From Athlete to Human Being

This podcast is for the athletes who struggle silently. Who deal with body confidence, self-image and shame of who they used to be and coping with their time in athletics. If this is you, you are not alone! There are countless athletes dealing with it without the ability to ask for help, talk about it and heal. No More.No more will athletes suffer in silence. This podcast is here to give a voice to those that haven't used it yet or don't know where to start.Hit subscribe and get ready for the incredible stories that are coming.

Athletes struggles with several pieces of life after athletics. In today's episode I want to talk about the three biggest struggles that past athletes have expressed and what they mean.Connect with Kacee:https://linktr.ee/kaceefitness

Eva Merrell is a former D1 athlete, U.S National Team Member and advocate for athlete mental health. She works with The Hidden Opponent to provide resources and tools to student-athletes and works to end the stigma of mental health in sport. This episode was previous live-streamed on  the From Athlete to Human Being Facebook Page The Hidden Opponent: https://thehiddenopponent.com/The Hidden Opponent Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thehiddenopponentMore Than an Athlete Group: https://www.kaceefitness.com/athlete

Sarah Menlove was a high level swimmer in her younger years before becoming a triathlete.  After a difficult transition out of athletics she is dedicating her life to helping women love themselves, their body and their food as a health and transformational coach. Connect with  with Sarah:https://www.facebook.com/sarah.menloveIG: @sarahmenlove.healthMore Than an Athlete Group Every Tuesday morning at 8am MSThttps://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/athlete

Kim is a former NCAA Division I swimmer where she competed at The University of North Carolina. In her athlete career, she struggled with depression in retirement and has since dedicated herself to dig deep into what it means to be an athlete so she can help others who may be struggling on their own journey.She founded Everything Athletes, an online refuge for competitors, where she offers the resources and tools needed to thrive in sport.**This episode contains conversation related to depression and suicidal thoughts. Please do a mental health check before listening to this episodeConnect with Kim:https://www.instagram.com/everythingathletedotcomMore than an Athlete Group:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/athlete

Paula Cook has been an Athletic Trainer for 20 years and helps athletes not only as athletes and students but as human beings. Paula is a life coach and a health coach coaching youth students and student-athletes to their highest potential in life.Connect with Paula:www.jengaudetcoaching.comConnect with Kacee:www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/calls

Tip of the day is a snippet of advice to get any time. A new tip will drop every Thursday! Today's tip is about recognizing the judgements of food that are taught during athletics and letting them go. Get more help:www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/gethelp

Reggie Calhoun, Founder & President of RPA College™ Prep, reigns at the helm of the esteemed private post-secondary prep institution. Understanding that to whom much is given, much is required, the New Orleans native has dedicated his life to a career of service,driven by a pursuit of purpose. Calhoun, a champion of uplift, perseverance, scholarship, and servitude, is a 2012 graduate of Louisiana College, obtaining a degree in Health Wellness and Fitness.While there, he excelled academically and earned numerous athletic accolades as a 4-year letter-man infootball for the Wildcats. Finishing a outstanding career with, 13 career interceptions, 130+ tackles, 30+ passes defended, 2 career touchdowns, all hailing from the defensive back position.Connect with Reggie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reggiecalhounjr/

Connect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/calls Today I'm talking about reaching out for help. Now, when you're an athlete, this is very, very difficult to do, you're told that you're supposed to be able to handle everything that comes your way, and that you have all the support that you need. And sometimes that's just not enough. So when you are feeling really down on yourself, and really hard, know that someone is here for you, someone cares, someone loves you, someone who has been through where you have been, and have made it to the other side and is turning around to offer you a hand. So the tip today is have the courage to reach out to someone to reach out to a friend, a family member, an old teammate, that has been so hard for me to do to reach out to old teammates and say, Hey, I was thinking about you today, I hope you're doing well. Because I want them to know that I'm here for them, that I'll listen, that I will work to understand their situation and how they're feeling after athletics. So reach out to a friend saying exactly what you need, hey, I need some advice. I need someone just to listen. I need to express what I'm feeling. Or I need to tell you what I've been through. Tell them exactly what you need from them. Tell them what support that you need. And then trust them to listen and to be there. And if you don't know who that is who to reach out to, please reach out to me Casey at from athlete to human being.com it's in the link here and share your story because somebody cares, somebody loves you. Somebody is here to support your journey.

In this solo episode, Kacee answers a couple common questions that have come up in the past few weeks including new year's resolutions and life after sport More Than an Athlete Group:Every Tuesday 8:00am MSThttps://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/athleteConnect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/calls

Lauren Link is a Registered Dietitian and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics. She is the director of sports nutrition at Purdue University, where she played women’s soccer and was part of the 2007 Big Ten Tournament championship team. As an undergrad, she completed a dual degree in Dietetics and Nutrition, Fitness and Health, and would later complete her Masters from Purdue in Health and Kinesiology.Lauren began her professional career as a clinical dietitian with St. Vincent's Hospital before returning to her alma mater in 2014 as the program’s first full-time sports dietitian. As the director of sports nutrition at Purdue she oversees all sports nutrition operations and staff, and works directly with football, men’s basketball, soccer and volleyball.In addition to fueling her athletes for success on the field, she is also passionate about helping athletes successfully navigate the transition into the real world. She has led multiple initiatives to this end, founding the Purdue student-athlete community garden, spearheading a program called BLAST—for Boiler Life After Sport—designed to help address key components of athletes' transition to “normal human” status, and in 2017 published her first book on the subject: The Healthy Former Athlete.Get Lauren's book "The Healthy Former Athlete" on amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1510736093/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3VZVS7ZVKPJJQ&psc=1Connect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

In this Solo Episode Kacee is talking about how COVID has effected sports over the past year and what to do help cope as we move forwardConnect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

Kenneth is the CEO of the educational program Maximizing the Student-Athlete (MTSA). He graduated from the University of Utah, where he earned two degrees while being a student-athlete. Through his exemplary ethic of leadership - he received many awards for his combination of community service, athletic, and academic performance, which resulted in him receiving the most Inspirational Male Student-Athlete and opportunities to play professionally in the NFL and CFL. Transitioning from the gridiron, he was able to expand and apply his skill sets in a Fortune 100 company where he successfully built and enhanced the skills, knowledge, and abilities of Business Sales teams to execute key business metrics.If you ask Kenneth, “what is the main goal that you wish to achieve?” He will tell you that his main goal is to help Athletes, Students, and Business Professionals maximize their windows of opportunity to achieve success.Connect with Kenneth:https://www.maximizingthestudentathlete.comConnect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

**As work from home goes, sometimes there are technical glitches. Please bare with us and I am sure you will get great golden nuggets to take into your life.Christian Buck has spent the majority of his career as a company owner and entrepreneur. For more than a decade, he traded and brokered equity derivatives on the floor of the American Stock Exchange.Following a successful run as a sole-prop trader in the pits for Pfizer, Cisco, and Intel, he started his own brokerage offering equity and option execution to his mid- and large-cap clients on the Floor.For the last ten years, Christian has been helping individuals and organizations raise their game by improving their mindset. Through his consulting practice, Christian Buck Consulting, he has worked with professional athletes, student-athletes and executives on a one-to-one basis challenging their thinking on the field, in the classroom, or in the boardroom.He founded The Sport of School Academy, which applies sport psychology concepts to academics, got certified to teach Fearless Golf by renowned golf psychologist, Dr. Gio Valiante (currently consulting at Point72 Asset Management), and has worked with some of the best NCAA programs in the country including Brown University men's lacrosse team on their run to the Final Four in 2016, Amherst men’s lacrosse team to the National Championship, the University of Albany's men's lacrosse team, and Sacred Heart University men's lacrosse, implementing team-specific cultural changes and mental conditioning programs. Christian has also been hired as an Elite Coach for executive performance firm, Valor.Christian has helped executives at all levels raise their game and breakthrough self-created limitations. He specializes in defining personal vision, enhancing self-awareness, reducing anxiety, and improving confidence.Get Christian's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Sport-School-Help-Student-Athlete-Classroom/dp/1544516053/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+sport+of+school&qid=1611702969&sr=8-1Connect with Kacee: www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

Kirsten is a creative writer, podcast host, adventurous athlete, and forthcoming author. Kirsten shares stories so that you can find freedom in your life, reconnect with the joy of athletics and health, and laugh along the way.She competed as a Division I athlete for San Jose State University. During this time she was a four-time team captain, led the team to a conference title, set multiple school records, was on ESPN and qualified for both World and Olympic Trials. In 2012 she stepped away from the pool deck and into corporate America as an engineer managing a team for one of the smartest companies in the world (according to MIT).While she excelled professionally, something always felt...off. Until one day after leaving the office, she knew, it was time to get back to my competitive nature and step out on my own. she started a freelance career as a writer and began to reconnect with my love for sports, adventure, and living life on the edge. There are so many of us who don’t talk about the struggle of life after sports and she hopes together we can help one another move forward and continue winning in life.Connect with Kirsten:@kirstentrammellConnect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

You wake up at 6am, get to your morning weight session. You hit a personal best on your squat, nice. A quick shower if there's time and get to your first class. Several hours of class later you grab lunch from the fueling station and it's practice time. After 3 more hours, it's back to class. Suddenly it's 8pm and you have done no homework nor studied for the test tomorrow. Sleep? who needs it, you are invisible.Fast forward: You wake up at 8am, you have about an hour to get up, make breakfast and get to your laptop to start your virtual workday. You work until 5pm with a solid lunch because you are already at home. You think about going to the gym, you haven't been in a while. Remember when you used to lift super heavy and out performed a lot of your teammates? Why can't you do that anymore? Why did you let your body get out of shape?After retirement from athletics, it becomes natural to compare your life now to when you were an athlete. It was so easy to get all your working out in, you had so much better drive and time management, what happened? You beat yourself up for not being better and then don't have the energy to make another choice.This is the hole that so many athletes fall into because they are constantly comparing their current life to how they were and what it was like in athletics that it makes it hard to make any choice that makes things better. The solution: self-compassion. Your body and choices are different because your life is different. It is beautiful and deserving of love for yourself. Acknowledging that difference and shutting down comparison opens opportunity to make the next best decision for you. Take a screen shot and share it on social media to tell us how you are showing your own self-compassion today. 

Mary Murray graduated from Arcadia University in May 2020 with a BA in Global Media, where she also played four years of college softball. A pitcher and corner infielder, she was a three-time All-MAC Commonwealth selection. She earned other conference and regional awards, such as: MAC Commonwealth Pitcher of the Year, NFCA First Team All-Region, NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete, Academic All-MAC, two-time Philadelphia Inquirer Academic All-Area, and two-time Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-District. Her senior year of competition was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she earned the MAC Softball Senior-Scholar Athlete award, as well as the Arcadia Athletics Female Senior Athlete award.Murray has also had international playing experience. She was selected to the Great Britain Under-22 Women's National Team after spending a semester abroad in London and training with the High Performance Academy. She competed in the Canada Cup in 2019 against Team Canada, Team Chinese Taipei, and Team New Zealand, to name a few. Murray then represented Great Britain with the softball club The Mix in the Women's European Cup in Dupnitsa, Bulgaria, where the team took home the silver medal. She was selected again to the Great Britain U-22 Women’s National Team in 2020, where she would have competed in Prague, Czech Republic, but the tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Currently, she is pursuing her MA in Communication at Johns Hopkins University. She has also transitioned to coaching; she is a volunteer assistant coach at Rowan University and is coaching at the 14U travel softball level for the South Jersey Mystics (her former travel program). Murray is serving as the communication manager for the non-profit organization The Hidden Opponent, which advocates for mental health awareness in athletics. She is also the team manager for the Great Britain Under-15 Women’s National Team.She is passionate about mental health in athletics, especially when it comes to identity outside of athletics. She hopes to work in college athletic communication; she wants to be in a position to help and support student-athletes in their collegiate athletics journey.Mary's Article on The Hidden Opponent:  https://thehiddenopponent.com/mary-murray-covid-19-cancellations-the-day-that-still-haunts-me/Connect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

Oliver Shannon grew up in the UK playing soccer. After working through the ranks of a youth professional league he decided to move to the United States to pursue a degree while continue his soccer career. He graduated from Clemson University as an ACC Award winner and champion, and captain of his collegiate soccer team. He achieved my lifelong dream of becoming a professional athlete with Atlanta United in the MLS.  He is now involved in the commercial side of sport.Connect with Oliver: https://www.facebook.com/ollie.shannon.31/Connect with Kacee: https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

Darryll Stinson is a former Division I athlete, author, two-time TEDx speaker, and Founder of Second Chance Athletes.After going from suicidal to successful, Darryll uses his experience to give hope to the hopeless and to help heart-centered speakers build innovative mission-centered speaking careers that align with their highest purpose. Darryll is the author of the best-selling book "Who Am I After Sports? : An Athlete's Roadmap to Discover New Purpose and Live Fulfilled".When he is not working, Darryll enjoys spending time with his wife and three beautiful daughters. #girldadConnect with Darryll: https://www.darryllstinson.com/Get Darryll's book: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Am-After-Sports-Fulfilled/dp/1647464803/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BFCM2BAVG9VJ&dchild=1&keywords=who+am+i+after+sports+darryll+stinson&qid=1614723021&sprefix=who+am+i+after+%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-1Connect with Kacee: https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect

Anthony Gliffe is a Former NCAA D2 Scholarship baseball player Former D1/D2 Athletic Academic Advisor9 years of High School Baseball Coaching ExperienceCurrent, College & Career Pathway SpecialistPresented at the state, regional, and national level on student-athlete mental health & advising college bound student-athlete.In this episode we talk about Anthony's journey and how he is now better preparing athletes for the big step into the NCAA.Connect with Anthony:https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-gliffe-499753b1/ https://twitter.com/AnthonyGliffe .Connect with Kacee:https://www.fromathletetohumanbeing.com/connect