Rheanne
“I started my journey over two years ago after finishing up my Masters. I started at the CrossFit gym and signed up for a nutrition challenge! The challenge introduced us to whole foods and learning how to weigh and measure. Like many I was under eating and trying to chase body comp and performance while only consuming 1200 cals/day. It was very difficult to cut out processed and packaged food as my body craved sugar. Once I started to be consistent with eliminating processed foods I began to feel much better. After the challenge ended Abby encouraged me to continue on as she had told me the process would be that, a process. Wanting to loose body fat while increasing performance doesn’t happen at the same time. I have gone through cycles of weight gain and fat loss. I enjoy working out and competing so I’ve had to really tell myself to trust the process. Finally in the last four months I have made BIG progress and it’s fantastic!! I am down 20 lbs and competing in RX divisions! This is a full lifestyle change, not a 21 day fix, not meal replacements, and not something that will happen over night. The results are long lasting and worth far more when they come.”
Rheanne has been a challenging client! She is a shift worker, student, volunteer, CrossFit coach, and athlete! Her body is constantly being put on high demand with little to no sleep and trying to do a thousand things in a day! We have had some serious battles with her body! She needs (lots of) food to function however her body doesn’t want to give anything up! Through periodization with her nutrition in her CrossFit seasons as well as making sure she is HEALTHY and Sleeping and feeling great I am so excited and so proud of how far she has come and look forward to watch her keep pressing forward!
Health first, Six Pack abs second!!!
Tanya McDonald
“For the entire first year of my Crossfit experience, I did not pay much attention to my nutrition and instead of water, I drank a lot of diet coke! It was entering my first nutrition challenge at IronAge that helped me increase my awareness of the value of nutrition, and to develop a daily routine of logging my food intake. Over the last two years I have been able to substantially improve my strength, performance and recovery through simple changes of adopting a nutrition plan with targeted caloric intake and macros. As a working professional with many breakfast, lunch and supper meetings it is sometimes more challenging to follow a strict plan, but with the tools and understanding I have developed from Abby, I can still stay on track. The work paid off- I reduced my body fat and increased lean muscle mass substantially. My sleep, my mood, my performance and my recovery have all benefited from proper nutrition and supplementation. As a masters athlete, I am achieving goals that I never thought possible, including getting ring muscle ups in 2017. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2018!”
I also am excited to see what Tanya has to coming in the 2018 season! Tanya is one or our biggest competitors, she is constantly signing up for comps and challenging herself and it’s been very rewarding watching her get stronger and stronger. As a masters athletes Recovery is our primary focus with performance second!
Lexi Wright
I started nutrition with Abby a few years ago when I started training with her. I have never been an athlete per say but always worked out because I struggled with my weight. Travelling a lot for work along with my food sensitivities made it even more difficult to maintain a weight as I entered my late 30s early 40s. Through Abby’s nutrition I have learned to cut out the foods that were causing me problems, eat healthy while on the road and choose the necessary proportions to fuel my body to achieve the performance I wanted in the gym. There have been times I have questioned her but believing in the process has provided me with the results I wanted.
While initially my focus was on maintaining a clean eating lifestyle I could manage both at home and on the road my focus has changed somewhat with more of a push for performance to compete in a couple competitions a year. My last 3 months resulted in 5% decrease in body fat and 7 lbs of Lean muscle gained. I can honestly say at 47 years of age I am the healthiest, happiest and strongest I have ever been thanks to good nutrition and CrossFit.
I have worked off and on with Lexi and her nutritional goals for the past 5 years! Lexi travels a lot so it’s important to make a plan for her that works while she is away! What works for one doesn’t always work for the next! The last three months we have finally found consistency and she is getting the results she’s wanting! Looking forward to the next few months!
Deborah McDonald
“My whole life fitness has been an important element for my physical and mental wellbeing but I never thought I needed to worry much about what I ate. Don’t get me wrong, nutrition was somewhat on my radar, trying many detoxes and cleanses along the way but everything seemed to be a fad, nothing that gave me the knowledge or know how to maintain or stick to as a everyday way of life. I always was aware eating nutritious whole foods made me feel better but I never understood how much regulating your food intake could change your body weight, performance, sleep and mood as much as it did when I started working with Abby at Iron Age. Learning how to eat the correct amounts of food and supplements as well as what types of foods to stabilize my metabolism has improved everything from my physical performance and strength, my ability to fall and stay asleep and I have even found noticeable differences in my memory and stress levels…. and the kicker is it is MAINTAINABLE! I have never felt or looked stronger in my life I now find this way of eating ‘normal’ not hard or not fun! I am so happy with the results I have achieve from dialing in on my nutrition.”
Working with Deb has been very rewarding! Her body has been so responsive to all the changes we have made and Deb has really learnt how to find that balance between maintaining the body composition, performance and a social lifestyle! It can be done!
Rikki Smith
With my competitive hockey career ending this year I decided that becoming a competitive CrossFit athlete was my next goal. A big part of being an RX’d athlete is not only training hard, but dialing in nutrition as well. With Abby’s guidance I started on a 3 month nutrition plan and never have I been happier with the way I feel about myself. It wasn’t easy at first and took a lot of planning and reminding myself on WHY I am doing what I am doing, especially with having to do shift work. The first thing I noticed was how much better my stomach felt. I was no longer bloated or dealing with stomach pain. I was happy with just that alone! Then after two months I started to PR lifts and improve on my gymnastics movements. I don’t believe any of this would have happened as quickly without my nutrition plan. After 3 months of watching my eating I lost fat, gained muscle, cleared up my acne and just felt better then I have ever felt before. I didn’t even follow it 100% and saw results. To me as much as this was about being a better athlete it has now evolved into being more about the type of lifestyle that makes me happy.
I have been Rikki’s CrossFit coach since she was 15 years old. Her passion for sports and training does not go unnoticed! When she asked if I would take her on to get her going on the basics I was thrilled! This is just the beginner for her and with her work ethic and laser focus she’s going to be a fierce competitor! I’m looking forward to the next CrossFit season with you.
Jennifer Buehler
I started nutrition a few years ago. After many years of working out on my own I needed a new challenge that would incorporate my kids attending. Hence I found Crossfit… after sometime working out regularly I decided I wanted to push myself further. That’s when I started nutrition. Being accountable for nutrition has allowed me to manage stress better and take more control of my life. I work a job that is full of uncertainty, high stress and at times dangerous. I often don’t have any control over those situations which adds to the stress. Taking control of my nutrition and physical fitness allows me to be more confident and manages my stress. When I am healthy and happy that correlates to me being a better mom, wife, paramedic and firefighter.
Taylor Olsen
It’s great what working with Vital Nutrition and Performance has done for my energy levels. Investing in nutrition couldn’t have been a better starting point.
It’s amazing what your body can do when you start feeding it the right fuel. I’ve went from sweats to skies on the weekend and I’m not looking back.