The Lie My ED Told Me: I Will Be Able To Eat Whatever I Want When Track Ends
Here was my logic:
During track season- You have to eat well now because you need to be at your best to compete. Once track season is over you can have more flexibility in your diet.
After track season- Now you aren’t training as hard as you were during season. You can’t afford the flexibility in your diet you need to eat well to maintain your physique and fitness.
During my track career- You have to eat like an elite athlete now but once you retire you can eat whatever you want because you won’t be a competitive runner anymore and what you eat won’t matter.
After my track career- You can’t eat whatever you want because you don’t work out as hard as you did in college so you don’t deserve to eat as much food. You have to eat very carefully to maintain your physique and fitness so you can hold on to looking like a college runner.
While I was in college I would think to myself:
“Once I am done, I will be able to have waffles on the weekend or a burger and fries any time I want. I will go back to eating like I used to because I won’t have the pressure of eating around practice times or fueling properly for my training and competitions to worry about.”
I could not have been more wrong.
The second track ended my eating disorder got worse. Now I had this huge void generated by my insecurity of not being a college athlete for my ED to thrive even more.
What is the correct logic?
- BALANCE
While being a college athlete- You need to eat well to perform at your best but you are training so hard that eating burgers and fries and milkshakes is not going to affect your results when done in moderation. It allows you to live and enjoy your life.
While not being a college athlete- You need to eat well because you need to take care of your body but eating burgers and fries and milkshakes is not going to affect your physique or health when done in moderation. It allows you to live and enjoy your life.
I really wanted to communicate this, especially for any of you who are currently in college and might have the same thought process I once did. I urge you to recognize that adopting balance in your diet right now will not only help your training, it will help you transition when you have to retire from your sport.