90: From “Experiment” To Eating Disorder To The Olympics

In this episode of the Female Athlete Nutrition podcast, I speak with Olympian and Team USA skier Hailey Swirbul. We talk about Hailey’s early introduction to adventure sports, her collegiate skiing career, turning professional mid-way through college to join the US ski team, and then making her first Olympic team this year. As well as being a dream come true, competing in the Olympics had its challenges, reminding Hailey that she is more than a skier and how moments outside of skiing can be just as fulfilling and memorable, such as a visit to KFC during the Olympics! Hailey opens up about how a desire to optimize her body composition and go “all in” on skiing in high school fuelled an eating disorder. What started as an “experiment” and a desire to perform better ultimately left Hailey feeling deeply unhappy and totally out of control around food. Hailey shares how this “experiment” back-fired: food was controlling Hailey and her performances suffered too. We discuss how common this downward spiral to disordered eating is, and that Hailey was not alone: a lot of the people we work with at Rise Up Nutrition share similar stories and can resonate with Hailey. We talk about Hailey’s recovery and the importance of admitting to yourself that you are struggling. We discuss the gray area between disordered eating and eating disorders: just because you don’t resonate with having a clinical eating disorder doesn’t mean that you can’t also struggle with nutrition and improve your relationship with food. Hailey speaks to some of the barriers to recovery, getting help with disordered eating and working with a therapist. We emphasize that recovery is a continuous journey without an end date; over time, by consistently practicing healthy habits mindsets can change and food can become less controlling.  Hailey leaves listeners with the advice to be more patient and self-accepting: bad body image days, guilt and other negative thoughts around food will arise, but it’s important to trust in our bodies and respect our intuition. Hailey highlights how there is space for all foods in our diets, a philosophy we promote with our “all foods fit” motto at Rise Up Nutrition, regardless of whether we are exercising or not. Finally, we touch on Hailey’s goals for the future and explore how she is now embracing a more flexible outlook on what’s to come. Find Hailey online at https://haileyswirbul.com/  Hailey’s Official Bio: Hailey Swirbul is from Colorado but currently lives in Anchorage, Alaska. She loves spending time moving outdoors whether it be backpacking, biking, backcountry skiing, cross country skiing, or packrafting! Hailey has loved endurance sports since she was a kid, and made it a goal to reach the highest level she could within cross country skiing. She has raced on the World Cup stage for 3 winter seasons and attended her first Olympics at Beijing 2022. Hailey has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Alaska Anchorage and works part time doing design and construction for Alaska State Parks. Learn more about Lindsey's Services and the Team at Rise Up Nutrition: www.riseupnutritionrun.com Worried that you have RED-S? Curious to know how we could help or how you can recover fast?! Download the RED-S Recovery Race & see how you place for more support:www.riseupnutritionrun.com/reds