When: I began working out and making a total lifestyle change on January 26th, 2012.
Why: Because for the first time possibly ever, I got completely sick of eating junk food for every meal, every day of my life. I was tired of seeing the number on the scale gradually go up over time, and began to see I was beginning to creep outside of the healthy weight range for my height and age. I got tired of seeing new stretch marks, and varicose veins run in my family, and I was starting to see them on the back of my calves. I started feeling extremely self-conscious unless I was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans…of which were beginning to hug me rather tightly as well. I was tired of seeing rolls of fat hang off of me when for most of my life I’ve always been “the skinny one”. On a random day I was watching a YouTube video of a hair tutorial, and the girl doing the video reached her arms up behind her head to begin working on the hair at the back of her head…and without her even flexing, you could see her nicely toned biceps. “Wow. I want that.” I didn’t know much about the fitness community on tumblr, or if one even existed, but I decided to look around. Within minutes I found some of what are now my favorite fitness blogs on here and began following them. Some of them had posted things about Jamie Eason, who is now an inspiration of mine. I began doing my homework on what I should be doing in terms of eating and exercise. Surprisingly, the switch from an all-junk-food diet to a clean diet has been very easy for me. Probably because I was beginning to actually feel “dirty” by eating so much processed junk, and so I haven’t looked back. There have been a few times where I was tempted to just all out give this all up and go back to the junk food, but it’s gotten easier. Now I’m eating clean and training mean!(: I am so much happier now because of the exercise which has been such a blessing because I have struggled with depression for most of my life. And while counseling has helped me for the past two years to move through it, there would still be times where I would fall into depression for a while. And honestly, I still do. But it’s easier. I also struggle with social anxiety and separation anxiety, so a lot of things that come as second nature to most people are completely terrifying to me. But exercise has made me feel more at ease to do things on my own, and the amount of panic attacks I get has dropped some. The benefits of exercise are more than just physical!(: I have actually had a long-lived love for fitness, but never incorporated a healthy diet with it. I have loved dance for the past seven years and aerobic fitness as well, but all this was still while I ate almost entirely junk food…so of course I never saw any real results or changes in my body, and would give up easily if I was on a work-out kick. But fitness is 70% diet! I have known a few body builders in my lifetime as friends and boyfriends, so a lot of my current knowledge about fitness comes from them, and also from some aerobics and nutrition classes I have taken over the years. I am enjoying this journey so much, I am considering furthering my education in the area of Kinesiology! I recently graduated with my AA degree from a local community college, and though I hated college, I am confident I could enjoy learning about something I am now passionate about. I believe there have been a lot of arrows slowly leading me this way over the years…and now God has revealed to me the area of work I may find myself in. And by that I truly mean…I may find who I really am once again.(:

Now if you read through all that…here are the specifics…

Height: 5 feet 5.5 inches
Start Weight: 141 pounds
Highest Weight: 146 pounds
Original Goal Weight: 123-125 pounds
Actual Goal: Become strong, toned, lower my body fat percentage, and to be healthy! The number on the scale isn’t as big of a deal to me anymore, as long as it’s within the healthy weight range for me. The number on the scale doesn’t tell you what your body composition is! (How much muscle you have.) I always try to keep that in mind. I would like to get my body fat percentage down into the fitness or athlete category, somewhere in the high teens to the low twenties (18%-23%). Currently my body fat percentage hovers around 27 and 28 percent. When I started, it was close to 30 percent.
What this means: When I started on this lifestyle change, I had this idea in my head that I could get myself down to a healthy 125 pounds. However, I am starting to see that may not be in the cards for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have not given up losing weight by any means. I still work as hard now as when I did when I thought I would end up losing more weight. But over the past five weeks I have, at my lightest, only lost three pounds. It usually stays more around 2 pounds. Based upon what I have seen, and what I have talked about with my body builder friends recently, is that chances are with the way my particular body type is, I will lean out (lose fat), build muscle, and overall it will result in me becoming smaller, but still generally weighing the same on the scale. Sometimes it can be discouraging seeing the numbers stay the same—or even go up sometimes—week after week when I weigh myself, but I am keeping in mind that that may not be in the cards for me. And that’s okay. I am still just as excited to build more muscle and to become stronger. Though I have never truly been overweight, I have come fairly close to it at times. And my body fat percentage was becoming far too high for someone my size…I guess I haven’t quite figured out yet what my ideal body type would be, but I know I don’t want to be skinny…I want to be strong! And healthy.(: I am definitely excited to see how my body changes over the next few months and onward from there.(:

I thank God for opening this new door in my life because it has been such a blessing in so many ways!

From time to time I may post progress pictures below, however I still feel totally awkward about it, what being all make-up less and sweaty and gross looking and whatnot and just putting that on here for anyone to see haha.
The point of my progress pictures will never be to show off, but simply for those interested in the progress I am making as I go along with this fitness and healthy journey in my life.

February 26th, 2012. 4 1/2 weeks into fitness and exercising.

At the point when the above picture was taken, I was one week into doing Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred for the first time.

Some of my stats at this time were:

Weight: 139.4 pounds

Waist: 27 inches

Hips: 39.75 inches

Body Fat Percentage: 28.5%

After completing the shred…

March 22nd, 2012. 8 weeks into fitness and exercising. Two days after completing the 30 Day Shred.

Some of my stats were:

Weight: 136 pounds

Waist: 27 inches

Hips: 39 inches

Body Fat Percentage: 27.3%

I have noticed a huge improvement in my abs (I can see the outline of them!) I feel stronger, I have more endurance, the muscles in my quadriceps are starting to stick out, my calf muscles have gotten tighter and more defined, and as you can see…I have shoulder muscles!

April 2nd, 2012. Starting the second week of Jamie Eason’s Live Fit Trainer.

May 18th, 2012: I’ve officially lost ten pounds since I began eating healthy and exercising in January! I know it seems like such a long time to have “only” lost ten pounds, but most of the weight I had to lose were “vanity pounds” which take a lot longer to shed than truly excess body weight that your body does not need (or want!) on it. So if you’ve thought about getting into fitness and have more than twenty pounds to lose, don’t let the amount of time it took me to lose ten pounds discourage you, because I guarantee you that the excess weight comes off much faster than the vanity pounds. My first few pounds came off like magic! Now Summer is right around the corner and I feel healthy and strong, I have biceps and obliques (which I have never had before!) and a six pack that is well under way to showing all the time, not just when I flex.(: Getting fit has been one of the best lifestyle choices I have ever made!(: