During my second semester of my sophomore year at college, I started to feel off. Not necessarily sick, but I didn't feel good.

I decided one night that I was just gonna run. Not anything crazy, but just for a nice run where I could relieve my stress after a day of classes and extracurricular activities.

Now, mind you, I wasn't just going to one meeting. During my spring semester I was involved with four separate plays, one television show, two e-boards, shadowing one e-board, working, taking classes, and was on the poetry slam team for my college. I literally had no other time to work out other than 9:30 at night in my small gym in the basement of my residence hall.

It wasn't like I was doing anything wild, I was only running about a mile and a half a night. But even that little bit helped me immensely and helped me feel way more energy. Not surprisingly, I felt my self-confidence boost little by little.

Then, finals week.

Finals week came and went so fast that suddenly I was falling into not-so-healthy habits again. With those unhealthy habits, my lack of energy resulted in no longer running.

Fast forward a few weeks; I was home for the summer! I am lucky enough that I was able to find a full time job starting in June, but by this point, it was the second week in May. I was sleeping in all day, going to bed late; nothing new.

Then, one day, I thought "I'm so bored" (I know, surprise, surprise). I thought "hm, maybe I'll join the gym". My dad, generously, got me a membership and I had my first workout of the summer.

Now, this was NOT by any means a glamorous workout that you see in commercials about vitamins; oh no. This workout was kind of a bust in that I realized I was back at square one; back to my spring semester.

I went to the gym again later that week and thought, "maybe I should switch it up a little bit".

So, I decided to take some classes the gym offered; Zumba and Piloxing (a mix up of pilates and boxing...yeah, it's intense).

I don't know if it's because I used to dance when I was younger, but I absolutely fell in love with Zumba class. Again, it wasn't a glamorous experience (because HEY SURPRISE YOU SWEAT) but I still loved the energy boost I had. I felt the same way about the piloxing class, including the sweaty/feeling-like-my-legs-were noodles-for-a-minute part.

However, as I'm sure you can see, is that the results from my first week-and-a-half of exercising regularly is NOT glamorous. It's kind of gross; sweaty, no-makeup, and very, very exhausting. Since I've started my job (starting at 7:30 AM Monday through Friday), I've had a really noticeable increase in energy and been in an awesome mood.

But, if there's anything that has resulted from getting a gym membership, it's not the classes I'm taking, and it's not about how much weight I'm losing.

Sure, losing weight would be great, but taking these somewhat-insane classes, I've been able to see how much my body can do, and I'm so thankful for that.

This whole "fitness journey" stuff sounds like nonsense to me after a while. It's hard to not fall off the wagon, keep a tight schedule, and find the energy and motivation to keep working hard and improving your overall health. It's taken me nearly my entire existence.

So before going back to working out this summer, I made a deal with myself: do not try to lose the weight. Again, it'd be a plus, but working on my health and wellness is my first priority. With the scrutiny women face in our society, it's really hard to forget that when you get your gym membership, the first results should be "hey, I'm changing my lifestyle for the better! I feel healthy!". Instead, we say, "hey, I'm gonna get skinny!"; something that is not directly correlated to health and wellness, at all.

Not everybody has money for a gym membership, and not everybody has a body that works or is healthy.

No, going to the gym is not a glamorous experience, but it is one that results in so much gratitude and challenge. I can't wait to see what my future results will be.