My workout journey honestly started around two years ago whenever the first quarantine hit.  I was stuck in my house and to be quite honest, I was in a very low place mentally and hated myself a lot!  While being stuck in the house, my sisters and I began to take walks every day on trails around the community.  Those daily walks turned into runs with a little 10 minute core workout slapped in after.

Exercise became an outlet for me.  Not everything in my life was consistent, but my workout during the day always was.  It was the one time of day I was able to focus all about myself regardless of what was going on around me.  I started to find my way up to the gym at the top of my neighborhood out of pure curiosity to try out some simple arm and leg workouts with an array of different machines and dumbbell weights.  

Eating also plays a role in weight loss and weight gain, regardless of what you want your results to be, you have to eat properly.  Through a lot of months of my training with myself, I can say that I was quite extreme with my calorie restriction.  I cared more about what I saw on a scale than actually basing my worth on my progress.  I constantly compare myself to others that I have seen on social media or around me.  I was so focused on what I wanted to be that I never stopped to appreciate how far I had come.  If I could look back and give myself any advice, it would not be so hard on myself.  Things like this take time, and I should have given myself more patience.  

Weightlifting was the game changer for me.  I started throwing arm dumbbell workouts here and there and using the leg press.  I had fallen in love with how much of a release it was.  I was starting to want to do more with myself.  The idea of joining body genesis in Saxonburg pa was scary.  I knew that there were a lot of Knoch kids who went there, and I was very scared that I was going to get made fun of.  Around the beginning of my senior year I decided to just join, and it was probably the best decision I could have made for myself.  Not only was there plenty more gym equipment, but the amount of things I learned from others around me was insanely helpful.   

The gym has honestly helped shape who I am, not only physically but mentally.  I get a sense of self worth in seeing myself grow.  For many years I had dealt with confidence in myself.  My experiences left me feeling weak and unworthy, letting me slip into being treated that way by my peers as well.  It has been a long, sometimes unfulfilling, unmotivating, crazy exciting, past few years, but the person I see myself slowly shaping into gives me hope for my future and what I see coming for myself these next few years.