From Sad and Sick to Confident and Proud – A Fitness Transformation!
I think you can probably fi
nd some version of my story being played out in every high school across the country. A young girl trying to fit in, trying to find a place she belongs. I think back to the song by Martina McBride, “high school can be so rough, can be so mean.” She hit the nail on the head with that one. Every high school girl wants to fit in, to have lots of friends, get invited to all the parties, and to be liked by the popular group. When they are not, for whatever reason, they are faced with a lot of heartache.
I come from a small town where we all know each other. Most of us went to the same elementary, middle and high school together. I was a competitive all-star cheerleader through high school as were a lot of the girls from my school. We were all on different local teams so there was always that little bit of rivalry going on. Most of those girls cheered high school as well.
When I was in 10th grade I wanted to join the school team. I went to the meeting with my mom and as soon as I walked in the door, the whispering and pointing started. I sat for a couple of minutes and when it didn't stop my mom looked at me and said do you really want to join this squad? I looked around the room at what was going on and I said no and we walked out. I don't know why they were whispering about me, I just know how it made me feel and it was the reason I never tried out for the team.
I was really excited when I first got to high school. We were all going to the parties, school dances, football games, the beach, shopping, I was having a great time, but by 10th grade things started changing. I noticed I wasn't getting invited to the parties as much anymore, or I would hear the girls got together for something but I wasn't included. They just started leaving me out.
Don't get me wrong, I still had friends, but it wasn't that big group I started out with. These girls who started off as my friends would now walk through the halls and not give me the time of day, they would block my locker so I couldn't get to it, talk about parties they were going to and not invite me, whisper when I was walking in the hall, point at me and laugh, just mean girl stuff.
It was the summer before I started my junior year and I was feeling pretty bad. I would hear about the parties and see the girls at the mall together and just wonder why they didn't want me around. Some people told me these girls were just jealous of me because I was pretty and a lot of the boys liked me so I was too m
uch competition for them if I was around. I don't know if that was true or not, but I didn't believe it.
I was never a skinny kid; I was always built like an athlete, so I started to think it was the way I looked. I would hear the girls say I was fat when I walked by, or call me thunder thighs so in my mind it was the way I looked.
School started in August and by September I was already wishing the year was over. To me it all still came back to how I looked. I thought if I looked skinnier maybe I wouldn't be left out and they would include me in their group again. So I decided to stop eating. Yes, I stopped eating. No one noticed at first. I would get food and just pick at it. My mom didn't even notice, that is until I became really sick and ended up in the hospital. It was about 6 weeks into the non-eating and I was having terrible stomach pains.
We went to the ER and when the nurse put me on the scale and said how much I weighed; my mom just turned and looked at me with such a look of shock on her face. I had lost about 25 pounds in 4 weeks. My mom knew exactly what I did. They treated me with some medicine and sent me to a gastro doctor to be treated for the stomach pains.
The kids at school noticed that I had lost weight too, now instead of the fat jokes I was getting the anorexic ones. I couldn't win. Even the girls who were still my friends were now making fun of me as well. Instead of reaching out to me and supporting me they too pushed me away and thought I was some sort of crazy person because I didn't eat. I would call my mom everyday at lunch and beg her to come pick me up so I didn't have to go in the lunch room. I had no one to sit with.
The few girls that were still my friends when I first became sick were now worse than the other group. They would point and whisper, say things about me online, prank call my cell phone, call me names, spread rumors about me and whatever else they could think of to hurt me.
One particular "friend" actually left a message on my cell phone telling me I should just kill myself. I've never told anyone this before but the sad part about that phone call was that is exactly what I was thinking of doing and my mom knew it.
It was April and the end of my junior year and I was miserable. I had friends, but not really many at school, so I didn't want to go back there for my senior year. I begged my parents to let me do my senior classes online. It took a little convincing but they agreed. We met with the counselors at school and I told them what I had been going through. They felt doing my classes online would be a good option for me.
Sometimes I think maybe I ran away from my problems instead of facing them but to be honest at 16 years old I didn't know any better. I just wanted the pain to end. Some people say I was bullied. I can't say I was bullied, but I can say I wasn't treated very nice. There is a difference.
I think when you have a l
ot of girls involved you find drama. I just happened to be one who got caught up in it. I'm not bitter about it, it is what it is. I have moved on and I am doing awesome. In the big picture that's all that matters. Actually, I should thank them, because if it wasn't for those negative experiences I had in high school, I wouldn't be where I am today. It was a life lesson, one I will carry with me always.
Completing my senior classes on line was probably the single best decision I have ever made. I needed to get away from all the negative people around me and surround myself with positive people. I soon found myself with more time to spend in the gym because of my new home school schedule and I loved it. If you told me a couple years ago that this is where I would be today, a bikini competitor, I would have said you're crazy. Never in a million years would I have envisioned myself doing this, now I can't envision myself not doing this.
People often ask me how I got into this. Actually, it was two guys that I can't thank enough – two trainers from L.A. Fitness in Wellington, Florida, Ron and Kevin. They saw a young girl spending a lot of time alone at the gym, lost in her music and working hard. They saw something in me I didn't see in myself. They saw a competitor.
After some convincing, they introduced me to a woman named Janis Garrido, a trainer with Precision Fitness and Wellbeing here in West Palm Beach. It was one year ago this week I started with Janis and to say she changed my life would be an understatement.
I have transformed my body in one year. I went from 150 pounds and 32 percent body fat to 124 pounds and 10 percent body fat. When I first met Janis, she said, “You will have to give up the junk food, the high school parties with all the alcohol. You will need to eat fish and vegetables, you will have to do cardio and lift weights. Can you do that? You're 17 years old, can you commit to this?” I said yes and I have never looked back.
She taught me how to eat, how to cook, how to shop for healthy foods, how to work out correctly and get results. She taught me everything I know about fitness. She took me from frumpy to fit, shy to confident and weak to strong. It is because of her believing in me that I am the strong confident athlete I am today. I believe people are brought in and out of our life for a reason. I believed Janis entered mine when I needed her the most. I will be forever grateful for what she has done for me.
The hardest part of all this was having the confidence to walk on stage and compete. I really didn't know if I could do it, but I had to try. I had to prove something to myself. I had worked so hard for 4 months. I was so dedicated to my diet. I looked awesome and I wanted to show it off. So I did! I walked out there proud and confident. It was my first show and I placed top 5 in both divisions I entered. I have since entered two more shows and again placed top 5. Getting into fitness has changed my life and my outlook on life. I am happier, more confident and excited about my future.
Since I began this fitness journey I have amassed a following of 15,000 followers on my Instagram, Jenmezzetti_npc, I have created my own fitness blog, Forever Fit Chicks, I was featured on Bodybuilding.com as teen transformation of the week in September 
2013 and I was also interviewed for a couple of fitness sites, Muscle and Strength and The Athletic Build. I was also just notified by Bodybuilding. com that I am one of the top 20 finalists in their BodySpace Spokesmodel Contest for 2014! I am so blessed and excited! I am first and foremost a Precision Diva, a Total Nutrition Sponsored Athlete and a Street Team Member for Pro Supps.
Through my social media, I feel I have become a motivator. I am an inspiration for some and I have the ability to reach people with my story and show them if they set their mind to something and work hard that they can reach their goals, too. I have so many high school kids that really look up to me especially because they see that I can go out and have a great time and do it without alcohol. I love being able to send that message to other kids.
My determination and motivation for this is really fueled by the experiences I had in high school. I would love to help other girls who are like me, who lack the confidence, who are made to feel like they don’t fit in, that they are not accepted because of how they look or because someone made them feel not worthy. I would love to help instill the confidence in them that Janis instilled in me.
I don't know if the reason I was treated like I was in high school had anything to do with the way I looked or not, maybe it had nothing to do with my weight at all. Maybe it was just me finding an excuse for why I wasn't fitting in. Although I do notice that since I have transformed my body some of those same people are now reaching out to me. I have learned so much from my past experiences, especially never to judge someone on how they look, because when you do that you don't really give that person a chance. That person could someday turn out to be your best friend!
My future is bright. I have so many things I want to do. I want to be a personal trainer. I love to cook healthy, so nutrition is another one of my passions. I have done a couple of photo shoots and have been told I am very photogenic and have beautiful eyes, so I would love to pursue a career in Fitness modeling. I would love to make the top 5 in the BodySpace competition and stand on that stage in L.A. in January. That would be a dream come true for me. I am a young girl with big plans and big dreams for my future and I am blessed to see them starting to come true.
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