
Rock Chalk Jayhawk…KU…Rock Chalk JAYHAWK KU!
If you don’t know what this is, you haven’t been watching the Final Four Basketball Tournament!
Kansas University (my alma mater) took the Title back last Monday night after 20 years of "almosts".
What does this have to do with Eating Disorders?
A lot!
Here is what you can learn from KU Basketball and Eating Disorders
1. It takes teamwork.
Fighting an Eating Disorder cannot be done alone. It takes a team working together. Fighting an eating disorder is the same. You CANNOT do it alone. You need a team…therapist, psychiatrist, dietician etc.
2. Every little success deserves celebration!
They celebrated every point, every win, and every rebound.
3. Study your opponent!
Do you think the Jayhawks went into each game not knowing what their opponents were planning? No, they studied each team before they played them…then they made a battle plan of attack of how to handle each difficult situation. They were successful because they knew who they were fighting! (I.e.: learn Ed strategies, your triggers, when you feel weakest)
4. Listen to your coach!
Remember when you don’t feel like believing your therapist and or dietician say to yourself, “If I knew how to treat an eating disorder I wouldn’t have an eating disorder!” Listen to your coach!
5. Study the winners!
The Jayhawks coach learned some really cool strategies from other NCAA teams and adopted them as his own. When you had an eating disorder, my guess is you studied people with eating disorders, read articles on weight loss, and maybe even visited pro-Ana sites. So, now study and read up everything that you can on those who have recovered! Put the same energy you put into learning eating disorder tricks into studying those who have recovered! Learn the tricks about recovery…and study the winners!!
6. Every second counts!
Recovery is one step at a time. If you watched the final game…KU took over the game with 10 seconds left! Recovery is one step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time. Sometimes you miss the goals and free throws, sometimes you have to go back into treatment for a tune-up, but that doesn’t mean you don’t get back on the court! You try and try again.
7. Practice practice practice.
No one wins a final four without a lot of practice. Recovering from an eating disorder is not over-night! It takes practice to change thought patterns, to learn new behaviors, to let your body recover, to break up with ED. But it can’t happen without practice!
8. Don’t listen to the negative voices!
Throughout the championship you could turn on any TV or read any article that would clearly speculate and judge players and the team. If a player missed a shot, the commentators were sure to judge it the next day. Lot’s of negative and sometimes positive things written about the players. But, the players couldn’t listen to those voices or the naysayers. They had to turn off the voices of the media and the world and listen to their coach and only their coach.
9. When you fall down, or miss a shot, you get back up again!
Need I say more!
10. Have FUN! You aren’t going to enjoy the destination if you don’t enjoy the journey?
Enjoy each celebration, each step along the way. Recovery is the same, you must celebrate each and every success, each and every time you learn or do something new, and each and every time you get back up again!
Happy Living!
LWB