10 things you should know about me & Marcus

Hello all! I thought a little more get-to-know-you (me?) was in order. I think it's important to share all the nitty-gritty that make me less of a fake online person and more of a relatable human being.

1. Had we met each other sooner, we probably wouldn't have liked each other very much!

I didn't even begin to care about my health or fitness until around 2011; and that's not to say my body changed so much that Marcus wouldn't have been attracted to me. No, it was more that training and running changed the way I saw myself, respected myself, and was able to let down some of my huge walls that I'd built for so long. Plus, he's a very confident, snarky man, so I would have been much too insecure back in the day to hang with his sass ;)

2. We have both accomplished significant physical changes in our bodies at one point or another.

In my opinion, this is a huge advantage when I'm trying to understand where a client is coming from in a weight loss situation. Much like Drew Manning taking on his Fit2Fat2Fit experiment to better gain some empathy towards his clients' journeys, I've actually been in those shoes (and will be soon again with baby weight!) Marcus, on the other hand, relates to those-- usually guys-- who struggle to put on muscle mass at all. He was always a small guy, maybe 145-150 lb coming out of high school, and it took him YEARS of consistent training to get above 200. He has learned firsthand what it takes to put on size and keep it.

3. Marcus is also a dieting freak of nature.

Much to my dismay sometimes, Marcus can plan & stick to a nutritional program like a robot. I've never met anyone who doesn't get even a little bit grumpy when switching over to ketosis, but he can do it with a smile. Even currently, I have a trainer friend who is intermittent fasting, and every time I see him, he looks tired and grumpy and hungry. Not Marcus. He's intermittent fasting and actually enjoying it! For this reason, he tends to be our little guinea pig for tweaking and trying out new meal plans.

4. We have very different training styles for our own personal fitness.

While I actually love to follow along with Marcus's workouts some days, tapping into my inner-lady-meathead, I tend to have a much more functional & running based approach to myself. This is not because I see better results from running, but because running goals are my favorite to set and keep me consistent in all aspects of fitness. Post-baby, my goals will definitely shift to more aesthetic-focused goals, where I will take on a lifting program with a few days of HIIT and very light running just to keep my base. On the other hand, Marcus is a steadfast gym-goer. He doesn't need races on his calendar to get in there day in & day out. Actually, he can't have races on his calendar because he loathes running and stopped pretending he'd run with me soon after we started dating!

5. Our styles are complimentary.

While Marcus writes programs that are lifting-focused, primarily, I tend to add in the functional side of things to make our programs very well-rounded. Any stretching, HIIT, cross-training, and running typically come from me, and I think you need all of these things to truly benefit your physique and well-being.

6. We met while working together at The Vitamin Shoppe.

And I quickly got promoted to his boss! Not to worry, we didn't really start dating until we knew I was leaving. We are thankful for that experience, though, because being coworkers allowed us a path to friendship that built such a solid foundation for us and gave us the time we both needed to realize we had similar beliefs and principles and truly enjoyed each other's company.

7. We both love to advise & consult on supplement questions from friends & family.

This is where we love to get nerdy. After working at The Vitamin Shoppe, we tag-teamed a small supplement store that sold a much larger variety of muscle-building supps than we'd been accustomed to, so we had to get sciencey with that stuff fast. It's irresponsible to sell & recommend those things if you don't know what you're talking about. We had a notebook of information we'd acquired to consult as we needed it, but before you knew it, we could both spit out the scientific nomenclature of test-boosting compounds and so on. This isn't to brag about that knowledge, because plenty of that has fallen out of my brain since then, but it's just to show how much we care about knowing what works & what doesn't, and how things work. There's nothing I hate more than going in a GNC and an employee not being able to tell me a single scientific thing about a product.

8. He's a hardcore gamer.

I don't know if he would agree with my assessment there, but I think it's a fair assessment considering how much time he could spend on his PS4 (if only his nagging wife would let him!) Destiny, COD, Battlefield... any decent first-person shooter. Ultimately, I know he'd love to find a way to fuse training & gaming in a YouTube channel mash-up. He's the nerdiest meathead I know, and I've found those things actually go together really well.

9. We are college football rivals.

And not just ANY rivalry. The college football rivalry. Auburn-Alabama. The dirtiest of all rivalries, and lately, one of the most competitive. Yeah, yeah, you're an Ohio State fan, or ohhh Michigan-Michigan State is a way better rivalry, but no way. You will never convince me otherwise because here in the south, we eat, sleep, & breathe it, & Marcus's mom has not stopped "Roll Tide"ing me in 3 years.

10. Sometimes I wish I had a college do-over, & Marcus is just thankful to never have to go back.

I am of the belief that I absolutely needed to walk the path I took, no matter how crooked and winding and painful it was, to end up where I am today. That being said, I wasted so much time & money & sometimes that drives me nuts! By the time I left Auburn in 2011, I had started to get an interest in kinesiology, but I was drowning in my lack of direction. I needed a fresh start and family support-- because that was the hardest part of college to me. The solitude and responsibility of it all. College made me grow up, that's for sure. It showed me how far and deep I could fall, and how extremely strong and capable I am of picking myself back up. While my "before" pictures are not that drastic to most people ,or even obese, they represent a time of despair and hopelessness. I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin for so long, and I couldn't quite grasp what I needed to do to change. I think so many people find themselves in that position, and it feels like it could go on forever that way, but it doesn't have to. One small positive step leads to another, and with the support of those around you, coupled with your own personal fire that you must stoke, you're capable of absolutely ANY change that you want to tackle.