Fueling up for High Performance

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Dawn Montaner Ex. Director/Founder
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What is an Eating Disorder

• Most commonly known
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder
• Include extreme emotions, attitudes, and
  behaviors surrounding weight and food issues.
• Eating disorders are serious emotional and
  physical problems that can have life-threatening
  consequences for females and males.

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What Causes Eating Disorders

• Psychological factors
• Low self-esteem
• Depression, anxiety, anger or loneliness
• Feelings of inadequacy, lack of control in life
• Interpersonal factors
• Troubled family and personal relationships
• Difficulty expressing emotions and feelings
• History of being teased based on weight or size
• History of physical or sexual abuse

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What Causes Eating Disorders

• Social factors
• Cultural pressures to be thin or place value on
  obtaining a perfect body
• Narrow definitions of beauty
• Cultural norms that value people on the basis of
  physical appearance and not inner qualities and
  strengths
• Other Factors
• Research on possible biochemical or biological
  causes

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Anorexia Nervosa
Characterized by self-starvation and excessive
weight loss

• Deliberate self-starvation with weight loss
• Intense fear of weight gain or being fat
• Refusal to eat, except tiny portions
• Continuous dieting
• Feeling fat or overweight despite dramatic
  weight loss

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Looking in the mirror there is often criticism of
their shape and weight- seeing themselves as fat
even though they may be very thin. This is a very
frightening experience and feels very real-
driving the person to diet.
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The intense fear is powerful enough to cause
individuals to diet to the point of starvation. A
person with anorexia is hungry but he or she is
afraid to eat because of the fear
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There is constantly thoughts about food-how many
calories, how many fat grams, how much exercise
you need to do if you eat a cookie, etc.
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Bulimia Nervosa
Secretive cycle of binge eating followed by
purging

• Preoccupation with food
• Repeated episodes of bingeing and then purging
• Feeling out of control during a binge and eating
  beyond the point of comfortable fullness
• Extreme concern with body weight and shape

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Binge Eating Disorder
Also known as Compulsive Overeating

• Uncontrolled, impulsive or continuous eating
  beyond the point of feeling comfortably full
• No purging
• Sporadic fasts or repetitive diets
• Feelings of shame or self-hatred after a binge

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Consequences of Anorexia Bulimia

• Malnutrition
• Intestinal ulcers
• Dehydration
• Ruptured stomach
• Serious heart, kidney and liver damage
• Tooth and gum erosion
• Tears in the esophagus

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Consequences of Anorexia Bulimia

• Depression
• Low self-esteem
• Shame and guilt
• Impaired family and social relationships
• Mood swings
• Perfectionism
• All or nothing thinking

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Who is at risk for developing an Eating Disorder

• Everyone!
• In every race, culture, age group and gender
  there are people with eating disorders.
• Females
• Males
• Minorities
• Athletes
• Genetics

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The bottom line, however, is that bulimia and
anorexia are the misuse of food to resolve
emotional problems.
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How To Tell If You Might Have A Problem With Food
or Fitness

• You dont eat three meals a day. There is never
  time for breakfast
• Some meals consist of foods that are not
  nourishing to your body like chips or soda
• You dont eat a variety of nutritious foods
• You spend a lot of time eating in front of video
  games or television
• You rarely go outside to play or walk

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How To Tell If You Might Have A Problem With Food
or Fitness

• You do not take physical education classes in
  school
• You feel guilty after you eat
• You are embarrassed about how you eat or how you
  look
• It takes trying on many outfits before you can
  find one that you feel looks good enough on you
• You are afraid or uncomfortable about eating in
  front of others
• You feel that you should never leave the dinner
  table feeling full or satisfied.

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Are You A Healthy Eater?

• If you answered yes to any of the previous
  indicators then you are probably not a healthy
  eater.
• It is likely that you share some common
  misconceptions about healthy eating with many
  others like yourself.

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Myths about healthy eating

• Food is fattening
• Food is unhealthy for the body
• Dieting and restricting food is the best way to
  lose weight.
• It is okay to skip meals
• Nobody eats breakfast
• Food substitutes such as power bars are okay to
  take the place of meals

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Myths about healthy eating

• Exercise can keep a person slim and fit. You can
  never overdo a good thing.
• Being fat is about being unhealthy, unhappy and
  unattractive. It must be avoided at all costs
• Fat-free eating is healthy for eating disorders
• A meal is anything you put in your mouth around
  mealtime.

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Becoming a Healthy Eater

• Recognize that food is simply the fuel to nourish
  and heal the body.
• Eat lots of nutritious foods
• Dont leave the table hungry
• Have protein with every meal. It keeps you
  satisfied and energized
• Never miss a meal
• Eat meals together with your family whenever
  possible
• Ask your parents to make healthy foods available
  at your home.
• Turn off the TV. Never eat in front of the TV.

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Becoming a Healthy Eater

• Learn to listen to your body
• Trust your instincts to tell you when you are
  hungry and when you are full.
• Your body is wise and knows what it needs to
  survive and do well. Let it guide you.
• By listening to your hunger and satiety gauges,
  youll also be getting good practice in becoming
  responsive to your feelings in general. Through
  accessing your feelings, you will learn how to
  make healthy demands of yourself and others, to
  recognize and enforce boundaries between your
  self and others and to resolve conflicts
  effectively

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Becoming a Healthy Eater

• Diets dont work
• Healthy eating is what it takes to keep a person
  fit and trim without engaging in destructive
  diets.
• Healthy eating lies in a persons capacity to
  trust and respect the body and its needs
• Healthy eating is the ability to eat everything,
  as long as it is in moderation
• There are no bad foodsonly bad eating habits

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What is Healthy Eating?
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The bottom line is that the body is a machine
that requires fuel on a regular basis to operate
effectively. It needs protein for mental
alertness, cell formation and growth,
carbohydrates for energy, and fat for hormone
production and neurological development in your
people. When the body is given what it needs to
feel full comfortably, it learns to regulate
itself. More importantly, the individual learns
to trust themselves to make wise choices in
feeding the body successfully.
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Taking A Look At Exercise

• Exercise is an essential part of the equation.
  Calories in Calories out When too many
  calories are consumed and not enough expended-the
  result is weight gain
• The amount that is consumed in calories should
  equal the amount of calories you are using by
  exercising.
• People live longer, healthier, less stressful
  lifestyles when they are physically active. They
  sleep better, feel more alert, alive, happy and
  self-confident.

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Teasing

• Overweight people suffer from teasing by a
  society that tends to be intolerant of individual
  differences and misunderstands the truth about
  overweight and overeating. It is a misconception
  that overweight people are lazy people.
• Largeness is genetically determined
• Overweight people are often extremely fit people,
  they can be great athletes and live long, healthy
  and fulfilled lives
• People are not meant to look exactly alike
• Recognize that the person doing the teasing is
  ignorant as to what causes overweight, and is
  behaving in a cruel and insensitive manner

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Eating Disorders

• Eating Disorders are curable when detected early
  and treated effectively
• Eating Disorders are the most lethal of all
  mental disorders
• Most victims of eating disorders do not know they
  are sick. They think they are eating healthfully.
  Remember it is not healthy to restrict food.
• It is difficult to see an eating disorder in
  someone else. Even doctors may not notice in the
  early stages.
• Eating Disorder recovery is the best investment a
  person can make in the rest of their life.
  Recovery makes you feel as if you have your life
  back, personality back, and the meaning back to
  your existence.

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Getting Help

• When you have a problem, it is essential that you
  know how to recognize it and to reach out to
  others to get help.
• Talk to good friends, parents, counselors
• www.NationalEatingDisorders.org
• Information and Referral Helpline
• 1-800-931-2237

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Data Sources

• In compiling all the data for this presentation,
  the following resources were utilized
• EDAP - Eating Disorder Awareness and Prevention
• AABA - American Anorexia/Bulimia Association
• ANAD - National Association of Anorexia Nervosa
  Associated Disorders
• Harvard Eating Disorder Center
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent
  Psychiatry
• FDA Consumer
• Child Magazine -August 2000
• Ohio State University psychologist, Dr. Susan
  Wooley
• DePaul Tulane Behavioral Health Center- Susan
  Williard
• Academy for Eating Disorders
• Office of Womens Health, U.S. Department of
  Health and Human Services
• National Mental Health Association

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Questions?