Strong as Hale

A lot of women that come to work with me think they’re eating enough to fuel their CrossFIt performance. They say “I’m eating 1800 calories, shouldn’t that be enough?”

Well if you’re not seeing your fitness improve over time?

Then no… it’s not.

When you are continuously gassed by the end of the week and unable to keep training intensity high, you’re not eating enough.

When you train hard for hours or even multiple sessions per day but aren’t seeing lifts, cardio, fitness improve, you’re not eating enough.

When you train this hard for months and years on end but don’t see it reflecting in your physique and muscle definition, you’re not eating enough.

When you have the strength and capability but can’t nail or improve your skills or feel foggy every time you work on them, you’re not eating enough.

And when you’re more threatened by the idea of eating more than you are tired of staying at the same plateaued level of fitness, you’re not eating enough.

Having coached hundreds of women through this process, I can usually tell within minutes whether they’re eating for the body they have now... or the athlete they want to become.

You fuel like an athlete first... then the body follows.
It doesn’t work the other way around.

Comment “RESET” below and I’ll send you the first lesson inside Fuel to Perform, where I’ll show you exactly how shifting to performance changes everything.

You won’t look like an athlete slashin cals all the time.

I hear it every day: “I work so hard I just don’t look like it.”

(Referring to the idea that they want strong, athletic physiques)

And I get it - I used to want to get as small as possible too bc I thought it would have me looking like Katrin Davidsdottir at the end.

But what you aren’t realizing is that muscle is what creates the athletic physique - and if you don’t have enough? It doesn’t matter how small you get, it will still not feel rewarding.

Because the body you think you’ll get through dieting actually comes from three very important things:

1️⃣ Eating enough overall calories to support your capacity to train hard in the gym and recover harder after the gym.

2️⃣ Training hard enough to break down muscle tissue so that it can be rebuilt in recovery (which I can guarantee you’re probs not doing - easy way to know is if you’ve been using the same weights on lifts and in metcons for 12 weeks or more).

(And yes, even despite what the prescribed metcon weight may be).

3️⃣ Taking recovering as seriously as you take your training. Treating nutrition, sleep, and water like they’re optional? Well then so is your muscle gain. And your body will go with the not building it option. Oops.

So if you keep trying to change your body through cutting calories and hoping for the best - you know what you need to focus on.

Start acting like an athlete first and then looking like one becomes a natural byproduct.

The point isn’t never having bad days, it’s how you pick yourself up when you have them.

I could throw in the towel, say fck it I’ll get back at it tomorrow, next week, etc

But I know that isn’t going to be in line with who I want to be or my goals.

So instead?

I let it go, breathe, and track to the best of my ability and get right back to business for the next meal.

Perfection isn’t the standard - self-leadership is.

And controlling what you can while releasing the rest will help relieve so much pressure and anxiety around tracking and food.

I’m calling your bluff baddie bc I see how disciplined you are.

I see you going to the gym even when your least favorite movement is on the whiteboard.

I see you wanting to give up 12 minutes in on a 20:00 amrap and pushing through anyway.

I see you try a lift you really want to hit over and and over again no matter how many times you fail it.

So don’t tell me you don’t have the discipline because yes tf you do.

You are so fckn capable it’s mind boggling.

You just need the right strategy.
You just need to remember your why.
And you just need to not hold yourself back.

I see how disciplined and motivated you are.

It’s time to sack up and remember that the next time you want to say you can’t do something, you absolutely fckn can.

The proof is right in front of you.

Sorry, but somebody has to call out the bullsh*t and apparently it’s going to be me.

I keep seeing coaches and influencers talk about how they’re focused on performance over aesthetics.

Meanwhile, their entire marketing strategy is built around having visible abs while their lifting videos showcase weights that don’t reflect years of dedicated training.

And before someone gets defensive:

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your physique.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your lifts, no matter the weight.

But if you’ve been training for years and your strength numbers aren’t progressing because you’re unwilling to fuel your body enough to support performance, that’s a problem.

Your abs are not an indicator of strength.

Your numbers are.

We even have relative strength standards that help define what a well-rounded, durable athlete looks like. A 1.5x bodyweight squat. A 2x bodyweight deadlift. A bodyweight sn**ch. A 1.25x bodyweight clean and jerk. Etc.

Those things require fuel, even if that means you’re no longer sub 15% body fat for a little while.

And that’s where the fitness industry keeps losing women.

Because many coaches claim performance is the goal while still promoting the same message we’ve heard for decades:

If you want to be fit, you’ve gotta be smaller.

The result?

Women spend years training hard while chronically under-fueling themselves and wondering why their lifts, recovery, energy, body composition, and confidence have stalled.

If performance is truly the goal, then your nutrition should support performance.

Not fight against it.

This is exactly why I created Fuel to Perform.

Not to help women get smaller.

To help them finally eat enough to become stronger, recover better, build muscle, and perform like the athlete they’re training to be.

Because fitness was never supposed to be about looking fit.

It’s supposed to be about becoming capable.

Comment FUEL below and I’ll sends an invite into the community.

You should give yourself more credit.

To go against the norm and not give in to the expectation to be small and frail when it’s been modeled in front of you by family, pushed upon you by media, and demonstrated daily on social media…

That’s a huge deal.

Give yourself some credit strong woman - you’re breaking the chains of generational dieting with every decision to pour into your body for health rather than punish yourself for an aesthetic.

Keep going.