The Catalyst to my Journey of Fitness
When I was diagnosed with Endometriosis a few years ago, I didn’t realise the impact it would have on my life, until my husband, Noer Asmodien, and I started family planning. After actively trying to conceive for a few years, we seeked expert medical care, through the Cape Fertility Clinic. We tried every possible procedure to conceive, and spent in excess of R200 000 on medical bills, as medical aid does not cover fertility procedures. Having gone through this costly and emotionally draining process, for several years and still not being able to have a baby, I started to feel like a failure, became anti-social, cried a lot, started comfort-eating and gained weight very quickly. Within less than 2 years, I let myself go completely and became clinically depressed.
This continued for about 18 months. After shutting myself off from the world for many months, hubby basically “forced” me to go out one evening in December 2014, just to get me out of the house a bit. I remember not having any clothes that fit me comfortably, but squeezed into a leather skirt and vest. A few days afterwards, I was shocked to see a pic of myself and hubby on Facebook, taken on the eve we went out. I was disgusted at how awkwardly fat I looked with my flabby arms, double chin and huge belly.
Seeing that pic was my “Wake-up Call”. The following day when I walked to the corner store, I suddenly noticed all the thin skinny girls. There were skinny girls, in mini-skirts and shorts everywhere. I remember standing in the queue for the cashiers when my eyes fell on the FITNESS MAGAZINE. On the Cover was a picture of this beautiful, athletic, happy female. The words on the cover of the Magazine displayed Topics covered in the Magazine, which all screamed at me, Topics like “How to get a beach body in just a few weeks”, “ Become comfortable in your own skin”, “Be the best version of yourself”, “ Eat More, weigh Less”. I picked up the magazine and paged through it while waiting my turn to pay, and I noticed the USN advert with the words “#ChallengeYourself”. Those words resonated with me immediately. I bought the magazine and that night I read it from cover to cover, very carefully.
The following day I called up 3 of my girlfriends and asked them to join me in trying to lose some weight, by doing some group sessions at gym. We joined 360, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Within 4 weeks, they all started “dropping out” and soon I was left by myself. Then I decided to rather join Virgin Active and slowly started attending a few classes at gym. I was losing weight, but the words “#ChallengeYourself” were haunting me. In February 2015, I decided to completely commit to challenging myself, by entering the USN 12 week Body Makeover Challenge.
