MY TRANSFORMATION STORY Last 4th of July I was up north for the holiday with my family. It was a beautiful week – we went tubing down the Rifle River, water-skied and tubed behind the boat in Forest Lake, we went for bike rides and walks too. If that doesnt sound action-packed enough for you, my sister had even brought some workout DVD’s with her because she was working on getting fit for her wedding that was only a few months away. She begged me to try them with her almost every day we were up there. I was also trying to get into better shape for her wedding so I decided to give them a try one of the days while we were there. To my surprise it was actually a fun, but tough workout even though it was only a 30 minute workout on a DVD. After we returned home from our vacation and back to our normal routines, my sister asked me if I wanted to join one of her workout challenge groups. At this point she had been doing these DVD workouts for almost 6 months and she had some incredible results. You would think that I would be happy for her and excited to try these workouts with her, but seeing her lose weight and get washboard abs made me kind of jealous. I started making excuses for how she could get results like that and why I would NEVER look that tone and fit. After all, she is a nurse – working on her feet most of the day while I’m an accountant and I sit at a desk all day. She also has a short drive to work and most days she only worked 3 days a week which gave her WAY more time than I would have to dedicate to working out. I let that negative voice in my head talk me out of the ability to see success for myself. Regardless of that subconscious decision and false belief in my head, I let her talk me into purchasing a workout program from her (Turbo Fire) and I started doing that workout in August of 2013. Like many other things in my life, I approached this workout program in my typical perfectionist way. I put the workout calendar on my dry-erase board vowing to never miss a single workout. Well, life happens and other things came up. I missed one workout, then two, then three – before I knew it I had missed 2 weeks. That negative voice in my head reassured me once again that I was a failure at fitness and that I couldn’t do this program so I just stopped trying altogether. My supportive sister was sure that the reason I didn’t stick to the program was because I just hadn’t found the program that was right for me. “..but I like Turbo Fire,” I thought. The workouts were hard, the trainer was great, and I had seen some small weight loss results. “It’s not the workout, it’s just you. You can’t finish anything you start……”, said that nasty negative voice. My sister’s wedding came and I was down a few pounds since the 4th of July and I figured that would be good enough. Sadly, I was still uncomfortable in my dress and self-conscious of how I looked – especially standing next to the beautifully, fit bride. I knew I wasnt taking care of my health and not only was it affecting me physically – it started to affect my emotions, my mood, and other people in my life. Like in many past years, I declared some fairly exuberant New Years’ resolutions for 2014. I would lose weight, fix up my nutrition, improve my mood, etc. The only problem was that I did not have an action plan that I committed to. In April of 2014 I decided to try a strict cleansing diet that focused on clean eating. I had some dramatic weight loss during that cleanse, but as soon as the cleanse was over I went right back to my prior bad eating habits and I put most of the weight back on. Throughout my life, my weight has had more ups and downs than your favorite ride at Cedar Point! I have been really good at making weight loss 100% of my focus when I’m trying to “look good” for something – i.e. my freshmen year at MSU, my wedding, other weddings that I have stood up in, etc. However, whenever the event was over, I would just forget about eating right and exercising completely. Physical proof of all my hard work would disappear right before my eyes and I would be back in my “fat clothes” and feeling depressed. Finally, I decided that enough was enough. I decided that this is my life and I want to live it with intention. No more just going through the motions to survive. No more Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwiches 3 nights a week because we had no fresh groceries in the house, no more using a heavy workload at the office as an excuse to not exercise and NO MORE GIVING UP ON MYSELF! I started doing the PiYo workout by Chalene Johnson in June this year. I was good about sticking to the workouts for a while, but my eating wasn’t really on point since I hadn’t committed to the nutrition program that came with the workouts. After much persuasion I decided to become a Beachbody Coach. I am running my first challenge group with the 21 Day Fix program by Autumn Calabrese this month and it has really lit a fire within me to want to continue my fitness journey so that I can inspire others and help them reach their own personal fitness goals. This is the only body you get to take you through this journey of life – why wouldn’t you fuel your body with nutrition and love yourself enough to take care of your body so that you can live an intentional, more purpose-driven life? The most important things I have learned throughout this year-long transformation are: 1. Trust the program and the process 2. Believe in myself and my abilities 3. I can’t just wish for it – I have to work for it Thank you for reading my entire story. Please comment below or share my post to show me your support.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:26:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015