Shop Dandy Fit | Testimony
If you don’t challenge yourself, you will never realize what you can become.
Struggles. Challenges. Set backs. Defeat. Trials. Battles. Conflicts; are just a few of the words that come to my mind when I think about my health status in summary in the year of 2016. 2016 was a very hard year for me physically and mentally on my fitness journey. Determination was my word for the year of 2017 and that is exactly what has brought me to today.
If you have followed me for any amount of time you have seen my physical body change in so many different ways.
Over the past 5 months you have seen many clips on my Instagram and Snapchat of me working out and eating clean.
But let me back you up a little and share some struggles. In 2016 I was diagnosed after many months of missed diagnosis; hypothyroidism. If you are not familiar with that, it is a hormonal in balance that effects your metabolism, sleep schedule, and mood swings just to name a few symptoms. To make it easy for you to understand; I felt like I was going through menopause at the age of 29 and I was miserable. After 6 to 8 months of adherence to medicine with no results and worse off I decided to give it all up to find a holistic approach. That was the best decision of my life, taking my personal health into my own hands.
With too much travel, a crazy schedule, the need to keep a busy social life, medical issues, and a horrible back injury, it was very obvious my health and fitness were at the bottom of my list. I decided to change that December 2016 and I have not looked back and I am so excited to share my journey with you all.
I decided to share with you this clip into my personal life because we all start somewhere.
It is so easy to look at someones journey and think, wow she was born with that figure, or she was just made with a bigger booty than me, or she can eat whatever she wants and still look like that. We all have to take our own approach to a healthy lifestyle.
I love myself more today than I have ever loved myself. I have made a commitment to love my body through the journey and process. I have decided to choose to be active every single day in the last 4 months because I love the way I feel at the end of the day.
Making those decisions every day has paid off. I have seen results, and you all have noticed those results, which is what means even more to me.
I want to encourage each and everyone of you to love yourself a little more today and for the rest of the year. Whatever you struggle with in your body image, let it go. Make a decision to love yourself through it all and to better your end result. Let’s make a commitment together to encourage each other every single day to be active and share that energy.
Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes them meaningful
I have had so many questions, emails, direct messages, and comments, over the last months about my fitness journey so I have decided to start sharing bits and pieces to encourage you all and where you are it! There are no secrets, there are no magic pills, there is not one coach or one trainer who can magically change you, you just have to work hard every single day be disciplined.
The first 2 months of my journey I did it all alone. I changed my diet, cut back my drinking to one day a week, and started eating clean. I lost over 10lbs in the first two months with just encouragement from my family, friends, and my super supportive boyfriend encouraging.
The month of February and March I started going to the gym. I started off working out with my friend Amber (@MamaBearLifts) two days a week the first month and then went up to 3 days a month in March lifting weights. She helped me learn so much about my body, weight lifting, and what lifting heavy can do for your physique. She is so knowledgeable about lifting and I am so grateful for her friendship, influence, and encouragement in my life everyday and over the past months. Amber is honestly so good and she helped me so much along my way that I told her so many times that she needed to get certified to be a trainer so that she could help any one and now she is studying for her license. I am so excited for her. She will be certified soon and she will be making big moves in the fitness and nutrition world, so keep an eye out! She truly is an inspiration; follow and check out her Instagram here.
In March and April I started to add more cardio into my routine. This was another big part of my journey. I did a fat burning cardio series 6 days a week. The 12 Min Cardio Tone Series. I nicknamed it the 12×12 and it stuck. It is 12 minutes of cardio a day for 12 days. I loved this. I do one 12 minute cardio session a day for 6 days straight and then I take a day of rest.
When I first started to do this, I could barely finish the days, every day I got better and better, and faster and faster. I looked forward to those 12 minutes to zone out and focus on me. The best part of the 12×12 program is you don’t have to have any equipment, you can do them at home, outside in your backyard, in your garage, and even with your best friend or other spouse! That was my favorite part about it. The high intensity training was insane, and helped me burn the fat that I was trying to get rid of. You can get this program to do on your own for only $20 with coupon code SHOPDANDYFIT here: 12×12
This is just part one in my fitness journey series. I am going to share more with you in the coming weeks. I am going to share more about my diet, what worked for me, what was hard for me to do, what I replaced cravings with, some easy fun snacks and protein treats I loved and more. I am currently working on a way that I can share my weight lifting routine with you. I love to switch things up and try different ways to exercise and to lift weights. The month of April I am doing a kettlebell program, I will be sharing it with you soon and my results!
Be sure t0 send me a Snapchat, tag me in your Instagram story, post a picture on Instagram and tag me with your fitness journey, whatever you do so that we can keep each other accountable and encourage each other and create a #SHOPDANDYFIT community!
My Workout Outfit Details :: Leggings : Alo Epic Leggings | Sports Bra : Alo Jubile Sports Bra | Tank Top : Nike Crop Tee | Sneakers : Nike Air Huarache
