MEMPHIS FIT
By Lillian Kay Photo by Tindall Stephens
After an Eating Disorder, It’s About Finding Perfection in Imperfection
Today, 39-year-old Hannah Shipley is a beautiful, confident woman who leads rooms full of students working on their fitness goals and well-being—and she’s well loved for it. She’s a beloved instructor at the Kroc Center with a loyal following as well as a mother of two young boys. If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that she has a lot of energy. There was plenty of room for Hannah to be active as a young girl growing up in rural Mississippi. “From the time I could walk, I was always climbing trees, doing gymnastics, playing soccer—you name it.” Even though she was voted “Most Athletic” as a senior in high school, she struggled with her body image. Even if she was active, she wasn’t healthy. Like many young women in their early 20s influenced by pop culture and media, she became fixated on the idea of being thin. In addition to spending hours in the gym, Hannah was running three miles a day and used Adderall to suppress her appetite and maintain focus in school. Food came with guilt, which led to binging and purging. Hannah recalls, “I couldn’t see my own true reflection in the mirror because I felt that all of my efforts weren’t good enough. I could still pick out areas of my body that weren’t ‘perfect,’ and I was determined to change it.” The positive attention she received for her weight loss encouraged her toxic relationship with food, exercise, and body image. During the worst days of her eating disorder when she knew that she wasn’t healthy, she hid it from everyone. The realization came when she tried on a pair of jeans from high school and saw exactly how small her frame had become. 26
Here’s her recovery in her own words:
