Hi. I'm Julia.
I am a...
Chinese American immigrant,
Daughter of a fierce single mom,
NASM certified personal trainer,
NASM certified nutrition coach,
Certified eating disorder coach, and
Recovered bulimic and orthorexic.
For nearly ten years, I battled disordered eating—orthorexia, restricting, binging, purging—and I never thought I would recover. When I finally committed to recovery, the journey challenged everything I once believed about myself: my values, my identity, my relationships, and so much more.
As the first person in my family to be raised in the US, I grew up with vibrantly traditional Chinese values that unwittingly cultivated my ED. I was expected to work hard and live a life of success that I was brought to this country to have. I graduated top of my class and attended a top university, I pursued reputable jobs rare for someone my age, and looked as if I had it all figured out.
But, as a woman, I was always reminded to be small, pretty, and desired.
My narrative was seemingly written for me: I was to be thin, porcelain-skinned, smart and successful but not too smart and successful as to scare off a rich husband, and above all, I was to be beautiful. My relationship with food, my body, my career, my worth, and my value, were all inextricably tied to an identity loaded with unhealthy societal expectations. ​
Yet, as Asian women, we don't talk about these things.
We ignore our pain and keep going. We think if we stop, life won't stop for us. We think we don't have reason to complain despite waking up feeling trapped day after day, because mental health is not something we were raised to value. We never need to wrestle with our bodies because we're "naturally small." We're supposed to keep quiet even if we're terrified to eat, because we have "real things" to worry about — as if our hardships weren't real.
As I stripped away my ED, I found myself dismantling the predetermined narrative of who I was supposed to be. This is why I founded Solace.
Solace Recovery is created for women who want to break generational chains and rewrite their stories—those who feel lost amidst endless expectations, who wish to eat, laugh, love, and cry as their authentic divine feminine selves, who seek to redefine their values and reclaim their identities as their own.
If this sounds like you, let's talk.
Making peace with food and your body is just the beginning of your healing.