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Oscar Wilde once defined an expert as an ordinary man away from home giving advice.

Since the advent of the internet, one could characterize the modern-day expert as an ordinary man in their mom's basement giving advice about politics or religion...oh, and boxing as well.

After today's sanctioned weigh-in ceremony, in support of the highly anticipated rematch between Anthony Joshua and newly-crowned unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr., many keyboard warriors are convinced that Andy Ruiz Jr. just lost his coveted heavyweight titles before ever throwing a punch.

Earlier today, in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, the reigning world champion weighed in at approximately 283.7 pounds, almost 16 pounds heavier than his weight prior to his initial bout with Anthony Joshua, who "strategically" weighed in at 237 pounds this afternoon; 10 pounds lighter than his most recent official weigh-in.

After the live weigh-in of Joshua vs Ruiz 2 was broadcast around the world earlier this afternoon, many "experts" shared their opinions on the internet, claiming that Ruiz was making a terrible mistake by coming in heavier.

Theories of being lazy and not hitting the gym, being too comfortable before the rematch, or looking past the former champ towards other intriguing bouts quickly scoured social media forums.

Even the heavyweight champion's current fight trainer, Manny Robles, seemed a bit disappointed and was hoping to see his champion tip the scales around the 255-pound mark.

Perhaps most know better than a veteran coach who trained Andy for seven years.

Andy Ruiz is fat? No problem...

In a recent interview with FightHub TV, hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach argued that his former heavyweight is a much better fighter when he's not trying to shed pounds.

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Joshua vs Ruiz 2December 07, 2019Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaDAZN; Sky Box Office HD------

"I've seen it before," the 59-year-old fight trainer exclaimed. "They (Top Rank, Inc.) took him away from me, brought him to Vegas, assigned him to a new coach, and paid him to lose weight."

"The lighter he was, the more he got paid. But I told them he's not effective at that weight. I said this guy is one of the best fighters in the world when he's heavy.

He puts combinations really, really well...better than any heavyweight I've seen, and he absorbs shots well. I've never seen him hurt by a body shot or headshot. He won the title fat...what's wrong with that?"

"Why? Because he looks a bit more presentable? Look, this is not a modeling show! This is a fight! I don't think he needed to lose weight. If anything, he's more effective when he's heavier."

Most great trainers agree that a fighter shouldn't be worried about weight during camp, and should solely be focused on devising a game plan while committing said strategy to muscle memory. Perhaps the boxing anomaly that is Andy Ruiz feels most confident when he's not worried about shedding pounds in the gym.

Roach contends that his former fighter simply doesn't feel as good or as strong when he focuses on losing weight in the gym.

"When he takes that weight off, he gets weaker, and he doesn't feel that good. Look, he just beat one of the best fighters in the world and beat him easily while he was fat."

Freddie also stated that he agrees weight was going to be an issue in the eventual rematch, but not for the current champion.

"Joshua needed to lose weight because he was having trouble carrying that muscle around. It wasn't helping him. He needed to get back to what got him the gold medal...which was quick hands and quick combinations. He needed to lose weight, Ruiz didn't."

In the theater of the unexpected that is Heavyweight boxing, anything can and often does happen in the ring.

So if Ruiz does indeed lose the big rematch in Saudi Arabia, it won't be because of Andy's weight, and sole credit should be given to Anthony Joshua for defeating a champion at the top of his respective game.

What is your take on Andy Ruiz's weight going into the rematch with Anthony Joshua?

Please respond to the comment board below!!

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Andy Ruiz: Fat heavyweight champion is best when beefy - FightSaga

OpinionThings will go very wrong. A large majority allows them, at least, to go very wrong quickly and clearly

Friday, 13th December 2019, 3:10 pm

It was a terrible result. But it wasnt the worst result. Because it was clear and there is solace in clarity.

For some time now, I have been wargaming the three possible election outcomes. Like everyone who had looked at polling in any detail, or had talked to any Labour canvassers, those three outcomes all involved Johnson winning. With no majority, with a small majority, with a large majority. For some time now, I have thought that Boris Johnson with a small majority was the worst of those three outcomes.

Its a strange thing for a progressive to say: if we must lose, let us at least lose badly. But imagine for a moment Johnson with a small majority, at the mercy of the most extreme forces in politics, within and outwith his party. At the wheel, with the ERG as navigator. Needing the DUP. Terrified of Nigel Farage. Having promised an impossible trade deal by the end of 2020 and hostage to people who would have no deal rather than extend.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today

The ERG is firmly back in its box. The DUP returns to a position in which its regressive views will carry the tiny weight they deserve. Nigel Farage is a laughing stock and his Brexit Party will no longer exist in a year. All this is as it should be.

Now, Im not one of those people who think being in public office somehow magically transforms the basic character of a person for the better. We tried soothing ourselves with that fairytale when Donald Trump was first elected. Stress usually has the opposite effect.

Nor do I think Johnson is a closet liberal, who - unshackled from the ERG - will show his true Europhile colours. But I would like Johnson to at least have the option to be a better Prime Minister than I expect him to be. It is better for the country for him to have that option. An unpopular populist can be a far more dangerous animal than a popular one.

This truly abysmal result also has the potential to cauterise the gaping wound of ineffective opposition that has plagued our body politic for so long. The simple, inescapable truth is that Johnson managed to unite the minority who still want Brexit, while Jeremy Corbyn and Swinson failed to unite the majority who do not.

Again, this is not to predict that Labour will suddenly see the light. All the early signs are that they wont. Most people from the Jeremy Corbyn camp, this morning, have been blaming everything except their camp. Our videos were seen by 70 million viewers, said Momentums Laura Parker on the BBC this morning. Well, millions of people watched the video of Burger, the very angry cat, and it didnt make Burger prime minister.

Fifty three per cent of voters yesterday voted for parties that advocate a second referendum. It will, unfortunately, count for little. Ironic that while Brexiters have complained for years about their vote being ignored, the most ignored voters throughout this period are the millions of people - a majority - who continue to think Brexit is a terrible idea.

And this last point is the most dangerous pitfall a large majority carries for Johnson. He is architect and owner of Brexit and he is fresh out of excuses. There is now no obstacle in his way. No remoaner Parliament, no judicial reviews, no Theresa May. His bluff has been called.

He now has one year to deliver the magical Brexitland he promised. A Brexitland with no downsides; a Brexitland defended by an invisible border; in which migrants are always doctors and nurses, but never patients; which forces economic giants like the EU and the US to bend to our trading wishes. No more the dog ate my homework. The people expect.

The weight of such undeliverable expectation has crushed much sterner men than Johnson. Things will go very wrong. A large majority allows them, at least, to go very wrong quickly and clearly.

Alex Andreou is a writer and co-host of the Remainiacs podcast

Originally posted here:
Boris Johnson's majority wasn't the worst result - his bluff has been called - inews

She may be married to a famously ripped Marvel superhero, but when it comes to fitness Elsa Pataky is as real as they come.

At 43, the Spanish actress who relocated to Byron Bay with husband Chris Hemsworth and their three kids five years ago is on a mission to share her fitness philosophy, which includes doughnuts (!!) and a refusal to use the scales.

"I never weigh myself," Pataky tells 9Honey Coach from Sydney's Park Hyatt.

"When I was younger, I used to. But I think it's a bad thing to do, because one day you might eat a little bit more or drink a little bit more and it shows on the scales and you start getting obsessed."

Pataky is promoting her new book, Strong, which explores her approach to diet and fitness. But don't expect any shortcuts.

Growing up in showbiz, Pataky has tried all the fad diets. "Sometimes they will help you lose weight really fast, but know that the weight you've lost will come back just as quickly."

Pataky says we should be making small diet changes with a long-term goal of a healthier and more active lifestyle.

"I don't believe in miracles," she says, adding that in the last few years she's had to work harder than ever.

"You really start seeing changes in your forties. With age, you start losing muscle and you have to work out even more, like I have to work much harder on my glutes because I want to keep them up."

That said, Pataky does believe in treating yourself admitting she has one "cheat day" a week.

"I love desserts and I love sugar," she says.

So what does an Elsa Pataky cheat day look like exactly? A break from her five-day training schedule and a green light to eat her favourite foods: "pizza and Krispy Kremes one, two, sometimes three."

"It's not a life to be suffering all the time, you need to have those moments of pleasure like eating sugar and when I eat it I really want to enjoy it and be happy about it."

Strong by Elsa Pataky is published by Plum, RRP $34.99

See the original post:
The one thing Elsa Pataky wants you to stop doing - 9Coach

Charlie Neibergall/AP/Shutterstock

July 25, 2019, Des Moines, Iowa. In many ways, it was a race day like any other for Allyson Felix, the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history. Here at the U.S. outdoor championships, Felix's movements before her first-round heat in the 400 meters were practiced: She waved and smiled, then dropped her eyes to focus on the lane in front of her. She shook out each of her legs in turn, shifted her weight from side to side, nodded her head, glanced up at the crowd. This time, though, the announcers had a surprise for her, an introduction that included a special new honorific: "Camryn's mom."

Eight months earlier, Felix went in for a routine pregnancy checkup and was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia; her daughter, Camryn, was delivered not long after, via emergency Caesarean section, eight weeks early. Felix thinks of this as the moment her life changedwatching her premature baby fight for her own, over 29 days in the NICU. Now, Felix was stepping onto the starting line for the first time in more than a year. Her plain black racing tank and shorts had no visible logos, no Nike swoosh. For the first time since 2003, sheAllyson Felix, six-time Olympic gold medalist, 11-time world champion, by all accounts an unimpeachable star in her sportwas racing unsponsored. She was in a stalemate in negotiations with Nike, her sponsor since '10; the company, she says, wanted to pay her 70% less after childbirth and refused to implement maternity protections in her contract.

"I had a lot of nerves on that starting line," she says. "I didn't know what to expect. I'd never done this before. I was putting myself out there at nationals and feeling really vulnerable. And when they introduced memy mind was so consumed with everything else. But with the crowd welcoming me back that way, it was really special."

Then, the crack of the starting gun. Over the next 52 seconds, Felix ran a measured race, shaking off a bit of the rust that had accumulated over the previous year, and finished fourth. Much of the commentary around her performance was about whether she would qualify for worlds, or for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. But she got a taste of what it was like to race again; she knew what she was capable of.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Two months later in Doha, Allyson Felix would make history, breaking Usain Bolt's record for the most world championship titles ever by earning her 12th gold, in the mixed 4x400 meter relay. And she would win another on top of that, for the women's 4x400-meter relay; she ran the fastest split in the prelims. With that, the tenor of the commentary turned. It became something else: a celebration of athlete mothers who are proving that they can still achieve, and achieve at the highest level, despite sponsors sending the messageloud and clear, through diminished paychecks and stalled contract negotiationsthat they don't believe in athletes who have had babies.

The year 2019, Felix says, has been all about the fightfor her health, for her daughter, for women and mothers, and for what she and other working athlete mothers deserve.

It was the year of #DreamMaternity. Track and field stars including Felix, Nia Ali and Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce all stormed to victory with world championship gold after becoming mothers: Ali in the 100-meter hurdles, 16 months postpartum; Fraser-Pryce in the 100 meters, two years postpartum. Serena Williams, who confronted serious complications with childbirth two years ago, roared back to four Grand Slam tennis finals starting at 10 months postpartum; she is once again tantalizingly close to tying Margaret Court's record of 24 major titles.

Chuck Burton/AP

In October, WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith tweeted that she was pregnant during the 2018 season, in which she finished in the league's top 15 for points, assists, steals and minutes per game, and then gave birth to her son in the off-season. "Didn't tell a soul," the Dallas Wings' guard wrote. But she said that she took two months away because of postpartum depression, "with limited resources to help me be successful mentally/physically." In November, six months after her son was born, she scored a team-high 19 points for the U.S. women's national team in its exhibition game win over Texas A&M. It was an emotional return.

This was the year that many of these athletes spoke out loud for women's rights and contract protections during and after pregnancy. To be specific: They did not want to be punished for starting a family, and they wanted better supports put in place for working momsthe hidden realities that actually make it possible for them to perform at the top of their game.

There has always been silence surrounding maternity in sport. The situation in a sport like track and field or tennis is especially fraught, given that athletes depend almost entirely on sponsorship and prize money for income, versus salaries in professional team sports like basketball or soccer. But even salaried players often lose a percentage of income during pregnancy, childbirth and the months that follow, with specific policies varying by sport. The WNBA, for example, pays players who are out on maternity leave at least 50% of their salary, as part of the league's collective bargaining agreement.

Fearof losing income and professional careers that they have spent their whole lives buildinghas led many women to hide their pregnancies, to keep their experiences quiet, and to return to competition as quickly as possible. They pretended that they never left, never became mothers, never had to carry all the weight of responsibilities related to that role in their lives.

Felix had privately felt that fear. But in May, she joined Olympic runners Kara Goucher and Alysia Montao in speaking out in two high-profile New York Times op-eds about the lack of maternity protection in athletes' contracts. All three runners had been sponsored by Nike at one point; all three were penalized financially during their pregnancies, despite the fact that Nike ran highly-praised ads claiming to support and elevate women at all stages of their careersincluding motherhood.

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Montao is famous for being "the pregnant runner." In 2014 she ran the 800 meters at the U.S. track and field championships while eight months pregnant, her signature yellow flower tucked behind her ear, before a rapt, cheering crowd. She did the same thing in '17 while five months pregnant. She said it was galling that Nike told young girls to "Dream Crazy," and then paused athletes' contracts (and by extension their pay) when they decided to become mothers, and helped create a system that rushed them back to competition in a way that was hazardous to their health. In '15, Montaowho also saw her pay reduced during pregnancy under Asicswon two national championship medals, at six and 10 months postpartumbut she had the torn abs to go along with them. "How about when you tell my daughter you can achieve anything," she told The New York Times, "you back it up?" And so #DreamMaternity was born.

Seth Wenig/AP

Goucher, the three-time NCAA champion, Olympic distance runner, and newly minted ultramarathoner, has been a vocal advocate for what is necessary for women to succeed in running. While she was pregnant with her son, Colt, in 2010, Goucher worked to be an active, visible figure on Nike's behalf. "Photo shoots, magazine interviews, 20-some appearances when I was pregnant," Goucher says. "I ran every single day. To be honest, that's when my popularity boomed. That's when I was the most requested track and field athlete at Nike, they told me. I was relatable." Imagine her surprise, then, when Nike stopped paying herand didn't tell her. She found out through her financial adviser, after a missed quarterly payment.

At the time, hers was a single-income family; she and her husband, Adam Goucher, also a prominent Olympic runner, could not afford the suspension of pay for 18 months. Nike's contracts are exclusive, which meant that she could not easily turn around and work for someone else. "I couldn't believe it," she says. "I loved Nike. They said, 'We don't pay you to tell your story. We pay you to run, and you're not running. You have to get back into racing.'" After giving birth in September, she rushed back into training, to prepare for the Boston Marathon in April. During this time, Colt developed a lump in his neck.

"He had surgery on Wednesday; I had a race on Sunday. Looking back, it was crazy," Goucher says, her voice breaking still more than nine years later. "I had no choice. I left my son in the hospital and went to train. In this time, I'm everywhere. I'm supposed to run Boston, but I'm not getting paid. It was so stressful." She finally settled for six months without pay and an additional 12-month contract with a nondisclosure agreement. She developed hip pain that led to a stress fracture in her femur. She would go on to have hip pain for the rest of her career.

Robert Beck

"I never want that to happen to someone else," she says. "I never want someone to feel they have to rush back to superhuman level and have this happen. Why not have an athlete fall into a second pattern, with more appearances, 12 months to heal? Come back when you're ready."

As a female athlete, Goucher also paid a price in a different way: In 2015, she was a whistleblower on doping practices by coach Alberto Salazar in Nike's now-dismantled Oregon Project, and was vilified for it. Five months after Colt was born, Salazar, unhappy with Goucher's weight, pushed her to use a synthetic thyroid hormone, but she declined. People often asked why she and otherslike Mary Cain, who recently came forward about similarly abusive treatment under Salazardidn't speak out earlier. Well, potential lawsuits because of NDAs; fear of retribution, of being blacklisted, of losing sponsorship. Goucher says she got death threats after going public. The list goes on. "Someone wrote, She's not even pretty anymore," Goucher says. "I had to laugh at that one."

(Salazar has apologized in general terms, for hurting athletes with "callous or insensitive" comments, but he denies encouraging his athletes to take any banned substance or to maintain an unhealthy weight. He is currently serving a four-year ban for doping violations.)

Felix said that Goucher and Montao were heroic. Though she was afraid, Felix watched and supported them, speaking out in her own op-ed 10 days later. She realized that she had to use her influence and push for change. "If not me," she said, "then who?" Together, they amplified the message, bringing their sponsors to task. Several companies, including Burton Snowboards, Brooks Running and Nuun Hydration, quickly responded by writing pregnancy and postpartum recovery protections into athlete contracts. After a major public backlash, Nike announced an updated policy in August, removing performance-related contract reductions for pregnant athletes for a period of 18 consecutive months, starting eight months before a mother's due date. A company spokesperson says the policy "ensure[s] no female athlete is adversely impacted financially for pregnancy."

There's no doubt that the movement to secure better working rights for athlete mothers is growing. But are companies and sports' governing bodies doing enough?

On July 31, several days after her return to competition, Felix announced on The Today Show that she had become Athleta's first sponsored athlete, "redefining what sponsorship looks like." What exactly does that mean? "It means taking a holistic approach, instead of just one-dimensionally," she says. "It's supporting me as an athlete, but also as a mom and an activist. And it's partnering with a company whose mission really aligns with my core belief of empowering women and girlsnot just in winning medals, but also in creating change. That's very unique. I would like to see more of that." Her own experience inspired her to advocate for black maternal health: Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth and twice as likely to have complications.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

In October, Montao launched a new podcast called Keeping Track, in which she and two other Olympians, Molly Huddle and Roisin McGettigan, discuss women in sports and the issues confronting them. One of their earliest guests was Nia Ali, who talked about the nitty-gritty of being a working athlete mom: nursing and pumping on the road, negotiating sports contracts, parsing out USATF policies for accommodating families at meets.

The first time Ali became pregnant, she told Montao, she was "scared s-------" about her contract. Nike found out; her contract was reduced, and she accepted it. In 2015, her son, Titus, was born; she came back the following year and won the world indoor title when he was 10 months and a silver medal at the Rio Olympics when he was a year old. The second time around, she was bolder in her negotiations with Nike. In the four years between her first and second child, Ali said that the contrast is "night and day."

"Now, people are just rooting for you," she says.

Goucher, 41, is now sponsored by Oiselle, a running apparel company founded by CEO Sally Bergesen, who herself has been outspoken when it comes to representing and supporting women in sports. The company is known for sponsoring women through pregnancy, most famously the distance runner Stephanie Bruce, now 35, who has only been getting faster since giving birth to her two children, ages four and five.

Goucher and Felix both agree that in an ideal world, the default sponsorship model would have maternity protections written in. Oiselle's contracts have no performance-related requirements or reductions, so pregnancy has no adverse impact on an athlete's income. "You have the fastest women in the worldif you rush them back to competition, you will shorten their careers because of injuries," Goucher says. "It's a chronic pattern. If we give them more time to recover, maybe then it's six or seven more years of having this athlete working with you."

Nike's announced contract changes around maternity, Felix says, are a great first step. "Could they do more? For sure. As a leader in this industry, they can do that. They can start to create change and make this a norm."

Her experiences at nationals and worlds with her daughter have convinced her that both sponsors and sports organizations have to do better. "Everybody loves when Cammy is aroundthey love her at the track, at the shoots," she said. "That's great. That's about a story, to connect with female consumers. But I don't think people think about how she gets there. Who is watching her when I'm training, or racing? As a nursing mother, if I have a roommate at worlds, how do I feed a child in the middle of the night? Out of pocket, I have to get another hotel room. Every small thing. Where do I wash my bottles? Where do I get hot water? There are so many more ways we can support our mothers who are also athletes."

The reality is that there are very few women in elite coaching, organizational or sports executive positions of power to understand firsthand what female athletes face on a daily basis. But the hope is as that changes, with increased institutional support and more women making decisions at the top echelons of sports, the continued success and longevity of female athletes will become the norm.

This past summer, the U.S. national women's soccer team electrified viewers with its fourth World Cup victory, inspiring the crowd in the Stade de Lyon to erupt in a thunderous chant of "Equal pay! Equal pay!" The trial date for the lawsuit that members of the women's team have brought against U.S. Soccer is set for May 2020. It seems fitting then that co-captain Alex Morgan is expecting a baby girl in the springand that she also has every intention to compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

"There are so many women that have been able to come back to their respective sport after pregnancy and continue to have a successful family while playing their sport that they love at the highest level," Morgan said last March, at the unveiling of a new soccer pitch in Gardena, Calif. U.S. women's soccer has an impressive history when it comes to players coming back after becoming momsJoy Fawcett, for one, who, after having three children from 1994 to 2001, famously played every minute of the '95, '99 and '03 Women's World Cups. Morgan's plan is to follow in those footsteps, with her daughter in tow.

Felix is getting ready for 2020, too. But she's a different person than she was a year ago. On Nov. 26, just two days before her daughter's first birthday, Felix was in a reflective mood.

"As an athlete, I feel like I can face anything now," she says. "I'm more grateful when I come to the track. I used to take myself for granted, even the ability to run. That's not the case anymore. I have a new motivation. Before, everything was consumed by winning. Now it's still that, but the purpose and driveI'm always thinking of my daughter. I want to be able to tell her what this is like, what being a strong woman is like, overcoming adversity, having strong characterthat's so important to me now. It's monumental. This is the most confident I've ever felt. I've been thrown out of my comfort zone, and I've had to adapt. And I've grown because of that."

Goucher says she was defensive when she first became a mother, because she was afraid she wouldn't be taken as seriously as a runner. "I downplayed that I was a mom," she says. "Now we're embracing that motherhood doesn't weaken youit adds to you being hardcore. Serena, Allyson, Alysia: We're building on each other, lifting everyone else's voices bigger and bigger, until you have to pay attention. It's a turning point."

Bonnie Tsui is a Bay Area-based journalist and the author of the new book, Why We Swim, which will be published by Algonquin Books in April 2020.

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Meet the Women Who Are Changing What it Means to be a Mom and a Professional Athlete - Sports Illustrated

Name: Alissa Mashburn

Age: 31

Residence: Massapequa, NY

Job: Administrative Assistant

Home life: Single, lives alone

Peak weight: 235

Current weight: 140

Alissa Mashburn has lost a substantial amount of weight not once, but twice. "After losing 70 pounds, I thought it was going to be easier to maintain than what it was," she says. "I stopped going to the gym. And slowly but surely, started eating everything I missed from my dieting era." To get to her weight-loss goal, Mashburn had put herself on a very restrictive diet no carbs or sugar plus two-a-day workouts that involved a two-mile morning run followed by an evening stint at the gym.

It wasn't sustainable. "I noticed that my weight was creeping back up, so I did what many sane dieters do ... I hid the scale. Put it away so I wouldnt have to look at it," she says.

Mashburn started a new job in September of 2018 and found herself surrounded by temptation. "There was nothing but food and stress as far as the eye can see," she says. "Every day someone was bringing in treats or candy and I was having to learn an entirely new process. So this combination meant, by the middle of October, I was weighing in at 230."

It was a combination of seeing that number on the scale and a change in her relationship status that pushed her to make a change. "I also became single for the first time in my adult life, and I used that as my motivation for putting myself and my health first," she says. "Self-care and self-love really became the staples of what I was doing this for. I deserved to be healthier and look the way I wanted to look, feel the way I wanted to feel."

In October of 2018, Mashburn started with a simple goal: to walk three miles in 30 minutes Monday through Friday after work. "Even that was tiring," says Mashburn. "[On the treadmill] my walk was a 3.0 and my run was a 5.5, no incline. I would stay at a speed for a few days and then up it by .1." By the end of the month, she felt her stamina increase, and even noticed her clothes were looser.

During month two, Mashburn added resistance training into the mix. "I'd complete my three miles on the treadmill, hop over to the Stairmaster for a quick 10-minute walk/jog up those steps, then head over to the weight machines," she says. At first, the machines she chose were at random. "I'd jump on whatever was free at the time," she says. Mashburn would then head home to do at home resistance training (exercises she was too embarrassed to do at the gym). "Any sort of crunches/core work was always done at home because I wanted to get better before anyone saw me work out my toughest parts," she says. "I was sweating and cursing and did not feel ready for anyone, even like-minded workout souls, to see me struggle like that."

Her typical at-home workout consisted of:

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"My at-home workout is where I really felt the difference," says Mashburn. "I was losing a few pounds every week. My muscles were looking toned and while I was exhausted because of the long hours of working out, my body never felt stronger!" After five months, she was down 40 pounds.

Having tried and failed at keeping the weight off with a super restrictive diet, Mashburn made sure she wasn't setting herself up to fail by dieting in a way that was so limiting it wouldn't be sustainable in the long run.

"During the first month of this journey I made some quick cuts to the amount I was eating as well as being aware of the amount of sugar I was putting into my body," says Mashburn. "I had to start seeing food as energy and sustenance, not just something to kill the boredom." To make sure she didn't feel deprived, Mashburn still paid a visit to her favorite fast-food chain, Taco Bell, 3-4 times per week though she modified her order to include less items. "It let me keep some semblance of my normal routine, and still let me have something delicious while losing weight," Mashburn says.

Mashburn educated herself on portion sizes during her first few months of the diet, paying attention to the serving size on labels and making sure to proportion her snacks and meals accordingly.

She also scheduled her meals and snacks around her workouts. "I would eat breakfast at 8 a.m., a snack at 10 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., a small snack before the gym and dinner whenever I got home from the gym," she says.

During her weight-loss journey, Mashburn didnt take anything out of her diet completely, but modified the amount, which she says was key. "I knew that if I didnt allow myself to have what I loved I would binge on it whenever I gave myself the opportunity and do more harm than good," she says.

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How one woman lost 95 pounds and still got her Taco Bell fix - NBC News

When overweight Newcastle United fan Joe Jensen had to squeeze through the turnstiles to watch his team play, he realised he had to do something about his eating habits.

Stuffing down what ever he could Joe ballooned to 23 stone 8 lbs and was in XXXXL clothing.

Realising he needed to lose weight he joined the Man v Fat Football programme. Being signed up to a football team made of guys wanting to shed the flab, he was on a mission to get to his goal weight.

Now Joe has lost over nine stone and is down to 14 stone 4 lbs which allows him to now slide through the turnstiles with ease to watch the Magpies play.

Ive got to be honest and say that before MAN v FAT Football life was just normal ever since primary school Id always been overweight so it had become the norm. I didnt think about what I would eat or drink, I just bought it and ate it, said Joe, 32, of Newcastle.

Despite being massively overweight, morbidly obese to put it in medical terms, I was still moderately active but some activities when volunteering with the Scouts became more tricky and I had long since given up playing sport.

I had to shop at specialist big and tall ranges and might as well have had shares in one well known high street store for bigger guys. It really limited the choice of new clothes I could get and Id have to plan ahead by ordering online.

The call centre leader added: I cant point to one eureka or lightbulb moment when I made the crucial decision that things had to change. For me it was a combination of factors building up over time. Having to look at XXXXL clothes instead of XXXL as the weight was building, the guy on the turnstile at St James Park making a snide remark as I squeezed through, and feeling like I was going to collapse after getting an enthusiastically applauded rounder on a work charity day. I also had the holiday of a lifetime booked for six months time, so it seemed like an ideal time to make a change for the better.

Joe saw the Man V Fat Football on Facebook and decided to join up.

I had nothing to lose and despite previously playing quite regularly, I hadnt played football for years, said Joe.

It was nerve-racking signing up for it by myself but the league coach quickly got in touch and there was no looking back.

I turned up on registration night to a long queue leading to a set a scales. Had it not been for guys in the queue who were returning for the new season chatting to me I may have freaked, walked out and never returned. They were hugely supportive and before I had been registered and weighed I had a good idea of the rules and setup.

When I joined the Newcastle league it had already been running for a couple of seasons. There were six continuing teams and then two teams of brand new players. At first, I was nervous as we were all completely new to it but we quickly settled in and everyone from across every team was really supportive of each other.

As a newly formed team, we really struggled on the pitch. I think we won only one game in that first season, but off the pitch we lost shedloads of weight.

As a team, we won the weight loss league and I was the top loser, shedding at the time 32.8kgs. Weve had a few players come and go but we finished our third season winning the football league, combined football and weight loss league and I was the top loser again which I was really chuffed with. We had 4 of the top 10 weight loss scorers, so that team spirit has worked wonders.

Beyond our team though I think the ethos and camaraderie throughout the league is what makes it successful. At times and particularly in the heat of the moment things can get heated but the support and encouragement for each other is always there.

Joe is delighted with his weight loss.

He added: Losing the weight and improving my fitness has had a colossal impact on my life. Ive achieved multiple goals, Ive played on the hallowed turf of St James Park, Ive run - well, jogged - the world-famous Blaydon Races, Ive bought normal sized clothes from normal shops and I can slip through the turnstiles at the football with finesse now.

Due to the weight loss, some people havent recognised me and my parents neighbours thought they had a rarely seen third son. There have been challenges with injuries and health issues but Ive remained positive and with the support of those around me have continued along the journey.

Ive had so many positive comments from people that have encouraged me and Ive used this to fuel my passion along the way so a big shout out to everyone who has supported me along the way.

Joel says his weight loss is down to joining Man v Fat Football.

He said: Losing weight is about a calorie deficit. People who do the cabbage soup diet dont lose weight because theyre eating cabbage, they lose weight because their body is using more calories than theyre consuming. So for me tracking food and creating a bank of go-to meals and snacks was crucial.

With my sweet tooth Im thinking Tunnocks teacakes which are 100 calories, 90 calorie brownie bars and tonnes of strawberries.

Anyone wanting more information on Man v Fat Football visit their website here.

See the rest here:
Meet the Newcastle United fan who lost nine stones after squeezing through the turnstiles - Chronicle Live

The last two or three excruciating pounds felt like losing 20 for Oscar Valdez. Making the 126-pound weight limit was becoming a more arduous grind than the fights themselves. But Valdez, despite the physical and mental battle that had left him dried out and fatigued, had done it.

Valdez headlined a card for the first time in June and scored a knockdown of Jason Sanchez in the fifth round of his featherweight world title fight. He cruised to a 12-round decision victory, but on that night in Reno, Valdez was far from spectacular and never came close to stopping Sanchez. He looked like a car that couldn't get out of second gear.

"The last couple of fights, I was going through hell just trying to make weight," Valdez said. "I was nothing after the fifth or sixth round in the fight [against Sanchez]. I wasn't feeling myself. I felt like I had no more power. I felt like I hadn't trained enough. I didn't have the stamina. I put that on the weight."

Top Rank Boxing is now on ESPN and ESPN+. Subscribe to ESPN+ to get exclusive boxing events, weigh-ins and more.

Saturday, 2 p.m. ET on ESPN+: Zolani Tete vs. Johnriel Casimero, 12 rounds, for Tete's WBO bantamweight title

Saturday, 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+: Oscar Valdez vs. Adam Lopez, 10 rounds, WBC junior lightweight eliminator; Carl Frampton vs. Tyler McCreary, 10 rounds, junior lightweight

Valdez (26-0, 20 KOs) turned pro in November 2012, and for parts of his career, he campaigned above the featherweight limit, moving up as high as a 129.5 pounds. But since his 2016 bout with Evgeny Gradovich, he has been at 126.

He won a featherweight world title -- the same one he defended against Sanchez -- in his next fight, against Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda on the undercard of the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol card. Valdez kept making the weight, but the struggle reached its apex in 2019.

Leading into the Sanchez bout, Valdez knew it would be far from easy. Beginning Monday of fight week, he basically starved himself to hit the number, and then he hit the sauna and worked out in a plastic suit to sweat out whatever was left.

"I only started eating a couple of berries, four to five grapes a night," Valdez said of the week before his fight with Sanchez. "I know it was nothing healthy. There were times I thought I was going to faint.

"No water at all since Monday or Tuesday [of that week]," he said. "Just rinsing my mouth and spitting it back."

Valdez was losing the battle with the scale.

"One of the most embarrassing things for me as a fighter would be stepping on the scale and not making weight. [But] I wasn't healthy making 126," Valdez said. "I had trained very hard, I was very disciplined on what I'd eat and in the gym, and I shouldn't be getting that tired so fast inside the ring.

"It was clear for me that it's time to go up in weight."

Valdez will start his full-fledged junior lightweight campaign against Adam Lopez on Saturday at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas (ESPN+, 10 p.m. ET).

If he's looking for an ideal model for how his move up in weight can go, Valdez can look to the experiences of other fighters, including four-division world titleholder Mikey Garcia, who jumped from 126 to 130 in 2013.

2 Related

Garcia's move didn't happen under ideal circumstances, either. He won the WBO featherweight title against Orlando Salido in January 2013 but quickly lost the belt when he couldn't make weight for his first defense against Juan Manuel Lopez five months later.

"When your body is maturing and growing, it's not difficult to move up -- you're naturally growing. It was sad because I knew I was losing my title without even defending it," said Garcia, who came in at 128 pounds for that contest.

"It was a sad moment, but I knew, 'OK, this is the last time we try to do 126.' We just did everything we could and tried everything, and when your body says no, that's it. There's nothing else to do. It was my body telling me I was too big for the featherweight limit."

In his next bout, Garcia moved up to junior lightweight and knocked out Roman Martinez in the eighth round to capture the WBO belt. Although it was an easier task to make weight than it was in a lower weight division, it still wasn't easy.

"There was still a lot of training and dieting, just like it was for 126," Garcia said.

Garcia believes that although boxers who move up feel stronger, they then face naturally bigger fighters who have long since settled into the weight class. In the past, Valdez was more physical than his opponents. That dynamic might change as he moves up in weight.

"You see the height and reach advantages right away," Garcia said. "At 26, I was naturally the bigger guy, especially with some of these guys who were moving up from 122 or bantamweight. So when you're at 126 and fighting guys who are formally bantamweights or super bantamweights, you're naturally the bigger guy. They feel the difference."

But Garcia thinks Valdez is making the right move.

"I think he's doing it at the right time. I don't think he's moving up just to try a different weight class," Garcia said. "I think his body has matured enough, he's grown into a bigger body with muscle mass. And that's the natural thing to do."

"Sugar" Shane Mosley also knows a thing or two about moving up in weight, having won titles at lightweight, welterweight and junior middleweight. Mosley took the bold step of moving up two full weight classes, completely bypassing the junior welterweight division after successfully defending his IBF 135-pound title eight times.

"The last time I fought at 135 [against John Brown], I didn't eat for two days," Mosley said.

He used a makeshift sauna to put into his hotel bathroom and turn up the shower, using the hottest water available and letting the steam gather to help him shed the last few pounds. Before he weighed in, Mosley went to extremes to lose the last few ounces, including spitting into a cup continuously.

"I had to do anything I could to get the last pound -- and I wasn't even sweating," Mosley said.

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During that era in the late '90s, Mosley trained at the LA Boxing Gym, and one of his sparring partners was the late Genaro Hernandez, an accomplished professional prizefighter.

"I remember Genaro telling me -- when I was at lightweight, and I would spar him -- he told me, 'I always know when you were close to weight because you're not as fast or hit as hard,' and that's when I was at lightweight, even though I was knocking everybody out."

As Mosley went to welterweight, everything seemed to change for the better.

"I felt so much better, I felt so much faster, I was so much stronger, I hit harder," Mosley said.

After struggling in his first fight at 147 against Wilfredo Rivera, Mosley went on to stop four of his next five opponents, including a split-decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya to win two world titles in a memorable battle in 2000 in Los Angeles. (Mosley admitted to taking EPO before the De La Hoya rematch in 2003).

One thing that Valdez, Garcia and Mosley have in common is that they were in their mid-to-late 20s when they moved up to a heavier weight class for the first time. Garcia was 26 as he went from featherweight to junior lightweight, Mosley was 28 as he moved up two divisions, and Valdez is 28.

Mosley believes that it's around this age that boxers should start to campaign in larger classes.

"I really believe that, yes. You probably should go up in weight because your metabolism is different. You don't burn off weight like you used to when you're younger," Mosley said.

Valdez felt the strain even before his last fight -- as far back as when he was getting set to fight Scott Quigg in March 2018.

In that fight, Valdez suffered a broken jaw and was sidelined for 11 months. It would've been easier for him to make the transition upon his return in 2019, but he punished himself to make 126 again because he thought that was best for his career.

Ahead of the Sanchez fight, he felt the pressure not to let himself, his team or his promoter down.

"I was scared because if I faint, the fight's off," Valdez said, in terms of how he was feeling just before the weigh-in last June. "That would mean me losing three months of training camp over just one day of trying to make weight. I know it wasn't healthy for me."

Valdez pulled through but vacated his title and is now ready for his next challenge. After a full camp, he will enter the ring at 130 pounds on Saturday, and the results would speak for themselves. The stakes are high, as the winner will likely line up with 130-pound world titlist Miguel Berchelt, and Valdez thinks he's as well-prepared for a big fight as he has been in some time.

"I feel more energetic," he said. "I feel I have more strength, power, speed. I have my legs. I have everything right now to just perform better. I'm not just going to be here and talk -- I'm going to prove it in this fight that I'm going to be a better fighter at 130 pounds."

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Oscar Valdez -- 'I was going through hell just trying to make weight' - ESPN Australia

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn't produce enough insulin to function properly, or the body's cells don't react to insulin, and because of the bodys poor insulin production, blood sugar levels in the body keep rising. Over time, if left untreated, rising blood sugar levels can pose life-threatening health risks, such as heart disease and stroke, so it is important to regulate blood sugar levels.

Modifying your diet plays an essential in managing blood sugar levels as certain foods have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity and slow the rate of absorption of food into the bloodstream - a mechanism that helps to control blood sugar spikes after meals.

Numerous studies suggest cinnamon, an aromatic spice that is used in a wide variety of cuisines, boasts blood-sugar-lowering properties so adding it to your meals can help to control blood sugar.

Research investigating the effects of of cinnamon on blood sugar has shown that cinnamon has been shown to decrease the amount of glucose that enters your bloodstream after a meal, reducing the risk of blood sugar spikes.

Glucose is a simple sugar that builds up in your bloodstream and is the primary cause of high blood sugar levels.

READ MORE:Type 2 diabetes: The plant extract proven to lower blood sugar leve

Cinnamon does this by interfering with numerous digestive enzymes, which slows the breakdown of carbohydrates in your digestive tract.

When people eat a food containing carbohydrates, the digestive system breaks down the digestible ones into sugar, which enters the bloodstream, so slowing down the time it takes for carbs to be absorbed in the bloodstream can help to manage blood sugar levels.

In addition, research has also shown that a compound in cinnamon can act on cells by mimicking insulin.

This greatly improves glucose uptake by your cells, though it acts much slower than insulin itself.

DON'T MISSType 2 diabetes: Add this fruit to your breakfast to lower blood sugar levelsTIPS]Type 2 diabetes: Add this seed to your diet to lower your blood sugar[TIPS]Type 2 diabetes: Consuming this drink first thing in the morning helps lower blood sugar[TIPS]

Mounting evidence suggests cinnamons impact on blood sugar levels is significant, showing that it can lower fasting blood sugar levels by 1029 percent.

A study reported in the Agricultural Research Magazine found that consuming just one gram of cinnamon per day can increase insulin sensitivity and help manage or reverse type 2 diabetes.

In addition, results from a a clinical study published in the Diabetes Care journal, found that a daily intake of one, three or six grams reduce serum glucose, triglyceride, LDL or bad cholesterol and total cholesterol after 40 days among 60 middle-aged diabetics.

Triglyceride and cholesterol are types of molecules found in your blood and high levels of triglycerides and LDL cholesterol can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Sticking to a low carb diet is a surefire way to control blood sugar levels as foods high in carbohydrate are broken down quickly by your body and cause a rapid increase in blood glucose.

One way to distinguish between foods that are high in carb and those that are low in carb is to use the the glycaemic index (GI).

As the NHS explains, the glycaemic index (GI) is a rating system for foods containing carbohydrates which shows how quickly each food affects your blood sugar (glucose) level when that food is eaten on its own.

High GI foods include:

Low or medium GI foods, on the other hand, are broken down more slowly and cause a gradual rise in blood sugar levels over time.

These include:

In addition, low GI foods, which cause your blood sugar levels to rise and fall slowly, may help you feel fuller for longer, helping you to control your appetite and may be useful if you're trying to lose weight - a key measure in blood sugar management.

Symptoms of type 2 diabetes include:

The NHS recommends visiting your GP if you have any of the symptoms of type 2 diabetes and you're worried you may have a higher risk of getting it.

See the article here:
Type 2 diabetes: Eating this winter spice could lower blood sugar - Express

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) Jamal Adams and the New York Jets heard all the rowdy Raiders fans during pregame warmups, booing them and acting as if they were in Oakland.

Then the Jets silenced them quickly with a dominant home victory.

Sam Darnold threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, leading the Jets past the Raiders 34-3 on Sunday for their first three-game winning streak in over two years.

Im not going to lie to you, when we came on to the field, we felt disrespected, Adams said. We got booed in our own home stadium by the Oakland fans. We came back into this locker room and it was a hell of a talk.

Adams wouldnt divulge what was said, but the playmaking safety acknowledged he sparked it off.

Whatever was said, it worked.

Brian Poole returned an interception 15 yards for a TDand the rest of the defense made things miserable for Derek Carr, who was pulled by coach Jon Gruden with just under two minutes left in the third quarter.

The Raiders (6-5) came into a rain-soaked MetLife Stadium on a three-game winning streak with an eye on a possible AFC West first-place showdown at Kansas City next week. Instead, they got outplayed by a suddenly resurgent Jets (4-7) team that pulled away in the second half.

We got our butts kicked, Carr said. Theres no other way around that. They got after us from start to finish. Hopefully, its an eye opener.

Darnold was 20 of 29 for 315 yards the fourth 300-yard game of his career with TDs to Robby Anderson and Ryan Griffin in another efficient outing that helped New York to its first three-game winning streak since Weeks 3-5 of the 2017 season. The Jets didnt punt until the 2-minute mark of the third quarter.

Coach Adam Gase took Darnold out in the closing minutes and had backup David Fales finish.

And all those boisterous Raiders fans? Most were gone by then.

I dont want to sound very arrogant or too cocky, but I think they came in a little too happy, Adams said of Raiders fans. I think they thought it was going to be an easy game.

New York took a 13-3 lead into halftime and came out quickly in the second half.

On the Jets third play of the third quarter, Braxton Berrios took a short pass from Darnold on a slant andzipped down the field for 69 yardsbefore being pushed out of bounds at the 1. Darnold found a wide-open Ryan Griffin for a touchdown on the next play.

Griffin, signed to a three-year contract extension Saturday night, has a career-high five touchdown catches this season.

The Jets No. 1-ranked run defense then came up big on Oaklands first possession of the second half, stuffing Alec Ingold for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Raiders 39.

New York took over andused some razzle-dazzle,Darnold handing off to Bilal Powell, who flipped it to Jamison Crowder who then tossed it back to the Jets quarterback. Darnold then threw to Anderson, who reached up for a 30-yard gain. Three plays later, Darnold connected with Anderson again for a 1-yard touchdown.

On the Raiders next possession, Carrs first-down pass was deflected by Neville Hewitt and landed in Pooles hands. The Jets cornerback ran it in from 15 yards, giving New York a 34-3 lead.

Carr lasted one more series before being pulled for Mike Glennon. Carr finished 15 of 27 for 127 yards with the pick-6.

Rookie Josh Jacobs, fourth in the NFL in rushing, was held to 34 on 10 carries. The Jets came in allowing a league-low 79.1 yards rushing, and gave up 68 to Oakland.

You ever been on a boat thats sinking? Gruden asked. Its not happy. Its not pleasant. Its adversity. Its football. Youve got to respond to adversity. We didnt do a good enough job as coaches rallying our troops today.

QUESTIONABLE CALLS

Trailing 3-0 after Daniel Carlsons 48-yard field goal, the Jets appeared to score a touchdown on their opening drive for a team-record fifth straight game. But Darnolds 8-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas was wiped away by a questionable penalty when officials called Daniel Brown for offensive pass interference after a video review. New York settled for a tying 24-yard field goal by Sam Ficken.

The Jets then benefited from what appeared to be another shaky call on their next drive. Darnold was sacked by Maxx Crosby from the 9, but Maurice Hurst was called for roughing the passer; officials ruled he dived on the pile late. Instead of a huge loss of yardage and down, it put the ball at the Raiders 4. Darnold faked the handoff to LeVeon Bell, then kept the ball, ran up the middle andtrucked through D.J. Swearinger for a 4-yard touchdownthat gave New York a 10-3 lead early in the second quarter.

I had someone in my way at the goal line, Darnold said, and I just did what I could to get into the end zone.

CARR STALLS

Carr fell to 2-9 in his career in games that started with the temperature below 50 degrees.

The temperature at kickoff at the Meadowlands was 43 degrees.

INJURIES

Raiders: Rookie WR Hunter Renfrow injured his ribs in the third quarter and didnt return.

Jets: Rookie RT Chuma Edoga will have an MRI on Monday after he left early in the second quarter with an injured left knee. He was helped off the field without putting any weight on the leg and didnt return.

UP NEXT

Raiders: stay on the road to face AFC West-rival Kansas City next Sunday.

Jets: take on the Bengals at Cincinnati next Sunday.

___

More AP NFL:https://apnews.com/NFLandhttps://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Darnold Leads Jets To Third Straight Win, 34-3 Over Raiders - CBS Pittsburgh

All photographs courtesy of Kathy Novak.

Want to be featured inHow I Got This Body? Whether you lost weight or gained it, got toned or gained muscle, I want to hear from you! Email Mimi Montgomery at mmontgomery@washingtonian.com

Who:Kathy Novak, 34, Department of Defense employeeLives: AnnapolisHeight: 58Pounds lost: [I]weighed nearly 400 pounds at the age of 19. Honestly, I dont weigh myself nearly as much as I used to. If I had to take a guess, based on composition, Id say [I weigh around] 185-190 [pounds].How long it took: There isnt really a time stamp for me, as this has become a lifestyle. [But] I started giving myself a chance to follow through [with fitness] at age 19, so about 15 years.

I was stubborn [when it came to losing weight]. It had to be when I was ready, which Ive learned is really never. It was more about being on my termsI didnt want to do it for anyone else. [But ultimately,] the concern from my family was enough.I met with the nurse practitioner, and she gave me a list of foods I could choose from. No measurements, just a this-instead-of-that sort of deal. I changed just my eating, and in three weeks had lost 34 pounds. Sure, it was water weight initially. But seeing progress in such a short period of timethat was important. That, for me, meant I was really capable of this. From there, I thought wow, I wonder what would happen if I started exercising? So I set a goal to lose 50 pounds by my 20th birthday. My best guy friend Daniel and I started going to the Drill Hall every day.

The Drill Hall was the perfect place to start. I would put Kelly Clarksons Breakaway album on and hit the treadmill. I would walk for the whole album, and after a few weeks, I increased the speed, then the incline. Some days were more difficult than others, of course, but I showed up every day. Some days, I got through those 45-to-50 minutes by spelling out every word on the TV in the captions. Backwards, forwardswhatever it took to get my mind off [it] and through it. I followed that up with weights. Looking back now, I had some idea of what I was doing, but not really. At that time, it didnt matter. I was moving.

After several months of this routine, it was time to move to St. Augustine, Florida [for college].After a couple of years, I was not feeling like I used to after leaving the gym. I had also yo-yod in weight, gaining 45-to-50 pounds, losing it, gaining 20-to-30 pounds, losing it. I was working so hard and knew I had to do something else. I ran into a friend and he said that I needed to try CrossFitit had changed his life. Thenext day I started a whole new life thanks to CrossFit. I showed up every day, sometimes two times a day. After a few months, I competed in my first of many CrossFit competitions.

Starting CrossFit also [meant I] started nine-week-long Paleo challenges.The challenges quickly evolved into lifestyle changes.My Paleo is not what people envision Paleo asIm not downing mass amounts of bacon, steak, and almond butter. The primary focus is eating clean and as unprocessed as possible: lots of veggies and protein.I joined a nutrition team, Working Against Gravity. It is a program focused on intake, but not calorically. [It focuses on] the right amount of macronutrients tailored to your fitness goals and regimens.

My family and friends, [as well as] the people [I met who became] inspired by my story and started to give themselves chances, all because they saw through me that change is possible. To think that if I ever gave up, Id be letting so many people beyond myself down.I never wanted to be in a place of just doing something [because of how it] looked to someone else. Lifestyle changes, no matter what theyre for, have to be because you believe in them, because they inspire you to be better. We are here for a purpose much bigger than ourselves.

Honestly, after I changed the way I ate, I really grew to be excited about the food choices I was making every day. Food was more than taste, it was fuel for my performance. Having a great homemade meal or trying a new recipe is a splurge for me.Ive learned to appreciate the process and the patience that accompanies prepping good, healthy meals.

I have always been fairly confident and outspoken, but the mental grit that has grown through this process has allowed me to flourish in so many other areas. I believe that being underestimated had a direct impact on my professional and personal development. As I pushed myself in my workouts, I was finding it easier to push myself at work, to be more forward and confident in what I said and did. I stopped second guessing my abilities beyond just what I was doing at the gym. I started telling myself I could and quit letting the reasons why I shouldnt try take over.

I didnt like how I thought about myselfnot physically, but my abilities.I love that Ive been capable of making the most important change of all: Ive changed my mind and thought processes in so many ways. Im so thankful for the peace of mind I have now, the resilient mindset that this lifestyle has brought to my life, and the ability to see the opportunity and path forward, no matter what. There are only as many limits as you set for yourself. When you envision your capabilities being limitless, no matter what is going on, [and] see the silver lining in everythinglife is great. Im thankful to be living it as fully as possible.

You have to be willing to give yourself the chance to be uncomfortable and to fight for it. Find something you enjoy every day [and] that youll look forward to. The minute it feels like an obligation, you will resent the process and, to be honest, you probably will quit. Once you commit to a routine like thismaking sure you dont make excuses for yourself, working out no matter what, making the better choicesits more natural.Its all about choices.

Join the conversation!

Associate Editor

Mimi Montgomery joined Washingtonian in 2018. She previously was the editorial assistant at Walter Magazine in Raleigh, North Carolina, and her work has appeared in Outside Magazine, Washington City Paper, DCist, and PoPVille. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Adams Morgan.

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How I Got This Body: Getting Hooked on CrossFit, Prepping Homemade Meals, and Listening to a Lot of Kelly Clarkson - Washingtonian

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