Steph’s Story: From Fluff to Tuff
Nothing is impossible: “Fluff to Tuff”! I felt it was about that time to share with everyone my journey from “Fluff to Tuff”!
Most of you reading this have only known me for the last couple years and know me as one of the co-founders of StoneAgeFuel.
What you may not know is that before I left Ohio in August 2010, needless to say, I was very overweight and unhealthy!
I grew up competing in gymnastics and at 16 quit competitive gymnastics as a level 10.
I finished out my high school years competing in a more relaxed environment for my school.
After graduating, I coached for a couple years and by 20 was completely out of the gym.
It was all downhill from there!
There was lots of drinking with friends, fried bar food and NO working out!
All fun!
I won’t bore you with the obvious, so fast forward to January of 2010…..
My parents had finally retired, the house was on the market and the thought of moving to a new state and having to start over where I knew absolutely NO ONE!
I started heeding the words my mom said… “Steph, you’re not fat, but you’ve gained some weight.”
Well, I usually just rolled my eyes and went about my business.
And I must say, I thank all my friends back home who always sugar coated for me and said, “Oh no, you look fine! You’re not fat.”
The moving factor was sadly not enough motivation…
Ok, so I finally make it to Nevada and the new house has a beautiful in-ground salt water pool, and since I don’t know anyone and have no intent on getting a job right away, I spent about a month swimming a couple hours every day.
That alone helped me lose about 10#.
Well, unfortunately now, it’s time to get a job.
So I start working at Atlantis, where, minus all the mushy details, I meet Chandler, which took some work on my part but that’s another story.
Apparently, the way to that boy’s heart is by mentioning Fitness, and gymnastics in the same sentence and he’s sold (sorry ladies, it won’t work again though).
March 2011, I ventured to the gym where Chandler tried to kill me.
My first workout ended up as a 200m run, 15 KB swings, 10 Burpees and then 10 min posted outside against the wall, dizzy and about to pass out. LOL!
After a little recovery, I went back in and redeemed myself by playing around with some old gymnastics.
To Chandler’s surprise, I didn’t give up and was in there again for round 2 a couple days later.
Needless to say, I became hooked!
So, those of us who know Chandler, know that he’s a freak of nature and can do pretty much anything you throw at him.
Well, I didn’t want to be the girlfriend that couldn’t keep up, so I stuck with it, he taught me Olympic lifts and I taught him gymnastics! (Yes, he should be crediting his gymnastics abilities to me!)
While the hard work and regular time put into the gym each day was paying off, I needed more!
Phase 2: PALEO!
Day 2 of having met Chandler, he invited me to a seminar: Mark Sisson’s: Primal Blueprint.
After attending, I was not interested, to say the least.
It was all crazy talk to me!
How in the world was I going to give up my bread and pasta?!
It didn’t last long, I got guilt tripped every meal until I finally gave in.
To my surprise, it wasn’t too bad.
I finally realized how much of a difference eating clean would help me keep getting closer to my goals!
Enough with the stories!
I hope that I can provide a little inspiration, even if it’s just one person!
I look back now and realize how much I didn’t care and I settled on the fact that I was going to be overweight.
All I really needed was a little fire under my butt!
While the numbers have changed, I know they mean nothing!
I feel better about me, I have more energy, I have accomplished things -10k races, mud runs, Tough Mudder- things I would never have thought about doing.
It has become a never-ending journey and I still have a ways to go, but all the hard work, dedication, discipline, self-control, the overall lifestyle change, has and will continue to change my life for the better!
Oh, and of course there are pictures to go with all this!!! =) Enjoy!
