Most people who know me or have met me would say that I am a fitness junky. People stop and ask me all the time if I am an athlete or runner. Needless to say I always get the “I would kill to have your body, you’re so thin”. So you can imagine that I eat, sleep and breathe fitness right? Not so quiet, I actually hate running and I have always been naturally thin.

When I got into my senior year of high school I began picking up weight and sure enough I gained my college “freshman 15 lb”. For some people I looked healthy and others really curvy. To me I looked out of shape. I was happy my boobs were a nice size but physically I lacked basic exercise. I began working out my junior year of college and began going daily during my senior year. I was stressed, nothing seemed to be working for me, or so I complained, I needed a healthy outlet as partying and lounging was starting to get “old”.

I evaluated myself, because I had started becoming more active the previous year, it was time I began to get my eating habits in order as well. I wanted to get the results I was yearning for. I cleaned out my fridge and began meal prepping and going to the gym daily and before I knew it, running became easier, I could jump higher and I learned to control my breathing during exercise. I also began to see my body changing and the first time I got my solid core abs, I promised myself I would keep at this.

I have kept at this as it has brought me great benefits in my personal life and healthy. Whether it’s making friends at the gym to connect with or physically looking and feeling good, each step into a healthier lifestyle lies within fitness. With so many positive things in fitness it’s hard for anybody to believe there is any negative and one thing about me is I love ranting. It’s like arguing or complaining without getting completely worked up as you normally would. It is another one of my healthy stress relievers and after so many misconceptions about fitness gurus; I had to confess my inner hate for working out. Yes, I said that.

I don’t hate working out, I hate getting ready to go workout. More often than most I run behind my fitness schedule, I’ve even asked myself if a schedule is even worth doing every Sunday, I always lose course and go left mid-week. Another thing that I cry about is my muscles, having a desk job is driving me up a wall. I need to be stretching and sitting has given me all kind of muscle spasm that I can’t control as working out is a great deal of my life and my desk job pays the bills.What I have done is started going to yoga, taking stretch breaks at work and stretching at night before bed, which makes a great difference.

I do hate running and I mean that with a passion, I just enjoy the benefits of running. It is a great cardio exercise and it will always get the heart rate pumping. Running can be used as a warm up or a full body workout which targets the quads mostly but can shape and tone your calf and abs.If you run with weights you can tone your arms as well and the more heels you run the more you will involve your glutes.

The most misconception I get is that I don't eat junk food when in fact I do. Not often but if I have the taste for froyo, I get froyo with gummy warms and fudge! The thing is, I never try to deprive myself of certain pleasures as it just causes you to binge and I've done that before, more so in the beginning of my fitness journey when I didn't take what I ate so serious, I just kept my old diet and went to the gym. However the junk food, high sodium, and grease did nothing but slow down my progress. Today I am more reserved when it comes to unhealthy snacking as I substitute most snacks for fruit and yogurt.

As you see these aren't any different obstacles than the next person taking on the challenge to get in shape, it is a lifestyle change and when you have been raised and live a certain way for so long, it takes time and patience to alter and master that change.The great thing about change is, it's GOOD. So with all the things I secretly hate about fitness, the good outweigh the bad and this change has brought me into a different area in my life that I never knew I had until I began exercising regularly.

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character." - Ralph Waldo Emerson