The Journey from Obesity to Fitness Model and Figure Competitor

When I decided to take control of my problem with weight gain, a problem that began when I was eight years old; I had a long difficult task ahead of me. However, I’ve never regretted my decision or looked back. I’m now aware of the pitfalls I fell into with bad eating habits.

Eating can be a way to escape the hurt feelings we have in life. Food provides nourish-ment and one can confuse the need for emotional nourishment by overeating. It is not the correct way but that’s what I did. My parents got divorced when I was eight years old. I didn’t know how to cope with my feelings so I started overeating, trying to escape.

From that time to age nineteen, I was sedentary and classified as obese from the body fat chart. Throughout my school years, I was ridiculed with names like butterball, fatty, wide load, two ton, etc. I was depressed and hurt, so I hid away in my room and overate. I lacked confidence in sports and resisted my mom’s attempts to keep me active. Inactivity and overeating made me gain more weight.

After graduating high school, I had boyfriends whose eating habits were no better if not worse. From McDonalds to Jack in the Box, fast food was my primary food intake and we would supersize! I did make several attempts to lose weight; a weight loss camp, trainers, aerobic classes, etc. However, I always fell off the program and gained everything back.

At age nineteen, things changed for me and I became committed to changing my life. It was a few days after Christmas which I’d spent gorging on sweets, when I decided to go to a local gym and take a kickboxing class for fun. When I got on the scale, I had maxed out at 181 lbs. Shocked, I realized I was close to 200 lbs, not acceptable for my tiny 5’3” frame. I went ahead and took the kickboxing class which I really enjoyed because of the amazing instructor. Her name is Denise Hart and after class she mentioned that she was also a personal trainer. I was so impressed by her physique; she’s also short with a small frame so I could relate to her easily. I signed up that day.