Welcome to my little blog :) I am totally new to this, so please bear with me if things aren't as pretty and polished as most other blogs - I'll get there eventually!
*apologies for this being insanely long, once I started typing it all just came pouring out! :)
My name is Keli, and I started this blog to share my journey into fitness and getting healthy! I was always pretty active up through high school, involved in almost everything under the sun: marching band, Key Club, model U.N., the list goes on!
After I went off to college in 2004 though (Roll Tide anyone?!) I embraced the typical college-student lifestyle and my no-parents freedom a bit too fully. Sleeping in, eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, lots of beer and other delicious things that I had not really had much experience with before. And on top of it all, I didn't step foot into my school's rec center ONCE while I was a student.
I thought, "I'm young! I don't need to EXERCISE! I can do whatever I want, I don't have to worry about gaining weight or anything like that."
Well, by the time I graduated college in 2008, I had certainly put on some pounds. About 20. I wasn't enormously overweight, just a tad, but I didn't really feel quite like myself.
But I wasn't ready to do anything about it. Still, my mentality was that I'm young, I can always just diet and it will come off!
After college, I settled down into my first "grown-up" job. My poor diet and aversion to exercise only got worse - who has the time or energy to work out after an 8 hour day and an hour commute to and from work?
In 2010, I moved to Seattle. I moved in with my boyfriend Jeff, started a new job, bought my first car, got our first dog Juneau. Now I had even LESS time/motivation to work out, and getting Pizza Hut delivery was just so much more appealing than actually fixing dinner when we got home. Most days I would get home from work, plop down on the couch, and tell myself I had earned a relaxing evening of doing nothing, and to not worry about not working out or the half a pizza I was eating.
One day I stepped on the scale and I was SHOCKED. I shouldn't have been, but it was still startling to see the numbers on the scale.
I was at 195.
I was SO mad at myself for getting to this point. All the times I told myself "I'll just start a diet on Monday, I'll workout tomorrow" echoed in my head. Making those promises to myself are all well and good, but if Monday or tomorrow never get here, then I might as well have never pretended I was going to do something different.
I still didn't really make an effort to change my lifestyle. For about 3 years, I would act like I was going to make some changes, without ever really getting around to it:
-I would scour the "Health and Fitness" page on Pinterest, reading about all the ways to get in bikini shape, or how to sculpt that booty, or to lose those love handles. I think some part of me felt that just looking at fitness articles was just as good as actually DOING them - crazy, right?
-I found a few fitness blogs that I enjoyed reading - exercising vicariously through others, I guess?
-Once I saw an infomercial for the TapOut XT program - bought it, used it for a week, put it in the closet. I don't know what I was thinking, it was WAY too advanced for someone like me who hadn't truly exercised/worked out in such a long time. I didn't have a good foundation in place to be able to stick with a program like that.
-I also saw an infomercial for Beachbody's Insanity program - same thing happened. I bought it, tried it for about a week, got discouraged, and put it in the closet too.
I was really discouraged. I had finally gotten to a place where I really wanted to do things differently, but working out was "too hard." I was trying to find healthier recipes to cook at home, but a lot of them were kind of hit or miss.
I decided that I needed to lose some lbs. FIRST before really committing to a workout program. In March 2014, I came across the r/xxketo and r/ketorecipes subreddits on reddit.com. After reading all the information I could find on the ketogenic lifestyle and how to follow the eating protocol, I decided to give it a try.
*Just a note - I am in no way advocating the keto "diet", or trying to say that it's better than anything else. It works for me, and I provided the links above merely as information to those who have not heard of it.
It was a little tough at times, since I LOVE bread/pasta/rice/ice cream...but those were the things that were making me unhealthy too! But I started seeing the number on the scale go down and I was SO happy!
Then in June 2014, I reconnected with an old friend and co-worker after I saw her post on Facebook about Beachbody's new PiYo program (pilates/yoga, for those who are unfamiliar with this). After learning that she was a Beachbody coach, I signed up for the PiYo program right away! With its workouts being MUCH less impact than Insanity or TapOut, I felt like this was a program that I could get more than 1 week through!
The PiYo program is WONDERFUL - lots of focus on balance and stability, low impact, but still challenging enough to give you a good sweat! It was a great place to start for someone like me who was really a beginner in the world of fitness and exercise.
Between Easter and the end of July, I lost 20 pounds! I am NOWHERE near the end of my journey, but I'm off to a GREAT start! After having such great results with the PiYo program, I'm now starting Beachbody's Body Beast program! I want to build some muscles :)
Also, after having such a good time in my challenge group while I was doing PiYo, I took the leap and became a Beachbody coach myself! I want to help show people that if I could FINALLY get my butt in gear and make positive changes in my life, then they can too! I want to help people reach their goals even while I'm working on mine!
More info about me - I love cooking, snowboarding/skiing, reading books, watching Game of Thrones, and being a Beachbody coach!
Thanks for reading!
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