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Video Diary Records Deadly Addiction
POSTED: 10:04 pm MST May 16,
2008
UPDATED: 12:07 pm MST May 17,
2008
PHOENIX -- A personal video diary captures one woman’s most vulnerable moments as her daily struggle to lose weight was slowly killing her.Lauren Bandi, 25, has been exercising compulsively over the past five years to burn calories."I mean, I was trying to exercise in the shower,” Bandi said. “If I could do lunges and brush my teeth at the same time I was doing it."Bandi suffers from exercise bulimia. The Arizona State University student purges calories by exercising excessively, up to six hours day.
"It's like an endless cycle and nothing is helping right now,” Bandi said.The addiction is deadly."I went out to breakfast and had pancakes,” according to her diary entry. “I haven't eaten since. I feel like the pancakes are going to kill me."5 Investigates reporter Tammy Leitner met Bandi nine months ago as she was coming to terms with her compulsions.The disease started to eat away at Bandi's body when she realized she needed help."I had not slept in a very long time,” she said. “I was physically unhealthy. I have had seizures."Nutritionist Juliet Zuercher works with bulimia patients at Remuda Ranch in Wickenburg, the largest eating disorder facility in the world."I absolutely have to exercise every single day or I will panic or my anxiety will be off the chart or I won't eat anything," Zuercher said.
Bulimia means purging calories through vomiting while exercise bulimia means purging calories through exercise.But the physical and psychological effects are the same."They can appear so normal and healthy on the outside and in an instant their health is just teetering on the edge, the body is barely able to hang on and in just like that it can be instantly fatal," Zuercher said.Bandi entered an outpatient program where her exercise was monitored. She attended counseling and met regularly with a dietician.But the video diaries she agreed to keep offered the most insight into her daily struggle to beat this disorder."Lately I'm doing really well,” Bandi said in her video diary. “I don't know what's going on. In fact I'm afraid to tell people because they will think I'm miraculously cured."In another entry, she said, “The better I get it's almost like the worse I get. The more weight I gain, the fatter I am, the worse I feel."Bandi said she hid her disease from both her family and husband."I didn't really know there was a problem,” said Jeremy, her husband. “But then again I probably should have."He admits he had no idea how many hours she was spending at the gym and at power yoga."She was gradually getting skinnier and skinnier and skinnier," he said. "The easiest conversation in the world can be difficult, like what do you want for dinner.""Realistically the answer is nothing,” Bandi said. “You want me to be honest with you, let’s have celery for dinner."Bandi refused multiple times to reveal how much she weighs."I don't know how much I weigh now and I don't plan on ever finding out because that number would rock my world," she said.But after nine months and countless hours of counseling, she recently divulged that she has gained 25 pounds since we first met her. The pounds she has gained measure her progress but perhaps the biggest sign of her recovery is her mindset."I'm more comfortable in my skin,” Bandi said. “I'm not spending every second of every day worrying about food and weight"Roughly 35,000 people from Arizona alone seek treatment for eating disorders each year.Those numbers are increasing, especially among men and middle-aged women.ELSEWHERE ON KPHO.COM: CBS 5 News cameras catch coyote pups camping out on a Sun City West golf course. IMAGES: Coyote Pups In Sun City West MORE SLIDESHOWS: From the bizarre to the tragic to late-breaking news, visit the KPHO.com slideshow section and click away! CLICK HERE for images.
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