Wellness and Workouts Does My Body Good

By Vanessa Flores

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you until it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time when the tide will turn.” -Harriet Beecher Stowe

I have struggled with my weight ever since I was a young girl. At the time it wasn’t a big issue since I was simply a child. My middle school years was when I started to become more self conscious especially since I attended a school that was a bit on the judgmental side. I managed to get through middle and high school fine even though I was highly overweight. While I didn’t get teased about my weight too much, it still effected my everyday life. I started to notice that I would get tired quickly, and didn’t have as much energy as my friends. After high school, I joined a local YMCA and started eating healthier, but I just wasn’t motivated to keep at it and the bad habits came back.

The turning point for me was when I started my job at a Parks and Recreation department for the city I live in. I quickly became acquainted to everyone in the department, and became friends with a few people as well. One day, my supervisor shared that she had type 1 diabetes and how she has struggled with it for years. Her story really spoke to me because this was a person who wants to be healthy and is trying their very best, but cannot help that they are stuck with the diabetes. After that day I vowed that I didn’t want to be that person who gets type 2 diabetes (since it does run in my family, along with high cholesterol). I wanted to better myself not only to have a higher self esteem, but to better my health and wellness as well.

The next Monday I started to work out everyday, for five times a week resting on the weekends and I started to eat healthier. I would weigh myself every single day and the number on the scale was always either half a pound lower or higher. I started to get bummed about not losing any weight, but kept on working out as usual. One day, I decided to wear a vest that I hadn’t worn in a while and when I had bought it, I couldn’t zip it at all. I put the vest on and I decided to try to zip it, and it actually zipped! After that day, I started noticing that some of my clothes were fitting looser and I noticed that my face was getting thinner as well.

While I am still on my journey to getting healthy and fit, I have pledged not to give up at all. I also have discovered why I want to get healthy. All this time I was doing it because my family or friends said it would be a great achievement, which is true, but I want to do this for ME. I want to feel confident in the way I look and more importantly be proud of something that I did for myself. So far, I have really learned that no matter how hard the journey is and no matter how much you just want to give it all up; keep your head up and give it all you’ve got because at the end of the day it will all be worth it and good!