Who Is Georgia?
We first connected with Georgia (@coastpathdirtbag) when she joined in with our latest competition and we were instantly drawn to her positive outlook and love for running (plus the views she gets from living on the South Coast of the UK).
Georgia’s message is one that we’re sure will resonate with lots of you and this blog highlights the importance of loving your body and prioritising your training and mindset - not what you see in the mirror.
It’s a normal morning, double teaspoon coffee with a big slap of oat milk, oats cooked in water with a banana and a hearty dollop of PB, raisins or maple syrup, sometimes both. All good fuel, caffeine to spark the engine, slow-release healthy carbs, proteins and fats to keep the engine turning. I run, I sweat, I greet the day with the wind rushing about me and I feel strong and deeply connected to my surroundings.
I am absolutely present and in the moment… until I get home and look in the mirror – at which point I’m instantly dumbfounded and disappointed in what I see because the profound strength that I feel and experience when I’m training doesn’t match with the image I have in my mind of what that fitness should look like.
And all too often, to be quite frank, it will take me hours of a conscious effort to step out of that mindset and back into a full heart-healthy brain space again.
There’s a couple of things going on here that I think it’s important to note:
I started running 4.5 years ago because I wanted to get smaller, since then I’ve transformed in many ways, but am I significantly smaller? No. And that’s fine!
The work I am doing to make myself strong now is going to pay dividends for years to come, fitness is a journey that is multi-faceted. I know that the joy I get out of the things I can ask my body to do for me is way more profound than the vanity boost I would get from attaining the ‘perfect body’.
Who couldn’t enjoy running with views like this…?
Running trails and taking pleasure out of having a body that can facilitate great adventures, amazing feats and take me to places that make me so earnestly happy to be on the earth in any shape or form is far more important than working towards having a body that looks good for other people to look at.
You are with yourself always, and it’s a cruelty to not fully inhabit your body and enjoy it for all its marvellousness, especially if you work out – you are giving yourself the gift of strength. Work hard, eat plenty to build those muscles up, sleep well and take time to stop and just really feel yourself.
Over winter I did not listen to my body, I didn’t rest when I needed it, I tried to push through seasonal affective disorder with aggressive runs, and instead of giving my body good food, I gave it too much low-quality food because I didn’t feel like I deserved nice food because I wasn’t performing well, and I totally disassociated from myself.
And unsurprisingly, I gained weight. There’s no issue in this in and of itself, bodies are just bodies, being bigger didn’t mean I was bad, I just took up marginally more space in the world and my clothes had to work a little harder in the elastane department… The issue was that I wasn’t treating myself in a way that was conducive to developing, and honestly, I didn’t have the cash to upsize my wardrobe.
I toyed with calorie counting, I toyed with taking progress pictures, I toyed with joining a food club. But like Jessie wrote in her post (https://www.teamgritocr.com/blog/why-i-stopped-counting-calories), what actually matters is just trying to really dial into what your body is saying and noticing how it responds. I’m practising nutrient timing, I’m using Tailwind for my workouts, when I’m in a rush I’m using Huel Black so I don’t fall back on energy-dense but nutritionally weak food, and I’m hearing what my body is saying.
Spring has been like emerging from a cocoon, I’m so happy to be back and amazed as always at how dynamic and responsive the body is. Today I ran in a crop top, and the strength of my legs carried me around the rugged coast, as the waves were hitting the shore my midriff was wobbling with each step and when I stopped to take a candid snap staring off to sea my sports bra helped smooch the skin and pudge on my ribs into little rolls.
And as I type this, with a heart full of the joy of getting out to play, I can truly say – today I am grateful enough to my body to simply not care what shape it is. Whoever you are, I hope you feel the same about your body today and treat it with kindness this week.
Happy training everyone xx
You can check out Georgia on IG at @coastpathdirtbag
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@runninbaddie/video/6950306548329483526?lang=en&is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
Georgia is also preparing for an epic FKT challenge, you can check out her full journey here:
coastpathdirtbag.com
