Hi everyone! Below are some tips I created to assist in running in a healthy and non- eating disordered way.
1. Run “weird” distances!!
Force yourself not to go to 4 miles if that’s what your plan says or what you set out to do, but run 3.9. Or instead of 30 minutes run 27 minutes. Don’t let the eating disorder/disordered exercise win by always having to run an exact amount and feeling that the run “doesn’t count” if you didn’t hit that certain distance or time. (Definitely easier said than done but definitely leads to running in a more free and healthy way)
2. Take time to run without your watch!
Learn to run by how your body feels rather than running a certain pace or distance. Enjoy the run instead of being ruled by the numbers.
3. Try not to compare yourself to any other individual that runs
Everyone’s bodies are different, what is healthy for one person is not healthy for all, you can’t tell someone’s health by just looking at them (they may also be struggling with disordered eating). You have a unique set of genetics, a unique history and makeup that makes your body unique from every other person’s on earth. Your body is not meant to look like anyone else’s.
4. Have your identity rooted in Christ rather than in running.
Try not to consider yourself a runner but rather a person who runs or a child of God who runs. Make running secondary to your true identity and purpose.
Super helpful for me! I consider myself a daughter of Christ who happens to run reminding myself that first and foremost my identity is in Christ and don’t consider myself a runner, instead I’m someone who happens to run 🙂
5. Take rest days!!!
You are allowed to take rest days and let your body recover and relax 🙂
6. Nourish your body. Make sure you are eating enough food to fuel and nourish your body!
A wide variety- no foods are off limits- no foods are bad!
With love,
Megan
1 Timothy 4:8– For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
Genesis 1:27- So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them
John 1:12- Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
Megan Ludke is a woman of God, Founder and Executive Director of Live RecoverED (formerly RecoverED Athletes), a school-based physical therapist, and a current PSU graduate student (M.Ed. Health Education & Promotion concentration in Eating Disorders). She is recovered from anorexia, orthorexia, depression, OCD, and social anxiety. Megan is deeply passionate about her work at Live RecoverED, having felt the pain and darkness of struggling with an eating disorder. When not working, Megan loves spending time with her boyfriend and family and loves being outside- hiking or reading in a hammock.
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