blog
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for being here.
I like to write a lot. Mostly about powerlifting, strength training, body image + women in sport. They’re kinda my things.
If you ever have questions or want to learn more, please reach out. I would love to hear from you.
Billie x
Life Trade Offs
Trade offs need to be discussed more, particularly so at this time of year when we’re evaluating our lives, setting goals, making changes for the year ahead. Your time and energy is finite. In order to do more of something, you have to do less of something else.
When I’ve spoken about trade offs previously, and realistically when anyone in health and fitness talks about trade offs, they do so through the lens of achieving some sort of health/fitness goal. If you want to lose weight, you need to trade off some take out meals. If you want to get stronger, you need to pass on some time with friends to spend more time in the gym, etc etc.
I want to talk about trade offs through an alternate lens. This is where I’m at in my life right now.
Promoting Obesity Is Not A Thing & And Other Things The Internet Gets Wrong About Body Positivity
The body positivity and Health At Every Size movements are largely misunderstood. Viewed by thin people as “promoting obesity,” their messages of empowerment and self-acceptance (both extremely valuable in contributing to improving physical, mental and social health) are often completely misconstrued and contorted. Both movements have extremely positive missions and outcomes that are very worthwhile understanding.
Moral Licensing - Why Telling Yourself You've Been Good Is F*cking You Up
Anything you moralise is fair game for moral licensing. So when you refer to your diet as good or praise yourself for being good because you’ve consistently hit the gym, you are fair game for moral licensing. If your diet has been good, you’re entitled to a little bad. And if you’ve been good with the gym, baby girl, you deserve a day off. But isn’t this just balance you say? Hear me out.
How to Improve Your Body Image - Tried and Tested Methods
The people who are most resilient to threats and challenges to their body image are not so because they are beautiful or thin. Instead, they are protected by being not relying on their physical appearance for their identity or self worth and keep their looks in perspective by investing in other things for self-fulfilment such as family, friends, achievements, work and leisure interests. This sounds all well and good, like “yeah I’d love to feel that way, but I don’t”. So, how do you achieve a positive body image?
Metabolic Adaptation is F*cking with my Fat Loss - Now What?
In my last article, I spoke about the myth of “survival mode” and what is actually going on when you’re eating very little, but still not losing weight. But, the battle is not lost and there are certainly strategies we can employ to mitigate these effects and keep us moving towards our body composition goals.
Survival Mode Isn't a Thing
… but your body does change when you lose weight.
Way back when our ancestors had to hunt for their meals, food availability was unpredictable. Some times they caught dinner; some times they did not. Therefore, storing body fat was favourable, as it provided an energy source in times of famine, when dinner wasn’t being served up.
We don’t really need this in a first world food environment. We can access food pretty effortlessly [unless Karen has been panic buying] from the supermarket / our pantries whenever we damn well want — but try telling that to evolution.
So now, the human body has adapted mechanisms to prompt the storage of body fat, you know, just in case. These adaptations can throw a spanner in the works of our weight loss efforts, so it’s worth understanding what they are, how they happen and most importantly, what we can do about it.
How Weight Loss Works
Many people that want to lose weight, don’t understand how. Many who have successfully lost weight, don’t understand how they did it. There are many methods by which to lose weight, any number of them can work, but the problem, and the ring a round, and the yo-yoing stems largely from a lack of understanding of the principles that govern weight loss.
![Tracking Your Macros [Accurately]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/62fb3bfe41f3053b73c1217e/1662630792313-VPYP9UB6QAZA2TSP502D/image-asset.jpeg)
Tracking Your Macros [Accurately]
Macro tracking is not the be all end all holy grail of weight management. But it is a really powerful tool when used correctly. When being mindful about the data you enter, you are able to develop quite a thorough understanding of the nutritional value of the various foods that you eat. This practiced over a period of time will enable you to make informed food choices for the rest of your life, long after you stop using the app.
If you are relatively new to tracking your macros or have never really been shown how to use a macro tracking app such as MyFitnessPal effectively, the following article will provide you with some helpful practices that you can apply right away to improve the accuracy of your tracked data and ultimately your success with any nutrition intervention going forward.
Training on Holiday
Whether or not to train on holidays is a decision that seems to plague a lot of people.
I personally have been on holidays where I’ve trained everyday. I’ve been on holidays where I’ve hiked everyday. I’ve been on holidays where everyone else has gone to the gym and I’ve been like '“yeah nah I’m not doing that.” I’ve been on holidays where I’ve done a bunch of incidental activity just exploring — and all options have been amazing because they have considered my unique circumstances at the time.
There are no hard and fast rules for training and eating while travelling. As with many questions regarding health and fitness, the answer to “should I train on holiday” is “it depends.” But to make that answer a little more useful for you, it largely depends on the factors that I explore in this article [among others] that I encourage you to unpack next time you find yourself asking the same question.