How'd a "Skinny" Girl Become the "Fat" Girl?

What a great question and as I ponder it, I figured I’d share my story. Yes, I was the “skinny” girl in high school and at my 10 year reunion I as the “fat” girl walking through the door. How did this once small 120 pound 5’5” girl blow up to over 200 pounds in just a short 10 years?

Well, here’s my story. I was a very unhappy new mom in a very unhappy marriage. I married my high school sweetheart and we were always “the couple”. The problem was I never felt good enough, skinny enough, had little to no self-esteem. Here I am with the man of my dreams and every woman in school wanted him. How did I land him? Girls threw themselves at him and the more it happened the more I fell deeper and deeper and found myself using food as my drug of choice. Not sure why I thought eating like that was going to get me to keep this person but when you are always afraid of him cheating (which he did and when I found out about it this was my downward spiral into craziness). Who was I hurting? Not him, not all the girls, BUT ME!!!!

Needless to say after giving birth to my now 22 year old son my marriage crumbled. He left me for another woman. I decided instead of allowing this to define who I was I decided to take control of me. I know so many moms put their kids first and they should. However, if you don’t put yourself up on that platform, you will lose yourself and you will become an existence of a person who just exists. Who wants that? I wanted to live for my child, I wanted to be the best mom for my child, I wanted to be healthy for my child, and I wanted to be whole FOR ME!

So I decided to pick myself up and join a local gym. You see I was always the person who joined a gym and went for a few weeks and quit, then my membership would need to be renewed and I would renew with the intentions of going. This time I was in the mind set of not allowing myself to be that person; I decided to commit and never look back. I went to the gym 4-5 days a week and threw myself into all they had to offer. Now the weight started melting away and I started feeling elated. The more I worked out the more I craved better choices with my diet. The better I started eating; the better I started feeling. I’ve lost weight. WOW!!!!

What was the best part of this journey was I went back to my 20 year reunion a size 2-4, weighing around 118 pounds and the fittest I’ve ever been in my life. What an amazing reward for all this hard work.

I went on to get my AS in Health and Fitness, BS in Kinesiology, and my MBA. I became a certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor. I have helped 100’s experience the same thing I did so many years ago.

I am turning 52 this October, 2014 and will celebrate my one year wedding anniversary in August. Good things do happen!

I hope my journey will inspire you. All you need is the desire to change and clear your mind of “CAN’T”.

Cherell Lucia