The goals of eating disorder recovery are eat enough, let go of food rules, accept your body, exercise out of joy, learn to listen to your body, work on coping mechanisms, and much more. The goals of a high level athlete are to achieve their very best in sport. The actions required to reach each of these goals often do not align as ED recovery seeks to take people out of a rigid mindset and the pursuit of lofty athletic goals often requires a rigid mindset and lifestyle. Balancing these two pursuits can be nearly impossible; however, due to the characteristics and personality traits required to be an elite athlete, these people are often predisposed to EDs and disordered eating behaviors. For this reason, it is actually quite common to attempt to overcome an ED or DE while also pursuing lofty athletic goals.
For me, this has been the biggest challenge of my life, and I actually had to take some time away from my athletic goals to allow the roots of my recovery to take hold. Since then, it has been about 2 years of balancing ED recovery and my goals on the trails and track. Watch the video below to learn about my biggest tips for pursuing athletic excellence while also improving your relationship with food.
