My Fitness Journey Back Story

• September 22, 2014
• Lifestyle

This is something I have wanted to share with everyone to serve as an inspiration. I tried to wait for the right time because I might not be convincing since I haven’t gotten the “results” yet, but what people don’t realize is that the most important part of getting fit (or in anything you do) is the journey. The persistence. The hard work. How much fucking hard work it takes to maintain your mentality and ignore all the negativity surrounding you.

The motivation to keep going even when you don’t think you could do it. If I could help at least one person, then that makes me happy. Getting fit has got to be the hardest damn thing I’ve ever had to do. It’s something, (what, 99% of America?) are struggling with. Either you’re underweight, overweight, or obese. Of course I’m strictly talking about the health that you decided for yourself and not the people that unfortunately have to experience it from birth. For almost my entire life, I have been unhealthy. Either I was lacking nutrition (resulting in pale skin and sickly stature) or I have been overweight. Before I get into details, and of course, my before & current pictures, I would like to share a back story for you.

History

I’m going to start from when I was near the end of my junior year of high school, because that’s when my height finally stayed the same. I grew from 5’1” to 5’6”, medium framed, so my ideal weight should be around 130-145lbs. I have a small torso and long legs, so when I got really fat, I looked really disproportionate. Unlike a lot of other people that are overweight, usually with an even torso and legs, they look proportional. (I’m not saying it’s acceptable to be overweight if you could help it). But it has been a difficult journey for me because of my body type. When I graduated high school, I already had a bit of a belly, because I didn’t have any abs. It was decent enough to the point where I didn’t look crazy weird. I have been struggling with workouts and diets to help me get fit all the years before that. I thought that cardio was the answer and that I just had to eat healthy. Nope. Wrong. Didn’t work. I kept getting discouraged from the lack of results, I let ego get in my way because I saw people looked down on me, so I didn’t pace myself, and often ended up quitting before getting anywhere.

It wasn’t until mid-2012 that I gained a lot of weight. The most in my entire life. Like a shit ton of weight. I didn’t even notice it until one day I woke up, feeling like shit, and I looked in the mirror. I didn’t even recognize who I was anymore.

I started doing cardio. I ran 2-3 miles every day. And yes, that helped me lose weight. Super fast. But it was still easy for me to gain weight. Why? Because I didn’t have any muscle. My metabolism slowed because I was getting older. That was when I went on my first cruise that same year, with an overweight body, again. I came back. I was confused. I told myself, how could I have possibly gained all this weight back, or even more? I did so much cardio before I went on the cruise. That was when my boyfriend introduced me to weight training. Contrary to popular belief, girls should weight lift. Girls cannot get bulky like guys. Ever. Unless you take steroids. Instead, they get toned and sexy. I did that for three months, as well as swam some laps after each workout. That was when I had my old facebook account (like, what, the 4th one?). I was sharing some of my fitness progress on this blog then, if any of you were interested enough to keep up with it. The weight training was working. The benching, the squatting, the leg press… it all worked. My metabolism increased. I was getting hungry each time, after 3 hours of eating. I learned to pace my eating, by eating smaller, way smaller, meals throughout the day.

But something just wasn’t clicking. I got discouraged. I saw people at the gym judging me. Which doesn’t make any sense, because we’re all there to get fit and healthy, and that’s what we’re supposed to be supporting, isn’t it? Well it depends on what your intentions are to work out in the first place. If you’re only in it to attract the opposite sex, to prove dominance, or some kind of ego, then you’re not there for the right reasons.

I proceeded to cancel my membership due to expenses. And I gained back all the weight again. It was on and off every three months. I would do some cardio. Some running, some biking, some more running… I tried P90X for a week and I noticed something different, but then I went back to my old ways. Later in May, I went on a cruise. I was fat again. Just like from 2012. It was déjà vu… fat + cruise = traumatized Kelly. I was traumatized. I didn’t think I could ever lose weight. Ever. I felt like a chump. A loser.

Rising Action

But during the cruise, I wasn’t ashamed of my body. I even came back and shared my photos from the cruise, knowing that people are going to judge me. Cousins from my home country said something, uncles, aunts, and even my boyfriend’s family and friends. If you have me on your friends list, you could still see those photos on my facebook. I shared them because I was being true to myself and honest about who I am.

Something in me just clicked. I don’t need to prove anything to others. I don’t need to hurry up and lose weight. I don’t need to shove it in people’s face, especially the ones that have been looking down on me for gaining weight (or for anything at all). I decided to look up what I could do. I was gonna go and start the entire P90X and not just the yoga one. That was when I saw P90X3. 30 minutes a day. Cardio + strength training + flexibility training. Everything everyone ever needs.

I started doing my first set of P90X3, pacing myself. Tony Horton is always reminding us in each workout, “Do your best and forget the rest.” “Don’t let ego get in the way. Pick the right weights.” “I don’t care if you stopped, as long as you are here, pushing play, that’s all that matters.”

I would skip some workouts, because sometimes I get down on myself. Normally, this particular action would make me discouraged and quit all together. But I didn’t quit. I kept going. If I skipped one day, I worked twice as hard the next day, and so on. I just kept going. I didn’t care if I skipped one day, or even one week, or even two weeks.

Conclusion

So far I’ve lost 7 lbs. and 3 inches off of my waist. I was 135lbs before I got fat. When I got fat, I was 171lbs and now down to 164lbs. This is a huge accomplishment for me. Now, before you go freaking out, I am 5’6” and I’m not just doing cardio to lose fat. I am gaining a lot of muscle. This shows because I can do more than 10 push-ups each time, whereas I couldn’t even do a girl push-up last year. I have been eating a lot more and burning the calories a lot faster. Muscle weighs more than fat. I’m predicting that when I lose all my unnecessary fat, I will be around 145-150lbs due to my height, body type, and muscle weight. Not only am I strength training, I am cardio training and doing a lot of flexibility workouts. P90X3, y’all.

I’m not finished. After I finish another full set of P90X3, I will then proceed to doing outdoor activities. Because that’s what it’s supposed to help you do. You don’t just sit in front of a TV screen the rest of your life doing Tony’s workouts. It’s supposed to help you to hike better, bike better, and do a bunch of other sports better. I am planning to give my mountain bike a makeover when I’m done with my 2nd set of P90X3, and start riding trails. This is the first of second post about my fitness journey. I will be posting another update in a couple of months so if you would like to keep up with me, feel free to check out my posts. You can subscribe to this blog via email/feedburner, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. You can find the links by clicking on the plus sign below the logo on top of the page.

I will be publishing a separate post of a list of my fitness tips (diet, motivation, workout records, etc.) later this week or next. Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of before pics and current pics. Note: I still have fat mixed together with muscle, so I look big. It isn't until I get more toned that there will be a drastic difference. So when I get bloated, I look really bloated.

What is your workout routine? How hard was it for you to get to where you are physically? What's your back story? I'd love to hear them. Of you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t bite. And as always, thank you for reading.