Since she started weight lifting at the age of 40, she has competed on stage twice, become certified in fitness and nutrition, and left her corporate job. She has been a full time training and nutrition coach for about 5 years now and she can’t imagine ever doing anything else. It’s truly a dream job for her and doesn’t feel like work. She is certified with International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) as a Certified Fitness Trainer and also a Specialist in Fitness Nutrition. She has taken multiple continuing education courses in areas such as Non-Diet Weight Management, Bootcamp Fitness, and Nutrition Strategies for Success.
What Clients Are Saying
“Coach Adrianne Caridakis has helped me stay accountable, talks me down after I think I’ve messed everything up, shares her wisdom willingly and lovingly, and is just an overall positive force to help myself and others make great progress.” -Liz Black
“I have been working with Adrianne since January 1. She has been fantastic. I wanted to lose weight without changing my lifestyle ‘too much’ and she has managed to help get me down about 17 pounds. I love that she embraces my lifestyle and works with it to help achieve my goals.”
– Elaine Wright
Her Story
Adrianne picked up her first weight when she was 40. Yes, 40. Before that, she followed every “healthy” eating trend which came along. She maintained a slim but “squishy” figure. (Her words!) Evidently, she wasn’t a fan of being “squishy,” but nothing she tried changed it. She didn’t realize she was actually clinically obese – obese in a normal weight body.
She was 34% body fat and smack in the middle of her ideal weight range. Because she never participated in sports, she had no muscle under her fat so she was able to stay small and fly under the obese radar. In June 2010, she began working with a trainer. Lifting weights made HUGE changes in her body for the first time. Operation: Eradicate the Squish was underway.
Once the initial changes stopped from lifting alone, it was a natural progression to begin working on her eating. If she only knew then, what she know now she wouldn’t have wasted so much time wondering why nothing she did worked! About 6 years ago, she discovered IIFYM through one of the original creators, Dr. Joe Klemczewski. She was prepping for her second competition and hired him for her nutrition. She’d never heard of IIFYM, but she liked his approach. He didn’t even say that’s what they were doing at the time, and it wasn’t until later she discovered it had an official name.
Since she is a numbers person and loves all things food, it was exciting to her to play the game of nutrition Tetris and figure out what to eat each day to fill her macros. IIFYM just clicked with her, and for the first time she didn’t think about all the foods she was giving up to reach her goals. Instead she began thinking, “What can I do to make the foods I want fit into my goals?
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing. As a single mom to a daughter who just started her freshman year in college, it was VERY hard to take time for herself in those early years, even if it meant improving her health. She struggled with fitting in workouts, feeling like she was “punishing” her daughter by making healthy dinners. Then Adrianne realized: By taking a few hours a week to decompress in the gym, she felt better. It gave her more energy and made her happier. Yes, it was time away from her daughter but it improved the quality of time they were together – making it more enjoyable.
Testimonials
Adrianne’s Tips
👊Don’t over complicate things. This is one time where it’s not too good to be true if it’s simple. If you feel overwhelmed, then take a step back, assume that you’re overthinking things, and simplify. For example, just hit total calories for a few days regardless of macros if that’s all you can do. Once you can breathe, then aim for calories and protein. Add on and when life gets insane again (and it will), you’ve got skills to simplify and fall back on instead of falling apart.
👊Plan your meals and enter them into MFP or other tracker ahead of time. That way you aren’t tracking as you go. If you do it on the fly, you’ll find out halfway through the day that you’re way over or way under on something. If you enter meals ahead of time, you can adjust portions and play around with it until you’re close to your goals. If plans change, just swap out a meal and roll with it.
👊Have fun in the kitchen and experiement with combinations, flavors, foods. Think beyond recipes as written and figure out a way to make things fit into your new way of eating. If a recipe is too high in fat, make it with half the fat and see how it tastes. If it’s lower in protein, then see if there’s a way to add more. Don’t like an ingredient, then find something similar to throw in instead. The more fun you have with food, the more fun it will be to eat.
👊If you’ve got a family, don’t eat differently than they do. You aren’t on a diet! Eat what the rest of your family and friends do, but adjust portions as needed. If you need more protein, put a bigger piece of chicken on your plate. If you need lower calories, then bump up the veggies. If you eat differently, then you’re not learning to deal with different foods and you’re treating it like just another diet. Also consider the message you’re sending to others at the table about food and dieting.
