SM: After losing a few pounds, why didn’t you go back to your old eating ways?
Lindsay: I was beginning to receive comments that I was losing weight and looking really good. I thrived off these comments and yearned for more. I thought losing more weight would get that, so I cut out even more from my diet and worked out even harder.

SM: What were your workouts like?
Lindsay: I started realizing I could actually run far distances. It was something I enjoyed at first and then it became an obsession to where if I didn’t go for a run I started panicking and I felt like I could see the fat already getting on me.

SM: How far would you run on an average day?
Lindsay: It’s hard to say how far, but about three hours a day.

SM: How did you even find the time to run three hours in a day?
Lindsay: I would skip school—I would find a way. This was my life. I didn’t do anything else. I didn’t have any friends, I didn’t talk to anyone. It kept me away from people, from food.

SM: Did you realize what was happening to you?    
Lindsay: I was in complete denial of what I was doing and what was unfolding. The idea of an eating disorder did not even enter my head.

SM: How would you avoid eating dinner with your family?
Lindsay: I would tell them I was going out to dinner, but I wouldn’t go. (I was a very social girl before this.) I would say I had homework and I’d take the meal upstairs and do away with it. I’d flush things down the toilet or even put things in a plastic bag and hide it. If I did have to go out to dinner I’d push food around my plate. That’s a HUGE sign of someone with an eating disorder: just playing with food, making it look like you ate it.