The Weight Loss Roller Coaster

I was always a chunky child. I always found comfort in eating. Touching, tasting and smelling food was a pleasure that I was obsessed over. I specifically remember a time in my childhood when I nearly devoured nearly an entire loaf of bread myself in a single sitting. I remember feeling so good as I ate each piece because it seemed to fill some sort of hole in my body that I was missing. But this wasn't the only incident I encountered in my young life. I recall binging on bags of candy, eating multiple servings of desserts, and drinking soda like it was water.

As I progressed through my early teens, I stopped playing outside as much and was more content with watching television, playing video games, or surfing the web. So my weight consequently rose with my poor eating habits. Although I may have enjoyed living like that at that time, I had no idea how negatively it was affecting my health. However, I did have concerns with what it made me look like.

When you're a teenager, looks seem to mean everything. It could determine whether you had a lot of friends, were invited to parties, and had a significant other. When I was 15, I desperately wanted to be popular and loved. I just felt that my looks got into the way.

Emotional eating was a vicious cycle for me. You eat, you feel bad about being overweight, so you eat again to feel better. Repeat. I felt that I literally had no control.

It wasn't until I was 15 that something happened within my body which ended my binge eating streak. I was never given an official diagnosis, but for 2 years, I was extremely ill. Every morning, I would wake up and have terrible stomach pains that would send me heaving over the toliet, even if I had nothing in my stomach. I would refuse most of my meals because if I ate, I would normally throw it back up. So my relationship with food turned from obsession to rejection.

After losing 30+ pounds, that's when I started to obsess with my weight. I developed disordered eating. I would starve myself by trying to eat below 1000 calories every day and lost even more weight, stooping to an all-time low of 95 pounds on my 5'7" frame. I was weak, unhappy, and at a breaking point in my life! Why couldn't I just be like everyone else?!

It wasn't until my boyfriend of 2 years was killed in a car accident that I woke up! Our last argument that very day was centered around my eating disorder. Though we never left each other that day on a bad note, I will always regret that my obsessive behavior with food and weight affected our relationship.

I started making an effort towards eating better and working out.

It was around that time that I was first introduced to Beachbody. I tried a few of their workouts here and there (my very first was Hip Hop Abs!), but would give up too early. I was impatient, plan and simple. That's what made the programs unsuccessful. It was me, not the workout. I would simply shrug it off, making excuses that I didn't get results I wanted because it was related to my genetics or that I was too busy.

Somehow, I did work up the patience and became a runner. After devoting so much time to training, it finally clicked! I never started off running marathons. I was barely able to run for more than a minute straight when I first started. In fact, it took MONTHS before I was even able to run a 5k within 30 minutes. Then, it took a couple of years to get to the point where I took on marathons.

Obviously, my success did not happen overnight. I had to work years for it. Seeing as though I was able to put in the time and effort to train both my body and mind to run distance, I could invest a couple of months to gain the muscle that running couldn't offer. Sure, I was extremely busy being a full-time employee and dedicating hours to running, but I had to convince myself that I had the time to invest in achieving my personal goals. I wasn't going to let time rob me of my dreams. In fact, I wanted to stop dreaming about my goal body and just work my ass off for it!

I took on P90X3 because it suites me and my schedule. I can squeeze in a 30 minute workout and still make it to work on time and get my runs in. Though I am just finishing through Phase One of P90X3, I have already noticed small transformations in my body. And it's just that simple. Stop making excuses and JUST DO IT. Be consistent and you will carve out the body you have dreamed of!

As a user of the Beachbody programs, I thought that taking on a position as a coach would not only help me hold myself accountable, but help motivate others to strive to reach their goals as well. Having a support group is extremely motivating and has been one of the reasons I have been able to stick to P90X3 for this long! I want to be able to help someone get through the tough times by showing them that "Hey, I did it and this is how far I've come!"

If I can work through being overweight and underweight to becoming fit and healthy, so can you!!



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