How CCN Started

And why macros are such an essential part of the CCN Philosophy

Between the foundations of health we have been teaching in our membership and the current challenge we’re in, I figured now is as good of a time as ever to talk about macros!

We will be getting more in-depth on this topic in the next couple of weeks, and you’ll see what I mean here in a couple of days (spoiler alert – big announcement coming Monday!) But I want to give some background and personal history on why I teach the macro breakdown that I do. 

When I first started in the nutrition field in my early twenties, everyone at the time seemed to have had a big weight loss story. That wasn’t me. I felt a bit like an imposter in the field because I had a big idea that I would be a sports nutritionist in the everyday world. I had a vision that everyone wanted to perform like an athlete in everyday life! We all were in pursuit of feeling amazing, having energy, and performing wherever our career led us. I had a couple of odd jobs before finally filing my LLC and starting my own business. Along that quick path from graduating college at 22 to meeting my husband and getting married at 24, I had some big breakthroughs.

I realized that I was on a path of disordered eating during this discovery process. I wasn’t aware of the importance of eating the right amount of food and macro breakdown to support myself for performance energy. How could I have an eating disorder? I knew so much! I managed so well! Granted, this was self-diagnosed, and I remember the moment it happened… well there were two breakthrough moments when I became aware that I was in trouble. 

The first was on a walk with my mom when I visited home. I was 23 and in love, telling her about my life of young love and dreams of the future. I told her how much I wanted to help others and felt called to that. She shot me back with the truth… you have to be able to help yourself first. “You’re not eating enough, don’t look your best, and seem pretty obsessed with exercise and food.” She was right; I was obsessed. That conversation shook me to my core. I was young and thin, and to the West Coast eye, it may have looked amazing. But to my Midwest Mom, I didn’t look so good! Mom knew me better. I was rail thin and in a gray space of identity crisis… coming from being a career basketball player to just an everyday person. I was trying to control the few things I could, and I was training for… well, nothing. 

Then I went back to Orange County, where I lived, and met with a spiritual advisor from my church. I was starting to struggle internally, too, so I was seeking help the only way I knew how. This particular priest also lived a healthy, active lifestyle, so he could understand my wavelength, but he didn’t know me as my mom did and said something that completely shifted my life, practice, etc.

He said, “If you kept a prayer journal as good as your food/exercise journal, you’d be a saint.”

Ok, God, I was wide awake and listening. Two people essentially said the same thing, and it really sent me into a deep dive into true performance nutrition as well as spiritual well-being! Creating my food philosophy was a part of healing my own disordered eating as well as supporting my body, mind, and spirit. It’s always been more than physical to me.

Right around 23, I couldn’t read enough on nutrition. I couldn’t get enough info. I interviewed every person who would respond to me from LA to San Diego, and God really had a part in that, too. I studied journalism in college, and it has really been helpful!  I connected with a gal in LA, and she taught me everything she knew, and I adopted and adapted that info. I poured into higher education and enrolled in a master’s degree program after realizing the RD schooling route and clinical setting weren’t going to be for me. I also studied a few certification programs, which were scarce at the time.

So yes, with the wisdom of God and the guidance of the divine, I started my business all while getting married and (pregnant on my honeymoon!) Teaching this philosophy was my calling! I am, 16 years later, still teaching what I was taught then. To say we were ahead of the times is an understatement. CCN started in 2009 with an intuitive and non-dieting approach. Social media jumped on board with that idea around 2018. 

Let’s talk about that philosophy briefly, and in the next couple of weeks, we’ll really work to break that down. This supports our whole body because even back then, I inherently knew that there was more to weight loss than just physical. I only bring that up because I remember people telling me I had to work on weight loss if I wanted to be in nutrition, but I knew that wasn’t the big picture. Even though people have lost 50, 75, 100 plus lbs with me, I don’t talk much about weight loss because I see them as a whole person and not their weight. I want them to feel what I see, and that’s the approach to what I teach! Even when it is about weight because you can be sure I got those people who just want to lose the last 5 or 10 lbs, it was still the feeling of fitting in the dress or being confident in their Summer skimpies! It was never really about the number on the scale. 

I created this method that supports the WHOLE person – body, mind, and spirit.

1. Eat within the hour of waking up.

2. Eat every 4 hours after that.

3. ALWAYS combine your MACROS; the breakdown can be loosely 50% carbs, 25% protein, and 25% fat.

4. Keep meal sizes consistent.

5. Eat five different colors of fruits and vegetables every day.

6. Drink about 80 oz of water a day.

While it’s listed as number 3, combining your macros is the most important part of the philosophy. It’s the part that healed me from my disordered eating path. It’s the part that gave me the performance energy to go on and create a national company while building the family of my dreams. It has managed to make its way into hundreds of thousands of households, and it’s the opposite of restriction and deprivation! It helps the body to communicate that the liver and brain have the glucose they need, that our muscles don’t have to break down to give us energy, that our metabolic system is healthy and happy, and that our hormones can normalize instead of figuring out where to draw energy from – just to name a few benefits!

Next week, I’m going to be debunking a few macro myths and diving more into my philosophy. I’ll be dropping some macro knowledge bombs, too. Stay tuned!