All-Star Cheerleaders With Eating Disorders?

[kykycheermom]

Sorry it's so big. Just wanted to put a visual with my story. This is my daughter (and son).

 

[auscheerflyer]

I am SO glad I came across this thread today, and it has really helped me reevaluate things for myself and put it into perspective for me.

I had a horrible experience a few weeks ago where during a drinks break at a training I overhead some bases saying how 'heavy' I was, and as the biggest flyer on the team it is something I am constantly self conscious about! To hear people talking about it behind my back, was just absolutely devastating. (For the record I am not big, I'm about 5'1 and 50kg which I would consider small-normal for my size, but bigger than the other flyers on my teams). Whenever they fly another girl who is a lot smaller than me the group comments things like 'Wow you are so light it's great!' - which I know they don't mean negatively, but it is hard not to think that saying someone else is heavy = meaning they think you are not.
My coaches always say I hold my own weight well and I have good lines and body tension etc, but it is still horrible to basically be called fat by the people you trust with your life.

This left me feeling VERY negative about my self esteem, which I took along with me later the next week to an open stunting session. I started working with a new partner, and had one of my girlfriends spotting us.

I constantly kept apologising to the base every time the stunt didn't work saying things like 'Sorry, I know I'm fat and heavy' etc etc. In hindsight, I think I was saying those things so that I would just hear validation from him saying 'No you are not fat'...
I didn't realise the negative effect that my own negative talk about myself (ironic!) had, because my girlfriend who was spotting me left the training session in tears. :(

Selfishly, I had no idea what was wrong with her! When we chatted about it later, she confessed to me that if I consider myself fat, then what on earth must I think about her!? And that obviously I must be disgusted with her since she was bigger than me (she is a taller girl, back base typically).

I guess I just wanted to say that people need to be conscious of using negative comments towards their own personal body image as well. Of course I was hurt when someone called me heavy, but then I passed my pain onto someone else by making negative comments about myself, and then them comparing themself to me.

Ahhh sorry I'm rambling, hopefully that makes sense...

 

[ChoreographyInTheBack]

I have never met a girl that does not have disordered eating at some point. Even if they do try to hide it, its usually not hard to figure out. Especially among my best friends, its not hard to notice when we go to get frozen yogurt or pad thai and some of us dont get anything.

I'm 17 and I have never had "disordered eating." I eat what I want when I want. Guess I was blessed with a fast metabolism cause I'm not big yet. Tall and lanky still :)

 

[AllstarObsession]

I'm 17 and I have never had "disordered eating." I eat what I want when I want. Guess I was blessed with a fast metabolism cause I'm not big yet. Tall and lanky still :)

youre a lucky one then. (:

 

[Aussiekat]

If you ever have an inkling that something isn't right, nip it in the bud straight away, like IMMEDIATELY. They're not joking when they say it's a lifelong disease. I've been in recovery for a long time, but sometimes I get so sick of dealing with it. The moment I get that hungry rumble feeling it's like my brain triggers and goes into anorexic mode and it's a battle to get food into me. Usually I can overcome it quickly, but it sometimes takes a whole afternoon negotiating between crazy-pants brain and normal brain until I can figure out how to deal with it.

 

[WorkToWin]

Sorry it's so big. Just wanted to put a visual with my story. This is my daughter (and son).

Please tell your daughter that she is absolutely beautiful and does not have to watch her weight! She is literally a PERFECT weight! I would love to look like her, tell her she is absolutely stunning and she does not need to worry about her figure at all!
BTW, your son is absolutely adorable too :)

 

[ssccxnce]

Sorry it's so big. Just wanted to put a visual with my story. This is my daughter (and son).

oh my goodness she is gorgeous!! and your son is precious!

 

[mstealtoyou]

Please tell your daughter that she is absolutely beautiful and does not have to watch her weight! She is literally a PERFECT weight! I would love to look like her, tell her she is absolutely stunning and she does not need to worry about her figure at all!
BTW, your son is absolutely adorable too :)

Ditto!! My youngest CP took a few growth spurts which made her taller (Bigger) then other kids her age but she's also ALL MUSCLE and that does weigh more too. I tell her you won't be able to do the tumbling you want to do without the muscle. The good news is that unless a kid is just naturally short/tiny her peers will catch up to her in the 13 year age range. We are finding that to be true with my CP now. Kids who didn't grow as early as she did are catching up to her now and according to Xrays she's probably finished her growing. It will even out later on. (Probably not what a 10 year old wants to hear but it's true.)

Bless her little heart. She just looks perfect to me!!!

 

[omgitssydthekid]

Sorry it's so big. Just wanted to put a visual with my story. This is my daughter (and son).

Your daughter is beautiful! I'm a tall flyer as well and I know what she is going through, she's perfect just the way she is and if she ever needs someone to talk to, I'm here to listen(:

 

[Deleted member 1556]

kykycheermom your daughter is stunning. Just beautiful.

 

[ErinS]

Ditto!! My youngest CP took a few growth spurts which made her taller (Bigger) then other kids her age but she's also ALL MUSCLE and that does weigh more too. I tell her you won't be able to do the tumbling you want to do without the muscle. The good news is that unless a kid is just naturally short/tiny her peers will catch up to her in the 13 year age range. We are finding that to be true with my CP now. Kids who didn't grow as early as she did are catching up to her now and according to Xrays she's probably finished her growing. It will even out later on. (Probably not what a 10 year old wants to hear but it's true.)

Bless her little heart. She just looks perfect to me!!!

Definitely true. I come from...tiny people, but both of my sisters reached their height peaks in the 3rd grade. Everyone thought they were going to be soooo tall and they were always taller than everyone else their age.

Now my older sister is 28 and 4'10 and my younger sister is 5'1 and 17....same heights they were at 9/10

I on the other hand....just grew slowly throughout life and stopped at 5'2 when I was 18

 

[0riginal]

I have never met a girl that does not have disordered eating at some point.

I've never had an eating disorder and I've never thought about it. And if luck ever crossed me, it was not concerning my metabolism. It was the fact that I learned what bulimia and anorexia were and that they weren't "cool" and wouldn't make me prettier...

 

[soFIERCE08]

well, i'm bringing this thread back because it is one that is pretty close to my heart. i know a posted a while back, but i was in a pretty sick mindset at that point so i just wanted to re-iterate whatever i said before.

i'm 19 and i was diagnosed with anorexia in october. my anorexia got so severe that i lost 70 pounds in 9 months, almost reaching a double digit weight at a height of 5 foot 8 inches. yes, i was severely ill. my hair fell out, i had blurred vision, i have brachiochardia and a number of other physical ailments. i went to residential in-patient treatment for 4 months, gained some weight, did a lot of therapy and really worked through my issues. and i will say right now, that my eating disorder in no way is about body image. it came down to the fact that i did not want to live anymore and was perfectly fine with starving my body. however, i have changed quite a bit and i am now grateful for every day that i am alive.

so again, to any coaches, parents and other athletes out there. if you think that anyone(girls and boys) you know might have an eating disorder, get them help right away! the best thing to do is not to confront them but to have an adult close to them ask them about it. good things to say are "how is your eating?" "are you doing okay with food these days?" "are you feeling alright? you appear a little out of it." never, never ever say anytime accusatory or too upfront. often a direct statement will only make someone who is hiding something lie.

i really hope that this helps anyone out there. feel free to PM me anytime. i'd be more than happy to help.

 

[bellaaa]

Sorry it's so big. Just wanted to put a visual with my story. This is my daughter (and son).

Your daughter is absolutely gorgeous! Please tell her that :) And I would love to base her, haha! :) I really hope her self-esteem is better now, she doesn't deserve to feel bad about herself. Tell her to stay strong! xo