I grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, the oldest of two girls, daughter to a fantastic mother and father. From the outside looking in, life in our house was picture perfect. A family of four living in a upper-middle class neighborhood, two cars, a dog, a basketball hoop in the driveway. Sounds like a catalog photo, right? Well the old adage is true: you cannot judge a book by its cover. Our family, in all of its picture perfection, had very real struggles. Some of them are not mine to share. What I can share with you is that life has ups and downs no matter who you are or what your life looks like from the outside looking in!
If you are an oldest child, you know that oldest children are perpetually guilty of perfectionism. We set the example. We lead the way. If we don't do it in the best way possible, we are failing our families! At least that's the way our subconscious seems to think. If you ask your mom or siblings, they will tell you that they want you to feel normal and happy. It must be an innate pressure we put on ourselves. I sure did my whole childhood and even continue to strive for utter perfection now as an adult!
I could handle my own desire for perfection internally. But all of that pressure manifested in my physical body! Sure, I was an athlete. I played sports year round and was even above average at some! So how was I always the heavyset friend? How come I couldn't rock a bikini like my sister could? I will tell you how... I ate my feelings!! That's right, boys and girls. This is the blog of a lifelong food addict.
Remember how I told you I had a great mom and dad, too. Well, lucky for me one of my mom's greatest gifts is instilling confidence in others. She is a woman that goes out of her way to make people feel good about themselves. This was fabulous for me because no matter how much I hated my body, I never let it affect my outward confidence! That doesn't mean that I didn't cry getting dressed or comparing myself to my friends in photos. But I didn't let it show to many people.
Fast forward to adulthood: my husband and I started dating when I was 19, he was 20. My outward confidence and inner disdain for my body continued to battle onward and I kept eating. In the mean time, I graduated from Pitt (H2P!) with a Bachelor's in Biology and entered my post-grad soul searching phase. I finally decided I wanted to be a nurse and began the pursue that journey. We got married in 2011 and I was over 200 pounds. After that I got even more complacent and ate my way up to 216 pounds before I threw my hands up and decided to surrender to the fact that I needed to change.
I did what any normal twenty-something would do: I bought a cheap weight loss shake a googled workouts on Pinterest. DUH! That's how I lost my first 10 pounds. Then I realized that being that hungry all the time (two out of three of my meals were 150 calories or less) wasn't going to work for long. That is when I borrowed a copy of P90X. Enter: Beachbody. I didn't dive in head first, but I did experiment with the program. I used it half-heartedly. Even so, I had some success.
It wasn't until I saw an acquaintance's Insanity results on Facebook that I decided to take the plunge. She had become a Beachbody coach and so I messaged her telling her I had to do what she did; I needed Insanity. When she told me about Shakeology I was hesitant but finally decided to dive in head first. There was a 30 day money back guarantee after all! It took two weeks of using the product and drinking Shakoelogy every day for me to become hooked. I signed up as a coach right away!
Since becoming a coach in July of 2013 my life has changed so much for the better. I became happy and confident in who I was on the outside for the first time in a long time. When we got pregnant, I was in the best shape I had been in in years. I have adopted a new outlook on life, more positive than ever before. I have chosen to live a life that I am designing for myself.
My journey as a coach is just beginning and it is my honest belief that every event in my life has lead me directly to where I am now.
I am a wife. I am a new mom. I am a sister. I am a daughter. I am a friend. I am a nurse. I am a Beachbody coach. I am a student of life. I am a mentor. I am a lover of Pittsburgh. I am a reader. I am a drinker of red wine (<-- I miss you, wine!). I am Christina.
My goal is to bring you hope, help and happiness, and health through this blog! I hope I find you feeling healthy!
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