As many people who have been following my journey know, I have a lot of loose skin around my abdominal section. I try to ignore it and go about my business each day but it does bother me.
I work so hard to achieve a healthy looking body, trying hard to become a bodybuilder but the sagging skin serves as a constant reminder of my obese days.
I never knew I loved running until after I lost the weight. In fact, I didn't know I was good at any sports. Now, I enjoy the strength training and cardio daily.
I kind of put running on hold for a while as I didn't want to lose too much weight and concentrate on building muscle. I still did some cardio, but wasn't doing any running until a few months ago, when I started running on the treadmill and running in the streets of New York.
I think the attached picture explains why I don't cheat, but I thought I would write about it anyway.
Back in 2011, I was over 350 pounds, having tried many different diet plans and feeling hopeless. I was addicted to unhealthy foods. I was eating fast food everyday, eating candy in huge quantities and not feeling very healthy.
I should listen to my own advice. As someone who got my certificate in personal training, I should know better. But the other day, I had a reminder of how important proper form is... I got back pain. Thankfully, it has since healed but it served as a good learning experience, but a painful one too.
I was actually doing upward rows, not the deadlift that so many people seem to injure their backs with. I was trying to hurry and I also was going a bit too heavy. Instead of slowing down and taking some weight off, I pushed myself and because it was too heavy, threw off my form. The result? I felt my muscle in my back pull. I knew it wasn't good but I felt alright the rest of the day. It wasn't until the next day that I noticed the pain.
Ever since I lost weight, my mission has always been about health. I studied nutritional studies online, read many books by Dr. Greger, Dr. Fuhrman, and Dr. Campbell, among others. Each author mentioned had a big impact on the healthy way I eat today and all deserve credit in helping me lose and keep off 150 pounds.
My obsession with nutrition has made me contemplate going back to school to study nutrition. I'm not sure I want to do this as I know I won't agree with some of the nutrition courses as many of them more than likely won't acknowledge the benefits of a plant based diet. I'm sure that some of them will be biased toward animal products. I don't want to make such an investment if I don't think I'll get much out of it.
