ED Prevention Lifestyle: Creating Change, Leading by Example

If you read my previous article on this topic, you know that I do my ultimate best to help clients focus on the many benefits of exercise and a healthy eating lifestyle, not just aesthetic changes. However, like all important societal changes that need support, changing the conversation in the fitness industry must not only come from leaders, but also must start with the individual.

This doesn’t mean you need to become a crisis counselor or organize a NEDA walk (although those could both be positive things if you feel motivated!). Instead, think of how can you lead by example in your everyday life.  How do your actions as an individual have an impact on the fitness trend of focusing exclusively on external appearance? How will your words and habits have an effect on your friends, your workplace, and your family?

What’s the Point? 

Furthermore, why is it so important to cultivate this focus on mental health when it comes to food and exercise? My opinion: disordered eating and exercise behaviors are socially sanctioned and not easy to call out, because there is a fine line between healthy self-discipline and obsessive rigidness – and people can easily cross that line without realizing it. Our fitness culture promotes extremity with phrases like “Pain is weakness leaving the body,” and some consider a good workout one that ends with overexerted vomiting. The rise of workouts like CrossFit, which can push participants to total exhaustion, as well as the potentially cult-like philosophies of ultra long distance running, has only contributed to our inability to discern a disciplined workout from an exercise in masochism.

This extremity has opened a gulf in the fitness world, where the “in” are the ones who are the most high-octane and the “out” don’t have an access point.

For ourselves and the future of the fitness industry, we cannot afford to not focus on cultivating balance, ease, and mindfulness in exercise.

Questions to Ask for Evaluating Your Relationship to Food and Exercise 

• Take a look at your own eating and exercise habits with an attitude of gentle – but realistic and honest –  self-inquiry. Your actions do speak louder than your words. Do you:
  • Enjoy exercising?
  • Find time to do it frequently?
  • Enjoy your meals?
  • Eat regularly?
  • Feel good after eating or exercising?
  • Stay injury-free most of the time?
  • Stay fairly well most of the time?
  • Sleep well (and regularly) most of the time?
  • Take sufficient rest days?
• Examine your social media practices.
  • Think about Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, etc. What do you post, and who do you follow?
  • What kind of imagery do you regularly “take in”?
  • How do you react to what you see?
• How do you talk about body image?
  • Do you accept compliments?
  • Do you talk about foods as being “good” or “bad”?
  • Have you ever made fun of someone’s eating to his or her face?
  • Have you ever made fun of someone’s eating or weight behind his or her back?
  • What kind of adjectives do you use to describe your body?
  • What kind of adjectives do you use to describe the bodies of others?
  • Do you ever use the words “anorexic” or “bulimic” jokingly?
• How do you talk about body image with children (yours or not)?
  • Do you talk negatively about your own body?
  • Do you say negative things about his or her body?
  • Do you talk negatively about others’ bodies, food, or exercise in front of children?
  • Do you restrict food and/or force the cleaning of plates?

By taking an honest look at our priorities to discern whether or not our actions are aligned with our philosophies, we learn about ourselves and have the opportunity to be a force for good. Sometimes, we may habitually do or say something with innocent intentions, but it may negatively impact someone else.

However, sometimes we do or say things that we don’t really mean because these things represent an unacknowledged part of ourselves – jealousy or dissatisfaction, for example.

We owe it to ourselves and to the culture of our fitness industry to re-examine our actions and beliefs around food and exercise, in order to make our own world, as well as the larger world, a happier and healthier place.