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EP 164: Melina Costanza — Why Eating Food Makes You Awesome, Competing to Win vs. Not Lose, and Fun Facts With Melina
Description
Melina Costanza is a competition powerhouse and the 2021 US Boulder National Champion. She opened up recently about her struggles with an eating disorder and decided to step away from competitions. We talked about her foot injury and surgery, why patent law is similar to climbing, how sports glamorize suffering, getting stronger during recovery, how gratitude can impact your training, and fun facts about Melina from ketchup to baby teeth necklaces.
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Show Notes:
thenuggetclimbing.com/episodes/melina-costanza
Nuggets:
0:06:25 – Update on Melina’s foot surgery and recovery
0:10:27 – The patent bar exam, and similarities between patent law and climbing
0:15:15 – Legos, and being a nerd growing up
0:16:45 – How taking her first physics class improved her climbing
0:19:30 – Modern volume climbing
0:24:06 – How Melina is thinking about her climbing moving forward, and training for upcoming competitions
0:26:20 – Plans to get back into sport climbing, and Melina’s Tumbler account
0:28:31 – Why Melina decided to quit climbing in college
0:33:36 – Fun in competitions, and only doing competitions that she wants to be at
0:36:48 – Expectations and pressure, and competing to win vs. competing to not lose
0:42:25 – Competitions as data, and “shoulding”
0:45:21 – Melina’s Instagram post about her eating disorder, and the story of breaking her foot
0:50:40 – The distortion your mind experiences with an eating disorder, and how sports glamorize suffering
0:57:42 – How your identity becomes entangled in an eating disorder, and rewriting the stories you tell yourself
1:01:53 – The importance of including fat and carbs in your diet, and getting stronger quickly once she started fueling properly
1:09:54 – Taking a leap of faith, and being vulnerable publically to help others
1:15:40 – A comment from Nicole
1:16:23 – Patron question from Katja: What inspired her to go public with her story?
1:19:13 – Not letting her eating disorder define her
1:20:09 – Did talking about it publically help?
1:22:53 – Patron question from Ana: Did anyone bring up Melina’s weight as a concern?
1:24:50 – Patron question from Eric: How