1) Who is Mariah Reyes? (where are you from, what do you do, a bit about yourself (hobbies, etc)
My name is Mariah Reyes, I am 22 years old, from Fairfield, CA. I am currently in nursing school with the goal of becoming an ICU nurse and eventually a nurse anesthetist. I have a little over a year left of school. I grew up knowing that I wanted to go into healthcare for a career, and now with my love for health and fitness and background in competing, I really want to make a difference in people’s lives. Outside of the gym I love doing anything outdoors. I have grown up riding dirtbikes and quads, camping, snowboarding, wake boarding/wakesurfing, hunting, fishing, and hiking. Growing up I also played a variety of sports. In elementary school I ice skated and did gymnastics. Once I hit middle school and high school, my main sport was volleyball, and then I also played softball, some basketball, and some wrestling.
2) How many years have you been training? (Including how you got started, etc)
I started CrossFit January 2, 2014. High school sports had just ended for me, and I knew that I needed something to do to stay active. At the time I saw people like Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Stacie Tovar and remembering that I wanted to look like them. I also gained a good amount of weight the last couple years of high school ( I weighed 180 pounds when I started), and I knew something had to change. I did my first CF open that February and my first local CF competition in June the same year. I’ve always been a competitive person, and both of those events made me want to compete in CrossFit. I started at University of California - Davis at the end of 2014, leading me to join CrossFit Davis. My goal automatically became to make their regionals team in 2015. After competing at regionals in 2015, our goal as a team became to make it to the CF Games the following year. In 2016, we made it to the CF Games as a group of friends that liked to work out from a small box in Davis, and placed 26th! After that, our team dissipated to various reasons, but I still had the goal to compete as an individual at regionals. In 2017, I squeaked my way into the California regionals. At regionals, I told myself I would just have fun and try my hardest, because to me, the outcome did not matter anymore. I didn’t look at the leaderboard once that weekend until I saw my name in the top 10 going into the last day. I ended up placing 12th! After regionals, I started getting into the thick of nursing school in Sacramento and I knew I couldn’t sustain that level of training anymore. I was working out more for fun again. I decided to do a local weightlifting meet this past January to qualify for American Open 1 that would be at the Arnold in Columbus, Ohio. I ended up also qualifying for USAW Nationals. That lit the competition flame for me again and I decided to join Delta Weightlifting to see how far I could go in weightlifting. In March I competed at American Open 1 at the Arnold and got bronze in the total. In May, I competed at my first USAW nationals, went 6/6, with a 92kg (203#) snatch, 115kg (254#) C&J, and a 207kg total. After nationals, I suffered from a hip injury that I am still working on healing.
3) Whats been the most challenging/hardest part of your journey so far? and how have you overcome them (set backs, rejections, injuries, basically anything difficult that you have had to overcome)
The hardest part of my journey so far has had to be diet, mental game, and balance between the gym and life. As far as diet goes, I have always been a “thicker/chubbier” woman. It isn’t easy for my body to lose fat and become “shredded” like most high level athletes. It played a lot with my mental game because I felt like less of an athlete because I do not have a 6-pack. I ended up getting to the point where I was at my peak of training (about 5 hours a day) and not even eating 2,000 calories. I ended up leaning out, but completely destroyed my metabolism in the process. I have recently started working with a nutritionist trying to learn how to correctly fuel my body! I have been have been fluctuating weight which has been really messing with my mind. Half the time, I do not feel comfortable in my skin and I feel guilty eating out or having one drink with friends on occasion. I am still working on overcoming this. I have to keep telling myself to trust the process, and truly in the end, no one will see me as less of an athlete if I do not have a 6-pack. As long as I feel healthy and am healthy, that is all that matters. Competing in any sport comes with it’s share of mental games. For me, mental game was always a big deal. I am a competitive person and always give everything my 110%. Competing on a CF team for a couple years, my biggest fear was being the weakest link and letting my team down. This was put under a magnifying glass during the games training in 2016. It was as the point where 75% of my training sessions ended in some sort of tears (mostly when I was training alone). I became to worried about what other people were doing, and not focusing on just bettering myself. I overcame this when I realized that another one of my teammates felt the same way. We talked a lot about it. I came to terms that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and that we can only do what we are capable of. Worrying and crying over a slightly slower time or less reps is not going to change the situation, if anything it will only make it worse. You have to remember how far you have come. Lastly, with nursing school it has became extremely difficult to balance a certain level of competing and also do well in school. Once school got more demanding, I had a really hard time mentally accepting that I had to cut my time down in the gym. It got to the point where worrying about getting that extra metcon in became more stressful than school itself. Only recently have I gotten over this. I had to sit back and remember that school is important for my future, and the gym is supposed to be my outlet. I decided to put competing on the back burner to take away that extra stress. I have been so much happier as I now can focus on school, workout to stay in shape/for fun, and enjoy doing my other hobbies outside of the gym instead of worrying about training for a competition.
4) What does your typical workout/diet routine look like? (With any particular protocols you rate).
My workout routine really varies now depending on what I have going on. Most days my gym session consists of a metcon or cardio work as a warm-up, one or two strength/accessory portions, and then another metcon to finish it off. On days that I am in the hospital or have a long day at school, I will do a strength portion and metcon, or a couple metcons. I used to workout every Saturday when I was competing, but now I use most Saturdays to go outside and do something like dirt biking or hiking, then Sunday consists of a long/recovery cardio session. As far as my diet goes, I count macros! I weigh and measure all of my food. I eat a lot of chicken, brown rice, oatmeal, broccoli, zucchini, etc. I really try to stick to whole foods as much as possible! When I am in a rush, I am a Costco protein bar addict… cookie dough is the best! Sometimes, I’ll use casein protein to make a “pudding” with pecans and some type of carb if needed, usually banana or Cherrios! It doubles as a desert since I have a sweet tooth!
5) What new knowledge have you learned over this past year regarding training, lifestyle and nutrition? (And How has it changed your focus for the future).
This past year, I’ve learned that it is okay to change your focus regarding training depending on what is happening outside of the gym, at it’s okay. Since I have been competitive in CrossFit, weightlifting, and various sports for so long, I didn’t know any different. Looking back, I think part of me felt obligated to compete because I could, and because I had potential to be great. School forced me to change that. The transition was hard because I felt wrong telling people that I was going to take a step back. However, after I did… I realized that people weren’t disappointed or looked at me any less. If anything, they respected my choices. I learned that it is important to make choices for yourself. I have also learned that with anyone who trains hard, it is important to fuel your body properly! The common idea of workout more and eat less isn’t the best way to go about losing weight. It can end in more harm than good.
6) Whats your favourite cheat/Treat meal?
I have a pretty bad sweet tooth for baked goods! My favorite treat has to be a freshly baked scone with jelly!
7) Whats one supplement that you could not live without?
I have never been a huge supplement person, but I would have to say casein protein! I turn that into desert every night!
8) If you had to start your Journey from scratch with both your health & physique what would you do differently and why?
The biggest thing that I would do differently would be to focus on eating right from the start. I never ate really unhealthy, but I definitely made bad food choices often without even thinking of the consequences. What I mean by this is, in high school I would go for a venti frappuccino as “coffee”, eat a bit of ice cream most nights, didn’t eat as many vegetables as I should have, etc. By the end of high school, I really felt the effects of this! In addition to eating healthier from the start, I wish I would have started CrossFit younger, maybe in middle school when I really started getting into sports! It would have only improved my athletic performance and health.
9) Who do you look upto in the fitness industry and why?
I look up to Jamie Hagiya! I remember watching Jamie Hagiya at California regionals in 2015 and my parents telling me that they she reminded them of me. I started following her and just love everything she is about. Jamie is a phenomenal athlete and is open about her body insecurities. She talks about being the only individual at the CF Games in 2016 without a six-pack and how it makes her feel. I can relate to that feeling, and it shows me that you do not have to be shredded to be an amazing athlete. She recently did a body positivity project that was amazing. I couldn’t imagine the amount of courage she had to be that open/vulnerable for everyone to see. Outside of that, she is an amazing person that is always herself. I met her in the stalls during California Regionals in 2017, and she was the sweetest person. We joked and laughed before our events, were wearing the same shorts, and she probably had no idea that I look up to her!
10) If you had to give one bit of advice to people starting out what would that be?
If I had to give a bit of advice to people starting out it would be to take it one day at a time. Always keep the process fun! The moment you are constantly not having fun, other than an occasional bad day, that’s when things need to change. Many hobbies, especially working out, are supposed to be outlets! Life is too short to be stressed all the time and hate your life. Don’t be afraid to also get out of the gym, go outside, go for a hike! It is so easy to get wrapped up in only. competing. Also, when you have bad days, you feel beat up, or like nothing is going right, remember where you started. I like to think of it as moving dirt towards a goal… sometimes you move shovelfuls and sometimes you move spoonfuls, but it is the constant moving of dirt that really counts.
11) What new goals do you have on the horizon?
My biggest goal right now is to graduate from nursing school, fairly at the top of my class, and get hired on as a ICU (Intensive Care Unit) nurse and eventually work my way to becoming a CRNA (Certified Registered-Nurse Anesthetist). I would love to eventually get more involved in promoting functional medicine to tie in my passion for fitness and nutrition with the healthcare side of things. Similar to what Julie Foucher talks about, healthcare is very wrapped up in giving drugs and treating the sickness, but I feel like there needs to be more emphasis on really working with people to prevent these diseases in the first place. Another small/fun goal I have is to race dirtbikes more! I have done a couple enduro races, and have done pretty well! I will be racing my third this Sunday. My goal is to race a whole circuit and see if I can place overall, and to race a full enduro which is 120 miles!
12) Where can people find you? (website, social media accounts)
Instagram: @mariahreyes25
