Never be afraid. Down 52 lbs onto a new adventure!

In November of 2012 I made the decision to make a change in how I lived my life. I was overweight and completely unhappy with the way I lived my life. I was only 21, and was absolutely ashamed of the fact that I had not taken care of myself. I was a college drop, depressed, living with my parents, and FAT! A friend of mine suggested that I be her workout partner, and asked if I would at least consider joining a gym. I found a local gym, that I always referred to as the Fish Bowl! There are windows everywhere, and in a major shopping center. I went it and consulted with an advisor, he took me on a tour and then I decided it actually was a great fit for me. I signed a contract and after I made the commitment the advisor brought over a trainer and suggested I have a health and fitness consult. We discussed my current diet, he weighed me, and took my body fat percentage. I was absolutely humliated when I read on the scale that I had let myself balloon up to 210 pounds and 37% body fat. Mortified and terrified I decided I was going to purchase a personal training package from this trainer. During my first training session, i was slow out of breathe, and whiny but Kyle the trainer was patient and understanding. He encouraged me and keep me going for the full hour. Within the first 3 weeks I lost a 10 pounds!!! After starting to realize i could do this, it was working, I was absolutely hooked! I started out with simple circuits and steady state cardio, nothing major for exercise. What really got the ball rolling was my diet! I completely did a 180 with the diet. No processed food! I was consuming anywhere from 1275-1350 calories a day and watching my macros. I researched quality Whey Protein products and settled on brand that too this day I still use. Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey Protein concentrate. I love this brand! I wanted to make sure that I kept what muscle I had underneath my flab! So with the advice of my trainer he helped me come up with a macro split that my body seem to respond to quite well! I kept my focus on Protein, making sure I kept it above a 100grams a day, trying to keep carbs with 130-155 grams and filling the rest with fat. And the pounds seemed to really begin to melt.

I trained with Kyle once a week, the workouts began to significantly become harder, but I was definitely becoming stronger! By January 25th, 2013 I had officially hit the 30 pounds lost milestone! I had told myself, every ten pounds is like a check point, and I would reward myself with a DVD set of my favorite TV show! At the time it was Sons Of Anarchy! After the 30 pounds came off, it was starting to get harder to loose. I stalled in my progress for about two weeks, and that is when Kyle introduced me to HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and I loved it. With a subtle tweak in diet and the adding of HIIT I was loosing again. I also began training with Kyle twice a week, I fell in love with the gym. He mainly had me do circuits with resistance mixed in somewhere. I always did steady state cardio on my own, any where from 30-90 minutes and I always chose the stair stepper! As the loosing began slow, each week Kyle would give me a weekly split that often looked like this;

Monday - Circuit with 65 minutes Cardio
Tuesday - Resistance Training (Pull Day) - 14-16 intervals of HIIT
Wednesday - Circuit with 65 Mins Cardio
Thursday - Training session with 65 min Cardio
Friday- Resistance (Push Day) 14-16 intervals of HIIT
Saturday - 90 mins of Cardio and Light Leg Day
Sunday - Training Session with 65 min Cardio
I continued this exact weekly routine for months! I was working my butt off, literally and figuratively! I was finding new and simple recipes that fit within my macro split and simply loving life! I love oatmeal, fruit, chicken, veggies, and PEANUT BUTTER!!! I was comfortable enough to finally wearing a bikini in public, even though I still had plenty of work to put in! Continuing on with the workouts and diet results were still progressing! My training session with Kyle started to veer away from circuit training and he was introducing me into a more traditional resistance training program with Heavy Lifting! On July 2nd, 2013 I had hit my first intial weightloss goal, 50 pounds were gone from my 5'6" frame as well as 17% of my body fat! I was sitting at 20% body fat and 160 pounds and feeling on top of the world! I had so much support from family and my friends. By August 30th, 2013 which was the day I decided to celebrate my birthday with co-workers and my closest friends, even though my birthday wasn't until September 3rd. That day I weighed in at 152 pounds!!!

After I reached 152 pounds my body finally decided it wanted to Plateau! During the Summer my job is very demanding,as I work as a Wildland Fire Dispatcher. My gym schedule wasn't as spot on as I would have liked, but I continued training with Kyle until September 22nd. But by then he had taught me almost everything I needed to know, so that he could finally push me out of the nest. 10 months I spent training with him, and I never missed a session. I owe him everything. By this time he had me transition into almost pure resistance training. And that is where I began to really find that my love for fitness was so deep rooted. I learned my body is capable of a lot more than I gave it credit for. I stayed at 152 pounds for nearly a month and then began slowly increasing my calorie intake, heavy lifting, and performing cardio. By the time I reached my 1 year Fitaversary on November 2nd, 2013, I was ready to make a new goal. I tossed around a few ideas, like becoming a personal trainer or fitness coach. One day I walked into my Local GNC, where I had begun to get to know the manager quite well as I was a regular in his store and he suggested I look into becoming a bikini/figure competitor. I was skeptical at first, then decided to do some research and found that this may be exactly the new challenge I was looking for. I spoke with Kyle and he reassured me that he thought that this was a great match for my work ethic and encouraged me to try it out. He told me he would help me work on getting a new weekly split going and recalculating my macros and calories, since I was no longer and active client of his. He pushed as many scientific articles as he could my way, as I love to read fitness articles. I looked into a few local events for competitions and made my decision. I decided I was going to compete in May of 2015. This would give me enough time to build a good amount of muscle and learn what I could in that time.

Currently I have just completed my 2nd cycle of a 16 week Bulking phase and in that time I was able to put on nearly 8 pounds of muscle, while maintaining between 20-21% Body Fat. I kept cardio to about 3-4, 20-30 min sessions a week while working every muscle group twice a week!!! And finding I am one strong little girl!!!! My squats have reached 185 pounds, Dead lifts at 170, and bench 90 pounds. Strength has increase immensely, since I have stopped training and continuing to increase! My love for the Fitness industry flows very deep, I find comfort in the fact that I was able to overcome my own self doubt and if I am able to conquer my own body and mind, then I know everyone has that ability! I cannot express or stress the benefits of weight lifting or working out enough! The way that it develops the mind in fantastic alone! I have now found that I have a self love that was non existent before I discovered weight lifting. I made my Fitness journey very public on Facebook and instagram (feel free to follow me @aarikadanielle), and people around me took notice fast of my continued effort and results and I began to receive emails on a weekly basis, of people who as felt I could proved them with answers! I am all of 22 years old!!!! And people who are twice as old as I am seeking advice! And I am absolutely humbled by that!

If you are just starting out, in the middle, or zeroing in on the finish line to your fitness goal. Never give up!!! If you fail just dust yourself off and get back on the the wagon and keep going! I made many mistakes during my journey and mine isn't over yet! Never be afraid to try new challenges or even food! And don't be afraid if some of your ideas morph into something completely different! Remember to always keep a peaceful attitude and never push your lifestyle choice on others in a negative way, especially if they are close to you! If you are important to them, they will take notice and support you in the way they know how, even if it isn't the way you expect! My family and I became stronger, My friendships became stronger, and I became so much stronger! Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally! And you can have all the sucess I have had, but always stay true to who you are in the process and never lose sight of that!

I hope my story can inspire someone in some way and if it has and you want to watch me on my new journey to becoming a competitor don't hesitate to add me as a friends on here or follow me on instagram (@aarikadanielle) or just go to my profile and browse my progress pictures!

Aarika