I Fasted For Eight Years. I've Done My Time.I Fasted For Eight Years. I've Done My Time.
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook talks with nurse and endurance athlete Paige Kelly about her eight-year struggle with anorexia, PTSD, and body image. They discuss nervous system regulation, food, trauma and the small, practical steps that helped Paige build a safer, more connected life in recovery.
58:58•6 Oct 2026
Eight Years of Fasting, Ironman Grit and Learning to Trust the Body Again
Episode Overview
- Treatment that focuses only on weight numbers can miss the underlying reasons a person is using an eating disorder to cope.
- Food can become a tool to force the body into "rest and digest" when someone doesn’t know how to calm their nervous system in other ways.
- Questioning automatic "I should" thoughts helps separate inherited beliefs from what truly fits the current version of yourself.
- Body scans, naming emotions gently and noticing small things you like about your body or environment can soften harsh self-judgement.
- Nature, meditation and keeping tiny promises to yourself are practical ways to rebuild trust with the body after trauma and addiction.
“I’ve fasted for eight years. I’ve done my time.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of pain, grit and hard-won healing. This conversation on **I Love Being Sober** brings together host Tim Westbrook and guest Paige Kelly, a registered nurse and former Ironman athlete whose story around anorexia and recovery is anything but typical.
Paige shares how, at just thirteen, she consciously chose anorexia as "my way out of the world" and told her parents, "I'll be dead by the time I'm 16." Treatment focused on the number on the scale, not on why she was starving herself.
She explains the difference between an eating disorder and disordered eating, tying both to the nervous system and how many people use food to force themselves into "rest and digest" when they don’t know how to relax any other way. You’ll hear Paige joke, "I’ve fasted for eight years. I’ve done my time," as she talks about the modern obsession with intermittent fasting and why, for her, certain kinds of fasting can feel like a PTSD trigger.
She describes rebuilding her health, becoming an endurance athlete, going 10:07 in an Ironman, and then learning a second time how to live in a body that had been pushed too far. The episode digs into body image, stored emotions, and how trauma can turn sensitivity into exhaustion.
Paige walks through practical tools: body scans, naming emotions as "sadness is here" instead of "I am sad," questioning the "I should" thoughts, and using nature, meditation and tiny promises to rebuild trust with yourself. She also speaks candidly about an abusive marriage, PTSD, and why changing identity and environment were non-negotiable parts of her recovery.
If you’ve ever felt at war with your body, food or your own thoughts, this raw and honest chat might help you ask: what if my mind and body are actually trying to help me, and I just need someone to show me how to listen?
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