My story began to change in April 2012 when I made the decision to start living a healthier lifestyle. I have played softball from the time I was about 5 until my freshman year in college. I still play for fun, but not in the competitive nature where I workout for several hours a day, 5 -6 days a week. Once I stopped playing softball in college, I began to put on a little bit of weight but it stayed around 10-15 lbs. Unfortunately, I moved to a new city to finish my college degree and began to go to bars and drink a lot more than I should have which only led to additional weight gain. I knew I was overweight, but I was in a cloud thinking that I didn't look "that bad". It was after I graduated college and began pursuing my goal of achieving my CPA license that my nutrition spiraled out of control. I ate fast food at least once a day, but more like twice a day because it was "faster" and "easier". I didn't have time to workout because all my free time was devoted to studying for the CPA exam. My initial 10-15 extra lbs had grown to about 40-50 extra lbs than when I stopped playing softball. I became depressed and had zero confidence in myself. Fortunately, one day in 2012 it clicked and I wanted to make a change. I wanted to start working out again and get back into shape. I wanted to be confident in myself and what I had to offer the world. I started getting back to the gym regularly and discovered Turbo Kickboxing and Bodypump classes and quickly fell in love with the combo. Over the next year I was able to lose about 35 lbs! I felt amazing and was so happy when people would stop me and say they could tell I had lost weight. I started getting my confidence back and re-discovered my love for the gym and working out. In 2013, I reach a personal goal and was able to buy my very first home. Over the next several months, I had several changes in my life pertaining to my job, working on my MBA degree, and gaining roommates at my home. I found myself becoming less strict on my nutrition and not making my workouts a priority. These decisions led to a downward spiral away from my health and fitness goals, which started putting me back into that depressed state of mind again. Over the last several months, it has been a struggle to get out of that funk and get back on the correct path to my fitness journey. I started thinking about how hard I had worked to get to where I was and how I could just let my goals go that quickly? Everyone has their own methods for improving their mood, and mine is through exercise. The endorphins I get when I workout are enough to lift my mood and make any day a better one. It may take people longer to figure out what their "thing" is, but I hope everyone finds it.
I've realized that as we get older our bodies are constantly changing and we have to learn how to adapt with it through the changes. We can't eat like we could in high school and expect to not have any consequences to our bodies. Our metabolism starts to slow down as we get older so we have to be a more conscious of what we're eating. Which has led me to where I am currently. Summer is right around the corner and I wanted a jump start to get myself back on track. I saw this picture and laughed, but I don't want to be this person anymore!
Here is a picture of what the food purchase looks like for week 1. I was pleasantly surprised that I had several of the items already at home and the grocery bill was not anywhere near what I thought it would be :)
You can do it!! Green juice shots & all :) LOL!
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