I had always been the athlete who ate what I wanted when I wanted and however much I wanted. After I stopped playing sports I discovered the gym and lifting. With that new found love for lifting I started researching anything and everything. What I needed to do to be like all the fitness model athletes. The people I wanted to be. This is where the roots of the challenges I faced for years started.
I was struggling for several years with the cycle of being on and off track with my eating habits. My cycle would usually last about three weeks of pushing myself in the gym and eating the same food every day before I would make whatever excuse and just stop. I was bored and thought that that meal structure was what all athletes did. I was researching and relying on big name websites for information. So much to the point I was drowning in information overload and was questioning everything I was doing around my eating habits. I lost my passion for what I once loved so much.
In these cycles I wanted everything I thought I couldn’t have. If I had a meal outside of my structure, I would feel guilty for hours after. I would continue to eat that way for the rest of the day thinking, “I already messed up, I’ll get back on track tomorrow.” But my eating habits weren’t only negatively impacted by that. I was environmentally triggered. If there was food around me, I wanted it. If I ordered something, I always had to finish my plate. This was my hard earned money and I didn’t want to waste it. My weight would follow those eating habits and I was constantly up and down each month. The cycles left me emotionally exhausted, questioning everything around my routine and mostly just unhappy. I had had enough!
Through my time of working with Shelby, everything started to click. I have more energy and found my passion for the gym and eating healthy again. My meals are colorful with choices and am never bored. I relearned to give myself permission, freedom and most importantly really listen to my body. To pause and tune-in to what it is I actually want and not solve every issue or success with food. There is no longer that sense of confusion or questioning my decisions. I now know what works best for me and my current goal and haven’t once thought about going back to those negative habits. The trust and confidence I have in myself now has traveled over to other areas of my life. Without Shelby I would still be on my three week cycle like I was for so many years. This part of my fitness journey has been one of the best decisions I could have made for myself. I see and feel the changes I have done in such a short time and now know what I am capable of doing!
