[Guest Post] I WAS That Skinny Bitch You Hated

I'm so happy to have Katie from Sluiter Nation writing about her fitness journey for me today, check it out.

My Fitness Journey?  That is what I am supposed to be writing about?  More like my Sit-on-my-Ass Journey. 

Seriously, I have NEVER been a very athletic or, exercise-y.  As a kid I was a stick.  I was lanky.  My limbs looked like they belonged on a giraffe not on a pre-teen.  In high school my guy friends referred to me as having the body of a 12-year old boy.

I could eat a whole pan pizza from Pizza Hut by myself, but lose weight.  My friends hated me.  The only exercise I got in high school was in freshman gym.  Even then I got a C in gym (my dad still shakes his head at this) because some days?  I just didn’t feel like shooting basketballs or swimming laps.  In fact, every Wednesday when we were supposed to run the 2-mile?  I walked it.  To my credit I could walk it in 20-minutes chatting the whole time.

Despite my love affair with a lazy lifestyle?  I still didn’t gain weight, even though EVERYONE warned me that it would catch up with me. 

In college, I didn’t gain the freshman 15 because my dorm was downhill from everything on campus.  I literally walked my ass off.  I lost weight freshman year (please don’t hate on me yet…I do get mine…wait for it…)

By sophomore year, my friends were regulars at the rec center on campus.  They talked me into going a few times a week.  This is probably where I started to realize working out wasn’t SOO bad.  I would do the arm and leg machines and I would do crunches.  It was fun because I was with my friend.  Then she would hop on the track to run a gazillionmiles.  At first I just walked around the track while she did this.  There was always some eye-candy playing basketball on the court below the track and lots of weirdo on the bikes near the track.

Then I realized that a bunch of sorority girls would come and walk the track too.  Wait, “walk” implies fitness.  They would stroll and chat around the track.  (by the way?  This is not a sorority girl slam.  I love them.  Some of my best friends were sorority girls.  I just know these were sorority girls because they always made sure to wear their letters.  On the ass of the shorts).  And I caught myself thinking, “why in the crap are they even HERE if that is all they are going to do?  Why don’t they sit around their HOUSE and do that?”

Then I realized I was doing the same thing.  Just by myself.  So I started to jog.  Yes, that is right, I jogged out of spite.  But because of that spite?  I jogged about a mile 3 times a week.

By my junior year, some of my friends started getting engaged.  I didn’t even have to get measured for my bridesmaid dresses.  Always a six 6—with NO alterations.  No boobs.  No hips.  No thighs.  Just straight up me in a size 6.  Thank you, 3 miles a week.

But then they graduated.  And I didn’t have rec center peeps anymore.  Just lazy dude roommates.  So I drank beer with those lazy dudes.  And by the time I graduated?  I was a size 8.  I was not rattled.  I figured, well, I was warned I would gain weight.

Then I graduated.  And I moved to my own place.  And I was suddenly a size 10.

Then I started teaching and didn’t have time for anything but crappy foods.  And I was a size 12.

Then I went through a terrible breakup and was a size 10 again.  Yippee for no appetite.  Oh wait.

And then I fell in love and got married.  I was a beautiful size 12.  I was happy with my size.  I was filled out.  I had boobs!  Yay!

But you know what happens when you are all comfy and married and happy with yourself and you hate to sweat?  You gain more weight.  Before getting pregnant with my son, I topped out at a size 16.  I decided something needed to be done especially since we were trying to get pregnant.

I started going to group fitness classes at the gym.  This was the ONLY way I would be accountable.  Because I totally let myself slack, but I don’t want to let others down.

Once pregnant, I kept doing what I could.  I walked, I watched what I ate, I did yoga.  I only gained 20 pounds!    And after Eddie was born?  I could almost fit in a size 12 again!  I was beyond ecstatic!

Of course life doesn’t always continue to cruise along happy roads.  I was diagnosed with postpartum depression, prescribed antidepressants, and ballooned back up to a size 16.  I felt ugly.

This was about four months ago.  So on a whim, I agreed to run a 5k in September on a team to support a friend with breast cancer.  And if you are paying attention AT ALL you know very well this is SO outside the box for me.

But, despite an early knee injury that I have had physical therapy for, I have completely stuck to my training—which is the Couch to 5k Program.  I haven’t been weighing myself since I am trying to just feel better before focusing on weight loss.  So far it’s working.  Most of the time.

I still don’t fit into my clothes like I wish I did, but I know that at least I am doing something.  And really?  That is what I can do right now.  As I get better from my PPD, I can work on eating right or adding more exercise.  But it’s all about what I can handle now.  And just doing SOMETHING feels like the right step.

I am definitely a far cry from that skinny bitch I was in college, but I know she’s in there somewhere.  I just wish she knew what she had back then.  But for now?  I’m going to be all like Fergie Ferg and work on my fitness!