How an Eating Disorder Led to Ellen’s focus on athletes and body image

Ellen Isaac is a full-time physical therapist at the Cleveland Clinic, but her side hustle as a fitness and nutrition coach is where her passion—and her story—align.

Ellen works with athletes, a category she defines as “anyone who loves being active and who wants exercise to be part of their life.” Her clientele includes athletes who are either competitive or recreational, male or female. Ellen guides them on how to fuel their bodies appropriately and also creates workout splits for them.

Ellen’s particular interest is in post-collegiate athletes who, since leaving college, aren’t happy with how they feel in their own skin, or who have struggled with body image issues as she once did.

BODY SHAME AND DISORDERED EATING

“One of my earliest childhood memories is my mom taking me to lunch in the summer,” Ellen recalls. “I was so embarrassed of my legs in shorts that I cried until she turned around so I could change into jeans.

“For at least half of my life, I was so ashamed of the body that I did things that I was ashamed of to try to change it.

“I remember promising friends, ‘I still have tendencies, but I’m way better now,’ and in that same day, I’d store food in my detached garage to try to discourage myself from eating it.

“I’d go to the store to buy my favorite trail mix with the intention of taking a few nuts out of the bag and throwing the rest away. I’d chew food up and spit it out. But they were just ‘tendencies’ I’d say.”

THE COST OF CONFUSING HEALTH TIPS AND DIET CULTURE

“I was a Division I college runner, still struggling with body image. I under-fueled throughout my entire collegiate running career. That lifestyle compromised my performance, my social life, my academic performance, my metabolic functions, and much more.”

Ellen cites the problem is that we think that to look our best, feel our best, and perform our best, we think we need to eat less.

“I spent so many years of my life under-fueling (and underperforming because of it) that I honestly didn’t know anything different anymore. For 10+ years of my life, I was eating *way* less than 1500 calories a day and exercising for well over an hour every day. But I was already unhappy with the way my body looked, so I was scared to try to increase my intake because I figured that the only result that could possibly yield was weight gain.

“I never performed at my best in college because I just didn’t have the energy required. I went out with friends WAY less often than I wanted to because I was afraid of social situations involving calories. I suffered from multiple stress-related bone injuries and hadn’t had my own period since I was 14.

“I was miserable, cold, foggy-brained, tired, always injured, and self-conscious. All the time. But it wasn’t until my second femoral stress fracture, among eight other stress fractures leading up to that moment, that I decided something had to change."

mAKING PEACE WITH HER BODY

“Even though I restricted food the entire time I ran in college, I could never find peace with my own body—even when I lost the weight I thought I needed in order to be happy. During PT school, I still struggled with body image.

I’d already had a go around with several sports dietitians still felt stuck. They’d always give me a meal plan and meal plans made me feel more restrictive because if I didn’t have access to what was on the meal plan, I just didn’t eat. I was scared to deviate from the plan at all.

“Despite my disciplined nature, I just couldn’t handle food-related things on my own, and realized I needed someone to hold me accountable. If it weren’t for my macro coach, Victoria Dunne, I would still be stuck in a cycle of eating 1500 calories or less per day while staying active.

Ellen started working with macros, which in turn, helped her increase my food intake. Her macro coach quite literally changed her life, helping Ellen discover something she became incredibly passionate about: becoming a macro coach.

SLOW GROWTH, SUSTAINABLE CHANGE

“I learned what I now teach my clients: slow, sustainable, change. I saw my body change, grow, and prosper in a way that it never had before. I noticed myself become more interactive with friends, family, patients, and even strangers because I had the energy to do so. I could focus on a single task for more than 10 minutes without my head feeling cloudy. I said “yes” to going out to eat or enjoy a drink with friends—actually ordering what I wanted vs. calorie-counting—because I wasn’t afraid of social situations involving food anymore.

“I was logging runs, day after day, until days turned into months and even a year, which was significant because that was the longest stretch of injury-free running I’d had in years.

And it was the realization that came from all of that—the realization that I was wrong for over a decade of my life. Wrong about the fact that restriction would make me a better runner or that it would make me feel more beautiful or more worthy of love and success. I knew I wasn’t alone in the struggle that brought me to working with macros, and I knew I could show other people in a situation similar to mine that the answer wasn’t restriction.

“As I was healing, I remembered feeling strong, energetic, and beautiful on a consistent basis, which is something I hadn’t felt in my entire adult life, really. I remember feeling excited about the way I looked in my clothes. I had a butt for the first time in my life!

“I teach my clients that food is fuel for doing what they love. Food should be fuel that they ENJOY and get excited about. No food is off limits.”

Ellen has figuratively walked in her clients’ shoes, and her combined skills as a PT are beneficial for injury, rehab, prehab, form critique with exercise, and more.