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3 Tips for Thinking Like an Athlete and Learning to Love Your Body

Have you heard? It’s Guest Bloggers’ Week! And today Micki Krimmel is sharing how we can better embrace our inner athlete and love our body. Micki is the founder of Superfit Hero, a size-inclusive line of high performance activewear now available for pre-order at superfithero.com. She is an experienced entrepreneur (her previous company was featured as one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Most Brilliant companies of 2011 before being acquired in 2013!) and a world-class athlete. Micki plays competitive roller derby with Angel City Derby. Read on as she shares how to think like an athlete and love that bod!

Athletic-woman-585

I am very passionate about fitness and its power to build confidence and strength for women. I’ve recently started a new size-inclusive clothing company to empower more women to participate in fitness, Superfit Hero.

My personal history with fitness began like I imagine it does for many women. I started working out in college because I wanted to lose weight. As I became more fit, I also became more confident. I liked the way it felt to be thin. So I kept working out. I experimented with every diet under the sun. I was never satisfied. In my 20s, I went through periods of intense diet and exercise followed by periods of burn-out and weight gain. I never considered myself an athlete during this time. I was simply participating in the fitness culture as it was sold to me — and as it continues to be sold to all women.

It wasn’t until I started playing roller derby that I began to develop a healthy relationship with fitness and my body. As my involvement with the sport became more competitive, I began cross-training — not to lose weight — but to be better at roller derby. I started lifting weights. I joined a CrossFit gym. I wanted to be faster and stronger than my competitors. I began working out not to look better, but to perform better.

Now, eight years into my roller derby career, I am competing at the highest level of the sport. I finally consider myself an athlete. My body is the toolbox I use for my sport. My training and my eating habits have a direct impact on how well my tools perform. Training has become a habit rather than a chore. I love it. I love my body. I love what it can do. These days, I don’t even track how much I weigh. Instead, I focus on how much weight I can lift.

Thinking like an athlete changed my perception of fitness and taught me how to love my body. You don’t need to play a competitive sport to think like an athlete. Your body is your toolbox for the sport of life!

Micki-Krimmel

3 Tips to Think Like an Athlete

Here are my top three tips for thinking like an athlete and learning to love your body:

  1. Set clear, achievable, performance-based goals. Smash them and then set new ones! Instead of setting weight-loss goals, which are so arbitrary and mostly meaningless, try setting performance-based goals you know you can achieve. Be specific. Run a 9-minute mile. Or squat 100 pounds. Start tracking your performance instead of your weight and your confidence will grow along with your fitness!
  2. Don’t compare yourself to others. The best athletes work on what makes them unique rather than trying to emulate others. Focus on your strengths, work to improve your weaknesses and celebrate your personal progress. Now that’s fitspiration!
  3. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Fitness is a process. There is no end date or final goal, and there is no such thing as perfection. Take days off. Eat cake without guilt. Enjoy yourself!

How are you playing the sport of life? —Micki Krimmel

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Comments

2 Comments
  1. Deanna Perkins says:

    Great reminder! I’m still struggling with the dreaded scale, but I’m really hoping that after this pregnancy I’ll be able to refocus on my personal fitness goals of fast wogs with my husband and cutting my minutes/mile down by running longer distances. I’m also a big believer in enjoying a cheat meal or a delicious treat from time to time, the key is to keep those times in moderation…but truly enjoy them when you have them. 😀

  2. Elizabeth Shaw says:

    no matter how slowly I started something if I’m using the correct form and f
    unction I will see improvement

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