“Can you do a Push-Up?”

This was one of the first things Chris Merritt ever asked me.  I of course was smug and thought… “who can’t do a push-up?”  At this point I got down on the floor, got in position, and pushed…. and didn’t move.

Hey there—I’m Lindsey Galloway, and this is how I started my journey with Chris and BSP NOVA.  I gave myself a gift of personal training for my birthday—I was fairly fresh off the HCG diet, through which I’d lost quite a bit of weight and wanted to workout to help me continue the losing streak.  However, I didn’t take into consideration that eating only 500 calories a day would not only zap my energy and take my muscle… but there were probably some metabolic repercussions to my decision.

That first meeting happened in May of 2011 and I’m still with Chris and the BSP NOVA family…

Since then I’ve learned there is no such thing as a quick fix to losing large amounts of weight.  For my journey there are three major components that have been helping me get to where I want to be; exercise, nutrition, and mindset.

 

Step 1:  Strength and Conditioning

This has probably been the easiest part of my journey.  Sure, I’ve had injuries, and I may not be the strongest or fastest person at the gym, but the programming is done for me!  Chris and team work with me to figure out what’s going on and what will work best for me, and they write it all down in an easy to follow plan.

All I have to do is show up and do the work!  And keep showing up, it really is that easy.

 

Step 2:  Nutrition

This is one area that requires work.  I so wanted someone to just say,

“Here, follow what’s written down here and it will all be perfect!”

Unfortunately that’s not the case.  Food has been hard, not because I can’t stay away from the fast food, or because I hate to cook.  Food has been hard because I’ve spent a lot of time doing what I should be doing… or what I thought I should be doing, and the weight just stuck.  There’s no one size fits all, and every body reacts differently to what you eat.  That, coupled with the years of fad diets, starvation diets, and whatever else I thought I should do, just made everything worse. Was it my metabolism?  Was it something I was eating?  Am I just supposed to be at an unhealthy weight and never change?  I wanted to just give up so many times… and one day Chris said,

“I think you should start this program called Precision Nutrition.”

My first thought was that he was giving up on me, my second was sticker shock (it ain’t cheap), and then I settled into the idea and signed up…  I’ll go into this more in a minute.

 

Step 3:  Mindset

Mindset is HUGE for me…. And really therapy has been key.

Here’s the backstory: I moved around a lot as a kid—and I don’t mean upgraded/downgraded from one house to the next in the same general area—I mean we picked up and moved cities, states, and even countries (think 7 different elementary schools).  This is relevant because this molded who I became—who I am!  Always being the new kid, I never learned how to voice my opinion or resolve conflict.  Rather, I learned how to be a chameleon and disappear into the background.  If I did get into a fight with someone I tended to just walk away instead of trying to work it out. I was going to move soon anyways, so what did it matter?  If I did want to be liked or seen, the best way to do this was to be THE BEST!  Everyone likes the star athlete and if you got good grades you couldn’t be called stupid right?  So here’s the rules I lived by:

1. Be one of the best athletes (and if you can’t… don’t do that sport.)
2. Be one of the smartest
3. Always make fun of yourself before someone else can
4. Never let someone see you mad or sad

 

Those rules served their purpose and I got through high school with flying colors.

√ I was the Northern Nevada Girls Golf Champion

√ I was on the honor roll and got the gold E when I graduated

√Everyone always thought I was super happy

 

I was well liked at school and miserable and mean at home.  My freshman year in college this all manifested itself into an eating disorder, and so much shame with food.  I never thought it was an eating disorder—I had rules around it, and I was in control. So, that’s cool right? I read that if you didn’t purge more than X times a week, for more than X weeks in a row, then it wasn’t clinical.  I don’t remember those numbers, but I do know I made sure I stayed under them. And that’s how I lived my life for almost 20 years.

A few years ago I found therapy and I’ve learned that although my rules sound great they weren’t healthy.  I had to acknowledge I had an eating disorder, and I’ve spent a lot of time and work with both my therapist and Precision Nutrition to address my demons and figure out healthy ways to cope with stress and accept my flaws… I’m not 100% there but we’re working on it.

 

Precision Nutrition (PN)

Wow long winded enough? So back to this PN.  First you might be asking, “Why isn’t PN part of my nutrition blurb?”  Well PN is so much more than nutrition… and it’s been a hell of a journey…. I just started my 3^rd and hopefully final year.

 

Year 1

I was pretty cocky and gung-ho. I thought I just had to do exactly what they said and I’d lose 100 pounds in a year (yes I had 100 pounds to lose).  I logged in every night and did the lessons… and nothing really changed.  I was working with my coach and she was reviewing everything I was eating and making small suggestions like,

“hey, instead of eating at the Whole Foods salad bar every day why don’t you eat more at home?”

I listened… and dismissed a lot of what she said (honestly I didn’t realize I was dismissing it… but that doesn’t change the fact that I was).  I was eating salad and adding my protein and vegetables as required, and I was doing what I was told—only adding in a little bit of the saucy prepared insert any food here… but my weight stayed the same.

Sometime in that first year I started following Melissa Hartwig on Instagram.  Not because she was the face of Whole30 but because she was sharing books she liked to read and I was looking for new books to add to my own reading list.  At some point she went on this mini rant about SWYPO and said to go to Facebook to watch the full rant… so I did.

Sex With Your Pants On (SWYPO) was what she was referring to as foods that were “healthy” that just replaced something that wasn’t.  Some dude wanted to have his two eggs and a banana pancakes while doing the Whole30 Program and she said NO!!  She said having a pancake in any form was like having Sex with your pants on.  Sure it may feel/taste good but all it really does it make you want to eat the real thing!  Holy Shit!  This was sooooo me.  All I’ve ever done is follow the rules of the program and found every loophole to get what I want.  I never truly gave into the process, and, therefor never really got any results!

Precision Nutrition was no different.

Well that was a waste of $1,000.  But, with this simple new found knowledge, I signed up for year 2.

 

Year 2

Last year was an amazing time in Precision Nutrition. I tried to stay present with the program and always think about my lessons and really apply them.  I was no longer looking for my easy ways out, and I was ready to give into the process.  What I learned was that PN isn’t really that much about nutrition. Yeah, they do slowly lead you down the process of changing your habits, but if you make yourself vulnerable to the process, you identify some of the big reasons why you’re turning to food in the first place.

And boy do you have to work.

Sure it seems monotonous at times, and really inspiring at others, but you get this accountability and support along the way that’s just a game changer.  As a result I lost A LOT of weight!  I didn’t lose the 100 pounds… but I got close to half way there….

 

Year 3

I hope to continue my weight loss, learn more about myself, and hit my ultimate goal of 100 pounds total weight loss. Stay tuned!

 

Through this journey I’ve learned some pretty big things, and I believe they can help you too…

1. It’s good to surround yourself with supportive people but I (you) still have to do all the work.
2. The more honest and vulnerable I am with myself, the more I get to the truth of why I eat, or do anything really… and the better results I get.
3. Losing weight is like climbing a mountain. It isn’t linear…  if I’m climbing a mountain and the slope is a straight 45 degree angle going up, it may not be impossible to climb, but it’s much more difficult, and I have to take a lot more breaks than if I go up, and come down a little bit… then up some more… And that is OK