112 {Holly Harris} A world class athlete's debilitating health conditions

Trigger warning: This episode discusses eating disorders

Eating disorders are something we are still coming to understand as a society, and one of the things many of us don’t realise is that they can really affect anyone. Even an athlete, who has to be healthy to compete can find themselves with a disordered style of eating.

That is exactly what happened to Holly Harris, who quickly experienced the many different ways an eating disorder could effect her health and her life.

Holly has been a 6 x Australian Champion in multiple disciplines including XCM, XCO and Gravel and has represented Australia all over the world at world championships, world cups and world tour events. There are too many to fit in here but a few are:

2023 Australian 24hr Championships 2nd Elite Women

2022 Elite Women National Gravel Champion

2019 Otway Odyssey Elite Women Winner (One of Australia’s hardest MTB Marathons)

2018 Cape to Cape Elite Women Winner (One of Australia’s most prestigious races)

2017 Runner up Des Femme Grafton to Inverell (Females raced the same course as the Males).

In this episode Holly shares:

• How she got into cycling
• How her racing career progressed
• The peaks of racing that she achieved
• What it was like as a racer when covid caused the industry to stop
• The impact her eating disorder had on her personal life
• The extended health problems that the eating disorder caused
• How she got to a place where she realised what was going on
• What her worst day looked like
• What her road to recovery looked like
• Why she didn’t tell people publicly
• How her chronic fatigue hit and changed things
• The challenge of having doctors tell her nothing was wrong when she knew there was
• The self talk and negative stories she was telling herself and how she managed it
• The exciting things that are coming up for her now

Key Quotes

“I didn’t realise at the time what an impact it was making on my life but now looking back and being healthy I realise how much it took away from my life and from me.”

“I couldn’t listen to my family or my friends. I’d get really defensive about it. I think it really hurt a of my friendships.”

More about

You can follow Holly’s journey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollyharris_7/

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If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

For her other business you can find it through the websites:www.altitudefitnessarmidale.com.au

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