I’m not really sure why I called this body goals in the title, it felt very intentional.
That this is just one part of me, and not all of me. Where sometimes we look at scales and shape and body image as a defining factor of who we are and I wanted to make sure that wasn’t it.

I have life goals.
I have business goals. They’re kinda taking the bulk of my brain at the moment.
I have personal goals.
I have holiday goals. Mostly to keep taking them, I’ve remembered in the last six weeks they’re pretty good!
I have friend goals. To see them.
I have my clients goals. That I LOVE helping them to achieve.
All of these come together to create me as a human.
I remember reading or hearing something recently about Britain compared to European countries. Where in Britain someone asks how you are, and we immediately start talking about work, as our identity. Whilst in other countries (I may have heard this when I was in Sweden), they talk about themselves as a whole, their family, their values, their life, and rarely their work.
In life I want to empower more women in their 30s and 40s to lose body fat, get strong, and feel more confident than ever before.
In life I want to travel to new places and see the world and feel I have the freedom to do that without fear stopping me for one reason or another.
I want to feel confident in my body, my mind and my self.
I’ve done lots of pondering this year about body goals and what I want. I wrote earlier in the year about stress and wearing my fitness tracker causing unnecessary stress and pressure to be a certain way. I’ve tried several times to write more and come up with a block - I promise there are three drafts in my documents to come!
But today I got some clarity.
I stopped thinking about it so much as one goal at a time and remembered about the process and priorities. Which is what it’s all been this year. It’s also what I talk to clients about all the time.
We talk about framing and setting the goals based on where you are and what you feel ready, willing and able to do right now.
Sure, you may want to lose 10kg, but what in that process are you ready to do? You may not be ready to make big changes - going to the gym every day and cutting out carbs (nor would that be my advice) - but you may be ready to get off one stop early on the way to work and walk to the office for 10 minutes. That is a change that starts taking you toward the goal right now. It may seem insignificant on the surface, but building up those habits makes a lot of difference - differences that take minimal thought, planning or effort. Absolute winner!
At the start of last year I was probably in the best shape I’ve been in, outside of the summer in COVID where I had free reign to live the quiet life I always wanted. I was ripped, tanned, well slept, and full of bagels.
I wanted to finish the year in a similar way. But in reality, just getting past an injury, in the process of deciding if I wanted to resign from a good job, and all the stress that comes with it. I had little mental capacity. I signed up with a coach who got me to track my food meticulously and I hated it. I was doing the stuff, but I was so miserable doing it, that I didn’t feel the benefit.
It worked on the face of it to get me into decent shape by March this year, I’d leaned out and was feeling more confident post injury. But it wasn’t sustainable and the sacrifice really didn’t feel worth it.
When the stress continued to mount as we packed up the flat, moved back to my parents, walked into a fully self employed kinda stressy life. The priority was to recover.
I wanted to be the strongest I’ve been. Or at least that's kinda what I said. Really, I wanted my upper body muscles to be the biggest they’ve ever been, and some strength with that would be pretty nice too.
We’d also decided to set the goal of running a marathon in 90 days.
Neither of these were things I’d done before.
I’ve trained for CrossFit performance before, which helped me to qualify for Quarter Finals in the top 10% last year. So I knew I could do it.
But that’s a little different to eating in a surplus to build muscle, which can often come with a chunk of fat too.
Honestly, the first month of this process made me feel so out of my depth. Granted, eating is amazing and strength training is fun. But everything in my body was screaming at me to cut back and lean out.
Then we’d add in the increasing duration runs. The other new factor. Where multiple people said “OMG, the weight is going to fall off you”. For some that may be a good thing, but in building muscle, that was the opposite of what I wanted. And in the pursuit of maintaining a healthy relationship with food and running, I wasn’t looking to find joy from running making me slim down.
So I’ve spent this summer trying to eat more and feel more comfortable. Which is kind of ideal timing when we’re in the city of Pastel de Nata.
Every now and again the voice of, “you could just cut down food a little and start to lean out now to see the muscle definition”. And then I remember we have a marathon to run and I refuse to make that the miserable experience I’ve had with running before. Underfuelled, under recovered and just hating everything about it.

So what am I spending my energy on in my own nutrition journey right now?
I’m focusing on eating at least three meals a day, plus a couple of snacks
I’m building each of my meals around protein content. Can I get at least 30g of protein at each meal? Whether that be from yoghurt or eggs at breakfast, chicken at lunch, a protein smoothie in the afternoon, pork, fish or beef in the evening, and maybe a hazelnut protein pudding in the evening - because these are the best find so far!
In each of those meals I’m trying to add in 1-2 handfuls of veggies. I’m trying to find things that I don’t get at home, or just enjoy better quality, fresher produce.
I’m including carbohydrates at each meal to fuel my recovery and the energy and results I want to see. Rather than being sluggish, sore or beaten up by running long distances and pushing the weight numbers. I’m predominantly trying to include rice, potatoes and whole grains to keep inflammation low and stay away from gluten that just makes me bloat like crazy.
Hydrating like crazy
In the heat this is key. Plus the amount of movement is high, so that helps keep my joints happy and my blood flow easy, so I don’t feel terrible when I get going.
Nailing the sleep routine
We’re finding that mornings are the best time for movement and focus. So on the days we have long runs, we’ll get up early to beat the heat. But on the days in between I’m getting up to listen to an audio book for an hour before the world wakes up. Something to keep my brain stimulated and always learning.
All of this is going to help me keep my body moving in the right direction and fueling the task at hand. Then when we finish the marathon, I can set new goals and targets, adjusting my food intake to my likely much lower activity levels. I can see what I’ve built in the last few months.
But right now, the task at hand is surviving, and trying to actually enjoy running a big distance!
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