Hiring a coach was the best decision I could’ve made! Yes, it was an investment but it was an investment in myself. I know, I know you hear that all the time but here’s why:
I had other coaches and personal trainers in the past but it takes a while to find someone that I could really connect well with or that took the time to really connect with me. At the time, I felt like I had tried every fad diet out there and didn’t see the results I wanted. Keto, intermittent fasting, restricted calories, restricted food groups, followed a strict and structured meal plan. List it and honestly I probably tried it. I was spending hours in the gym and was also doing extra cardio in the mornings because I thought that fasted cardio was the secret for weight loss. My life revolved around the gym. I thought I knew what I was doing, when in reality, I had no fricken clue what I was doing.
My relationships with family and friends suffered, I put working out above everything else. My goals, like a lot of people, were to be toned, have muscle, but not get too bulky (insert eye roll emoji). Initially it was all about fat loss, probably like the majority of you reading this. I was under eating at the time for the amount I was working out and then bingeing around foods that I deemed as “bad” or that weren’t part of my “meal plan”. This restrictive behaviour took a toll on my body, mind and relationships.
Meeting my fiancé is when all of this changed. He saw my current routine and knew it wasn’t sustainable, for MY life. He showed me someone's page on IG, Courtney’s page, and also introduced me to flexible dieting. I vividly remember making breakfast sandwiches one evening before bed and how good I thought it was and it fit in with my macros I had at the time. It was then that I became more flexible with my nutrition and hired Courtney as my coach.
Courtney told me the hard truth that I needed to hear while she clearly explained everything to me, step by step so that I could feel more confident in my choice to work with her. It’s so much easier to trust the process when we know what the process is, right? We took things very slow and focused on more than just the physical changes. We worked on stress management, anxiety tactics, hormones, hunger, recovery, digestion, sleep, energy levels, confidence, mindset work, and more. I can successfully say that I am a WAY happier human now, not to mention a better fiancé, friend, daughter and just overall person.
Working out and nutrition is still very much a top priority in my life. We have built a healthier relationship with both exercise and nutrition in a way that complements my lifestyle. Instead of going to the gym 2-3 times a day to lift and do cardio, I go to the gym 4 days a week to help balance out other stressors in my life. My nutrition isn’t a strict meal plan nor does it restrict food groups; it is flexible and I love it. My coach and I met in the middle to allow more time for other priorities in my life and built habits to still progress towards my goals. We’ve made some serious triumphs and successes that we have overcome together, such as:
Overcoming food fears (honestly I had a lot of fears, carbs, fats, sugars, too many calories)
Overcoming anxiety around holidays, vacation, eating out, etc. - not stressing about being 100% all the time
Understanding food guilt and feeling confident in my food choices
Thoughts of needing to do cardio to burn excess calories
Adjusted my workouts from working out daily to 5 times a week and then down to 4 times a week
Anxiety tactics (going for walks, making lists, slowing down, paying attention to detail, therapy)
Self limiting beliefs (mindset work, therapy again)
Pushed a growth phase (building muscle, increased calories to the most I have ever intentionally had them)
Hit PR’s (personal records with weights in workouts)
Focused on mind-muscle connection & training techniques
These are just a few of the successes I have had since hiring a coach. There are way more but the list would probably be never ending!
There's a lot of honest truth behind these paragraphs. Things I didn't want to come to terms with, things that took me longer to realize. Honestly, I was scared AF when I hired a coach. Like so fricken scared, partially because it was IIFYM approach but it ended up being the best, most valuable experience I have ever done in my whole entire life. I have put more focus on myself in the last 2 years than I ever have. My life has changed more than words can even describe.
So, if you’re thinking of hiring a coach, do your research but I highly recommend it and I know this team is taking applications!
Visit courtneyforlife.com/coaching to see program details and to complete the inquiry form.