Thursday, September 4, 2014

American Ninja Warrior

Does anyone else watch this? I know I'm a bit of a lad when it comes to my tv watching habits, but I'm totally obsessed with it. The reason I'm asking if y'all watch it is because on the ep that I watched tonight there is a guy on the episode I'm watching right now that recovered from the depths of ana (m-ana - LOL, manorexia, yes I know I shouldn't joke) because of the show. Basically he saw the show and how the perfect athletic body is strong and capable, so he gained 60lbs of muscle in 6 months. On the face of it, one might say that this is inspirational. But... My thoughts on the matter tend to be a little bit more cynical and the idea that one can recover from going from one extreme (skinny) to another extreme (kick-ass athlete) in that amount of time... Doesn't it sound like 'recovery' to me. But then again, I'm not a shrink, nor do I know him - but knowing what I know about this, I'm cynical. Anyway, judge for yourselves - his name is Brant Axt. This to me is particularly the case because his anorexia stemmed from believing that skinny is the way an athlete is meant to look, then on discovering that an athlete should look differently, he went straight to that extreme. I mean I dunno - am I just being a dick? 

http://minnesotaparkour.com/aotw-brant-axt/ 

https://twitter.com/brantaxt 

What do you guys think?

Peace & Love
Xo Xo

3 comments:

Kay said...

Hmmmm, idk how I feel about this.
I truly believe the mentality is the most important part of EDs, even more than physiological issues.
I have no idea on his mindset, but if he thinks about food and exercise 24/7 and absolutely hates himself, then I'd say he's manorexic.

I don't think your being a dick, it's easy for us ED sufferers to be cynical of people.

I'm gonna look more into his story, now i'm interested!

Unknown said...

If he gained the weight than he would no longer be anorexic. Technically. I would, however, side with you in thinking that he still has issues and hasn't recovered. My first though when you wrote he viewed himself as recovered was to yell, BULLSHIT! ED is not just a physical fight.

BUT, perhaps I am just cynical as well. Who knows?

Emily

P.S. Thank for sharing the story

Sam Lupin said...

60lbs of muscle in 6 months?
yeah, he's on steroids (i may be very cynical. very, very cynical).
the most muscle you can gain in a month is actually very little (about 1-2lbs a month). unless he's Captain America (and even Cap had a bit of a little help...serum anyone?)
in the recovery community, it's mostly people going from "eat nothing at all" to "you must eat healthy all the bloody time or else." because a lot of people clean eat so badly that even though they're stuffed by the end of the day they're gaining .0001 kilos a week. it's absolutely mad. they wouldn't eat anything unhealthy unless they absolutely had to. or the girls that are posting pictures of their salads and say that they're so glad to "be in recovery." i still have loads of food issues, but at least, i'm definitely not in denial about it like a lot of these people that i'm following are. swapping anorexia for orthorexia does not seem like the best solution to combating an ED. that is just the thing. the fixation on food is so strong that even if it's not "oh, don't eat anything at all" it has to morph into something else. for a lot of people, this means eat in a certain way. very few people have gone past that and eat what they actually WANT.

-Sam Lupin