My Fitness Journey: 2013-2014

[Picture Credit Tumblr]

            Hey everyone, not many of you know this since I don't do that many fashion posts but over the past couple years I have struggled with my weight. I realized I was getting to a bad point with my weight when I got back pictures from when I went to Florida one summer. I saw them and couldn't believe how heavy I had gotten, so at first I decided that it was fine because the guy I was with accepted me as I was. After a while I realized that my self esteem had reached an all time low, and that is when I made the decision that it doesn't matter if a guy likes my body if I do not like it myself. So in March of 2013 I started my journey to lose weight and become a more fit and healthy person. 

   Now I am going to throw some numbers your way, I am only 5'2 and the day I started to work on bettering myself I weighed 135 pounds. I know that doesn't seem like much but I have a small frame so BMI (which I know is not accurate in all cases) put me in the overweight range. So I began my journey into getting fit by starting with exercise. Here comes the before picture so brace yourselves..

      As you can see I was not in the best shape of my life in the picture above, I had been doing zero exercise and relying on my metabolism which quite obviously slowed down without me noticing. I was 19 in the picture above and only two years before that I only weighed about 95 pounds. So that means I packed on 40 pounds within two years and yes I was underweight before but I had always had issues putting on weight. I think that is why I hadn't realized how much I had put on since I never had an issue with it before.
    Now to get to what I was doing to work out, I was doing cardio 3 days a week and doing some core exercises. Doing that did help but only to a point, I was still eating the way I had before so I only dropped 16 pounds at that point. I thought I was doing great until I realized that I wanted more then to be just an average body size. I wanted to be able to wear what ever type of clothing I wanted and look awesome in them so that is when I decided to start eating cleaner.

    Above is a picture of the progress I made with just working out, which I admit I did make a lot of progress in that time period. In the far left I weighed 135, the middle I weighed 125 and the left I weighed 120. The pictures where I am to the side I weighed 130 in the first, 127 in the second and 125 in the third. After I started eating clean about 50% of the time I did notice that I dropped more weight.

      

 This is after I started eating cleaner I was also working out 5 days a week instead of just 3. The first is my start weight 135, the middle I was 119 and the last I am 115. After hitting 115 I plateaued at that weight for about three months until I decided that enough was enough and I started eating clean 90% of the week and only ate "cheat foods" on the weekends. Only if I felt like it though if I wanted to still eat healthy I would but if I also wanted fried chicken one weekend I didn't restrict myself. That is one dangerous thing that can ruin your fitness journey is restriction, make sure you always have a day or two where you can eat the things you love guilt free. 

       The pictures above is where I decided to start eating clean 5 days a week. I also upped my workout to 6 days a week and made it more intense. In the picture to the left I weighed 119 and the picture to the right I weighed 115. The next to pictures I'm going to show you are from this week, it has been three months since I took my last picture weighing in at 115.

     In this picture above I weigh 106 which is an awesome weighed for my height. I have never felt healthier or more proud of how my body looks. This fitness journey has been definitely life changing, it has given me more confidence and has made me an all around happier person. So from here on out I have decided to go back to blogging and write about what I love, Fashion! If any of you are on their fitness journey as well I would love to hear about how you are going about it. Also if you have any questions feel free to ask!   Now for the final before and after......(drum roll please)

Please excuse my terrible cropping skills but here is the "final" result. First picture 135 and second 106, that is 29 pounds that I no longer have on my body. My fitness journey is far from over I would like to be more toned and just healthier in general but I am so happy with how far I have come so far!

Disclaimer:

Please do not use my progress photographs without my permission, I have worked hard for my body to look as it does so please don't take them and claim that they are you. I also would like to say that I believe every women is beautiful curvy or small and I just decided that I wanted a healthier lifestyle. Last thing is that I only believe in weight loss in a healthy manner, that means exercise and eating clean. I don't believe in any of those crash diets or weight loss pills, I think most everyone can do it naturally and that it takes time and patience.