the eating disorder
(First published - March 10th 2016)
Now, when I first heard I may have an eating disorder I have to say I was sceptical, the idea was almost laughable...
I've done martial arts on and off since the age of 4 years old, so I've always been slim; my anxiety also means I have a fast metabolism and it takes approximately 2 sit ups a year to maintain a good looking six pack! Get in!
Unfortunately, while the abs may come easy, the mind is slimming also when you're not looking after yourself...
I run a number of businesses surrounding clothing/textile production, uniform supply and pet products for dogs and it's fair to say that I live most off my life off the back of coffee and positive mental attitude.
For years I've convinced myself that running from meeting to meeting made me a champion among businessmen; how many meetings can I cram into one day, whilst still maintaining a positive close rate in terms of sales? I've asked myself that question on numerous occasions…
What I realise now is that my efforts were un-constructive at best; what I'd actually been doing was running my body (and most importantly my mind) into the ground...
There have been times when I’ve collapsed from lack of food; I've suffered migraines, stomach cramps and at one point I had an ambulance called to a hotel client of mine, where the paramedics had to come and assess me, because I had such high anxiety levels that I ended up on the floor of the hotel reception, telling the receptionist that I thought I was having a heart attack...
In fact, that situation was not more than 2 years ago so this issue is rife in my day to day! None the less, I'm trying to move beyond that now, because what I did actually have, was in fact an eating disorder!
Now I wasn't throwing up after meals or doing any of the regular things you might attribute to this stigma, however, in trying to push through the hunger I was actually damaging my mental state quite severely, because when you don’t have the relative nutrition you need to function, your body needs to supplement this…
Some people use things like pre-biotics to level this out, however, Scientists at Oxford University have actually found that these pre-biotics can in fact generate bacteria which affects both emotional processing and stress hormone levels in even their healthy volunteers, you can read more on this topic through the following articles:
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/04/gut-bacteria-mental-healt_n_6391014.html
I actually still have the mind-set that eating during the day is wasting my time and I feel a level of anxiety if I'm eating and not responding to emails, no idea why, but I'm working on that and on taking the time to savour my meals, while eating the right types of foods.
We owe it to ourselves as individuals to take a moment out, to allow our bodies and our minds to rest and enjoy what we eat day to day. For so long I didn’t realise how this issue was so detrimental to my evolution as an individual, especially as a man, not really wishing to accept I might have an ‘eating disorder’…
When we get to the science of it, which is the type of logic someone with my mentality gets; food = nutrition, nutrition = stimulation and that stimulation allows us to become more than we could imagine if we let it; but we can’t expect to better ourselves if we don’t manage the process.
The average scientist may not like how simple I set this out, however, the fundamentals are there and with stimulation comes the ideal "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of LIFE." - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
