Becoming a runner by accident
Ciara Carter is a returning guest. She is a runner, mindset coach, and a podcaster. Her podcast is the Run, Thrive, Survive Podcast.
She started running when she was in high school. She wasn’t in cross country or track. Basketball was her sport, but her mom bought a treadmill that she never used and Ciara started running on the treadmill. She went through a serious eating disorder in high school, and treadmill running was a way she tried to burn calories.
After her eating disorder she learned how to get in shape and have a healthy nutritions and wanted to help other girls in the middle of high school who were going through the same thing, struggling mentally, struggling physically and struggling emotionally.
Running is not part of her healthy lifestyle, and she runs distances from 5K to marathon. She qualified for Boston but was bumped from the list the year it was canceled. Now she has to qualify again, but she’s come back stronger and faster this time. She is thinking that the ultramarathon distance might be in her future after Boston.
Psychology and mindset for health, nutrition, and running
Ciara’s podcast is meant for those extremely hard working people who are trying to balance work life, social life, health, nutrition and having to take care of “all the things.” Her advice is that sometimes you thrive, sometimes you survive, but in all things you should run your life. Running is a part of her focus, but the mindset for health is the goal. She finds guests who focus on a lot of everyday life issues as well. And for runners who are not so concerned about winning races, but are wanting to feel better mentally, emotionally, and physically.
She is working on psychology certification, as a board certified behavior analyst. because she wants to help people with behavioral health and fitness and also nutrition. She says the most important thing is that you have to be honest with yourself and it’s very difficult because a lot of times when people struggle with things they already know there is a problem and they know deep down they won’t admit it and she says it took her a long time to accept that she was anorexic.
She used to think that running would be a way for her to be able to eat whatever she wanted. This mindset is so dangerous for runners because they think that all they need to do is run and they will be fine and healthy, but that is so far from the truth.
She says that the best way to work on our resolutions is to focus on just one and leave the others aside, because trying to focus on 20 resolutions at the same time can be very overwhelming. She also says that for her it is an important step to make a promise to oneself to have an emotional bond with our purpose. The motivation to change needs to come from inside, not external motivation. The best approach is to take small steps. But first you have to make a decision. Then you have to start.
For Ciara, a phrase that captures her philosophy is “Everything happens for a reason.”
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