I got this request to talk about my fitness journey and what I do to stay fit and healthy. I talk a lot about what other people do to lose weight or what diet regimen they tried and how it works for them but very seldom do I talk about myself. I have mentioned it before in the post my fitness journey but I never went truly into great detail or even showed you side by side pictures. I always felt like looking at myself I never really made much progress. I’ve either stayed the same or didn’t feel like I had much to talk about.

     Today, I’m going to show you a side by side of two pictures that were taken two years apart almost. I have always been active and fit I feel like. I never really felt like I’ve slipped at all when it comes to that. I used to train for sports such as soccer or cross country or track. After high-school when I no longer played sports unless it was just for fun I didn’t train as hard but I still worked out because it has grown to be a part of my life.

     You may have heard me talk about this before, when I was pregnant I was more or less depressed or very emotional as most pregnant people are. (This is a very important asset to the story so just bare with me) My hormones had me feeling very low. I was 16 and I was in love with a boy who I thought loved me just as much. Who I thought I would marry and spend the rest of my life with. I was with a boy who emotionally abused me. He always made me feel like I was never good enough and he toyed with me so much. On again, off again. It was an awful cycle and for some reason I felt like I just couldn’t let him go. I felt like I was crazy. I felt weak and vulnerable. I was miserable and I felt like I had absolutely no control over my emotions.

     Over time, I felt like I needed to focus on myself and focus on making myself better so I started working out more, more than just for training. I felt like I needed an out, a way to let go of all these emotions so I would run. I would run for miles until I felt like I was just running away from it all. I would put music in but half the time I wouldn’t hear it because I was so focused, I was zoned. It was a feeling like no other to just feel like I could escape from myself for a little bit. All my thoughts seemed to stopped and the only thing I focused on way the way my hands were dropping. My posture to make sure I was breathing properly. My breath itself. Counting my steps. The faint noise of my feet hitting the pavement or the gravel or whatever I was running on. There was something about running that just made me feel such a relief. This was my out.

      When the baby came and knocked us all out of the park we tried to make things mend but nothing changed, if anything it just got more complicated and worse. I felt like I had so much insecurity and I kept allowing things to get to me and I would stress so much about things that I had no control over until one day I just stopped. I told myself that “this was it, I’m not doing this anymore” and I took control over my life. I started focusing more on what was best for me and my daughter. I was in college, working two jobs and focusing on caring for my baby and her needs I needed not only what was best for me but what was best for her as well. I stayed single and focus for about a year and just solely did what I felt like was best for me.

     In these transformation photos, I see more than just me being more fit. I see confidence. I see a glow of a girl who did it on her own, who made herself happy. Crazy as it seems, my body weight never changed in either of these pictures. I think it’s all about how you hold yourself and how driven you are to make a difference. It’s not about the number on the scale.

     Now for a break down of what I did, not only did I push all of the negative things and people that were holding me back out of my life. I worked out at LEAST three times a week if not more. This wasn’t just cardio as you can probably tell. This was resistant training, lifting, running, elliptical, the whole nine yards. I was in it to win in. I focused a lot on what I was eating a lot because I also felt like a tie to why I felt so down and tired all the time had to do with that I was eating. I made sure my diet was as balanced as possible. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was seven so I had to make sure I was getting the right nutrients as far as iron and protein and things that I may have lacked before.

     So my journey and diet regimen is nothing special. Just eat right and make an effort to be fit! Get in the gym, get on the walkway, join a class, do what it takes to improve your body the way it needs to.