LISA JAUREGUI

My love for fitness developed after losing 30 pounds and changing my life through exercise and a change in diet. My senior year in high school and freshman year in college I began putting on weight due to an unhealthy lifestyle. I was eating fast food regularly and was not physically active beyond my day to day activities. As I matured into a woman, my body changed and I soon realized my bad habits had caught up to me. Over the course of a couple of years I had put on 25 pounds on my 5”2” frame. One day I decided I was done making excuses and I was ready to change my body. I joined a woman’s only gym and started by doing light cardio a few times week. At 18 years old, I was certain the weight would come off easily. It didn’t.

Three months later I had lost 5 pounds and was growing frustrated. My mistake: I was only doing cardio and had not changed my eating habits. I was simply keeping myself from gaining more weight. At that time, I knew nothing about the science of nutrition and how our bodies use food as fuel. I had never cared to read a nutrition label, nor did I know anything about building lean muscle. Thanks to the help of a woman at my gym, I soon learned that training with weights and eating a balanced diet of the right foods every few hours was the key to losing weight and keeping it off. Within the next 3 months I accomplished my goal and lost 25 pounds

Instead of looking at my workouts as something I dreaded, they became something I enjoyed. I loved that feeling 30 minutes into my workout where I was dripping in sweat and feeling like I could take on anything! And making healthier eating habits became easier, because I looked at food in a whole new light. I had such an appreciation for my body and treated it with respect. While I still enjoyed food and had the occasional craving, I no longer fed myself the toxic junk that I had been eating for so long. I was now in tune with how my body reacted to the foods I ate. And realized that if I eat crap, I will feel like crap. ! From that experience I fell in love with fitness!

I was so proud of myself for all the hard work and dedication I put into accomplishing my goal. I wanted to share my experience with any and everyone and tell them that if I can do it, they can do it. What I love most about fitness and nutrition is that anyone who commits to living this lifestyle, will get the results they want. It’s that simple. It’s science.

So here I am almost a decade later, and still loving fitness! I am becoming certified to teach aerobic kickboxing and training for my first Bikini Fitness Competition. I am so grateful for connecting with Adela and having the opportunity to be trained by the best! I look forward to 2010 being a year of challenges and accomplishments and pushing myself to new limits!