hi, i'm maria
Here's a little bit about me and why I do what I do:
in partnership with:
Recovering "cut for every meet" powerlifter.
Anti-"good food, bad food" extremist.
Adventurous eater. Picky eater. Somehow both.
Will talk you into eating enough.
Will talk you out of earning it first.
I enjoyed going to the gym but had never heard about powerlifting until a year in. So the impulsive-ADHD in me hopped on a generic program and registered for my first powerlifting program. Was it smart? Probably not, but I absolutely loathe "waiting until you're ready". I'm a strong believer of you're-never-going-to-feel-ready. Welp, I didn't make weight by 0.40 kg (which coach-me now rolls my eyes because I could've made that easily if I had known better). By the end of it, I wanted to quit the sport. It felt like I wasn't made for it and it didn't help that other people agreed too.
Then I met Mark, and he brought up this mind-boggling idea that.. maybe I wasn't doing it right. And he was right (I hate that). He took over my programming, and my numbers were increasing until I hit the ceiling which I unfortunately placed on myself by constantly cutting weight and never truly recovering from each prep. Mind you, I competed 4x within a 6 month timeframe. Was that smart? Again, probably not. My nutrition was all over the place, and it was incredibly ironic considering I was wrapping up my undergrad in Nutrition at the time.
In my defense, they don't teach you about this. No one was teaching about this in the sport. It was just the norm, and I hated that I became complacent with it.
Then I was deported and found myself living in a foreign country. My priority went from cutting weight and making it to the gym to "am I going to be able to eat enough today?". And it's not to say that we didn't have adequate food, it's the mental and emotional aspect of being deported.
That entire transition was the wake-up call that forced me out of my comfort zone in all parts of my life. In the first 8 months, I constantly reflected until I realized I always knew who I wanted to become. The problem was that I was too afraid to fail on the way there. Let's face it, the beginning of my powerlifting journey wasn't a piece of cake.
Enter the impulsive-ADHD me.
Welcome to The EAT Method.
Here to help you rebuild your relationship with food after years of hearing bro science that never seemed to work. And if you're rebutting this thinking "of course it did", I invite you to ask how is it that you still landed on my page.
Here to help you develop a strong mindset and approach to nutrition because being strong shouldn't be limited to the barbell or the platform (iykyk).
And here to help you do the thing you've been telling yourself you were going to do.
"And sadly, powerlifters feel defeated and hate food / nutrition because of the difficulties of maintaining / making weight and improving performance simultaneously.
I'm here to change that with The EAT Method."
01
"Focusing on the basics, at all levels. I think it's so easy to go up the pyramid and forget what you've been doing to get to the top."
LVL Health Podcast
04
"Focusing on the basics.. I think it's so easy to go up the pyramid and forget what you've been doing to get to the top."
The Coach's Ramble
03
"I don't think a lot (female powerlifters) will confirm it but a lot of it root in body image because it's a weight class sport. There's a lot of overtraining, undereating, and the female athlete triad.."
Imperfect Nutrition
02
"I think eating more is quite subjective.. the reason why I put that on my bio is that a lot of powerlifters have gone through numerous weight cuts.. but they're lifting a whole lot more.."
