BBC London recently interviewed me about my work as a Body Confidence Coach helping others to overcome the challenges I faced. Here’s the video and transcript of the interview. See the video below or on the BBC website at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-61927941.
Transcript from video
I’m Nicola, I used to have non-purging bulimia and disordered eating and I’m now a body confidence coach. I help people make peace with their body and food.
My physical symptoms when I was suffering with an eating disorder was having a compulsion to exercise. So if I had food that I considered bad or too much in quantity, I would have this urge. I wanted to expend the calories that I had consumed, I would run. For me, running was the thing that burned the most calories.
Identify your underlying trauma
There is something that is underlying the eating disorder. I had experienced my own trauma, I was raped at 14. As many people know it’s about control. It could be you’re gaining control because in another area of your life you’re not in control. So we often judge people’s behaviour and judge the person when actually it’s what’s going on underneath and for most people it goes back to trauma.
When I was alone I was binge eating. I used to say horrible things to myself like, ‘You’re disgusting, you’re a fat pig, you’re ugly’. I really hated myself.
I just decided overnight that I was going to try to love my body. I literally spent 95% of my brain hating myself, focused on my food, exercise and everything else, that I thought, ‘What if I spent 95% of my brain trying to do the opposite’. And then I decided I want to lead a new example and show a new path that you can be fit and healthy and it doesn’t have to be about the way you look.
Feel good in your body
I help people feel good in their bodies using fitness and mindset. Now that I’m helping others, for example online when I have people all over the country in fact even abroad, I feel like I’m on purpose. Like everything that I’ve been through led me to here. I don’t want other people to go through those experiences. I want to be that voice that I was looking for, for someone else.
If you’re struggling with food and body image issues, I would love for you to ask yourself, why? It’s all about loving ourselves. Finding who we are and finding some purpose and something you can do and achieve in the world, rather than what you look like.
