Kelsey Wells: ‘I Used To Drink Dr. Pepper Like Water And Snack On Candy All The Time’
I was a dancer throughout my childhood, until I got injured when I was 16. After that, I became pretty sedentary. I ate a lot of fast food, and snacked on things like candy, and other refined, processed vending machine foods. I drank more Dr. Pepper than I did water.
Every now and then, I'd try to restrict what I was eating, or turn to a drastic fad diet or cleanse in an attempt to be "healthy." I'd skip meals and snacks in an attempt to restrict my calories. But it never worked-not only were these plans not sustainable, they left me with a lack of energy. Plus, every “slip up” would make me feel like I failed; then I’d overindulge, feel sick, and get discouraged, causing me to beat myself up even more.
After I had my son, Anderson, four and a half years ago, I started to struggle with postpartum anxiety.
When my doctor suggested that exercise might help, I thought it was a joke. There was no way something so small could fix the anxiety that had become such a big, all-encompassing burden on my life.
Still, I decided to try it out of pure desperation. A few weeks in, I was relieved to find that it was working. Everyone’s journey is different, but for me, regular exercise allowed me to cope with my anxiety and bring it down to a manageable level.
When I first started my fitness journey, I was too overwhelmed to even think about changing my eating habits, too. But a couple months after I started working out, I started to make a shift nutrition-wise.
I realized if I was hungry and chose a candy bar, I wouldn’t feel great. But if I picked something nutritious, I felt good and had the energy I needed. That made it easier to choose healthy snacks. Plus, once I started weight training I was hungrier and needed more food to fuel my body and keep my energy levels up.
My approach to healthy eating today is to use food as fuel-and choose foods that are going to make me feel good. For me, that means eating three meals a day with snacks in between. My meals consist of clean, unprocessed foods like Greek yogurt or protein pancakes for breakfast, a huge salad with chicken for lunch, and quinoa chili for dinner. I’m always snacking on something-raw fruits and veggies, cottage cheese, hardboiled eggs, turkey wraps, almonds.
It's hard to say whether my training or my healthier snacking habits have done more to improve my self-confidence; I mean, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Because training gives me self-confidence, I choose to take care of my body and nourish it with foods that will energize me. But I also know that choosing to eat better foods gives me a boost, as well as a stronger appreciation for my body.
That said, I’ve also worked really hard to mentally shift away from the idea that when I eat something unhealthy, I’m “slipping up.” Yes, I definitely sometimes eat things that are not very nutritious, but I don’t believe food should be good or bad. Now, if I do indulge too much, I just focus on making my next choice a healthy one.
With nutrition, what matters is consistency. Most of the time, my snacks are raw, whole foods, filled with nutrients. So when I eat a candy bar or donut, I enjoy that, and then I get right back on track.
If you make your nutrition choices based on the fact that your body is amazing and it deserves the best, making healthy choices is a lot easier.
Kelsey Wells is a certified personal trainer and the creator of the PWR Workout. Try her programs via the Sweat app (iTunes; $19.99/month).
('You Might Also Like',)