Fitspiration Friday: My Size Does Not Define My Worth
Results vary depending on starting point and effort. Tulin is an independent Beachbody Coach.
If you’ve tried a Beachbody program, you’ve probably had a goal in mind that you wanted to achieve. Maybe you wanted to lose weight. Maybe you wanted to get stronger. Maybe you wanted to improve your health. Maybe it was a mix of all three, or something else entirely. But, along the way, no matter what your goal, everyone needs a little inspiration. Every other Friday, the Beachbody Success Stories team will be sharing inspirational fitness stories from some of the folks who have done Beachbody programs. Maybe one will inspire you!
Meet Tulin, a former plus size model whose weight yo-yo’ed up and down before she took control and started her journey to get fit.
“My husband bought P90X and INSANITY at a garage sale and started working out on his hands and knees after losing his ability to walk due to Multiple Sclerosis. I had started and stopped a few times, losing and regaining. It was not until I gained up to about 330 pounds that I knew how much trouble I was in. I could not walk up the 12 steps that led up to our apartment. I knew I was in bad cardiovascular shape, with PCOS, migraines, and so much more.1 I decided to focus on the one thing I struggled with most: moving. I popped in INSANITY, unable to do more than a few minutes at a time. It was at this point my mind shift switched from weight loss to health gains and the power of modification.
I was frustrated that I didn’t look like the people in the videos and that I couldn’t do what they do. I didn’t want that to be my excuse not to do what I knew needed to be done. I learned the power of modification thanks to my husband. Even when his legs didn’t work, he found a way to modify P90X. I searched online to find other women, who had bodies like mine but who were in motion. But I couldn’t find them, so I decided to share my journey and process online for personal accountability and in the hopes my modifications could inspire others.
I didn’t look at it as ‘less than’ a workout. I looked at it as a way to move myself out of my comfort zone, to work at my ability, and then challenge it. Modifying allowed me to build up my ability and form over time and helped me avoid injury. My ability was improving daily, and that gave me something to celebrate even though the scale’s needle didn’t move. By day 70, I was jumping! That gave me an amazing sense of self-awareness and accomplishment. The bodies on the screen no longer intimidated me, but showed me what was possible. It became a game, and each day the goal was to improve.
If my belly got in the way and I could not do crunches, I focused on learning how to engage my core. If I struggled getting up and down from the floor, I would do core work standing instead. Even if the move looked nothing like the video, I knew where I was supposed to feel it. I may not be where I want to be, but I am not where I used to be, and that is because of modification.
I love 21 Day Fix, and I’m a big fan that Beachbody shows someone who is not the traditional image of fit rocking it. Kat is the front row diva! To see a larger body in motion is a huge motivation to so many people I know because they can see themselves in that role… not in the back, but right up front!
The biggest challenge I faced in starting my workout as a plus-size woman is the idea that being plus size was a negative: ‘How can you love yourself when you look like that?’ We all have a struggle, story, drama, and trauma that live between the ears, that weighs us down the most, and for many of us, we wear it on our bodies. But my size and the scale do not define my worth.
The best advice I can give someone who wants to make a change but isn’t sure how or is struggling with starting is this: I encourage those who are starting to commit to just 14 days of movement, first thing in the AM, followed by the dense nutrition in Shakeology. That’s it. It takes off all of the pressure we put on ourselves and allows us to commit to a small, bite-size commitment. We begin to make these new habits a part of our everyday life without feeling deprived. As we continue to improve, we are ready to add in a new habit. The added benefit of weight loss follows, turning it around from being the focus.
I take a big goal and I break it up into smaller pieces. I evaluate what I have done that worked, what I need to improve on, and see what I have accomplished and keep moving forward. I don’t set size or weight goals to dates or events. I find reasons to celebrate my journey every day with non-scale victories which keep me motivated. I focus on being better than I was yesterday. By viewing this as a journey without a destination, I’ve learned to deal with whatever obstacle is put in my way.
Things still happen; how I react to it has changed. Missed a workout? I take control of it and call it a rest day. Eat something I shouldn’t have? I evaluate how that choice made me feel: Did I feel nourished, or inflamed and tired? If I fall off track, I pick myself up, yell, ‘PLOT TWIST,’ and use the detour to get back on the road. My results are a large sum of moving in the right direction. Falling off track for a meal, day, week, doesn’t mean I have to start all over, or refocus, or recommit. It isn’t about how far I have to go, it is how far I have already come.
We are not a before, we are not an after, we are forever a work-in-progress. Love the skin you are in, because we are all awesome beings.”
1Always consult with your physician about your unique medical needs before commencing any fitness program or nutritional product.