From Overweight to Athlete: My Journey from Sedentary to the Stage
For most of my life, I was that very sedentary, la
zy, typical person who was just sat back coasting through life, wondering where I was going to end up. All of my friends and family were in better shape than me and I had never been happy with myself. It had become apparent to me that I was considered in the “fat” range early in my life while being made fun of at school from as early as I can remember, right up through college. I was made fun of almost daily on the bus rides to school, by random people passing by me in the hallways. In the classroom I was embarrassed whenever the discussion turned into health and nutrition, thinking that everyone was looking and relating all this information to me. These feelings lasted with me even up through college I was embarrassed about how I looked. I felt like I wasn’t worth anyone’s time or even space because I felt unattractive.
After college, I decided knew something needed to change, however I was afraid to set a food inside a gym thinking people were going to wonder what I was doing, or watch me not being able to operate the machines correctly. Until one day I decided, enough was enough. Even if I just lost a few pounds I would be happy. After waiting for people who said that they would go to the gym with me and never went, or went ahead without me, I realized that the only person that is going to be able to change my life is me.
After Christmas 2008, I decided my resolution would be to rebuild my life, no matter what it took. It was either now or never. I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to do it, but I knew I didn’t want to feel the same way, another new year from then. I opened the doors at the Big Vanilla Athletic Club and hopped on a treadmill for the first time.
I started slowly, just a light jog, maybe 3.5mph (which is now nothing!), and managed to increase my speed day by day. I continuously went back again and again, four to five days a week. Eventually got onto the stationary bike, then the elliptical, and pushed myself. As I saw the numbers on the scale dropping, it kept me motivated to keep going and going. Eventually I moved and swapped gyms, but even after then, I hit the ground running at my new gym as soon as I was able to find one, until eventually I hit a plateau I couldn’t get past.. That is when I knew I wanted professional help and signed up to work with one of the gym trainers.
I knew I wanted help from a personal trainer when I walked in so I immediately signed up, with the notion to get just introduced to the machines and learn how to use them. Initially I had been way to afriad to hit the weight floor by myself with all the hardcore guys walking around, but with a trainer by my side, I felt comfortable.
As soon as I began weight training, I immediately broke through my plateau. I was helped with my eating habits and exposed to a variety of things I could do. For some reason, I got way more satisfaction from the burn, versus doing cardio. I even worked out harder on my own than with my trainer! She had to keep telling me to back off a bit and not wear myself out before working out with her! It was my drive to prove something to everyone who had ever hurt me or called me names growing up, that gave me the motivation and fire to keep going and workout harder.
Everything seemed to 
be going great towards the end of 2009. I was just about at my goal weight, still going routinely to the gym, and had even developed a love for running. At this time I was running up to 7mph! However, two days after Christmas, I suffered a huge break to my tibia and fibula after slipping on ice, and was admitted to the hospital for two days, where I received a tibial nail and screws.
As soon as I hit the ground, the first thoughts where “When will I be able to run again?”, “Oh my god, if I can’t workout, I am going to get fat!”, etc. For the most part, I was upset and in shock because I knew immediately, I had done something detrimental and would be out of my routine for a while.
I was on crutches, post surgery, for about four to five months up until May 2009, where even after I had gotten off of crutches, I had developed depression, bad eating habits, which eventually led to binge eating later in the year, and was lost as to where I was and why I was even working out like I was. Learning to walk again was one of the most painful things I ever had to endure, next to the initial break. There were various different stages of pain as I was re-learning to walk again, but I knew I had to endure it, or it would not ever return to functioning normal.
Even though I was back at the gym, I couldn’t remember why I was working out like I was, as I didn’t have my drive like before since I couldn’t do anything that intense. But day-by-day, I was able to get back into some cardio and eventually, and about four to five months later, I was jogging again. I saw a glimmer of hope, that things would eventually be somewhat normal. There was a ridiculous amount of pain, and even now, a lot of discomfort when doing any physically activity that involves my left leg, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
Just after Christmas 2010, I suffered a major binging episode. For the first time, the thought of wanting to throw everything up to make myself feel better came to my head. That is when I realized I needed professional help with my diet. I had also developed a habit of needing to burn off everything I ate as soon as I ate it. I was afraid to eat anymore than 30-40g carbs in a day, and sleeping with food in my stomach. I would even do abs and pushups right before bed so that I felt hungry, and therefore, felt safe. In January 2011, I hired nutritionist Danielle Omar, who resides in the D.C. area who set me straight on a “normal” athletic adult eating diet. She got me eating six times a day, and showed me how to put my meals together. But it still wasn’t enough. I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to look like my idols on websites such as simplyshredded.com and bodybuilding.com.
I began looking at athlete’s diet plans and noticing a pattern in most of their diets. There were particular foods that I would see used over and over again, and also saw that everything was measured. I also noticed that most of these people had competed in bodybuilding shows and knew that, even though I had no interest in competing at the time, I wanted to have that physique. I stumbled upon picture of a fitness model, Vanessa Tibb, with the phrase, “Train insane or remain the same” written at the bottom, and that was all it took for me to make me realize, that I need to change my routine around, or this was not going to last.
I did some research on competition trainers around my area and I ha
ve been working one on one with Stephanie and Doug Miller in Arlington, Virginia, where they have revamped my entire routine to involve more weight training and little cardio as I need to build lean muscle. It was extremely scary at first, handing over my whole diet and routine to someone I didn’t know, but I came to trust them and also come to love a whole new world of fitness. They introduced me to a whole new world of fitness and gave me a new goal.I have just finished competing in my first two bodybuilding shows, in the “Figure” divisions, in one NPC show and one OCB show, as well as various photoshoots to help build my portfolio.
I could never thank them enough for what they have done. They have saved me essentially from myself. My obsession with cardio, my fear of food, and every eating disorder I had developed, have been fixed with the diets that they write for me. It can be very strict sometimes, especially during contest preparation, but I couldn’t imagine another life. It’s hard to stay prepared all the time, have everything cooked and packed if I plan to be away for some time, but I love it and wouldn’t go back to the way I was eating ever. I love what I eat and even developed a love for cooking. I am looking forward to continuing to work with them and help me prepare for my next shows after I take some time to build up some more muscle, and eventually want to make my newly found passion my career as a fitness instructor as well open my own gym. I want to help others now because I know how it feels to suffer and be unhappy and feel like you don’t deserve to be around others, so I want to motivate others and make them know that they can do it, and that anyone can change their life for the better. I have also started a facebook athlete page at http://www.facebook.com/relentless-will for myself to help inspire others and so that they can follow me on my fitness journey as I continue to grow into the industry.
Subscribe to RxMuscle on Youtube
