Brown Brown and Trust The Process Brown and ANOTHER Strong Woman #13
Lucky Number #13
Introducing! The All-powerful Grace Stilgoe (www.instagram.com/gracevsgravity)
Grace is a nearly-qualified Actuary by day and a Team GB Powerlifter by night.
She's been powerlifting for just over 3 years and training for around 7. Her powerlifting achievements include:
- Bronze medalist at the British Championship 2018
- 2x silver medalist at the English championship (2018 & 2019)
- Gold medalist in the under-63kg class at Western Europeans 2019, and Bronze across all weight classes
- Best Female Lifter at the Home Nations 2019
- Silver medalist at the British Championship 2020
And if it wasn't for COVID, she'd have competed at the World Championships last month in Belarus.
All this in the space of 3 years...
Here's what came up in the conversation....
How did all that happen?! And what's an Actuary??
Needing people like Grace to balance people like Umar!
Making weight for powerlifting competitions
Why powerlifting?
Unhealthy work culture and tough personal circumstances drove her to the gym
Going down the track of bikini competitions, "which were a terrible, unhealthy period of my life..."
Need for sport in life anchored in memories of childhood activity
Stopped being about that pub life
Life is NOT downhill from 30
Being bullied at school impacted her self-image
What the bikini competition endeavour really was, was an eating disorder. "I could not function."
Only being happy during the process when the weight on the scales went down.
Coming through a hellacious experience to know with certainty what is and is not worth it
Question everything - ask 'Why?' 5 times to get to the truth
The Process is the most important thing
The Battle Of The Butt!
Size Zero to Kardashian type figures - the so-called ideal woman figure is always changing with the fashion, so ignore it
The rebellious side comes out
Always enjoying having something to work towards
Equipped vs Raw powerlifting
Evolve Achieve THRIVE Skincare for Powerlifters!
How does powerlifting impact other domains of life and vice versa?
Having an athlete's routine
"Tiny little gains from consistent small efforts really add up."
"You only fail if you quit."
Attempting the British Squat Record at the British Championships 2020
Recalibrating the mind to recover quickly from failure
Putting into perspective overcoming a challenge
The key to making such quick progress
Discipline = freedom
Become unf**kable with!
Never stray from the way
Facing negativity from other people
Upgrading the circles you hang out in
Sometimes the passion won't be understood
Bulletproofing from injury because the training programme is smart and sensible
Be patient for the results
"Do it for the process, not the highlight reel." - being in love with the process
Being open to learning from different approaches
Bethnal Green Weightlifting Club is a special place
Commercial vs Specialised Gyms
Succeeding in male-dominated environments
Powerlifting is a hugely encouraging world for women to excel
Letting the lifting do the talking
Creep Of The Week!
Powerlifting helped become strong, capable, confident, empowered
Becoming easier for women to excel in Actuary
Using anxiety as a positive force
Using music to get into the right head space
Doing what future You will thank you for
What are you scared of?
"If there are any women that are scared to do something, just do it anyway. That's going to be my parting thought."
