Sophia Harris, from Leeds, felt "all-consumed" by her eating disorders - but now she's thriving as a successful nutritionist and food relationship coach.
Her experience with anorexia and bulimia gave her an understanding of disordered behaviours around food, which she now uses to coach clients with her business Apollo Nutrition.
Her experience with anorexia and bulimia gave her an understanding of disordered behaviours around food, which she now uses to coach clients with her business Apollo Nutrition.
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00:00 Yeah, so my name is Sophia Harris and I am a nutritionist and a food relationship coach.
00:07 So for years when I was younger I struggled with my own food relationship and when I'd done quite a lot of work to fix my relationship with food and make progress,
00:17 I realised that there was a big gap within the fitness industry and so many people went round and round in circles with the health and fitness goals because of how they felt about food,
00:27 because of their behaviours and habits with food and I knew that if I could support people to delve into those things,
00:35 then we'd be able to create long-term, sustainable, healthy change.
00:39 I think it's important to combine personal experiences with qualifications and education,
00:46 so I am an evidence-based coach which means that all of the techniques I use with my clients are based on the evidence and the research that we have,
00:54 but because I've had my own struggles myself, I think I am more empathetic, less judgmental, more understanding
01:03 and those things allow clients to feel more comfortable with me so that they can open up,
01:08 which when people do struggle with food can be very, very difficult because often they think that the way they feel is normal,
01:15 they think the behaviours and habits they have with food are something that they have to put up with and it's just, you know, it's what everybody does and it's not a big deal,
01:23 but when they start delving into things deeper, they realise how many other areas of their life it does impact.
01:29 So using my qualifications and experience alongside my own personal issues that I had with food years ago,
01:38 I think all of those things combined means that I can just support my clients in the best way.
01:42 When I was 14, I was diagnosed with anorexia and ended up in hospital having lots of treatment, lots of therapy.
01:50 That then developed into binge eating, which developed into bulimia.
01:54 And then I went round in this cycle for about 10 years from the age of 14 to 24 with various different eating disorders,
02:01 quite serious mental health struggles. I had obsessions with exercise, I had problems with binge drinking,
02:07 so lots of unhealthy habits, very self-destructive.
02:13 In the last couple of years, I've been diagnosed with ADHD, so I know that that played a big part in a lot of the issues that I had.
02:24 And yeah, all of that sort of came to a head and got to a point where I realised that there had to be more to life
02:30 than constantly obsessing about food and worrying about the shape and size of my body.
02:35 I think with social media the way it is and social media usage rising, we've got AI robots now that aren't even real people.
02:45 We see on social media this constant image of perfection.
02:50 And I think for young people growing up, being exposed to that with the media the way it is as well,
02:55 and societal expectations of what especially women should look like, and body shapes and sizes.
03:02 There's a massive thin ideal within our society where being thin and being lean is praised above anything else.
03:10 And I think that combined with all of the issues we see on social media,
03:15 so editing and unrealistic expectations, and so many people in the fitness industry have disordered relationships with food themselves,
03:25 but they are portraying this fit and healthy lifestyle that the reality is very different to what we see online.
03:33 So I think that's going to be something that's very difficult for young people.
03:37 I've done quite a bit of work in schools before, which I love doing,
03:40 and some of the conversations I've had with children as young as nine about them wanting to know about dieting and calories.
03:47 It's just really scary that children are exposed to all of this stuff from such a young age.
03:54 So yeah, I think it's very, very challenging for them.