Losing Weight is Hard, Yet So is Being Overweight

Written by: Bianca Rios, TSF Office Manager (IG: @biancarios626)

  Losing weight is hard yet so is being overweight. I came to a point in my life where I had no choice but to lose weight. My weight took over my life and made me lose who I was. With this being said it was time to find myself again. How exactly did I do that? A lot of hard work and dedication! Mentally I had to prepare myself to take on this journey. Not only is it a lot of physical work but mental as well. Let me first admit that I had no idea what I was doing or getting myself into when I started this journey. I had no clue what to do in the gym or what to eat. I am an outgoing kinda gal and so I was up for the challenge.

First day in the gym and the elliptical machine had my name written all over it. It was easy to use and I mean how could you go wrong? Want to know the best part about it? At my gym they had a private movie room so it was dark and no one could see me working out. I guess you can say that I was really embarrassed about the way I looked. I didn’t want to be seen, especially since everywhere you look in the gym there are mirrors chasing you. For those of you who are just starting off and are nervous about going into the gym, my best advice is to go for it! Focus on what you need to accomplish and you will get there. That is a promise!

   When it came to eating clean I never thought one could consume so much chicken and eggs. Needless to say my menu options were slim pickings. They were slim not because I was told to but because that’s that I thought I needed to do to lose the weight. My food was so bland and I got tired of it very quickly. However when I started to see results nothing else mattered. Chicken, eggs, brown rice, veggies were all I needed because whatever I was doing it was working.
   However, shortly into my journey I came to my first plateau. The chicken and elliptical machine just weren’t cutting it anymore. So I invested in a trainer so he could help me with learning new things and help me get through this stage in my journey. He showed me a whole new world. The world of weightlifting. For me I was nervous about working out on a machine in a dark room, but now he was making me go on the floor with the guys and girls who knew exactly what they were doing. At that point I was so nervous and didn’t know what to think. I am one for a challenge but this was a big step for me.

   As more time went on, weightlifting started to feel amazing and it became my stress reliever. I started to feel like I belonged in the gym and I was so proud of that. My trainer also encouraged me to try a new menu style. He gave me a lot more to choose from and the options were and still are endless. If it’s one thing I learned throughout this journey it’s that there is always something new you can learn each and every day through fitness and nutrition, the options are limitless!

   Now let’s fast forward a little more into the present and where I am today. In two and a half years I have lost 114 pounds and couldn’t be any happier with my results and how far I’ve come. I am the healthiest I’ve ever been and I feel amazing. The gym is not only my stress reliever but it has become such a huge part of my life. To get to where I am today there was no magic pill, it didn’t happen overnight and for me surgery was not an option. This weight loss journey has been full of ups and downs but has been the best part of my life thus far. The finish line I hoped to cross one day does not exist and that was important for me to understand and to this day I have to remind myself that this is a lifestyle not a diet. I am now thirty pounds away from my overall goal but will forever be apart of this lifestyle I have created for myself.