My Story

Good Morning everyone! My name is Mackenzie and I am a 22 year old recent college graduate and fitness/nutrition enthusiast. I have been very interested is different forms of exercise and proper eating for a good chunk of my life and I am so happy to have this opportunity to share my thoughts, experiences, and changes in my life with you. I should start off by thanking you for being interested in my writing and also telling you my story. The one thing that I promise anyone who reads this blog is that I will always be honest with myself and with you, I will make you think about how to change your habits is a supportive way, and I will always keep things interesting.

There are very few people in the United States that at some point in their lives hasnt worried or wanted to change their weight or improve their health. After all, at the end of the day what else do we have except our health? Many Americans have a habit of putting their health on the back burner in order to focus more attention on other things such as work, family life, friends, etc. While making time for all of these things is great.. where in your day are you making time for you? Some people think of any type of working out as torture but they should look at it as "Me time" in which you take an hour out of your day and do something that will make you happier, healthier, and less stressed later on.

Ok so my story. I will skip the "I was born in a small town..blahblah" because that has nothing to do with fitness and the town is so tiny it isnt worth mentioning anyway because trust me.. you've never heard of it. LOL ok so, Here comes the honesty part:

Younger Years:

Ok, when I was 14 I started to realize that my weight and what i saw in the mirror were starting to creep into my thoughts more and more often.Now, you might be saying "14? Honey, why were you even thinking about that at 14?" Which is true, I was 120 lb and 5'1.. not a large number by any means for a teenager..However, I put pressure on myself to lose weight. I gave myself a goal of 3 months ( a visit to see my sister in Maryland) to lose as much as possible. The only issue is.. that most people at the age of 14 dont understand how this is done and because of that it lead to 2 months of not eating as much as I should have. Did the weight come off? Yes.. was it the right way? No. So, I got down to 109 and still wasnt happy. I got very swept up in weight loss..I was eating probably 600 calories a day while running every morning.. Luckily, This made me realize one day in August.. that first of all this is something I couldnt do the rest of my life, it wasnt healthy, and I was starting to scare my parents. I was dropping weight very fast and my mom stumbled upon diet pills.. I hadnt taken any but regardless..they were there. I needed to learn how to be healthy and fit..and not worry so much about skinny.

I want to pause slightly to say that I write about this time in my life to prove a very serious point.. that when it comes to weight loss, exercise, and diet.. it is so very easy to be pressured, skew your self image, and get into bad habits. This is why I want to write, speak, and educate. Being healthy doesnt only mean weight..its not numbers..its how you feel about yourself as an whole person.

So, I joined highschool sports and got a YMCA membership. I started researching which foods to eat, when, and why. Learning about this stuff really sucked me in to the point where I got a job in the Dietary Department of a hospital. The education continued.

When I came to college everything changed. Suddenly, it was friends, parties, drinking, and late night pizzas.. this routine paired with a part time job and an 18 credit course load.. didnt leave much time or energy for my work out routine. My senior year this routine really caught up with me.. My weight was up considerably, I was tired and napping at every opportunity I had, getting 10 hours of sleep a day if possible and still being tired. I avoided mirrors, storefront windows, and just felt uncomfortable in my skin.I hit 147, I hated pictures of myself and being the stubborn Italian that I am, decided that instead of complaining and hiding I should do something about it. I had the knowledge.. i just needed to use it.

So in May of 2009, upon Graduation for my undergrad degree in business management, I decided that was day one of getting my routine back on track. I enlisted the help of one of my friends to teach me how to weight lift and started finding a time to hit the gym everyday. I knew my late night pizzas had to stop, alcohol had to be cut out, and I had to change my whole lifestyle back to how it used to be. So through continued research about health, eating the right foods, and learning about weight lifting/ exercise and being really sore many many days in a row..it is now January 2010.. and I am 125, have joined a work out team at my University and have tried so many different foods and forms of exercise that I cant wait to share with every reader. I have started to train groups of people myself in the gym and have more and more people every week asking me to help them. So,  I have the knowledge of someone that has done it and been there and a want to help! I can tell you what works and what doesnt because I have experienced it.

Through this blog I hope to talk about new foods, new exercises and fitness routines, motivate others and hopefully continue to motivate myself. So if you are interested in improving yourself and trying new things please keep reading!

Thank you to everyone and to Network Pittsburgh for giving me the opportunity to Blog for them about something I am very passionate about.