Blog: The Skinny in Chile
Tracking: Mamacita Chilena
Niche: Athletic
but overweight
Health goal: To
run a marathon sometime within the next two years. It might sound like a
far away deadline, but I live in Chile, and I want to run a marathon in the U.S. but don't know when I'll be back.
Mamacita Chilena's story:
From a young age I was always
chubby. For a greater part of my life, I was first, blissfully unaware,
and then, aware, but didn't care because I valued myself for other reasons
beyond appearance. I played soccer from the age of 6. I was team MVP as a
senior in high school, and I was on the cheer team (fantastic stunter and
tumbler aka pyramid and gymnastics).
In spite of playing sports my whole
life, I had always eaten horrible amounts of junk food and had an overweight
BMI. But, I never defined myself as overweight. I defined myself as
an athlete. In college, I stopped playing sports, started drinking
heavily. All my muscle turned to a blobby jello-like consistency.
No longer big and fit, I was just big and well, big. But my love of feeling
athletic was not going to settle…
...I didn't want to just lose weight. I wanted to feel athletic again ...
My passion for sports lived on even as
my weight problems continued to grow, so I decided to study Sports
Management. One of the required classes I took was Biokinetics and
Conditioning. On the first day we measured our body fat with
pinchers. Mine registered at 34%.
I had the highest body percent in a
class of almost all college athletes. I was MORTIFIED. I realized I
needed to change or else start considering myself just another inactive, heavy,
college student.
I cut out Regular Coke from my diet and
lost 10 pounds. That jump started my weight loss. But, I didn't
want to just lose weight. I wanted to feel athletic again. I began
an exercise plan. I would go to the track for 60 minutes and try to run
as much as I possibly could. At first, I could only run 10 minutes and
had to walk the other 50, but soon I was running for real the whole 60
minutes. After dropping 50 lbs, I'm training for a marathon. I got
my identity back.
What one thing has helped you the most in
working towards your health & fitness goal:
I
never stopped believing that I am athletic, and that belief pushed me to be
what I expected of myself.
What one thing you would like more help with:
My eating habits need work. I struggle mostly on the weekends when I have
a tendency to go all out! Any
tips?
Visit Mamacita Chilena's blog: The Skinny in Chile
