If It Doesn't Suck, You're Not Doing It Right.

Just got a belated birthday pedicure, and was reading the "half their size" issue of people while my nails dried. That's gonna be me, y'all. How? Because I have a great support system. Besides my living-inspiration-success-story better half, I have the amazing staff at my gym. So if God hasn't sent you the answer to all your prayers, I would suggest a personal trainer. aka go out and answer them yourself. Lol

I hope nobody from Sallie Mae reads this, because I'm not gonna lie, training can get pricey. Not like, car payment pricey, but more than I thought I'd be spending. If you think about it though, it's a lot less than you'd be paying for diabetes meds and heart surgery later, so preventative medicine it is! Lol besides Sallie Mae, I'd rather be around to pay you back.

Anyway, I've been keeping this all generic because the specifics haven't been important, it's the overall mindset and determination that has been the key to my success this far. But I have to tell you about the three greatest trainers of all time: Carlos, Nichole, and Josh. Carlos is the head trainer, the one in charge of your initial assessment and keeps tabs of your program and such. So we sat down and set initial goals, long and short. I told him honestly, I would be happy if I was under x amount on the scale. "that's all?" ...that's all?! It's like almost a 90 lb loss from where I started!! I was so taken aback I was like "well yeah sure it'd be great to be the healthy weight for my height. What is that like 125?" to me, aiming for 125 was like aiming for the moon. This man was obviously crazy. He explained that with a lot of hard work on my part, we could get there in about 14 months. So I decided he must know what he's talking about, he's the one in charge and he obviously LOOKS like he knows how to make people look good. I'll smile and nod and see what else he had to say.

After my initial fitness assessment I was slightly more optimistic. I was out of shape, obviously, but I wasn't as bad off as most people at my body fat percentage. We took my starting measurements and it was hard to look at those numbers, knowing that they were still so high even after my losses thus far. But I was DOING something about it. I hate not being able to do anything, and this was the apex of doing something. Lol. I trained with a couple trainers and right away really liked Nichole. She reminded me of half a dozen of my old teammates in different ways and she was just good! Like when you hear music you're unfamiliar with and you're like "I don't really get it but I know that person is talented". Haha. Our sessions were great, and I felt both great and like death afterwards. Of course she was so good it was hard to get a time with her when my work schedule was so nuts. So I was going to try some different ones. On Halloween I was setting up some more appointments and one of the trainers was running around being crazy and I thought to myself "how fun would it be to train with that guy?"

Turns out, fun but awful. Lol. My first session with Josh I told him I wanted to work out my legs. I had been doing the weights by myself but I felt like I needed a pro to tell me what to do. He asked if I wanted to do "chill legs or hard legs". Well, hard, of course. He said "oookay" In that way that means you're going to regret the decision you just made. Oh, but I did. Haha ok not really, but he had me doing "weightless legs" which is code for "all of those awful things you had to do at soccer practice as punishment". I was both pissed off and deeply impressed. Haha. It's funny how so much about getting in shape can have you feeling 2 things at once. I like to think of it as "old me" and "new me". Old me was completely pissed and wanted to punch this jerk in the face. New me was stoked and wanted to make him my new best friend. I settled for trying not to whine and asking for his next available appt time. Haha

These 3 have been instrumental to my success for the last 4ish months. They push me when I don't think I've got anything left and I prove to both of us that I can do it. Nichole is my guru on weights and kicking my butt in a small group setting; Josh is the master of making me hate my life and thank him for it. And Carlos is the best cheerleader any fat girl could ask for.

My biggest epiphany yet was after my first round of measurements in December. I exceeded my expectations and those 3 seemed genuinely surprised and proud of how much I had lost. On the scale I had only lost 6 lbs, but really it was 10 lbs of fat and 22 inches. My hard work had me visably smaller. Shortly after that I had the realization that I never had to be that size again. Everyday for the foreseeable future I could wake up and look in the mirror and think "I will never be this big again". Like, think about that for a second. All my life I've been the fat kid and now I could truthfully, and with faith say "never again". This was like the most mind-blowing thing to me. I'm not saving my fat pants "just in case", I'm throwing them out because there is no going back.