Throughout high school, I was always very active. I was a competitive dancer and danced 3 nights a week, which was about a total of 12 hours of dancing a week. Additionally, I would go to the gym occasionally with friends but was scared of the free weights and stuck to high reps on machines with very low weights, and was a cardio queen. I also had no sense of structure in my workouts, as I would workout multiple muscle groups in one workout (back, abs, cardio, and legs all in one lazy workout). Nonetheless, I always maintained a weight of about 125 lbs and was healthy.
Once I started university, I promised myself and told my family and friends that I would 'never let myself gain the "Freshman 15". Embarrassingly, I gained not only 15lbs, but 20. I hated what I had become and was obviously upset about it. But what I was most angry at was myself. I was angry that I had let myself get to that point. My weight gain was due to the fact that I drank alcohol at least once a week and would eat a lot of really unhealthy food in residence at school and would eat the large portions that they gave us.I also ate fast food a lot before I would go to work. Not only did my eating habits become terrible, but I stopped dancing and working out all together.
My boyfriend of 4 years has always been into bodybuilding and has always been in amazing shape, so I figured who would be better to ask for advice than him. I got a gym membership at his gym in the summer after 1st year university and he started to show me the ropes of new equipment/machines that I had never used before. He also taught me numerous free-weight exercises that I had always been too scared to try on my own. I felt clueless and self-conscious in the gym for the first few weeks, but then I got into the routine of working out 6 days a week with cardio and the differences that I began to see in my body made me so happy. I also followed the 80/20 rule and ate clean the majority of the time, eating 5-6 small meals throughout the day and drinking protein shakes.
At the end of the summer (2014), I went on a vacation and didn't go to the gym for 2 weeks. When I returned home after this trip, school started back up. I started to fall back into my unhealthy habits of partying, eating poorly and didn't workout at all for the first month of school. I quickly began to feel really self-conscious and "fat" all the time and had no energy. I started to go back to the gym but felt so self-conscious and stupid, once again.
Now I am working out 5-6 days a week and have gotten my eating back on track. I noticed differences in my body within days of shaping up my act. I have so much determination and motivation to reach my goals right now and I can't wait to see what changes I can make to myself within the next few months.