A Figure Skater Who Eats When He's Hungry

Last night I went to a fundraising dinner for a wonderful organization a friend of mine started called CoachArt (http://www.coachart.org/). Low and behold, I found myself sitting next to a professional figure skater! I wasn't planning to mention Eat When You're Hungry, as I tend to only discuss food and body image with people who bring it up themselves. Well, someone else at the table mentioned my book and this figure skater sitting beside me wanted to hear all about it. I figured that he was interested in the subject matter because eating disorders (and disordered eating) are clearly at epidemic proportions in the skating industry, right? Well....not exactly, which is where the conversation got interesting.

This young man told me that he skated in Denver for eight years, and that his peers and fellow skaters in Denver did NOT obsess about food! Sure, there were the occasional skaters who struggled with food issues, but they were the exception and not the norm. He said that it wasn't until he started skating professionally in Los Angeles that he noticed he was surrounded by people who were obsessed with counting calories, fat, carbs, you name it. This is a young man -- thank goodness -- who has just about the healthiest relationship to food that one can have. He eats what he wants, when he wants it when he's hungry. And I think he tends to stop when he's full. He doesn't monitor every morsel of food that goes into his body.

"But wait," he said. "If I'm being really honest, I guess I do watch what I eat sometimes." "Oh? What do you mean?" I said. "Well, you see, I could live off of red meat, chocolate and cheese alone. Really, I could eat any of those foods everyday all day long. I love them," he said. "But, chocolate really spikes my energy, too much cheese makes me a bit tired, and red meat sometimes doesn't sit well in my stomach, so I do sometimes make sure that I don't eat too much of any of those foods in one sitting."

This, my folks, is not only OKAY, but it is a beautiful example of being in tune with one's body. Eating what you want doesn't just mean eating what your tongue wants (though that's a big part of it). It also means eating what your energy-level wants, what your stomach will react to comfortably, and what won't cause an allergic reaction. Get it?

Anyway, this very healthy young man with not one eating-disordered thought in his mind said that it's becoming annoying to be surrounded by peers and colleagues in Los Angeles who obsess about food -- because it sometimes makes him feel like there is something wrong with him!

And we wonder how eating disorders get started.....