When Mile Times Matter Too Much: How Eating Disorder Therapy in Cherry Hill, NJ Supports Runners With Disordered Thinking
Do you spend countless hours on Strava, comparing mile splits to last week? Do you experience anxiety when a run feels “off” or slower than usual? Performance metrics can become a slippery slope, especially for athletes vulnerable to perfectionism and disordered eating. Here we are going to explore how eating disorder therapy in Cherry Hill, NJ helps runners redefine success and build a healthier relationship with running, food and your body.
The Pressure Behind the Pace: Why Mile Times Take Over
Numbers within the running community often take over athlete’s thoughts around workouts and races. It can lead to obsessions about improvements and personal records, despite how hard someone worked to get there. When performance gets tied to self-worth, you may feel guilt or shame after slower mile splits.
External reinforcement such as practice from coaches, teammates or even apps (ex. Strava or Garmin) can reinforce dangerous patterns. If the numbers are becoming a problem you may notice things like, panic when missing a workout, avoiding rest days or skipping meals to feel “lighter” during runs.
Disordered Thinking in Runners: What It Looks Like
Cognitive Distortions are an unrealistic pattern of thinking. They negatively impact how someone perceives themselves, others or the world. It is often irrational or inaccurate and mainly based on emotion. For athletes, cognitive distortions are often based in all-or-nothing thinking, such as “If I can’t beat my PR, I’ve failed.”
You may notice comparison with past times or others around you, as well as body size. When you combine all-or-nothing thinking with comparison, you get patterns of negative self talk and never feeling like enough. This leads athletes to grasp onto anything to try to improve their performance, such as food and weight.
Warning Signs of Cognitive Distortions
If someone is struggling with cognitive distortions, you may notice these warning signs.
Running through injury or illness.
Using running as a punishment for eating.
Sipping meals or rigid ways of eating (ex. Clean eating) for performance.
Increased anxiety around food and performance.
Isolation from teammates or friends.
Decreased joy or burnout from running.
How Eating Disorder Therapy in Cherry Hill, NJ Can Help
If you are struggling with feeling addicted to the numbers, know that you are not alone. So many runnings get connected to the numbers in an unhealthy way. Therapeutic approaches that are used to challenge performance-based self worth include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Radically-Open Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RO-DBT).
In CBT, we will work to identify and counter your cognitive distortions that are holding you back. In ACT, we would work through accepting the uncontrollable and normalizing the anxiety. While in RO-DBT, we work through perfectionism and rigidity around the things we can control. If you are a parent or youth runner, looking to work through these cognitive distortions, Family-Based Therapy (FBT) is the way to go. This is an evidenced-based treatment that guides parents in helping young athletes through cognitive distortions. They focus on their relationship with food, body and performance as a team.
What to Expect in Therapy
Going into therapy, especially with someone new, can be nerve-racking and scary. So let’s break it down a bit more. In sessions with an eating disorder therapist for athletes you will first work on unpacking success and control. You then work on relearning how to nourish for performance and recovery. Eating disorder therapy helps you build flexibility around running and resting. Practicing self-compassion on days you feel a bit “off” is a learned skill that needs to be practiced. As an eating disorder therapist local to the South Jersey running scene, I collaborate with coaches, dietitians and sports medicine doctors. This helps to best support the athletes that come to me.
Redefining Success: What Recovery Looks Like for Runners
Redefining success can feel difficult when you have looked to the numbers to know if you succeeded or not. Examples of what this may look like are:
Enjoying a slow run with friends without guilt
Taking a rest day without anxiety
Eating to fuel, not restrict
I recently heard professional athlete, Nikki Hiltz, talk about their effort on an easy day. They described it as “working my hardest to have a successful recovery day”. As I reflected on what this may look like, it made me think about all the things that go into a recovery day. These aspects that are not traditionally seen as “working hard” such as, relaxing, resting, stretching and fueling your body, are such an important part of performance.
Therapy as a Starting Line
As you work on shifting your identity beyond athletics, things can feel scary because of the unknown. Identifying your values and how they show up in your life, outside of mile times helps build self-esteem that is not tied to stats or your body size. Eating disorder therapy helps support not just recovery, but longevity in the sport. It builds injury prevention, mental resilience and enjoyment through a healthier mindset.
When mile times become everything, the joy starts to fade. An eating disorder therapist helps you reframe success and support both mental and physical performance. If you or a loved one are a runner and struggling with obsessive thoughts around training, food or body image, consider reaching out for eating disorder therapy in Cherry Hill, NJ. At Serendipity Counseling Services, we strive towards balance in both physical and mental health, as well as longevity as a runner.
Other Services at Serendipity Counseling in Cherry Hill, NJ
In addition to supporting runners through eating disorder therapy in Cherry Hill, NJ, Serendipity works to fight diet culture and perfectionism. This is done through public speaking events with teams and other providers. I also lead a virtual Retired Athlete Support Group. This is for any athlete that feels lost as they navigate retirement due to injury, recovery or graduation. To get started, following these steps:
Schedule a free consultation call with Kate Ringwood, licensed eating disorder therapist.
Start exploring how your connection to the numbers plays a role in your relationship with running.
Continue your journey to balance and joy in running again!
About the Author: An Eating Disorder Therapist for Athletes
Kate Ringwood, LPC is the owner and therapist at Serendipity Counseling Services. She offers a unique perspective within the therapy room in both eating disorders and athletic performance. As a competitive collegiate athlete, Kate brings her own athlete experience. She is here to use her voice in standing up to perfectionism, diet culture and performance myths in order to guide others towards balance and joy within their sport.
