Gaining Weight, the Healthy Way
Hi I’m Aaron and this is my MTMM story.
I’ll tell you from the get go that I come from a family of athletes and competed nationally for judo, wrestled provincially and continued wrestling through into my first year of university. Following that first year, things kind of fell off, not to say that I didn’t do anything, but I definitely didn’t do very much.
Following that long stretch of being in my early twenties I realized that all those PBR’s had caught up to me and I took up running. At this point my concept of nutrition was pretty skewed, mostly because I didn’t really know what it meant to be properly fuelled. Initially, and I am sure this goes for many; I thought nutrition meant eating smaller meals that were boring, real boring. Though I shed those PBR pounds that was about all that happened. I continued running, I lifted weights, I ate my small baby plates, but I never got stronger, I never got faster, I plateaued for a long time. A year maybe two, but probably longer, I wasn’t really counting.
Cut to January 2017, I’ve heard about MTMM and what Katrina is doing and I decide that it’s worth a minute of my time. I walked through the door with a set of goals, put on 15-20 pounds (of healthy weight), maybe run faster, and definitely be as fit as my sister-in-law and her boyfriend. Katrina sat down with me, ran me through a marathon of questions to get to know me, my family history, and what my body was all about. Since that day, my idea of nutrition has been completely changed. I’m no longer bound to celery sticks and awful turkey slice wraps, but real food that can keep me going. I am able to bounce out of bed ready to tackle the day rather than crawling. I’ve PR’d lifts that I had struggled with for years and am pulling off movements I’ve never thought possible. I’ve expanded my realm of physical activity beyond just running and am dipping my toes into things that scared me half to death (like putting 200+ pounds above my head with an Olympic lift).
Don’t let me make you think it was easy because it wasn’t, it’s hard to say no to that donut and hard to pass on that casual Tuesday afternoon beer, but if you do, you’ll be surprised how far you’ll go. Seriously, gains are made in the kitchen. It’s been 2 years of dedication and hard work (with plenty of speed bumps because we’re all human) for me and I can’t wait to see how much further I’ll go and how many more CrossFit Opens I’ll beat Ben in.