MLA Bowinn Ma speaks up about past eating disorder

NorthVancouver-LonsdaleMLABowinnMa has spoken up for the firsttime about the two years she spent trappedin the vicious cycle of an eating disorder.

The NDPpolitician, 33,tweeted about her struggles on Feb. 7 for Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

"To be honest, I was one of the lucky ones," Ma told On the Coast host Gloria Macarenko.

"I was able to climb out of the pit without help, but that won't be the case for everyone. And I don't recommend to anyone that they try to do it on their own."

Ma did not go into detail about the exact type of eating disorder she battled. She said shewas able to fix her relationship with food and eating on her own, but says that won't be the case for everyone who battles an eating disorder.

The trigger

At age 18, Ma was enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces. The program she was involved withrequired her totrainfull-time in the summerand returnto Vancouver in the fall to attend school.

Ma was attending the University of British Columbia at the time. Atthe time, she intended to become an officer with the Canadian Department of National Defence.

Ma left Vancouver to do basic training in Quebec.

"The training was incrediblyintense. It was so intense that one of the coping mechanisms I and others used to get through the day was to count meals," said Ma.

Ma says without fail, no matter what happened during training, trainees were entitled to have three meals per day.

Ma says the trainees were extremelyactive. She says she was eatingthree tofour times a person her size would eat under normal circumstances.

When Ma finished the training course, she went back to UBCand amore sedentary lifestyle.

'There was a lot else going on with me'

"I found that while my physical activity had dropped off almost entirely, I could not reset the unusual relationship I had developed with eating and with food."

Ma saidshe does not want to give the impression thatmilitary training causes eating disorders.

"There was a lot else going on with me. I had a deeply insecure sense of self-worth that had been building in me over a long time. I had a deeply intense need to control my body, and by extension my life."

Listen to the full interview here:

With files by On the Coast.