It started when I was cast as a dancer in a WMSCOG stage production and we were all told to diet. I decided to do the keto diet.

I’m already relatively skinny but on the keto diet, I lost a significant amount of extra fat. I liked the way my hip bones stuck out and my stomach was flat. I felt like I had discovered a great new way of life.

My obsession with correct behavior in the context of the church extended to my eating habits.

Eating keto became synonymous for me with eating correctly, and whenever I ate a few grams of carbs I would feel extremely guilty and ruined.

I even thought of a way to make it spiritual—people had long recommended fruit and grains as healthy and I likened this to the mainstreaming of Sunday Worship and pagan festivals.

Little did people know that the Saturday Sabbath and the Passover were correct. In the same way, keto was correct, not fruit and grains.

My food intake and how I would avoid carbs in my next meal were constantly on my mind, on top of anxiety about getting everything that was expected of me done.

In the production, in addition to dancing I was also designing set graphics for the LED backdrop and playing in the orchestra. I felt like I was stretching myself thin.

I didn’t shake the food obsession until I underwent OCD therapy after leaving the church.