The Beginning

I can honestly say that fitness is something that has changed my life. In high school, I had no self confidence. I would dread going to school every single day in fear that someone was going to make fun of me due to my size. I was never the girl that guys would talk about or would want to approach. I was made fun of behind my back, and essentially felt so low about myself which pushed me to eat even more. (YIKES!) I had support of many friends who I felt comfortable around, but now looking back I had so many friends that came and went until my senior year of high school where I finally found the friends who meant the most. I became more active in high school because of sports, and leaned out slightly. However, if I didn't have practice after school or open gyms or lifting I WOULD HAVE NEVER WORKED OUT. After graduation, I began to realize that I needed to become more active because I was terrified of the freshmen 15. I was going to be moving away to college and was going to be tempted with many unhealthy food choices. Starting off college, I consciously ate healthy and went to the gym maybe three times a week. I liked being active, but I had never been to a real gym before and felt self-conscious being there. I continued this routine throughout my first semester. Going home for Christmas break my family had all noticed that I had lost some weight, and this had motivated me to push harder in the gym going back after the New Year. My roommate, Emily, had a friend from back home that was going to get her certification to be a personal trainer and was having an 8 week online workout program for $5. Sooooooo, I did it! This is where most of my progress came from. This program gave me so much confidence in the gym and I loved it. I did most of it by myself, and religiously went every single day. I wasn't sure how much progress I was making, until I had to take my after pictures. I was so nervous. I did not want to take these. I had never liked taking full length pictures. I also never took pictures in just spandex and a sports bra. EVER. I was in my most vulnerable state. However, I posted my transformation on Instagram just to see what other people thought. Honestly, I was expecting negative feedback. But, this is where my biggest push came from. 

this is what kept me going. 

this was my motivation. 

This gave me so much confidence. I then realized I was changing. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I was finding pieces of my self that I have never experienced before. I feel like I found myself in the gym. I feel like every single day that I am in the gym, my mind is just taking a chisel to itself and working at something new. I have found a more positive Hayley. A person who is more independent. A person who wants to inspire and motivate others to be better. I want to be better. I want to become better each and everyday. I want to help people find their chisel. I want to challenge people to love themselves. I may not love myself every single minute of every single day. But, at the end of each day I can truly say I am better than I was the day before. I wanted to start this blog to share my passion of fitness with the people who don't know my full story. I am so motivated and so inspired and so full of love. I'm ready to help other people change their lives, like all of the people who helped me and impacted me have changed mine. 

-Hayley