Senior Beauty & Lifestyle Director
Senior Beauty & Lifestyle Director
Alexandra Engler is the senior beauty and lifestyle director at mindbodygreen and host of the beauty podcast Clean Beauty School. Previously, she’s held beauty roles at Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Allure.com.
Image by mbg Creative / courtesy of source
October 21, 2024
After chatting with physician and former CrossFit athlete Julie Foucher, M.D., M.S., I don’t know if I’ll ever complain about being busy again. The board-certified family physician, who is now based in Kentucky, has a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan and finished her residency training at the Cleveland Clinic. She also has a master’s in nutrition and completed an integrative medicine residency program through the University of Arizona.
Oh, and I should add: She’s also one of the most successful women athletes to ever compete in the CrossFit games. From 2010 to 2015, Foucher competed in the games (while continuing her education, I might add). At her height, she finished second in 2012 and third in 2014—and never finished outside the top five in all four years of competing. Her career ended with a devastating Achilles tendon injury in 2015, a year she was considered a favorite to take the title.
Now, Foucher brings that drive and passion to her practice—where she focuses on how to marry fitness, nutrition, and medicine for full-body health.
I spoke with her about her time competing, “retirement” from the games, and what her wellness routine looks like now. Here, her insights.
mindbodygreen: I’ve been talking to a lot of athletes about mental toughness and mental resilience that goes into being an athlete—not just physical. CrossFit is famously challenging. How did you get yourself in that mindset to be able to push through? Not just in competitions but day-to-day?
Julie Foucher, M.D., M.S.: I think it is the day-to-day that’s the hardest, right? It’s easy to show up when you have a lot of fans and you’re on a big stage, but it’s harder to show up day-to-day.
I went through many different phases of learning and growth during my competition years, and the majority of it was in the mental side of competition.
When you start, it’s easy to do something when you’re good at it—you just want to keep going because, well, you’re good at it. It’s easy to think, Of course, I’ll keep going.
Once things got really difficult—which is when I started medical school, so my entire life was training and going to school—I realized I hadn’t asked myself why I was doing this or why competing was important to me.
And until I answered that question, it became very challenging for me. I struggled a lot—even just feeling motivated to practice. I also developed a lot of anxiety and was even depressed for a while. What helped me the most was really identifying why I wanted to do this.
And I think that’s true for anything in life, whether it’s a competition, your work, or becoming a parent. It’s important to spend time honing in on why you’re doing what you’re doing—that’s how you get through the days that are hard because not every day is easy and fun.
mbg: What did you learn about yourself through that journey with CrossFit competing?
Foucher: The other aspect of my growth was how I learned and grew every single year. I was building upon my own confidence in competing. I was always someone who did pretty well, but I don’t think I ever truly knew that I was good enough or what I was capable of. I always ended up surprising myself.
And I think that’s what held me back from probably doing better. I was on the podium twice but never won the CrossFit games. And I think the biggest reason for that is because I didn’t truly believe I was capable of it deep down—that is until my last year, when I tore my Achilles [so I couldn’t compete in the final competition that year].
So for me, it’s just been about building up my confidence. I think that’s something that’s true for everything in life and that all humans struggle with no matter what it is that you’re pursuing. That confidence and that belief in yourself is so key to being able to achieve whatever it is that you’re setting out to achieve.
mbg: I find that so relatable. I feel a lot of people struggle with those limiting beliefs about themselves.
Foucher: I can give one example. It was the 2011 CrossFit games. The year before, my first year as a rookie, I had placed fifth. There was a lot for me to learn, but I was doing well—and I was capable of winning that year, or at least being on the podium.
There was a specific event where we had to push a sled across the stadium, and there were three rounds. The first two rounds I was leading the event and had no problem pushing the sled. Then in the third round, I realized that the woman who had won the year prior was right behind me. And for some reason in the middle of that round, I stopped pushing the sled to shake my arms out. She passed me and then I finished.
Looking back on it, I really believe that it was because subconsciously I didn’t believe that I should be in front of her because she was the reigning champion. It’s crazy how those subconscious beliefs then drive our behaviors and those little day-to-day decisions that have a big impact on our lives.
mbg: You mentioned balancing both CrossFit and going to med school. How did you do it? I can’t imagine how challenging that must have been…
But first of all, it’s a little deceptive to say I was doing both the entire time because it was only one year in which I was truly full speed ahead on both. It was during my first year of med school when I was competing. And during that time, I was very lucky to be able to juggle some things in med school so I could compete. Then from there, there were times when I would take off competing or I focused on research and extended my med school.
So, one thing to remember is that when you look at folks who are doing things that seem to be impossible—well, are they actually doing them? Because it sounds so intense—med school and CrossFit. And sure, it was really hard, but there was only that one year that I was all in on both endeavors.
The other aspect—one that I don’t like—is there were so many areas of my life that suffered. I’m not proud of how I handled it, as those two things were my sole focus. A lot of other things dropped to the background. For example, I didn’t invest in a lot of relationships.
Once I exited that stage of my life—you know, school, residency, competing, and achievement—I finally took a deep breath and took time away. I realized how I had a lot of this backward in terms of putting achievement above everything else.
I’ve had to do a lot of work personally by reinvesting in those relationships—spending time repairing, healing, and making them right. I had to work on my true priorities and put relationships at the top.
Image by mbg Creative / courtesy of source
mbg: Again, I feel like that’s very relatable. I think a lot of us can look back at our lives and think, Hmm maybe I didn’t have my priority rankings quite right. It’s hard to tell in the moment because you think you’re making the right choices.
Foucher: That’s what the world wants you to believe: You have to work so hard and make so much money and achieve, achieve, achieve. And sometimes if we pay too much attention to those messages, we lose the things that are truly important to us.
mbg: I want to talk about how you take care of yourself. I know you’re retired, but I’m going to assume you’re still very good at taking care of yourself. Let’s start with sleep. How are you prioritizing sleep?
Foucher: Well, I always have been someone who just has to prioritize sleep because if I don’t, I don’t function. I guess I did it when I was in college: I remember going through extended periods of sleeping five or six hours a night and pulling all-nighters. But since then, no, I cannot function after a night or two like that.
I think a lot of it comes from trial and error in which you realize what you really need to be able to function at your best. I would love to be much more consistent with my bedtimes, but, luckily, I am a good sleeper, so as long as I allow time for it, I get enough.
mbg: What do you eat to feel your strongest?
Foucher: I think I was certainly much more strict on my nutrition—especially in terms of the quality of foods—when I was competing. I would barely eat any sugar. I remember at one point my cheat meal was like a square of dark chocolate.
I’m certainly not like that anymore; I really try to eat just whole foods and prioritize fiber, fruits, vegetables, and protein. So as long as I’m getting those things every day, I feel like I’m in a good place.
mbg: This goes back to your training days, but I like asking athletes this question: What’s the most intense thing you’ve ever done in hopes of optimizing your performance?
Foucher: This was right at the end of my competition career. Someone I worked with at the time found a tool that creates a high-altitude environment. There’s a tent that you put over your bed so you’re sleeping at a high altitude at night. And there was this thing that you would wear while riding a stationary bike that mimicked a high altitude. So I did that a couple times a week to improve my aerobic capacity. I only did that during my last season, so it’s hard to say what impact it had—but it felt pretty extreme.
mbg: In terms of movement nowadays, what are you doing?
Foucher: I will always do CrossFit. I think it is the best, most efficient way to stay fit.
But for me, it looks very different these days. I would say the workouts I do now are basically the warm-ups I used to do. But the focus has shifted. So instead of my focus being on my performance and the numbers that I’m putting up, it is so much more about how I feel and about my mental health. It’s just about feeling good.
A lot of times that looks like a quick workout that I do in my garage gym. And I still love going to CrossFit affiliates when I can and being in that community and the class environment.
Then I also mix in other things. I walk a lot, go to yoga once a week, and have started playing pickleball. Even sometimes I do Pilates, which is totally different.
mbg: What’s your favorite way to decompress? It doesn’t need to have anything to do with wellness either…
Foucher: I would say this has a lot to do with wellness, but being able to spend time in nature. Nature is a really great way to decompress. I find being away from technology is what brings me back to myself.
mbg: What advice would you give young girls or women who are interested in becoming athletes themselves? Not just CrossFit but any sort of sport…
Foucher: I think the first piece of advice is to keep trying things until you find something that you like. I was lucky enough in that my parents encouraged me to try a lot of different sports when I was younger. Then I saw some girls on the playground on the bars and asked my mom to sign me up for gymnastics—and that became my main sport growing up.
Even after gymnastics was done, I really felt this deep desire to continue competing and continue developing my fitness. But I didn’t know where to go until I found CrossFit a couple years later.
So I would say just keep an open mind and keep trying things until you find what you love.
mbg: That’s great advice… So many athletes have commented on how it’s so important that the love and passion are there from an early age.
Foucher: The other advice I have comes from a woman who competed in CrossFit before I started, Lindsey Smith. She once told me that she thinks about exercise or moving your body just the same way she thinks about brushing your teeth: It’s just something that you do every morning.
Movement is part of being a human. I have friends who instill that in their kids—for example, every morning before school, they all do a workout together. I like thinking about it that way. So, just ask yourself: how do you move your body every day and that’s something you enjoy?
mbg: I think there are so many lessons from playing sports that can apply to everyday life. What has competing in CrossFit taught you that you’ve used in other areas of your life?
Foucher: One of the reasons I love CrossFit is because it allows every person who participates the experience of being an athlete—more so than you might if you just go to the gym and run on the treadmill by yourself.
I think one of the main lessons that I learned through competing in CrossFit and training CrossFit that I apply in the rest of my life is how it is so important to break things down into the next step.
I think when you look at an overall goal, it can be very overwhelming. For example, you might say, “I want to compete in the CrossFit games a year from now,” and so your coach gives you this program. It may be broken down by weeks, but then you see all of the things you need to do that week. You start to get anxious.
But if you just focus on what you are doing right now and what is next, it becomes much clearer. Focus on doing the best that you can in the moment—don’t think about the five other things you have to do later.
I apply that in my life all the time. I always want to have a road map and goal of where I’m going—no matter if it’s work, personal life, or family—so I can look at the big plan, but then I break it down into what are the steps. I just ask myself: What am I doing today that’s getting me closer to my goal?