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By Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD Many women who run compulsively have inflexible eating patterns and obsess about their weight. They tend to be perfectionists and have a great desire for control. These traits are also characteristic of people who grew up with alcoholism, divorce, other family dysfunctions. Compulsive runners generally have carried into adulthood personality traits that now affect their attitudes towards their food, weight, and exercise habits.
The following traits are characteristically observed in people who grew up with some type of family dysfunction. If you're a compulsive runner, this information may give a helpful perspective on your relationship with food. Drive for Perfection
As a child, you may have tried to be perfect, with hopes it would elicit praise and recognition from your (alcoholic) parent. You also may have hoped that by being perfect, you would somehow be able to "cure" the family of its problem. As an adult, you may still strive for perfection. You expect yourself to have a perfect physique, eat the perfect diet, and maintain a perfect training schedule. You constantly push yourself to live up to these demanding expectations; you punish yourself if you fall short. You may lack a healthy perspective on food, weight, exercise. Desire for Control
Compulsive runners generally have an inordinate need for control. If, as a child, you were unable to control your (alcoholic) parent, you may now overreact and seek areas of your life that you can control: your diet, weight, and running program. You may set up rigid rules, such as: - Ritually running eight miles every day despite weather, aches, illness, fatigue, or holidays.
- Restricting fatty foods. That is, no birthday cake, ice cream, salad dressing, or peanut butter for you. Other people can eat these foods, but you must avoid them to remain perfectly thin.
- Monitoring your weight daily. If the scale reads higher than your "perfect weight", you punish yourself by running more, eating less.
You mercilessly judge yourself according to these rules. You are either "good" or "bad"; you lack flexibility and spontaneity. For example, if friends invite you to join them for dinner, you decline in favor of running the obligatory eight miles and eating at home so you can prepare your own "safe" foods. Behave Compulsively
Compulsive runners often have other compulsive behaviors; they are not only exercise-aholics but also may be workaholics and/or foodaholics. - As a workaholic, your demanding schedule may interfere with healthful meal patterns. For example, you may have "no time" to eat lunch, so you instead survive on coffee. This calorie-free (that is, "perfect") meal simultaneously helps you maintain your perfect weight.
- Workaholics are often foodaholics. As a reaction to the stresses at work, you may reach towards food. Rest and relaxation could perhaps offer better nourishment and energy, but you feel guilty if you "do nothing" or relax. Hence, mindless eating becomes your excuse for a rest break from the constant push to work hard.
- To compensate for compulsive eating, foodaholics often become exercise-aholics, using exhaustive exercise to burn off binge-calories and retain a perfect weight. This vicious cycle of work, food, and exercise abuse often lacks a healthy balance.
Top of Page Assume too much Responsibility
Having a compulsive personality, you may tend to take care of everyone but yourself, perhaps as you did as a child when you assumed inordinate amounts of parental responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, and caring for your siblings. You also may have assumed the responsibility of trying to "cure" the family's pain. As an adult, you may take on too many responsibilities both at work and at home. You generally have trouble saying no, believing "If I don't do it, no one else will." You need to learn to "let go" and trust that others will take over. Feel Inadequate
Despite your many accomplishments (being a perfect worker, having a perfectly slim physique, maintaining a high fitness level), you still feel inadequate and believe that you could have done better. After all, you were never able to quite please your (alcoholic) parent, so how could you ever please anyone else? Plus, you may have failed at resolving the parent's (drinking) problem.
Hence, you relentlessly push yourself to be better. You train harder, diet harder, work harder. This constant feeling of inadequacy may drive you to exhaustion; you may abuse food as a reward and run as a stress reliever. Have Difficulty Having Fun
You tend to feel guilty if you "let go" and relax. If as a child, your (alcoholic) parent put a damper on the mood in the house, you may have rarely enjoyed childhood fun, nor heard your parents laughing. Now, as an adult, you may still have difficulty "playing." You may feel awkward in a group, different from others and isolated. Hence, you are more comfortable and feel in better control when you work or run. When and if the overworking leads to overeating, you simply run more. You have more fun running by yourself. Trouble with Close Relationships
As a child, you may have felt unloved and abandoned. As an adult, you now may feel unworthy of being loved and afraid of being abandoned. Rather than let a partner get too close, you opt for predictable and "safe" activities that you can do alone--including working, running, and eating. Denial of Feelings
As a child growing up in an distressed home, you quickly learned to deny feelings of sadness or anger and instead pretend to the outside world that everything was fine. Now, as an adult, you may continue to deny that you are hungry, tired, lonely, depressed, or sad. You may bury yourself in work, running, or food. For example, rather than stay home and confront your loneliness, you may exhaust yourself with an inordinate amount of running and then treat yourself to an ice cream sundae. Somehow, chocolate can wonderfully smother the emptiness of the present, the pain of the past, the fear of the future, but only temporarily. Top of Page What to Do
If these characteristics sound familiar, and if you feel as though your life isn't working for you, you might want to seek guidance from both a sports nutritionist and a counselor skilled with addressing addictive behaviors. These specialists can help you focus your energy and allow you to establish a better balance between food, weight, and exercise.
Many compulsive athletes have also been helped through Alcoholics Anonymous groups for Adult Children of Alcoholics. Whatever the route, your goals can be to learn how to: train healthfully and not exhaust yourself; be gentler with yourself, not constantly punish yourself; and be your own nice friend. Suggested Reading
Numerous self-help books can provide further information on this delicate topic. For a catalogue of recommended reading check the website www.bulimia.com or write-- Gurze Books, P.O. Box 2238, Carlsbad, CA92018 Their Eating Disorders Bookshelf Catalogue includes numerous books on eating disorders, addictions, and body image; it is a helpful resource. Listed below are just a few titles. Feeding the Empty Heart: ACOA and Compulsive Eating by Barbara McFarland.
Hooked on Exercise: How to Manage Exercise Addiction by Rebecca Prussin.
Breaking Free from Compulsive Eating by G. Roth. Copyright: Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD
Nancy Clark's new Sports Nutrition Guidebook (2008), Food Guide for Marathoners, and Cyclist’s Food Guide are available at her website
www.nancyclarkrd.com.
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Return from The Compulsive Runner to Nutrition
Return from The Compulsive Runner to WomenRunningTogether
Other useful links.
How to Handle Eating Disorders
Nutrition Advice for Active Women with Amenorrhea
Nutrition Issues in Underperforming Runners
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