The Naturale Yogi

My fitness journey started a long time ago actually when I started thinking about it fitness or activity in general was so much a part of who I am as a person. I was one of those kids who enjoyed running about and didn’t really care if I got sweaty, as a child it was just the unfortunate byproduct of play time! I would run fast and chase other kids around, during the short 15 min break time in school I would be playing some sort of variation to the game of tag. It was only around the time I was a preteen when I suddenly cared if I got sweaty or not and that changed me and my daily activity. I chose to sit inside and chat with the other girls because I thought that was what girls should do. Come to think of it I would probably only have guys for friends had I not done that. It was then that I noticed that the weight started creeping up on me.

As a preteen who valued wanting to be liked and accepted by other girls I became as sedentary as they were. Only sticking to chatting in our seats or doing the occasional slow walk to the ladies room to stand around and gossip some more. This continued for 3 years and that was enough to help me gain fat and lose muscle, probably. Then in high school I was made aware by mean boys that I was different from the other girls who were skinny and has tiny waists. Today I know that they too were fat, just skinny fat. Those comments didn’t stop me from doing what I loved which was dancing and so I became a cheerleader. This is when I started making fitness mistakes one after the other.

Not eating enough calories

During the time I was training with the squad I thought that cutting calories would help me get as tiny as the other girls. I didn’t really stay consistent with my calories and food. I didn’t eat whole foods all the time, I would say 40% whole foods and 60% fast food and junk food. There were days I skipped meals hoping I would turn anorexic but thankfully my brain and soul wasn’t broken enough to be that or bulimic. I was a stress eater and I loved the Venti iced white chocolate of Starbucks. I knew nothing about macros and ate whatever I felt like and mostly was processed sugar and simple carbs.

After 4 years of that I graduated high-school and went to university. There I got into marital arts and long distance running. I also joined 1 round of cheerleading competition but ended up focusing on my Engineering program full time so I did my capoeira training and running on the weekends. This is when I made the following mistakes.

Not prioritizing protein

I wasn’t consistently focus on my calories once again. I only considered my BMR which I now know was very wrong and that in itself I think contributed to an injury I have now in my plantar fascia, I was again not eating enough calories while training. I didn’t know about macronutrient ratios so I was probably not eating enough calories or if I ate too many calories it would have been a huge portion of fat and carbohydrates as I absolutely love pasta and pizza. Again I wasn’t consistent with my calories and was in a fasting and bingeing cycle throughout training.

Not focusing on rest and recovery

When I trained for my runs I ran 5 days a week, did 1 day of yoga and 1 day of capoeira training giving myself no days off or when I had days off I’d feel guilty and probably under eat calories. I didn’t listen to all the advice on how important rest and recovery is and that I needed those days to help my muscle have time to rebuild. I would do short runs on non long run training days and that did not help me with my performance. I eventually was able to run a 32 K but it was harder than it should have been had I taken rest days and recovery days seriously.

Not lifting weights

I also did not do any strength and conditioning outside of my training runs. I focused too much on the running and not on helping my other muscles grown through lifting. My legs did all the training and my upper body suffered for not being as strong as my lower body. All the cardio also burned through some of my muscle as there were times I wasn’t eating a lot and it was harder to keep the weight down after an event.

Today I have a more balanced training program and even if I recently over trained, after this latest mishap I now know that the balance between working hard and resting well and nutrition is the key to sustainable and long lasting health. Not rounds of fasting and bingeing and definitely not unstructured training for running events. Consistent work and rest and nutrition is for long term health and I’m glad that I’m starting my 30’s with this mindset and leaving the all or nothing mindset of my late teens and early 20’s. This is my mindset for fitness for life.