Shedding Some Light On Eating Disorders

Champion female boxer Mia St. John, German Olympic rower Bahne Rabe, and American gymnast champion Cathy Rigby. What do they all have in common besides being incredible athletes? All three of them suffered exercise and eating disorders during their careers.

Last week was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and so I felt like it would be the ideal time to write about exercise and eating disorders. I know as members of the Urban Boxing Gym we may see exercise and eating disorders as not so prevalent. We assume the people who go to the gym are there to train, get stronger, faster, and live a healthier lifestyle. The thing is that eating disorders do not discriminate. About 8% of the U.S. population suffers from eating disorders and of that only 10% of them seek treatment.

There is a huge stigma surrounding eating disorders. To many people eating disorders are seen as a lifestyle choice, they view victims of eating disorders as self-absorbed and because eating disorders are often stigmatized it makes it more difficult for people to seek help. Instead they are struggling alone, isolated, and vulnerable. The reality of it all is that eating disorders are not easy to define and it is in fact a very real disease. Psychologists are realizing that eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are far more complicated than they thought and they are not a “one size fits all” type of disease.

Often we think athletes and personal trainers could never possibly have an eating disorder, they are the fittest people we know, but they are not invincible. Athletes are competitive; they want to be the best and will go to extreme lengths to get there. The immense pressure they put on themselves to look a certain way combined with the pressure from coaches and teammates to win and excel in the sport can get to them. They will skip out on sleeping to train at the gym, they will skip meals and if they do eat something they regret they will purge it. They want to excel and they see these sacrifices as trivial if it means that they will look better, be faster, feel lighter, and perform better. Losing body fat with these extreme measures is dangerous and can actually decrease exercise performance as well as cause severe medical complications.

The repercussions of this disease very serious, they actually have a higher fatality rate than any other psychiatric disorder. So what can we as a gym do to help those who may be silently struggling with an eating disorder? Let’s make the subject of exercise and eating disorders not so taboo. Let’s be open to honest discussion; let’s refrain from making judgments and offer support instead.

Bad Habits: Late Night Muchies

Do you ever have those late nights when you can’t help but toss and turn in bed while your empty stomach growls ferociously at you? Yea I know, it sucks. So you get out of bed and eat. But what to eat? It can get complicated because there are foods that may sound great and healthy in theory, but they may cause restless sleep or affect your weight.

1. Sugary Cereal: Cereal may just be the love of my life. I eat it in the mornings, evenings, and even in the wee hours of snack time. While it may sound like the safest late night munchie, people often do not realize the amount of sugar that is packed into the colorful, cartoon covered boxes. So let’s replace it, instead of grabbing the box of our favorite little tiger’s frosted flakes at 2am, grab a box of whole grain cereal which emphasizes fiber and has less than 250 calories per cup.
2. Dark Chocolate: Yes, even dark chocolate, often seen as the most healthy option of all chocolates, can be bad for you if you are eating it right before falling asleep. The issue with chocolate (milk or dark) is that it contains caffeine which is a stimulant which wires up your central nervous system, making it difficult for you to get a good night’s rest.
3. Spicy Snacks: As you know, when we sleep we are slowing down all of our bodies’ processes, including digestion. So when you get up to eat some spicy food in the middle of the night your body is pushing extra hard to digest that food. Also spicy food makes it difficult to fall back asleep because it stimulates your other senses because of the rush of endorphins. So when you try to fall back asleep you may get some heartburn and some tummy troubles.
4. Fatty foods: Oh boy, I cannot even count the amount of times I have woken up in the middle of the night and grabbed a cold slice of leftover pizza from the night before, when I walked across the street to the local pub for some fries, or when I try to satisfy my ridiculous sweet tooth with one or four scoops of ice cream. I know those late night cravings, and I am guilty of it. But, I also know how sluggish I feel the morning after. What happens is that when you are sleeping your body is trying to relax and then you eat all this fatty foods and now your body has to work super hard to digest it all.

I am by no means saying that you are never allowed to eat a snack or two in the middle of the night! Live your life, have fun, and eat when you are hungry! But also remember moderation. It is important to not turn a one or two nights of waking up and eating a bowl full of sugary and fatty food into a week ordeal.

How to Keep Your New Year Resolutions

Okay, so 2016 is here and the month of holiday parties, cookie exchanges, peppermint bark, and champagne is officially behind you and what lies ahead are the inevitable New Year Resolutions. It happens every year, millions of people make the decision to be healthier, exercise more, and lose some weight. The intentions are genuine, but the goals usually are lofty and unattainable. You begin to rationalize the goal; start collecting delicious looking healthy recipes on instagram and pinterest, start a gym membership, and even get one of those green detox smoothie makers everyone seems to have. You are gaining momentum, you can see your summer body now, all you have to do is jump right on to the fitness bandwagon of clean eating and sweaty workouts for all of 2016- sound simple enough, right?

Research has shown that out of all the adults that make resolutions only about 8% actually go through with them. Why is that? Is it that we all are really bad at practicing good self control? The common theme seems to be that these resolutions like saying you will lose a hundred pounds or cut out all sugar from your diet are somewhat unrealistic and difficult to achieve. The reality is incredibly high expectations combined with low margins for error calls for a very high chance of the resolution failing.

So how about for this year your resolution is to not be a statistic. Yea, I know it is so much easier said than done, but maybe I can help you out a bit!

1. First things first, why are you pursuing this goal? Whether it is fitness related or not, it is so incredibly important to zero in on why you are making this change. So ask yourself, why do I want to lose weight? Why do I want to quit smoking? Why do I want to learn to cook? It may sound silly because the answers seem obvious, but the more passionate and dedicated you are to the goal in your head the more possible it will be to stick to it all year round.
2. Make ONE goal! The New Year is all about fresh starts and that is what makes it so appealing to make a bunch of scattered goals for yourself, but the more you make the more disappointed you will be if you drop the ball on them. People generally are overly ambitious when it comes to resolutions regarding lifestyle changes. What may help is making one major goal and work hard on that! Think of a goal that will have the greatest impact on your life for the better and work on that, all the little changes you may want will be sure to follow. For example, if your goal is to live a healthier lifestyle you may start by creating workout plans, cooking more home cooked meals, and finding a workout buddy. These little baby goals will help make the overall goal less taunting.
3. Plan Plan Plan! Planning is your savior when it comes to staying on track with goals! Whether you need to write it down or type it out having it down on paper is gong to make a huge difference. The more specific you are the better it will work out. Also writing out goals and having them in front of you makes it much harder for you to avoid. Make a to-do list of tasks or a schedule filled with specific tasks will make it easier to measure how well you are sticking to your resolution and if you need to make any modifications.
4. Tell people! Shout it from the rooftops! The more people that know about your goal, the more you are accountable to it. Let’s say you are trying to quit smoking and you have told all of your closest friends and family about your plan. As the days, weeks, and months go by you are naturally less inclined to cheat or quit if you have shared your goal with other people. The great thing about sharing your goals with the people you are close to is that they will regularly check in to see if you have been following your plan and they will motivate you to keep going.