I’ve been stalling on posting this post because I feel like it’s a vain one, but I guess vanity finally won me over the weekend because I saw some recent pics of myself and I was surprised at how different I was a year ago. Plus the fact that I wore a dress for the first time in ages last Saturday — it felt really nice to be girly again and have the confidence to be one, you know?

And this is no secret anymore because it’s going to be posted at my home branch, so…yeah. I guess I’ve got to face the music.

So friends, I present to you my weight loss story/testimonial. Heh.

“Lose weight” has always been a part of my New Year’s resolutions for the longest time, and it always finds itself there year after year. Ever since I started working, I also started to gain more weight because of the semi-sedentary lifestyle I adapted. Every year, I tell myself to start getting serious at losing weight, but I never seemed to have enough motivation to see things through.

In mid 2009, I heard that my best friend joined Fitness First.  I had been planning to get a membership too, but never got around to it because of laziness and shyness. I told him to bring me in as a guest to the club since I was planning to be a member too, and he did. After checking out two clubs – and experiencing a lot of muscle pains from the exercise – I finally signed up.

When they told me of the freebies I got when I signed up, I was very interested in the nutrition program. As with everything else I mentioned about my weight loss journey so far, I planned to see a nutritionist so I can ask about meal plans and such, but again, I never got around to it. I thought the free nutrition consultation was a good thing to let me started.

So I met up with Nona, Fitness First Metro East’s nutritionist, and she taught me about food and dieting. I’ve never gone on any kind of diet in my entire life because I love food too much – I couldn’t bear the thought of not eating the food I love to eat. When Nona gave me my meal plan, I was surprised: it was extensive, and didn’t really deprive me of the things that I like to eat. For example: I can eat chocolate, but only one bite. One bite is better than none!

It was hard at first because I was used to eating fast food and I wasn’t really a fan of vegetables. But eventually, I got used to it. Giving up the skin on a KFC original chicken made me sad when I did it the first time, but now I don’t even think of eating it. I’ve learned to choose what I eat, and when to eat. I’ve learned to read labels, and count servings which helped me make better choices when in the grocery. It was fun to learn all these things, and it gave me the motivation to eat right and work out regularly.

Pretty soon, the numbers on my weight started going down. I started feeling better about myself and I realized that I could fit into my old college jeans again! My friends and colleagues started telling me how thin I’ve become and when I saw a picture of myself at the start of 2009, I realized that it was actually true.

I still have a bit to go before I reach my ideal weight, but I think I can safely say that “lose weight” will no longer be in my New Year’s resolutions. :)

It’s kind of a pain to start shopping again, but it’s fun and extremely flattering whenever I get a smaller size of some clothes that I don’t normally even try to fit. :P Talk about confidence, wohoo.

Oh, and please forgive me for any grammatical errors — I didn’t actually get to edit this after I sent it to my nutritionist. Haha. But…I’m happy I got to this after half a year of sweating and dieting and changing my lifestyle. And as I always tell myself: dapat lang. After all I spent on the gym and the one on one trainers and stuff (not as much as Ferrari parts, but still expensive enough), it’s just right that I see some results, right? :P