I am not a psychiatrist. I am a 23-year-old girl who fell into one of the most confusing, controversial and interesting industries out there, Health and Fitness. The women I help each day have sparked my interest in so many ways and I decided to make it a personal goal to help all women embrace who they are. I am by no means promoting that ladies who are obese, unhealthy and out of shape should stay that way and be happy with it, but instead realize that you do not need to live life on a diet and spend half your life on a treadmill to try and attain the “ideal” shape.
There is one thing that 95% of the women I work with have in common, and that is a poor body image, insecurities about selecting the proper food options, and unhealthy relationship with food.
Everyone knows what common eating disorders are, Bulimia, Anorexia Nervosa, Compulsive Over-Eating etc., but what if I say that it is my contention that almost every woman out there has an “eating disorder”. I am referring to the eating disorders I help treat everyday that aren’t learned about in school or that do not have formal treatment or special name. The disorder that is responsible for so many of us feeling uncomfortable with the idea of eating food and enjoying meals without the stress that it will increase our waist size, I call that one the social media disorder. How about the fun house mirror disorder that causes you to see yourself as disgusting and overweight even though there are dozens of other girls who would die for your body (but of course if they had it they would instantly find something wrong with it because that is the way it goes). These are the evil precursors to Anorexia and bulimia that no one talks about.
I have several young clients who are either currently receiving treatment for eating disorder or underwent years of treatment. The one question I always ask is “what trigged you to start using destructive behavior to try and get skinny”? To my surprise every girl thus far has had a specific instance that pushed her over the edge. Example, my newest client, a beautiful 20-year-old girl, shared a story about an elite athlete on her volleyball team who was regarded as the best in school and had, what she referred to, as the perfect body. So one day when they were doing running drills outside, she gazed at “skinny girl” and thought, “the only way I will ever be a better player is if I am as skinny as her”. So it began, Two hours of cardio and 300 calories days. This of course, would all stop when she gets to her desired weight. Not. It would never stop, the fear of gaining weight, not looking good enough, or not performing well enough would never stop. Even 5 years “recovered” there is still something inside her that tells me the battle has just begun.
Truth is, what most of you need is the RIGHT information which is oddly difficult to come across. With the handful of simple rules I am going to list you will feel more comfortable making meal selections and working toward a fitness goal:
This can by confusing but its true, frequent meals are what help your metabolism stay healthy and functioning. Most overweight people I work with are “under-eating” or malnourished (funny you never look at a fat person and thought whoa, he/she must be malnourished, right)? But it’s true. They are not receiving a healthy balance of macronutrients they need in a day or even necessarily a lot of calories in a day. Having a healthy balance of protein, fat and carbohydrates at each main meal and eating every few hours or so will make a tremendous difference in your physique.
2. DO NOT DRINK YOU CALORIES.
More and more I see fruit smoothies, blended coffee drinks and even protein shakes being consumed by the dozens per week and people fail to read the nutrition labels of these or fail to understand the implications of these liquid calories. The difference between how food calories and liquid calories are metabolized and effects on blood sugar and thus corresponding insulin release must be understood and respected as well.
3. BREAKFAST
Most people have heard “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” a million times but I still find women are failing miserably at producing a healthy breakfast for themselves. Healthy is not a bunch of fruit and a yogurt. If you want to look how you feel you deserve to, you must get the proper education to understand why certain choices must be made for the result your looking for.
4. RUNNING
If you don’t actually enjoy running and simply run because you think it’s healthy, then stop! Running at a high heart rate for prolonged periods of time DOES NOT And WILL NOT result in the fat loss you think it will. There are far better ways to burn calories from fat, like resistance training!
5. “BUT I DON’T WANT TO BULK UP”
Every single woman I have ever trained has said “I never lift weights because I don’t want to get bulky” I challenge these ladies to try as hard as they can to gain any mass at all, you’ll find it to be an incredibly difficult task (take it from me who has spend countless hours and dollars in bodybuilding). Weight training BURNS FAT, The physical results you will see from just 4 days/week resistance training (and a healthy diet) will blow your mind.
These are just a few highlights from my lifestyle changing approach that I have proven to be effective. I am teaching women how to create permeate solutions to the problems and issues they have struggled with. There is no such thing as ugly; the human body is awesome, you just need to understand it better.
