Katie Crewe: 'I Used To Get Winded Just Running To The Bus'
I grew up dancing and playing soccer, but once I went to university, those activities fell to the wayside. I never really enjoyed going to the gym-mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was doing-and my eating habits were atrocious.
I'd start the day with a French vanilla cappuccino, and an apple fritter or donut. Then, for lunch, I'd have a sandwich or pizza, with a sugar-y juice instead of water. Later, during my break, I'd snack on a muffin or cookie. For dinner, I'd maybe eat some vegetables or protein, but then I'd snack on cereal throughout the night.
Still, I was thin, so nobody was saying "you're unhealthy" or pressuring me to change.
One day, I noticed I got winded just running to the bus.
I remember thinking, "How did I get to this point? This is so bad."
I also noticed my body changing: I was softer in some areas, skinnier in others, and my butt was going south. I remember thinking, "How is my butt getting saggier?!" I was 21 years old. When I went to the doctor, they told me I had high cholesterol, too.
Finally, when I graduated, I decided I needed to get in shape again. Sure, I wanted to make my butt look better-but not being able to jog without getting winded also made me feel disappointed in myself.
I started out just doing cardio, but eventually I made my way to a gym where I started taking classes. In class, I was basically forced to do all the things I usually avoided-like pushups or upper-body exercises, which were such a struggle. But eventually, I started to get better, which fired up my competitive nature, and I started challenging myself to do more weight training.
My first few trips to the weights room were intimidating, but I'd try to go in with a plan to make myself feel more confident. I'd search for workouts and look up videos online, and write them down so I could go in and feel like I knew what I was doing.
I didn't notice changes right away-it probably took six months to a year after I started lifting.
As I gained more muscle, my body weight increased, which freaked me out at first. It finally clicked one day that absolutely nobody else cared about my weight, and that it should not be affecting my happiness. So I just stopped weighing myself.
Instead, I like to focus on the fact that I gained muscle and it enabled me to do all this cool stuff that makes me feel confident. I’m definitely happier with my body now, and there’s a pride in having built it myself.
But when I first started training, I took 'clean eating' too far.
When I was 23, I did a fitness competition. I never ate after 7 p.m., and pretty much lived off of produce and protein. Around this same time, I also went months without eating any added sugar, to the point where even almond butter and carrots tasted super-sweet to me.
But I realized that type of lifestyle wasn't sustainable. I started noticing changes in my mood, and I think my body was trying to tell me, "Bitch, you're staving, you need to stop doing this."
Now I count my macros to stay healthy.
Eventually, I realized food is fuel; you need to eat more to get stronger. I started eating more carbs and that helped a lot. I also do intermittent fasting-though not very strictly. If I'm hungry, I eat. Here's what a typical day of eating looks like for me now:
Morning: Coffee and a little bit of dark chocolate
Lunch (around noon): Zoodles with beets and tomato and chicken, and then a carb like sweet potato with cinnamon and almond butter
Afternoon (after training): A giant-face-sized salad with some protein and carbs. I’m a huge fan of frozen raspberries so I’ll have those, or if I’m going to have something like Halo Top ice cream I’ll have it around then.
Dinner: More veggies, some healthy fat, and another protein source.
Snacks: I usually have oatmeal and chia seeds. I also eat a lot of rice cakes with PB&J, and a decent amount of cereal. Plus, more dark chocolate.
I take at least two full rest days a week.
I train in a four-day split, so:
Day 1: Lower-body
Day 2: Upper-body
Day 3: Lower-body
Day 4: Upper-body
Day 5: Bodyweight/cardio
For lower-body days, I'm focused on strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth), so I'm lifting fairly heavy. On upper-body days, I do more bodyweight activies like pushups and pullups. Plus, I always have two full rest days a week-sometimes more.
I used to think it was normal to feel tired all the time.
I would fall asleep at the drop of the hat and always feel exhausted. Now, I feel so much more vital. I think human beings are meant to move. You don't have to do what I do, just find something you enjoy.
I also feel so much more confident today. I wouldn’t trade bodies with anyone-I worked really hard for this one, and appreciate what it does for me. I've felt a huge increase in my self-worth and confidence, which I think comes with treating your body with respect and working hard.
Need more inspo? It’s Transformations Week on WomensHealthMag.com! For more amazing beauty, fitness, and weight loss transformations, check out the rest of our Transformations Week collection.
('You Might Also Like',)
Solve the daily Crossword
