About

I am a college student, wife, and a mommy to 2 dogs and 2 cats! I attend Virginia Commonwealth University (GO RAMS!) and majoring in Kinesiology and Health Sciences with a concentration in Exercise Science. I will graduate in December and hopefully be accepted into the Accelerated Nursing Program and begin that program in the Summer.

Let’s start by talking about how it all began for me and my interest in exercise and a healthy lifestyle! I got married in July 2010 and I was at my heaviest weight then — 230 lbs! Woah! I swam competitively when I was in middle and high school and was at most 125 lbs! Problem with swimming is that my metabolism was so fast I could eat pretty much anything I wanted and not gain an ounce. I picked up some pretty bad eating habits and when I stopped swimming once I started college, I didn’t change those eating habits. So I quickly began to put weight on because I was eating 2-3 times more than I was suppose to be eating!

I realized I needed to change and I needed to do it fast! I was headed the wrong direction and with my family history I needed to “get it together”!

My weight loss journey started in 2011. My hubby and I first started at American Family Fitness with a personal trainer because neither of us had any idea where to even start or how to approach a workout program. We both had participated in organized sports in high school where our workouts were planned for us. After being with the trainer for a few months we decided to be on our own, but quickly fell off the wagon. After leaving AMFAM and our trainer, I went backwards from the progress I made and knew I needed to get back on track.

One afternoon I spent some time on the internet looking for “female only” workout studios because I was very much intimidated by the gym scene. I found a local kickboxing studio that was women only and I started there 3 nights a week! I fell in love with the classes and started to see quick results from my hard work. I started tracking my food that I ate using MyFitness Pal and that helped to keep me accountable as well as increased my water intake. I quickly lost 30 pounds kickboxing but then found myself at a plateau at 200 lbs I couldn’t seem to get past! I decided to try and find some other classes to mix things up. I started attending classes at another group exercise studio where they do Barre, Piloxing, Piloxing Knockout, Kickboxing, Butts&Guts, and others. I take anywhere from 1-2 classes per day at least 5 days a week at this studio. Once I started to change things up, the weight started to come off again! I was so excited! I had beaten the plateau and I was seeing results from all my hard work once again!

During this transition from the kickboxing studio to the other group exercise studio, we as a family were preparing for my brother’s wedding! Weddings and parties are a great motivational tool to work your buns off during your workouts to look fantastic and feel fantastic at this big event! My mom and I started to work really hard at all of our classes and watching what we put in our mouths because we had a timeline for this wedding and we had a goal that we wanted to be at! By the time my brother’s wedding came I was 160 lbs (that’s a total loss of 70 pounds!) I couldn’t believe it! I was proud of my accomplishment, but I knew that I had other aspects I needed to work on!

I decided to set a new goal for myself that was not weight related! I decided I was going to pick up a new healthy habit and so I started running! When I was in middle school, I tried to be apart of the track team, but I have a little issue with gravity and being graceful. I ended up falling a few times with stitches in both my knees during middle school and my mom decided then, I probably shouldn’t be allowed to do any type of land sport… and so started my love of competitive swimming! Thinking back to my running experiences, I couldn’t help but get a little discouraged — But I tried it out any ways and fell in LOVE with running. It gives me an opportunity to be by myself, with some good music playing, and just getting lost in thought. I was running 5+ days a week on top of all my other workout classes and loving life! I quickly started seeing changes in myself and my drive for wanting to stay physically active! I ran my first half marathon in March 2015 and it was the best experience of my life that I came home from that weekend signed up for the same race again and then signed up for the local half marathon that will happen in November! It was so motivating to not only run the half but complete it with a PR of 2 hours and 10 minutes! I had a goal and a stuck with it and finished it out!

I hit another plateau not too long ago and was stuck at 150 lbs for some time. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was. I hadn’t changed anything… I was still working out with my group exercise classes, still running, still watching everything I ate, but still nothing was happening! I once again decided to change things up and started adding in home DVD workouts from Beachbody. I bought the Les Mills Body Combat DVDs and LOVE getting in my morning workout with Dan and Rach! I even added Shakeology to my morning routine because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I rarely ate breakfast! I drink a chocolate shakeo every morning and about 2 weeks into starting those 2 things the weight started to come off again!

My goal is to reach out to others who struggle with weight and exercise. Inspire them to push past the challenges and keep going! Find new things to mix up your workout and just keep pushing hard! I hope that with my story it will inspire others to share their story. Together we can all be better!

Here is a little collage of my weight journey!