I wanted to write about my Health & Fitness journey. This has definitely not been a journey simply about losing weight, it has been so much more than that. It has been about learning how to take care of myself, and practice self-control, it has been about gaining self-confidence and self-respect and redefining how I rewarded myself. I have learned that I deserve to feel and look good, but that comes with tons of hard work and discipline.

Growing up, I ate a typical Mexican-American diet. My diet was rich in fatty, fried foods, homemade beans, tortillas and sweets.

I played soccer from the ages of 8-17, so I kept in well enough shape by being so active.

When high school was over, I quit playing soccer and began college. That is when the pounds really started packing on! Like many college students, I juggled both work and school, and I found that I generally tried to eat my stress away, or use food as comfort when my emotions got the best of me.

By my sophomore year, I was at my heaviest ever. I can not believe I am going to post this picture; it makes me cringe every time I see it. Here I am on my 19th birthday, at 172 pounds, my 5’2 frame did not carry that weight well.


That following January, I knew I had to make a change. I worked as a Cashier, at a local health food store, and the Atkins diet was currently all the rage. Many of our customers were trying it with great success, and we sold many of the Atkins products and books. I read up on it, and started it as my New Year’s Resolution.

I also began to go to the gym much more frequently. I had a gym membership since my senior year of high school, but was never consistent about going. I began to go at least 3-4 times per week. I tried out different classes, and started increasing my cardio from 15 minutes, to 30, and adding in strength training.

By July of that year, I had lost 30 pounds. 7 months, and eating a scarce amount of carbohydrates got me down to 142. This picture is from June of that year, at my sister’s high school graduation. I have no idea why I thought my hair looked good that way.


I was elated to find how quickly I could lose weight by eliminating carbs, and thus begin an unhealthy cycle of binging on carbs (fast food, sugary alcohol drinks, etc.) than swearing off carbs, to get the weight off.

For about 1 year, I would lose and gain, over and over. I cycled and yo yo’d back and forth.

In June of 2004, I met my now husband, and we begin dating, and I begin packing on those love pounds.

In March of 2006, I literally woke up one day, and swore off meat. I decided to see how long the “vegetarian thing” would last, and I have never looked back.

I had always felt guilty about eating animals. I am a huge animal lover, and it became such a conflict in my ethics to love certain animals, and keep them as pets, while eating others.

I truly believe that the unhealthy periods of swearing off carbs, and consuming large quantities of meat, had a lot to do with my decision, as well. I think I became so disgusted with meat, because I had no balance, and such an unhealthy relationship with it. Either way, I am very happy with the decision I made.

I started off as an unhealthy vegetarian. I still ate cheese pizza, French fries, and chocolate chip cookies. I found being a vegetarian pretty easy, there was still plenty of junk for me to eat.

Throughout this time, I was more or less consistent about going to the gym, but my eating habits made it impossible for the weight to come off. I was incredibly unhappy with my appearance, and hated pictures of myself.

In June of 2006, my then boyfriend proposed, and we begin planning our wedding. We took engagement pictures in August, to send out Save the Date cards, since all of his family would be coming from out of town.


I was absolutely disgusted with the way I looked in our engagement pictures. I had let myself balloon up to 162. I was so angry with myself for not being in control of my eating habits, and letting my stress level (I was currently attending graduate school, working full-time, and interning) be comforted by food.

I had enough. I was determined not to hate my wedding pictures. I wanted to remember that day as a positive memory, and not scrutinize the way I looked, in every picture.

I begin tracking my calories, and trying to eat more balanced meals. I incorporated much more fruits, vegetables and whole grains into my diet, and drastically reduced how often I was eating out, and drinking alcohol. Once I started this, I noticed that my acid reflux, nearly disappeared. I had first experienced acid reflux about a year and a half earlier, and it would show up with a vengeance and make me nauseous and sick to my stomach. In that time, it ruined a Christmas, and a Las Vegas trip, because I was so sick, and could hardly eat anything.

The biggest thing that had to change in this time was my thinking. I truly had to change the way I saw food. I had to stop seeing it as something to make me feel better, or cheer me up, when I had a bad day. I begin to see it as nutrients to sustain my life. I changed thinking from “I had a bad day, I deserve pizza” to “I deserve to like the way I look and feel.” This mindset took awhile to stick, and I still struggle with it, but it is definitely much better than it was before.

I also had to change my self-loathing, and “all or nothing” mentality. Before, if I slipped, and had a bag of chips, or slice of pizza, I would count the whole day, and sometimes even week, as a loss, and begin eating out of control, and skip workouts.

I changed that to moderately giving in when I wanted a treat, but still sticking to eating healthy the rest of the day, and still sticking to workouts.

While preparing for the wedding, I begin working out with a personal trainer, and this definitely helped keep me accountable in the gym, and shake up my workout routines. I stuck to workouts like any other appointment I had, and tried to remember that no matter how tired I was, I would never regret working out, but I would likely regret skipping a workout.

Planning my wedding was probably THE most hectic time of my life. I worked a full-time job during the day, attended school for the last year of graduate school at night, and worked for internship hours on the nights I did not have class, and here and there on the weekends. Wedding planning, workouts (at least 5/week), cooking and meal planning was all squeezed in there, as well. It took a lot of planning ahead, and preparation, but it made me realize that if I could do it with that much on my plate, there is never a time in my life where I can say, “I am just too busy right now.”

It was the first time in my life that I was losing weight the healthy way. People would constantly ask what diet I was on, and they seemed disappointed when I would tell them that I was not on a diet, just tracking my calories, and working out. The weight definitely did not come off as fast, but I knew if it did, like with the Atkins diet, it would probably come back just as fast.

I got married on September 22, 2007, and weighed 142 pounds, down 20 from when I took the horrid engagement pictures.
{Us & My Mom}


I still wish I would have lost more weight for my wedding, but I do not scrutinize my appearance in each picture {only in some }, and was proud of myself for working hard to lose weight, after so many failed attempts.

After my wedding, I relaxed a little too much on my eating, and I cut back the gym to about 3 days, per week. My birthday was in November, and with all the holiday eating in December, I slowly started seeing 150 get closer and closer.

I could not let that happen! I refused to let all the hard work I did before the wedding, go to waste. I refused to let the typical marriage weight gain set in. I did not want to be comfortable just because I was married; I wanted to have to have the control over my health, and the challenge of new workouts.


In January of 2008, I cleaned my eating back up, and started tracking my calories, again. I started trying new classes at the gym, and feel in love with yoga.

In March of 2008, I read Skinny Bitch, and began my journey to veganism. I had considered veganism many times before, but thought I could not possibly live without cheese. However, I knew that some animals could still be harmed in my consumption of dairy, so I decided to try and see how I did without it.

The transition to veganism was much harder than to vegetarianism, which I literally did overnight. Veganism has been much more of a journey, and I begin by first not buying any more dairy products, and perhaps only eating it when we ate out, than I gradually reduced that.

Veganism definitely helped me clean up my diet tremendously. I cook nearly every meal at home, and packed my lunch, and dinner, each day for work. I work two jobs, so I eat nearly every meal during the week, away from home, preparation is KEY. I focused much more on whole foods, and try to really limit my processed food intake (although soy ice cream is soooo good).

From March to August of 2008, I lost 10 more pounds, by cleaning up my diet, I was still going to the gym about 4-5 times, per week.

In August of 2008, I finally finished school. After my Master’s Degree, I went on to get an additional credential. It was the first time, since the age of 2 years old, that I was not attending school, and I had no idea what to do with myself. I knew I needed a new goal, and challenge, or I would go nuts.

I joined my amazing running group! One of the best decisions I ever made. I had never been a runner, it was one of the things that I hated most about soccer. I would force myself to run on the treadmill, about once per week, and I would do maybe 4-5 miles, and hate every minute of it.

Yet, I was curious about running, and had tons of admiration for marathon runners, and I wanted to try it out, just to see how I liked it.

The group was training for the LA Marathon, for March of 2009. I thought there was no way I could work up to 26 miles by that time, but maybe I would just join them on runs, to get a good workout in.

That first week, I ran 7 miles, and left on an amazing runner’s high, and was absolutely hooked! Everyone was so positive and welcoming, and full of great information.

I went back each Sunday morning, and began running twice during the week, about 3-4 miles.

I begin learning so much from other members of the group, and stuck to their training schedule, gradually increasing miles. I also begin dropping more weight, and was down to 125, by February of 2009. I would have never thought I would be in the 120’s!

Each week was so exciting, because it was a new Personal Distance for me. I was astonished that I ran 9 miles, then 10, and so on. I would have never ever pictured myself doing this.

I did my 1st 10K in October of 2008, and loved the adrenaline of racing. I quickly signed for a 15K in December, and finally got the guts to commit to the marathon in March.

Then, LA changed their date to May, and my running group decided to stick with training schedule, and run the Surf City Marathon instead, in February. AH! This meant one month sooner!

Everyone in my group was very encouraging, and assured me I would be ready.

With a million butterflies in my stomach, I signed up and committed to those 26.2 miles!

I was so pumped and excited when the day came. The marathon was no piece of cake, but I was trained up for it, and had the mental power to finish strong. I made it in 4:57:52, and it was one of the proudest moments of my life.


I always thought of runners, as major athletes with tons of talent. That definitely was not me! I was astonished that I, the former chubby girl, who ate her problems away, ran a marathon!

Two pairs of shoes, a lost toenail and 4 medals later, I finally see myself as a legitimate runner, and am excited to run more marathons.

I am still on this Health & Fitness journey, and do not see it ever ending. I know there will always be new struggles, and I will seek out new challenges. There are so many things I still want to do, and I am still not down to my goal weight. My goal weight is 115, and I have more or less held steady at 125, since the marathon, losing and gaining 1-2 pounds, here and there.

I know these last pounds are going to be the hardest to lose, but I do not plan on quitting anytime soon! Whose with me?!