The “Damaging” Food Mindset Haley Adams Had to Leave Behind. And How CBG Helped
In 2018, Haley Adams became the fittest teenager on the planet by winning the CrossFit Games.
By age 21, Adams was a four-time top-10 finisher at the CrossFit Games and one of the sport’s biggest names.
Then came an announcement that resonated across the entire community: Adams was taking a year off to heal.
- “I’ve battled with an eating disorder and have struggled with my mental health ever since. I’ve suffered in silence, and because of the pressure to make everything seem “okay”, I kept a smile on my face. It’s been a hard few years, when every single day is a battle,” Adams wrote in an Instagram post.
She continued: “I will be using this time to work on myself, as much mentally as physically, so that I’m no longer holding myself back. This isn’t just a new chapter; it’s a new book. The 2024 comeback is going to be big.”
Behind the Scenes
Adams had tracked her macros since she started CrossFit at 14, which led to an obsession that “completely ruined my relationship with food,” Adams told The Morning Chalk Up.
More often than not, she wasn’t eating enough; other times she binge-ate. She usually saved most of her calories for the evening because she enjoyed eating then and wanted to make sure she had macros left to consume each day.
Despite her brilliance on the competition floor, Adams admits her game-day fueling wasn’t on point either.
- “I wouldn’t eat anything after a workout; there were no pre-workout carbs,” Adams, now 25, admitted.
After taking a year off competing, Adams became acutely aware that she had to stop logging every gram of carbohydrate, protein, and fat she ate.
- “But also, being an athlete, it’s a tough balance of making sure you’re fueling correctly, so I didn’t want to just completely be winging it. I wanted to make sure I had some help and some guidance without having to be stuck with counting macros,” she said.
She turned to Consistency Breeds Growth (CBG) coach and founder Justin Romaire, whose entire business is built around abandoning tracking macros.
And so began her long journey to reprogram her mind to see food in a new light: as fuel and an integral part of performance.
One major change Adams made was in meal timing. Instead of starving herself during the day and eating a lot at night, Adams trusted the process and began eating more during the day.
- “I feel so much better when I space my food around my training. It’s a significant change, and it feels so much better,” said Adams, who is also eating considerably more now than pre-CBG.
Worth noting: Though she doesn’t count calories or track macros, Adams checks in for a ballpark estimate here and there and finds she’s eating upwards of 3,000 calories a day, especially when she is training for the Games.
Her competition-day nutrition has also evolved.
- “Justin has taught me how to fuel correctly for events, after and especially before, getting the right amount of sugar and carbs. It has been so helpful. I have learned a lot,” Adams said.
Further, eliminating the idea of good and bad foods has proven to be a much better way to think.
- “I don’t like to think of food as a cheat because I like to think that I can eat whatever food I want at any time. Mentally, it’s better that way,” said Adams, who is “obsessed with” Olive Garden lasagne, and loves her ice cream and French fries.
Adams Today
Now a seven-time Games veteran, Adams insists she is in a completely different mental place today and credits the CBG approach for helping her get there.
- “It has just been the biggest change for sure in my career, learning to use food as fuel and not being scared of it,” she said.
That being said, Adams is also quick to point out that, after years of damaging her relationship with food, she’s still on her healing journey.
- “I still have bad days, bad moments…but I don’t struggle with binge eating anymore; I don’t struggle as much with not eating enough. I just have so much more food freedom and that has taken years to get here,” Adams said.
She added: “I just feel so much more in control with food. I have learned to appreciate it, and what it can do, and how to fuel my body. It has been mentally freeing for me.”
To anyone going through what she went through — who can’t go a meal without plugging numbers into an app and feels consumed by food but doesn’t believe there is another way — Adams insists there is.
- “Get someone to help you, and confide in people that you trust,” she said. “It’s not an easy road, but it’s worth working on, because you should not live your life afraid, thinking about calories non-stop, because it truly consumes you…It is not worth living that way forever.”
