I am a typical age group triathlete, not only can I be swayed by a bit of bike porn, but I’m, (this is tough to say) obsessed with the way my body looks – it matters and at the age of 59, it still matters!
I’m a product of the sixties when skeletal was fashionable and I’ve never been skeletal.
My mum was always ‘comfortable’ and yearned to be slim and therefore I grew up watching her try desperately to lose weight after having five kids within nine years.
She had no idea what affect her constant dieting had on me, particularly as puberty hit.
I remember at secondary school having to wear white knee-length socks and looking at my knees as they spilled over the top of the sock. I was 163cm at 12 years of age and probably weighed about 60kg. I grew fast, but was surrounded by little girls, who were growing slowly – the insecurities were there to stay.
And so, throughout my adult life I’ve been obsessed, sometimes to the detriment of my health and I’m sure my performance when it comes to sport.
Time to introduce Mikki Willenden!
I first came across Mikki on the Fitter Radio Podcast – she co-hosts the show with Kiwi triathlete and coach Bevan McKinnon. You can check out Mikki’s credentials here.
What drew me to ask Mikki for help was her sense of fun. I didn’t want some po-faced, slim-line foodie pontificating about where I’d gone wrong or recommending that I chew on mung beans and banished treats from my life forever.
Mikki is fun to work with, she’s good at what she does and is happy to conduct consultations via Skype.
Having all the blood work to show Mikki was invaluable. She was able to do calculations on things like cholesterol levels and reassure me that things weren’t that bad.
She also identified the need to up the protein in my diet and made some suggestions on how to cope with issues I do have with green vegetables and fruit, which don’t like me.
After the consultation she sent through some pretty comprehensive notes, tips on how to sneak that extra protein into my diet, supplements that will help once the training really starts to ramp up and all without reference to weight gains or losses – the important thing is to ‘Eat real food, enjoy real life’.
So that’s Mikki on the team. I’m not sure she realises she’s part of my team, but she is!