Food is Fuel

Health and fitness are a huge part of my life these days. I not only love eating healthy and working out, but I also love to study and learn about health and fitness as well. Nutrition is a huge component of being healthy and being able to achieve your goals. Whether that is to lose weight, put on muscle, maintain, become a better athlete, or get stronger or faster. I had a big "aha" moment this last summer that really changed the way I think about nutrition. I went from a mentality of  "I need to eat to look skinny and fit" to "I need to eat to fuel my body".  When I changed my way of thinking, there was a complete shift in my progress. And a fire was ignited under me! This is where my true passion for it all started.

I want to share a bit of my health and fitness history to help understand where I am now in my health and fitness journey. Before I had my son, I was an NPC Bikini Competitor. I competed for a few years. Every time I would diet down to compete with a typical bikini diet. A lot of chicken, fish, veggies, and low carbs to cut weight.  I would step on stage at 5'9" 125 lbs. I looked great, but I would feel like crap. No energy or strength was left in me by the time I cut weight. And every time after the competition was over I would put the weight back on immediately plus some.

After I had my son, I would try to get my body back using those same methods. It was the only way I knew how to eat to lose weight. I would cut weight, feel like crap and like I was starving, I would feel weak during workouts, and when I would get to a certain weight that I thought I was supposed to be, I would start adding foods back in and would immediately put the weight back on plus some. I did not know how to eat. And what I was doing was not a realistic diet for long term. And when you diet like that, as soon as you start adding foods back in, your body holds on to everything because it's afraid of starving again. I felt like I was in a viscous cycle of weight loss/gain and a slave to the scale. I would weigh myself every morning and drive myself crazy. I was so weight focused. In January 2016 I dropped 12 lbs in 6 weeks and immediately put it back on even though I was doing bootcamp 5 days a week and training for my 3rd marathon. I would do really well with my diet all week doing my typical "bikini" diet, and then I would fail miserably on the weekends because I would feel like I was starving and deprived all week long. I was the poster child for "You can't out train a bad diet." I remember this last May looking at pics of myself running the marathon at my heaviest, in tears, and thinking, there has to be a better answer than this. I love food, I love to eat good food, and I can't go through life starving myself just to look skinny or to weigh this magical made up number that I thought I was supposed to weigh. I did some research and my prayers were answered.

June 1st 2016 I started a new diet plan. I don't even like to call it a diet. Because it's not that. It's a way to eat according to your goals with real food. I dropped 15 lbs within the first two weeks. I didn't lose much more after that, but I keep losing inches. I stopped weighing myself every day. When I did that, I noticed a big mental shift in my progress. I started paying more attention to how I felt and how I looked instead of what the scale told me I should weigh. The scale really does not matter in the big scheme of things. 5lbs of muscle is a lot smaller than 5lbs of fat. And I would really like to keep putting on more muscle. So weighing myself would just cause self sabatogery. From June 1st to September 1st I lost 6 inches in my waist, 6 inches in my hips, 3 in my bust, and 2 in my thigh. Every week those numbers went down even more. I got leaner and tighter and my cellulite disappeared. I was eating a lot more and way more variety. I eat beef, bacon, chocolate, cheese, dairy, nuts. All my favorite things that I didn't think were okay to eat before. I have way more energy, I'm stronger, I've put on muscle, my running times have improved, I'm a better athlete, and I feel amazing! I am so happy! The number one thing for me about the way I eat is that it is sustainable for life. And I could definitely eat like this the rest of my life. It's amazing what eating to fuel your body versus eating to be skinny can do. If you properly nourish your body you will thrive! Food is fuel!