About MCK | My Fitness Journey

Growing up I was always active. For as long as I can remember I was involved in sports including: horseback riding, figure skating, dance, gymnastics, swimming, track, basketball, softball, and rowing. Being active, competitive, and part of a team were fundamental values of my childhood. I continued to be a multi-sport athlete up until high school. Things start to get competitive, and sports seasons start to overlap and span multiple weather seasons; as an athlete at a big school it was time to pick one and focus in on skill development. I played softball my freshman-junior year in high school while simultaneously rowing with a club team. Ultimately my senior year I made the decision to pursue rowing completely.

In high school I rowed competitively in the lightweight division. For the first time in my life, I had to be semi-conscious of what I ate, how much I weighed, and collectively for the first time became aware of my size. Pretty comfortably fluctuating around 135 pound in high school I loosely dieted by packing my own lunches which included a ton of peanut butter and flour tortillas. I competed in regionals for rowing my senior year in a single, completely and utterly in love with the sport.

Fast forward to college where I absolutely could not imagine not being a part of a team so I walked on to the division I woman’s rowing team at the University of Iowa. I spent the first few months of my collegiate career training like a D1 athlete and eating easily 3-4000 calories a day without gaining any excess weight. After a few months of training and plenty of time trials in the record books, boats were beginning to be put together. Woman’s division I rowing at the University of Iowa does not have a lightweight crew. Eventually, the head coach approached me with an ultimatum; I could continue on as a rower, however, with my size my numbers would never be competitive enough to put me into a boat OR I could become a coxswain, and with previous rowing experience I could become a coxswain in one of the varsity boats which would also fulfill a necessary gap for the team. As a freshman you don’t decline an offer to compete with the varsity, I became a D1 coxswain [coxswain= the little person who steers the boat, coaches and motivates the crew, and tries not to be too much deadweight].

Now to be successful in my new position my sole athletic goal was to be as light as possible. At 5’4” 135lbs I was the tallest and heaviest coxswain by 2” and 15lbs. Initially I did all I could to make up for the excess weight in the boat with correctional cues and aggressive steering. That only gets a boat so far, especially mentally. In the end 1lb of extra weight in the boat equates to something like .1 seconds of time over 2000meters. Mentally that .1 second can destroy a boat of competitive ladies. One day I was called into the coach’s office and asked to start a diet and that if I needed, they would provide resources for me. Ouch. Wake up call. For the first time in my life, freshman year of college, I stopped eating. Dropping my weight down to around 125lbs and became constantly stressed.

My sophomore year I got an apartment with another one of the coxswains. The best parts about living with a teammate are built in support system, someone to vent to, someone to run to practice with at 5am, and someone who understands your crazy schedule. My roommate and I spent a lot of time exploring different physical modalities together because it was what we enjoyed and ultimately was a means to our end goals of being as small as possible for rowing. We got heavily involved in yoga and I started training for my first marathon. I was easily spending 4-6 hours in the gym a day and desperately seeking more opportunity and time to do more. Around this same time my roommate brought up the idea of bikini competitions. She met a girl in one of her classes who competed and to this day I am so so so thankful for this girl because she inspired me and my best friend to make one of the best decisions of our lives and start competing.

Halfway through sophomore year we began prepping on our own for our first bikini show. During this time I dropped down to 112lbs and was within 5 pounds of the other coxswains. My coaches started encouraging me and praising me for being so small but due to a lot of personal factors I couldn’t be happy with where I was at. At my lowest point I remember having to leave in the middle of a football game to go to the ER because my stomach hurt so bad. I loved the experience and the challenge of competing. But at my first show, I cried.

After this first show I finally got into a healthier mindset, now I had functional and health related goals. I took up weightlifting with the end goal of another show in mind. Rowing and being as small as possible took a backseat and my weight hit a high point at 145lbs. I was okay.

After college I competed in my second competition with a prep coach; I wasn’t as competitive as I wanted to be but I was extremely proud and happy with the way I looked and the work I put in. After this second show my doctor discovered some hormonal problems involving mainly energy and metabolic processes. I was put on a synthroid for hypothyroidism and advised to not diet for a full calendar year to let my hormones and body reset. So I focused on growth.

Concurrently, another amazing journey that health and fitness took me on was career related. With a degree in Human Physiology and an interest in how I could continue to take my training to the next level, continued education was a no brainer. I completed both my NASM and NCCPT personal trainer certifications and spent a brief time working as a personal trainer. Although health and fitness are still a passion, I found personal training to be mentally draining and eventually decided that that wasn’t meant to be my path.

Today, I hike and travel and am working on rebuilding my relationship with the gym. Every day I strive to progress as a person towards better physical and mental fitness.

That’s my journey. It’s not perfect but I learned a lot of lessons and it led me to where I am today. I wouldn’t change one thing.

A post-covid peak behind the curtains of a former fitness fanatic turned couch potato

The global pandemic causing the world to shut down was a life altering event for everyone. For myself, one of the hardest implications was losing sight on physically fitness. With an office job and a more than a year away from the gym, my current weight sits at whopping 150. The next chapter of my fitness journey starts now including a journey to re-learn how to love the gym. Stay tuned for chapter 2 coming Summer 2023.