Transformation of the Day: Ashley lost 98 pounds. From a young age, she struggled with being overweight and was even made fun of by friends and family due to her weight. She put in the work and eventually found a trainer who’s program opened her eyes to a powerful combination: counting macros and weight training. Check out her story.
My name is Ashley. I’m 20 years old and I’m from from New York. I started my weight loss journey at a whopping 280 pounds at 5’6″. However, I’ve always been big….ever since I could remember. The smallest I’ve ever gotten was when I was about 14 or 15 years old, and that was around 180 pounds.
Even though I’m young, I’ve battled with my weight for years. I done everything from counting calories to going to the gym to cutting out carbohydrates to doing lots of cardio. These things worked for the most part, but I’d eventually burn myself out and stop working out completely.
My latest crack at losing weight came in mid to late 2016. At my highest weight, my friends and family would make fun of me at times. “Oh Ashley, you’re mad big. You need to lose weight”, just rolled off their tongues with ease. So, I started to workout and diet again. I did the usual: I cut out carbs and did cardio. I went to the gym pretty regularly too, about 5 to 6 days a week sometimes.
And it worked, I dropped 34 pounds. Then I started to get burned out again. You know that burned out feeling that everyone gets. You wake up one day and say, “You know what? I’m not going to the gym today.” That one day turns into a week, and that week turns into a month. You know, same ol same ol.
One day, I was on Facebook and I see a post in a natural hair group talking about learning how to coupon and saving money. Coupon with Bebe is the Facebook group that was showing people how to coupon for free and save money. Who wouldn’t want to save money? I go to college, I have bills, and the group actually helped me out a lot.
From time to time in the group, I would see fitness posts and some of the most amazing body transformations I’ve ever seen. The posts were actually from Bebe’s husband, Skip. What intrigued me about the posts was the fact that he said these people were only working out 2 days a week, doing no cardio, and pretty much eating whatever they wanted. I was sold at that point.
I contacted Skip Fitness started training with him 2 days a week. I was surprised that he was really telling the truth about the 2 days of training and no cardio. Everyone was skeptical. My family was skeptical and even I was skeptical. However, I saw the results and gave it a shot.
Basically, the only kind of workout we did was lifting weights. I thought this would make you bulky and look like a man, but that’s hardly the case. I got really strong and I continue to get strong training with Skip the same 2 days a week that I’ve been training the entire time. The nutrition part is the easiest. We use a Macronutrient/Macros counting system that I’ve yet to see anywhere else. All the other programs out there require you to do cardio, which I’ve grown to hate. I’m so glad that I learned that I don’t have to do cardio to lose fat/ weight.
I started training with Skip Fitness on 2/21/17 and now I’m down 64 pounds. More importantly, I’m just 2 pounds away from being down 100 pounds from my highest weight of 280 pounds. (current weight: 182 pounds) I still can’t believe how easy it’s been because I’m still eating regular food. I frequent restaurants everyday if I want to. Yes, even fast food restaurants. Chick-fil-a and Wendy’s are my favorite places to eat daily, if I can get to them. I’m still gunning for my ultimate beach body. Skip says he wants me to lose another 20-25 pounds for that and I’m all for it. That will put my weight loss at over 120 pounds .
The most important thing I’ve learned on this journey so far is that a lifestyle change really has to happen. I’ve lost weight in the past, but this is the absolute easiest way that I’ve gotten results. I truly believe that if I would have done it any other way, I would have given up like I did in the past. How could you not succeed when the only requirement is working out 2 days a week and basically eating whatever you want as long as it fits your macros.
All in all ladies, if I have any words of encouragement, I would say what Skip says all the time (yea, him and his wife rubbed off on me): “Slow down, you’ll move faster” and “Get lazy”. What he means by “Get lazy” is, 90% of how you’ll look and feel is nutrition. If you hate working out (which I do), why waste your time in the gym when your diet is off. You won’t make the progress you’re looking for that way. That has stuck with me and will continue to stick with me.
Instagram: @mich.ash
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