A kinder relationship with your active lifestyle
I first started my fitness journey way back in Fall of 2012. Since then, there have been many ups, downs and everything in between. Truth be told, I struggle immensely to write about myself but as someone who likes a challenge I look at this as a way to “put myself out there”.
As a child, I never really thought much about my weight. It wasn’t something I was even consciously aware of. I was under 100lbs at 10 years old due to extreme life circumstances but being ignorant of my own body changed when I hit my teens. Suddenly, I was eating anything and everything. I didn’t see a problem with what I was eating and how I was living. What I didn’t realize was the more I ate and neglected my body, the more down on myself I felt. The more I had negative thoughts of self doubt and negativity creeping into my life and before I knew it I truly hated myself.
Fast forward a bit to my first semester of college. I was on academic probation, feeling trapped in a major that I didn’t like and more down on myself than ever. One day I decided to just go to the campus gym for the hell of it. I also started counting calories in My Fitness Pal. I managed to lose 10lbs in a month to my suprise. As someone who was a newbie at the gym I didn’t know where to start so I strictly did cardio. From there, I went into strength training and found myself a personal trainer. I made unbelievable gains and suprised myself with how much I can deadlift.
Sadly, I wish I could say that I stuck with it and that I am in “the best shape of my life” but that isn’t how life works. Things happen, circumstances change and sometimes fitness gets put on the back burner, and that is okay. I am at a point in my life where I am pretty darn ok with my body. Do i love it? Far from it. Do I punish myself for the choices I make regarding food & my nutrition? Not nearly as much as I used to. I count that as a major victory. My hope for not only myself, but others as well is to get to a place of not only accepting their body. But developing a kinder relationship to fitness, exercise and nutrition as a whole. It isn’t easy and I struggle with it everyday but they say it’s all about the journey and not the destination.
