One night, while I was being very fat and unhappy with myself, and searching the Internet for any information that would lead me to a healthier lifestyle. I came across an article about a beef farmer who turned vegan and ended up losing 250+ pounds because of it, and why he did it. The article was really about antibiotics in our food supply and how it has a direct link to resistant strains in humans, and how the FDA knows this, but chooses to take lobbyist dollars rather than protect consumers.
I had already been tossing around the idea of going vegetarian with my then-husband, who didn't really like the idea, but he was willing to listen to me at least. He did agree that we should look for 'cleaner' meat, if possible. So, I looked and it was way too expensive to buy for a family of 5, on one income. So, I decided that our family needed to be vegetarian, period.
This led to many meals made from fake, frozen, meat-like products. But as I was making dinners like I always did, only with fake meat instead of the real thing, I realized that we were missing a LOT of vegetables. We were eating like crap!
So, I started trying to find better ways to eat, but my husband wasn't keen on ANY of this, and he began buying ground beef and making himself and our boys dinners every night. I allowed him to do this because I was still unsure if I was even eating remotely healthier than I was before, and I still didn't know how to BE a vegetarian (notice how I was brain-washed to believe that eating meat was healthier than ANY alternative? So much so that I allowed myself to be bullied--more on that later). But I kept trying.
I learned to eat a LOT of salad, and I learned to eat vegetables that I only thought were gross. And most of all, I learned to eat a much broader variety of foods than I ever had in the past. Yes, forbidding myself meat led to me eating MORE and different foods than before.
I also started going to Yoga in the evenings. I had done yoga in the past, when I had a brief stint of going to the gym all day everyday for a few months (unfortunately, my children were getting sick every time I went, from the day care, so I had to stop going), I think I lost 20-30lbs during that stint, but I gained it and a TON more back when I got pregnant with my third son.
So, I was eating vegetarian, I was doing yoga almost every night and I was feeling pretty good! I was down from a 24 to a 16, in what felt like overnight. I was ecstatic! I COULD lose weight! It was almost EASY!
Eventually, after eating vegetarian, which was mainly fresh fruit and vegetables (I'm not a fan of pasta and I had done low-carb once, so I understood that our bodies don't need, and can't handle a ton of carbs, but you can't low-carb, healthily while being a vegetarian, and I don't really believe in the traditional low-carb 'diets') I realized one day that I couldn't eat sugar, I hadn't noticed that I had basically stopped eating anything sugary, and when I tried, it was just too much for my body to process and I ended up being sick most of the night.
This was really good news! Sugar wasn't appealing! I was losing weight! Things seemed pretty good! Then my marriage started falling part, and life got *very* chaotic. I was angry and upset, and the yoga, while relaxing and very 'zen', wasn't keeping me very zen. I decided that I needed something more. I needed something to compliment the yoga. And I found it one night while driving home from yoga...I drove past a building that had a lit-up sign that read 'Triple Boxing'.
"Holy shit! That's it...that's what I need! I need to HIT things!"
So, I walked into the gym and there was a boxing ring and heavy bags and dudes who were in MUCH better shape than I have ever been in, doing things that I didn't even understand, and they looked pretty 'thuggy' and I was intimidated, but I was also *pissed*.
"Hey can I help you?" Said the nice-enough looking young kid behind the counter, in front of all sorts of fight trophies and fighting gear.
"Yeah, I'm an angry creature and I need to hit things...how do I sign up for classes?"
He laughed and grabbed the class sheet and said "have you ever done boxing before?" I told him no, I had done a silly 'kickboxing' class at a women's gym, but this looked way more fun and more up my alley.
Then the owner walked over. He was an older gentleman of Persian decent and he introduced himself to me and let me know that he was a boxing coach from way back and had trained championship and even olympic fighters and how could he help me. I told him that I was looking to learn to fight. I wanted to get in better shape than I was in, and I was angry and needed an outlet. I currently did Yoga, but I wanted something more. He told me about Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu. I wasn't keen on the JiuJitsu, but the Muay Thai sounded perfect--it WAS kick boxing. He then informed me "We don't dance here. This isn't a 'fitness' gym, we train athletes, we train FIGHTERS. You want to dance, you go down the street to L.A. Fitness, we don't do that here."
"No, sir" I replied. "I want to fight, I want you to help me be in good shape, be fit, and athletic."
"Ok, then follow me, I will show you around."
I started going to the boxing gym. Every day, without fail. I was 215lbs when I started boxing. I was the fattest person in the room, I didn't really give a shit. Running in circles for the warm up was hard and I wanted to die when we finally got 'warmed-up', but I couldn't let that room full of in-shape men see me like that, so I pretended that I was keeping up just fine. There were few women in the classes, but there was one in particular who had tattoos all over her arms and fought like she meant it. The first time I saw her I thought to myself "I want to be her." So, I started trying...and she and I became good friends.
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