Freaky Eaters (2007) s03e03 Episode Script
Addicted to Beans and Chips
WOMAN: 'For 26-year-old | Surrey lad Tom Bull, life is all about friends, | fun and football.
' (ALL TALK AT ONCE) 'But behind his super-fit | sportsman exterior, Tom hides an embarrassing secret - he's addicted to beans and chips.
Nothing else will do.
' I don't know why or how I started | eating baked beans and chips.
I just remember that's all | I've ever really eaten.
That's been my main meal every day.
'And he washes it all down daily with | an incredible four pints of milk.
Anything else is strictly | out of bounds.
' Don't! (MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY) The thought of eating other foods scares the life out of me, | to be honest.
'Helping Tom to beat the beans will | be nutritionist Charlotte Watts and psychologist Felix Economakis.
Over the next four weeks, they'll | give him just the push he needs' (LAUGHS) '.
.
make him see his dire diet's | not funny anymore' I'd actually like you to do | a very quick stand-up routine.
No way! '.
.
force him to confront | some home truths' I have to grow up and | start doing things for myself.
You've come to that conclusion | yourself? No, I come to that | conclusion with help.
'.
.
and encourage him to face the | foods he's spent a lifetime avoiding.
But after 26 years of freaky eating, | it's not gonna be easy.
' (COUGHS AND RETCHES) THEME MUSIC ROCK MUSIC '26-year-old Tom Bull | is a single bloke living at home with his mum and dad, | Jill and Simon.
He has a successful career as | an IT consultant and is footy mad, playing at least four times a week.
But one thing he's not | so passionate about is food.
Tom has spent his life | surviving on a bizarre diet of nothing but beans and chips.
And even Tom's beloved beans and | chips must conform to strange rules.
' I like to keep 'em separate.
I don't really like it | with the beans touching the chips.
Like, the chips would all be | covered in the beans juice.
'When he can't get hold of | his mainstays, he fills up on litres of milk' Probably have about | two of these a day.
'.
.
and yet more potatoes.
' Got all my crisps in here.
| I eat about eight bags a day.
'Fruit and veg don't get a look-in.
' What about the salad? | No thanks.
I don't want to eat leaves.
When someone says, "Why | don't you try this instead?", I just think, "No"!", | cos last time I tried something I felt all uncomfortable, hot, started sweating | and sort of panicking and just feeling really nervous.
'Having never moved on | from his childhood diet means Tom still | even eats like a child.
' 26 years old, I should know how | to use a knife and fork properly, but I only need a fork for my | baked beans and a fork for my chips.
'And if that wasn't bad enough, | even chewing is a struggle.
' I've tried chewing beans before, | but it doesn't feel natural to me, so I just swallow them.
I can't help it.
I put them in my | mouth, in they go, and they're gone.
Sound like a right pig.
'Tom's freaky eating started | when he was a baby and refused to eat most solid foods.
' It was from milk, basically, | to things like a packet of Skips, and then beans.
'Tom has two younger sisters | who grew up eating a normal diet, but his parents fought a losing | battle when it came to Tom.
' I mean, I remember | a few traumas at the table, having to try and encourage him | to eat some different foods, but it just never happened.
It isn't the fact that he started eating meat or cheese | or anything like that.
He's NEVER started.
| He's NEVER tasted those things.
'Growing up, even Christmas | and birthdays had to be chips.
' We'll all sit down | and have a Christmas meal, and he'll sit there | with his happy chips.
'Tom may be 26, but his mum | still looks after her little boy.
' I always make sure that | in the house, we have the foods that he will eat.
'But outside the home, | his mates are less supportive.
' TOM: You just feel like | everybody's looking at you, and to be out and feel like | that is not comfortable.
And what can I get for? Can I just have | a side order of fries, please? Freak! 'It's even started to | affect his work, forcing him to lie to get out of | professional lunches with clients.
' I make up stories all the time.
When people say, "Should | we go and get some lunch?", I'll say, "I'm not really hungry.
" "I've been ill," I've said before.
And I'll be starving, but I'll | put it off till the end of the day when I know I can get | something I want to eat.
'At mealtimes, it's not just food | he's uncomfortable around, preferring to eat alone, and his freaky eating is taking | its toll on those closest to him.
' When we want to go out for | special occasions with the family, we have to make provision for Tom | or just not invite him.
It would be lovely for us all to be | able to just go out and eat together and not have that horrible feeling - | for me - because (BREATHES SHAKILY AND SIGHS) | Oh, sorry.
I'm sorry.
| I can't do that bit.
Sorry.
'It's make or break time for Tom.
' I want to do it | for my health reasons.
I want to do it for my friends | and my family.
I want to see | what I'm missing out on, and I want to be able to enjoy | all these situations where you should be able to eat.
'It's day one.
Felix and Charlotte | have invited Tom to London to kickstart | his battle of the beans.
' Hey, Tom.
| Hey, Felix.
Nice to meet you.
Hello.
Charlotte - hello.
Hi, Charlotte.
You all right? | Yeah, good.
How you doing so far? | Bit nervous.
Yeah? Well, it's natural | to have some nerves.
That's to be expected, isn't it? | But you're in safe hands.
Are you ready? | Think I am, yeah.
OK, let's go.
| OK.
SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Now, we're looking to help you | change the habits of 26 years here.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Yeah, I know.
| So, we'll leave you to watch this.
And then we'll come back | and have a chat to you, OK? Yeah, sure.
| Cheers.
'Tom begins by listening to | a few home truths from his fearful family and friends.
' Tom, we're all really proud of you | for taking this first step.
It would be nice if you could | enjoy a meal with us and actually enjoy | the time we spend together and not have to worry about | running off as soon as you can.
The fact of the matter is, if you | carry on eating chips and beans like you do, it can't | be healthy for you.
I mean, we can tell that | by the fact that you take these knocks | and you get really badly bruised.
And, to be quite honest | with you, mate, I'd like to know you | for many years to come.
We really think this is a chance | for you to actually change now.
You're 26.
If it's not gonna happen now, | I don't think it ever will.
And we do worry about your health, and we do want you | to experience other things.
We find it very difficult sometimes | to work things around you.
I'm sure once | you've got over that problem, we can share a lot more as a family.
PROJECTOR WHIRRS Hello.
How was that for you? It's quite powerful, | isn't it, really? Yeah, I thought so.
I thought your dad | was particularly moving in there.
Yeah, my dad was a bit He's never really said | anything like that to me, whereas my mum's like that | all the time, and I think that's the thing that got me feeling a bit awkward | about it, or upset about it.
Men don't always know | how to express it, do they? But it doesn't mean | they don't feel it.
No, I know, yeah.
So, what can you take | from what you've seen today, Tom, that will help you down the line? Like, everything that | people have just said then.
They care about me and they | want me to be there, you know? Like, one of my friends, Daniel, | just said then, you know, "I want to spend | many more years with you," and when people say it like that, | you realise, like, how muchhow much it affects them.
So, if you do want to change, we need | to start by really looking your diet and really work out | where we can go from here.
Are you ready? | Ready, yeah.
OK, let's go.
| OK.
'But will facing up to | the stark reality of his diet be enough to make him change?' (CHUCKLES) Look at all this.
Yeah.
There's a lot, isn't there? You've been eating | chips, beans and milk day in, day out | for the last 26 years.
It's all the same, isn't it? | It's like a little kid's party.
Tom, you're a free man.
| Yeah.
You've got a choice.
And this is | what you're taking into your body.
It's prettywell, | disgusting, really.
Yeah.
POWERFUL MUSIC 'If that's not bad enough, there's still Tom's | greasy crisp habit to look at.
' You eat eight packets a day? | Yeah.
That's over 3,000 packets a year.
That's over 22,000 grams of fat as | represented by the lard over there.
Eugh.
| Yeah.
Mmm.
That presents | a real heart disease risk.
It's concerning, really, | when you talk about how much fat and everything | that I'm putting through my body, and especially when you start | talking about my heart.
It really does make you worry.
And I think just because | this is what I do every day, I don't think about the impact | what it's gonna have long-term.
Yeah.
And then, when you | put it all out in front of you, you just think, | "God, that's a lot of junk.
" Yeah.
So, what we need to know from you - so that we can help you | work towards this - is what you want to achieve | at the end of the four weeks.
I'd like to get onto | more healthier food, obviously.
OK.
There's a very specific goal | that we're gonna aim towards.
You're gonna sit down with your | family and have a varied meal.
Yeah.
| Good.
And how strongly are you | committed to that goal right now? More than ever, | standing around all of this.
SCARY MUSIC The health aspect seemed to be | the most shocking aspect for him, and that's gonna work | really well for me, but it's also incredibly clear | that he knows nothing about food, and he wants to be educated.
So it's all positive, but it's clear | he's got a really long way to go.
'As Tom heads back to Surrey, the day | has given him food for thought.
' 22,000 grams worth of fat | that goes into my body a year is just disgusting.
That's been going on for 26 years.
Just made me realise how bad | what bad shape my body must be in, even though I exercise a lot, and it made me realise how much I've | got to work on changing my diet.
'He's not the only one | who thinks it's time for a change, as Tom gets a grilling on his return | home from friend JP and his mum.
' I know how much everyone cares, | so like that, and I know how much | it affects everybody and how they want me to change | for my health reasons.
Do you, though? Do you know that? Because we don't know | whether you actually Yeah, I do know.
| .
.
take that on board.
No-one's ever actually | told you how they feel, have they, really, deep down? No.
| None of us have.
Me, Adam, Dan - none of us No, you always say, | "I'd like you to eat," yeah.
We've said it, and then it's all | been, like, sort of brushed off.
Now you've sat there | and you've watched that and you know how we all feel, you know, really, | deep down seriousness, that, you know, it's gotta change, | really, hasn't it? Yeah, and then with thatI'd say | that and seeing all that food and how much of that fat, and how | much problems it could cause me Clog up your arteries.
| Yeah.
And when I was talking to her, | like, off the camera, like, when we were just | standing there chatting, my armshands were | going all pink again.
Like, you know, sometimes | they go purply-pink? She was explaining, | you know, it's bad liver, not through drinking | or anything like that, through all the fat in my diet.
My body's toxicated, | so it's trying to clear out through, like, sweat or circulation.
Do you think the next step's | gonna be easier? No, I don't think it's gonna be | easier, but I think it's achievable.
Good.
I feel like I canI can do it now.
'The root of Tom's eating problem | remains a mystery to his family.
Today, Felix will be | doing some psychological digging to see what secrets | his past might hold.
' What's your earliest possible memory | with regards to eating this way? I don't ever remember | eating anything different.
It's always been milk | and then chips, baked beans.
I don't remember | eating baby food, ever.
And your mum | can't shed any light on it? She never said once you had | a severe reaction, or you threw up? No, there's no reaction.
She just said it was difficult to | move me through the different food.
And there's nothing else | back there you can think, "Oh, well, you see, | I won't like that food.
" "I can't like it" because of some other kind of worry | or tension around it? OK.
I don't know what it is | that stops me.
All right.
But I know that when food does come | out, I dismiss it straightaway.
Right.
And just tell me a little bit about how your family has sort of | reacted to you historically.
So at some point they've thought you're a young kid, | you'll grow out of it.
I think .
.
I'm Mum's only boy.
Mmm.
And I think that's | quite obvious sometimes.
How? | She lets me get away with murder.
Does she? | Well, yeah.
NARRATOR: 'With Tom drawing blanks | round his eating memories, Felix moves on to football.
Age 13, Tom achieved | every boy's dream when he was scouted by professional | football club Crystal Palace.
However, a knee problem at 16 | forced him to take time out.
A year later, Tom was able | to return to football, but he chose to join | a local club with friends where he felt more comfortable.
' When did you start | playing football again? Think I was | 17-and-a-half, about 17.
So, you only stopped for a year? Year and a bit, yeah.
Weren't they interested | in you trying again when you? No, cos I don't think I would have | been good enough then.
And also How do you know that? Well, I would have missed | quite a bit of important time out.
But I didn't think I personally | would have been good enough.
And I was enjoying it where I was, | I suppose, with my friends.
So, no-oneno external authority | told you, you know, "Sorry, you're past it, | you've missed?" No, no, no.
I don't think II don't | think I believed in myself anymore.
And I justI think I was | maybe worried about failing again.
Again, compared to what? Not doing it the first time round.
Well, that kind of fear, | that fear needs to be strong to stop you doing a dream | when you had a real chance to do it, and what is that fear? You said fear of failure - | is it that? Is it something else? I don't know.
Maybe I accepted it and just thought, "This is good enough for me | where I am now.
" I don't know.
"This is good enough for me | where I am now"? It's a bit like food.
| Yeah, maybe.
"Well, I could have better, | but this is good enough for me.
" Maybe I didn't think about | how much better it could be again.
Yeah.
Maybe I just went, "I'm enjoying | this.
Let's just keep enjoying this.
" For my part, there's still | quite a lot of unanswered questions.
Yeah.
So I look forward to us | working together again and filling more pieces | of this puzzle.
Yeah, sure.
| OK.
Tom's problems with food | seem to have stemmed from fairly typical childhood | fussy eating behaviour, but now, as an adult, he's stuck | in these childhood patterns and he's using food as a way of avoiding his adult | insecurities and fears.
So I need to look at | the origins of Tom's fears and try to find more clues as | to how his eating problems started.
' It's very difficult | when people are asking you, "How do you think you felt | back then?" I can't remember what I was like when | I was five and what I was thinking, or when I was three, so trying to get into my head | when I was three years old to work out why I'm like I am now, | I found it very difficult.
For me, I don't need clarification to say, "Oh, it was that | that stopped you.
" I just need to know how to deal with | getting over my fear of eating.
'Charlotte wants Tom to start eating | a new, healthier diet, so her first challenge to him | is to ditch the crisps.
' Oh, I never thought | I'd do this.
(CHUCKLES) Say goodbye to my crisps.
(LAUGHS) I love my crisps, and I've got all | my favourite ones in here as well! I want to cry! This was actually the only thing | that I enjoyed eating.
I know it's not good for you, but .
.
it was the nicest bit of the day.
'Tom will need all his determination if he's to get through | his next session with Charlotte.
Today, he'll have to face a table full of food | he has never tried before.
' The fact that Tom | goes days without food and skips many, many meals | and exercise an enormous amount means that he really is | almost in famine mode.
His body's in crisis.
So I need to see | what his relationship is when presented with new foods | so that I can start the process.
'It'll be a big challenge | to get Tom to try anything.
' This is the first big step, really, because I need to make sure | that I can eat something, otherwise I'm going to feel like | I'm not going to progress.
So, it's the food part.
The worst part.
What has stopped you | trying new foods in the past? Every time I think | I'm gonna try something, I think, "Oh, it's gonna | make me feel sick.
" Do you mean feel sick, | or actually vomit? Oh, no.
I feel sick NOW.
| Right, just being? Might be butterflies.
| Yeah.
And knowing that | I'm gonna try something, cos I AM gonna try something, so You are? You definitely have this | "I'm ready now"? I'm ready to start, try.
Do you want to pick up some | of the cucumber to start with then? OK.
Do you want me to use a fork? | Yeah.
(CHUCKLES) That's | another thing for me.
NARRATOR: 'After a lifetime | of eating beans and chips, Tom has never had to | use a knife and fork together, so after a crash course, | it's back to the food.
' So, you put it down | and cut with the knife.
Just a little bit.
Cos I'm gonna | have to eat this, aren't I? Yep.
(CHUCKLES) Well anticipated.
OK.
(GULPS) So, that looked hard.
| Yeah, it was quite hard.
Your face was really kind of | All the muscles were Yeah, going | all over the place, yeah.
But I kept chewing and chewing.
I was thinking, | "Now, right now, swallow.
" And it was just | sort of getting stuck there.
So, so much, this is about | not the taste.
It's the | No.
I guess it's the chewing, isn't it? I've never thought of it, | like, this way, really.
Should we go to the tomato? OK.
| Work up to it how you want.
I'll take it with the knife, | cos I'm shaking.
You're shaking? | Yeah, cosI'm nervous.
'It's a result for Tom and Charlotte.
For the first time ever, | he's eating new food, but it's still only baby bites.
' Oh, this doesn't look like | it's gonna be fun at all.
Get it on the fork.
Oh.
You are taking | incredibly small mouthfuls.
I would go like this.
I would golike that, | a little bit of that, and I'd probably have a bit of that, | and I'd get that, and then Yeah.
It's a whole mouthful, | isn't it? That's a decent (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) Yeah.
And what I'm doing | is, like, baby sizes, baby steps.
'Before he leaves, | Charlotte wants him to try some of the more challenging foods.
' The fish, to me, is | would be harder for me to try than the chicken, | and the chicken's a no.
The fish is a no-no.
(LAUGHS) | Whoa.
That's broccoli, isn't it? | That's broccoli.
Everyone keeps telling me how good | broccoli is, but they all hate it.
SCARY MUSIC Oh.
What bit should I eat, though? Well, it's usually good to eat a bit of the stalks | and the leaves at the same time.
Oh, I can't do that much.
| Justabout that much is all.
(RETCHES) Eugh.
I'll keep going.
No.
That was too much for me.
Well done, though.
Oh, it's too much in my mouth.
Yeah, I think the reason | I tried stuff today was cos she didn't let me do all | the normal things that I would do, like start judging it.
I've just taken baby bites | of different foods today.
I need to be taking | platefuls of that, or having a decent portion of that, so, a million miles away from where | I need to be, or where I want to be.
LAID-BACK MUSIC 'Tom has been eating | so little up till now, he has been virtually | starving his body.
Charlotte wants him | to work up to three regular meals, starting with breakfast.
' "Try a bowl of whole wheat cereal, some wholemeal toast, | muesli or porridge.
All right.
This is gonna | be hard work.
That's banana, so I'll | try and not look at that bit.
'But after the taster table, | cereal is easier than expected.
' It's all right.
Not bad.
26 years of me saying | I'm not gonna try it and not even attempting it | cos I thought I was gonna be sick - now I know I'm not gonna be sick, I'm quite willing to try food, | so it's quite exciting.
'Today, Tom will meet | Dr Pixie McKenna, a GP with a special interest | in eating disorders.
' What Dr Pixie can provide today is exactly the extent | of what his diet is doing to him and how he needs to change that, and I think he needs those specifics | to motivate him.
'Although sports-mad Tom | seems super-fit, his restrictive diet means | he suffers from easy bruising, shaky hands and bad circulation.
Dr Pixie has run medical tests on Tom | and has the shocking results.
' When we looked at your blood, you've got some problems | with your blood cells.
You've got big, fat red blood cells.
In fact, you've got the red blood | cells of an alcoholic Oh, right, OK.
.
.
someone who lives on | a really, really poor diet and only gets their calories | from alcohol.
Yeah.
'Although Tom only drinks moderately, his diet is wreaking havoc | with his blood cells, and therefore his bone marrow.
' This is a nice, healthy | bone marrow of a cow.
You're just not putting | the right stuff into the recipe.
If this stops working, | you're in trouble.
'Bone marrow produces red and | white blood cells and platelets.
Healthy red blood cells are essential because they carry oxygen around | the body and give you energy.
For Tom to improve | his fat red blood cells, he needs to eat red meat, | leafy greens and citrus fruits.
' Adding in the fact there's absolutely no vitamin C | in his diet at all, and that all adds to easy bruising, because your ability | for your veins to be integral and continually repairing themselves | is very much compromised.
'Another potential problem | is Tom's habit of swallowing | his baked beans whole, which could affect | his digestive system.
' As a long-term scenario, | that's gonna cause damage.
It's gonna cause inflammation in | your oesophagus, in your food pipe.
Then you're passing all this | undigested stuff into your gut, so it's putting pressure | on the muscle walls here.
The muscles are gonna become weaker because they've got | too much work to do, and they're gonna start to bulge, and you'll become very unwell with stomach pain, | diarrhoea, temperature.
Yeah, I don't really want | all them, do I? The body's incredibly adaptive, | but it needs certain fuels You need to give it a chance, yeah.
| .
.
and nutrients to do that.
Are you gonna give it a shot? | I'm going to give it a shot.
Good.
I've always sort of known that | what I'm doing's not good for me, but I've never really known | the effects.
Like, I have the, like, little things | like hand shake and stuff, and I think, "Well, it's only | my hands shaking," but when the doctor explains | what it all relates to and shows you, like, the insides and | what's gonna happen in the future, it makes more sense and it makes you | think, "Cor, got to do it now.
" NARRATOR: 'To help Tom change, more clues about the cause | of his eating problems are needed.
' (BOTH EXCHANGE GREETINGS) 'Charlotte is visiting his mum to see if she can shed any light | on his early years.
' Can you remember what happened when | he first started to eat solid food? He didn't He had trouble | going onto solid food.
Right.
| That was the problem.
What did you try? Basically, you know, | you would sit there and you would have an array | of different fruits and things, and just take it at his time to | see whether he would try anything, because if you tried to say, "Oh, go | on," you know, encourage him, just flat refusal, | and he would just go off and play.
So, what did you do | when he did that? Well, generally gave in, you know.
I haven't | Probably I was just too soft.
Cos by this time, as well, | I'd had another child.
Right.
His sister is only a year | and 10 days younger than him.
And then, you know, | Katie would get upset and say, "Oh, no, Mum, | please don't, don't!" And so she'd cry and say, "Don't | force him," so she would get upset.
Then you'd think, | "What do we do now"? Yeah.
How much have you been | involved in his diet, then, since he's, essentially, | been an adult? I must admit, | I haven't forced him to eat, or I haven't encouraged him to | eat anything in the last few years, because I've always felt | it's got to come from him now, cos it won't make any difference | what I do.
So, he's set this context that him just eating | chips and beans is normal, and basically, everyone has | kind of fallen into line with that? Yeah, yeah, I think so.
| Yeah, basically, yes.
He's trained you all.
He has trained us all | very, very well.
BOTH: Mmm.
I am slightly worried about | whether or not Tom has got the chance here | to grow up or not.
I mean, it's something | he clearly needs to grab.
Everyone is pleased | that he's doing this, but he needs to be given the space | to grow up, be an adult on his own.
If he doesn't get that, | then he doesn't necessarily have a reason | to push himself forward, and he really needs to do that now.
'To keep up the pressure on Tom | to try new foods, Charlotte has sent him | his second hamper.
She wants him to start eating lunch, but he's never even made a sandwich, | let alone eaten one.
' Oh, that's a lot of ham.
Well, I suppose I'd better | fill it up with these, hadn't I? Not used to doing this.
I think that looks horrible.
| I don't want to eat that.
Eugh.
So, here we go.
(RETCHES) (COUGHS) 'After only one bite, | Tom jacks it in.
It looks like the next three weeks | are going to be hard work.
' 'The following evening | Tom meets with Felix, who's got a funny feeling he can help | with Tom's food phobias.
' One of the suspicions I have | in working with Tom is that he might have | a bit of a fear of failure, so he's got a very strong security | base with his family and friends, and they're always there | kind of buffering him.
I want him to do some things | on his own, to take some risks, so what I've designed | for him today is something that I really don't think | he's gonna like.
I think it's gonna really push him | up there through his fear barrier.
But I'm hoping he'll learn something | from this which will really help him to unblock those fears he has | around food.
OK, just through here.
So far, you've been using humour | as a kind of mechanism to avoid things that you should do, and I really want you | to start using humour as a way to confront what's | holding you back and those fears.
I'd actually like you to do | a very quick stand-up routine.
No way! (LAUGHS) | I wouldn't know what to say! Yeah.
How are you doing right now? I'm hating it.
'Tom will join other first-timers | at an open mike night, and on hand to give him | a crash course in stand-up is comedian Martin Besserman.
' It's gotta come from you.
It's gotta be your story, OK? Like, I've got funny habits, like I've never eaten | with a knife and fork before? That's funny, and you should | write that down.
'After working on a routine together, he can only wait for | his curtain call.
' Welcome to Monkey Business! (PEOPLE CHEER) (FALSETTO) Sir, when | would you like to travel? (DEEP VOICE) This summer.
| (ALL LAUGH) (FALSETTO) OK, and how many of you | are travelling? (DEEP VOICE) One.
I feel sick, physically sick, but just got to hold it down | and get on with it.
Actually, I'd rather try food | than do this.
I'm not gonna be good.
| I'm not gonna be funny.
Ladies and gentlemen, this man has | never, ever done stand-up before.
Please give a very warm welcome | to Tom Bull! (ALL CHEER) Hello.
Basically, they've told me I've got to stand up and | talk to you guys for five minutes and, being a bloke, you know you're | gonna get one or two minutes, so you're not gonna | (LAUGHTER DROWNS SPEECH) I'm just gonna Anyway, my phobia is about eating, | so I don't really eat very well.
All I eat is chips, beans, | and that's it.
That's all I've eaten in my life, so they're trying to scare the | (BLEEP) out of me by putting me here, and I'd rather go for a curry | right now, to be honest.
(ALL LAUGH) It's just nothing | I've ever done, so I'm just gonna tell you a few | stories, how it's hard for me.
Say we go out to a restaurant.
| We order.
The waitress comes round, | she takes everyone's orders.
"What would you like | for your starter?" I've never had a starter in my life.
| (SOME LAUGH) So I just said, "Chips.
" And then I thought, "Oh, that's it.
| My work here's done.
" She comes back round and says, | "What do you want for your main?" I just went, "Chips.
" | I didn't know what to say.
And then she said, "Dessert?" | I said, "Well, you know the answer.
" (ALL LAUGH AND CHEER) Tom Bull! One more time | for Tom Bull! (CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS) (CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY) HUBBUB Tom, I'm so impressed with | what you just did.
What I'd really like you | to realise here is the difference between | expectation and then reality.
Your expectation was this was gonna | be an awful experience.
The actuality was | It wasn't too bad.
I feel pleased that I did that.
I'm glad I didn't | run away from it, basically.
And what will you take away from | this experience? I've gotta do the same with foods.
I've just gotta get up there | and go for it.
So I think after that, he realises, | "I CAN do this stuff," you know.
"I don't have to think of myself | as unable to do these things, and I need to ask my friends | to help me.
I can do amazing things on my own.
" And that's the first step | to sort of growing up and being an independent | adult human being.
EXCITING MUSIC '24 hours later, and Tom is back | with his friends.
' Not enough meat.
| Not enough iron in your diet.
Not enough iron.
I walked upstairs and there's | all these chairs laid out.
You gotta stand up | and do comedy? No! I had to do a five-minute set | as a stand-up.
Shut up! | They gave me half an hour notice.
And I had to get up on the fourth act | and do that, yeah.
What, in front of all these people? About 40 people.
| How does that help your eating? Getting over the fear.
| Oh, right.
Cos I'm scared of food but, you know, | it is a fear to me, so it's trying to get me over | that fear, overcoming fears.
'Then, with his newfound confidence, he manages a slice | of cheese and tomato pizza, and there are no chips in sight.
' Do they not give you | something to cut it? It's already cut.
| OK, cool.
I want this one.
This is mine.
What have you got on yours? Peperoni.
Hot, innit? | Mmm.
It's just been cooked.
Is this bad for me? It's not something | you'd eat every day, but, you know, as a treat | you can have it.
To see him actually eat a pizza | and to eat it that quickly, it was unbelievable.
Can't believe it.
'Tom may be trying new foods, but he's still a long way from | eating a whole meal.
' Hi, Charlotte.
| Hello.
'Charlotte has arranged | to meet him in a cafe to hone his sandwich-making skills.
' Why is this not going down? 'Then they retire | for a cosy lunchtime date.
' Oh.
Master chef.
OK.
OK, you're off.
'Tom is quick to start, | but can he persevere and finish his meal this time | instead of just giving up?' Difficult.
Difficult to eat.
| OK, that's fine.
We've got time.
'But Tom is taking | one very small step at a time.
' 'After 40 minutes of baby bites, | he finally tries a bigger mouthful.
' All right.
(CHUCKLES) | (LAUGHS) I carried on chewing it.
It just got stuck.
| Oh! But, you know what? No harm done.
No, yeah, no harm done.
| Yeah, no harm done.
Part of the reason that you managed to finish more than | you've ever finished.
Cos I sat here for longer.
| Yeah.
Sat here for longer, | and much more relaxed, and therefore you were able to chew.
Cos the only way that | you're gonna train yourself to bring up to larger meals | is to eat more slowly.
Just because | I've started trying food, it doesn't mean that | it's still easy.
It's still gonna be really hard, and I think today | brought that to my eyes.
So it's gonna be tough, but | I've gotta keep pursuing at it.
'With less than three weeks to go, | Charlotte thinks he's ready to wave goodbye | to his greasy best friends.
' Tell me it's time | to ditch the chips? "Here are some alternatives | to help you go cold turkey.
" I've gotta get rid of them forever.
I think this is number seven.
Can you believe that I beat number | seven before it beat me? (CHUCKLES) It's gone! 'Having made it to half-time | in his dietary makeover, Tom takes time out | on the footy field.
' (ALL SHOUT) 'But when faced with temptation, | Tom just can't resist.
' Maybe if the sandwiches were | something different, I'll try 'em, but it's that white, soft bread | again, isn't it, which I don't get on with.
about his freaky eating.
' This is how I see it - | I think it's the parents' fault.
And I don't mean to say that | about your parents.
No, cos my other sisters eat.
| But they tried to force me to eat.
I don't know.
I mean | You're one of these people If you were like me, | you'd need clarification of what it was, wouldn't you? You'd need to know | what it was that stopped you That's why all people | are different, aren't they? I don't need to know, see? | Yeah.
I'm not bothered about that.
I'm just bothered about | how it's gonna make me eat.
Sort of come off the rails | a bit yesterday.
Yeah, it weren't | a good day yesterday.
One bad day is not | the end of the world.
I've just got to stay positive, | forget about that now and carry on trying to get onto | healthy foods.
'With Tom's commitment | to the cause wavering and less than two weeks to go, it's time he confronted | the cause of his eating problem.
' Unless you understand the past, you're stuck making the same | mistakes in the future as well, so the aim of today | is to get him to look at the past and see how there's other issues | going on here that, if we can understand them, they're gonna actually | unlock his future.
'Felix has brought Tom to the | Plantation Garden in Norwich.
Using the steps up the terracing | to represent Tom's life, he wants to demonstrate how key | events may have affected his eating.
' These beautiful steps provide a wonderful metaphor | for life's development.
OK.
And I think | Here we are at the first zigzag.
I think what may have happened is | you were an only child for a while, and then suddenly your sister | was born 13 months later, which is quite a close gap, yeah? And sometimes there's | sibling rivalry around that.
Your mum said that when she was | first presenting you with new food and you didn't like it, | you'd get a bit upset.
Tantrums.
| You'd have a tantrum.
But then your sister would get upset | at you being upset, and in order to pacify your sister, your mum would actually | give you what you wanted, and that way she sort of | kept the peace with both of you.
Yeah.
It's a bit sad, really, isn't it, because my sister's | a year younger than me, and then I've stayed at her level, but she's been able to advance, | and I didn't.
Well, I think | that's a really good point.
There's one more reason | why I think that may have happened, which represents | a second zigzag here, so let's go up to that one.
It seems to me from what | we've discussed in the past that your mum was | quite indulgent to you as a boy, and then your sisters | and your friends also seem to be | quite mothering as well.
Yes.
Everybody's sort of | looking out for me.
Exactly.
But I think this has led to you feeling safe, | or in your comfort zone, needing your family, | or then your friends around you.
And you told me once | when you were 13, you were playing for a team, you actually got scouted | by a professional football team.
Now, that would be | every young boy's dream, but what you told me is that you felt really uncomfortable | being with a different team, and that's what really | put you off it.
Yeah.
I can see how it relates.
| Mmm.
But Ilike you were saying, I haven't stepped out of | that safety net.
Here we come to the third.
Let's take a vantage point.
Over here, Tom, this is the course | of your metaphorical development, walking up these steps.
12 months.
(CHUCKLES) Yeah, 12 months, | and then as a teenager, and then all the way | to when I first worked with you, and what I saw was a 26-year-old man | on this kiddie diet.
Mm-hm.
So something has not developed | in an adult way there.
You weren't allowed to train your | independence muscle, so to speak.
Then this is what happens.
Yeah, so that's why I stuck with | exactly that diet.
I never wanted to try anything new | because I didn't know It felt, to me, unsafe.
| Yeah.
How would you like | to see your future, Tom? I would like to, in the future, | move out of home, have a family, couple of kids, and progress to the next levels | at work as well.
Let's go up to your future and | feel what it's like for you here.
How does it feel out here? | Yeah, feels good.
Feels really good, doesn't it? And in order for you | to make that future a reality, as you look back on your life, what was needed at 26 | to make this future become true? For me to finally admit to myself .
.
the changes that | I needed to make in my life, like I needed to stop | everybody looking after me and meme take my own | responsibility for my eating.
And not just my eating - just me | in everything, in everyday life.
I think today's session | was very useful for Tom.
He seems to have realised that | it's about themes in his development rather than one specific incident.
He's beginning to join all those | dots together today and realise that what's been holding him back is | this baby-fying aspect of his family that he's colluded with.
Dunno - it feels | a bit awkward, really, cos you think, "26 years old, | I've wasted so much time," like, a good eight, 10 years.
Just gotta, you know, gotta grow up, | I suppose.
I don't know.
NARRATOR: 'Tom's been trying new | foods, but in less than a week he will have to face an entire meal | in front of his family.
Before he can take on the challenge, he still has one final hurdle | to overcome.
' Tom is making real progress, and we had a breakthrough | in our last session, but I feel that Tom's parents | are part of the problem, so today I've got something in mind | that will help them to let go and allow Tom | to start taking control of his life, and therefore his eating.
'Felix is meeting Tom and his parents | for one last session.
' The reason | I've brought you here today is for you to learn | to override your instincts while you watch Tom | doing something really scary.
Right.
Tom, how do you feel about this | at the moment? Yeah, fine, yeah.
| Yeah, I'm quite happy to do it.
This is the plane | he's gonna go up in.
He's gonna jump out.
Tandem jump.
Mmm.
And it's not something | that must be easy for a parent | to watch their child do.
Not really.
| No, not really.
Yeah? So this is really | a learning exercise.
For us.
| (ALL CHUCKLE) MAN: Are you nervous at all, Tom? | Not really.
Not really? Do you know | how high we're gonna go today, Tom? Probably about 15,000ft.
About 13,000ft, yeah, | two-and-a-half miles straight up.
All right.
Cool.
'Tom might be relaxed | about the skydive but, watching from the ground, | his parents are anything but.
' Oh, gosh, | did you see that? (GASPS) Come back.
Come back.
| Come back to earth.
(GASPS) | There he is.
Whoa! Oh, gosh! | That's high, isn't it? (LAUGHS) 'Tom's having the time of his life, | but mum Jill isn't so keen.
' Seems to be an awful long time.
TOM: That's unreal.
Look at that.
| I don't want to come down! (ALL LAUGH) Justeasy.
Oh, good.
(LAUGHS) Oh, well done, Tom! | Tom, you daredevil, you.
Eh? | Yeah, it's good fun! The best bit's the bit | where you jump out the plane.
When you're just, like, | with the parachute up, like, I'd just be, | "Oh, I could just stay up here.
" 'Having survived the skydive, | it's time for a scarier prospect - confronting his parents.
' Walk me through | what was going through your minds when you were watching Tom get up | in the plane and then jump out.
I was scared for him, I think, to | begin with, you know.
Bit fearful.
When you were sitting in the plane, | I thought to myself, "Ooh!" I felt for him there.
I didn't really particularly think | that this is a good idea.
Do you experience something similar | when you see Tom struggle in other areas of his life, | especially around food? Yes.
If you know he's uncomfortable | in a situation, you'll try and perhaps help him | get out of the situation, you know, so that he doesn't | feel uncomfortable, mmm.
We need his family and his friends | to realise that if they step in, loving intentions, to save him, it's actually not training him in | the healthiest way down the line.
Basically, the whole summary | of it all is that I have to grow up | and start doing things for myself and stop letting everybody | take care of me.
You've come to that conclusion | yourself? Well, I've come to that conclusion | with help, but it's my conclusion, really.
Yeah, I think perhaps we don't | actually see it like that, because we're just saying, "Well, Tom doesn't like | to eat any other kinds of foods and this is what Tom's like, and if | he wants to change, he'll change," without realising that, actually, | we're stopping him from changing.
And we've got to be strong, | to actually turn round and say, "No, you've got to do this," because when he hasn't got support | that he's having at the moment, then, you know, he could just | drift back into what he was before, and I don't want that | to happen at all.
It felt good telling my parents that | I need to sort of cut the strings, but it also made me feel | quite embarrassed, really, because I shouldn't be | having to say that at this age.
I should have said it years ago.
Or I shouldn't have had to say it - | I should have done it.
By having to tell them, | it was almost like, "God, I've really got to say this," and the true fact is that I did need to tell them | and I do need to grow up.
NARRATOR: 'For Tom and his parents, Felix's words | are starting to hit home.
' You know, we are approachable.
We I never, like, | thought that you weren't, yeah.
It's just that I just think | I don't really want to sit down and have that conversation, | whereas now I don't mind.
That's what I mean.
You put up this wall | where you wouldn't tell You wouldn't express how you felt because you didn't want to get into | it, because you always thought I'm sure you must have thought we were gonna either | be critical about it or moan.
Not really.
I just thought | just the conversation that I don't really want to have, | because it just sort of It didn't interest me, | talking about it.
Now, I don't mind.
I understand.
You talk about things that you think are a bit painful or a bit boring | or whatever, and then they're | really not that bad.
Like, same with the food and stuff.
'The morning of the final challenge.
Four weeks ago, Tom was surviving | on a freaky diet of baked beans, chips and crisps, and he would make any excuse | to avoid family meals.
Today, he's about to face | his biggest challenge ever - a sit-down turkey dinner | with all of the Christmas trimmings.
' The worst possible outcome would be | that I can hardly eat anything and that I'm still sitting there | with pretty much a full plate.
Then I'll be really disappointed.
I'll be annoyed with myself, feel like I let myself down | and everybody else down.
I think Tom's really nervous | about today.
He's not saying he is.
He said | he's fine, but I don't think he is.
I can tell by the way he's acting | that he's really nervous.
I can't see Tom finishing the plate.
I'd be amazed just seeing him | put a few morsels in and chewing it.
'Felix and Charlotte are on hand to offer Tom some | final words of encouragement.
' Hi, Tom.
| Hi, Felix.
How are you? How are you? Nice to see you again.
| And you.
Hi, Charlotte.
Hello.
Yes.
| You good? Yeah.
How are you? | Not too bad, actually.
Yeah? | Little bit nervous.
Yeah? | What are you nervous about, Tom? All my family are here, | and I want to do well as a way of sort of saying thank you | and not let them down, and let them see | that I actually can do it.
Do you know what you're doing, | what you do a lot here, which is Thinking too much.
| Oh, God, yeah.
Just simplify it down, you know.
I'm just gonna relax and | just take it as another meal.
Yeah, thank you.
Do that.
You've already conquered your fears.
| You've already eaten new foods.
You know you can do it, and if you relax into it, | it's gonna be even easier.
Thanks a lot.
| Take care.
Good luck.
Enjoy your food, and we'll catch up.
Yeah, will do.
Thanks.
See you.
| 'Bye.
If he can overcome his nerves, | then he's gonna do well.
I hope he can do it.
| I hope he can enjoy it.
'Christmas dinners used to | fill Tom with dread.
While everyone else | tucked into turkey roast, he was left munching through | a plate of chips and beans.
Today, he'll be joining them.
' "What do you expect to have | for your dinner today?" (OTHERS LAUGH) | "And will you enjoy it?" No, but I'll give it a go.
'They're being served up a turkey | dinner with brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, | sausages and stuffing.
Tom has never tried | anything on the plate.
' I'm expecting chips and beans | to come out, to be honest.
Ooh, this isn't what I expected.
(FALSELY) Oh, it looks yummy.
(OTHERS LAUGH) SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Eh.
| (OTHERS LAUGH) 'That's one bite down, but | he still has a whole plate to go.
' SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC You're doing really well.
| I know.
It is strange seeing you eat, Tom.
Do you think, really? | Yeah.
Very unusual.
This has never happened before.
I've never seen you | with a plate in front of you.
'40 minutes later, | everyone but Tom has finished.
But for him, this meal is about | more than just the food.
' There's the bigger picture | to it all, isn't there? Like, I want to be able to | join in with things like this and not feel like | I want to run away.
Like, now I sit down and have a conversation | with Mum and Dad at dinnertime.
'Tom has managed to eat | over half his plate of food.
He's done better | than his family ever expected.
' (ALL TALK AT ONCE) | That's all right.
No, thanks for all coming.
| I've enjoyed it.
Yeah.
Yeah, you've done really well.
Hello.
| Excuse us.
You all right? | Hello, hello.
How are you doing there? I ate quite a bit of the turkey.
| I ate a whole potato.
I didn't like the | Brussels sprouts, yeah.
I tried the stuffing.
I tried the stuffing and I ate | the two sausages covered in bacon.
You ate in front of other people | in this setting, which is unusual, isn't it? And Oh, hello, hello.
Yeah, sorry.
I am listening.
I was just looking | at everybody else's plate to see, like, how I compared.
OK.
I mean, you know, | people do leave stuff, so you're absolutely | on the right track here.
So, I'd just like to get some | feedback from the family.
What's it like for you to see | Tom eating with you this way? It's lovely to see him actually | sit down and eat what we're eating and, for me, not to actually feel he's, you know, | sitting there suffering.
The next step is for, like, | I've been cooking, isn't it Oh, yes, yeah.
| I've got you a present.
It's like an early birthday present, | and I made it myself.
"Tom Bull's Dining Room.
| Mum's Menu.
" Oh! 'Tom has given his mum an invitation to a gourmet meal cooked by himself | for her birthday.
' It's really nice that he's actually picked out everything that I like | on the menu, which is (SOBS QUIETLY) | .
.
very nice.
Sorry.
Thanks, dear.
Yeah, I think you've done | incredibly well.
Just really proud of you and | really amazed.
It's fantastic.
Well, we did it all together, | really, didn't we? Yeah, I know.
Tom, you should be proud of yourself.
| Now everyone else is as well.
(ALL AGREE) And I think you deserve | a round of applause.
Yeah, I mean, for my parents, | you know, especially, both my mum and dad, | I've never heard my dad, like, say, "I'm proud of you" | as much as he did today, and same with my mum, in a way.
So, yeah, it was really good.
(EMOTIONALLY) And it's, like, | I don't know.
It's just something | I haven't really felt before.
But, yeah, it was good.
'One month on, and | Tom's kicked his kiddie diet and discovered | a grown-up passion for food.
' (LOW-LEVEL CONVERSATION I'm eating a lot of pastas, | steak and mixed grills.
Anything they put in front of me, | I'm quite happy to sit down and try it, and I don't fear it - | I look forward to it.
Good evening.
My friends come over.
When they | come over, I cook for them.
So, what have we got, then? Duck l'Orange, is it? Everyone calls me a fat feeder now, cos I just want to | cook for everybody.
Dinner is served.
(CHUCKLES) It looks like he's coming out of | himself more and he's all bubbly, and I think he's conquered | something pretty big for himself, and I think he's | feeling happy about it.
'Home life has improved, and his future is looking rosier | in more ways than one.
' Through changing his eating habits, he's also changed | his whole personality and seems to have grown up | a lot more.
Now that I've learnt that if I | really want to do something, I can, it's just made me, as a person, | feel more relaxed and more positive.
Whereas before it was just eat | to survive, now it's an enjoyment.
' (ALL TALK AT ONCE) 'But behind his super-fit | sportsman exterior, Tom hides an embarrassing secret - he's addicted to beans and chips.
Nothing else will do.
' I don't know why or how I started | eating baked beans and chips.
I just remember that's all | I've ever really eaten.
That's been my main meal every day.
'And he washes it all down daily with | an incredible four pints of milk.
Anything else is strictly | out of bounds.
' Don't! (MUMBLES INDISTINCTLY) The thought of eating other foods scares the life out of me, | to be honest.
'Helping Tom to beat the beans will | be nutritionist Charlotte Watts and psychologist Felix Economakis.
Over the next four weeks, they'll | give him just the push he needs' (LAUGHS) '.
.
make him see his dire diet's | not funny anymore' I'd actually like you to do | a very quick stand-up routine.
No way! '.
.
force him to confront | some home truths' I have to grow up and | start doing things for myself.
You've come to that conclusion | yourself? No, I come to that | conclusion with help.
'.
.
and encourage him to face the | foods he's spent a lifetime avoiding.
But after 26 years of freaky eating, | it's not gonna be easy.
' (COUGHS AND RETCHES) THEME MUSIC ROCK MUSIC '26-year-old Tom Bull | is a single bloke living at home with his mum and dad, | Jill and Simon.
He has a successful career as | an IT consultant and is footy mad, playing at least four times a week.
But one thing he's not | so passionate about is food.
Tom has spent his life | surviving on a bizarre diet of nothing but beans and chips.
And even Tom's beloved beans and | chips must conform to strange rules.
' I like to keep 'em separate.
I don't really like it | with the beans touching the chips.
Like, the chips would all be | covered in the beans juice.
'When he can't get hold of | his mainstays, he fills up on litres of milk' Probably have about | two of these a day.
'.
.
and yet more potatoes.
' Got all my crisps in here.
| I eat about eight bags a day.
'Fruit and veg don't get a look-in.
' What about the salad? | No thanks.
I don't want to eat leaves.
When someone says, "Why | don't you try this instead?", I just think, "No"!", | cos last time I tried something I felt all uncomfortable, hot, started sweating | and sort of panicking and just feeling really nervous.
'Having never moved on | from his childhood diet means Tom still | even eats like a child.
' 26 years old, I should know how | to use a knife and fork properly, but I only need a fork for my | baked beans and a fork for my chips.
'And if that wasn't bad enough, | even chewing is a struggle.
' I've tried chewing beans before, | but it doesn't feel natural to me, so I just swallow them.
I can't help it.
I put them in my | mouth, in they go, and they're gone.
Sound like a right pig.
'Tom's freaky eating started | when he was a baby and refused to eat most solid foods.
' It was from milk, basically, | to things like a packet of Skips, and then beans.
'Tom has two younger sisters | who grew up eating a normal diet, but his parents fought a losing | battle when it came to Tom.
' I mean, I remember | a few traumas at the table, having to try and encourage him | to eat some different foods, but it just never happened.
It isn't the fact that he started eating meat or cheese | or anything like that.
He's NEVER started.
| He's NEVER tasted those things.
'Growing up, even Christmas | and birthdays had to be chips.
' We'll all sit down | and have a Christmas meal, and he'll sit there | with his happy chips.
'Tom may be 26, but his mum | still looks after her little boy.
' I always make sure that | in the house, we have the foods that he will eat.
'But outside the home, | his mates are less supportive.
' TOM: You just feel like | everybody's looking at you, and to be out and feel like | that is not comfortable.
And what can I get for? Can I just have | a side order of fries, please? Freak! 'It's even started to | affect his work, forcing him to lie to get out of | professional lunches with clients.
' I make up stories all the time.
When people say, "Should | we go and get some lunch?", I'll say, "I'm not really hungry.
" "I've been ill," I've said before.
And I'll be starving, but I'll | put it off till the end of the day when I know I can get | something I want to eat.
'At mealtimes, it's not just food | he's uncomfortable around, preferring to eat alone, and his freaky eating is taking | its toll on those closest to him.
' When we want to go out for | special occasions with the family, we have to make provision for Tom | or just not invite him.
It would be lovely for us all to be | able to just go out and eat together and not have that horrible feeling - | for me - because (BREATHES SHAKILY AND SIGHS) | Oh, sorry.
I'm sorry.
| I can't do that bit.
Sorry.
'It's make or break time for Tom.
' I want to do it | for my health reasons.
I want to do it for my friends | and my family.
I want to see | what I'm missing out on, and I want to be able to enjoy | all these situations where you should be able to eat.
'It's day one.
Felix and Charlotte | have invited Tom to London to kickstart | his battle of the beans.
' Hey, Tom.
| Hey, Felix.
Nice to meet you.
Hello.
Charlotte - hello.
Hi, Charlotte.
You all right? | Yeah, good.
How you doing so far? | Bit nervous.
Yeah? Well, it's natural | to have some nerves.
That's to be expected, isn't it? | But you're in safe hands.
Are you ready? | Think I am, yeah.
OK, let's go.
| OK.
SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Now, we're looking to help you | change the habits of 26 years here.
We've got a lot of work to do.
Yeah, I know.
| So, we'll leave you to watch this.
And then we'll come back | and have a chat to you, OK? Yeah, sure.
| Cheers.
'Tom begins by listening to | a few home truths from his fearful family and friends.
' Tom, we're all really proud of you | for taking this first step.
It would be nice if you could | enjoy a meal with us and actually enjoy | the time we spend together and not have to worry about | running off as soon as you can.
The fact of the matter is, if you | carry on eating chips and beans like you do, it can't | be healthy for you.
I mean, we can tell that | by the fact that you take these knocks | and you get really badly bruised.
And, to be quite honest | with you, mate, I'd like to know you | for many years to come.
We really think this is a chance | for you to actually change now.
You're 26.
If it's not gonna happen now, | I don't think it ever will.
And we do worry about your health, and we do want you | to experience other things.
We find it very difficult sometimes | to work things around you.
I'm sure once | you've got over that problem, we can share a lot more as a family.
PROJECTOR WHIRRS Hello.
How was that for you? It's quite powerful, | isn't it, really? Yeah, I thought so.
I thought your dad | was particularly moving in there.
Yeah, my dad was a bit He's never really said | anything like that to me, whereas my mum's like that | all the time, and I think that's the thing that got me feeling a bit awkward | about it, or upset about it.
Men don't always know | how to express it, do they? But it doesn't mean | they don't feel it.
No, I know, yeah.
So, what can you take | from what you've seen today, Tom, that will help you down the line? Like, everything that | people have just said then.
They care about me and they | want me to be there, you know? Like, one of my friends, Daniel, | just said then, you know, "I want to spend | many more years with you," and when people say it like that, | you realise, like, how muchhow much it affects them.
So, if you do want to change, we need | to start by really looking your diet and really work out | where we can go from here.
Are you ready? | Ready, yeah.
OK, let's go.
| OK.
'But will facing up to | the stark reality of his diet be enough to make him change?' (CHUCKLES) Look at all this.
Yeah.
There's a lot, isn't there? You've been eating | chips, beans and milk day in, day out | for the last 26 years.
It's all the same, isn't it? | It's like a little kid's party.
Tom, you're a free man.
| Yeah.
You've got a choice.
And this is | what you're taking into your body.
It's prettywell, | disgusting, really.
Yeah.
POWERFUL MUSIC 'If that's not bad enough, there's still Tom's | greasy crisp habit to look at.
' You eat eight packets a day? | Yeah.
That's over 3,000 packets a year.
That's over 22,000 grams of fat as | represented by the lard over there.
Eugh.
| Yeah.
Mmm.
That presents | a real heart disease risk.
It's concerning, really, | when you talk about how much fat and everything | that I'm putting through my body, and especially when you start | talking about my heart.
It really does make you worry.
And I think just because | this is what I do every day, I don't think about the impact | what it's gonna have long-term.
Yeah.
And then, when you | put it all out in front of you, you just think, | "God, that's a lot of junk.
" Yeah.
So, what we need to know from you - so that we can help you | work towards this - is what you want to achieve | at the end of the four weeks.
I'd like to get onto | more healthier food, obviously.
OK.
There's a very specific goal | that we're gonna aim towards.
You're gonna sit down with your | family and have a varied meal.
Yeah.
| Good.
And how strongly are you | committed to that goal right now? More than ever, | standing around all of this.
SCARY MUSIC The health aspect seemed to be | the most shocking aspect for him, and that's gonna work | really well for me, but it's also incredibly clear | that he knows nothing about food, and he wants to be educated.
So it's all positive, but it's clear | he's got a really long way to go.
'As Tom heads back to Surrey, the day | has given him food for thought.
' 22,000 grams worth of fat | that goes into my body a year is just disgusting.
That's been going on for 26 years.
Just made me realise how bad | what bad shape my body must be in, even though I exercise a lot, and it made me realise how much I've | got to work on changing my diet.
'He's not the only one | who thinks it's time for a change, as Tom gets a grilling on his return | home from friend JP and his mum.
' I know how much everyone cares, | so like that, and I know how much | it affects everybody and how they want me to change | for my health reasons.
Do you, though? Do you know that? Because we don't know | whether you actually Yeah, I do know.
| .
.
take that on board.
No-one's ever actually | told you how they feel, have they, really, deep down? No.
| None of us have.
Me, Adam, Dan - none of us No, you always say, | "I'd like you to eat," yeah.
We've said it, and then it's all | been, like, sort of brushed off.
Now you've sat there | and you've watched that and you know how we all feel, you know, really, | deep down seriousness, that, you know, it's gotta change, | really, hasn't it? Yeah, and then with thatI'd say | that and seeing all that food and how much of that fat, and how | much problems it could cause me Clog up your arteries.
| Yeah.
And when I was talking to her, | like, off the camera, like, when we were just | standing there chatting, my armshands were | going all pink again.
Like, you know, sometimes | they go purply-pink? She was explaining, | you know, it's bad liver, not through drinking | or anything like that, through all the fat in my diet.
My body's toxicated, | so it's trying to clear out through, like, sweat or circulation.
Do you think the next step's | gonna be easier? No, I don't think it's gonna be | easier, but I think it's achievable.
Good.
I feel like I canI can do it now.
'The root of Tom's eating problem | remains a mystery to his family.
Today, Felix will be | doing some psychological digging to see what secrets | his past might hold.
' What's your earliest possible memory | with regards to eating this way? I don't ever remember | eating anything different.
It's always been milk | and then chips, baked beans.
I don't remember | eating baby food, ever.
And your mum | can't shed any light on it? She never said once you had | a severe reaction, or you threw up? No, there's no reaction.
She just said it was difficult to | move me through the different food.
And there's nothing else | back there you can think, "Oh, well, you see, | I won't like that food.
" "I can't like it" because of some other kind of worry | or tension around it? OK.
I don't know what it is | that stops me.
All right.
But I know that when food does come | out, I dismiss it straightaway.
Right.
And just tell me a little bit about how your family has sort of | reacted to you historically.
So at some point they've thought you're a young kid, | you'll grow out of it.
I think .
.
I'm Mum's only boy.
Mmm.
And I think that's | quite obvious sometimes.
How? | She lets me get away with murder.
Does she? | Well, yeah.
NARRATOR: 'With Tom drawing blanks | round his eating memories, Felix moves on to football.
Age 13, Tom achieved | every boy's dream when he was scouted by professional | football club Crystal Palace.
However, a knee problem at 16 | forced him to take time out.
A year later, Tom was able | to return to football, but he chose to join | a local club with friends where he felt more comfortable.
' When did you start | playing football again? Think I was | 17-and-a-half, about 17.
So, you only stopped for a year? Year and a bit, yeah.
Weren't they interested | in you trying again when you? No, cos I don't think I would have | been good enough then.
And also How do you know that? Well, I would have missed | quite a bit of important time out.
But I didn't think I personally | would have been good enough.
And I was enjoying it where I was, | I suppose, with my friends.
So, no-oneno external authority | told you, you know, "Sorry, you're past it, | you've missed?" No, no, no.
I don't think II don't | think I believed in myself anymore.
And I justI think I was | maybe worried about failing again.
Again, compared to what? Not doing it the first time round.
Well, that kind of fear, | that fear needs to be strong to stop you doing a dream | when you had a real chance to do it, and what is that fear? You said fear of failure - | is it that? Is it something else? I don't know.
Maybe I accepted it and just thought, "This is good enough for me | where I am now.
" I don't know.
"This is good enough for me | where I am now"? It's a bit like food.
| Yeah, maybe.
"Well, I could have better, | but this is good enough for me.
" Maybe I didn't think about | how much better it could be again.
Yeah.
Maybe I just went, "I'm enjoying | this.
Let's just keep enjoying this.
" For my part, there's still | quite a lot of unanswered questions.
Yeah.
So I look forward to us | working together again and filling more pieces | of this puzzle.
Yeah, sure.
| OK.
Tom's problems with food | seem to have stemmed from fairly typical childhood | fussy eating behaviour, but now, as an adult, he's stuck | in these childhood patterns and he's using food as a way of avoiding his adult | insecurities and fears.
So I need to look at | the origins of Tom's fears and try to find more clues as | to how his eating problems started.
' It's very difficult | when people are asking you, "How do you think you felt | back then?" I can't remember what I was like when | I was five and what I was thinking, or when I was three, so trying to get into my head | when I was three years old to work out why I'm like I am now, | I found it very difficult.
For me, I don't need clarification to say, "Oh, it was that | that stopped you.
" I just need to know how to deal with | getting over my fear of eating.
'Charlotte wants Tom to start eating | a new, healthier diet, so her first challenge to him | is to ditch the crisps.
' Oh, I never thought | I'd do this.
(CHUCKLES) Say goodbye to my crisps.
(LAUGHS) I love my crisps, and I've got all | my favourite ones in here as well! I want to cry! This was actually the only thing | that I enjoyed eating.
I know it's not good for you, but .
.
it was the nicest bit of the day.
'Tom will need all his determination if he's to get through | his next session with Charlotte.
Today, he'll have to face a table full of food | he has never tried before.
' The fact that Tom | goes days without food and skips many, many meals | and exercise an enormous amount means that he really is | almost in famine mode.
His body's in crisis.
So I need to see | what his relationship is when presented with new foods | so that I can start the process.
'It'll be a big challenge | to get Tom to try anything.
' This is the first big step, really, because I need to make sure | that I can eat something, otherwise I'm going to feel like | I'm not going to progress.
So, it's the food part.
The worst part.
What has stopped you | trying new foods in the past? Every time I think | I'm gonna try something, I think, "Oh, it's gonna | make me feel sick.
" Do you mean feel sick, | or actually vomit? Oh, no.
I feel sick NOW.
| Right, just being? Might be butterflies.
| Yeah.
And knowing that | I'm gonna try something, cos I AM gonna try something, so You are? You definitely have this | "I'm ready now"? I'm ready to start, try.
Do you want to pick up some | of the cucumber to start with then? OK.
Do you want me to use a fork? | Yeah.
(CHUCKLES) That's | another thing for me.
NARRATOR: 'After a lifetime | of eating beans and chips, Tom has never had to | use a knife and fork together, so after a crash course, | it's back to the food.
' So, you put it down | and cut with the knife.
Just a little bit.
Cos I'm gonna | have to eat this, aren't I? Yep.
(CHUCKLES) Well anticipated.
OK.
(GULPS) So, that looked hard.
| Yeah, it was quite hard.
Your face was really kind of | All the muscles were Yeah, going | all over the place, yeah.
But I kept chewing and chewing.
I was thinking, | "Now, right now, swallow.
" And it was just | sort of getting stuck there.
So, so much, this is about | not the taste.
It's the | No.
I guess it's the chewing, isn't it? I've never thought of it, | like, this way, really.
Should we go to the tomato? OK.
| Work up to it how you want.
I'll take it with the knife, | cos I'm shaking.
You're shaking? | Yeah, cosI'm nervous.
'It's a result for Tom and Charlotte.
For the first time ever, | he's eating new food, but it's still only baby bites.
' Oh, this doesn't look like | it's gonna be fun at all.
Get it on the fork.
Oh.
You are taking | incredibly small mouthfuls.
I would go like this.
I would golike that, | a little bit of that, and I'd probably have a bit of that, | and I'd get that, and then Yeah.
It's a whole mouthful, | isn't it? That's a decent (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) Yeah.
And what I'm doing | is, like, baby sizes, baby steps.
'Before he leaves, | Charlotte wants him to try some of the more challenging foods.
' The fish, to me, is | would be harder for me to try than the chicken, | and the chicken's a no.
The fish is a no-no.
(LAUGHS) | Whoa.
That's broccoli, isn't it? | That's broccoli.
Everyone keeps telling me how good | broccoli is, but they all hate it.
SCARY MUSIC Oh.
What bit should I eat, though? Well, it's usually good to eat a bit of the stalks | and the leaves at the same time.
Oh, I can't do that much.
| Justabout that much is all.
(RETCHES) Eugh.
I'll keep going.
No.
That was too much for me.
Well done, though.
Oh, it's too much in my mouth.
Yeah, I think the reason | I tried stuff today was cos she didn't let me do all | the normal things that I would do, like start judging it.
I've just taken baby bites | of different foods today.
I need to be taking | platefuls of that, or having a decent portion of that, so, a million miles away from where | I need to be, or where I want to be.
LAID-BACK MUSIC 'Tom has been eating | so little up till now, he has been virtually | starving his body.
Charlotte wants him | to work up to three regular meals, starting with breakfast.
' "Try a bowl of whole wheat cereal, some wholemeal toast, | muesli or porridge.
All right.
This is gonna | be hard work.
That's banana, so I'll | try and not look at that bit.
'But after the taster table, | cereal is easier than expected.
' It's all right.
Not bad.
26 years of me saying | I'm not gonna try it and not even attempting it | cos I thought I was gonna be sick - now I know I'm not gonna be sick, I'm quite willing to try food, | so it's quite exciting.
'Today, Tom will meet | Dr Pixie McKenna, a GP with a special interest | in eating disorders.
' What Dr Pixie can provide today is exactly the extent | of what his diet is doing to him and how he needs to change that, and I think he needs those specifics | to motivate him.
'Although sports-mad Tom | seems super-fit, his restrictive diet means | he suffers from easy bruising, shaky hands and bad circulation.
Dr Pixie has run medical tests on Tom | and has the shocking results.
' When we looked at your blood, you've got some problems | with your blood cells.
You've got big, fat red blood cells.
In fact, you've got the red blood | cells of an alcoholic Oh, right, OK.
.
.
someone who lives on | a really, really poor diet and only gets their calories | from alcohol.
Yeah.
'Although Tom only drinks moderately, his diet is wreaking havoc | with his blood cells, and therefore his bone marrow.
' This is a nice, healthy | bone marrow of a cow.
You're just not putting | the right stuff into the recipe.
If this stops working, | you're in trouble.
'Bone marrow produces red and | white blood cells and platelets.
Healthy red blood cells are essential because they carry oxygen around | the body and give you energy.
For Tom to improve | his fat red blood cells, he needs to eat red meat, | leafy greens and citrus fruits.
' Adding in the fact there's absolutely no vitamin C | in his diet at all, and that all adds to easy bruising, because your ability | for your veins to be integral and continually repairing themselves | is very much compromised.
'Another potential problem | is Tom's habit of swallowing | his baked beans whole, which could affect | his digestive system.
' As a long-term scenario, | that's gonna cause damage.
It's gonna cause inflammation in | your oesophagus, in your food pipe.
Then you're passing all this | undigested stuff into your gut, so it's putting pressure | on the muscle walls here.
The muscles are gonna become weaker because they've got | too much work to do, and they're gonna start to bulge, and you'll become very unwell with stomach pain, | diarrhoea, temperature.
Yeah, I don't really want | all them, do I? The body's incredibly adaptive, | but it needs certain fuels You need to give it a chance, yeah.
| .
.
and nutrients to do that.
Are you gonna give it a shot? | I'm going to give it a shot.
Good.
I've always sort of known that | what I'm doing's not good for me, but I've never really known | the effects.
Like, I have the, like, little things | like hand shake and stuff, and I think, "Well, it's only | my hands shaking," but when the doctor explains | what it all relates to and shows you, like, the insides and | what's gonna happen in the future, it makes more sense and it makes you | think, "Cor, got to do it now.
" NARRATOR: 'To help Tom change, more clues about the cause | of his eating problems are needed.
' (BOTH EXCHANGE GREETINGS) 'Charlotte is visiting his mum to see if she can shed any light | on his early years.
' Can you remember what happened when | he first started to eat solid food? He didn't He had trouble | going onto solid food.
Right.
| That was the problem.
What did you try? Basically, you know, | you would sit there and you would have an array | of different fruits and things, and just take it at his time to | see whether he would try anything, because if you tried to say, "Oh, go | on," you know, encourage him, just flat refusal, | and he would just go off and play.
So, what did you do | when he did that? Well, generally gave in, you know.
I haven't | Probably I was just too soft.
Cos by this time, as well, | I'd had another child.
Right.
His sister is only a year | and 10 days younger than him.
And then, you know, | Katie would get upset and say, "Oh, no, Mum, | please don't, don't!" And so she'd cry and say, "Don't | force him," so she would get upset.
Then you'd think, | "What do we do now"? Yeah.
How much have you been | involved in his diet, then, since he's, essentially, | been an adult? I must admit, | I haven't forced him to eat, or I haven't encouraged him to | eat anything in the last few years, because I've always felt | it's got to come from him now, cos it won't make any difference | what I do.
So, he's set this context that him just eating | chips and beans is normal, and basically, everyone has | kind of fallen into line with that? Yeah, yeah, I think so.
| Yeah, basically, yes.
He's trained you all.
He has trained us all | very, very well.
BOTH: Mmm.
I am slightly worried about | whether or not Tom has got the chance here | to grow up or not.
I mean, it's something | he clearly needs to grab.
Everyone is pleased | that he's doing this, but he needs to be given the space | to grow up, be an adult on his own.
If he doesn't get that, | then he doesn't necessarily have a reason | to push himself forward, and he really needs to do that now.
'To keep up the pressure on Tom | to try new foods, Charlotte has sent him | his second hamper.
She wants him to start eating lunch, but he's never even made a sandwich, | let alone eaten one.
' Oh, that's a lot of ham.
Well, I suppose I'd better | fill it up with these, hadn't I? Not used to doing this.
I think that looks horrible.
| I don't want to eat that.
Eugh.
So, here we go.
(RETCHES) (COUGHS) 'After only one bite, | Tom jacks it in.
It looks like the next three weeks | are going to be hard work.
' 'The following evening | Tom meets with Felix, who's got a funny feeling he can help | with Tom's food phobias.
' One of the suspicions I have | in working with Tom is that he might have | a bit of a fear of failure, so he's got a very strong security | base with his family and friends, and they're always there | kind of buffering him.
I want him to do some things | on his own, to take some risks, so what I've designed | for him today is something that I really don't think | he's gonna like.
I think it's gonna really push him | up there through his fear barrier.
But I'm hoping he'll learn something | from this which will really help him to unblock those fears he has | around food.
OK, just through here.
So far, you've been using humour | as a kind of mechanism to avoid things that you should do, and I really want you | to start using humour as a way to confront what's | holding you back and those fears.
I'd actually like you to do | a very quick stand-up routine.
No way! (LAUGHS) | I wouldn't know what to say! Yeah.
How are you doing right now? I'm hating it.
'Tom will join other first-timers | at an open mike night, and on hand to give him | a crash course in stand-up is comedian Martin Besserman.
' It's gotta come from you.
It's gotta be your story, OK? Like, I've got funny habits, like I've never eaten | with a knife and fork before? That's funny, and you should | write that down.
'After working on a routine together, he can only wait for | his curtain call.
' Welcome to Monkey Business! (PEOPLE CHEER) (FALSETTO) Sir, when | would you like to travel? (DEEP VOICE) This summer.
| (ALL LAUGH) (FALSETTO) OK, and how many of you | are travelling? (DEEP VOICE) One.
I feel sick, physically sick, but just got to hold it down | and get on with it.
Actually, I'd rather try food | than do this.
I'm not gonna be good.
| I'm not gonna be funny.
Ladies and gentlemen, this man has | never, ever done stand-up before.
Please give a very warm welcome | to Tom Bull! (ALL CHEER) Hello.
Basically, they've told me I've got to stand up and | talk to you guys for five minutes and, being a bloke, you know you're | gonna get one or two minutes, so you're not gonna | (LAUGHTER DROWNS SPEECH) I'm just gonna Anyway, my phobia is about eating, | so I don't really eat very well.
All I eat is chips, beans, | and that's it.
That's all I've eaten in my life, so they're trying to scare the | (BLEEP) out of me by putting me here, and I'd rather go for a curry | right now, to be honest.
(ALL LAUGH) It's just nothing | I've ever done, so I'm just gonna tell you a few | stories, how it's hard for me.
Say we go out to a restaurant.
| We order.
The waitress comes round, | she takes everyone's orders.
"What would you like | for your starter?" I've never had a starter in my life.
| (SOME LAUGH) So I just said, "Chips.
" And then I thought, "Oh, that's it.
| My work here's done.
" She comes back round and says, | "What do you want for your main?" I just went, "Chips.
" | I didn't know what to say.
And then she said, "Dessert?" | I said, "Well, you know the answer.
" (ALL LAUGH AND CHEER) Tom Bull! One more time | for Tom Bull! (CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS) (CONTINUES INDISTINCTLY) HUBBUB Tom, I'm so impressed with | what you just did.
What I'd really like you | to realise here is the difference between | expectation and then reality.
Your expectation was this was gonna | be an awful experience.
The actuality was | It wasn't too bad.
I feel pleased that I did that.
I'm glad I didn't | run away from it, basically.
And what will you take away from | this experience? I've gotta do the same with foods.
I've just gotta get up there | and go for it.
So I think after that, he realises, | "I CAN do this stuff," you know.
"I don't have to think of myself | as unable to do these things, and I need to ask my friends | to help me.
I can do amazing things on my own.
" And that's the first step | to sort of growing up and being an independent | adult human being.
EXCITING MUSIC '24 hours later, and Tom is back | with his friends.
' Not enough meat.
| Not enough iron in your diet.
Not enough iron.
I walked upstairs and there's | all these chairs laid out.
You gotta stand up | and do comedy? No! I had to do a five-minute set | as a stand-up.
Shut up! | They gave me half an hour notice.
And I had to get up on the fourth act | and do that, yeah.
What, in front of all these people? About 40 people.
| How does that help your eating? Getting over the fear.
| Oh, right.
Cos I'm scared of food but, you know, | it is a fear to me, so it's trying to get me over | that fear, overcoming fears.
'Then, with his newfound confidence, he manages a slice | of cheese and tomato pizza, and there are no chips in sight.
' Do they not give you | something to cut it? It's already cut.
| OK, cool.
I want this one.
This is mine.
What have you got on yours? Peperoni.
Hot, innit? | Mmm.
It's just been cooked.
Is this bad for me? It's not something | you'd eat every day, but, you know, as a treat | you can have it.
To see him actually eat a pizza | and to eat it that quickly, it was unbelievable.
Can't believe it.
'Tom may be trying new foods, but he's still a long way from | eating a whole meal.
' Hi, Charlotte.
| Hello.
'Charlotte has arranged | to meet him in a cafe to hone his sandwich-making skills.
' Why is this not going down? 'Then they retire | for a cosy lunchtime date.
' Oh.
Master chef.
OK.
OK, you're off.
'Tom is quick to start, | but can he persevere and finish his meal this time | instead of just giving up?' Difficult.
Difficult to eat.
| OK, that's fine.
We've got time.
'But Tom is taking | one very small step at a time.
' 'After 40 minutes of baby bites, | he finally tries a bigger mouthful.
' All right.
(CHUCKLES) | (LAUGHS) I carried on chewing it.
It just got stuck.
| Oh! But, you know what? No harm done.
No, yeah, no harm done.
| Yeah, no harm done.
Part of the reason that you managed to finish more than | you've ever finished.
Cos I sat here for longer.
| Yeah.
Sat here for longer, | and much more relaxed, and therefore you were able to chew.
Cos the only way that | you're gonna train yourself to bring up to larger meals | is to eat more slowly.
Just because | I've started trying food, it doesn't mean that | it's still easy.
It's still gonna be really hard, and I think today | brought that to my eyes.
So it's gonna be tough, but | I've gotta keep pursuing at it.
'With less than three weeks to go, | Charlotte thinks he's ready to wave goodbye | to his greasy best friends.
' Tell me it's time | to ditch the chips? "Here are some alternatives | to help you go cold turkey.
" I've gotta get rid of them forever.
I think this is number seven.
Can you believe that I beat number | seven before it beat me? (CHUCKLES) It's gone! 'Having made it to half-time | in his dietary makeover, Tom takes time out | on the footy field.
' (ALL SHOUT) 'But when faced with temptation, | Tom just can't resist.
' Maybe if the sandwiches were | something different, I'll try 'em, but it's that white, soft bread | again, isn't it, which I don't get on with.
about his freaky eating.
' This is how I see it - | I think it's the parents' fault.
And I don't mean to say that | about your parents.
No, cos my other sisters eat.
| But they tried to force me to eat.
I don't know.
I mean | You're one of these people If you were like me, | you'd need clarification of what it was, wouldn't you? You'd need to know | what it was that stopped you That's why all people | are different, aren't they? I don't need to know, see? | Yeah.
I'm not bothered about that.
I'm just bothered about | how it's gonna make me eat.
Sort of come off the rails | a bit yesterday.
Yeah, it weren't | a good day yesterday.
One bad day is not | the end of the world.
I've just got to stay positive, | forget about that now and carry on trying to get onto | healthy foods.
'With Tom's commitment | to the cause wavering and less than two weeks to go, it's time he confronted | the cause of his eating problem.
' Unless you understand the past, you're stuck making the same | mistakes in the future as well, so the aim of today | is to get him to look at the past and see how there's other issues | going on here that, if we can understand them, they're gonna actually | unlock his future.
'Felix has brought Tom to the | Plantation Garden in Norwich.
Using the steps up the terracing | to represent Tom's life, he wants to demonstrate how key | events may have affected his eating.
' These beautiful steps provide a wonderful metaphor | for life's development.
OK.
And I think | Here we are at the first zigzag.
I think what may have happened is | you were an only child for a while, and then suddenly your sister | was born 13 months later, which is quite a close gap, yeah? And sometimes there's | sibling rivalry around that.
Your mum said that when she was | first presenting you with new food and you didn't like it, | you'd get a bit upset.
Tantrums.
| You'd have a tantrum.
But then your sister would get upset | at you being upset, and in order to pacify your sister, your mum would actually | give you what you wanted, and that way she sort of | kept the peace with both of you.
Yeah.
It's a bit sad, really, isn't it, because my sister's | a year younger than me, and then I've stayed at her level, but she's been able to advance, | and I didn't.
Well, I think | that's a really good point.
There's one more reason | why I think that may have happened, which represents | a second zigzag here, so let's go up to that one.
It seems to me from what | we've discussed in the past that your mum was | quite indulgent to you as a boy, and then your sisters | and your friends also seem to be | quite mothering as well.
Yes.
Everybody's sort of | looking out for me.
Exactly.
But I think this has led to you feeling safe, | or in your comfort zone, needing your family, | or then your friends around you.
And you told me once | when you were 13, you were playing for a team, you actually got scouted | by a professional football team.
Now, that would be | every young boy's dream, but what you told me is that you felt really uncomfortable | being with a different team, and that's what really | put you off it.
Yeah.
I can see how it relates.
| Mmm.
But Ilike you were saying, I haven't stepped out of | that safety net.
Here we come to the third.
Let's take a vantage point.
Over here, Tom, this is the course | of your metaphorical development, walking up these steps.
12 months.
(CHUCKLES) Yeah, 12 months, | and then as a teenager, and then all the way | to when I first worked with you, and what I saw was a 26-year-old man | on this kiddie diet.
Mm-hm.
So something has not developed | in an adult way there.
You weren't allowed to train your | independence muscle, so to speak.
Then this is what happens.
Yeah, so that's why I stuck with | exactly that diet.
I never wanted to try anything new | because I didn't know It felt, to me, unsafe.
| Yeah.
How would you like | to see your future, Tom? I would like to, in the future, | move out of home, have a family, couple of kids, and progress to the next levels | at work as well.
Let's go up to your future and | feel what it's like for you here.
How does it feel out here? | Yeah, feels good.
Feels really good, doesn't it? And in order for you | to make that future a reality, as you look back on your life, what was needed at 26 | to make this future become true? For me to finally admit to myself .
.
the changes that | I needed to make in my life, like I needed to stop | everybody looking after me and meme take my own | responsibility for my eating.
And not just my eating - just me | in everything, in everyday life.
I think today's session | was very useful for Tom.
He seems to have realised that | it's about themes in his development rather than one specific incident.
He's beginning to join all those | dots together today and realise that what's been holding him back is | this baby-fying aspect of his family that he's colluded with.
Dunno - it feels | a bit awkward, really, cos you think, "26 years old, | I've wasted so much time," like, a good eight, 10 years.
Just gotta, you know, gotta grow up, | I suppose.
I don't know.
NARRATOR: 'Tom's been trying new | foods, but in less than a week he will have to face an entire meal | in front of his family.
Before he can take on the challenge, he still has one final hurdle | to overcome.
' Tom is making real progress, and we had a breakthrough | in our last session, but I feel that Tom's parents | are part of the problem, so today I've got something in mind | that will help them to let go and allow Tom | to start taking control of his life, and therefore his eating.
'Felix is meeting Tom and his parents | for one last session.
' The reason | I've brought you here today is for you to learn | to override your instincts while you watch Tom | doing something really scary.
Right.
Tom, how do you feel about this | at the moment? Yeah, fine, yeah.
| Yeah, I'm quite happy to do it.
This is the plane | he's gonna go up in.
He's gonna jump out.
Tandem jump.
Mmm.
And it's not something | that must be easy for a parent | to watch their child do.
Not really.
| No, not really.
Yeah? So this is really | a learning exercise.
For us.
| (ALL CHUCKLE) MAN: Are you nervous at all, Tom? | Not really.
Not really? Do you know | how high we're gonna go today, Tom? Probably about 15,000ft.
About 13,000ft, yeah, | two-and-a-half miles straight up.
All right.
Cool.
'Tom might be relaxed | about the skydive but, watching from the ground, | his parents are anything but.
' Oh, gosh, | did you see that? (GASPS) Come back.
Come back.
| Come back to earth.
(GASPS) | There he is.
Whoa! Oh, gosh! | That's high, isn't it? (LAUGHS) 'Tom's having the time of his life, | but mum Jill isn't so keen.
' Seems to be an awful long time.
TOM: That's unreal.
Look at that.
| I don't want to come down! (ALL LAUGH) Justeasy.
Oh, good.
(LAUGHS) Oh, well done, Tom! | Tom, you daredevil, you.
Eh? | Yeah, it's good fun! The best bit's the bit | where you jump out the plane.
When you're just, like, | with the parachute up, like, I'd just be, | "Oh, I could just stay up here.
" 'Having survived the skydive, | it's time for a scarier prospect - confronting his parents.
' Walk me through | what was going through your minds when you were watching Tom get up | in the plane and then jump out.
I was scared for him, I think, to | begin with, you know.
Bit fearful.
When you were sitting in the plane, | I thought to myself, "Ooh!" I felt for him there.
I didn't really particularly think | that this is a good idea.
Do you experience something similar | when you see Tom struggle in other areas of his life, | especially around food? Yes.
If you know he's uncomfortable | in a situation, you'll try and perhaps help him | get out of the situation, you know, so that he doesn't | feel uncomfortable, mmm.
We need his family and his friends | to realise that if they step in, loving intentions, to save him, it's actually not training him in | the healthiest way down the line.
Basically, the whole summary | of it all is that I have to grow up | and start doing things for myself and stop letting everybody | take care of me.
You've come to that conclusion | yourself? Well, I've come to that conclusion | with help, but it's my conclusion, really.
Yeah, I think perhaps we don't | actually see it like that, because we're just saying, "Well, Tom doesn't like | to eat any other kinds of foods and this is what Tom's like, and if | he wants to change, he'll change," without realising that, actually, | we're stopping him from changing.
And we've got to be strong, | to actually turn round and say, "No, you've got to do this," because when he hasn't got support | that he's having at the moment, then, you know, he could just | drift back into what he was before, and I don't want that | to happen at all.
It felt good telling my parents that | I need to sort of cut the strings, but it also made me feel | quite embarrassed, really, because I shouldn't be | having to say that at this age.
I should have said it years ago.
Or I shouldn't have had to say it - | I should have done it.
By having to tell them, | it was almost like, "God, I've really got to say this," and the true fact is that I did need to tell them | and I do need to grow up.
NARRATOR: 'For Tom and his parents, Felix's words | are starting to hit home.
' You know, we are approachable.
We I never, like, | thought that you weren't, yeah.
It's just that I just think | I don't really want to sit down and have that conversation, | whereas now I don't mind.
That's what I mean.
You put up this wall | where you wouldn't tell You wouldn't express how you felt because you didn't want to get into | it, because you always thought I'm sure you must have thought we were gonna either | be critical about it or moan.
Not really.
I just thought | just the conversation that I don't really want to have, | because it just sort of It didn't interest me, | talking about it.
Now, I don't mind.
I understand.
You talk about things that you think are a bit painful or a bit boring | or whatever, and then they're | really not that bad.
Like, same with the food and stuff.
'The morning of the final challenge.
Four weeks ago, Tom was surviving | on a freaky diet of baked beans, chips and crisps, and he would make any excuse | to avoid family meals.
Today, he's about to face | his biggest challenge ever - a sit-down turkey dinner | with all of the Christmas trimmings.
' The worst possible outcome would be | that I can hardly eat anything and that I'm still sitting there | with pretty much a full plate.
Then I'll be really disappointed.
I'll be annoyed with myself, feel like I let myself down | and everybody else down.
I think Tom's really nervous | about today.
He's not saying he is.
He said | he's fine, but I don't think he is.
I can tell by the way he's acting | that he's really nervous.
I can't see Tom finishing the plate.
I'd be amazed just seeing him | put a few morsels in and chewing it.
'Felix and Charlotte are on hand to offer Tom some | final words of encouragement.
' Hi, Tom.
| Hi, Felix.
How are you? How are you? Nice to see you again.
| And you.
Hi, Charlotte.
Hello.
Yes.
| You good? Yeah.
How are you? | Not too bad, actually.
Yeah? | Little bit nervous.
Yeah? | What are you nervous about, Tom? All my family are here, | and I want to do well as a way of sort of saying thank you | and not let them down, and let them see | that I actually can do it.
Do you know what you're doing, | what you do a lot here, which is Thinking too much.
| Oh, God, yeah.
Just simplify it down, you know.
I'm just gonna relax and | just take it as another meal.
Yeah, thank you.
Do that.
You've already conquered your fears.
| You've already eaten new foods.
You know you can do it, and if you relax into it, | it's gonna be even easier.
Thanks a lot.
| Take care.
Good luck.
Enjoy your food, and we'll catch up.
Yeah, will do.
Thanks.
See you.
| 'Bye.
If he can overcome his nerves, | then he's gonna do well.
I hope he can do it.
| I hope he can enjoy it.
'Christmas dinners used to | fill Tom with dread.
While everyone else | tucked into turkey roast, he was left munching through | a plate of chips and beans.
Today, he'll be joining them.
' "What do you expect to have | for your dinner today?" (OTHERS LAUGH) | "And will you enjoy it?" No, but I'll give it a go.
'They're being served up a turkey | dinner with brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, | sausages and stuffing.
Tom has never tried | anything on the plate.
' I'm expecting chips and beans | to come out, to be honest.
Ooh, this isn't what I expected.
(FALSELY) Oh, it looks yummy.
(OTHERS LAUGH) SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC Eh.
| (OTHERS LAUGH) 'That's one bite down, but | he still has a whole plate to go.
' SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC You're doing really well.
| I know.
It is strange seeing you eat, Tom.
Do you think, really? | Yeah.
Very unusual.
This has never happened before.
I've never seen you | with a plate in front of you.
'40 minutes later, | everyone but Tom has finished.
But for him, this meal is about | more than just the food.
' There's the bigger picture | to it all, isn't there? Like, I want to be able to | join in with things like this and not feel like | I want to run away.
Like, now I sit down and have a conversation | with Mum and Dad at dinnertime.
'Tom has managed to eat | over half his plate of food.
He's done better | than his family ever expected.
' (ALL TALK AT ONCE) | That's all right.
No, thanks for all coming.
| I've enjoyed it.
Yeah.
Yeah, you've done really well.
Hello.
| Excuse us.
You all right? | Hello, hello.
How are you doing there? I ate quite a bit of the turkey.
| I ate a whole potato.
I didn't like the | Brussels sprouts, yeah.
I tried the stuffing.
I tried the stuffing and I ate | the two sausages covered in bacon.
You ate in front of other people | in this setting, which is unusual, isn't it? And Oh, hello, hello.
Yeah, sorry.
I am listening.
I was just looking | at everybody else's plate to see, like, how I compared.
OK.
I mean, you know, | people do leave stuff, so you're absolutely | on the right track here.
So, I'd just like to get some | feedback from the family.
What's it like for you to see | Tom eating with you this way? It's lovely to see him actually | sit down and eat what we're eating and, for me, not to actually feel he's, you know, | sitting there suffering.
The next step is for, like, | I've been cooking, isn't it Oh, yes, yeah.
| I've got you a present.
It's like an early birthday present, | and I made it myself.
"Tom Bull's Dining Room.
| Mum's Menu.
" Oh! 'Tom has given his mum an invitation to a gourmet meal cooked by himself | for her birthday.
' It's really nice that he's actually picked out everything that I like | on the menu, which is (SOBS QUIETLY) | .
.
very nice.
Sorry.
Thanks, dear.
Yeah, I think you've done | incredibly well.
Just really proud of you and | really amazed.
It's fantastic.
Well, we did it all together, | really, didn't we? Yeah, I know.
Tom, you should be proud of yourself.
| Now everyone else is as well.
(ALL AGREE) And I think you deserve | a round of applause.
Yeah, I mean, for my parents, | you know, especially, both my mum and dad, | I've never heard my dad, like, say, "I'm proud of you" | as much as he did today, and same with my mum, in a way.
So, yeah, it was really good.
(EMOTIONALLY) And it's, like, | I don't know.
It's just something | I haven't really felt before.
But, yeah, it was good.
'One month on, and | Tom's kicked his kiddie diet and discovered | a grown-up passion for food.
' (LOW-LEVEL CONVERSATION I'm eating a lot of pastas, | steak and mixed grills.
Anything they put in front of me, | I'm quite happy to sit down and try it, and I don't fear it - | I look forward to it.
Good evening.
My friends come over.
When they | come over, I cook for them.
So, what have we got, then? Duck l'Orange, is it? Everyone calls me a fat feeder now, cos I just want to | cook for everybody.
Dinner is served.
(CHUCKLES) It looks like he's coming out of | himself more and he's all bubbly, and I think he's conquered | something pretty big for himself, and I think he's | feeling happy about it.
'Home life has improved, and his future is looking rosier | in more ways than one.
' Through changing his eating habits, he's also changed | his whole personality and seems to have grown up | a lot more.
Now that I've learnt that if I | really want to do something, I can, it's just made me, as a person, | feel more relaxed and more positive.
Whereas before it was just eat | to survive, now it's an enjoyment.