Progress Report

Progress Report

After two and a half months with Elite Nutrition and Performance, I am happy to report my progress thus far!

Since I became a sponsored athlete, I have lost four pounds and 3% body fat! This may not sound like much, but I can definitely notice a difference in the way my body looks. I am very happy with the changes I've made during my time with ENP.

I wasn't going to include this, but I received a little encouragement from Kristen and decided to post these...here's a "before" picture:

With some tweaks to my diet and exercise, and some new workout techniques....

Here's my progress!

(forgive the flaming football tattoo on my arm, it was temporary)

I'm proud of the changes I've made to my diet and exercise and excited to see how my body continues to change and improve as I continue with this process. I am forever grateful to Sam and Kristen at ENP for their generosity and support throughout my sponsorship. I only have a few more weeks with ENP, which is bittersweet, but Kristen and Sam have equipped me with healthy lifestyle skills that I can use for the rest of my life.

Thanks, ENP! Y'all rock!

The Lunch Box

The Lunch Box

When I first started my journey with ENP, I struggled with finding ways to keep food available throughout the day for my morning snack, afternoon snack, and meals. I found that when I was away from the kitchen all day, I would miss important snacks simply because I didn't have the proper foods available to me on-the-go.

Enter The Lunch Box.

The Lunch Box became the solution to my problem. I began to pack The Lunch Box with various snacks and meals every morning and carry The Lunch Box around with me wherever I went. I became an expert at packing and storing food to keep it fresh throughout the day. Carrying The Lunch Box around relieved a great deal of stress associated with finding the right food to eat at the right time and kept me on track with my snacking and meals.

As beneficial as The Lunch Box (and still is) was to my busy lifestyle, I nonetheless encountered "lunch box haters" who thought it was amusing that a nineteen year old college student carries around a lunch box all day, every day.

Sure, it may be a little odd that I carry The Lunch Box wherever I go. But, it's convenient to have access to the food that I need throughout the day it and helps me feel healthier and more energetic. So, despite the "lunch box haters," I will continue to carry my lunch box with pride.

PS- I got my ENP Tank this week and I love it! Check it out:

Recruitment is Fun!

Recruitment is Fun!

This week, I have been participating in my sorority's Spirit Week (a week of practice for formal sorority recruitment). My sisters and I have had plenty of time to bond every day, sunrise to sunset, over sorority cheers and team building exercises. This week has been a wonderful experience for my sisters and me. However, some challenges have arisen during Spirit Week and Recruitment with my diet and exercise plans.

Because Spirit Week has been an all-day commitment, I have been exercising with Kristen early in the morning before practice. This has been a little more challenging than I anticipated, since I typically finish my workout and go straight to practice for six to eight hours. This process sometimes feels like a day-long workout. However, thanks to the diet changes I've made during my time with ENP, I haven't felt nutritionally depleted, despite the demands of my Spirit Week and Recruitment schedule.

An unexpected positive aspect of my time with my sorority sisters during Spirit Week is the encouragement they give me to stick to my workouts and diet plan, despite any temptations to "cheat" on my workouts or meals. They have been reading my blog posts and following my journey this summer, and they want me to succeed in my endeavors. They have been nothing but supportive of my lifestyle changes throughout Spirit Week, which is very uplifting.

I still have one more week of Formal Recruitment, which will bring new challenges and successes. However, I am looking forward to receiving continued support from ENP and my sisters throughout the week.

Here's a picture of my sorority sisters on Bid Day last year! Love them so much!

A Soliloquy on Weight

A Soliloquy on Weight

Now that I've been training with ENP for a little over a month, people I see who know about my training often ask about my progress. Usually, the question sounds something like, "How much weight have you lost?" or "Can you tell if you've lost weight?"

The answer I give usually perplexes them, because the truth is, I haven't really lost any weight since I started training with ENP. There hasn't been a radical drop in the scale or pressure to make a certain weight during weekly "weigh ins" with my trainers. The number that flashes on the scale in front of me is not significantly lower than it was when it started. In fact, I have been told that my goal during this journey is to gain weight.

When I was told that I needed to gain weight to meet my goals, every idea of weight gain and loss that society has fed me over the past 19 years made me very doubtful that weight gain could be a good idea.  All the commercials, movies, weight-loss wonder pills, and miracle weight-loss workouts I have been exposed to my entire life had led me (and many other young women) to believe that weight gain was to be avoided at all costs. How in the world could weight gain be a positive thing?

I needed a reality check. 

I needed to learn that weight really is just a number.

Really.

Here are some things I learned when I researched what my weight really means:

1. Your weight is a fluctuating number that is influenced by many factors in your life. Some factors, like your diet and exercise, are under your control. Other factors, like water retention and cortisol levels, are not always under your control.

2. No one knows how much you weigh unless you tell them. The number on the scale is your business, not the world's business. If you feel healthy and proud of the way you look, your weight should not matter to you or any of your peers.

3. You can gain weight and lose inches (seriously). Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you lose fat and gain muscle, you can look great and still gain weight.

So, next time I step on the scale, the number in front of me will not matter. If I gain weight through this journey, I will not fret or question my lifestyle changes. I will take pride in the way my body feels and the strength I'm beginning to gain. I am not gaining unhealthy weight, I'm gaining strength and muscle. I know that I'm making choices that benefit my body, and as long as I'm proud of the way I look, the number flashing on the scale in front of me is irrelevant. Weight is just a number. Really. I refuse to let societal pressures tell me otherwise.

Following The Plan

The Importance of Following The Plan

This week, I learned the importance of giving complete trust to the experts who tell you how to eat and work out properly. When I first started this sponsorship experience, I trusted and respected the expertise of Kristen and Sam. However, I was a little nervous about placing my diet and exercise plans in their hands because I had never worked with a company like ENP before.

As I continue on this journey, I have learned that Kristen and Sam are more than worthy of any client’s complete trust in their diet and exercise plans. In the past three weeks, my diet changes have given me more energy, helped me avoid “bonking out” during my workouts, and made me feel healthier overall.

However, when the plan is not followed properly, complications sometimes arise. Even though I’ve only changed my diet for three weeks, I notice that any deviation from the plan (eating foods with more sugar, fat, caffeine, etc. than I am now accustomed to) causes an immediate change in the way I feel. When I eat foods that are more processed or have added sugar, I have noticed that I now feel sluggish and sick to my stomach, which serves as further motivation to stick to my diet plan.

Example: The Chick-Fil-A Chicken Mini

Last Friday, my Dad went to Chick-Fil-A (formerly one of my favorite fast food restaurants) for breakfast and picked up Chicken Minis (formerly one of my favorite fast food breakfast items). As I previously mentioned, I used to believe that God himself had personally placed Chicken Minis on this earth for the enjoyment of Chick-Fil-A lovers nationwide. So, when I saw the Chicken Minis on the kitchen table, I decided to try one, thinking that just one wouldn’t hurt.

I was wrong.

That single Chicken Mini promptly ripped itself through my system like a chainsaw down a waterslide. Not fun at all. At that moment, Chick-Fil-A and Chicken Minis were off my list for good and I decided that sticking to my plan would be the best option for my new lifestyle. It really is a win-win to eat healthier foods and feel better overall.

No hard feelings Chick-Fil-A, I’m hoping this will be a civilized breakup.

All By Myself

All By Myself…

This week was my second week of training with Elite Nutrition and Performance, and the first time I exercised and made my meals without in-person assistance from Sam and Kristen. Because I spent the week in Hartsville, I was away from ENP for eight days and had to follow meal and exercise plans they gave me before I left.

Although it was difficult to adhere to the plans with all of the options available at restaurants and the sparse exercise equipment at the hotel, I tried my best to make the majority of my meals in my room and go to the hotel gym as much as possible. I even got pretty creative with my meals, which were prepared daily with a microwave and plastic cutlery (thanks Pinterest). And, thanks to my mom, who was there with me the whole week and has decided to change her eating habits with me, I didn't deviate too much from the plans Sam and Kristen gave me. I'm looking forward to returning to ENP and getting back to my normal schedule this week!

Here's a post-workout picture of my mom and me at the hotel gym:

And here's a picture of me at the pageant preliminary just a few hours later:

It's all about the grit and the glamour!

Week One with Elite Nutrition and Performance

Last week, after submitting my Athlete Sponsorship Application to Elite Nutrition and Performance, I had a feeling I would get a polite "thanks, but no thanks" email in reply to my application. I exercise regularly and try to stay as healthy as possible, but "athlete" isn't the first word that comes to mind when I describe myself. However, I decided to apply because I knew I could learn a lot from the professionals at ENP and wanted to learn how to live a healthier life.

So, when I got a congratulatory email from Elite Nutrition and Performance on July 1st, I was pretty excited.

After I recovered from the excitement of learning that I had become ENP's newest sponsored athlete, I began to think about all that the sponsorship would involve. I will be working with Kristen and Sam at ENP for three months, attending five one-hour personal training sessions and one nutrition consultation per week for the next twelve weeks. I knew that changing my eating habits and exercise schedule would improve my lifestyle, but I did have some reservations about making the changes and sticking to them.

At my first nutrition consultation appointment with Kristen, food was on my mind, and I had a lot of questions about it. I wanted to know what I could eat, when I could eat it, and how I could prepare it in a healthier way. 

Kristen analyzed my height, weight, body fat, activity level, etc. during the meeting and used the information to determine how many calories and macronutrients I needed in my diet. To my surprise, Kristen told me I was not eating enough throughout the day, and although I always tried to make healthy choices, she told me that some foods in my diet are not as healthy as I thought they were. She increased the calories in my diet and gave me a sample diet that listed suggested foods I should eat throughout the day. The session was both helpful and interesting, and I left with a positive attitude and plenty of new ideas for my diet changes.

The first few days of my new diet were a little difficult, as I was not used to eating as often as Kristen advised. Some days, I thought I was eating too much and felt a little like Violet Beauregard during her blueberry mishap…

However, as my body became more accustomed to my new dietary schedule, I began to notice that I had more energy and could exercise without feeling like I had "bottomed out" during my workout. I could tell that my body was using my food for fuel and felt like I was working more efficiently. So far, although the changes have been challenging at times, I can feel the positive results, which is very encouraging.

This week was also my first week of personal training sessions with Sam. When I had my initial meeting with Sam after I received my Sponsorship acceptance email, he told me that the sessions would be pretty difficult, especially during the first few days. So far, each session has been challenging, but I try to maintain a positive attitude and put my best effort into each workout.

That being said, sometimes when Sam tells me the workout plan for the day, it can seem a little daunting, especially for someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with weight-related workouts.

And sometimes, I don't exactly feel like a pro when I try a new exercise…

There have definitely been a few clumsy moments during the workouts…

 But I know that with a little more practice, I will improve (and look a little more coordinated) as I gain more experience with my new training plan.

 So far, my experience with Kristen and Sam at ENP has been very positive. Stay tuned as my journey as a sponsored athlete continues!

Inspiration

Here's a little inspiration for my 3-month journey with Elite Nutrition and Performance!