Not all roads lead to rome, but if you're lucky...

They can lead you somewhere even better. I decided today will be a post of my fitness (or not so fit-ness) journey. It's been a long road and it's nowhere near over yet! Thank goodness. Nutrition and fitness kind of saved me in a way. It allowed me to see my true passion in life and taught me a better lifestyle. My junior year in high school landed me into multiple doctors visits with an auto immune disorder. Unfortunately its much easier to just say you have an auto immune disorder than actually figuring out you have one. It was a long six months but finally we figured it out, and so it began. I changed my lifestyle. My habits. My diet. Everything. It was hard, depressing at times. Heck, I still have my moments where I feel like I'm hitting bottom. But this lifestyle is one I wouldn't trade for any other in the world. Anyhow, below is a little timeline of my journey.. :)

Junior year when everything was pretty normal. Ate what I wanted, no fitness agenda, basically just did my thing and was happy.

And so begins the weight gain after junior year.. my diet was changed at this point and I was back and forth on steroids for inflammation. I always felt deprived. You try telling a teenager she can't have pizza, burgers, or pasta anymore and see what happens. Or keep reading and I can show you.

At this point I realized the change taking place and my weight gain so I then went into crash diet mode through my senior year. I lost 15-20 pounds that year. (none of which stayed off).

I absolutely loathe the way I look in the pictures above. I hate what my mindset was at this point in my life. I look weak, scrawny,  and I sure as hell wasn't happy.

 

Following graduation I got my mind in a healthier place and started to gain some necessary weight back.

Here I was just beginning the process of a break up. I channeled my energy to Zumba. Zumba was a life saver. I started doing pilates too. I loved them both and my body did too. I finally had everything right how I'd been wanting it, my happy medium. Then I moved out. Began drinking more often. The drinking led to snacking, you know how it goes. The pounds started piling back on.

 

Needless to say I was becoming fat and unhappy -__-

 





I finally met this gem and things have never been the same :) This is when I really started turning things around. Trading the booze for weights, paying closer attention to what I was putting in my body and stepping up the intensity of my cardio.

 

 



The most recent picture above is the one on the left (approx. 2 months ago). The one on the right is from November of last year. I've still been making progress since then so stay tuned for those pics. I've got to keep you wondering a little bit about what's changed in the past month! ;p

 



Through this whole time (high school days until now) I was still going to the gym 2-3 times a week. Goes to show that weight loss is 70% diet, 30% exercise and 100% dedication.