Establishing Your Why

If you’re anything like me you are asking yourself these three questions:

1. Why macros?
2. Why me?
3. Why now?

Well, my answer to this can be summarized in one word: vanity. I am not proud of this, I am simply being honest. It was June 2015 when vanity took over.

I have been an athlete all of my life and have looked a certain way. I was a little bit thicker than other athletes, but strong and muscular. I like that look. I have always looked like that. However, after three kids and gaining 65 pounds with each pregnancy getting back to that collegiate athlete look was definitely a struggle. I had been cross-fitting and had been eating a PALEO diet for a year and a half and I still wasn’t where I wanted to be. I had just come to the conclusion that this was my new normal. My new normal was strong, but still fluffy and tired, very tired!

In June of 2015, I went to go visit my best friend Nat. We have been best friends for 17 years. We even played collegiate volleyball together, she was my setter and I was a defensive specialist/outside hitter. We have always been built similar. As a matter of fact, there are a few pictures of us warming up for a match where we honestly can’t tell who is who.

Nat and I many moons ago!

Any who, we decided to take the kids swimming. I went into the bathroom and put on my swimsuit and was feeling pretty confident, I thought ‘not too bad’. Certain areas looked strong while others like my midsection… well they will never look the same. I mean, I’ve had three kids. It’s not like my midsection is going to be my 20’s-sitting-by-the-pool midsection.

I came out of the bathroom and around this giant counter into her kitchen, Nat turns around. She looked gorgeous, lean, and strong. She was shredded like an athletic goddess. I swear it was like that scene from the movies where everything moves in slow motion and her hair swung back and forth and every part of her 14-pack shot out at me and said, “LOOK AT ME!” It was like that moment in When Harry Met Sally, where Harry and Sally were in the infamous diner eating her glorious sandwich (you remember that scene, right?). I felt like I had to say that famous line, “I’ll have what she’s having!”

That’s when I looked at her straight in the face and asked her, “What the heck have you been doing? And do not tell me that it is CrossFit because I CrossFit six days a week and I do not look like you.”

She turned around, in her athletic goddess body, grabbed her English muffin out of the toaster and as she was spreading cream cheese all over it she replied, “Oh I didn’t tell you? I hired a macro coach three months ago!”

Hello Macros!

I was like no ma’am you did not tell me you hired a macro coach three months ago. I don’t even know what a macro coach is, heck, I don’t even know what a macro is but if it is alien GOO then I will eat it if it means that I get to look like you (remember, I had not eaten an English muffin in almost two years and here is this shredded, lean muscled machine eating a damn English muffin right in front of my face!) Then we chatted about tracking macros, MyFitnessPal, and of course Kelli Michelle (fitness and macro counting goddess).

My why a year ago was both about vanity and about being tired of working my butt off and not seeing the results I wanted to achieve. Don’t get me wrong, I know I wasn’t overweight and I know some of you are thinking what is this lady talking about, but I knew that my body was capable of more, I just had no idea how to get there.

Now, 365 days later my why is different. My why is, why not eat more foods I love and need with balance while reaping the benefits of a learner frame and being stronger than ever before. I have found a way to eat that allows me to enjoy foods that I love, foods that I can cook, foods that my family eats, foods that my friends eat, that restaurants make, and why not give myself a guilt free treat. No more cheat days. No more guilt riddled desserts. No more eating clean for five days in a row just to binge on Saturdays and Sundays. No more. I no longer try to cut 200 calories from a 1200 calorie day (you can’t cut nothing from nothing and expect your body to respond in a positive way).

Me, on my way to MORE

I have learned so much about food in the last year and it has given me power over my goals. I have learned how to fuel my body for a given task. Not only have I dropped almost 20 pounds of body fat, but I have gained an intense amount of strength all while eating more food in the right macronutrient counts. It’s absolutely incredible!

WHY day one = Vain
WHY day 365 = food knowledge is power and with power over my food I am a happier healthier version of myself!

In Your Corner,
Krista