My Fitness Journey – The Very Beginning

I live a pretty active lifestyle.   I love to run, I go to the gym, I bike, yoga, take bootcamp and body pump classes, golf, play racquet ball.  I like to try anything that keeps me moving.  But it was not always that way with me. Growing up, I did what was minimally required  – nothing more. In fact, as a little girl, I thought my older brother was crazy for running track in high school. Also at that time, my father would go for runs and I remember him running in the Belmar 5 mile run. Why on earth would you voluntarily run for anything I thought?

During college, I put on the freshman 15 and what I call the sophomore 10 from midnight snacks, and just eating what I wanted. Although I gained weight, I never thought of myself as overweight at 5’4″ and 145 pounds.  I could still shop in “regular” stores and I continued to go out and enjoy myself.  I loved school and life was good.

After college, I settled into work life.  During the week, I sat behind a desk all day and nights were spent on the couch watching TV after a pasta dinner. (Pasta was the only thing I knew how to make). A couple of nights during the week or on the weekends I would go out for dinner and drinks with friends.  I was not the girl who worked out at all.  In fact it was the furthest thing from my mind.

Approaching my late 20s and early 30s, I still hovered around 145.  I noticed that I was always feeling a bit sluggish.  Rarely I felt energized and that was usually after a long nap.  (On a side note, I have always napped and still do when I can).  My sedentary lifestyle had really taken hold of me.  I remember going to the doctor to get a physical to see why I was feeling tired all the time.  Everything had checked out within normal ranges.  But, there was one thing she had written in my chart that shook me and changed everything.  I saw the word – obese!!

ME obese!  That can’t be right! To this day, I still take issue with that classification for someone who is 5’4″ and 145 pounds.  Overweight maybe, obese no.  Yes, I was offended, but I knew that I needed to start making some changes.  I was in my late 20s and did not want to go down the weight gain path that could lead to other health related concerns.  I needed to make a change.  It was the very beginning of my fitness journey!  A journey that continues over 15 years later and has enabled me to keep off 20-25 pounds!