CSM Game-Changer Issue with Cristiano Ronaldo 2019 BODY ISSUE - Lauren Flodquist | Page 334

CSM: How do you keep yourself educated or updat-
ed for latest trends and information in healthy living
or lifestyle?
SARAH: I try to keep myself surrounded with high
caliber people whose information I know is educa-
tional, and objective. Bias is very pervasive within
the fitness industry, and nearly everyone has an agen-
da. The scientific community has been the niche that
I have grown to be a part of throughout the years, and
I feel that they are the best source of information in
regards to fitness and healthy lifestyle.
CSM: How important is food and nutrition to you as
a model, athlete or as an individual?
SARAH: Incredibly important. I take fitness very
seriously and have been a competitive athlete for
several of the last years competing in powerlifting,
olympic weightlifting, CrossFit competitons, and
physique competitions. Nutrition is a critical part of
each of these. Additionally, I have formal education
within this specific area, and my own interests in it,
so I do try to practice what I preach most of the time.
I am human though, and a human that has a major
sweet tooth at that.
CSM: Describe the essential skills to be effective in
maintaining your figure or shape.
SARAH: I go to the gym daily, whether its to do car-
dio, lift or both. A consistent lifting routine is abso-
lutely crucial to maintianing and improving upon my
physique. Although I do incorporate cardio for its
heart health benefits as well as its aid in fat loss (ac-
companied by a caloric defict achieved through diet)
you cannot diet your way to a well shaped physique,
you must build it first.
CSM: What are your ideas about non-organic food
versus organic?
SARAH: I don’t typically get too caught up in this
stuff. I think there can be some potential benefit to a
few organic produce items but overall I think its just
extra expense that isn’t really necessary. I personally
don’t buy anything organic, but if someone wants to
then by all means you spend that money honey.
CSM: What are your views on an all-meat diet versus
a vegan diet?
SARAH: My view is that I’m not sure why we con-
stantly want to polarize diets. All meat. No meat.
High fat. Very low fat. High carb. Little to no carb.
I’m not sure if this is just because these are ‘flashy’
and therefore that makes them popular? But in my
opinion, and from what I have read within the re-
search regarding this, there is nothing wrong with a
balanced diet of meat, veggies, healthy fats and a few
treats here and there. Now I can say that vegan diets
do typically have positive outcomes within research
in regards to weight loss and health, so I am definite-
ly not disregarding those, however for my personal
lifestyle as well as food preferences, I wouldn’t want
to be constrained to either an all meat or vegan diet.
CSM: What groups of food do you usually eat?
SARAH: I eat all the foods. If dessert were a food
group, that would be my favorite.
CSM: Do you think customized meal plans are really
necessary? Why is that?
SARAH: Well, this is a difficult question to answer
and I don’t think there really is a correct answer to it.
I have worked for several years as a nutrition coach
(mostly with general population clients), I have fol-
lowed many diets myself, and have formal educa-
tion in the area of nutrition. My answer to whether
or not a customized meal plan is necessary, is that
it depends on the individual. Although the concept
of dieting is the same for everyone (caloric deficit
for weight loss, surplus for weight gain, an isocaloric
balance for maintenance,) the way that every indi-
vidual will go about achieving this is different, and
evene within the same indiviudal different instances
of dieting may require different methods of dieting.
If someone does best on a customized meal plan that
has structure and routine, and doesn’t require them to
have to think much (for lack of a better way of phras-
ing it,) then yes, that’s what they should do. However,
I don’t think this is the best method for everyone. It
may be good for someone starting out, or for a com-
petitior that needs a strict dieting regiment and whom
doesn’t want to spend a lot of time having to figure
out their daily diet. But, for someone who is needing
to get the training wheels taken off so to speak, you’d
want to move away from such rigid structure to allow
them to learn how to make decisions for themselves
and not have to rely on someone else’s recommenda-
tions to be able to adhere to the plan and be success-
ful in reaching their goals.
CSM: Any fitness goals for yourself? What are you
aiming now?
SARAH: I am currently 11 weeks out from my sec-
ond bikini competion, the NPC Southwest Champi-
onships here in Texas. The goal is to nationally qual-
ify and then go on to compete at a nathional level
show.
CSM: There are a lot of online coaches and lifestyle
advisers out in the market already, what are the fac-
tors that people should take into consideration when
hiring a personal trainer or online coaches or maybe
investing some time and money to them?
SARAH: This is a great question and one that I hope
more people who are interested in hiring and online
coach takes the time to consider. First, you have every
right to interview the coach. You need to determine
if their goals align with yours and if the methods that
they utilize also align with yours. If you’re wanting
to have a more flexible dieting approach, it wouldn’t
make sense to hire someone who uses very rigid meal
plans. Secondly, look at their past and current clients.
Did those clients get results? Did they like the coach?
I also advise that you take this particular piece of ad-
vice with a grain of salt. Just because a client didn’t
get results, doesn’t necessarily mean that it was the
coach’s fault. Also, some people just don’t mesh so if
they didn’t get along that also doesn’t always speak