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Are you judging the way your body looks or your behaviors?
Are you frustrated with the way you feel in your clothing or the reason you feel that way? Blaming your body for the mental struggles you’ve faced that have manifested into destructive behaviors like binging, restricting, obsession, fixation, overeating, body checking, & other extreme measures is going to worsen your behavior. Something I’ve found, not just in my own journey, but in working with 100s of competitors worldwide is that most of the time, a negative body image is correlated to negative behavior patterns. We have been conditioned in this sport to correlate our choices to our physique. Throughout a prep we reinforce our actions by celebrating the the body getting tighter. Then in improvement season, when you go off track or you go against your expectations (or others) or start to see changes like your growing body, you start to feel bad about yourself & attribute it to you being a failure. I have met a few competitors who struggle with their body image even when their actions are aligned with their goals but the severity is usually lower because they still feel congruent with their vision of growing season compared to the person who didn’t manage their food intake as expected & then attribute even normal growth to their mistakes and struggles & then foster more self-judgment. If you are struggling with body image, try these steps: 1. set new expectations for yourself (don’t go back to trying to be the prep version of yourself!!) 2. Set 3 non-negotiable to do’s each day that will make you feel good (ex: water, a mindfulness meditation, stretching, eating a meal in distracted…) 3. On days your body image feels better, take note of what is / was different about that day 4. Spend 3+ min each day acknowledging what your body does FOR you 5. If you’re body checking often, try to turn your mirrors around or put a cardboard or sheet in front of the mirror so you have to move it every time you get the urge to check your body Would you like more support? Click here for free resources as well as mentorship options.
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 Fixating on every change the scale reflects day to day, week to week, month to month will only cause problems.
If you trust the process, that means you inherently trust that the results will come, right? When people say “trust the process” it is just a short way of saying “trust that the process is getting you where you want to go in the long run”. If you question your process or are impatient you might be more likely to worry about a singular variable that gets way more credit than it deserves in your head. My clients and members have a group call every month and this last month we discussed detaching from the scale and changing how we think and interact with it. I understand the desires to see changes whether that’s weight gain or weight loss but letting it dictate your mood, perception of yourself, outlook on progress, or approach to the process will not help you! Especially if it leads to punishment or restriction or excess and sabotage of any sort. Your results will be a byproduct of the work you’re doing. If you’re working with a coach, let them worry about the process of getting you there! If you struggle with this, I have resources in the on-demand platform, including the replay of our group workshop at www.celestial.fit/ondemand. #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY  Naturally, I think most people who love the sport will say, yes of course
But to what extent are we willing to take it? Some say they would die for this and some say that this IS their life and all they care about, but that’s not required to be successful—no matter how loud others yell about this.. Being successful, at anything, is about fulfilling the standards YOU create for success. Becoming a champion does not require selling your soul. I would not want to be a champion or to win if it meant I truly had to “sacrifice” everything else. To me, the most fulfilling success is the kind which adds to other areas of life, demands me to grow, capitalizes on my strengths, and provides me with sustainability. I will not give up my life for this sport. I want you to know you really do not have to. Yes, you need to: -make it a lifestyle -have a winning mentality -be willing to reprioritize parts of your life -expect challenges and rise to the occasion -give your all when you show up and consistently seek ways to give more I won’t sugar coat it and say you can achieve the life of another champion by doing what you’re doing now and not changing a thing, you’ll likely have to grow even if it’s just in how you remain consistent. If you believe you have to give up your life in order to receive a title or an outcome, I believe you’re actually selling yourself short. What if you chose to believe that to achieve a title or an outcome, you actually need to uplevel your life, increase efficiency, find ways to manage your mind, improve your health, focus on all domains of your being in a new way? The all or nothing thinking can create resistance to achieving success because if you believe that to get where you want to go you have to give up everything you love, why would you truly want to pursue it? You won’t! You’ll likely self sabotage because of the resistance. Change how you perceive the path to success and let this guide your actions. This will be a much more empowering and fulfilling journey than submitting to a pigeon holed view of becoming a champion… #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY  Make Change Convenient
Where can the new change fit into your current day? Where can you find or make space for it? Example: You want to change your habit of binge watching TV every night. A convenient way to change this behavior might be by only watching that TV show while doing something you already do daily such as cardio. Another way to create convenience is to allow for flexibility. Rather than saying 'My new Habit will be Journaling every morning at 5am" you might start with 'I will journal every day at the time I set aside to do so the night before'. Flexibility allows for more convenience and it gives you the chance to find out where the new habit or change best fits into your life. If you want to eat more fruit, you might put it at the front of the fridge. If you want to be more cleanly, you might leave your broom out of the closet for awhile as a visual reminder to sweep, or you might give it a new and more visible / accessible home altogether. Recognize & Reinforce the Benefit to Change Recognizing how the change helps you is going to be key in reinforcing the change positively. If you do not see a benefit to the change that is greater than the benefit of staying the same or continuing with life as you know it, then you will not create a deeper reason for change. Some people will say they want to do something like read every day but their reason for this is because they want to be like the person who said they do this or because they want to impress someone. There has to be more benefit to it that only you can understand and embrace personally. For example, you might want to start meditating every day. It would be good to research the benefits of meditation and then create specific examples of how each ties in to your life. Maybe you hear it helps with focus so you might be able to say, 'improving my focus would help me to perform better at work which would bring me more opportunity for a raise or promotion which could help me to feel more at peace about my investment in this job every day'. It is also important to reinforce the benefit of changing. Reward yourself for completing the habit or changing the behavior. You might set out to start running 3x a week so a reward each day you run could be a luxurious epsom salt bath, this not only reinforces the behavior with relaxation but it promotes the continuation of the behavior by providing relief and recovery which will help you run again next week. A long-term positive reinforcement might be getting new running shoes for yourself after a milestone. Reinforcing a benefit to change can also be as simple as affirming the benefit when participating. Someone who is getting into lifting weights might say to themselves all the ways it benefits them and their health and life before, during, and after completing a session. By setting an alarm on their phone to do this, they certainly won't forget and the sound used for the alert will become expected and trigger new and positive thoughts about working out. Confirm that the Change Aligns with your Values I have never believed that 28 days is all it takes to form a habit. If you don't have the belief in the benefit, the convenience and flexible approach, or an alignment to your core values, it will be difficult for your brain to justify a permanent change to the status quo. Identifying your core values can give you a chance to see how the new behaviors bring you closer to these values or support you in satisfying them. Branching off my example in the last slide, you might say that meditating improving focus on work and increasing chances for a raise or promotion ALSO satisfies your value of contribution because by being able to focus more you create a better work product in a more efficient amount of time so the time you used to spend being distracted can now be spent on the people you love or other areas of life that need your attention. There are a myriad of 'core values' you could identify. I recommend starting by asking yourself what drives you to get up in the morning and keeps you going after everything you do. Core values might be family, freedom, love, impact, education, philanthropy, honesty, connection, community, faith..., once you really find what drives you, you can then see how your behaviors are or are not aligned to your values and then either improve on them or let that support you in pursuing the value. I always ask myself, 'What happens if I don't____?' and this gives me the kick in the butt to go and do it because if i don't, I might be sacrificing the satisfaction of what matters most to me! Resources to support habit change and development can be found in my book 'Believe your way to Badass' which is available on Amazon! You can also contact me to discuss 1:1 mentorship and coaching revolving around your goals and personal development :)  Letting go of limiting beliefs or behaviors isn’t always as easy as we’d like it to be.
A lot of times these self-sabotaging patterns actually serve us in some way, even if we wish they didn’t or don’t want to acknowledge that they do. An example of this might be wanting to give up binge eating because it’s taking you away from mental peace, your physique goals, health, and making you feel sick but it serves you by giving you a means to have foods you don’t normally “get” to have, cope with emotions you aren’t wanting to look at directly, deal with trauma, self-fulfill a prophecy that you’re “a failure” thereby giving you congruency between actions and beliefs…and so on. So despite the desire to stop binge eating, there’s a lot of ways it is serving you. Therefore, if you want to change a thought or behavior pattern that is limiting you in one way, you must find other ways to address or fulfill the needs it IS meeting. When finding new routes, it’s best to pick and try things that are convenient and bring meaning to your life. We don’t want to go into it trying to be perfect, just aiming to make a small effort in a meeting direction, without expecting things to change all of a sudden and for no struggle to exist ever again. Changing thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors can (not always) take time. I recommend you get help from someone who understands and has productively helped others do this. For example, you might hire a coach who specializes in plans for gut health if you’re struggling with this just like you would inquire about hiring me if you are struggling with your relationship with food, body image, and your goals and don’t want to give up your fitness goals to make peace in these areas. Being compassionate, patient, and CONSISTENT are some of the key components to successful pattern changes. #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY  Have you signed up to receive mindset, personal development, food relationship, body image, and other insights, updates, or information right to your phone?
I created a free text community so I can send out those little bursts of ideas, curiosities, and insights every once in awhile to help you #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY no matter what journey you’re on! I’m not going to blow your phone up, but I hope when you do receive texts you find them meaningful and thought-provoking To sign up all you have to do is text “community” to 866-716-0768 :) super easy! I reply to your replies too, not a robot, it’s me 🥰 I’ve also set up some text accountability for my free food relationship coaching series and my free post show personal development series :) enrolling in those is different and you are able to do that when you sign up for those two freebies on my website linked in bio @celestial_fit  Sometimes, in the beginning, there is no long-term vision, just a dream you take a chance on.
Then the dream becomes reality and you cannot see a future that doesn’t include the continuation of the dream. That’s how my life feels and has been. An ongoing pursuit of what I love to do with so much gratitude that I get to do it. ❤️ Wearing a piece from the Confessions of a Bikini Podcast apparel line that you can find on www.celestial.fit/podcast on the button for apparel!  It makes me sad when competitors say they only love their prep body.
In prep you’re usually in a calorie deficit, uncomfortable, tired, and busy with all things cardio lifting and meals. This doesn’t change drastically into an improvement season but when you have more food, less cardio, more time, more flexibility, it makes a difference in how you feel. I have learned to love my improvement season body because I live in her more than my prep body. Sometimes it’s really uncomfortable, of course, but when you’re playing the long game, you have to be willing to feel that way. I have come to love my body more and more because I respect her. I respect that my body needs space to breathe and recover and grow. I respect that this sport is not about who can stay the leanest the longest, it’s about who can bring what the judges are looking for and stand out against everyone else on stage. I respect that I was too small at my last show, I don’t have the density and maturity others do, I need time. Because I respect these things, I have been able to embrace the necessary changes. I think it’s easy to get caught up in having “the look” but I remind myself that I’ll get “there” eventually, but now is still a season for growth and improvement. If I only loved my body on prep it would mean I wouldn’t get as much out of my improvement seasons because if you don’t love yourself, you’ll be less likely to take the actions necessary for yourself to improve or change. I don’t need to see alllllll the lines year round to know I’m an athlete. I’m an athlete regardless. I show up for myself, execute the plan, communicate my needs, and honor my body. I found validation in my efforts and my soul more than the body which allows me to excel. I can recognize where there’s room for more growth too & my efforts are supported by my gratitude for my body & this journey. When people message me saying they are so grateful I “post photos like this” or “looking like that” It used to kinda bother me but then I realized overtime that by me showing my body in all stages & phases, others are more comfortable with their own changing body. Take pride in your efforts all year & #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY 🧠 I could probably expand on the list but these are some of the common denominators I’ve found working with hundreds of competitors on their relationship with food.
My intention with this post is to support you in prevention efforts but please know it is never one size fits all. There are best practices to implementing and maneuvering the complexities of prevention, progression, and healing. If you’re looking for help with your relationship with food you can check out my free food relationship coaching series or learn about and apply for my food relationship healing and discovery 1:1 coaching program. My belief is that by making peace with food, your body, and your goals, every season will be more empowering, fulfilling, and success generating because with mental peace and health we have more energy to focus on the demands of the sport! #BUILDMORETHANJUSTABODY When I committed to move to Arizona for a year for my internship, I told myself to treat it like it was the only year I’d get to have here.
I want to make the most of it “while I’m here” and what I’m realizing is that the more I do this, the more I want to stay! I didn’t realize how much AZ has to offer but now that I am, I’m even more grateful to be here. I could see myself living in and exploring other places too but I really am loving this state so much and it’s much more free and a different energy than Cali🇺🇸🙌🏻 I committed to adventuring and I’m so glad I have and am :) Do you like seeing my lil travel / exploration stuff? I think it’s cool! These pics are from Flagstaff’s Snowbowl. I hiked just under the start of Humphrey’s peak trail. I didn’t realize that’s the highest peak in all of AZ, maybe I should attempt it in the future! I like being a tourist where I live🥲 Ps yes that is pepper spray on my back pack. I used to leave it in a pocket until a friend of mine and I got stalked by a man on an out and back trail which is when I moved it to the front🤣 I also have lots of self-defense skills which give me more confidence than pepper spray tbh. Not many people know I got my blue belt in jujitsu. I used to wake up before highschool, go train out of my sensei garage, go to school, then sometimes grapple more in the afternoon and gree with him into all his studios. He taught me so much and I eventually loved more than the combat defense work and got into rolling. But I stopped because I was rolling usually with huge men which was great for my confidence but not great on my body lol. Ju jitsu pain is different pain than anything else! I could tell many stories but eventually i gave it up. I miss it but I'm glad it gave me so much confidence to navigate the world alone! Let’s hope I don’t have to use it😆 |
Celeste Rains-Turk
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Photos used under Creative Commons from Robert Gourley, Danijel J, Neeta Lind, Brian PDX, Stefano Merli, frankieleon, j_lai, Gudlyf, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet, Arya Ziai, SuperFantastic, Ruth and Dave
