Lose Weight to Move Weight

For a long time, it has seemed like being overweight affected everything I did in my entire life. It  affects the way I breathe, the amount of walking I can do, the way people look at me, the likelihood of me getting a job, and especially the way I look at myself. It was hard to get up each day and be overweight and know that there was no easy way to fix it.

Then I found CrossFit, which a year ago, I would have said was the best thing I'd ever found. It had camaraderie, scalable workouts that I could do, and I met some amazing people. But if you ask me today, I would say that lifting is best thing I'd ever done for myself because for once, just once in my life, it wasn't about how much I weighed.

When I lift, it's just me and the bar. No judgment. It's the one thing in my life that I can do just as well as anyone else, if I work hard enough.

The last few months I have become solely focused on weightlifting and for once, I didn't feel pressured to lose weight. This all came to an end when my coach told me that the best thing I could do for weightlifting, was to do just that. Lose weight. It was no longer about improving my technique or adding pounds on the bar, it was about the pounds on my own body.

I kind of avoided the subject until after University Nationals. I wanted to cherish my time there and I knew that there was no amount of weight I could lose before Albuquerque, that would make that much of a difference. Let me just say that Albuquerque was a blast. I met so many amazing lifters, as well as my favorite, Holley Mangold.

But I also met tons of lifters in MY own weight class, that were smaller than me, but could also lift more than me. This gave me so much hope and reassurance that I too could still be strong, even if I lost a significant amount of weight. It was great.

Fast forward a month, I'm back in Michigan, focusing on school and not really doing anything outside of a few lifting sessions a week. But here I was, last week, at the Barbell Classic... Some call it coincidence, providence, serendipity, I call it an answered prayer. I met some awesome trainers, Dave & Cassandra who were super encouraging and just really nice people. I'm always happy to add to my fitness family and looked forward to keeping in touch with them even if it was only on social media.

A few days later I was browsing their website and came across a nutrition plan package that caught my eye. It promoted encouragement, advice, and most of all support and accountability. I knew Cassandra was a positive person and someone I would want on my team. Especially in this long journey to lose 100lbs.

I know this is something I have tried a million times, but this time I am giving it my all. To start my first week, Cassandra gave me 3 rules:

1. No caloric beverages (LOTS OF WATER)
2. No fast food
3. No processed food

LET ME TELL YOU.... This is unbelievably hard for me, but I'm doing it.

I haven't had any slip ups yet, but today I almost gave in and bought a coke... And this text conversation is the perfect example of why I chose Cassandra as my trainer!

Those are words I have reminded myself of all day because losing weight IS the healthy thing for my body.

Another crazy thing is that I've cooked TWO healthy meals for myself. Which is something I have honestly never done. This is such a life changing experience, and I'm eating REAL FOOD, not frozen Lean Cuisine's or meal replacement shakes!

That's all for now, more positive things to come!