Women face a lot of pressure. And have a lot of insecurities. I am no exception. I think my own journey gives me a personal experience to draw from as a coach and relate to my clients.
But women do face a lot of pressure. In the fitness industry maybe even more so.
Let me re-phrase that. We all face a lot of pressure. Society just seems to be a little less forgiving of women’s body. You don’t hear of the term “mombod” spoken with endearment ever. Plus I am a women so I can only speak from my own personal experience.
As an athlete, a Crossfit coach and a nutrition coach I have felt undo pressure to be or look a certain way.
I have been smaller. I have been bigger. Yet, this is me today in my new @target suit ready to hit the beach. ????
It is a process but I am getting clear on where my happiness lies and my priorities are.
I want to feel good in my body. I want to walk confidently in my own skin. But more importantly I want to live my life, feel strong in the gym, perform well, AND not obsess over every macros so that I can have more visible abs, miss out on social activities because I am too concerned over my very restrictive diet or feel miserable in the gym because I am not fuelling my training right.
We often compare ourselves to people who are essentially professional athletes with very different set of genetics, different lives and certainly different set of priorities.
Let’s all walk our own path. Be the best version of yourself. Not someone else. Get real on where your happiness lies.
A year ago I reached out to @brandywann from @in3nutrition for some nutrition coaching. Why would a nutrition coach need a coach?
Number one, I believe in the art of coaching or I wouldn’t have made it my career. And number two, I believe that most of us have pretty big blind spots when it comes to what is best for us. Yes I have the tools, knowledge and experience but when it comes to myself my judgement is definitively clouded.
I knew I was not eating enough to sustain my training volume. I was also aware I had been in this deficit long enough to have created some damage and was fearful of what introducing more calories would mean. Yet I wasn’t happy where I was with my performance or my aesthetics. I had followed Jason Phillips for a while now and loved his dialogue. I also was following closely the growing conversation that we were basically starving our athletes. (This article was ground breaking when it came out http://mikemolloyphd.com/2017/09/18/weve-gotta-stop-starving-our-athletes/) Somewhere along the way looking like an athlete became more important than performing like one. Crossfit is not a physique sport it is a performance sport. Worry too much about your abs and your performance will start to slip, and pretty soon your hormones will suffer too.
Working with Brandy we upped my calories gradually. And no I wasn’t one of those magic responder that got leaner and smaller as I ate more. While the scale did go up, I gave full trust in my coach and soon started to feel major improvements in the quality of my sleep and my moods. But the biggest shift was how many PRs I began to hit in the gym.
The process took time and patience and was not always easy. I had my emotional highs and lows but the gains I made in my quality of life help me gain a better perspective on things. Living on 45g of fat was not sustainable long term unless I was committed to live out of Tupperware eating egg whites forever. It is okay to cut down calories to lose weight, it is necessary even. It just needs to be temporary.
Again, I know this. I coach my clients with this in mind.Just is harder to implement for yourself when dealing with your own internal emotionally charged dialogue.
During the Crossfit Games Open I turned my focus to performance and recovery. I ate more than I ever had. Solely focus on recovery and getting through those 6 weeks. After the Open I still felt beat and puffy and inflamed. We took my first diet break in a long time where I didn’t track for almost 2weeks. Something I needed more than I realized. Again something I can prescribe to others easily when needed but had a hard time allowing myself to do. Hung up on expectations I set for myself as a coach and trainer.
Taking this time allowed me to heal and also begin our first cut since working together to lean out for summer. It’s been 8 weeks now. Am I shredded? Did I lose tons of weight? Not really. Yet, I know despite the scale being higher than a year ago my body comp is where it needs to be. In that time the scale has moved up and down 2lbs, barely noticeable. But my body composition changed, gone is that puffy feeling, I feel comfortable in my clothes again. My strength continues to improve. My performance has not suffered. Crossfit is a sport where body composition does matter, your strength to body weight ratio is important. Try doing a few pull-ups with a weight vest and you’ll see. But the number on the scale does not determine that, your strength does.
And you know what does not build strength? Under-eating! I am competing in CanWest at the end of July It’s my focused event of the summer, so I know I want to be ready for it and I know it’s almost time to start reversing to get back to maintenance macros. I won’t be heading into a comp on a deficit. ☺️????????♀️
After CanWest who knows. It’s off to Whistler for 2 weeks in the sun, I may re-assess and chose to cut further. The important thing I have someone looking out for me. Someone who can make sure I am doing all this with a healthy mindset and approach and that when I am being neurotic and focusing on the scale she can bring me back to my goals and priorities.
Still not sure where your goals are? Performance, aesthetics, longevity? Reach out for support to work with one of our coach and find your own best self. Nutrition is more about mindset than macros. Our coaches are here for you. Beach weather is here. Time to live your best life.
Annie