Andrea Vitalich

Goal

Maintain and build strength for Oly/Power Lifting classes. Improve metabolic conditioning for CrossFit classes. Complete a Spartan Beast race in October 2016 (COMPLETED ALL THREE SPARTAN RACES in 2016!). Complete and Rx CrossFit "Murph" WOD Memorial

Testimonial

I have come A LONG WAY and it was not overnight. The photo of me on the left is one year ago Memorial Day weekend, the week I joined the WAG waiting list. I was 170ish# and NOT HAPPY with where I was - physically, emotionally, gym performance - you name it. I had just gotten back from Hawaii and was thought, "yikes!" when I saw pictures of myself on the beach. The other photo is exactly one year later, May 2017, teetering around 161ish. I'm not at my goal yet, and actually, I had 5 month plateau between January to May 2017. Yes, a plateau for 5 months. But, I didn't go backwards. Yep - I've splurged. Yep - I have days where I didn't track everything (read: didn't track). Yep - I've lost motivation. But I always woke up the next morning and got right back to it. I have gained so much head space, confidence in my ability to do just about anything I set my mind to; gym PRs left and right...I did this work and it was worth it. This is because of my hard work! I just had to tell myself: "Keep going...YES, YOU CAN." And I do and I did! I have officially broken my plateau and am once again moving forward in my goals. It might be slow progress, but it's sustainable progress and I'm going in the right direction.

As with many WAG'ers, I've tried many other nutrition programs through the years, and even trained to be a coach in a few of them. I soon realized that most of them were temporary fixes and not sustainable for me, nor did I feel like I was making athletic gains or that I could recover from my workouts. In fact, either had to tone down my workouts because I ended up essentially starving myself, or had to workout more because I was eating "too much of the right things". I'm really passionate about nutrition...and food, I really like food and cooking...and I've seen how food and nutrition is so inextricably linked to our emotions and life events. As I started doing work to break my cycles of yo-yo dieting and to stop thinking food was my enemy, I found that I really enjoyed helping others along their nutrition paths as well. The only problem was that I didn't feel like many of the programs I did were sustainable for me, so I couldn't justify recommending or convincing others that the program I was doing was a life long and sustainable option for them. I appreciate having those other tools in my nutrition education tool belt now, but I want to be able to fully and wholeheartedly believe in something, before I recommend a program to others.

So just over a year ago, after I'd gotten back from my vacation in Hawaii and was feeling miserable about myself...again...and I was talking to a girlfriend who had made some really awesome body composition and strength gains in the previous year. Of course I had to ask her what she was doing. In comes WAG. I joined the waiting list that week. At this point, I completely and wholeheartedly believe in WAG. This is a solution for life. I feel like I've re-learned how to walk...and eat. The fact that I have gone through so many life events, plateaus and learnings in my time with WAG, and have still been able to improve and move forward on my health and nutrition path, speaks to WAG's efficacy. There's so much need for life-changing nutrition programs in our society. I work in healthcare and I see how obesity is literally ruining lives and unfortunately, most of the options that are recommended don't work in the long term. I feel like most programs today are just a "fat antibiotic": you take it for a while and when you're done with your prescription, you move on with your life. The problem is that most people revert back to the things that got them sick in the first place. WAG is the behavior change and life long solution that everyone can be successful with. Yes, you have to do the work. Yes, you have to put in the time. But just like our time at the gym or in our sport, you don't get better if you don't work at it.