what happens when you work out for 3 years straight?
Current physique - 04/16/2025
165-166 pounds
Contrary to popular belief, I did not succeed in losing weight the first time I tried.
Nor did I succeed in the second attempt or the third attempt.
I tried so many times that in the end, I stopped keeping track.
✨ I was really tired and frustrated ✨
(and hungry)
I decided to ditch the scale, focusing on calculating the correct macronutrients I needed for my body (and adjusting accordingly).
I also provided myself with plenty of distractions — I found that hyper-fixation can be my undoing. During this time I decided to take up a new part time job and a few new hobbies.
After a few weeks of maintaining my eating habits and regularly going to the gym, I finally stepped on the scale and realized I lost my first 15 pounds.
I was in disbelief. For the first time in years, I lost weight — 15 pounds — and it didn’t feel like I was ripping my own teeth out doing it. I didn’t feel like I was starving, I didn’t feel obsessed over how I looked. It was then that I realized that the secret to weight loss is creating a system/routine that is so convenient you have no choice but to make progress towards your goals.
And I remembered thinking to myself that this is what it means to make a lifestyle change. Suddenly weight loss wasn’t as big of a monster as it was in my head. I just needed a way to make it easy, manageable and convenient. As long as I made that happen, success was inevitable.
Fast forward three years later
In a couple days, I’m headed off to my first powerlifting competition.
If 18-19 year old Nina knew that someday she would be competing in a powerlifting competition - heck - a sport, she would probably spend countless nights lying awake in bed, wondering where, how, why, when that could happen. Do I look skinny enough? Do I even look good? Do I look manly?
Since I began my wellness journey ~around 2022 I have lost 55 pounds in total, currently weighing at 165 pounds. Coming from my heaviest at around 225, a lot has happened in three years. Some days it felt like I was making no progress, some days felt like I was a muscle mommy 🎀
What I am most proud of during this journey is the consistency. The consistency alone as taught me more and has become such a major life skill that transcends health. Consistency to eat what you should, consistency to exercise how you should, consistency to treat yourself how you should.
Differences I noticed after 3 years of working out:
Weight management was easier for me. I began to get a sense of how much I usually eat and what would satiate me. I stopped calorie counting entirely. Tweaking my diet to meet my body goals became more intuitive. I even went through some body recomposition, where I maintained my overall weight but lost fat and gained muscle. Maintaining and modifying my diet was becoming easier and natural.
Exercise relieved my stress. Big whoop - everyone says this but after going to the gym 6x/week for almost 3 years, there’s a big difference when I skip a day. Going to the gym is a nice change of pace, where you can focus on just you. As an introverted person, this is a wonderful time for me to take 1-2 hours of my day to dedicate to carving out the body I want while enjoying spending time with my husband (or listening to an audiobook/podcast).
I feel liberated in my own body. If you have ever struggled with your own sense of body dysmorphia, it’s incredibly mentally draining to focus on living your life while constantly thinking about how you look and if you will be perceived well. Just in the last year and a half, I have had moments where I began to feel happy with how I look. How I feel on the inside began to reflect how I looked on the outside. To feel fully at home in your body is something that I will never take for granted.
