Hello Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well and have started on your 2019 goals, I know I have!
I’ve been seeing so many people talk about their health journey or fitness journey so I wanted to share mine with you. When I was young around 15/16 years old I was diagnosed with Anxiety / Panic Disorder. I was not living a healthy life at all, I mean no one at 15/16 does. You party and eat anything and everything in sight without even thinking about how it could affect you. For anyone who suffers from anxiety or panic disorder you know what it comes with. Personally for me it came with loss of appetite, nausea, weight loss, paranoia, depression, feeling empty and lost, etc. I was pretty much scared of life itself, It was horrible, debilitating, and I really needed to get it under control and figure out how to get my life back.

For a little while I had it under control and I gained what I call “Happy Weight”, which basically means I was happy and eating and didn’t really care about anything else. In 2014 I decided to change my lifestyle and eat as wholesome as possible as well as workout on a regular basis. Now that was FARRRRRR from easy, since I was still dealing with anxiety, but I worked with what I had. Little by little I made changes to help me succeed. I started with the treadmill, and worked my way up, then I wanted something more challenging so I took Bare classes at Inline Fitness and I finally moved up to the big dogs and got a membership at Knockout Fitness, which is a boxing gym but we also do a ton of cardio and weight lifting to target different muscle groups. What I consumed on a daily basis was also very important. I cut out refined sugars as much as possible, no sodas, no juices unless I made them myself or it was freshly made at a juice bar. No over processed meals and definitely no fast food, not even chick fila (Sorry but that is not a healthy substitute, for you fast food lovers). I really stuck to eating organic wholesome foods and doing a lot of research on food combining and how to spot the good foods from the bad. You might think, well its pretty obvious what is bad for you but you would be shocked at the amount of people who aren’t very educated on what healthy actually is.

After about a year of really sticking to my lifestyle change I realized how I didn’t have panic attacks anymore, or how I didn’t feel scared or paranoid. If anything I felt strong, I felt like I was on top of the world. The gym and my trainers at Knockout helped me from the start to become the strong person that I didn’t know I could be. Not only were they my trainers but also my friends. I went from feeling insecure and not being able to do one push up, to having muscle definition, flipping tires and learning how to box.

The gym, eating healthy and really taking care of myself saved my life. I don’t take medication, I simply chose to really figure out what works for my body and what makes me happy. My journey into a healthy lifestyle was not an easy one but it was worth every second of it. It’s so important to take care of yourself, mentally and physically. Eat well, workout, decompress and enjoy your life. This is just a little summary of my journey but I hope you guys took something from it. It’s never too late to start your journey and to solve all of those underlying health issues, which most of the time can be fixed with some simple changes. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to ask, I would be more than happy to answer them. Until next time my friends!
Dream Big,
Vanessa Navarro