I was always an athlete. I ran track and field since I was 7 years old, all the way to my freshman year of college. I loved it and had a dream of going to the Olympics one day. Realizing that dream may not happen for me I stopped running and focused on my education even more. After years of staying on that eating pattern an athele has I realized my weight was way over where I should be. I started to exercise on my own but the results were not as big as I wanted them to be. An aquaintance of mine was going to the local gym already and told me about her trainer "Chuck". I found him on-line and talked to him about coming in to work with him. I didn't fully make up my mind until I saw the bodybuiling.com transformation of the week article on my friend, Meredith. I was amazed at her change. That was the icing on the cake for me; seeing her work-out with David aka Chuck made me say I want to look like that again! So I joined the local SportFit Gym and made Chuck my trainer. We have been working towards my weight loss goal of 125.0lbs.

Working out and exercising helps me in so many ways! When I have stress in my daily life, I am able to go to the gym and take all that irritation out on a punching bag. At the same time I get my cardio in for the day! I would have so much stress built up sometimes that doing a 2 mile run or weight lifting with my trainer would be the best remedy at the end of the day. Plus, all the stress helped with my weight gain. Now that I'm in the gym 6 days a week it helps with my stress level decrease and weight loss.
The 2nd reason I enjoy this so much is because it's what I used to do everyday up until college; work out. I had a void that needed to be filled and I didnt know what it was. When I get in the gym now I have a great time. Even though the excercise regmine can be exhausting I feel great afterwards. My transformation makes me feel so much better about my body and my health!
The 3rd thing is that now people see I can change my eating habits and figure it inspires them. I pushed myself to do something I haven't done since college; and that is to run a 5k (3.8 miles). I enrolled in the Baltimore Running Festival in October of 2011. I trained and conditioned myself for it once I said I would do it. After I accomplished this goal I said I would run again next year, but at least do 2 5k's instead of just 1 per year. Now my mother and sister-in-law will be joining me! My best friend has begun her own work-out routine of Zumba classes. She has transformed as well and feels great!
I love what this process feels and looks like. The impact on others around you can either be positive or negative, but either way it makes me feel AMAZING!