She’s a three-time Olympic gold medallist, but Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice has revealed that back in 2014 she was ‘beating herself up for not being good enough’.
Now she has revealed the simple routine that has helped her to totally transform her mind and her body.
Sharing her story on her Instagram page, alongside a photo of how she looked in 2014 compared with how she looks now, took ‘a lot of courage’, Stephanie revealed.
But she wanted to ‘help lift others out of mentally tough times’.
‘This picture, to me, not only highlights the changes in my body, but the massive transformation to my mindset,’ Stephanie wrote.
‘This first picture was taken in 2014 when I was living in America. I was exercising daily, following programs & eating healthy vegan foods. I felt like I was doing everything right … so why was my body not responding??’ Stephanie shared.
‘I was continually beating myself up for not being good enough, comparing myself to everyone else and my swimming days of being super fit & believing that I wouldn’t be happy until I lost weight.
‘I remember leaving the gym one morning feeling so frustrated that I was putting in all this effort, doing everything right and not seeing results…what was wrong with me??
‘Why wasn’t I noticing the transformations that other people were?? Flash forward to now, in the second picture, where obviously my body has changed … but more importantly my mind has.’
Stephanie said that changing the way she thought about herself was key to her transformation.
‘No change you make on the outside (like losing weight) will last unless you change your mindset,’ she wrote.
‘So I started to feel into my body every day and ask “what would best serve me today?” I stopped putting rules on everything, like “if I don’t exercise today then I can’t have desert”.
‘Instead I just let myself off the hook and change my mindset from depriving and forcing myself to things, to allowing myself to have and do what I wanted.
‘Funny thing is, as soon as I allowed myself the mental freedom to not HAVE to workout, I became far more motivated to do so & when I stopped depriving myself of sweets & desert, I found I lost almost all of my cravings for them. This feeling of inner peace is what transformed my body,’ Stephanie shared.
‘I don’t want anyone to feel the guilt, unworthiness and frustration that I did 4 years ago, so I created the Magical Mentoring Program to empower you with the exact mental tools I used to create this transformation in my mind & body.’
Talking to nutritionist Jessica Sepel about her journey, Stephanie revealed she now sees food very differently to how she did during her athletic career.
‘I now eat a mainly vegan diet and enjoy experimenting with different foods and nutrition plans that best serve my body,’ Stephanie said.
‘I believe it’s really important to listen to your body intuitively each and every day, so you can best serve yourself and your ever-changing life.’
A standard day for the former Olympian now starts at around 7.30am.
‘As soon as I get out of bed I use my tongue scraper. After that I drink 600ml of water, sometimes with half a lemon and make myself a lemon tea. My lemon tea consists of half a lemon, hot water and a spoonful of coconut oil,’ she revealed.
After a lunch of ‘steamed greens, marinated tofu, crumbed mushroom, avocado and kimchi’, Stephanie works until 5.30pm.
‘At the moment, dinner is usually beans or lentils, fresh greens and veggies, topped with almonds or peanuts, tamari or nutritional yeast. I like to eat dinner around 6.30pm as it’s best for my digestion before bed,’ she revealed.
