00:00 Lily Mooney looks forward to her weekly outings with her local running group, but she admits
00:06 her relationship with exercise hasn't always been this positive.
00:10 I did then start to use running and exercise in general as a way of controlling my guilty
00:19 feelings when it came to eating.
00:21 Lily developed an unhealthy relationship with food when she was 12, and she intensified
00:26 her exercise routine through her teenage years, masking an underlying eating disorder.
00:31 When I was diagnosed with anorexia, I wasn't allowed to run anymore, and I used to just
00:37 go out and walk for hours and just do these bizarre exercises in secret.
00:44 People who are exercise dependent are four times more likely also to experience an eating
00:49 disorder compared to the general population.
00:52 But experts are worried those figures will only worsen with the increased use of social
00:56 media, which often glorifies overtraining.
01:00 Social media isn't allowing people the space to actually listen in and tune in to their
01:05 body and do what's right for them and for their health and wellbeing, and obviously
01:10 that's a really dangerous thing.
01:11 After recovering from her eating disorder, Lily began running again.
01:15 While it initially brought back her traumatic past, now she says running, and the community
01:20 that comes with it, plays a big part in maintaining a positive mindset.
01:24 My mum, who I think joined me because she didn't want me to get in any habits of exercising
01:30 obsessively alone again, started to run as well.
01:34 And we really want that relationship with exercise to be that we're actually in charge
01:40 and controlling the exercise, and the exercise isn't controlling us.
01:43 A resilient runner, taking life one step at a time.
01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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