit, I started seeing results in my body, and I was like, hey, I have lost weight.
And the guy I was with. Noticed too. He would always comment on, like, look how little you are. That all just encouraged it even more. We did end up breaking up, but at that point, a snowball had already started to roll.
Uh I have kind of a addictive personality. What I mean by that is if I did like two hours at the gym one day, Then the next day, I have to do two hours or more. I have to at least match the same amount of time and the same amount of. Exercise that I did while I was there.
So I kind of shut down. Normally, I would go to God with stuff like that, but. I don't know, for some reason I didn't and I ended up just kind of putting all my focus into this new hobby that I'd already started, which was going to the gym. And next thing I knew, I was going to the gym four times a week for like two and a half hours. And then The diet thing started taking a turn for the worse as well.
At first, I was just eating healthy, but then this game started coming into my head. I would try to exert as many calories as I was taking in. At this point, I was trying to eat just simply egg whites all the time and vegetables. And I was still going to the gym and working out. And I was starting to look.
Sickly. We ended up coming home for Christmas that December. My body just plummeted, my health, at least, my weight dropped. To the seventies. My heart was starting to slow down a lot and Like, I had no energy at all.
I remember walking up the steps at my grandmother's house, because that's where we went for Christmas, and I felt like my legs were gonna give out on every single step that I took. I was cold all the time. I started growing hair. All over my arms and my legs, and I was losing hair from my head. I couldn't shiver anymore, and my teeth couldn't chatter, but I was cold all the time.
It was then that Randy's parents intervened.
So at that point, my mom had no other choice than to put me in an inpatient facility at a hospital in Chapel Hill. I was very reluctant about going to Chapel Hill. I knew I was gonna put on weight, and the idea of my clothes not fitting me anymore terrified me.
So it took a lot. I did pray about that one. My heart had been feeling really weird at that point, too, because it slowed down so much.
So I thought, maybe this isn't a bad idea, because I don't wanna die.
So I ended up agreeing to go to Chapel Hill and I gained enough weight to go to step down back into day treatment. Randy eventually left treatment and returned to college. But there she spiraled back into her eating disorder. A friend of mine came up and she noticed my unhealthy habits starting to pick back up. And she actually called my mom and told her to come and get me that I wasn't doing well and I was sick again.
My mom and dad came up and surprised me and told me I was moving out and that I had to go back to day treatment. I didn't have to go to end treatment this time, but I did go to a residential treatment center in Durham. And. That's when I would say my recovery finally really began.
So, we have a therapist in residential treatment that pretty much grants you your rights. I asked my therapist if I could attend a Bible study because I told her that you know my faith has always been really important to me and I think it might help me. She said, Okay, sure, but we have to make sure we have enough people to take you to a Bible study. Tuesday night came around, so one of the RPAs came up and said, Okay, we need so-and-so and so-and-so and Randy to line up. To head out, and I was like, Is there a Bible study on Tuesday?
Then she said it was for an AA meeting, and then they told me that my therapist had considered it. Close enough to a Bible study because it's based off of biblical principles.
So then I started going to AA meetings every Tuesday. Thursdays, Were NA Meetings, which is Narcotics Anonymous, and I jumped on the bandwagon for that one too. At first, I thought it was really funny, and I just wanted to use it as my excuse to get out of the house. Honestly, I started listening to all the stories that people would share, and they started hitting me in a deep way. And you're listening to Randy Wilson and her journey from an eating disorder and ultimately to motherhood.
And my goodness, there's a lot to unpack there. But it can happen to anybody, and this is the kind of thing that's affecting so many young and older women, and now increasingly men. And when we come back we're going to continue this story The story of Randy Wilson. And by the way, if you have stories like it, Of overcoming in the end is we do a lot of overcoming stories. Send them again to ouramericanstories.com.
Randy Wilson's story, A Journey of Overcoming an Eating Disorder. More of this story. Here. on our American stories. Leo B.
And I'm inviting you to help Our American Stories celebrate this country's 250th birthday, only a short time away. If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do, and want to help us bring the inspiring and important stories told here to millions for years to come, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to OwamericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Any amount helps.
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Instead of giving your mom something that fades, give her something that becomes part of her home this Mother's Day. The Lennox Spice Village is a set of 24 hand-painted little houses that are actually spice jars, perfect for anyone who loves to cook, entertain, or enjoy the little details that make everyday life special. As a mom, I love gifts that help turn ordinary moments into memories. Charming, timeless, and meant to be used. This is one of those pieces she'll treasure.
And once you see it, you'll want it for your own home too. Find the full collection at lennox.com/slash spicevillage. Mm-hmm. Are you really buying a car online on Auto Trader right now? Really?
At a playground? Yeah, really. Look at these listings from dealers. Wow, your search gonna really get that specific. Really?
And you just put in your info and boom, cars in your budget. Mom needs a second, honey. You can really have it delivered? Really? Or I can pick it up at the dealership.
One sec, sweetie. Mommy's buying a car. Mommy's a-I think your kid is walking up the slot. Kyle, again, really? Auto trader.
Buy your car online. Really? And we return to our American stories and to Randy Wilson's story. She'd been battling an eating disorder and soon found herself attending AA and NA meetings. At first, we could It was a way to get out of the house.
But then the stories she heard at these meetings inspired her. to begin her own recovery. People share stories about how they lost their family, how their kids don't talk to them, and I thought, you know, I'm so selfish. Because All these people are trying really hard to get back on their feet, and they've experienced such traumatic. things in life.
If they can do this and they can start really trying to Step up their game and get themselves better, then I need to start doing the same thing because I'm just gonna end up. Going to AA and NA meetings for my entire life and living in a treatment center. The final piece to Randy's recovery came a few months later. It was around Thanksgiving. We went to this church service, and there's these two little girls.
They're wearing like these Christmas dresses. They had long curly hair, and I just imagined, like, I want to be a mom. I wanted to make it to being a mom. And seeing my little girls grow up and raising kids and having a husband. having a career and to be proud of and I realized in that moment, if I keep doing this, I'm never going to have that.
I can keep getting myself better and then getting sick again forever until my body just finally gives out. I think that was the final push to really start trying to get better. After her realization, Randy worked hard to recover and managed to leave treatment within a few months. Once she recovered, Randy decided to finish college online. I was much happier with that.
I moved back home with my family in Charlotte, and then I met. The man who is now my husband. When I first met Ben, I again kind of started to get that feeling, the need to impress. I started kind of dieting again and paying a lot of close attention to what I was eating, and I did start exercising a lot again because I just wanted to be thin and. Beautiful.
Can I start to do a little bit of a spiral? He noticed what was going on. He knew my history. I had already shared with him the whole story of what had happened. As soon as he started noticing that it was happening again, he gave me basically a set of rules.
He said, okay, look, if you get in the 80s, I will personally put you into treatment. He gave me a lot more freedom, though, than I had ever received with it. And if he came in on me doing some sort of exercise, I immediately felt. This sense of shame and guilt and embarrassment that I'm supposed to be better and I'm doing this, and I was hiding. We had to sit down and talk about it, and I was like, you know what?
Okay, let's let's put it let's put it to this. I'm either I'm gonna set up What workout I'm doing every day, and I only can do that workout, and let's not go out of it. And I kind of put Ben to hold me accountable.
So I gained my weight back, got to a healthy weight. Then Ben and I got married. It was the happiest time of my life. But there was one problem. Randy couldn't get pregnant.
I lost my menstrual cycle in 2012. When I first started losing weight.
So we reached the year 2020 and I still hadn't had a period.
So now it's been eight years. And I remember my gynaecologist telling me, Over the phone, because we couldn't meet in person anymore.
So he said, Uh, you know, Randy, I hate to say it, but if it's been eight years, I really I don't think it's coming back. We're gonna have to figure out another way to get you pregnant. I was devastated and I just cried and cried because at this point I've been at a healthy weight. for at least two, three years. And I didn't understand why it hadn't come back.
So we started seeing an endocrinologist who. Basically, he told me he thought that I could get my period back still. He believed that I could, but to lay off of. Basically, to do no exercise, which for me was a huge challenge because, yes, I had overcome the obsession of exercise and the addiction to it, but that was only because I had my little hour, I relied on that hour. to not go into a Obsessive.
snowball effect and overdoing it. But I did quit. um i did quit exercising i was just started walking i started going on walks Just praying to God, please don't let this be all in vain. That took every bit of. I mean, it wasn't me.
It was God. God had to give him the strength. In the middle of The George Floyd riots and the protests. Ben had been sent out to do CEU. He goes out and basically just has to stand out there and make sure that nothing goes too crazy in the city.
He would come home around three or four in the morning. I was stressed out to the absolute max. I was so upset over everything that was going on between COVID and worrying about Ben. And randomly, I started my period back on like the second night. It was a complete miracle.
And I called my gynecologist and he was shocked. And I also called the endocrinologist. And so at that point, we were like, okay, well, let's start trying for babies. And I'd gone to see the endocrinologist several times. I had three periods.
He said that my follicles were not growing in the female body. The follicles hold the egg and they have to grow to a certain size in order for the egg to be. Able to be fertilized. And so he was basically saying that your follicles aren't growing. And he said he didn't know if they were ever going to grow.
So I was like That's unfortunate because fertility drugs are not covered by insurance. And we were trying to figure out that financially and how that was gonna work. We had just gotten enough money to do one of the fertility drugs, and I called them too late, apparently, because you're supposed to start taking it at the beginning of your cycle. And so they said, okay, just wait and just call us back at your next one. I started not feeling well, having headaches and everything, and lo and behold, I was pregnant.
That was the greatest miracle I have ever received in my life. It is such a blessing that I was given this opportunity to have a baby. Once you've already made that. choice like to deprive your body of nutrition for so long It's so hard for your body to be forgiving. One of the other specialists we saw said that it just wasn't going to happen because the body is unforgiving when it comes to malnutrition.
After I met my husband and I told him the whole story of what had happened. He said to me that he looked at my story as a gift and it gave me. even more motivation to Overcome any other battles that I may face so that. I could use this this gift that God had given me. To bring honor and glory to him.
And by doing so, helping to bring Others that were suffering, others that have struggled, and bring them to his love so they can experience. The life that I'm now beginning to step foot into. Noah is going to be here in about a month and I Honestly, my number one priority is to be The best mom that I can be to her. I want to love her unconditionally as. The Lord has loved me unconditionally and how He has shown that to me.
I do plan to share my story with her eventually and hopefully prevent her from ever going through or experiencing anything like that. I know that Noah will certainly experience, you know, her own struggles throughout life, but I want to be there for her. And I feel like God created strength in me through my experiences so that I can be there for her. Randy hopes to write a book about her struggles, drawing from a diary she kept while in treatment. This is one entry she wanted to share.
This excerpt is from the last journal entry that I wrote while I was. At inpatient care in the hospital at Chapel Hill. I wrote this on March 5th. of 2013. Everyone has their own story, their own battles they face.
My survival thus far provides hope and assurance in overcoming the inevitable challenges that lie ahead. the people we meet, the things we see, the troubles we encounter, all play significant roles in moulding thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. it is our job to graciously welcome them as gifts. We never stop learning. And a special thanks to Chrissy for producing that story, and thanks to Randy Wilson.
sharing her story with us. And it's important for these stories to be shared, and we love doing these kind of things. Because in the end, it can ease someone else's pain and also provide a pathway to hope for them as well. If they can do this, she said of the people at AA and NA, overcome their obstacles in life and their obsessions and addictions, I need to do the same thing. And my goodness, the story of how she lost her menstrual cycle and then got it back and then became a mother.
Well, it's just beautiful. And she's so right. The body is unforgiving. When it comes to malnutrition, malnutrition can cause all kinds of long-term damage. The story of Randy Wilson's overcoming here.
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At a playground? Yeah, really. Look at these listings from dealers. Wow, your search can really get that specific. Really?
And you just put in your info and boom, car's in your budget. Mom needs a second, honey. You can really have it delivered? Really? Or I can pick it up at the dealership.
One sec, sweetie. Mommy's buying a car. Mommy's buying a car. Uh, I think your kid is walking up the slot. Kyle, again, really?
Auto trader. Buy your car online. Really? This is a Shaunsei Plumber with a huge congratulations to the WNBA top draft pick, my friend and amazing podcaster, AZ Pudd, from all of us at iHeartWoman Sports and your friends at Geico. We know your life's about to change.
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