My name is Tim McComsey. I’m a registered Dietitian, Personal Trainer, Entrepreneur, and I recovered from bulimia. This is my success story into the world of fitness and nutrition.
Sports, health, and expectations were on the top of my daily regime starting at a young age. I excelled in elite soccer, by the age of 13 I traveled across the US, and by 16 the pressures of being the best and giving my best within a highly competitive sport, my life changed forever.
High School Days
As a freshman in high school I continued playing varsity soccer, excelling at first, but my obsession with being the best started to control my mind. I began lifting weights with my older brother and was immediately hooked. Hooked on the euphoric release of feeling good, but mentally hooked on the desire to get stronger, bigger, leaner, and look better. I placed high expectations upon myself to once again, be the best physically. However, this expectation of myself didn’t happen. Not only didn’t it happen, but I propelled myself down an obsessive path in life.
I thought I knew what I was doing at first. I figured if I was going to spend my time in the high school gym I was going to learn what I needed to eat to become that stronger, leaner, better looking guy I wanted to be. My diet at this phase was considered healthy. I stayed away from pizza and burgers, white carbohydrates, unhealthy fats, and high sugar foods. My diet was unbalanced but I wanted to be the Tim McComsey who didn’t let others down. The Tim McComsey who was one of the best varsity soccer player my high school ever knew. I wanted to please my coaches, my family, my friends, and myself but there wasn’t enough Tim McComsey to go around. I was exhausted, tired, irritable, depressed, and my relationships with all these people I was trying to impress were already being effected. And I was only in the beginning phases of a 7 year battle with myself.
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By junior year, my obsession with food and health continued to pave the way to becoming a bulimic without even knowing it. But at this point, just the effects of over-training and under-eating were showing. Our varsity soccer team won the state title, but I only played well enough to score one goal. It was the winning goal, but all I could think about was how I let everyone down. I let myself down. My desired potential was still unmet. I was slower, smaller, and continued to be tired, and depressed. All those people I was trying to impress noticed something was wrong. I wasn’t “The Great Tim McComsey” at all. I was a failure in my mind.
My family and friends at this point in my life started to confront me about my eating habits. Everyone was noticing I wasn’t eating enough to sustain myself, especially in the world of sports and athletics. Every confrontation just made me feel worse. My dad took me to a dietitian, but I was too oblivious to hear what she was saying. I was in my own world and thought I was doing everything right.
College Days
I was excited as I head off to college. My goal was to learn and teach everything I could about fitness and nutrition. But the battle within me and my path to this disease peaked by sophomore year. I was now binge eating. I started with some of the classic signs of bulimia. I was maintaining my body weight, but binging and purging became my obsession during the night. I was secretive, pale, my throat was sore, and heartburn was horrible. I continued being tired, and I felt ashamed. I was ashamed of myself for my own actions, but I was also ashamed because I was being a hypocrite. I was now training and teaching clients to treat their bodies right, how to eat, and how to work out effectively, but who was I? I was a bulimic.
I needed to make a drastic change. I knew I couldn’t continue down this destructive path anymore. I started to make small goals for myself. Just getting through one meal at a time was my start. I would go a few days where I thought I recovered from bulimia but then relapse. But, my willpower started to increase. I was starting to make the changes within myself, goal by goal; day by day. By the time college came to an end, I was going multiple days days without purging. I started to lose track of time because physically I was becoming more energetic, I slept better, my throat wasn’t hurting, my heartburn resided. I was more alive. My bulimic addiction was powerful, but to have a sense of feeling alive again was more powerful. I started to allow others back into my life and that was more amazing to me. I was starting to become the Tim McComsey I was proud of.
Staying Strong
I’m 7 years removed from being an active bulimic. I can officially say I recovered from bulimia. I have trained my mind and body down a new path in life. I’ve learned through my recovery that I don’t need to run or workout hours a day. I just need balance. I have now structured my life around “Less in More” because to me, finding the balance of working out and eating healthy, with moderation, will give you the tools to be the most healthy you can be. You can train your body to work for you, and not against you.
My health and helping others is the most important reason why I continue to workout and stay healthy. My story and experiences gave me the tools I needed to now counsel others to live up to their potential. I feel it is crucial to find out who we are and create balance in our lives so we can live it to the fullest. Comparing and competing with others can pave a toxic path.
Today I run Trym Fit where I offer personal training and nutritional counseling to help others discover the best possible version of themselves. I am the lead fitness and nutrition expert for SunWarrior, a plant based supplemental company in Utah, and I am finally the Tim McComsey I always knew I could be.
