05/13/2024
It's mental health month, so let's talk about it!
My Mental Health Crisis as a Teen Athlete.
Even though I achieved my Olympic dream and inspired many people, I did not come out of the sport unscathed. I began watching my weight when I was 14 and dieting “seriously” at 15. My Nutritionist gave me meal plans and weighed me. She was wonderful. Even so, I would feel escalating stress in anticipation of my weigh-in on Thursdays; then I would binge right after the appointment. This problem worsened and developed into an eating disorder, called binge eating disorder, and I suffered the fear, guilt, and frustration of this condition for several years even after retiring from gymnastics.
Overcoming the Mental Health Crisis
My all-or-nothing approach to dieting was not working. For a long time, I was either "fully on" or "fully off". There were a lot of Mondays when I started a strict diet after motivating and giving myself an ultimatum during the weekend, and a lot of Thursdays or Fridays where I flushed it down the toilet. I finally opted instead for making small tweaks to my eating and adopted an 80/20 plan (healthy choices 80%, chill and eat whatever I feel like 20%). I didn't hit those numbers exactly, but I LET GO OF FRUSTRATION AND GUILT. I developed a new philosophy I dubbed “stress-free, healthy eating” by making small, incremental changes until they became habits. I improved my fitness in a few months, but it took me about two years to overcome the stress and fear of “messing up”, and finally feel happy, confident, and comfortable when eating. What an amazing feeling, though!
So, how can you help your children eat nutritious stuff and AND stop worrying about it? Probably by setting the example! What if you started with eating one fruit per day? Or drinking a glass of water first thing when you wake up? You can do that, right? It's definitely more doable than attempting a lot of hard things at once, such as I won't eat bread, potato, no dessert, zero junk food, etc... In fact, given my personal experience and from the hundreds of people I've had the privilege of coaching, that hardly ever works! If you force yourself to be at 100, you'll just come right back to zero, be it in 10 days or a year. Instead, "create a 50" right smack in the middle, a reality that includes both veggies and cheesecake. And remember, there's no need to dump it and start again next week if you have a meal or a day where you feel that you totally messed up. Just do the "next thing" great. Grab nutritious stuff for your next meal, and get on with your glorious day. It's up here you know (I'm pointing to my head and my heart). Here's to stress-free, healthy eating. You can do it, too!
