Talking Nutrition

47 - [Client Interview] From Low-Calorie Diets To Climbing The Leaderboard

May 18, 2023 Kristine Andali & Johan Vesters
Talking Nutrition
47 - [Client Interview] From Low-Calorie Diets To Climbing The Leaderboard
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this bonus episode Johan interviews friend and client Anja Döring, who works as a canine physical therapist and participates in dog scooter racing at a high level.

We had a great chat about her fat loss journey, how a combination of less dieting and more weight lifting transformed her body, what it was like having to eat MORE for her goals (something that came as a surprise), and how this even showed up on the national and international leaderboards.

She got the results, has been able to maintain and continue to build on her results while including the more flexible foods and moments, manages to dial things in again when she needs to.. all after feeling stuck for the longest time.

(Make sure to stick around until the end for doggo talk, and how even they have a nutrition coach!)

IG: @anja.canixcrew / @canixcrew_adventures


Timestamps:
0:00 Intro - Low calorie diets and tons of cardio
9:57 The benefits of eating more...
14:54 Being able to dial things in again
19:09 Nutrition and training for her dogs
25:23 Outro

For coaching inquiries;
https://odysseycoachingsystems.co/online-nutrition-coaching/



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Guys, Welcome back to Talking Nutrition. Today's episode 47 Already, which is crazy to think about, I feel like we just started like last month or something. But today we're joined by my good friend, longtime friend Ania, who also was my client a little while ago. What's up? Hi, good to hear you. Today I want to kind of share on your story, right? So the stuff that you struggle with in the past, then how we kind of brought you to where you currently are, but also what you do, because I think it's super cool, right? So we often, you know, we work with people who are very active and who go running and all that. But you were definitely my only client who does dog racing. And one thing that you mentioned that was really cool, I thought is that you guys even have like a dog nutrition coach. As well as your job working with dogs as a as a dog physio, I think it's super cool. So let's start with a little bit of background about you. Right. So So what do you do for work, etc? Like workouts? What are your your passions? Okay, um, I started with the business. So I work as a doc physiotherapist, as a lecturer for emergency medicine. So my roots are definitely at the Shuman medicine, I worked as a paramedic for a lot of years. Now I run my own business with my husband, which is called Kenny X crew adventure. So we do Canicross and slapbox sports and have a school for it to teach other people. And yeah, what do I do for training now I started with running. totally fell in love with running. And then when it came to our nutrition coaching, and yeah, another focus on sled dog sports really changed. So I do a lot of weightlifting now, and just a little bit of running to do some cardio as well. And I love biking. So I'm always always home at the trail. So if I'm outside, I'm happy. Oh, love that. That's that's probably it. Yeah, that's great. I really liked seeing that change too. Because I mean, obviously you still raise you still do like endurance stuff. But that change kind of like going from most just doing cardio right, and actually struggling with like body composition. And with like, super low calorie diets and stuff to them, getting you to eat a lot more, which I know was kind of like a weird experience for you in the beginning. And then eventually, like getting more into weightlifting. And then now actually being in like a way different spot, you know. So let's actually go there. So before we start working together, you said you were doing a lot of running, right? We just already kind of teased that you you did a bunch of diets before that. Where were you at like before that, like how are you feeling or your past experience with that. Um, before we started the nutrition coaching, I did a lot of running. So I was out for running like 50k and about 20 to 50k per week. So I think that's a lot of running a lot of time while running. And I used some tracking apps. I was never really into a lot of diets. But sometimes when I was frustrated, I tried it with tracking apps you can download on Apple Store and the other stores which kept me really low with calories, which is kind of awful when you are outside running for like three hours and only can eat like 1700 calories per day and I was always tired and hungry and exhausted and frustrated and couldn't stay really consistent to it. Because it didn't work. For me I was hungry, I couldn't sleep so well and then I got up and was hungry again. It was just just a big battle with myself because I was so low of calories and always hungry and never happy. And then short time before I called you there was a total breakdown where I had no energy left to go running and cried a lot about it because running was The thing that made me really happy and was my my me time, my quality time with with my dog and so then I saw a Facebook post of you on. I think that was the sign I needed just to call you. Yeah, cuz we've been friends for a while, like, I think 10 years now. Yeah. And main thing was, I was outside running for time, and I'm always on the move. So always running, walking the dogs. When you work as a paramedic, you're on the go, like the whole day. And you never saw the results. Of all the training I did. You never saw it and all other people were like, Oh, you're doing sports? Okay. Wow, you should look a little bit more lenient or stuff like that. And I was like, Okay. Thanks. Bye. Thank you. Sure. It's, it's very common, though, because I see that a lot to where, and I feel like women more than men, I mean, both sides, but especially women, there's a lot of like, very heavy emphasis on doing a lot of cardio. The low calorie diets like really as a, as an industry, you know, the fitness industry, like we got to do better as a whole, you know, because there's still so many people struggling with that were is exactly how you said it, right? You actually feel like shit, you can sleep you have low energy, you're doing so much running right? So many kilometers. Now, with very few calories coming in. But you don't see the results. And that's super frustrating. You know, and that just shows that that typical, like eat less move more approach, it just doesn't work. You know what I mean? Or not? Not long term, at least, you know, because at some point, your body's just kind of like fed up with it. So that being said, I wanted to bring something up because you mentioned isn't what you're checking suit. Or or recent, Jeff, and your family, right, you're you're half Creek. A lot of stuff that you guys do is like, especially like family meetings and stuff. Yeah. So how was that? Like? How did you feel around like the social settings and go on vacation, etc, those kinds of things. Like at that time, I tried to not enjoy food anymore. So um, I enjoyed the family meetings. But when it came to food, I was like, Oh, shit, I have to, I have to cut the cake out. And then you just you just cut out everything you like, because if you only can eat like 1700 calories, you're, you're like totally fucked. And, and when you Greek especially. No more feta cheese, and all the good stuff. All the sweets and honey. Honey soft. Yeah. Yeah, you cut it out. And my family recognized that and asked me if something was wrong. And I was like, No, I have to do it for training. And because they're not really into sports, they're they were like, okay, so it's just normal not to eat. Now, it's hard to combine that sometimes and be very busy in terms of like trying to figure out your nutrition and doing your training and all that. But then trying to juggle that and also do well with your, you know, your family or your social settings. I feel like that's, that's a big struggle for a lot of people. Which makes it even cooler that you're currently just killing it like now you're able to just dial back in, when you need to go on vacation, like you're able to have like the flexible moments and stuff. So tell me a little bit about the experience like eating more, which I know is a weird thing for some people in the beginning for a lot of people. So how did that feel like kind of getting to eat more? And then kind of like going from that point to where you are currently because I think that that change is so huge. Now the thing is, you made it pretty easy for me because we had our goals from week to week and you increase calories. So I was able to do it but it was really strange to eat that much. I I think we started with like, 500 calories more than normally eight. And I was like, sitting down at the table for, I think it was lunch and I was like, Shit, I have like 1500 calories left. So one should I should I eat that? So much. But it felt good. Because I instantly started to eat stuff. I really missed a lot. So I did the 80% of good and whole food and 20% of fun stuff. And I ate fun stuff. So that was really good for the mindset. But I have moments where I was like, okay, so I can eat that. Okay, eat that. Yeah, and I enjoyed it. So that's the thing first. Yeah, performance changed really fast. And a lot of more, a lot of energy more left on the evenings. And normally, I went home after training and went to bed because I have no energy left. And then I was like, okay, I can go out for a walk. Because weather is nice. Oh, maybe I will do some short bike rides. Yeah, so um, my whole life changed. Because I had more energy. And my mindset was better. And that was really cool. And now, did you noticed that? What, go ahead, sorry. Go ahead. Oh. The past the past year, change a lot of things when it came to training and performance, I joined the German team for sled dog racing. So I was on international races, like European Championships and totally killed it. The last season last racing season was a hell of a ride. Noticed that? Yeah, in a good way. But like, but you notice that right? Like seeing like, on the leaderboard, you are ranking like higher and higher just over time, like as we progress. That was so cool to hear from you. Because you were like, the race is growing. So well. I'm eating more, you know, and then you were also getting leaner. So it's kind of cool, right? To be able to eat more, and then just actually see that progress and change. And then like, feel that change, you know, and you really saw the progress on my body. So the people came were like, Wow, you look great. Wow, you look so lean. Wow, you have muscles and stuff like that, which, which was really cool. Because, um, when you go go out and summertime and do a nice bike ride to the lake and then stay there and bikini and people like, Oh, I think she's training really hard. That's great. It's nice to just feel that confidence to you know, and I mean, you literally said like, before, people used to tell you like, hey, like, I thought you train a lot, you know, shouldn't be on the Get up. So that's a huge difference. It's, of course, it's less about what other people say and think because at the end of the day, fuck what they say. But like, yeah, it is cool to see that change, right to where you feel so much better. You feel confident, and then you also get that confirmation from other people to where okay, I know, like, I've definitely changed, you know? Yeah. Yeah, it's really nice, um, even for your own mindset of people recognize the hard work you put into it. And even if it comes from seeing the result of my body composition that's pretty nice. Cool. Yeah, definitely. So you recently so he just went on a vacation a few times, you recently went through like surgery and stuff. What do you do currently? So because you had multiple times where you kind of like stopped tracking, for example, you kind of like, you know, maintain a little bit more and more like let's call like intuitive. What do you do to kind of get consistent, stay consistent or just like pick things up when you feel the need to? Um, I think the coaching was so helpful. For with nutrition, what is good food? And what amount of food I can can take? Or can I eat? So the intuitive eating was less good. Can we call it a little bark? I'm talking what? When I was at home after surgery, yeah. I did a short blocking class. But I always find back to my routines. So I track food again, I know how many calories I can eat. And when I go back to maintenance after vacation, or I'm Christmas time or stuff like that, I always need just one to two days to get back into the routines. Then I stick to a perfectly actually so because it's so easy, it just feels natural now, for me to to have a look on good nutrition and weighing food sometimes. So I don't do it every day. Now in my cafes, I'm cutting at the moment because I'm I struggled after surgery and lying lying on bed for like weeks with a wateriness. And little bit. Again, a little bit of fat, I think, but just a little bit. So I'm cutting at the moment. Now turns out perfectly full of energy, a little bit hungry sometimes. But training goes really well. It's always the same sleep training enough food, enough of the right foods, getting my stuff done. Pretty easy. It's pretty easy. Yeah, like it actually like, well, now it's easy. So before it wasn't easy, but it is simple. And that's the thing, like some of the things we work through, like you may get going through those different phases like now you're actually at a place where you can just pick it up when you need to, you can use tracking as a tool to where you can do both with and without. And you know, kind of like, hey, I need to mostly just, you know, eat these foods and leave some room for the fun stuff. And then if I want to lose some fat, I know how to do that. Like, that's the ultimate goal. Because I think there's a lot of, and this goes back to like the diets and meal plans and those kind of things. There's a lot of stuff in the industry to where you sign up. It's like a four, eight, whatever week diet and you lose weight, but then what you know, and if there's, I guess there's a time in place for some stuff like that, but I don't think that it's going to be the ultimate solution to like learning how to do this yourself, you know, and that's why I think it's so cool, because we're still in touch and like, you're still killing it and you're still progressing and you know, both like body composition wise, like race wise, like, it's just really cool to see that to where we took you from that feeling great, shitty energy, kind of like, bit of like, almost like avoiding behavior around certain, you know, social settings, to now just like being in a great spot, you know? So obviously, you made a lot of changes yourself. But I kind of wanted to transition to the dogs, because I thought that was super interesting, too. So how does that go? So obviously you're racing with dogs. Tell us a little bit about that. Also, in terms of kind of like what you do there with their nutrition and how you train and those kind of things. I think it's super interesting. I know you were you would love it. When I when I told you that we have a dark nutrition coach as well. So even the dark nutrition as a thing you can you can read a lot of it on the internet and I was like okay, the dark looks not dead lean as he might do because we train a lot. So we had the same issue, I think. But he always loved to eat and he ate a lot. But we changed a little bit of the food. So we went back from maxing out Like kibbles and meat, use another foods. When it comes to dark nutrition, you're always looking at proteins and fat. But a lot of people forget the carbohydrates when it comes to dog food. And we do sprint sport. So we have short distances, short time of racing or running. So we kept the carbohydrates higher, which brought more energy, faster regeneration, and foster dog at all. So he looks like a bodybuilder now. Really, really, he's really fit and very fast. So cool to see other well, super cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's funny too, because, so so we have cats. I'm also used to having dogs. But obviously, you know, right now we live in apartments, we can't have a dog in here at least. But we have two cats. And during the winter, especially when we have like no sunlight, you know, we have one who goes outside, the other one is always inside, but they don't move that much. So so the cat who usually goes outside, he hasn't for I mean, he goes, but it's fairly short, but he hasn't gone much for a while. So he gets a little bit of weight. So we actually have him on the diet now. To, to where, to where I'm now like weighing the cat food and hug like we're spreading it out during the day. And, but it's really funny to see because I'm also doing like, I'm like doing his weigh ins and stuff to you know, to get the average kind of like to see. But like, oh, he hates it. Because Because he he's looking for food the whole time, which kind of like I do feel bad for him. But we're getting to a place where it's almost like good, you know, and then we'll move him back. But we're on like, you know, like, we're like, lower category. Yeah. So like, well, we'll bring it back up to maintenance. But it's funny. I mean, obviously, I guess it makes sense, though, right? Like, it makes sense. It's totally the same. But it's just funny to like now like, have to help my cat with that too. To where he just, he just didn't want to go outside anymore in the snow in the dark. You know? So are you are you doing some progression photos with him as well. With with with the cabinet, she's like I got on the scale. And then I get on the scale with him. And then I look at the difference, you know, and then I just kind of see if it's working. But it's it's been working. So it's it's all good. So I think it's just cool to see though, right? Because I feel like we're very much used to going back to you with the dogs like I think we're very much used to having dogs as pets. Right and I've seen that here too. Where we there's like a big dog sledding a farm over here a farm like place I guess. And people go dog sledding. And sometimes people feel bad for them. Because it's not what we're used to. And they're like in the you know, the little dog houses outside but they're Huskies like they live outside, you know? But like dogs actually we really enjoy that right like the racing. Yeah, they totally love it. It's their passion. Yeah, really, really Born to Run so on. When it comes to summertime. We haven't really cold in the morning, like two degrees and you still recognize that the dogs one run, want to go outside running on want to be trained. I hope the temperatures will rise a little bit they will get a little bit lower with training when it gets warmer, but you always recognize cold temperatures, so they get up the eyes gotta open and then they are like okay, we can go outside running. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. But in summertime, we will just the dogs will relax and I will do some training for the next racing season. Love that. That's cool. Awesome. So, I mean first of all, thank you for coming on as well and sharing some of your story. It's just cool to see how you progress yourself and then how that's even played into your racing. And then just everything else is just super cool to see that and to follow you and to just see that you're just in a good spot now you know, you're able to maintain you can create results, and you just kind of know what to do. And I think that's amazing. So yeah, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, well, thanks to you. Happy to help you know. So that being said, if you want we can we can link your your company as well in the show notes. If anyone in Germany is looking for a dog physio, right, so we'll do that. Is there anything that you want to share with the listener otherwise, just get your ass up and change something? Because it will change your whole life? Let's end with that because I think that's awesome. You just got to do something. You just got to take action. You will change your life is maybe going to take some time but exactly like you said, you just got to do is you've got to start and then you'll get there. Yeah. Nothing great comes easy. Amazing. Awesome. So to listener, as always, thank you for listening. And we will talk to you again next week.

Intro - Low calorie diets and tons of cardio
The benefits of eating more...
Being able to dial things in again
Nutrition and training for her dogs
Outro