In this Q&A ep I chatted through a range of questions sent in including my ED recovery journey, getting out of a rut, mental health, positive mindset changes & much more 🤍

In this ep I dive into the Minnesota starvation experiment which was conducted in 1944 with the aim of understanding how to refeed a malnourished population after the war but ended up being invaluable in its contribution to understanding the psychological effects of starvation and the psychological impact of eating disorders.

🦋 This eps quote: “food became the one central and only thing in one’s life… and life is pretty dull if that’s the only thing”

References:

Leah M. Kalm, Richard D. Semba, They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 135, Issue 6, June 2005, Pages 1347–1352, https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/135.6.1347

Sarró, S. (2018). Those courageous boys: 73 years after the Minnesota starvation experiment. A psychiatrist’s view.

Ep 22 - Body Image - dealing with bad body image, improving your relationship with yourself + positive mindset changes to become your most confident and happy self!

In this episode I talked all about mindset and the impact this has on your happiness and relationship with yourself, particularly in relation to body image. I spoke about some of my own struggles as well as the positive changes and great things that have come out of gaining weight and eating disorder recovery to get to my healthiest self both physically and mentally.

🦋This eps quote: let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than your words 🦋

This episode is important!! Particular living in a diet culture driven society and especially for anyone living with or recovering from an ED‼️

Working with my eating disorder psychologist, I was confronted with a fear food challenge. It caused me quite a bit of anxiety and in the process of challenging my eating disorder I learnt a lot, came to a lot of realisations and in this episode I shared a lot of this insight.

I talked about fear foods and the importance of challenging fear foods to recover, the danger and disordered pattern around restriction of particular foods, the impact the language we use around, my mindset evolution in regard to fear foods & my experience in challenging fear foods.

Food is not just fuel and energy (albeit it certainly is) it is also about connection and culture and enjoyment and social connection.

I dive into my anxiety when I was confronted with eating foods not deemed ‘healthy’ and realisation why it is necessary in order to rewrite neural brain connections and heal my relationship with food and my body.

🤍 this episodes quote: “Change happens when I understand what I want to change so deeply, there is no reason to do anything but act in my own best interest.”

Check out the podcast on Spotify, google podcasts, apple or Soundcloud & check out my the YouTube vlog on challenging this fear food!

In this episode I dive into why it is essential to take rest days in order to recover, adapt, repair and restore from training in order to improve!

I talked about the supercompensation theory and the biological mechanisms underpinning adaptation and physiological training responses to explain why resting is ESSENTIAL as well as the detrimental effect of skipping rest days.

This eps quote: “Remember, muscles are torn in the gym, fed in the kitchen and built in bed.”

In this episode I talk about why you should take yourself on a solo date! I find solo dates empowering, healthy and help me with living in the moment and being present.

This episodes quote: You spend 100% of your life/ time with yourself and I think that’s a relationship worth investing in.

This is a short solo ep where I chatted about the importance of being present & living in the moment and living the life you truly want after my constant realisation that time is flying by! I spoke about redefining success & failure to make the most of this life!

Quote: THIS IS NOTE YOUR PRACTICE LIFE

You can now support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/imirussell

EP. 17 - I talked to @Alicebleathman_dietitian about all things nutrition, mental health, fad diets & diet myths, the influence of social media, the hardest part about being a dietitian as well as the best, and Alice’s approach to her fulfilling and meaningful lifestyle.

Alice was a joy to talk to and you can find this episode on spotify, google play, apple podcasts and soundcloud (link in bio & on my story).

Alice’s quote: The day that you plant the seed isn’t the day that you eat the fruit.

You can now support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/imirussell

It’s been a few months since my last episode so todays episode is a bit of a life update but mostly its to have a very important chat about seeking help, particularly when it comes to mental illness and eating disorders. I talked about starting with a treatment team and why I finally started with this team, who it is made up of and why I think this episode was important to make. I wasn’t planning on sharing this so soon but normalising support and professional help is important and I want to encourage those who are on the fence to get the help! Whether that is with a sport dietitian or psychologist, its only going to help get to where you truly want to be in life!

Its a long ep but some things discussed were:

The fear of letting go of your ED or getting professional support

The benefits and what is going to happen when you start recovering or take the first steps to recover

The dangers and influence of uneducated social media exposure

What made me finally start working with a team

The up and down journey of struggling with mental health

Feeling like you are ’too recovered’ or ’not sick enough’ to have a team .. (there is no ’sick enough’ to get help or support)

Recovery both physically and mentally

Addressing the common concerns: fear of weight gain/ change if you see a dietitian (trust me a sports dietitian is going to advise you on how to improve your fitness/ sport/ health), for some; fear you might not perform as well if your body changes (again - it will just do BETTER if you are healthy)…

Supercompensation theory and how you HAVE to fuel and recover to make training adaptations and improve

This eps quote: Stop being afraid of what could go wrong. Start being excited of what could go right.

This ep is a bit of a science based chat about metabolism and the components that make up the amount of energy (or calories) you use. I chat about what metabolism actually is and what determines your metabolic rate as well as the various factors that contribute to the amount of calories or energy your body metabolises or needs including BMR (basal metabolic rate), Physical activity expenditure (NEAT - non exercise activity thermogenesis and EAT - exercise activity thermogenesis) and TEF (thermic effect of food).

This eps quote: No one is going to stand up at your funeral and say “she had a small waist and a great thigh gap”