When I started my fitness journey, I had no clue I have eventually started one. I remember to hear the word "exercise" and immediately have running in my head. The only form of exercise I knew, oh! and crunches. I was a 13 years old kid, wanting to be healthy. I was barely recovering my mobility from being paralyzed and I had strabismus. What is healthy? How would a 13 years old girl, know what healthy meant? My eating habits were terrible! Not even my mother, aunts or anyone closer to me knew what the word healthy mean. I assume the so called natural foods; (fruits and veggies) converted people healthy individuals(kids imagination). My mom hated veggies and we rarely had fruits at home. I grew up not liking veggies, or fruits. Starting high school, I struggled more with my self-esteem, which I am glad, it was my push to exercise and work to improve myself. I was into tv shows that will talk about fitness and one day I heard "eggs to be bad for cholesterol" something I learned to not to eat. For some reason people who were told to be overweight, had high cholesterol and as the human I am; I assumed cholesterol was the cause of obesity. As our first response; we correlate one thing to be the cause of it. No one said anything about ice cream so after my running of everyday, I would have a Vanilla Blue Bell ice cream with probably some beans burritos made of lard. I had no idea of what fat meant and where it was found. The only fat I knew was the one in the body when someone had love handles and I was so skinny, I kind of felt begging for it. Time pass, I ran my 4 years of high school and incorporated other exercises (donkey kickbacks), because I was told I had no booty, so I found a video that said that will help me grow it. I had it easy (I thought), I should do this, crunches for my abs, running and jump rope to grow my legs and eat everything but no eggs, I will be healthy and I will have a really nice body (pretty legs were in my head with abs and a nice booty) by the age of 21 because it supposedly takes a lot of time (i was 14). At that age of 21, I was starting my first bikini competition, I had already take nutrition classes, I was a personal trainer, I knew about macros (protein, carbs and fat), but changing my body with that had gave me problems. I looked healthy, but I was not in my desired shape. The competition prep diet i was given had no carbs and full of protein! I was seeing results and since I have heard people who struggled with weight, also older than me, telling me that carbohydrates are bad for overweight people. Fruits are carbs, so they really couldn’t make me healthy. I was lost! Extremely confused!
I continue with prep for 4 months, I became a different type of animal. I felt depressed, anxious, angry all the time and physically, mentally tired. Show day was awesome, I loved my pictures, but I binged so much that I was so bloated the next couple days. Then I wasn’t bloated, I actually gained 15 lbs. so fast. I could not control my desire for food. I could not stop myself from eating until I felt sick. I started over exercising 3 x day and everyday. I look descent, but small tiny and at the same time with no muscle definitions like on my show day and with a fat stomach. I cried everyday for a quite period of time.
My mind was very influenced by memories I heard and saw as a kid, from my bikini prep experienced, from tons of books I read, from comments of many people and from what I was seeing in the mirror. I started discovering instagram, I met other competitors struggling with the same. I felt betrayed by my desires. How in the world does those fitness celebrities can look like that everyday? I doubted it!
You have heard "mindset is key." My mind was focused on abs and a big booty but my body’s emotions weren’t allow me to. How could I control that?
A little worse, I had no one I could count on to see and learn from, and leave out of my nightmare.
I was told, i should control myself or I would get diabetes!
But how? i asked and cried.
Long story short.
I emphasized everything that I was learning at school and I applied it into every second I remembered of my life.
I started noticing myself not fighting against my emotions. I was smiling, I was laughing, I was out of my nightmare. I learned new emotions. I was unconsciously doing things that were given me the results I work hard for.
Why mindset is key in fitness?
Mindset is not what we think we want to do, but what we know that stays in our mind and influence everything we do (It unconsciously tell us what to do), even the reason why we are breathing.
Mindset is information we get, by smelling, listening, touching, feeling that sets our attitude. Everything we struggled at is of what we have learned by all of our senses that are constantly changing with every single thing that is brought to our understanding.
We need to re- learn the other side of the coin with our 5 or 6 senses to get a new mindset, a new understanding because one tiny aspect in our life, influences the whole memory process that resets our mind-set.
