No diet plan.
No counting macros.
No scales.
And all the food.
I eat whatever I want. When I want. How I want (Yes, sometimes it’s finger-licking good!)
My ‘after’ photo was taken the morning after a dinner with friends.
My secret?
I found a truer purpose for why I wanted to ‘be’ the healthy person.
I wasn’t going to be a healthy person from doing multiple bodybuilding comps.
I wasn’t going to be a healthy person from overtraining and undereating.
I wasn’t going to be a healthy person from eating foods that my body didn’t agree with.
I had to sit down with myself and understand why I wanted to be a healthy person…
Here’s what I ruled out:
Bikini body for the boys – nope.
Bikini body for the girls – ha. No.
Summer body – what happens in Winter?
Yep – out of ideas. - Let’s try again:
Be a healthy person to raise happy and healthy children and increase the length of my life so that I can spend more time watching my kids grow up and less time having to get looked after by them? – umm, hell yes, take all my money now, where can I sign up?
Oh wait, I work for Enterprise Fitness lol.
But it wasn’t always this way.
Like most, my story starts with the classic under-eating and over-training mistake that most girls make.
I wanted to compete and it consumed me, to the point where I neglected all other aspects of my life, including my partner, and it tore us apart.
I was never satisfied with what I saw in the mirror but I had nothing else.
I would starve myself and count every calorie I consumed, trying to live up to this identity of being the ‘fit chick’, when in reality, all I wanted to do was sit down and cry myself to sleep because I was so tired and hungry.
I was far from being ‘fit’.
I was lucky enough to realise I had thrown my life completely off balance, and I needed to do something about it.
The first step towards solving a problem is admitting that you have one in the first place.
Things needed to change.
I relaxed my food choices – reintroducing things that I’ve always enjoyed having, but was too afraid to eat.
I started bringing back elements into my life that used to empower me. That included simple things like making time for my friends, focusing on excelling in my work and studies, working on my finances, prioritizing sleep…
And more importantly, I had to understand what it was that my partner valued from our relationship – and it was spending ‘quality’ time together.
Before I set the goal to compete, we used to laugh a lot and go on adventures and be spontaneous in our activity selection and food choices.
We didn’t have to see each other often, but when we did, I would put aside everything else (my phone, work, distractions) and focus on spending great quality time with just him.
When I made time for him, we were able to make up and ever since, it’s become just like how it was at the beginning, if not better!
I remember Mark saying that in a relationship, “you either grow together, or you grow apart.” And this experience definitely tested our relationship, and we ended up growing together.
So to come back to this, I realised that one of my greatest values is family – and to one day have healthy children of my own. Funnily enough, this is also in alignment with my partner’s values.
And this is the frame of mind where I now make all of my decisions with regards to training and nutrition. Not to become a fitness model or achieve a certain percentage of body fat, but to be a healthy person that can enjoy life without worrying over how her body looks every single day.
More often than not, I make healthy food choices and my body composition since then has been steady, optimal and healthy. Eating fast food or even toast, is not in alignment with my values and I could not physically bring myself to eat those foods because that is a violation of who I have become.
Having balance and understanding what my values are has helped me repair my relationship with food.
I no longer feel any guilt about my food choices because I know I am a healthy person, who eats healthy foods that nourish and fuel my body.
Now, to ‘be’ a healthy person, what did I have to ‘do’?
❌ Eat multiple jars of peanut butter and boxes of chocolate because it tastes good.
✅ Eat wholesome, nutritious meals that don’t fit into ‘the plan’?
❌ Eat less and train harder.
✅ Eat whenever I’m hungry and listen to my body.
❌ Obsess with weighing food and making sure my nutrition is perfect.
✅ Eat out with friends because social life.
Of course, I have my coaches to thank. Not just ONE coach, but all of them – you guys know who you are.
I’ve been lucky enough to only have coaches who have legitimately only wanted the best for me and had not been in it because I was paying them.
It was through the education that they’ve given me and my own experimentation with foods that I’m able to know how to be a healthy person
Thanks to the actions that I ‘did’ every day from ‘being’ a healthy person. I looked in the mirror last week and was shocked to see how my body had changed. It was a waterfall effect of being, then doing and then now, having.
Surround yourself with people who empower you. Always reflect on all the good things in life and what you’ve learnt from the bad. Practice gratitude. And understand why you truly want to ‘be’ a healthy person.
