Podcast episode (Ben Greenfield) featuring listener Tim from Birmingham, UK, discussing his recovery from anorexia after ~6 years of illness and an 8-year recovery period. Tim describes shifts from endurance training to weight training, dietary changes (Paleo influences, sweet potatoes), supplements and remedies he found helpful (licorice root extract, fish oil, enzymes), and the role of spirituality (Bible) and blogging (OrderFromDisorder) in his recovery. Ben will link Tim’s My List on the show notes.
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Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield here with a special My List episode for you straight from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and I have a podcast listener on the show from Birmingham. Not Birmingham, Alabama, but Birmingham, United Kingdom. And his name is Tim. And if you weren't aware, what we're doing at BenGreenfieldFitness.com is we're encouraging you to to go to MyList.com BenGreenfield and create a list of something that you really like. It can be tools, techniques, food, supplements, gear, anything. And share it over on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Facebook page over@facebook.com bgfitness and when you do, I personally go and take a look at your list and I pick the list that I think are just the best, coolest, or most interesting or enchanting or intriguing lists. And I get you on the podcast to talk about why you created the My List that you created. And Tim, who's on the call with me today, has a very interesting My List that he shared on our wall and it's called Anorexia Recovery. The Anorexia Recovery. My List. Tim, thank you for sharing this and welcome. Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.
Thank you for having me, Ben.
So you have all sorts of stuff here on this list, but first of all, let me ask you, why did you create a My List on Anorexia Recovery?
Okay, well, my story is kind of now 8 year old recovery, but 6 years suffering with an eating disorder alongside some serious overtraining endurance style. Then the last two and a half years have been the real focused recovery period. So my training has changed to weight training from the endurance that I was doing before change my diet, started to look into the research surrounding eating disorders and what I could do to hack myself and be awesome again. Really.
So you put together these lists of things and before I ask you about what you have here, how long has it been since you think that or you would say that you've kind of had this beat, that you've had anorexia beat?
Um, hard to say, but I guess something was different to kind of August 2010 when I decided to turn it around. Something was different that time compared to any other time that I had tried to tackle it before. So I guess at that point, for the first time felt like it was possible.
Let's, let's jump into some of the stuff you have here. You've got two different books, I think, interesting choices of books. One, you have a book by Rob Wolf called the Paleo Solution. How did the Paleo Solution help you with your anorexia?
Well, I was already kind of interested in the Paleo Diet. I'd read the Paleo Diet for athletes because I noticed that when I was running, I was getting some quite bad GI distress, which seemed to be linked to kind of oats and wheat and dairy. So that led me towards the diet when I started reading around on the Internet. But the Paleo Solution book helped. It gave me a bit of scientific background. But unlike a couple of the other books out there, it didn't specify a particular macronutrient ratio, which I found kind of to be a bit of a trigger as far as eating disorders are concerned.
You mean when you're paying attention to the percentage of your carbohydrates and fats and proteins, it makes you be more kind of anal retentive with the whole food thing?
Exactly. And I personally had a thing against both fats and carbohydrates. And then I read the Primal Blueprint, which was very much pushing a lower carb lifestyle, which didn't really help.
Right, right. So the other book that you have on here is the Bible, and that's an interesting choice as well. How did the Bible help you with anorexia recovery?
Well, I guess, because when I decided to make the change was also when I got into my life. And although my kind of spiritual understanding has evolved a lot since that day, that was kind of my first introduction to realizing that I didn't have to do it all on myself, all on my own, that there was someone I could talk to. And I think the spiritual side of this whole health and fitness thing is a thing that a lot of people overlook or is missing from a lot of people's regime. So it certainly helps me to have that kind of spiritual awareness.
Yeah, it certainly flies under the radar sometimes. And it seems like the spirituality or the belief in a higher power seems to get separated from our goals of making our bodies healthier or feeling better about ourselves. But I thought it was really interesting that you included that on there. And then you go into some foods here. For example, you have sweet potatoes listed as something that helped you with anorexia recovery. Why are sweet potatoes on there?
They're on there for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because, as I said before, I had a bit of a bias against carbohydrates, and these seemed like the least threatening source. Starting out, there is a book called Sweet Potato Power as well, which goes into a lot about the benefits and nutrients contained there. I guess it was more to symbolize kind of A change in attitude towards realizing that carbohydrates are more dependent on your activity levels rather than something that should be just demonized. So they're a conditional macronutrient, and if you exercise them heavily, then likelihood is that you are going to need some in your diet.
It sounds to me like one thing that's been really important for you has been really consuming those foods that a lot of folks tend to stay away from. You know, higher carbohydrate intake, you know, counting or calculating percentages of. Of carbs and proteins and fats. It sounds like just enjoying food and not paying as much attention to those things has really been one of the keys for you.
Definitely at first, I think just to get back to, yeah, like you say, enjoying food. As I've progressed, I've started to pay more attention to tracking my food and weighing and working things out. But it's certainly not something that you need to be doing from the start, and I think it can be quite damaging to do so because you're already hypersensitive to, like, I could probably still remember the calories and carbs in certain foods just because you get into a kind of cycle of doing the maths in your head of adding meals up and things like that, and to be able to switch off from that is a big thing, I think.
Yeah. Now, one of the things that I like about my list is it lets you kind of, you know, kind of list things like the supplements that you're taking and using. And you certainly listed some of those here as well as some of the real foods. You know, you've got everything from fish oil to enzymes to licorice root extract listed. You know, when it comes to what you would say has been something that's been helpful for you in particular, specifically with something like anorexia recovery. Which of these supplements that you've listed here, do you want to hone in on something that you think was more helpful?
Okay, well, the licorice route has been really, really useful, particularly as I was starting to. Not straight away, but I was starting to struggle to get up in the morning and then also have a dip in my energy in the afternoon, which are signs of kind of low testosterone and your DHEA being kind of low. So I started reading around, trying to find out what it was I could do to fix the problem and came across licorice for its ability to extend the half life of cortisol. So to give you a bit of a lift in the morning and if taken again at lunch, to just carry you through the afternoon and then allow cortisol to drop in the evening to. For you to sleep. Also kind of preserving the DHEA for conversion into testosterone as well. So I would say that really helps energy levels. Stops me having to rely on caffeine, which is obviously kind of does the reverse because it's pounding your adrenals a little bit.
Yeah, a lot of people don't realize about licorice, and we're not talking about going out and buying Twizzlers, but the actual licorice supplement, the extract, what's called D glycerinic acid, that, that actually can lower cortisol levels. And for people who have kind of like that high cortisol stressed out state. Yeah, I was wondering if that was why you had put it in there, if it was more. You know, the other thing that's used for is to protect the lining of your stomach. You know, for example, like if you're, if you have to take Advil, Ibuprofen, you throw some licorice root extract in there too. But yeah, I think that's very interesting that that helped you out in the way that it did. So licorice root extract. There's a bunch of other stuff on here, Tim, and what we're gonna do is when I put out this podcast episode, I'm gonna link over to your my list so that folks can check it out. But what's next for you? What's kind of the next big thing that you're wanting to check off in life?
In life. Oh, man, that's a tough one. I guess I'm still finding my place in the world, but I'm just trying to put out as much information as I can. My blog, which is orderfromdisorder.blogspot.com can you.
Go over that again for folks who don't do well with English accents?
Nice. Okay, cool. Orderfromdisorder.co.uk. what? Well, cool. Tim, I want to thank you so much for making this list and for sharing it on the Ben Greenfield Facebook wall and for putting this stuff out there. I know sometimes these type of things aren't easy to talk about, but I think that things like this are really going to help out a lot of people. So thanks.
Season 2 | Episode 85 | Kamusta ka? -- Cultural diversity in therapy, athletic performance, and all things RT with Marriage and Family Therapy Associate, Kim Agramon-Bai
