My Fitness Journey Begins:

My weight has always been a bit of an issue. I will go through periods of eating well and hitting the gym only to fall back into bad habits and blame it on work, lack of time, or stress. In 2015, I got back into the grove of healthy eating and exercise in order to be healthy enough to start a family. Later that fall, I became pregnant and 9 months of terrible nausea and “all day sickness” set in. By the time that my daughter was born in the summer of 2016, I had only gained 8 lbs. as shown by the scale at my 1 week post-partum checkup. Flash forward to 9 months of c-section recovery, poor eating habits and exhaustion (while working and attending graduate classes) and I ballooned to 246 lbs.

TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY SIX POUNDS!!! At least that’s how I felt the scale screamed it to me. There was no longer time to “recover” and “adjust” to motherhood. I started thinking about what kind of example I wanted to set for my daughter and what kind of mother I wanted to be. It was time to change and fast. However, I wanted lasting change, I wanted to focus on fitness first and not become obsessed with micro managing food.

It was around this time that I ran across a picture on Facebook of the amazing Adrienne Osuna. The picture showed her at 180lbs and 182lbs and she was remarkably different. How can someone become visibly slimmer and weight the exact same amount? This is something known as body recomposition (I will explain more about it in the post “What is Body Recomposition”). I wanted to do that…turn fat into muscle! I thought if I could figure out how to do that, then my problem will be solved (oh how naïve).

The question was where to start. I had done the gym route many times, and while I can be dedicated to go, is spending 45 minutes on an elliptical or treadmill the only option? I have done the “push play” on workout dvd’s route before and I know I’m not disciplined enough to do it. That leaves personal training, or in my case semi-private training.

I invested in myself. I did research, I knew I could not afford the price of personal trainers at my gym, and I took a gamble. I found a trainer who had just set up and started his own studio last fall. I met with the trainer and went all in (don’t worry there will be a post coming soon on how I chose my trainer). I work out after work most days for 45-1 hour. I am now 4 months in and my progress surprised even me.

**Please note, this is just a brief introduction. More posts will be coming soon describing more.**