by Aimee Wojtowecz
My journey with nutrition has been a long and complicated road; a journey that I am sure so many of you are familiar with. I distinctly remember being on my first diet at age 8. Which as you can imagine set me up for a lifetime of struggling with my weight and eating habits. I tried everything from Weight Watchers, to exercising more, to not eating at all (or very little), low carb, low fat, macros; the point is there isn’t much I didn’t try to lose the extra weight. My weight has fluctuated up and down over the years, losing and regaining 100 pounds at one point. It kept me from jobs, from opportunities and experiences because I was always self-conscious of my weight and my abilities.
All of my struggles led me to go back to grad school at the age of 39 to obtain my Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition. I had always been interested in nutrition (probably started somewhere around the age of 8 but maybe that’s just a coincidence!) and I knew I needed a different approach to finally “fixing” my weight problem, and I thought “wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to help other people with theirs too, save them from all of the struggles I had been through” (I’m sure you can see where this is going already!). The harsh reality is I still didn’t get it. I was learning all of this science behind healthy nutrition and how to apply it, in theory, to working with real people and how great I was going to make my life and their lives and solve all the world’s problems with good nutrition, but……why wasn’t it working for my body? What was I doing wrong, was my body broken and this was just the best it was ever going to be?
When I started at UPCF my only focus was losing weight and looking good, but somewhere along the way that all changed and I realized what I really was searching for was strength and good health. Things truly changed for me last year when I started working with coach Jess on my nutrition. I can hear it now, **gasp*** “but Aimee you’re a nutritionist?”. Yes, but even coaches need coaches. We all need help holding ourselves accountable and sometimes other people can see the big picture in ways that we can’t because maybe it’s not your nutrition that’s the problem, maybe it’s your recovery, maybe it’s your sleep or your stress. The UPCF nutrition program is designed to set you up for a lifetime of health and strength by focusing on a holistic approach (meaning a whole-person, client-led approach) using habits one at a time and in such a way that they become your lifestyle and not just another diet. I am completely confident in saying that I will never have a weight problem again because-insert game changer lightbullb aha moment here–my weight was never my problem, my attitude about it was. By taking the focus off my weight and putting the focus on my health this journey became a lot easier to navigate.
If you need help with your health journey, reach out, we are here to support you in any way we can.