How I Started My Fitness Journey
What really sprung my fitness journey? Despite being an athlete my whole life when I quit volleyball in college I had no idea how to work out one my own. I was always told what to do, how many reps, etc. so I basically needed to learn how to work out again! I also had all these misconceptions in my head like heavy weights will make me bulky, hours of cardio is the way to go – woof!! I coasted through college with these thoughts and struggled hard because I was just a YOYO with no plan or goals!
It wasn’t until post grad that I had a realization about health and fitness. Jumping from one fad diet to the next I was over it! I was at work one day getting lunch with a coworker when she started telling me how her sister was doing this program called Kayla Itsines BBG and seeing amazing results. I seriously couldn’t believe her before/after photos and naturally started to scroll the gram and discovered so many transformation pics I was in AWE. I knew I needed to do this.
In April of 2015 I had a few weeks in between starting a new job so it was either watch cooking shows all day or go to the gym. I’ll never forget my first day walking into the gym – it felt foreign to me. As someone who was once so familiar with working out/weights, etc I had no clue what I was doing and was embarrassed what people would think of me. “Am I doing this right, do I look awkward, ok pretend you know what you’re doing.” All common thoughts in my head lol. I found this little corner room, which soon became my second home. The workouts were SO hard for me … like seriously though I could barely do 10 burpees without getting winded. I told myself though no matter what I was going to complete the 12 weeks!
I knew to stay accountable I had to do what the other girls were doing and take pictures – how else would I know if I was progressing or not? I’ll never forget taking that first selfie in the mirror and feeling like failure. How did I get here? I was my largest weighing in around 175lbs. Taking pictures was new for me – I never did it before because I always concentrated on what the scale said but this time around I promised myself I would take on a #screwthescale mentality. This was all so new to me — a completely different way of thinking and working out. I followed the program to a T which consisted of circuits 4x a week, cardio 3-4x a week, and HIIT sprints 1-2 times a week. Each week I became stronger and stronger and slowly became addicted to the way I felt. Obviously my results didn’t come over night, but with the progress pics I was able to see myself change — but don’t forget this wasn’t after one week — it took about 6-12+ weeks for my body to really start to see results! There’s so much more to the story, which I will totally dive deeper into discussing diet, cardio, weights, motivation all that good stuff, but wanted to give you insight to how I truly started! I know how easy it is to want a quick fix and want results ASAP, but I promise with consistency, persistency, and the right attitude you can accomplish anything!