Athlete of the Month: November 2016

Marcela Oliva Lopinto

Member since: 2010

Windy City: Marcela is one of our most internally driven athletes. She is extremely dedicated to her sport of Olympic weightlifting—take a peek in the Oly room and you're bound to see Marcela on a platform working on perfecting her Oly technique. Marcela also has a strong passion for all things health and wellness related. She focuses on nutrition and is always seeking ways to improve as an athlete. Congrats Marcela! 

“Oh Marcela, F*CK your feelings... come back when you have something important to say.” — Tom Nedderman, My Spiritual Counselor

Marcela: Aside from being an awesome facility, WCSC provided me the space and resources I needed at a tough time in my life. It is a community of people who are goal-oriented and make their health and fitness a top priority. When I first came to WCSC, I was very much intimidated and wanted to be like the people I saw doing pull ups, running, jumping on boxes, sweating, and doing stuff with barbells. I imagined all the things I had to do to be like them: perfect diets, perfect body, confidence, strong lungs, etc. For someone with no athletic background, and 60+ pounds to lose at the time, it was really an intimidating place for me.

Sure enough, I learned that I was comparing my insides to their outsides. I started meeting people from the WCSC community and learned we had a lot more in common than I thought. I met some really outstanding athletes who today I can call my friends. They are the people that understand my goals, and can appreciate the grit and work ethic it takes to achieve them, as they too embody those qualities. WSCS is a place where you can find people that not only inspire you, but are also just like you and quickly become your cheerleaders. It is a place where people are not afraid to set high goals, and whose standards for personal health and fitness are high. I surround myself with people who are better than me in different aspects, and that has made all the difference: Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.

Recent Adventures

I recently came back from participating in an olympic weightlifting camp in Kiev, Ukraine hosted by the 2012 Olympic Games gold medalist Aleksey Torokhtiy and European National Champion Dr. Putsov Sergei. It was nothing short of amazing. Two whole weeks of training with these two was something I will never forget. Beyond cues and technical corrections, their passion for the sport and those who practice it was contagious. I also had the opportunity to lift with some pretty amazing people from around the world, who made my experience truly unforgettable (article coming soon).

Future Adventures

I found out this year that “Live Big” for me has nothing to do with a mountain, any rivers, dirt paths, rocks, or anything to do with the outdoors (I went rock climbing this year with WSCS crew, and…. I passed out on a rock. It was a great experience, I definitely do not regret it, but it was just not a fit for me). I feel like I am currently “Living Big”. I don’t want to go on some “great” adventure (more than going back to WBCM training camp in 2017). It took me a really long time to get to the place I am in my life, which is currently supporting my dreams and slowly building towards them. Living big is living the life I currently have and being fulfilled and grateful for it more often than not. Who I am today took a long time to get to. Living today, in this moment, is “living big” for me.

But, if I wanted to be totally random and honest, at some point in my life I would like to go India and volunteer taking care of orphaned elephants, go to China and study the matriarch village of the Mosuo people, and live on a farm full of rescued animals in the middle of nowhere with my German Shepherd, a barbell and plates, no cel, no noise, hired cleaning help, a personal chef, and a full starry sky.

Personal Goals

Weightlifting: March 2017 Snatch the Reds, 2019-2020 Participate in the American Open, 2021 Participate in National Championships, and 2022-? Be a badass Masters athlete and possibly coach. And through it all, fly in the snatch, cover the bar, and learn to move my body around it.

Professionally: I am an accounting and financial consultant for businesses (aka, I do all the stuff the business owners typically do not like, but absolutely need) and currently building a list of clients I truly love to work with. I found that when I work for people who love what they do, and are passionate about it, that energy is contagious and it makes my work super fulfilling. My goal is to work with the right businesses out there, and do an outstanding job for them. By the end of next year, I would like the business I am currently building to be thriving while staying true to its vision.

Personal: Get to goal weight (60lbs down, 5lbs to go), and then start eating for better body composition. Be happy no matter where I am, and know it is all enough. Live in the space of gratitude more often than not. Keep working on mental toughness, and seek challenges that push me outside my comfort zone.

Words to Live By

Just show up. Even though I have been a member of WCSC for a long time, it has only been about a year that I have shown up regularly. I spent the majority of five years coming for WODs for a month, losing weight, only to not show up for the next 3 months and gain twice the weight back. Over and over and over again. That was the cycle. For five years. I am not ashamed of it, it was part of my journey. I had to learn that sometimes just showing up, was good enough. I remember how hard it was after gaining weight to come back to what I considered an intimidating place. I was uncomfortable, on all levels, and felt ashamed of myself. With time, I learned to f*ck my feelings, and show up anyway. I got so used to feeling uncomfortable, that it also became easier for me to pick myself up to try again and show up. Without knowing, it forced me to develop a level of mental toughness; Without it, I was never going to build any kind of fulfilling life, and I was going to stay in that same cycle, stagnant.

So I chose to do something different, and decided to do 1-on-1 coaching at WCSC strictly for Olympic weightlifting, and it marked the beginning of the end of that cycle. I got the support I needed by working with my incredible weightlifting coach and my brilliant counselor, who between them both keep me physically and mentally healthy by challenging my limiting thoughts. My family and best friend are also totems of neverending love and support. Olympic weightlifting taught me to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It taught me, amongst infinite life lessons, that my body is not merely what it looks like, it’s about what it can do. Appreciating your body for anything less, would be gypping it. Your body is an instrument, not an ornament.  And so with that mental shift, showing up became easier and easier. I stopped caring about what I looked like, and started focusing on what I could do.

There is nothing incredibly special about me, or anyone for that matter, that makes them achieve any more than what you or I can do. They may just have a couple tools that you don’t quite have yet, or a different set of thoughts and beliefs about themselves, and perhaps even different standards. But, there are no superhumans, there are just shows. You really can achieve anything you want, you just have to show up anyway and do the work.

For me, it was clear: Don’t strive for weight loss, strive for strength, performance, mental toughness, and tenacity, as they are more fulfilling than seeing one pound less on the scale. That is the momentum that is going to pull you forward, and keep you there. Surrender to the process, to the journey, and to patience. Progress, not perfection. And always, f*ck your feelings, and show up anyway. It’s true what they say: in the end it is not about what we get that makes us happy, but who we become.