Life is full of decisions, will you decide to allow the unhealthy obsessions consume your well-being, barely scraping by, or will you choose to put yourself first to reach your fullest potential? It’s hard to balance life as a student-athlete with the intense pressure to perform and the consuming time of your sport. The perspective of what matters can warp, raising performance above well-being and long-term health. Learning to find perspective and balance is important to allowing yourself to thrive in such a high stress environment like college athletics.
For the rest of this post, I will be saying "you", and just so you know, I am merely talking to myself. This is a topic I've been thinking a lot about while trying to stay on the right path. This is a message and a reminder to me, myself, and I but if it resonates with you, feel free to pretend like I'm talking to you. I think this idea can be related to most everything in your daily life but the topic I want to focus on is the relationship between food and a student athlete. You are more than an athlete and defined by more than a time, place, or number on a scale. Constantly working to chase imaginary correlations or shrinking your body size can be thrilling, especially if you start to see results. But at what cost? You'll be consumed with constant food thoughts, hyper-fixation on what's "right", and added stress. You will be constantly scraping by, trying to save your energy for practice while becoming more susceptible to injury and long-term health issues. This is no way to live, no way to perform. Short-term, it may feel like a solution, but the added stress leads you to becoming a shell of yourself.
Since the easiest way for me to get my point across is to share my experience, we'll start there. As an athlete, especially in the age of social media, it’s easy to get caught in the comparison game. I'm guilty of comparing myself to other athletes thinking "I would be faster if I looked like her". Also comparing to the things, I see on social media, being self-conscious of my muscles, noticing I'm not as thin as the literal models on my feed *who are already posed and edited for portray unrealistic ideals anyway*. It’s easy to feel like shrinking your body is the only thing that matters, chasing an image that you'll never be satisfied with.
First, quickly on the comparing in general: You never know what is going on with the person next to you, they might be having the same thoughts or at a unhealthy point in their own journey. Nevertheless, if your goal is to run faster, you will not reach your goals by limiting food intake or trying to change your body into anything other than where it wants to be. You will perform your best, fully fueled and wherever your body size, weight, and shape it wants to be.
Yes, I know, I can say that last part as much as I want but there is always that small part that either doesn't believe me or doesn't care. Losing weight or eating less can feel good, an accomplishment, it might even boost your confidence allowing you to run faster *for the short term* but:
1. It’s not sustainable
2. Not worth it
3. Not even about the weight (even though it feels that way)
It's easy to ride this high, "I'm going to run so much faster" "I'm finally making progress". This feeling clouds the reality, it makes your day of eating stressful and miserable. While riding this high you may not remember, but you are constantly hungry, always thinking about food, stressed about your next meal, anxiously waiting for your choices to come back to crash your energy. You might also start sleeping poorly or having a hard time concentrating. It’s easy to say "it’s worth it" or just ignore it. At some point you need to ask yourself: Is this really the way I want to spend my life? Always stressed and unable to enjoy myself? You deserve more. You deserve to have the energy and mental space to have fun, enjoy your hobbies, and enjoy the fun of food.
This is where the idea of survive or thrive comes in.
Do you just want to survive?
You can continue to try to limit your food intake, shrink your body, and try to run fast while slowly becoming a shell of yourself, barely scraping by, and trying to salvage energy for practice. Forget about extra social activities or extra hobbies, all your energy is being put towards thinking about food and practice. Meticulous planning goes into your next meal with an intense grip on the control it feels like you have. You may be running well, but there's that looming thought that it won't last with your current choices. At this point, you are just surviving. Making it one day to the next on as little food as possible, just to make ends meet (probably not all the way).
Or do you want to THRIVE?
It doesn't need to be this way. We can decide to thrive. We can follow and trust our hunger cues and fuel our bodies everything it asks for. We can have energy to run fast AND everything else you want to do daily. You probably will sleep and concentrate better and even think about food a lot less *insert blown mind emoji*. You won't need to worry about the inevitable energy crash, because you’re making the right choices— that's no longer a concern. Letting go of the control will allow you to enjoy social events with friends, explore new food, have new experiences, and enjoy yourself while doing so. You'll be able to enjoy your sport with the promise of a long career with the potential of continuous progress because you've given your body the ability to sustain you for years, not weeks.
Another thing I've done which is similar is making a list of motivations. Sometimes it gets hard, and it helps to have a tangible reason to keep trying. I have a post-it note on the inside of my locker, I see it every day. It’s a simple reminder of why I am trying so hard to fight the urges and fuel my body correctly. Every person’s motivation will be different but mine consists of
-Staying injury free
-Being able to focus on my schoolwork
-Sleeping well
-Having the mental space to worry about other things
-Run well
Seeing this list everyday reminds me of what's possible. Obviously, there are countless roadblocks, tough times, and impossible thoughts to ignore, but remembering what's possibly makes fighting those a little easier.
With all that being said, I just want to leave you with the reminder that you deserve to live your life to the fullest. You deserve a long athletic career full of team bonding, fun practices, workouts that challenge your strength not your energy, proud moments, and PRs. Even when shrinking your body feels like the answer, remembering fueling your body is the only way to reach your goals. We are setting ourselves up for years of sport instead of weeks.
You can do it I believe in you 🫶
Add comment
Comments
Hey Emma this made sense to me and I pretended that you were talking to me thare are times I wanna decide to thrive or survive and being a athlete myself I’ve had a lot of thought about this and thare are times I wanna definitely succeed but thare are things that get in the way can you help me and can we chat about it
Yeah I would love to chat more about it, shoot me an email if you want.
Emma, you make so many great points--you make an awesome coach! I'm so happy you're at what seems to be a really healthy place and I hope you're having a blast this season!