From 2015 to 2018 I was a national athlete in Judo. In 2018 I was experiencing very bad shoulder pain which led to me leaving the sport after fighting in a national competition in Texas. At the time was looking for jobs in the criminal justice world after graduating college.
In August of 2018 I couldn’t continue to do a sport that I loved. I graduated and I had to get a new job. Shortly after getting a new job, had shoulder surgery, and moved to a new city where I didn’t know a lot of people. With me continuing eating like I was a national athlete (without any of the nutrition knowledge) and the amount of stress I was under going during this life change I continued to gain weight.
I didn’t care about what I ate I was tired all the time. I was not motivated to go out and do things or see people. I was stress eating a lot because my main coping mechanisms was working out, in which I couldn’t do due to an injury. I was stepping on the scale not seeing progress and it would make me feel worse about what I was doing to my body. I would sit on the couch and watch a lot of Netflix and play games on my phone instead of getting out of the house. As a single female I didn’t have any one but myself to blame.
I tried Intermittent fasting, Military Diet, Profile Diet, Caveman Diet, Keto Diet… I tried to eat less and work out a ton in efforts lose weight (calories in, calories out), Detoxing, apple cider vinegar none of them really worked or stuck.
As I would attempt to solve my problems I often felt frustrated and felt like all the work I was doing was for nothing then give up and eat whatever I wanted. I was also frustrated at the weight I had gained from being out on an injury for 6 months not realizing that I couldn’t eat the same amount and type of food that I was while I was working out 6 to 7 days a week. I also felt like I would never be the type of athlete that I had been previously due to this set back, but I am coming back stronger than ever before.
CSF was not just a diet or a program but has has an impact on me in the long run, because I really focus on what I am eating and that there maybe be a better options for food choices. I also focus on what the food is going to do for me is it just comfort food or is my body going to be happy because it has the nutrients it needs to keep going.
Copper State FIT was different than any other program because they want you to be able to live your life off of the program. Also, my coach wanted me to eat so much food rather than take away the food. I could hardly keep up with the amount of good healthy food. The program also gave room for error which I hadn’t ever seen before in any program which made me feel less guilty about eating the wrong thing if it happened.
I feel like I realized CSF was working for me when I was doing an intense judo practice then got hurt. While I couldn’t do judo I realized that it was working because I had still made progress without working out , but by simply eating correctly.
Now that I am eating healthier and have more structure in my day. I feel happier and less sluggish by putting the correct nutrients in to my body that it craves. I hated eating vegetables before this journey and now I notice that when I don’t eat any I “feel like what I eat”. So, currently, I eat salad everyday and my body is very thankful for that. I also crave salad, which is feels weird to admit. I also realize that there is a thousand different ways to incorporate more fruits, veggies, and protein into my diet.
I also really disliked “guy” push-ups, so my coach challenged me to do something that I disliked that was hard by starting with one and then building upon that. Now its an everyday activity to either work on getting a lower push-up, doing different types of push-ups, or doing more push-ups. Right now I’m trying to do the same with running, by working on something that is hard that I don’t like and building upon it rather than trying to just go out and run a 5k. By feeling better I can run longer and do more and in the world of criminal justice that can ultimately save lives.
At the very beginning of my journey I received my 1st degree black belt in judo, thus the sign of a new beginning or first steps. This journey has been crazy with my job I had traveled a lot. I spent 4 months in hotels all around the United States. Without the help of my CSF coach, I wouldn’t have actually stuck to a diet… let alone thought about being more conscious of what I was eating.
This taught me a lot about what you actually get when you go to a restaurant, down to the way it is prepared, to me this was a big win. I know that my journey isn’t finished yet and with CSF. To date I have lost around 30lbs, but whats even more exciting is that I have lost around 15% body fat. I have lost so many inches as well all over my body which I began to love taking progress photos to be able to visualize that exactly. Just like my black belt this is not the end of my journey just the beginning of me claiming my life back. I will eventually come back to CSF to refine and build upon what I have learned thus far to become a even better athlete and individual.
Had I not decided to work with Copper State FIT, I believe I would still be frustrated with yo-yo dieting. Trying so hard for a week maybe a month max then giving up because what ever I thought was doing right wasn’t working because I wasn’t seeing the scale move at all. Now I know that for me I have to step away from the scale and grab the camera or the measuring tape if I want to see my progress. I would also be working out super hard thinking that is where progress comes from, when in reality it really all does start in the kitchen and comes with the consistency of playing the long game. With the prize being owning your body because food is one of the very few things we can control in our life.
This is a great program that teaches discipline and moderation. Its not a diet its a lifestyle that they teach and they keep you accountable to that lifestyle and bring you back to why you started this journey to begin with. They also keep you accountable and for me they tell me things that may seem difficult to hear at first but ultimately really do need to hear.
