It’s arduous to pinpoint the second Ellie Hampson developed disordered consuming and train.
Her sheer desperation to be drafted into the AFLW made her play by means of an ankle harm in 2019, however when her physique lastly gave manner she turned fixated on energy and riddled with ideas that any weight acquire whereas sidelined would damage her profession.
She nonetheless achieved her dream of changing into drafted to the Gold Coast Suns, however within the course of inflicted a stress response harm in her shin and extra foot points.
So, whereas her Suns teammates had been working arduous on the observe and within the fitness center, the midfielder was on the sidelines fearing any extra energy would put her additional behind.
In precise reality, lack of energy solely elevated her restoration time.
“There were a couple of conversations here and there about what my eating was like, and I kind of fluffed over it,” Hampson mentioned.
“Then I realised that (eating) was actually the issue and it wasn’t something I could just change (own my own).
“I actually needed to mentally make some changes through psychologists and physios to actually believe that this (recovery) was going to help me.”
Hampson performed simply seven video games in her first two AFLW seasons as she slowly got here to phrases along with her disordered consuming and lack of ability to gas her physique for restoration.
“Input and output of calories was a massive thing because you’re not running or training as much as people around you, you’re trying to pull (calories) back.
“Meanwhile, your body needs that to repair.
“You’re stuck in this mindset that, ‘This is helping me, not eating enough or taking out carbs is going to help me’, when in reality it’s not.”
Sometimes the one factor maintaining her consuming was realizing that if she didn’t, her job could possibly be in danger.
“There are days where there could be things you don’t want to eat, or you try and not eat that, but at the end of the day if you don’t you pass out at training, so you have to,” she mentioned.
“You’ve got to change those wired in your brain to allow that information to sink in.
“That took a long time and is still mending now.”
But Hampson’s psychological harm developed years earlier than her bodily one, first revealing itself in highschool when the dichotomy between an athlete and a standard teenage lady started to type.
In one a part of her life, she needed to be the last word athlete – “the strongest, the fittest and the fastest”; in one other, she needed to seem like everybody else.
“I was probably in denial for years, (I told myself) it was normal, everyone had a bit of body image issues, and then when I accepted that it was affecting my career I realised I needed to take it more seriously and seek professional help.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH ELLIE HAMPSON
Originally revealed as AFLW prospect Ellie Hampson’s draft desperation sparked disordered consuming hell
Source: www.news.com.au
