Q: When did your journey start?
I was active in sports growing up and then in the first two years of college, I slowly stopped running and quickly started eating all the things, gaining 10-15 pounds (depending on the day). My 3rd year of college, I had a free gym membership through working in the Kid’s Club at Gold’s Gym and decided to kick my butt back into shape.
I went to the gym every day for the month off between semesters and lost those 15 pounds. I kept it off without going back to the gym during my “busy schedule,” but mostly because I was a poor college student who only ate two baby meals a day–my nutrition was less than stellar.
Toward the end of paramedic school, I started working out again and got a membership with Anytime Fitness; I wanted to be in shape for my job. I kept steady with the gym on and off throughout the last 4 years and my nutrition fluctuated pretty badly, but it wasn’t until summer 2017 that I saw Kaytlin’s Fight the Fat Challenge pop up on my Facebook.
That’s when everything started with Idealfit for me. March is most recently when I started hunkering down on my nutrition and exercise and learned about macro tracking.
Q: What made you want to make a change?
I wanted to improve my mental health and feel healthier and stronger overall.
Exercise has always helped improve my mind, so I wanted a more structured routine, but the biggest thing for me was/is nutrition. Sugar was not helpful, and I would honestly say led to some dark mental places, mood swings, and overall depression.
I wanted to experiment with cutting down on sugar and eating more whole foods, and I noticed a huge difference in my mood when I did, using macro tracking for the first time through Linsdey.
Q: What tips do you have for others starting out?
I would say, first figure out your why. Why do you want to do what you’re about to do?
If the answer isn’t good enough to you, you won’t follow through or continue with it. That happened to me often on my journey until I really gave myself a life-long reason.
Set a goal that matters to you, and be kind to yourself when you don’t follow everything perfectly; we are all human, and fitness doesn’t need to have so many rules that we tend to put on it. Don’t restrict things, view food as fuel and be mindful of how you eat and what you eat.
Fitness is a personal journey and one size does not fit all when it comes down to nutrition or exercise. It takes some trial and error to find out what works best for YOU and your body and what is going to keep not only your physical body healthy, but more importantly your mind healthy.
You have to be willing to put in the time to find YOUR fitness lifestyle; it will likely change throughout your life–mine still is–but, I promise it’s worth it. You’re worth it.
Q: What have been some of the biggest obstacles you’ve had to overcome?
Nutrition, hands down. It’s hard for me to not restrict and then binge.
I’m honestly still working on having a good relationship with food like the one I talked about above, where food is simply fuel and everything is okay in moderation. I’m learning that by mentally changing your view to say “this food is okay in moderation” it allows you freedom.
If you tell yourself “never eat this” it causes you to want it more and then, if you do cheat, you go way overboard because you’ve already done this “bad thing” so may as well enjoy it so you can start restricting it again, and go back into a cycle.
It’s been a humbling learning experience and I’m grateful for each step of this journey.
Q: What are some of your go-to, favorite meals?
I love oatmeal (with eggs/egg whites and sea salt, or with IdealLean Protein and some other mix-ins); big salads with lots of spinach, veggies, and chicken; Eggs/egg whites with lots of veggies and ground Turkey all scrambled together… And then I make a lot of really weird food combinations and mixtures of things I just throw together haha, and low sugar/calorie treats with IdealLean Protein.
Q: What are some go-to supplements that have helped?
I have used IdealLean Protein and BCAAs pretty much daily for about a year.
The BCAAs help a lot with sore muscles; the protein is just delicious and a great/easy way to get protein in and make some fun foods that don’t add a lot of calories. I also use L-Carnitine and Burner when I want to see optimal results, and have been using Creatine daily after researching its many potential benefits.
Besides Idealfit products, I take a few daily vitamins and have been drinking greens mixed with apple cider vinegar.
Q: What are some of your biggest victories?
Mental wellness/clarity while eating and exercising mindfully. That’s my number one, and my why. I have also enjoyed building muscle, increasing my cardiac output, and seeing gains as strength and achievement with physical activity has always been exhilarating to me.
Q: How has this affected your life?
It is life, really…you are what you eat and exercise keeps you able-bodied to enjoy life.
I love being on a life-long fitness journey and hope to continue setting new goals and achieving/improving on myself and my mental wellbeing.
There is always something new to learn and challenges keep me going.
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The post Faces of Fit: How Christiana Wojcik Lost 15 Lbs Despite Her Busy Lifestyle appeared first on Nutrition and Fitness Articles From Our Experts | IdealFit.
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